Poison Dart Witch Doctor

[Guest Bubble181]

On 8/30/2019 at 10:58 PM, Guest Puncto said:

Just a quick question about the Zuni Carnevil Poison Dart build in patch 2.6.6: you suggest the Aughild Authority 3 piece bonus so as to get 15% DR and 30% ID as well as 30% of both vs elites. However, I can only see 2% of each. Was this patched recently? I am playing on switch. Do you have recommended alternatives? Cheers

In case you haven't found out yourself by now, there are two different Aughild sets. One is level 42 and has 2% bonuses, the other is level 70 and has 15%/30% bonuses. Sadly ,the second's recipe is much rarer.

 

[Guest Bubble181]

On the Skills page, Lakumba's Ornament and the Secret Harvester are mentioned as benefiting Harvest.

However, on the Gear page, this has been changed and updated - neither piece of gear is worn anymore, in favour of Aughild's and Echoing Fury. 

Without those two items, mightn't it make sense to use Horrify instead of Soul Harvest? You lose a bit of a punch due to the INT increase, but the armor bonus is higher and more trivial to keep up. Either way, one of the pages should probably be updated.

[Jokku 0]

So the optimal roll on bracers is % Poison Damage. I can see that does match Haunt's Poisoned Spirit rune. But, the above mentioned, Haunt-less version still runs Poison (check it on ladder). And I don't get - WHY? Non of the skills there are poison-based..

[Yolo 40]

22 hours ago, Jokku said:

So the optimal roll on bracers is % Poison Damage. I can see that does match Haunt's Poisoned Spirit rune. But, the above mentioned, Haunt-less version still runs Poison (check it on ladder). And I don't get - WHY? Non of the skills there are poison-based..

Haunt definitely has to be in the build, because it procs the Zuni 6 piece bonus. 

However, the damage element mentioned is incorrect indeed: Spined Dart is Physical. (Unless the darts your fetishes shoot don't inherit the rune choice : in that case, they deal poison damage) 

[Guest Bubble181]

As the item description says, the Fetish's darts will ALWAYS be poison damage, no matter what rune is chosen. Since the regular Fetish attacks quickly lose their usefulness,and your own darts are completely unimportant, your one and only actual damage dealer at higher levels are those Fetish darts. Therefore, Poison is king for this build.

[UnspeakableElvis 0]

On the Skills and Runes page, Soul Harvest Languish is justified by referring to Lakumba's and Sacred Harvester. However, on the Gear page, those items no longer appear, replaced by Aughild's and Echoing Fury. Consequently, your whole build falls apart because Soul Harvest now serves almost no purpose. Icy Veins guides have really degraded in quality this season. And sadly, as with other guide errors I've pointed out in the past while, this one will most likely remain unaddressed. Guess the team has moved on to other things.

[Guest IcyGuest4346]

Not sure what I'm missing, but I just setup this build and it feels clunky. Due to the Zuni 6-pc bonus, I only do significant damage when enemies are hit with a mana spender. This build's only spender is Piranhas and whenever it's on cooldown I can't defend myself and small lone critters are getting through the fetishes and killing me. I noticed Piranhas comes off CD quick from Grave Injustice but there are still significant gaps of no damage. Maybe I'm playing it wrong, suggestions?

[Yolo 40]

21 hours ago, Guest IcyGuest4346 said:

Not sure what I'm missing, but I just setup this build and it feels clunky. Due to the Zuni 6-pc bonus, I only do significant damage when enemies are hit with a mana spender. This build's only spender is Piranhas and whenever it's on cooldown I can't defend myself and small lone critters are getting through the fetishes and killing me. I noticed Piranhas comes off CD quick from Grave Injustice but there are still significant gaps of no damage. Maybe I'm playing it wrong, suggestions?

Try herding packs together, make excessive use of Spirit Walk to become invulnerable and as a speed boost. This way you can essentially drop Piranhas pack after pack, since the Piranhas will always be reset after a kill. Try to Hunt for elites, if possible. 

[noway 0]

On 5/5/2020 at 12:38 AM, Guest IcyGuest4346 said:

Not sure what I'm missing, but I just setup this build and it feels clunky. Due to the Zuni 6-pc bonus, I only do significant damage when enemies are hit with a mana spender. This build's only spender is Piranhas and whenever it's on cooldown I can't defend myself and small lone critters are getting through the fetishes and killing me. I noticed Piranhas comes off CD quick from Grave Injustice but there are still significant gaps of no damage. Maybe I'm playing it wrong, suggestions?

Yea, I was trying this out, and you can hack away for a long time on mobs not affected by a mana spender. It's also a pretty weak build tank wise. I changed a few things around from the main page as follows:

Removed Big Bad Voodoo and use Locus Swarm: Pestilence - it spreads nice but you need to get close, so need a few more changes

Piranhas with Zombie Piranhas Rune - for shorter cooldown, seems much more useful

Removed Pierce the Vale and use Swampland Attunement for close up extra tank

Removed Bane of the Trapped and use Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for extra tanking, which is actually pretty good

Resist gems

The bonus you're working with is "Enemies hit by your Mana spenders take 15,000% increased damage from your pets for 8 seconds." as in they need to be "HIT".

After that it's actually pretty strong, jump in the middle and go at it.

[Guest Decemberangel25]

1. Gt above.

2. Why convention of elements when it's only good for so long on the elements?

[Guest Lackey81]

I opted to include Mundunugu Shoulders and Legs  whilst placing Lakumba's Ornament on Braces. This gave me better functionality with Big Bad Voodoo and overall improved survivability. Depth Diggers were moved to spare slot in cube for this season allow to maintain damage output.

[Sableflame 5]

On 1/18/2019 at 5:42 AM, Blainie said:

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

On 9/2/2019 at 4:04 PM, Deadset said:

On it! Sorry for the mishap, the DoD + Echoing Fury combo is definitely the correct one.

Blainie/Deadset - there are some serious questions/concerns raised by this build that haven't been addressed. The last response from y'all was nearly 2 years ago, and yet this build is listed at the top of the WD high-tier chart...

1) Sacred Harvester & Lakumba's Ornament are still included in the text of the write-up, despite having been replaced (along with the previous Helltooth pieces) with Echoing Fury, Aughild's wrist/shoulder, and Depth Diggers. This leaves a MASSIVE defense hole for this build... even on T14 I was getting shot up by standard Skeleton Archers. The 15% DR from Aughild's is simply not sufficient.

2) Piranhas has simply too long of a cd (and not nearly enough uptime) to be the only spender in the build. Again, even on just T14, you cannot gather enough enemies and have them all get "hit" by the single cast to trigger the damage buff on them - and anything that isn't touched is virtually invulnerable to your attacks until that glacial cd runs its course. A far better choice is Grasp of the Dead/Desperate Grasp - with its 4 sec (base) cd and wider AOE, it is a significant upgrade in near instant grabbing enemies, and therefore triggering the Zuni 6-piece bonus so you can actually kill stuff.

3) The only reasonable fix for the defense hole I could find is to replace BBV with Horrify/Frightening Aspect and set it on autocast - with even the minimum CDR of max Paragon & Head Diamond, the 8 sec long 50% armor buff outlasts the cd. And as you no longer have anything that is strongly dependent on CDR (without BBV), I would lose Grave Injustice on your passives and replace it with the flat 15% DR of Jungle Fortitude.

4) With losing BBV in an attempt to keep our WDs alive, I would also recommend swapping out Echoing Fury in the cube for The Furnace to re-apply some of that damage bonus where it is needed, against big bad things.

5) The Endless Walk set feels like a mismatch for a build that is constantly repositioning for Soul Harvests and Dart spitting... You're never getting the full use of either side of it. I would recommend a well-rolled Hellfire Amulet (preferably with Swampland Attunement, Confidence Ritual, or Bad Medicine on it) and a Unity ring paired with an immortal follower.

[Deadset 108]

Hey there! I will redact the remnant mentions of the Sacred Harvester / Lakumba's Ornament combo, sorry about that. I do stand behind the revised recommendations however, and the GR leaderboards back that information up, with the overwhelming majority of endgame pushers using the Aughild's / Echoing Fury / Depth Diggers setup. I realize that it can lead to unpleasant "glass cannon" feel to the presented build, but with an appropriately adjusted playstyle, it can (and has proven to) lead to great solo GR results.

Since you do mention rifts in T14 and onwards, take a peek at how the build is re-organized for general farming - specifically the synergy outlined between Avarice Band , Boon of the Hoarder and Goldwrap which should all but eliminate survivability concerns in non-GR content. With the gold-induced wall of toughness, you can afford to make very careless dives into the fray to maximize the CDR benefits of your Grave Injustice passive, and in turn - chain the valuable CC effects of Piranhado . The effect of Piranhado surpasses that of Grasp of the Dead, since it not only draws enemies in and keeps them in a convenient cluster, but also stops them from attacking back due to the knockback animation it triggers. Personally, I wouldn't lose it in most (if not all) progression and farming Witch Doctor builds.

I would agree on the swap of the Endless Walk set, but you might not like the direction of the change 😛 I'll probably amp up the damage and glass the build further out with an inclusion of Squirt's Necklace and Convention of Elements combo. That being said, your toughness-oriented alterations are very sensible, but they simply wouldn't push the build to its solo GR limits.

[Darkacheron 0]

On 6/18/2021 at 8:26 AM, Deadset said:

Hey there! I will redact the remnant mentions of the Sacred Harvester / Lakumba's Ornament combo, sorry about that.

This information still hasn't been removed.

[Deadset 108]

On 9/11/2021 at 9:57 AM, Darkacheron said:

This information still hasn't been removed.

Apologies and thanks for the reminder. I just sent a fix, it should be up on the website shortly.

 

[Guest AkiraYukki77]

I've used the build for a few quick runs, but from my perspective found it just a bit inconsistent. The build is good ngl, but I think that when you have to rely on your pets for damage, it can get annoying when the pets get stuck dealing with enemies that aren't really a priority atm. One thing that can be good to combine together if you don't have the Carnevil and some other piece to complete the set, I found that having two pieces of the Helltooth armor on can make the Piranhas or whatever mana spender a bit more powerful so you can fight a bit easier when your pets aren't able to keep up in some cases. Love the build, just has a few cases with the pets.

[Killigraphy 1]

My only problem with this build, is that it relies on only two things...your pets and more importantly, your Gem....I have everything in socket correct, I just have a low lvl Enforcer gem, which means its nowhere near t16 ready. Its not a pick up and crush build like every other classes, which does not require high level gyms out the gate, to do massive damage.