Witch Doctor Helltooth Gargantuan Build
Introduction
Embodying the iconic image of the Witch Doctor — surrounded by an undead army and draining the life away from his enemies — the Helltooth Gargantuan build brings this playstyle to its rightful place: endgame. This control-heavy, pet-centric build is available in both Greater Rift solo progression (the present build) and speed farming (see link above) variations.
Quick Reference
Skill Setup
The basic skill setup of the Helltooth Gargantuan Witch Doctor is displayed below. Read the dedicated Skills page for detailed information on choices, alternatives and build customization.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Gear Setup
The required gear setup for the Helltooth Gargantuan Witch Doctor is listed below. Check the Gear page for detailed information on choices, alternatives, gemming, Kanai's Cube and Paragon distribution.
- Helm:
Helltooth Mask
- Shoulders:
Helltooth Mantle
- Gloves:
Tasker and Theo
- Chest:
Helltooth Tunic
- Belt:
The Witching Hour
- Pants:
Helltooth Leg Guards
- Boots:
Helltooth Greaves
- Bracers:
Lakumba's Ornament
- Amulet:
Squirt's Necklace
- Ring 1:
Ring of Emptiness
- Ring 2:
The Short Man's Finger
- Weapon:
Sacred Harvester
- Offhand:
Spite
Season 29: Paragon Cap
Season 29 introduces a season-specific cap to stat benefits from Paragon levels, all while updating how Paragon point distribution is handled. For the duration of this Season, you can only assign 800 Paragon stat points to your character, removing the long-standing practice of main-stat stacking (with some gearing implications — see below) after you reach Paragon 800.
On top of that, you could only allocate 50 Paragon stat points to each of the four stats in a given Paragon category (Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility). In Season 29, you can allocate up to the full 200 points per category into any attribute, allowing you to more easily reach necessary build breakpoints (as outlined in the Gear page of the guide) for Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction, etc.
With the changes to Paragon in mind, we recommend using the following Paragon distribution for this build:
- Core: Movement Speed: 200 points.
- Offense: Attack Speed: 200 points.
- Defense: Life and All Resistance: Allocate points to maximize survivability; for Witch Doctors, this is usually achieved by evenly splitting 100 points into Life (directly increasing your Health pool) and Armor (to complement the naturally high All Resistance stat of Intelligence-based characters).
- Utility: Area Damage: 200 points.
Season 29: Gearing Considerations
In terms of gear, keeping the Paragon cap in mind is paramount, as it stymies the traditional endless supply of main stat after Paragon 800. This means re-rolling mainstat off your gear is no longer desirable, and full equipment augmentation with your main stat is even more critical. Additionally, you should take a careful look at your build and consider if you can fit the following changes to strengthen your damage and survivability:
- Guardian's Jeopardy: This is a craftable armor set, and the recipe
for its creation drops from Bounty farming. Guardian's 2-piece provides a
decent damage reduction bonus, but the true powerhouse of the set is the
3-piece bonus, which nets you an additional 100% of your main stats from
equipped items. This is a tremendous benefit in an 800 Paragon capped Season.
If the Guardian set can fit into the build with minimal sacrifices (other
craftable sets, tertiary damage multipliers, etc.), consider its
implementation. The available pieces are
Guardian's Aversion (Wrists),
Guardian's Case (Waist), and
Guardian's Gaze (Head). Of course, you can wear 2 pieces of the set and complete the full 3-piece bonus with a
Ring of Royal Grandeur (found from Act I bounty caches).
- Endless Walk:This is a jewelry set consisting of
The Traveler's Pledge (Amulet) and
The Compass Rose (Ring), and is randomly found through farming, gambling Blood Shards, and/or Kanai's Cube recipes. The Endless Walk set is a nice compromise between damage bonuses (building up while stationary) and defensive bonuses (building up while moving). It can replace glass cannon choices like the Bastions of Will set (
Focus and
Restraint) and
Squirt's Necklace with acceptable losses to DPS.
Unity: A character wearing this ring, along with another
Unity on their follower plus an immortality relic for them (i.e.,
Enchanting Favor), will reduce their damage taken by 50%.
Unity can roll excellent offense-oriented stats and has an innate Extra Damage to Elites roll, which somewhat offsets losing all-out offense jewelry.
Legendary Gems
- Legendary Gem 1:
Bane of the Trapped
- Legendary Gem 2:
Enforcer
- Legendary Gem 3:
Bane of the Stricken
Kanai's Cube
- Weapon Slot:
Shukrani's Triumph
- Armor Slot:
Mask of Jeram
- Jewelry Slot:
Ring of Royal Grandeur
Changelog
- 13 Sep. 2023 (gear page): Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 13 Sep. 2023 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
- 13 Sep. 2023 (this page): Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023 (gear page): Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
- 22 Feb. 2023 (this page): Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022 (gear page): Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 27.
- 26 Aug. 2022 (this page): Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 14 Apr. 2022 (gear page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 14 Apr. 2022 (skills page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 14 Apr. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021 (gear page): Enriched the guide and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 06 Dec. 2021 (skills page): Revised skill and passive recommendations.
- 06 Dec. 2021 (this page): Enriched the guide and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 22 Jul. 2021 (gear page): Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 22 Jul. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 24.
- 22 Jul. 2021 (this page): Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 01 Apr. 2021 (gear page): Added follower recommendation.
- 01 Apr. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 23.
- 01 Apr. 2021 (this page): Added follower recommendation.
- 19 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
- 19 Nov. 2020 (skills page): No changes required for Season 22.
- 19 Nov. 2020 (this page): Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
- 01 Jul. 2020 (gear page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 01 Jul. 2020 (skills page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 01 Jul. 2020 (this page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (gear page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (skills page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (this page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 22 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Reviewed for Season 19.
- 22 Nov. 2019 (skills page): Reviewed for Season 19.
- 22 Nov. 2019 (this page): Reviewed for Season 19.
- 23 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Item recommendations have been revised for Season 18.
- 23 Aug. 2019 (skills page): Skill recommendations have been revised for Season 18.
- 23 Aug. 2019 (this page): Item and skill recommendations have been revised for Season 18.
- 17 May 2019 (gear page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 17 May 2019 (skills page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 17 May 2019 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 18 Jan. 2019 (gear page): Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 16.
- 18 Jan. 2019 (skills page): Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
- 18 Jan. 2019 (this page): Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 16.
- 20 Sep. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 15.
- 14 Jun. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 14.
- 27 Oct. 2017 (this page): No changes necessary for Patch 2.6.1.
- 29 Jun. 2017 (this page): Updated for 2.6 and moved to new format.
More Witch Doctor Guides
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This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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