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Wow great post! Thank you this is very informative.
Thanks but in general what are the main gameplay difference between Arachyr Helltooth Zunni and Jade? I have rebuild my wds recently and I’m not sure what’s the difference. They all look the same to me.
Hey Lidrach! The main differences between each of the four Witch Doctor sets you mentioned are in how they play, what skills they synergise with, and what other items complement the set. Carefully reading the bonuses for each set (I’ve listed them all below) will help to shed more light on where the set shines and how you can turn those bonuses to your benefit. The short version is that Helltooth is best for mid- to long-range pet builds, Jade for doing damage over time (DoT) at mid-range, Arachyr for getting up close and personal and channelling Firebats right in your enemies’ faces, and Zuni for both darts and pet builds at mid- to long-range.
In terms of sheer variety of builds, the Helltooth set has it made. Because it buffs so many different skills, you have a lot of options when it comes to putting a build together and picking complementary legendary items - you can find separate builds that combine the full six piece Helltooth set with Acid Cloud, Firebats, Gargantuans + Zombie Dogs, Grasp of the Dead, or Zombie Charger. In general, the Helltooth playstyle is fast and bursty, which makes it ideal for speedfarming. However, the breadth of the skills it covers also means that it lacks the specificity of the other sets, and, as of patch 2.6.7, it’s the weakest of the four sets.
The Jade set excels in dealing damage over time (DoT). It’s a lot more narrow in its focus than the Helltooth set is, so you don’t quite have the same number of options when picking skills to complement the set. It’s also not really the kind of build you can play while distracted, as killing enemies requires a fair bit more ‘set up’ than most other builds, and making a mistake in your rotation can cause it feel like you’re hitting enemies with a wet noodle 
You have to bunch them up with Piranhas, DoT them with both Haunt and Locust Swarm, and then harvest their souls with Soul Harvest. Because it requires all that set up, it’s not the fastest build, and you probably won’t see it being used often while speedfarming rifts, but it’s definitely one of the strongest WD builds, and there’s something incredibly satisfying in pulling in a big group of enemies and watching them all topple like dominos.
Like the Jade set, the Arachyr set doesn’t buff as many skills as the Helltooth set does, which means that you really only have a few viable options when it comes to complementary skills. Although Corpse Spiders might look like an ideal pairing, there are far and away more legendary items that buff the Firebats skill, so you won’t often see people wearing the Arachyr set using anything but Firebats. Because of the short range on the Firebats skill, the Arachyr Firebats build is unique in that it requires you to really jump right into the thick of the fight, rather than standing back at mid or long range and letting your pets do the fighting for you.
Pets and the Zuni set go hand-in-hand. There are two main approaches when it comes to the Zuni set: pair it with Fetishes, or pair it with Gargantuans. The Zuni Fetish build is, without a doubt, the strongest set build the WD has at the moment. It combines the full six piece set bonus with skills like Poison Dart (a Mana spender) and Carnevil and The Dagger of Darts, both of which provide buffs to your darts and fetishes, to make an incredibly strong build. It’s really intuitive to play, and a lot of fun.
Thanks but in general what are the main gameplay difference between Arachyr Helltooth Zunni and Jade? I have rebuild my wds recently and I’m not sure what’s the difference. They all look the same to me.
This is from someone who really started to play the WD in the past 12 months:
The Jade set allows you to play without pets, although you can fit pets in there if you want. Also, thanks to the Soul to Waste rune of the Soul Harvest skill, it has good movement speed, which is useful in greater rifts.
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The Arachyr set was very strong back when reaching GR 75 was a thing. Today, it’s under-powered. There are not a lot of options for simultaneously increasing damage AND reducing enemy damage, such that it would be the best choice for the high GR 90s and above. Also, there are not a lot of options for increasing movement speed.
This set really needs some buffs, to either the set itself or supporting items.
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The Zuni set, via the Poison Darts attack enabled by the Dagger of Darts and Carnevil items, gives the WD a cool, pet-based ranged attack.
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The Helltouth set is really good for running with pets. It’s not that great at high level greater rifts. But for doing regular rifts at Torment 13-16 to get GR keys, this is my favorite choice. And it doesn’t require a lot of mouse clicking (by contrast, Zuni poison darts builds require a lot of mouse clicking).
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If I’m doing a season, Zuni Darts (or LoD Darts) and Jade would be my first choices for the WD. I did reach Conqueror level in S19 with the Helltouth set, and it wasn’t challenging at all (but the season buff for S19 is awesome).
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One last thing, the easiest WD set dungeon for me (and for most people I suspect) is the Arachyr dungeon.
Just noticed this edit to the OP…
You may never read this, but just wanted to say: very sorry to see you go, Morgan. We never interacted all that much, but you always struck me as an A+ person. I hope someday we’ll meet again.
Take care out there.