Tags: beginner

Witch Doctor Helltooth Harness Fresh 70 Starter Build (Patch 2.7.6 / Season 29)

Last updated on Sep 15, 2023 at 09:00 by Deadset 13 comments

This build is a starter build for fresh Level 70 Witch Doctors who have access to the Helltooth Harness set.

This guide is part of our Witch Doctor Seasonal Progress Guide, which also includes a leveling build and other early builds for fresh 70 characters.

1.

Fresh 70 Build

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Wall of Death Icon Wall of Death Fire Wall Fire Wall Right Mouse Button Acid Cloud Icon Acid Cloud Acid Rain Acid Rain 1 Soul Harvest Icon Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste 2 Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk Severance Severance 3 Summon Zombie Dogs Icon Summon Zombie Dogs Burning Dogs Burning Dogs 4 Gargantuan Icon Gargantuan Humongoid Humongoid
Passive Skills
2.

How to Play the Build: Skills and Rotation

The Helltooth starter build will be fairly similar to the leveling and fresh 70 build, keeping its rotation and general strategy with minor adjustments.

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the Leveling and Fresh 70 Build, but others will have to adapt to the set you are currently equipping. Abilities that synergize with set bonuses and complementary items take precedence.

  • You will be swapping out Haunt Haunt for the Helltooth centerpiece, Wall of Death Wall of Death. Wall of Death Wall of Death is one of the abilities that apply the Necrosis effect of the set, in turn DoTing and slowing enemies from the 2-piece Helltooth bonus and reducing incoming damage by 60% from the 4-piece bonus. More importantly, Wall of Death Wall of Death alone triggers the 6-piece bonus of the set, empowering a good deal of your summons and Mana spenders to a point that will trivialize most in-game difficulties. You have two viable rune choices: Fire Wall Fire Wall will deal the highest damage, which is preferable early on; when you push against your gear's limits, or at any point that you feel lacking Toughness, you can change to the rune Communing with Spirits Communing with Spirits for another 25% reduction of enemy damage.
  • You have considerable freedom choosing the damaging skill that will make use of the Helltooth 6-piece damage augmentation, coming from the cast Wall of Death Wall of Death. A starter's recommendation is to use the massive AoE of Acid Cloud Acid Cloud Acid Rain Acid Rain. Aside from that, you will keep the start build's summons, Summon Zombie Dogs Summon Zombie Dogs Burning Dogs Burning Dogs and Gargantuan Gargantuan Humongoid Humongoid; both pets are among the skills augmented by the Helltooth set bonus.
  • Mobility is important from the earliest stages of character progression and all the way into the endgame, and any Witch Doctor would do well to include Spirit Walk Spirit Walk Severance Severance in his build for that purpose.
  • Soul Harvest Soul Harvest is a versatile and universally useful buff in the Witch Doctor's arsenal; early on in character progression, you can use the rune Vengeful Spirit Vengeful Spirit for some extra damage, but consider its transition to utility as soon as possible, i.e. the speed of Soul to Waste Soul to Waste, or the protection of Languish Languish.
  • In your passive lineup, Spirit Vessel Spirit Vessel will keep you safe with a cheat death, and Grave Injustice Grave Injustice will provide you with both life, resource and cooldown reduction in one neat package. Use the duo of pet-oriented passives: Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty for its speed utility, and Midnight Feast Midnight Feast for the extra damage, to bolster a beginner Helltooth in its earliest stages.
3.

Gear

The build above is specifically created not to require any additional sets or legendary items. In order to transition to a late game-oriented spec using the same set, we have a rough list of high priority items to obtain, as well as a link to the build they pertain to.

  • Sacred Harvester Sacred Harvester — is a universally useful legendary ceremonial knife whose unique bonus extends the number of Soul Harvest Soul Harvest stacks from 5 to 10. The opportunity to buff up for 30% Intelligence (true damage multiplier) and reduce incoming damage in half from a simple Soul Harvest Soul Harvest, this bonus is hard to pass up in builds without mandatory weapon bonuses.
  • Mask of Jeram Mask of Jeram — this voodoo mask offers simple and straightforward increase to Witch Doctor pet damage, making it a staple in such builds.
  • The Short Man's Finger The Short Man's Finger — this ring is a mandatory inclusion in Gargantuan Gargantuan-focused setups, as it triples the number of summons and magnifies their individual damage.
  • As a final side note, use Spite Spite as your weapon (easier to roll well, because it's a craftable ceremonial knife) if you decide to lean into a Gargantuan Gargantuan-based build, since the free Humongoid Humongoid rune is a nice boost to the build.
4.

End-Game Helltooth Harness Builds

The mini-guide above is simply meant to acquaint you with the set and how a build with just the Haedrig's Gift (or a newly found set), and no supporting legendaries would play out. We have the following endgame-oriented builds that use the set, and encourage you to explore these much stronger playstyles!

5.

Changelog

  • 15 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Season 29.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Reviewed for Season 28.
  • 10 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
  • 23 Jul. 2021: Reviewed for Season 24.
  • 02 Apr. 2021: Reviewed for Season 23.
  • 13 Mar. 2020: Reviewed for Season 20.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Page added.
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