LoD Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor Group Progression Variation

This variant is archived, meaning that we are leaving it on the site for documentation purposes, but it will no longer be actively updated.

The Spirit Barrage LoN build is the top tier group Greater Rift pushing build for the Witch Doctor class. This variation is no longer the preferred AoE DPS spec for groups, but you can still build it and play it in your group with a reasonable degree of success.

Active Skills
Haunt Poisoned Spirit Locust Swarm Pestilence 1 Grasp of the Dead Death Is Life 2 Sacrifice Provoke the Pack 3 Spirit Barrage Phlebotomize 4 Soul Harvest Languish
Passive Skills
Confidence Ritual Creeping Death Rush of Essence Gruesome Feast

The following skill selection alterations will be necessary:

• Changing Piranhas Piranhado and Spirit Walk Severance from the soloing build into Grasp of the Dead Death Is Life and Sacrifice Provoke the Pack. The former two are a monster grouping and a survival tool respectively, and both these tasks are taken care of by Support teammates in groups. The latter combination will net you a nice 20% increase of damage.
• Changing Grave Injustice (mainly a reset tool for your soloing invulnerability cooldown, Spirit Walk) into Gruesome Feast — a staple DPS passive that gets fed by globe spawning support teammates.

You will simply need to exchange The Barber for Voo's Juicer. This is the other Spirit Barrage-related legendary that only gets overlooked when soloing due to the power of Sacred Harvester in keeping you alive. Voo's Juicer has a natural Spirit Barrage damage roll however, edging over the competition when survival is no longer a concern. You will still retain the powers of The Barber in the Cube.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Mask of Jeram	Intelligence Socket Spirit Barrage % Critical Hit Chance Vitality
Shoulders	Pauldrons of the Skeleton King	Intelligence Vitality Life % Armor
Torso	Aquila Cuirass	Intelligence 3 Sockets Vitality Reduced damage from Elites Armor
Wrists	Lakumba's Ornament	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage Vitality
Hands	Frostburn	Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Attack Speed Intelligence Vitality
Waist	The Witching Hour	Intelligence Critical Hit Damage (if The Witching Hour) Attack Speed (if The Witching Hour) Vitality
Legs	Swamp Land Waders	Intelligence 2 Sockets Vitality Armor
Feet	Illusory Boots	Intelligence Vitality Armor All Resistance Movement Speed
Amulet	Squirt's Necklace	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage Intelligence
Ring #1	The Wailing Host	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Average Damage
Ring #2	Litany of the Undaunted	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Average Damage
Weapon	Voo's Juicer	High Damage Range Intelligence Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Attack Speed % Weapon Damage
Off-hand	Gazing Demise	High Damage Range Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Spirit Barrage % Vitality

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

In a group Greater Rifting setup, your role will be the AoE damage dealer. Since killing the Rift Guardian will no longer be your concern, you need to exchange Bane of the Stricken for Pain Enhancer. Due to Spirit Barrage's excellent scaling with Attack Speed and the clumps of monsters created by Support teammates, this "APS per bleeding enemy in radius" gem will net you the highest DPS gain.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Pain Enhancer Enforcer
Helm	Flawless Royal Amethyst (Toughness)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Topaz (Damage and All Resistance)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

As previously mentioned, you will be cubing The Barber in order to retain the damage accumulating powers of the ceremonial knife.

Due to the numerous stuns and freezes available to your Support teammates, you can take advantage of one of the strongest damage reduction sources in the game by cubing Ancient Parthan Defenders.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Witch Doctors (due to Intelligence scaling Resistances) for optimal survivability.