Spirit Barrage Mundunugu WD Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jul 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 89 comments
1.

Mundunugu's Regalia Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor Speed Farming Variation

The Mundunugu's Regalia Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor can deal excellently with Normal Rift and Bounty farming all the way through the highest Torment difficulties. The build variation is a top choice for the class for the purpose, handling both tasks with ease. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Spirit Barrage Icon Spirit Barrage Manitou Manitou Right Mouse Button Locust Swarm Icon Locust Swarm Pestilence Pestilence 1 Horrify Icon Horrify Stalker Stalker 2 Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk Severance Severance 3 Big Bad Voodoo Icon Big Bad Voodoo Boogie Man Boogie Man 4 Soul Harvest Icon Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

When beginning a run, start with a Phantasm Phantasm spawn to empower your Manitou Manitou; then, Spirit Walk Spirit Walk into enemies, pop Big Bad Voodoo Big Bad Voodoo into Soul Harvest Soul Harvest into Horrify Horrify to get their respective buffs up and redo the Spirit Barrage Spirit Barrage assault. This will implode nearby enemies, resetting your cooldowns via Grave Injustice Grave Injustice and In-geom In-geom, and you will be ready to start the cycle anew. Cast Locust Swarm Locust Swarm on tougher enemies, like Elites and Rift Guardians, to proc the Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness buff. Make sure to recast your buffs regularly, especially Big Bad Voodoo Big Bad Voodoo when you change levels — since it does not follow you to the next map.

3.

Adapting Skills and Passives

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

  • Naturally, you will keep Spirit Barrage Spirit Barrage as your main damage dealer, along with the extra damage rune Manitou Manitou. Keep Locust Swarm Locust Swarm Pestilence Pestilence around to proc the effects of Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness whenever you face sturdier enemies like Elites and Guardians. Another piece from the GR solo build that you will keep is Spirit Walk Spirit Walk with Severance Severance for the incomparable movement speed it provides.
  • Soul Harvest Soul Harvest will be kept from the progression spec, but you can alter the defense-oriented Languish Languish rune to the pure movement speed buff of Soul to Waste Soul to Waste.
  • You will maintain Big Bad Voodoo Big Bad Voodoo from the main build, but simply alter the overly defensive rune Ghost Trance Ghost Trance. You can run the rune Boogie Man Boogie Man to spawn Summon Zombie Dogs Summon Zombie Dogs from its effect, triggering the movement speed bonuses of the Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty passive. Additionally, you can make a clever swap once you get a dog spawn from the first pack you kill with BBV active, and use another rune like Slam Dance Slam Dance, since the dogs will not despawn.
  • Since the kill speed in Torments is too fast for enemy grouping to occur and matter, you will be replacing Piranhas Piranhas Piranhado Piranhado from the main spec with Horrify Horrify Stalker Stalker for the extra movement speed. Note that this effect will also proc the legendary bonus of Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny, further improving mobility.
  • Our passive lineup recommendation is Spirit Vessel Spirit Vessel (for a failsafe cheat death), Gruesome Feast Gruesome Feast (for the massive damage bonuses when killing large groups of enemies quickly), Grave Injustice Grave Injustice (for the staple Cooldown Reduction), and Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty (for the movement speed buff from the active summons).
4.

Adapting Gear

Most of the gear from the Greater Rift progression build will still make sense for speed farming, but a few variations will be necessary, in order to maximize your productivity and momentum during regular Rift clears.

The Mundunugu's Regalia set is still worn almost in its entirety, but it is recommended that you use the Act II bounty cache legendary Gloves of Worship Gloves of Worship as a worn piece, as the extended bonuses of even the most common Shrines can be quite valuable during speed farming, i.e. Empowered brings resource regeneration and feeds you damage bonuses through the set mechanic. They replace the Mundunugu's Rhythm Mundunugu's Rhythm and necessitate the use of Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in your jewelry Cube slot to complete the 6-piece Mundunugu bonus. This change, however, nets you a valuable armor Cube slot for utility bonuses — see the Cube section below.

During standard rift speed farming, the pacing-reliant bonuses of the Endless Walk set are greatly diminished in usefulness. In their place, wear a Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace and either Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny (in solo play), or Avarice Band Avarice Band (in groups). Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness remains a universally useful damage amplification item, but it can be dropped eventually if you feel you are overkilling in damage.

  • Avarice Band Avarice Band is an Act III bounty cache legendary ring that increases your gold and health globe pickup radius as you pick up gold — stacking to the massive, half-screen circle of 30 yards for a generous 10 second duration. Its legendary power will greatly assist you in maintaining the movement speed bonuses from both a socketed Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder and the near-invulnerability from Goldwrap Goldwrap. In solo play, you can equip your Follower with the Avarice Band Avarice Band and it will "Emanate" to you (meaning you gain the benefits of the item as if you wore it yourself), opening the slot for Rechel's. In group play, you have to wear the Avarice Band Avarice Band yourself.
  • Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny brings a massive movement speed buff any time you fear your enemies, which you will do quite often with Horrify Horrify.
  • Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace brings a massive multiplicative damage increase, but comes with an "increased damage taken" drawback. You can use it almost without repercussion however, due to the Goldwrap Goldwrap armor bonuses stacking your toughness sky-high as you farm.

During low tier GRs or normal rift speedruns, an optimized character can avoid the overkill of toughness in the bracer slot by swapping to Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards, whose environment destruction-based speed boosts will greatly improve your rift clear speeds. The former favorites for the slot, Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, are still quite useful in the build, but during solo farming they can be equipped on your follower, and their power will carry over to your character via the Emanate mechanic.

4.1.

Season 32 Theme — Ethereal Weapons

With this Season's addition of Ethereal Weapons as a theme, your ideal weapon during any form of speed farming will be Arioc's Needle, whose unique bonus to Decay abilities and unrivaled skill and pure stat bonuses will outperform any other alternatives. It needs to be rolled with the weapon power of In-geom In-geom, and will ideally have the Confidence Ritual Confidence Ritual passive. Learn more about Ethereal weapons in our Ethereal mechanics guide, and read up on how to farm them in the Ethereal farming guide.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Socket
  2. Spirit Barrage %
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Intelligence (or Mana Regeneration at high Paragon)
  5. Crowd Control Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Resource Cost Reduction
  4. Armor
  5. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Armor
  4. Reduced damage from Elites
  5. Arcane or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cold % Damage
  4. Vitality or Life per Hit
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Critical Hit Chance
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Intelligence (or Attack Speed at high Paragon)
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Arcane or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Life %
  5. Arcane or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Spirit Barrage %
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Cold % Damage
  6. Arcane or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  7. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Arcane or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Arcane or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence (or % Weapon Damage at high Paragon)
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Cooldown Reduction
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Spirit Barrage %
  5. Mana Regeneration
  6. Cooldown or Resource Cost Reduction
  7. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)

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.

4.2.

Altar of Rites

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).

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.

5.

Adapting Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped remains a universally desired damage amplification gem.

Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder is a great speed farming inclusion, as it increases both your gold income (necessary for empowering GRs), as well as your movement speed and survivability (through its interaction with Goldwrap Goldwrap).

Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard is suggested in the third slot simply for the upkeep of Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace bonuses; if you dislike playing with that amulet, you can viably alternate to Gogok of Swiftness Gogok of Swiftness here.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

In-geom In-geom is a staple speedfarming selection for the weapon Cube slot, cutting all your cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you take down an elite — a bonus you will chain constantly during speed farming, ensuring smoothness of your Rift runs.

In your armor Cube slot, you can either keep Aquila Cuirass Aquila Cuirass for the consistent damage reduction bonus, or lean into utility legendaries, like Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt and Harrington Waistguard Harrington Waistguard.

If you are mixing the Mundunugu set with utility legendaries as we suggest, you will need a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry Cube slot. Alternatively, you can wear the full 6-piece Mundunugu set and equip a Cold damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan, and have the Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness slotted in the Cube.

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.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

8.

Legendary Potion

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower 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.

9.

Changelog

  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Enriched the guide and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: Guide revised to reflect the changes in pet damage calculation.
  • 10 Mar. 2020: Guide added.
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