Zuni Carnevil Poison Dart Witch Doctor BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

The build takes advantage of the full Zunimassa set bonuses, taking five of the seven available pieces and cubing a Ring of Royal Grandeur to reduce the number of items for set bonus completion by one. This opens up the helm and leg slots for the unique bonuses of Carnevil and the damage multiplication of the Depth Diggers pants. Rolls-wise, this pet playstyle makes good use of skill bonuses across gear. Sought after on the chest and shoulders, Fetish Army % bonus accompanies toughness stats on the Zunimassa's Marrow and Area Damage on your shoulder of choice. Fetish Army % is also a guaranteed roll on the Zunimassa's String of Skulls, where it is best accompanied by an Area Damage roll. Poison Dart % can be rolled on belt and pants, and being a direct boost to your primary damage dealer it is considered an optimal stat on both items. The ideal Zunimassa's Pox will include both Crit Stats, Attack Speed and an open Socket. While this guide will not delve into the specifics of breakpoint chasing, Attack Speed is an important stat for Poison Dart damage, and you can aim for the 29 frame breakpoint by reaching over 2.00 attacks per second in your sheet, easily achieved with maximized 7% IAS rolls on your weapon, gloves, belt and two rings.

For Season 16 adjustments, please refer to our dedicated section below.

The ability to store the powers of Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Kanai's Cube opens a powerful offensive combo in the jewelry: the Endless Walk set, The Compass Rose and The Traveler's Pledge. This 2.4 rework adds a unique mechanic that slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. This dynamic fits the Zuni playstyle, as you alternate stationary Poison Dart shooting with leading your troops to the next big fight. As mentioned above, Attack Speed, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and an open Socket is desired on The Compass Rose, while the two Crit stats, Poison elemental damage and an open Socket are best for The Traveler's Pledge.

With the 2.4 reworks to its mechanics, Depth Diggers now include Wizard and Witch Doctor resource generating attacks, opening up more viable builds. The Carnevil Doctor is one of them, taking advantage of the up to 100% damage increase (multiplicative as of 2.4.1) to his primary attack, the Mana-generating Spined Dart. The desired stats are Intelligence, Vitality, 2 Sockets and Poison Dart %.

The most desirable belt for a Carnevil Witch Doctor is the glass cannon champion, The Witching Hour. Naturally sporting the unusual combination of Attack Speed and Crit Damage, the best-in-slot rolls would also include a Poison Dart % roll. Another viable, but noticeably weaker option for GRs is the Belt of Transcendence, allowing you to free up the Fetish Sycophants passive slot for another of your choosing.

Introduced in Patch 2.4 to specifically assist Jade Harvester set builds, Lakumba's Ornament is nevertheless a great inclusion to a build that runs Soul Harvest to assist its Toughness issues. At the full 5 stacks of a non- Sacred Harvester setup, Lakumba's Ornament will reduce incoming damage by the respectable 26%. Aim for Poison damage, Intelligence, Vitality, and Crit Chance.

There is no specific shoulder that you need to run, so any item with good stats will do. A popular option are the Pauldrons of the Skeleton King, which will give you another cheat death, albeit at a low proc chance. Optimal stats are Intelligence, Vitality, Fetish Army % and Area Damage.

While it is the namesake of the build, the Carnevil voodoo mask is only sought after because of its unique property that enables the 5 closest Fetish summons to shoot Poison Darts along with you. The mask sports the standard four primary stats and is interchangeable with a Mask of Jeram — so pick your better rolled helm and store the powers of the other in Kanai's Cube. Still, a good Carnevil is much easier to obtain as it has no range to roll on the unique property (unlike Mask of Jeram), so Carnevil comes as the default recommendation.

A similar situation is found in the weapon slot, where The Dagger of Darts produces the signature piercing effect. While that bonus is certainly mandatory, the dagger is interchangeable with a Starmetal Kukri, and you can cube your weaker weapon. Since the Starmetal Kukri is a much rarer drop and rolls guaranteed Crit Damage (not necessarily bad, but harder to optimize breakpoints around), The Dagger of Darts is the standard suggestion. Notice that Attack Speed is a priority on the weapon, ideally accompanied by high Intelligence and % damage rolls.

1.1. Season 16 Adjustments

During Season 16 (and in seasonal play only), you will be getting the benefits of Ring of Royal Grandeur passively, without the need to wear it. For the Poison Dart WD builds, this allows you to greatly increase the build's damage potential.

You will notice Ring of Royal Grandeur is a core ingredient of this build (allowing you to use Depth Diggers and Carnevil simultaneously), and its addition as a passive bonus unlocks a powerful option in the jewelry slot of the Cube — Convention of Elements. The cyclical elemental damage bonuses of this ring add a massive window of burst damage during the Poison part of the rotation, so play around it accordingly — positioning yourself and Fetish Army to inflict the most damage possible.

2. Paragon Points

3. Gems

Simplicity's Strength is one of the best DPS gems you can take for the build, as it was changed into a separate damage multiplication source to primary skills in Patch 2.4.1. Affecting both yours and your Fetish attacks, and upgrading with a steady pace of half a percent per gem level, it quickly becomes a priority and a fixture in your gem choices. Its buffed healing secondary effect is just icing on the cake.

Enforcer is a pet-oriented gem that both increases Fetish damage and lessens the damage the summons take. Note that the damage bonuses of this gem have been changed from additive to multiplicative in Patch 2.4.1, reinforcing it as a pet build staple.

Finally, Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem procs itself with its level 25 property in close range, and is otherwise triggered by your constant Grasp of the Dead spam, making it a natural fit for Greater Rifting.

4. Kanai's Cube

One of the signature Witch Doctor weapons, the Starmetal Kukri easily offsets its lack of elite bonuses or damage procs by effectively nullifying your two longest and most important cooldowns: Fetish Army and Big Bad Voodoo. As noted above, the cube weapon slot is interchangeable with The Dagger of Darts, depending on the weaker rolled item.

The second most desirable helm for this pet centric build, Mask of Jeram only steps down to Carnevil due to the set and weapon synergy. Similarly to the weapon slot, the armor slot is interchangeable between the two, with Mask of Jeram being the usual cube occupant due to its variable unique bonus.

The final item that binds the puzzle of sets and masks together is the Ring of Royal Grandeur. The ability to run with full set bonuses, a complementary helm and strong offensive jewelry, dodging the undesirable guaranteed stats on the Grandeur by cubing its power, is a tremendous boost to the build.

5. Follower

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.

6. Changelog