Firebats Witch Doctor (Patch 2.6.4)

[Valks 2,373]

This thread is for comments and feedback about our Firebats Witch Doctor build guide.

[Guest Wolferus]

Hello, i just wonder. What ring i should use when play in a group. Unity lose basical his power when no npc-helper is there.
So wich is a good alternative to unity?

[Guest DATSMINE]

For the speed farming variant,  do you swap chiroptera for wormwood? Also,  what ring would you use other than unity until you had 2? Great guide! 

[Guest ul7]

Speedfarm variant needs a season 16 update.  6 pieces of Arachyr’s isn’t necessary.

[Guest Ul7]

I also noticed on the speedrun variant for the gear section that feet have fire bats %, which isn't efficient according to the skills you suggest.

[Guest D3mania]

+1 for s16 RoRG update. Thanks Deadset!!

[Guest Darktalon]

How are you justifying that this is Top Tier over Jade for GR pushing? Look at all the leader boards. The top 1000 are all using Jade.

[Asakurato 3]

I think you should mention that after attaining Staff of Chiroptera, the Spirit WalkHonored Guest is redundant and better be changed to Spirit WalkSeverance. I mean you would rarely be out of mana while channeling Firebats.

[Guest Fuzzball]

On 1/22/2019 at 12:26 AM, Guest Ul7 said:

I also noticed on the speedrun variant for the gear section that feet have fire bats %, which isn't efficient according to the skills you suggest.

The speedrun variant also recommends firebats% in the head slot and the off-hand slot.

[Guest Darkwolf7]

I can't get this build to work properly. I have all the gear and skills that are recommended but I keep dying too easily. 

[Guest Solomon]

How can this be be used at higher difficulty levels? You need to be so close to enemies that you get one-shot super easily because you don't have much range.

[Bear 0]

For the season 16 update the cubed armour piece you use the coils of the first spider but this is a firebat item. Is there any reason for this? 

[Guest Tango]

Unity is the way for solo, specially in HC.

[Elekim 4]

This time, I have many notes:

1) In the skill section it is written: "Arachyr Doctors take Creeping Death during Greater Rift progression to extend the benefits of the their two DoTs and, more importantly, keep the valuable Cloud of Insects Damage Reduction and Draining Spirit Mana regeneration going". However, the suggested rune for Haunt is Poisoned Spirit, not Draining Spirit.

2) In the tables of stat priorities "Intellect" shoul be replaced by "Intelligence".

3) In the tables of stat priorities Sacred Harvester need an additional stat suggestion (if the socket is preferably obtained through a Ramaladni's Gift, there are only 3 stats suggested).

4) In the "Season 16 Adjustments" of the Gear page it is written "For the Acid Cloud WD builds, this allows you to...", but this is not an Acid Cloud build. However, season 16 is over, so this will be deleted soon anyway... ?

5) In the Introduction page it is written that "Due to its mediocre mobility on long distances, it is not recommended for Bounties", while in the Speed Farming page it is written that "it should also prove as a reliable and capable bounty farming build". Thus, is the build recommended for bounties or not?

6) In the Speed Farm page, the table with stat pririties still contains "Firebats %" (which is not a skill used by that variant); in addition, Arachyr's Legs misses the "2 sockets" suggestion.

7) When suggesting "Hellfire Amulet of Intelligence with [...] a solid fifth passive" the guide should also suggest Creeping Death (at least), otherwise it's suggesting only passives already slotted for that build!

? In the "Adapting skills" section of the Speed farm variation page, Creeping Death is mentioned twice as a skill to replace (with Tribal Rites and Gruesome Feast): one instance should be corrected with Spirit Vessel, which is actually one of the passive replaced.

9) As usual, some indications for which Follower to have and which Potion to wear will be very welcomed.

[Elekim 4]

Some more...

10) In the table of the speed farm variation page, the shoulders and rings still have area damage among preferred stats, while there should be cooldown reduction (at least that's what I think in coherence with the changes in preferred stats for other items...).

11)  In coherence with other builds using Grave Injustice, should "pickup radius" be suggested in the tables as a secondary stat for your gear?

[Guest DragonAstaXiel]

did this build, added in the angry chicken

likely reduce top spec ability, but, I hate having to multi tap every darn button, so, I only SW when in trouble, beyond that angry chicken and get where need to go, blow up, then do haunt - firebat - locust etc works very well once you get into the groove of things .. I suppose I like the chicken (cheap) but it does prevent a not so stable connection from insta dying when speed into a nasty room, at least you got a SURPRISE for them ^.^

I like firebomb, at least till doing this fireshield pimp slap anything that gets too close.

[Guest NexusOps]

Hi, this build and the linked items needs a bit of rework. The Ring of Emptiness does NOT require both Haunt and Locusts to be active at the same time anymore. Only one debuff is required. Pretty core change that should have been spotted if the build was properly updated for season 20 instead of copied and pasted.

[Guest FoolyCooly]

@Blainie This set says to use ring of emptiness and talks about the damage in the rotation guide. But this ring text says needs haunt AND locus swarm BOTH to proc. Locus swarm is not in the move list. Am I missing something?

[Valks 2,373]

26 minutes ago, Guest FoolyCooly said:

@Blainie This set says to use ring of emptiness and talks about the damage in the rotation guide. But this ring text says needs haunt AND locus swarm BOTH to proc. Locus swarm is not in the move list. Am I missing something?

RoE now only needs Haunt OR LS - it got changed, not sure why the text isn't updated in the tooltip. I'll look into it, sorry, but yeah - you don't need both skills anymore.

[mayahastheknife 1]

Shouldn't there be an additional attribute listed for Sacred Harvester? Something like %DMG or VIT?

[Guest Dabikuye]

How is Vile Hive offhand useful if locust swarm isn’t a skill any longer?

[Guest Quarantined]

Hi there.

According to Deadset's guide, Arachyr Firebats is a "High Tier" build. The thing is that I'm continuously getting destroyed at GRs, while a "Mid Tier" Gargantuan Helltooth build allows me to go 5 GRs further despite having it with way worse rolls.

¿Sure this is stronger than Gargantuan Helltooth or am I doing something wrong with Arachyr?

[mayahastheknife 1]

On 4/9/2020 at 4:23 PM, Guest Quarantined said:

Hi there.

According to Deadset's guide, Arachyr Firebats is a "High Tier" build. The thing is that I'm continuously getting destroyed at GRs, while a "Mid Tier" Gargantuan Helltooth build allows me to go 5 GRs further despite having it with way worse rolls.

¿Sure this is stronger than Gargantuan Helltooth or am I doing something wrong with Arachyr?

What are you having issues with, dealing damage or staying alive? And what kind of GRs are we talking about? 70+? 100+?

[Guest Teespolyglot]

I used this build to do the season 6 builds solo, I changed out haunt to locust swarm pestilence. Let’s face it, the firebats do the damage and haunt does not compare in the slightest to the spread of locust all around you which allows instant incineration. It negated me needing either mantle of channelling or coils of the first spider

[Guest Hello]

On 4/12/2020 at 11:11 AM, Guest Teespolyglot said:

I used this build to do the season 6 builds solo, I changed out haunt to locust swarm pestilence. Let’s face it, the firebats do the damage and haunt does not compare in the slightest to the spread of locust all around you which allows instant incineration. It negated me needing either mantle of channelling or coils of the first spider

I agree, though I would use Locust Swarm: Cloud of Insects and Vile Hive in place of Haunt and Henri's Perquisition. Any amount of time spent using Haunt is time spent not casting Firebats, so I don't really understand why it is recommended in place of Locust Swarm. Sure, it gives a small damage buff, but the inconvenience compared to Locust Swarm with Pestilence from either the rune or Vile Hive is just not worth it, and the Cloud of Insects damage reduction is not unwelcome either.

I'm curious what you are cubing in place of Mantle of Channeling or Coils of the First Spider...