Zuni Carnevil Poison Dart Witch Doctor

[Valks 2,375]

On 1/5/2017 at 8:28 AM, Arkpit said:

The Stricken vs. Enforcer is most probably because pets do not increase the Stricken stacks and there isn't any DoT in the build to help out either which means only your own auto-attacks will stack the % and it will take you a while to get up to the same dmg increase as the Enforcer gem.

For a boss, or, certain bosses, the Stricken gem will pull ahead sometimes if it's long enough but the Enforcer will be a constant bonus through the entire clear of the GR which makes it a better overall choice.

Stopping by to confirm. Thanks Ark!

[Neogeo 0]

Did Depth Diggers bonus apply to pet damage? If not, I think it's more beneficial to just equip Zuni pants and cube COE. 

[Valks 2,375]

9 hours ago, Neogeo said:

Did Depth Diggers bonus apply to pet damage? If not, I think it's more beneficial to just equip Zuni pants and cube COE. 

It does not, but DDs are still more of a damage boost than CoE, assuming normal stacking and elemental downtime.

[VeenarM 0]

@Arkpit 

How'd you go in hardcore? I'm using this build now in HC as I have an awesome weapon, I am just missing the Helm of jeram but yeah it's glass cannon I proc my passive every now and then just random trash in TX.

I think the damage loss for - Belt of Transcendence would allow me to free up another passive which could benefit more.

[Arkpit 101]

13 hours ago, VeenarM said:

@Arkpit 

How'd you go in hardcore? I'm using this build now in HC as I have an awesome weapon, I am just missing the Helm of jeram but yeah it's glass cannon I proc my passive every now and then just random trash in TX.

I think the damage loss for - Belt of Transcendence would allow me to free up another passive which could benefit more.

As far as progress goes I pulled GR65 after about 57hours played on the character but it sadly died due to a disconnect :( After that I was not very motivated to get all my ancients and augments back honestly but you can definitly complete the season journey of solo GR70 with this, in HC you just need a lot of well rolled gear.

Because it's HC I swapped the BBV rune to fit the extra 20% dmg reduction and passive PtV was changed into Jungle Fortitude.
After these changes the hardest thing was gems since you NEED Esotaric in high GR HC so I picked Esotaric in place of the Enforcer but kept Trapped since it is better overall than Stricken for this build.

Belt of Transcendence should not be used in this build at any time because you will get enough fetishes from the Sycophant passive which makes room for The Witching Hour which not only have Crit dmg% but also the incredibly important Attack speed as well. Never underestimate the importance of Attack speed for your darts, since if you think about how you fight, 95% of all your dmg is based on your attack speed.

This being said, the Enchantress is the go-to follower with a unity and Sultan of Sands sword for the added CC (it's crazy OP), and as teh last skill, you get an extra 3% attack speed instead of the aoe cc. The Ess of Johan amulet will provide added CC as well so no worries there. It is in fact invaluable for the build since you hit the entire group with a Grasp of the Dead, proccing both Bad Medicin and Trapped gem!

Glad others are daring the Darts build in HC, it's a rough life, but a fun challange!

EDIT:
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, to fit the Unity option you skip Endless Walk set! This way the Unity provides extra dmg for elites also you get the Pierce the Veil passive for extra dmg via the Hellfire amulet!

My reasoning behind this is that you barely even stand still because of your squishy-ness so all your Endless walk set is doing is providing the same bonus as the Unity. This all ofc from a HC perspective since I would probably stand still more in SC. Getting passive popped by everything though in GR65 was rough being in one place.

Edited January 25, 2017 by Arkpit

[Guest steve2563]

It looks like Corruption has been nerfed to 1-2 yards. Does it worth over Aughild shoulders + bracers?

[Neogeo 0]

11 hours ago, Guest steve2563 said:

It looks like Corruption has been nerfed to 1-2 yards. Does it worth over Aughild shoulders + bracers?

Bracers slot is too important. Even after nerf, Corruption is still the easiest way to get an ancient shoulder with perfect affixes. Skeleton pauldrons is a good replacement but stats came first. There're no good legendary affix for this build. 

[Arkpit 101]

Zunimassa’s Haunt

• (6) Set Bonus
  • Damage bonus has been increased to 2500% (from 1500%) when enemies are hit by your mana spenders for 8 seconds

Poison Dart is back for real now! :D

[Valks 2,375]

On 1/26/2017 at 6:34 PM, Guest steve2563 said:

It looks like Corruption has been nerfed to 1-2 yards. Does it worth over Aughild shoulders + bracers?

The cheat death shoulders are your best bet, but as mentioned above, your easiest option for perfect shoulders is Corruption.

[Valks 2,375]

On 1/27/2017 at 6:02 AM, Neogeo said:

Bracers slot is too important. Even after nerf, Corruption is still the easiest way to get an ancient shoulder with perfect affixes. Skeleton pauldrons is a good replacement but stats came first. There're no good legendary affix for this build. 

Thanks for helping to answer! :)

[Valks 2,375]

On 2/8/2017 at 10:31 AM, Arkpit said:

Poison Dart is back for real now! :D

The best build! :D

[Guest Jono]

I have a small variant of this build that I find superior on console play. I play primarily on console and although character movement is superior on console, spell placement for spells that do not originate from your character's position is inferior to what can be done with a mouse and keyboard setup. This makes positioning the grasp of the dead area difficult and the 4-second CD seems like an eternity when you place the spell behind the cluster you meant to target. 

For console play I substitute the zunimassa mojo for wilken's reach, with the snake to the face rune and the grasp rune that summons the dogs. I use the zunimassa legs. I lose the depth digger bonus but I can kill so much faster because I can spam the grasp of the dead and cover a much larger area to trigger the procs and I don't have to wait for the CD if I miss the grasp location. I am currently up to grift 67 with this and T13 for adventure mode. My gems are lvl 69 presently. Previously I only was able to reach grift 62 with the suggested zuni build. With the upcoming 2.5 patch, I believe I'll gain a significant buff because I'll have more grasp areas to lay down (more areas for pets to attack grasped targets) and more pets (the dogs - although this is a minimal increase).  

 

[Guest Mixi]

guys, lets see who can do 80+ GRs solo with that WD build... i got on 2.5 PTR half or more agumented gear and still staying at doors!!

 

who sayd PoisonDart can beat 80+ ?

[Arkpit 101]

On 2017-02-25 at 8:37 PM, Guest Mixi said:

guys, lets see who can do 80+ GRs solo with that WD build... i got on 2.5 PTR half or more agumented gear and still staying at doors!!

who sayd PoisonDart can beat 80+ ?

Poison Dart even before the buff did beat GR80 as @Deadset himself did it.

It's not a theory, it's possible but you need very good gear. I have no problem seeing that however since I was pushing GR70 on hardcore which means I was sacrificing a lot of damage to stay alive so with the latest boost of dmg? No problem at all! :)

Next season I'm going HC Poison Dart again.

[Guest Nickelfenix]

I have yet to find decent shoulders and the starmetal kukri in the mean time i came across a pretty potent mod to this ... at least i think.

i'm using wilkens reach at the cube and using the first rune which removes the mana cost.

then i used jeram bracers and set wall of death to the first rune that deals poison damage to synergize with the bad medicine passive.

its a very effective combination torment 9 no sweat, torment 10 cake walk with short mans finger and gargantuans for extra defense.

[Arkpit 101]

On 2017-03-05 at 2:31 AM, Guest Nickelfenix said:

its a very effective combination torment 9 no sweat, torment 10 cake walk with short mans finger and gargantuans for extra defense.

I don't want to take anything away from your modified build but, almost any combination of items can be a "cake walk" in T10 which is rarely of any resistance as long as you've got a 6set and some base items for synergy.

The problem starts showing themselves around GR60+ where things are giving the first "big" challange where a real build is almost required.

The main issue here is that you are picking Jeram Bracers to supply an effect that you already had from the "Grasp of the Dead" and you loose the much needed Lakumba to stay alive in the higher GRs which is already an issue with Carnevil builds.

Also, using the Wilkens Reach, means you are missing either Kukri or Dagger of Darts which makes the build basically useless. I always save for both these before I even start using the build.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Arkpit

[spellsyphon 0]

I have been trying out this build, I have all the gear except the suggested belt in the guide. First, I'd like to point out that the crafted Fleeting Strap could, and perhaps should, be listed as an alternative belt option with emphasis on The Witching Hour being better overall. Another thing, I was having durability issues so I swapped Pierce the Veil with Jungle fortitude. This was okay but the overall dps loss was horrific. I instead moved back to Pierce the Veil and swapped the Big Bad Voodoo rune from Slam Dance to Ghost Trance. This change not only saved 5% damage from being lost but also gained me 5% damage reduction with a passive heal. This is a much better compromise and deserves to at least be mentioned in the guide in the same manner as the swap out for Pierce the Veil and Jungle Fortitude was.

Edited March 8, 2017 by spellsyphon

[Arkpit 101]

Can nothing but wholeheartedly agree with above, as I'm a Hardcore player I've tried all versions of dmg reduction to still push higher GRs and the BBV rune is by far the best one to swap out first in my experience as well.

In HC you will also use the Esotaric legendary gem instead of Enforcer at higher GRs and instead of Stricken up to GR65+.

Something to keep in mind with this build always go for the Enchantress as your follower due to the boost in 3% attack speed at her 4th. Also equip her with the Sands sword and you get a blind that works on bosses as well, very handy.

[Zuidam 0]

Hey so it says 80+ as a guide (and all guides I have used from Deadset Rock!) so I am sure before the buff for the 6 piece bonus 80+ was viable - what do you think it can get with the buff to 2500%? :) any updates for this guide since the buff (2.5.0 patch)?

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by Zuidam

[Arkpit 101]

8 hours ago, Zuidam said:

Hey so it says 80+ as a guide (and all guides I have used from Deadset Rock!) so I am sure before the buff for the 6 piece bonus 80+ was viable - what do you think it can get with the buff to 2500%? :) any updates for this guide since the buff (2.5.0 patch)?

It was very much needed, the build was incredibly difficult to reach 80+ with and Deadset himself said he had absurd gear when he did it with paragon 1000+ and perfect gear all around.

The build is nontheless very fun and challanging and I played it season 8 in hardcore and was pushing close to GR70 before I died to a DC >_<

It should be said though, even with the buff, this build will still suffer from being the one with lowest amount of damage reduction and will still not be a top-end damage dealer. It will simply make it slightly more viable for casual play and us in hardcore :)

[Guest Weasel368]

Hey Guys when reading the build / gear set i noticed the build only uses 5 pieces Zuni so you miss out on the 6 piece set bonus, is this intended or am i missing something?

[Arkpit 101]

I need a few set of eyes here and would love if @Deadset could help me confirm this.

Possible bug or "ninja nerf" by Blizzard on Sycophant passive.

I've played this build a lot before 2.5 and the passive Sycophant was always enough to keep stacking 15 of them through a rift but after trying it over and over in 2.5 I can barely keep it between 8-10 and it often drops down to 6 sycophants.

If I use "Belt of Transcendence" I can keep the count at 15 through a rift without any problems but losing the "Witching Hour" is ofc a huge dps loss, especially playing on HC where I have to give up things for survivability as it is. I can replace the passive with something like Gruesome Feast but that does nothing for me on the bosses and I can't fit a Stricken gem without losing Bane of the Trapped since on HC I can't run without Esotaric.

This build is already extremely squishy compared to all other builds and not being able to stack the 15 Sycophants with the passive is a big issue. It's roughly a 30% damage reduction loss compared to previous patches.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Arkpit

[Arkpit 101]

On 2017-04-03 at 6:46 PM, Guest Weasel368 said:

Hey Guys when reading the build / gear set i noticed the build only uses 5 pieces Zuni so you miss out on the 6 piece set bonus, is this intended or am i missing something?

You are correct, it is only 5 pieces used since you need 2 helms for the build to work well in higher difficulties and you compensate for this through "Ring of Royal Grandeur" obtained from the Horadric caches after completing a round of bounties in any act (Used to be act 1 only).

[Guest Xephenon]

Feeling extremely squishy with this build, not good for hardcore! Even with Soul Harvester (I don't have a Dagger of Darts yet) for 5 extra stacks of Languish + Lakumba's synergy, Horrify - Frightening Aspect, Swampland Attunement and an Esoteric Alteration gem, I'm taking far more damage than with alternative builds that take less defensive skills (such as using Soul to Waste rather than Languish) and have less defensive passives too.

This build has some really nice damage but the survival is lacking. I'll probably be staying away from this build for now, which is a shame, but I'm feeling more vulnerable even in lower difficulties than other sets are allowing me to reach. Maybe I'll revisit it when I get some better rolled items.

[mechler 0]

On 4/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Arkpit said:

I've played this build a lot before 2.5 and the passive Sycophant was always enough to keep stacking 15 of them through a rift but after trying it over and over in 2.5 I can barely keep it between 8-10 and it often drops down to 6 sycophants.

I've noticed this exact same thing and was wondering. I made an account here just to tell you that you're not crazy. I'm noticing this exact same difference.