The Complete Series
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Witch Doctor
Part 3 - Demon Hunter
Part 4 - coming soon
Part 5 - coming soon
Part 6 - coming soon
Part 7 - coming soon
Part 8 - coming soon
The introduction covers in detail the reasons for reworking class item sets as well as how the rework was approached. In summary, each set features a set of skills, where each skill fulfills a specific role according the following pattern:
- Primary: AoE skill that is the primary focus of set/legendary multipliers
- Secondary: skill that deals about twice the DPS of the primary skill to single targets
- DR: the primary skill that is incorporated into a persistent damage reduction effect
- CC: support skill that is well-suited for use with the primary skill
- Mobility: the usual - Spirit Walk in this case
- Wildcard: player preference
I won’t be formatting the rework in terms of each individual set bonus. Rather, I will consider how the build functions as a whole (with full item loadout). Let’s get into it!
Zunimassa’s Haunt
Primary skill: Fetish Army
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Summons 10 dagger fetishes and 10 dart fetishes that last forever. Fetish darts pierce. Fetishes do not attack when the WD attacks. Maximum of 20 fetishes at a time. There’s no longer a distinction between “fetishes” and “fetish sycophants”. Effectively this means that temporary fetishes never spawn from any source.
Secondary skill: Big Bad Voodoo
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Lasts 10 seconds. The build doesn’t need a traditional single-target attack as pets are naturally more effective when they focus fire. Used as a support skill for the fetishes.
DR skill: Horrify
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Gains the effect of the phobia rune (enemies flee rather than get rooted). Passively reduces damage taken by 4% for each fetish alive. Soul harvest no longer provides damage reduction to sets other than Jade Harvester. No longer grants armor through a rune on activation. The skill provides the bulk of defense passively, with the option to activate the skill for the fear effect.
CC skill: Hex
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Lasts 10 seconds. Fetishes that shoot darts will now prioritize attacking hexed targets. This provides a tool to focus damage and a soft way of commanding the army.
Playstyle
This is a pure summoning build, through and through. The player maintains the maximum army size at all times. The player relies entirely on the summons for damage, and does not attack offensively at any time. During engages, the witch doctor spends his time merely avoiding enemies and supporting his pets from the backline. Horrify is used reactively to drop aggro from enemies that bypass your army. It is themed around fetishes and thus does not utilize Gargantuans or Zombie Dogs.
Helltooth Harness
Primary skill: Sacrifice
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Sacrificed zombie dogs will immediately revive automatically. This adds a component of targeted damage that is lacking in pure Gargantuan builds.
Secondary skill: Gargantuan
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Summons 3 smaller Gargantuans that gain cleave and are permanently engraged (wrathful protector). Gargantauns gain the effect of wormwood, continuously spreading locust swarm to enemies around them.
Secondary skill: Locust Swarm
Resource cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 0 seconds
Gains the effect of the pestilence rune. In terms of damage output, it will roughly match that of the gargantuans.
DR skill: Zombie Dogs
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Summons 5 Zombie dogs and grants 15% damage reduction for each one.
CC skill: Wall of Death
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Ring of Zombies now pulls enemies in before emerging from the ground (this is the rune that traps inside). Does not receive any significant damage bonuses. This is primary used to support the gargantuans, clumping enemies up near them so that they can be cleaved down.
Playstyle
This is a partial summon build. It’s more of a hybrid between summoning and spellcasting. Consequently, although the minions are still deadly, the army size is more limited in size than the Zuni set. Locust swarm deals damage more slowly but more but broadly than the summons. The minions concentrate damage on the frontline. All the while, the player is actively attacking targets beyond the minions with sacrifice. The build is themed around zombies and zombie mastery.
Raiment of the Jade Harvester
Primary skill: Haunt
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 0 seconds
Haunt releases 10 spirits at a time that last “almost forever”. Slows targets by 80%. This is the primary skill for all damage multipliers for the set.
Secondary skill: Spirit Barrage
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 0 seconds
Each bolt from spirit barrage deals 1 second worth of haunt damage to haunted targets. Does not receive any significant damage bonus itself. Spectre-based runes are not effective.
DR skill: Soul Harvest
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Permanently gains 10 stacks that last forever. Reduce damage taken by 6% for each stack. Deals 8 seconds worth of haunt damage to haunted targets. Can move unhindered through enemies. No longer grants all rune effects, nor armor. The cooldown is not reduced by casting spells.
CC skill: Grasp of the Dead
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Grasp of the dead releases 10 haunt spirits, and roots targets affected by haunt.
Playstyle
This is a bit of a a “combo” caster build. The build revolves massively around applying haunt to be effective. Once haunted, the substantial slow, root, and unhindered movement give the player great flexibility in kiting between enemies to land soul harvests. Single targets are machine-gunned down with spirit barrage. The damage of this set is drastically shifted towards making the DPS of haunt substantial on its own. Thus soul harvest, while still being the primary way to deal AoE damage, is more of sustained damage rather than the extreme burst damage it currently is. The set is themed around spirits and the “unformed land”, thus locust swarm has been removed from the build.
Spirit of Arachyr
Primary skill: Firebats
Resource cost: 0 mana/s (starts at about 50% sustainable uptime before RCR)
Cooldown: 0 seconds
Just has straightforward mulipliers; no longer must proc off of DoT effects.
Secondary skill: Corpse Spiders
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 0 seconds
Deals about twice the DPS of firebats, making it better for targets like the rift guardian. Increased proc coeffcient. The skill will now benefit from the same life per hit bonuses that firebats does.
DR skill: Mass Confusion
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Permanently grants 70% damage reduction. Grants immunity to CC effects. The first time enemies attack the witch doctor, reduce the damage by 60% and charm the enemy hit for 3 seconds.
CC skill: Piranhas
Resource cost: 0
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Pulls in enemies twice as many enemies, twice as frequently. Effective for grouping and disabling enemies to channel on them. Receives no significant damage bonus.
Playstyle
This is a straightfoward channeling build. The player primarily attacks with firebats. Corpse spiders is used to mop up the stragglers and for single targets. Defense is primarily themed around charming enemies to stop attacks to maximize safe channeling time.
Wrap up
Well that’s it for the current sets. This set rework provides the witch doctor class with a variety of different playstyles, each with its own unique theme. There’s a pure summon build for us old-school fishymancers. There’s a hybrid summon/caster build for those that want to utilize pets as a primary source of damage, but want to be active. There’s a combo-caster build that relies on interesting interactions between spells. Finally, there’s a build for a standard mid-range caster. There’s even room for more sets - acid cloud/zombie charger maybe?
Tune in soon for the next class!