LoD Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 23, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 5 comments
1.

Speed Farming

The Spirit Barrage LoD build is a capable speed farming build — only suffering on unfavorable long distance layouts or bounties, where a Manajuma-based build is able to outrun it to the destination. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Spirit Barrage Icon Spirit Barrage Manitou Manitou Right Mouse Button Locust Swarm Icon Locust Swarm Pestilence Pestilence 1 Horrify Icon Horrify Stalker Stalker 2 Spirit Walk Icon Spirit Walk Severance Severance 3 Summon Zombie Dogs Icon Summon Zombie Dogs Leeching Beasts Leeching Beasts 4 Soul Harvest Icon Soul Harvest Soul to Waste Soul to Waste
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

When beginning a run, start with a Phantasm Phantasm spawn to empower your Manitou Manitou; then, Spirit Walk Spirit Walk into enemies, pop Big Bad Voodoo Big Bad Voodoo into Soul Harvest Soul Harvest into Horrify Horrify to get their respective buffs up and redo the Spirit Barrage Spirit Barrage assault. This will implode nearby enemies, resetting your cooldowns via Grave Injustice Grave Injustice and In-geom In-geom, and you will be ready to start the cycle anew. Cast Locust Swarm Locust Swarm on tougher enemies, like Elites and Rift Guardians, to proc the Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness buff. Make sure to recast your buffs regularly, especially Big Bad Voodoo Big Bad Voodoo when you change levels — since it does not follow you to the next map.

3.

Adapting Skills and Passives

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

  • Naturally, you will keep Spirit Barrage Spirit Barrage as your main damage dealer, along with the extra damage rune Manitou Manitou. Keep Locust Swarm Locust Swarm Pestilence Pestilence around to proc the effects of Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness whenever you face sturdier enemies like Elites and Guardians. Another piece from the GR solo build that you will keep is Spirit Walk Spirit Walk with Severance Severance for the incomparable movement speed it provides.
  • Soul Harvest Soul Harvest will be kept from the progression spec, but you can alter the defense-oriented Languish Languish rune to the pure movement speed buff of Soul to Waste Soul to Waste.
  • Enemy grouping from Piranhas Piranhas Piranhado Piranhado will not be necessary in the one-shot territories of speed farming, so it is recommended that you swap this slot out for Summon Zombie Dogs Summon Zombie Dogs Leeching Beasts Leeching Beasts. The summons will be paired with Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty in your passives for extra speed.
  • Depending on your build preferences from the progression spec, you will either swap out Big Bad Voodoo Big Bad Voodoo, or keep Horrify Horrify in its place. The excessive defense of Frightening Aspect Frightening Aspect however should be replaced by the speed boost from Stalker Stalker.
  • Our passive lineup recommendation is Rush of Essence Rush of Essence (for resource management), Gruesome Feast Gruesome Feast (for the massive damage bonuses when killing large groups of enemies quickly), Grave Injustice Grave Injustice (for the staple Cooldown Reduction), and Fierce Loyalty Fierce Loyalty (for the movement speed buff from the active summons).
4.

Adapting Gear

The basics principles of constructing your gear remains intact from the GR progression setup. This is still a Legacy of Dreams Legacy of Dreams build, so you run legendary items instead of set pieces and obtain the necessary damage amplification and reduction associated with the traditional 6-piece sets. This will cost a legendary gem slot, but will net you all the jewelry slots for powerful jewelry options. Your weapon and offhand slots remain fixed to The Barber The Barber and Gazing Demise Gazing Demise,which enable Spirit Barrage Spirit Barrage builds in the first place. Other gear slots however will have a more optimal, speed-oriented item fit for the purpose of T16s.

Andariel's Visage Andariel's Visage is preferred in GR progression as it provides the most damage in the slot; its alternative, Leoric's Crown Leoric's Crown, is preferable in standard rifts and bounties instead, as it provides a consistent source of Cooldown Reduction that is not reliant on procs like In-geom In-geom.

You can consider altering Blackthorne's Jousting Mail Blackthorne's Jousting Mail to Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan, which will provide both a solid damage bonus as well as improve resource management; their only requirement is that you stay constantly on the move, and will penalize you for not doing so. In T16s however, this is trivial considering the overall kill speed of the build.

The combo of Stone Gauntlets Stone Gauntlets plus Ice Climbers Ice Climbers should be dropped entirely, as it is way too defensive for farming difficulties. Replace it with St. Archew's Gage St. Archew's Gage, which offers an upfront shield for the (admittedly trivial) challenge of Elite encounters, and use the Act II bounty cache-specific Illusory Boots Illusory Boots for unrestricted mobility.

As a side note on the glove slot, you might remember that the base GR build uses either Stone Gauntlets Stone Gauntlets or Frostburn Frostburn depending on your better rolled item. Frostburn Frostburn should be dropped from the T16 setup as well, as its Cold damage buff is unnecessary overkill. Use up the Cube slot for extra flexibility in your belts. Both Goldwrap Goldwrap and Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt are supremely useful in standard rift farming and bounties. Goldwrap Goldwrap will provide you with near-infinite toughness via its interaction with Avarice Band Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt offers excellent mobility, which you will feel especially useful for bounties. Simply wear your better rolled belt between the two, and cube the other.

Pauldrons of the Skeleton King Pauldrons of the Skeleton King remain relatively useful, as there is no competing legendary shoulder for the slot for solo play. Homing Pads Homing Pads, which are mandatory during farming as they allow you uninterruptible teleporting back to town, can be worn by your Follower, who will "Emanate" them to you (meaning you gain the benefits of the item as if you wore it yourself). That being said, in group farming you will need to wear Homing Pads Homing Pads yourself, since you cannot have a Follower in parties.

During standard rift speed farming, the cyclical damage bonuses of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements and the damage reduction of Unity Unity are greatly diminished in usefulness. In their place, wear a Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace and either Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny (in solo play), or Avarice Band Avarice Band (in groups). Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness remains a universally useful damage amplification item, but should be stored in the Cube; in its place, wear a Cold damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan for the consistent elemental and elite damage amplification.

  • Avarice Band Avarice Band is an Act III bounty cache legendary ring that increases your gold and health globe pickup radius as you pick up gold — stacking to the massive, half-screen circle of 30 yards for a generous 10 second duration. Its legendary power will greatly assist you in maintaining the movement speed bonuses from both a socketed Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder and the near-invulnerability from Goldwrap Goldwrap. In solo play, you can equip your Follower with the Avarice Band Avarice Band and it will "Emanate" to you (meaning you gain the benefits of the item as if you wore it yourself), opening the slot for Rechel's. In group play, you have to wear the Avarice Band Avarice Band yourself.
  • Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny brings a massive movement speed buff any time you fear your enemies, which you will do quite often with Horrify Horrify.
  • Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace brings a massive multiplicative damage increase, but comes with an "increased damage taken" drawback. You can use it almost without repercussion however, due to the Goldwrap Goldwrap armor bonuses stacking your toughness sky-high as you farm.

During low tier GRs or normal rift speedruns, an optimized character can avoid the overkill of toughness in the bracer slot by swapping to Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards, whose environment destruction-based speed boosts will greatly improve your rift clear speeds. The former favorites for the slot, Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, are still quite useful in the build, but during solo farming they can be equipped on your follower, and their power will carry over to your character via the Emanate mechanic.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Spirit Barrage %
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Vitality
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Life %
  4. Armor
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Reduced damage from Elites
  5. Armor
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cold Damage
  4. Vitality
Hands
  1. Critical Hit Chance
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Attack Speed
  4. Intelligence
  5. Vitality
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Damage (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  3. Attack Speed (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  4. Vitality
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Movement Speed
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cold Damage
  5. Intelligence
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Average Damage
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Average Damage
Weapon
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Attack Speed
  5. % Weapon Damage
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Spirit Barrage %
  5. Vitality

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

5.

Adapting Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped remains a universally desired damage amplification gem, and Legacy of Dreams Legacy of Dreams is a required gem for LoD builds that enables their existence altogether.

In speed runs, taking down Champions and Rift Guardians no longer requires chewing through a near-insurmountable wall of health like in high Greater Rift progression. Thus, you can take off Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken for Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder, which increases both your gold income (necessary for empowering GRs), as well as your movement speed and survivability (through its interaction with Goldwrap Goldwrap).

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

In lower tier difficulties, chaining elite kills in the matter of seconds will not be uncommon. As such, In-geom In-geom will provide the biggest boon in your weapon Cube slot by practically nullifying all your vital cooldowns (Spirit Walk Spirit Walk, Piranhado Piranhado).

If you choose to slot Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder in your sockets while running regular Rifts, your biggest source of survivability easily becomes Goldwrap Goldwrap. This belt renders you practically invulnerable as long as you maintain your killing streak and pick up the streaks of gold from the gem. In lower tier GRs, simply swap this slot back to Lakumba's Ornament Lakumba's Ornament.

As previously discussed, you will either have Ring of Emptiness Ring of Emptiness or Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny (in solo play) / Avarice Band Avarice Band (in groups) in this slot. Wear your better rolled ring between the two, and cube the weaker.

In Season 33, where you get a 4th slot for the Kanai's Cube, you can introduce additional damage to the build by slotting Shukrani's Triumph Shukrani's Triumph there.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

8.

Legendary Potion

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Witch Doctors (due to Intelligence scaling Resistances) for optimal survivability.

9.

Changelog

  • 23 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Enriched the guide and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Minor gear revision and added follower recommendation.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: Guide revised to reflect the changes in pet damage calculation.
  • 14 Mar. 2020: Guide adjusted to reflect the changes to Ring of Emptiness.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Item recommendations are revised for Season 18.
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