Jade Harvester Witch Doctor

[Guest IgorGolob]

How about the Gem of Efficacious Toxin? it's not mentioned anywhere so I'm not even sure if it works with this build, but it seems like a strong DOT, that would suit well here.

[Deadset 108]

How about the Gem of Efficacious Toxin? it's not mentioned anywhere so I'm not even sure if it works with this build, but it seems like a strong DOT, that would suit well here.

 

It can be used, but the way damage numbers of skills grew with recent patches, damage multiplication gems (Bane of the Trapped, Stricken, etc) have eclipsed damage proc gems (Toxin, Mirinae, etc.) If you want to give Toxin a go, you can use it in low GRs in the place of Esoteric.

[Guest caller]

What about putting Wormwood in cube and using hex or other damage amplifier in place of. Does ring of emptiness gain from this setup?

[Deadset 108]

12 hours ago, Guest caller said:

What about putting Wormwood in cube and using hex or other damage amplifier in place of. Does ring of emptiness gain from this setup?

I'm pretty sure Ring of Emptiness will trigger from a Wormwood and it's an option to consider when speedfarming (one less spell to think of/cast). I think the loss of a Furnace will be quite brutal in Greater Rifts though, it's basically a separate multiplier in this build vs. anything Hex can offer in the form of additive damage.

[Guest Bissic]

Recently I switched to this build but I decided to opt out of the queztacotl helm and use the mimic helm along with wormwood in the cube. Basically allowing me endless mana and spamming haunt and other spells on cd. Haunt and your harvest are the real damage and an entire room with locusts and not having to cast to waste the mana is nice. The 2 mimics staffs give off the locusts for me, probably going to drop vile hive all together because it's just not needed with this setup and I've been pushing grift 70 solo with about 5 minutes left. 

[Guest Hamster-007]

On 3-9-2015 at 1:40 PM, Guest elle said:

Is this still relevant in latest patch!

heyhey,

 

I am struggeling with the first choice-enchanting.

For example: +15% Haunt vs Piranhas vs Locust Swarm or +resistence vs all elements vs +armor or +x amount after each kill vs + vitality.

Any advise availible?

[Valks 2,375]

4 hours ago, Guest Hamster-007 said:

heyhey,

 

I am struggeling with the first choice-enchanting.

For example: +15% Haunt vs Piranhas vs Locust Swarm or +resistence vs all elements vs +armor or +x amount after each kill vs + vitality.

Any advise availible?

You should be able to see all of your enchanting needs in the gear section. It lists the priority for the first 5 stats. What pieces exactly are you struggling to work out the priority with?

[Guest Hamster-007]

On 3-9-2015 at 1:40 PM, Guest elle said:

 

Jade Chest, shoulder and offhand - +15% Haunt? +15% Locust Swarm? +15% Piranhas?

The priority-order about this three is unclear to me.

In my mind it is Haunt>Locust Swarm>Piranhas. If this is correctly, I have to enchant this items into Haunt...

About bracers and defensive enchants:: has Armor priority above life p. hit and res. to all elements?

[Valks 2,375]

8 minutes ago, Guest Hamster-007 said:

Jade Chest, shoulder and offhand - +15% Haunt? +15% Locust Swarm? +15% Piranhas?

The priority-order about this three is unclear to me.

In my mind it is Haunt>Locust Swarm>Piranhas. If this is correctly, I have to enchant this items into Haunt...

About bracers and defensive enchants:: has Armor priority above life p. hit and res. to all elements?

All three of the first pieces have Haunt Damage listed in their priority, so focus on that.

For the bracers, yes. Armor has a higher prio according to the listed priorities.

[Guest Hamster-007]

Thank you for helping me out :).

[Valks 2,375]

Just now, Guest Hamster-007 said:

Thank you for helping me out :).

No problem! Don't hesitate to ask any further questions if you have them. We're here to help!

[Guest Seth]

Hi, i've been playing jade doc for 2 seasons now. I have a few questions. I dont want to ask the D3 forum in case i get insulted :(

Currently i get stuck with a hellfire amulet with Pierce the Veil passive. Unsuprisingly it drains mana reserve fast thanks to haunt spamming but i cant get rid of it yet due to its ideal stats. I have no doubt that that my spells got stronger but no idea if Soul harvest gets the damage boost. I 'm wondering i've wasting time and reseources with PtV. 

1. Does Soul harvest benefit from it at all?

2. Do Haunt and locust and piranha DoTs benefit from PtV?

3. Regarding the Covention of Elements, i understand u concentrate element to procure a nuke, but say i spread my DoT spells to cover all 4 elements : fire locust, cold harvest, poison haunt, poison piranha (i hv to sacrifice physical). When Soul harvest consume the Dots, will it consume the boosted Dot or the applied rune of soul harvest? If yes, Does it only consume the boosted DoT worth of only 4 secs along with the rest of other unboosted DoTs? Frankly i dont fancy waiting 12 seconds till the chosen element show up. I much prefer harvest as much and as often as possible.

4. With the Ring of Emptiness, each new spells applied additional 300% damage to haunted + swarmed target but what of the haunt and locust already applied themselves? Do their DoT get the boost too? (I've wondering this question in case i want to build a LoN doctor with these 2 skills)

that is all. Let me know if i need to clarify my questions. Thanks in advance :)

 

 

 

 

[Valks 2,375]

2 hours ago, Guest Seth said:

1. Does Soul harvest benefit from it at all?

Yes.

2 hours ago, Guest Seth said:

2. Do Haunt and locust and piranha DoTs benefit from PtV?

Yes.

2 hours ago, Guest Seth said:

3. Regarding the Covention of Elements, i understand u concentrate element to procure a nuke, but say i spread my DoT spells to cover all 4 elements : fire locust, cold harvest, poison haunt, poison piranha (i hv to sacrifice physical). When Soul harvest consume the Dots, will it consume the boosted Dot or the applied rune of soul harvest? If yes, Does it only consume the boosted DoT worth of only 4 secs along with the rest of other unboosted DoTs? Frankly i dont fancy waiting 12 seconds till the chosen element show up. I much prefer harvest as much and as often as possible.

Not sure on this one, will leave it for @Deadset to answer.

2 hours ago, Guest Seth said:

4. With the Ring of Emptiness, each new spells applied additional 300% damage to haunted + swarmed target but what of the haunt and locust already applied themselves? Do their DoT get the boost too? (I've wondering this question in case i want to build a LoN doctor with these 2 skills)

Yes.

[Guest Seth]

12 minutes ago, Blainie said:

Yes.

Yes.

Not sure on this one, will leave it for @Deadset to answer.

Yes.

That mostly put my mind at ease. Thank u :) much appreciate it!

[Valks 2,375]

1 hour ago, Guest Seth said:

That mostly put my mind at ease. Thank u :) much appreciate it!

No problem! If you have any other questions, you can always ask them over on our Diablo forum if it's more general, or in the guide comments if it's about a specific build.

[Deadset 108]

On 9/16/2016 at 0:05 PM, Guest Seth said:

3. Regarding the Covention of Elements, i understand u concentrate element to procure a nuke, but say i spread my DoT spells to cover all 4 elements : fire locust, cold harvest, poison haunt, poison piranha (i hv to sacrifice physical). When Soul harvest consume the Dots, will it consume the boosted Dot or the applied rune of soul harvest? If yes, Does it only consume the boosted DoT worth of only 4 secs along with the rest of other unboosted DoTs? Frankly i dont fancy waiting 12 seconds till the chosen element show up. I much prefer harvest as much and as often as possible.

Soul Harvesting will deal damage of the type selected by the rune of Soul Harvest only. All other rune choices are based on furthering Soul Harvest's damage, so you needn't concern yourself with them - and solely on using SH during the appropriate Convention of Elements proc (cold if you go with Languish, poison if you go with Swallow Your Soul).

[gchao 0]

@Deadset

Thanks so much for the great guides.

I had two questions as I played more of the soul harvest build.

1) How is the Soul Harvest/Jade Harvester set damage calculated?

My understanding from reading your guide is that it's something like this:

(Locust Swarm base DoT * %Locust Swarm elemental dmg bonus * %Locus Swarm dmg bonus + Haunt base DoT * %Haunt elemental dmg bonus * %Haunt dmg bonus) * 300s * %Soul Harvest elemental dmg bonus

Thus, say, if Locust Swarm and Haunt are both on a Poison rune, and Soul Harvest on a Cold rune, then one could aim to roll %Poison for amulet and %Cold for bracer to get a multiplicative bonus for all DoT's (rolling solely cold or poison). The downside is the efficiency of spreading, but either way you're spamming Haunt so it's not a big difference (particularly vs elites/boss). 

Also, if this is correct, even if you choose the Poisoned Spirit rune, wouldn't %Cold dmg still work just as well? (You mentioned rolling for Poison in the guide). Perhaps better, if you are running Vile Hive/Cloud of Insects (Physical), because the %Cold would apply to both DoT's.

I guess it gets a little complicated...

40%Cold only, Pestilence/Resentful Spirit

(LS*1 + Haunt*1.4)*1.4 = LS*1 + Haunt*1.96 = 1040 + 4000*1.96 = 8,880% weapon damage

20%Cold & 20% Poison, Pestilence/Poisoned Spirit

(LS*1.2 + Haunt*1.2)*1.2*1.25 = LS*1.8 + Haunt*1.8 = 1040*1.8 + 4000*1.8 = 9072% weapon damage

However, if you are rolling +%Haunt dmg on other gear pieces then the pure route is better.

2) I understand the concept of having both Haunt and Locust Swarm for casting rather than cubin Wormwood to allow for cubing The Furnace (offensive) or Vile Hive (defensive). However, I'm having a lot of trouble properly engaging enemies under the sequence of:

Piranhado->Horrify->Locust Swarm->Haunt spam->Soul Harvest

In particular, it's so much work engaging any group size larger than 3 (such as 5 elites) as Piranhado's range is not high enough. Also, I'm running out of mana all the time, which makes me unable to cast Haunt and subsequently Soul Harvest. This is particularly true using Locust Swarm for left click (it gets accidentally casted frequently), but using Haunt of left click means I waste Locust Swarm on the air instead.

Since Spiritual Attunement and %resource cost reduction are not part of the build, how do you manage your mana, particularly in large, open spaces with continuous strings of enemy?

Edited October 12, 2016 by gchao

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/12/2016 at 7:06 AM, gchao said:

I had two questions as I played more of the soul harvest build.

Passed a note on to Deadset, since I unfortunately can't help with this. It's just a bit too in-depth for me!

[Arkpit 101]

On 2016-10-12 at 8:06 AM, gchao said:

2) I understand the concept of having both Haunt and Locust Swarm for casting rather than cubin Wormwood to allow for cubing The Furnace (offensive) or Vile Hive (defensive). However, I'm having a lot of trouble properly engaging enemies under the sequence of:

Piranhado->Horrify->Locust Swarm->Haunt spam->Soul Harvest

In particular, it's so much work engaging any group size larger than 3 (such as 5 elites) as Piranhado's range is not high enough. Also, I'm running out of mana all the time, which makes me unable to cast Haunt and subsequently Soul Harvest. This is particularly true using Locust Swarm for left click (it gets accidentally casted frequently), but using Haunt of left click means I waste Locust Swarm on the air instead.

Since Spiritual Attunement and %resource cost reduction are not part of the build, how do you manage your mana, particularly in large, open spaces with continuous strings of enemy?

Hai, I should be able to give some changes to this part having played lots of Jade!

First I would like to change up your order slightly:

Try this instead: Locust Swarm->Piranhado->Haunt spam->Horrify->Haunt spam->Soul Harvest

Basically start every large encounter with 1(never spam locus, just the 1) Locust Swarm then try to capture most of them with a Piranhado. This way the swarm is given the nessecary time to spread while you spam the haunt BETWEEN the 2 CCs you have.

Don't really understand your issue with "Accidentally cast", if things go off just swap the keys around or bind them to something else, Haunt is super cheap in mana relative to Locus Swarm which you can't afford more than 1 cast on per engage so if you happen to click that often needlessly, change your keybindings.

Once you are comfortable running up to a target, 1 swarm then swap between the haunt and your CC you'll start feel a lot more powerful since it calms the rotation down giving you a much bigger boom with having the Swarm being spread to 100% of the targets while you safely spam haunt while Horrify and Piranhado keeps them in place.

You can start practising the rotation with resentful spirits to get the extra haunt out but you'll really want the extra DPS from the poison variant later on in 70+GRs.

Regarding the mana part, I never have mana issues and do not put any paragons in mana or any reduction. When there is a large area with lots of monsters you simply move past them. Rifts are never meant to be about clearing all the monsters, you take out the Elites and move on so "pick your poison". Kill the largest pack in the room if you really want to kill something and there isn't an elite nearby but don't clear every single area, it is a waste of valuable time!

Edited October 18, 2016 by Arkpit

[Valks 2,375]

Thanks for another detailed response Arkpit! I'm not a big WD player, but it seems you've beaten Deadset to the reply!

[Deadset 108]

@gchao

Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding your query, but why is using a Soul Harvest rune of a different element to your two DoTs considered at all? You gain the benefits of all the skill's runes through the Jade set bonus. But to answer you more specifically, Soul Harvest's own damage is lesser to those of the DoTs, so item rolls should not be adjusted according to its damage. If anything, elemental damage rolls should be adjusted according to Haunt. :)

As for the rotation question, Arkpit answered in great detail - thank you for that! - and I agree with him, Locust Swarm should not be spammed at all, it chews through your Mana. I'm sure that once you get the Locust Swarm application down, you will not have Mana troubles anymore.

[Guest Aziz]

I wonder if the "cloud of insects" rune makes the "locust swarm", which is poison-based originally, damage as physical?

Thank you. 

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/14/2016 at 8:04 PM, Guest Aziz said:

I wonder if the "cloud of insects" rune makes the "locust swarm", which is poison-based originally, damage as physical?

Thank you. 

It looks like it does, yes.

[Zuidam 0]

Hey great guide as always, I recommend you to everyone. Can you please clarify two things? On Shoulders it is recommended that Cooldown is more important than Haunt damaged but on the mojo its recommended that Haunt Damage is more important than cooldown. Am I missing something or is there a reason why? Just love knowing the fundamentals and you really know your sh!t!  :)

Also I do follow your guides to the letter, hence performing better than most other people my Paragon level and Higher I think anyway - I am close to 1.2K and maxed 86 Solo is that decent?

I know you know you stuff and put the time in to be the best, more than I ever could or will do.

 

Just a weird thing for me is my Sacred Harvester ancient of course with Calds Dis Aug at level 81 added, I have these attributes

1. Socket for Gift

2.1441-1781 Poison Damage

3. 993 int

4. 10% damage

5. 23, 115 Life Per hit

(total weapon damage is 2934.5)

But another one I have which has same stats but VIT instead, I die WAY more than I do with the healing (life per hit) - because I know your guides are ace and follow it to the letter usually, whats your thoughts on this? Stick with life per hit til I find a better Soul harvester or go to Vit? Weird that I can't clear 85, or get very close to it with the VIT instead of healing but with the healing as my 5th stat I passed 86.

Also I got 86 using the resentful spirits rather than the poison variation of Haunt (my gear happens to be cold bonus rather than poison as I used Pet Dr build before which really bored me). I am guessing I can get higher if I go with poison? And you mention the belt for fetishes rather than haunting girdle for survival, in higher GR should I stick with Haunting Girdle or belt of Transcendence? Please :)

And one last, if I go with the Extra DPS poison haunt rather than the resentful spirit extra spirit, do I need to make sure I have Haunting Girdle instead of belt of transcendence as obviously I would only get one spirit if I went poisoned spirit whilst wearing belt of transcendence.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Zuidam

[Valks 2,375]

On 1/3/2017 at 9:38 AM, Zuidam said:

Hey great guide as always, I recommend you to everyone. Can you please clarify two things? On Shoulders it is recommended that Cooldown is more important than Haunt damaged but on the mojo its recommended that Haunt Damage is more important than cooldown. Am I missing something or is there a reason why? Just love knowing the fundamentals and you really know your sh!t!  :)

I'm leaning towards it simply being an oversight, tbh. The only thing that I can think of specifically would be that it is easier to roll CDR on shoulders than it is on the OH, so it's more reliable to obtain the CDR you need.

On 1/3/2017 at 9:38 AM, Zuidam said:

Also I do follow your guides to the letter, hence performing better than most other people my Paragon level and Higher I think anyway - I am close to 1.2K and maxed 86 Solo is that decent?

It definitely is, good job! :)

On 1/3/2017 at 9:38 AM, Zuidam said:

But another one I have which has same stats but VIT instead, I die WAY more than I do with the healing (life per hit) - because I know your guides are ace and follow it to the letter usually, whats your thoughts on this? Stick with life per hit til I find a better Soul harvester or go to Vit? Weird that I can't clear 85, or get very close to it with the VIT instead of healing but with the healing as my 5th stat I passed 86.

LPH is far more forgiving. When you are in a tight situation, you will be in a position to simply spam your way out of it with some CC thrown in. With vitality, you can survive bigger hits, but when you are in those tight situations, you either need to run or die. I would imagine you are still playing in the way that you would with LPH. 

Positioning is probably the biggest problem.

On 1/3/2017 at 9:38 AM, Zuidam said:

Also I got 86 using the resentful spirits rather than the poison variation of Haunt (my gear happens to be cold bonus rather than poison as I used Pet Dr build before which really bored me). I am guessing I can get higher if I go with poison? And you mention the belt for fetishes rather than haunting girdle for survival, in higher GR should I stick with Haunting Girdle or belt of Transcendence? Please :)

I'd take Haunting. Yes, poison will probably push you higher.

On 1/3/2017 at 9:38 AM, Zuidam said:

And one last, if I go with the Extra DPS poison haunt rather than the resentful spirit extra spirit, do I need to make sure I have Haunting Girdle instead of belt of transcendence as obviously I would only get one spirit if I went poisoned spirit whilst wearing belt of transcendence.

Yep.