Witch Doctor.... what am I doing wrong????

[Brantly044 0]

Play a seasonal witch doctor on Xbox one.

Character background:

Followed the Arachyr hellbat buid from icy veins. Have a full set, followed everything in cube, have all the gems, followed paragon points, etc. Only difference is I am missing the belt, haven't had it drop yet, using string of ears. Currently level 450 paragon.

 

Currently 8765 Int, 5228 Vit. Damage is 795K, defense 13.6M.

 

How i cast skills:

 

Haunt

Locust swarm

hex

soul harvest

firebats

fly around with spirit walk when I can.

 

I die so much it makes the game unplayable. My buddy and I do a level 60 greater rift and he does everything, I just watch and die. People half my paragon points are doing more than I am. What am I doing wrong? I am contemplating starting another character I guess, please help.

 

Gargantuan and piranhas with hell tooth felt so much better

 

 

Edited June 4, 2017 by Brantly044

[Arkpit 101]

Your stats and paragon alone are saying you shouldn't be running GR60 at all. You should probably have around 100mill defense when channeling the Firebats but thats why it's hard to play and while I don't play on a console I think this build is very hard with a controller to pull off.

All your survivability comes from standing still and channeling Firebats which means, many times when you are solo you jump around with spirit walk into this and start channel before it runs out so that your toughness is high when you are a free target again.

Hex can be kept up 100% of the time and it should be so it's not even part of the rotation. A bit the same with Soul Harvest, it should also always be at max stacks while running through Grifts so nothing special there.

The "easy mode" is to only fire up 1 Locust Swarm (make sure you have the dmg reduce rune) and then just Channel Firebats, ignore all else until you face elites and bosses where you add one Haunt as well ofc for the ring.

But for all the normal mobs, don't bother haunting everything, just throw it out sometimes for mana or not at all if you are good on mana. 1 Locus then channel Firebats and STAND STILL! You die if you run around not channeling Firebats while a pack is still alive.

This build can be played solo and I did myself on Hardcore but it is not easy, you need the discipline to get into a pack and knowing your limits so you can stand still in a ton of enemies and knowing you can kill them before you die.

[Brantly044 0]

Thanks I'll try your suggestions. 

 

How am I ever going to be able to run anything higher? Only thing left to do is upgrade gems and paragon points

[Guest]

Get better gear?

[Arkpit 101]

21 hours ago, Brantly044 said:

How am I ever going to be able to run anything higher? Only thing left to do is upgrade gems and paragon points

This part is what many misunderstand with Diablo 3.

Just because you've got all the pieces, doesn't mean you're done grinding for them. Having a piece for your set and having a PERFECT ancient version of it makes the world of a difference and getting correct rolls. You keep grinding until all your pieces are ancient, then you clear GR70 solo and start farming for Primals.

This build can solo GR80+ with good gear and up towards 800+paragon and gems around rank70. I was pushing 65 on hardcore which means compromising a lot of it's damage to survive.

[Brantly044 0]

Thanks again for the info

[Valks 2,373]

The Ancient weapon is always a HUGE increase in damage, as well as ancient pieces that are high stat budget (chest, legs, etc.)

[Brantly044 0]

Almost everything I have is ancient, gems at 74. When do you augment? Can solo low 70s GR

[Arkpit 101]

11 hours ago, Brantly044 said:

Almost everything I have is ancient, gems at 74. When do you augment? Can solo low 70s GR

I would augment anything over 70ranks for sure. Solo GR70 is good work and you can farm for primal items and go even higher.

If you die a lot, consider swapping out skills that helps you survive damage until you feel comfortable but in Softcore you die a lot. 
You are also playing a build that isn't suited to reach the highest GR solo. Arachyr Firebat is best in group play which makes it more difficult to use in solo since you have to stop using %area damage to be able to kill the bosses and then struggle with packs instead.

If your goal is to reach the highest possible GR solo then you should attempt the more solo focused builds like Helltooth/Zunimassa Gargantuans or Jade Harvester.