The Witch Doctors lost identity, Round II Suggestions

Witch Doctor
1

Hello,

About a year and half ago i made a post on difficulties that our beloved Witch Doctor is experiencing and some suggestions that could help to smooth things out a little. Had some spare time to revisit that post and made some tweaks and improvements here and there.

So the main idea on these suggestions is to bring more skill and gameplay diversity between different sets and focus more on themes surrounding them and what skills complement those themes.

Zunimassa’s Haunt, Voodoo theme

  • Fetish Army
  • Big Bad Voodoo
  • Gargantuan
  • Zombie Dogs

“This set has always been about fetishes and these chances would bring it more together around that theme. Big Bad Voodoo fits better in zunimassa then mundunugu so it could borrow mundunugu’s two set bonus. Six piece bonus and other damage buffs are meant to bring actual fetishes to main damage dealers and other pets secondary. ”

2 pieces

  • Fetish Army lasts until either them or the Witch Doctor die, and the cooldown of Fetish Army reduces by ##%.

4 pieces

  • Big Bad Voodoo now follows the caster and lasts twice as long and while Big Bad Voodoo is active Witch Doctor takes ##% reduce damage.

6 pieces

  • Your pets deal ####% increased damage and fetishes deal ###% increased damage for every active fetish.

New legendary shoulder:

  • Big Bad Voodoo gains the effect of every rune.

“Fills shoulder slot that zunimassa is lacking and helps boost Big Bad Voodoo to new heights.”

Starmetal Kukri:

  • Additional fetish damage.

“Makes it feel more impactful for the set and helps reduce Big Bad Voodoo’s cooldown.”

The Gidbinn:

  • Fetish Army deal ###% increased damage and have ##% chance on hit to AOE EFFECT.

“Nostalgic weapon from D2 that fits on the voodoo and fetish theme of the set. Boost overall damage and little AoE effect makes it more interesting.”

Fetish Army rune revamp:

  • Fetish Ambush: damage type Cold, and summons two Undead Fetishes that…
  • Legion of Daggers: damage type Physical, and summons two Fetish Brutes that…
  • Tiki Torchers: damage type Fire, and summons two Fetish Shamans that…
  • Head Hunters: damage type Poison, and summons two Fetish Hunters that…

“Evens out rune choice for damage wise and opens up more elemental options and flavor.”

Helltooth Harness, Death & Decay theme

  • Wall of Death
  • Gargantuan
  • Zombie Charger
  • Acid Cloud
  • Grasp of the Dead

Skills removed:

  • Firebats
  • Zombie Dogs

“Emphasis of these ideas would be to bring more skill choices and even out damage on Wall of Death, Gargantuan and one resource spender (Zombie Charger, Acid Cloud or Grasp of the Dead). ”

2 pieces

  • Enemies hit by Primary skills, Acid Cloud, Zombie Charger, Grasp of the Dead, Gargantuan or Piranhas are afflicted by Necrosis, becoming Slowed by ##% and take ####% increased damage from Wall of Death for ## seconds.

4 pieces

  • After applying Necrosis to an enemy, the Witch Doctor takes ##% reduced damage for ## seconds.

6 pieces

  • After casting Wall of Death, gain #####% increased damage for ## seconds to all Primary skills, Acid Cloud, Zombie Charger, Grasp of the Dead, Gargantuan, Piranhas and Wall of Death.

Ring of Emptiness:

  • Additionally increase damage on enemies affected by Wall of Death.

“So Helltooth set won’t have to use Locust Swarm or Haunt to get damage multiplier.”

New legendary belt:

  • Set specific Damage Reduction effect.

“Set needs more damage reduction because bracer slot is filled with Jeram’s Bracers so you can’t use Lacumbas and belt slot would be open.”

Jeram’s Bracers:

  • More Wall of Death damage.

SuWong Diviner:

  • Additional Acid Cloud damage and resource cost reduction.

“Makes Acid Cloud more spammable and damage multiplier is needed to bring damage up.”

New legendary One-Handed weapon:

  • Acid Cloud deals ###% increased damage and damage is dealt instantaneously.

“Same as above and instantaneous damage would work nice with Acid Cloud, and if i remember correctly there were some performance problems with dots.”

Deadly Rebirth:

  • Instead of Rain of Corpses it gives Unbreakable Grasp rune
  • Additional Grasp of the Dead damage.

“Grasp needs multipliers to be a competent damage dealer and Rain of Corpses wont bring much, so Unbreakable Grasp would make it more spammable and opens more elemental options.”

Wilken’s Reach:

  • Additional Grasp of the Dead damage.

Spirit of Arachyr, Nature theme

  • Firebats
  • Locust Swarm
  • Zombie Dogs
  • Hex

Skills added:

  • Zombie Dogs (creature)

“Set is mainly using Firebats to deal damage and these suggestions would shift it a little more to other skills as well. Addition of Zombi Dogs (as it fits creature theme) and improved Spider Queen would bring a small pet aspect to this set and bringing up Locust Swarm damage would make overall damage more versatile.”

2 pieces

  • Summons a permanent Spider Queen that attack enemies and cleaves ####% damage in front of it and Slow enemies around it by ##%. The Spider Queen is commanded to move where Corpse Spiders are cast.

4 pieces

  • Hex gains the effect of Toad of Hugeness rune. After Toad of Hugeness is summoned, the Witch Doctor is healed for ##% of maximum Life per second and takes ##% less damage for ## seconds.

6 pieces

  • The damage of creature skills is increased by #####%. Creature skills are Spider Queen, Corpse Spiders, Plague of Toads, Firebats, Zombie Dogs, Locust Swarm, Hex, and Piranhas.

Wormwood:

  • Additional Locust Swarm damage.

“This and Vile Hive brings Locust Swarm damage little more close to Firebats”

Coils of the First Spider:

  • While channeling Firebats and ## seconds after, take ##% reduced damage and gain ##### - ##### Life per Hit.

“Give a little window to reposition yourself that is needed when using firebats and this would make Coils a good alternative to Lakumba’s on this set.”

Staff of Chiroptera:

  • Change to One-Handed weapon.
  • Additionally Firebats gains Hungry Bats rune.

“Arachys have two usefull two-handed weapons and one off-hand so making chiroptera a one-handed weapon would give an option to equip all three. Hungry Bats rune should help deal damage enemies further away while Cloud of Bats is used.”

The Tall Man’s Finger:

  • Zombie Dogs instead summons three more powerful gargantuan dogs that deal ### increased damage.

“Making Tall Man’s Finger same level of power as Short Man’s Finger is right now.”

Mundunugu’s Regalia, Spirit theme

  • Spirit Barrage
  • Haunt
  • Mass Confusion / Horrify

Skills removed:

  • Big Bad Voodoo

Skills added:

  • Haunt.
  • Mass Confusion / Horrify.

“As Mundunugu uses spirit skills, fitting Mass Confusion or Horrify to this set would make more sense theme wise then using Big Bad Voodoo and other thing is that Mass Confusion is never used anywhere and Horrify is not that popular either. Pushing usage of Haunt over Locust Swarm would also fit theme wise and skill diversity between sets would be better.”

2 pieces

  • Mass Confusion gains Unstable Realm rune and increase your Mana Regeneration by ### and additional ## for each affected enemy for ## seconds.

or

  • Casting Horrify increase your Mana Regeneration by ### and additional ## for each affected enemy for ## seconds.

4 pieces

  • Gain ##% damage reduction for ## seconds when you enter the spirit realm. Mass Confusion / Horrify is now targettable.

6 pieces

  • Spirit Barrage deals #####% increased damage plus an additional % equal to # times your Mana Regeneration/Second.

Voo’s Juicer:

  • Haunt will jump to additional nearby targets and Spirit Barrage deal ###% increased damage against haunted enemies.

“Gives Haunt functionality of Locust Swarm and more Spirit Barrage damage would make it more appealing to use.”

General

Lakumba’s Ornament rebalance:

  • Stacks up to 5, and each stacks adds more damage reduction up to ##%.

“To break Lakumba’s Ornament + Sacred Harvester combo that is plaguing almost every build out there. This would open many more itemization opportunities.”

Gargantuan rebalance:

  • Base Gargantuan have cleave ability.

“Opens more elemental options and more flavor of choice.”

5 Likes
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I like most of your ideas!
I have some ideas swirling in the ol’ brainchamber myself that are similar to yours. But cannot get the time to make one huge post so I do it in bitesize chunks.

Have you seen: [WD 2.7.1 suggestion] Celebrating the Critters - Witch Doctor - Diablo 3 Forums (blizzard.com) and [WD 2.7.1 suggestion] Evening out the Effigy - Witch Doctor - Diablo 3 Forums (blizzard.com) ?

I hope that with lots of creativity on this forum we help the devs revamping our beloved WD.

2 Likes
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Nice ideas. I like primary skills getting some love. Firebomb is aesthetically one of my favorite skills, and I wish there was a way to do some damage with it.

The easiest fix for WD is putting damage on Wormwood. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that one asked for. We need a lazy WD locust build that doesn’t suck.

I think it’s too late to swap skills between Mundunugu and Jade. I think those are fine how they are, mechanically. My one request with Haunt would be synergy between the Hallow Whispers, ROE, and the double haunt belt. Hallow Whispers needs either more damage or a higher cast rate, or both.

Last thought: WD needs a class shield. Necro gets one, but WD would be better thematically. A build that uses a spear and a shield would look sick. Maybe zombie bear shield, and you can choose to cube either that or the mojo.

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Making Wormwood emanate would be a cool thing.

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I’d still like for 1 giant dog to keep that “man’s best friend” vibe but increase the attack speed on the TMF and then increase the radius and the damage on the burning dogs rune just a little bit.

The current spider mechanic is good actually if the set buffed itself instead of the skills more like Firebirds does. but honestly, I’d like to see the damage get switched like you said but instead of a cleave have the web effect deal damage and increase that damage with a modifier on The Spider Queen’s Grasp

Single stack gives full 60% reduction with additional stacks adding a smaller amount up to 80% max.

This is good, but I want to see mass confusion getting all runes and being a possible damage source too with last breath also buffing damage %.

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So I actually tried monk this season and mon with Ianna set.

Omg this is rediculous build.

So to start the imbalance compered to almost all other clases.
6-piece bonus is 15000% damage to all monk skills… hmmmmm

Now lets go into non set items.
Boots split mystics into 2 and increase damage 200% and increse time of using active skill ( it gets almost as long as the CD ??? )
Tempest rush does 600% damage and if hitting 3 or fewer 100% crit.
Cyclone strike reduces damage by 50% for 5 sconds.
Hitting with tempest rush will activate cyclone strike and both skills do 600% increased dmage ( you do now not even need cyclone strike as choosen skill and it will happen just about every 5 seconds to keep dr up auto )
Enemies hit by cyclone strike takes 200% more damage from mystics for 5 (channeling tempest rush will keep this up 100% of time) seconds and this is increase 5 times by split fire mystics ? this is like WTF

Bracers have a few choices, you could use parthenas if you run with water mystic instead since this mystic will stun everything for about 10 seconds or something.
Or 650% more damage to tempest rush when mobs are frozen, stunned
Or a bracer giving 50% DR after using spirit regen ability.

But running this with the fire mystic I cleared GR94 in under 5 minutes with no deaths, no arguments and only ancient was inna legs and echos fury in off-hand but the fury has int and not dex.

When checking toughness it’s mostly 600M+ running the fire damage mystics.
But if you use the offhand 50% dr after dash, parthans defender and water mystics you get to 800M+ as long as you have 5-10 mobs around.

I WANT THIS FOR WD
For WD to even come close to clearing GR94 with like no ancient item well , at least I never been able to do that. To just get the set and go through until you get to the limit.
But seeing the 94 was cleared in under 5 minutes and RG took like 5 seconds.
Might even be able to hit 98 or something before needing more DR.

How could WD be on par with this?
Well remove the armor increase from fetishes, every active fetish gives 3% DR.
Now we are on par with monk on the set alone, other sets needs a straight DR of at least 70% would maybe get ara back in buisness.

Mundu
Other changes Mundu we can walk/run/spirit walk while channeling spirit barrage make it on par with tempest rush.
Using any primary skill will give 40% dr on a ring or off-hand or maybe a neck.
Get 50% DR for 6 seconds after SW ends, but it might be enough if we can channel while spirit walking like with the bats. But let us channel while walking.

Zuni:
Good idea to have the big bad voodoo follow and last twice as long.
But I would also like to se spider queen/corpse spider added as pet to the damage increase.
To put on set or the short mans finger ring that is a must, double the time gargs are enrraged and/or lower the CD as the monk mystic active is up almost 100% of time with occulus ring or something else similiar.

Ring of emptiness needs a boost to 500% seing as everything for monk is not less then this.
Also the few places it is 200% there is added things.

So like keep it at 300 and add all pets do 100% more damage, this would make fetishes hit as hard as the mystics, but the mystics seem able to stack on top of each other so it might need to be 200 or even 300%.

Or something like now you pets can occupy same space and do 100% more damage.
And for then love of good seeing how short CD monks and other classes have lower just about every single CD on WD by 50% at least.

And our pet CD should be reset on death, this is something that can break a rift easily for us. While all other classes has 0 problems dying 5 times at RG but still kill him in the end.

After playing this monk build I now understand why so many say yeah GR90 us easy you just get the set and go there. Well as WD you just don’t.

I might swich to this monk build using water mystic you can just chill at T16 and everything dies before the freeze ends and nothing is able to hit you even the RG is frozen until he dies in about 2 seconds.

One more thing the mystics does 40-50B crits whits way worse gear then fetishes who do 20-30 each but since mystics stack and featish don’t it’s quite unfair.

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