Zuni Gargantuan Witch Doctor Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 5 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 30, Patch 2.7.7 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Speed Farming

The Zuni Gargantuan Witch Doctor can deal reasonably well with Normal Rift farming all the way through the highest Torment difficulties. The build variation suffers from minor inconveniences compared to top tier speed farming builds. 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 Haunt Icon Haunt Lingering Spirit Lingering Spirit Right Mouse Button Piranhas Icon Piranhas Piranhado Piranhado 1 Gargantuan Icon Gargantuan Big Stinker Big Stinker 2 Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk Severance Severance 3 Soul Harvest Icon Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste 4 Fetish Army Icon Fetish Army Legion of Daggers Legion of Daggers
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.

For T16 farm, you will assume a similar rotation to the one you have in Greater Rifts, but greatly accelerated and more reckless. The basics remain the same; summon Fetish Army Fetish Army for the Zuni set damage reduction, then summon Gargantuan Gargantuan and buff up its damage by spreading Haunt Haunt on enemies to trigger the Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness damage multiplication (as well as to satisfy the Zuni Mana spender requirement). With the toughness afforded by Goldwrap Goldwrap you can fearlessly dive into packs using Spirit Walk Spirit Walk, crowd control them with Piranhado Piranhado and re-apply the Soul Harvest Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste speed buff.

3.

Adapting Skills

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.

  • The main damage dealer of the build remains Gargantuan Gargantuan, but you should use the rune Big Stinker Big Stinker for the additional AoE over the prolonged fight-oriented Restless Giant Restless Giant rune.
  • You still need to maintain the Zunimassa damage reduction buff, so Fetish Army Fetish Army stays in the build, along with the Legion of Daggers Legion of Daggers rune for the maximum number of summons (and damage reduced as a result).
  • Keep Piranhas Piranhas Piranhado Piranhado in the build for a solid pull and source of crowd control for the build.
  • A proc for Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness will also be quite helpful to cement your ability to oneshot enemies; you can replace the slower-paced and resource-intensive Locust Swarm Locust Swarm with the immediate, auto-aiming and mobile effect of Haunt Haunt Lingering Spirit Lingering Spirit.
  • You should exchange the lengthier effect of the Jaunt Jaunt rune on Spirit Walk Spirit Walk for the faster movement of Severance Severance.
  • Swap the Soul Harvest Soul Harvest rune from the defensive Languish Languish to the movespeed-oriented Soul to Waste Soul to Waste.
  • In your passives, replace the progression-oriented Fetish Sycophants Fetish Sycophants for a speed bump from Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty. Replace Confidence Ritual Confidence Ritual with Gruesome Feast Gruesome Feast, as it undeniably offers the strongest damage increase among its peers, provided you can keep it stacked with health globes — an easy task when farming. Keep Grave Injustice Grave Injustice for the cooldown reduction utility, and Midnight Feast Midnight Feast for the pet damage buff.
4.

Adapting Gear

The foundation of the build will closely resemble the GR progression build, as you still rely on the 6-piece set bonus of Zunimassa to deal damage. You will be wearing 5 of the 7 available pieces and maintaining the full 6-piece bonus of Zunimassa by using Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. The remainder of your major equipment slots is split between generically useful Witch Doctor items like Shukrani's Triumph Shukrani's Triumph, and T16-farming oriented staples like Goldwrap Goldwrap and Echoing Fury Echoing Fury. Jewelry should also match your GR setup, as all three pieces — Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness, The Short Man's Finger The Short Man's Finger and Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace — bring damage multiplication that will make killing monsters a breeze in this difficulty.

When farming solo, your jewelry can be dedicated to offense and your shoulder slot can stay on Pauldrons of the Skeleton King Pauldrons of the Skeleton King (or your best rolled legendary item with the stats outlined below). This is because in solo play your Follower can wear Homing Pads Homing Pads, The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time and Avarice Band Avarice Band and "Emanate" them to you (meaning you benefit from those items as if you wore them yourself). In group play, you will have to wear them yourself (losing Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness and Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace as a result).

Early on in character progression, you can keep Lakumba's Ornament Lakumba's Ornament for the immense damage reduction it provides to the build. When you have progressed your character and are comfortable with Goldwrap Goldwrap mechanics and relying on procs to survive, you can swap Lakumba's Ornament Lakumba's Ornament out for Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards, which provide you with an additional speed boost based on environmental destruction. The former favorite for the slot, Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, are still quite valuable to the build; when soloing, they should be equipped on the follower however, since their power can be transferred to you via the Emanate mechanic.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Gargantuan % Damage
  3. Area Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Gargantuan % Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Poison % Damage
  4. Life on Hit
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Cooldown Reduction at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Life %
  4. Armor
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Poison % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Average Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage or Average Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence (or % Damage at high Paragons)
  4. Area Damage
  5. Attack Speed
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Gargantuan % Damage
  5. Area Damage

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.

4.1.

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

Most of your legendary gem selection from GR progression retains its full value in GR speed farming as well. Both Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped and Enforcer Enforcer still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build while farming keys. Within the limited challenges of T16 speed farming, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. Paired with an equipped Goldwrap Goldwrap and an Avarice Band Avarice Band worn by your follower in solo play (or yourself in groups, in the place of Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness), this legendary gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with the aforementioned items.

5.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

  • HelmShard of Hatred with "Your movement speed is increased by 50%" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponDregs of Lies with "Each time your pet hits an enemy, your damage is increased by 0.5% for 5 seconds" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Poison Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
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

Spite Spite and Shukrani's Triumph Shukrani's Triumph are interchangeable for the weapon slot in the Cube; simply wear your better rolled item and cube the worse one.

Mask of Jeram Mask of Jeram is the preferred inclusion to the armor slot in the Cube, as it directly increases pet damage (additive with elemental damage on gear). Its buff in Patch 2.6.1 and the natural IAS caps of Gargantuan Gargantuan make it more attractive than the other pet staple, Tasker and Theo Tasker and Theo.

Lastly, in order to maintain the valuable 6-piece bonus of Zunimassa set, you will need to cube a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot.

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 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: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Minor gear revision and added follower recommendation.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Item recommendations are revised for Season 18.
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