Soul Harvest Witch Doctor

[Valks 2,375]

This thread is for comments and feedback about our Soul Harvest Witch Doctor build guide.

[Guest Bamafan2584]

I do not see mentioned anywhere about your thoughts on whats best for armor cube slot. Just wormwood for weapon and avarice band for jewelry.

[mayahastheknife 1]

18 hours ago, Guest Bamafan2584 said:

I do not see mentioned anywhere about your thoughts on whats best for armor cube slot. Just wormwood for weapon and avarice band for jewelry.

Strongarm bracers is recommended in the Cube due to the knockback function of Piranhas - Piranhado. The bracers will increase damage against knocked-back enemies.

[Guest PantheR]

Seems like this build (slightly modded) is the current META for Season 16 and still it is rated as High Tier instead of Top Tier. Learned that from leaderboards while icyveins suggest Firebats build for the top.

[UnspeakableElvis 0]

Why CoE in cube rather than Ring of Emptiness? RoE has a permanent buff with a huge incentive to max out. CoE is also more common and easier to get good-ish stats on to wear. I'd rather have a guaranteed 300% on RoE and 190%-ish on CoE than a 200% CoE and lose out on massive RoE damage. Just asking because I don't understand why prima facie CoE in cube.

Edited January 28, 2019 by UnspeakableElvis

[Thipsley 0]

How does the quetzcoatl(how ever its spelled) work exactly?

[Guest Yolo]

On 2/10/2019 at 2:01 AM, Thipsley said:

How does the quetzcoatl(how ever its spelled) work exactly?

Quetzalcoatl: Locust Swarm and Haunt now deal their damage in half of the normal duration.

This means that the aforementioned DoT effects deal damage 100% faster than without the item. (E.g. every half seconds vs. every second.) The total damage remains the same.
Using Creeping Death as a passive, our DoTs will remain effective far longer than any mobs should live, after that you can only notice the faster damage dealing.
The main reasons for using this exact legendary are the Jade Set Bonuses, they deal damage equal to the damage out DoTs would deal in a specified duration. Basically, this damage gets doubled by Quetzalcoatl, multiplicatively.
 

[Subjective 2]

In the Skills and Runes section of the guide, it states in the haunt section that:

Quote

The Poison rune Poisoned Spirit adds a 20% additive damage bonus against affected enemies, applied to the entire party, making it a better grouping choice.

but the tooltip from Poisoned Spirit states:

Quote

Haunted enemies take 20% more damage from your attacks.

Is it a tooltip issue? Or a mistake / outdated concept in the guide?

[Guest Tango]

Im pulling GR95 (S16) in HC.

1. Vile Hive = you can reduce dmg taken and spread Locust Swarm

2. Cube belt of trascendance = more tanks FTW

[Guest Hello]

Aquila Cuirass can be cubed instead of Strongarm Bracers if Rush of Essence replaces Spirit Vessel to maintain a high resource level.

Also, Gogok of Swiftness is a stronger alternative to Esoteric Alteration.

[dojiijii 0]

I've been wondering about using the Gem of Efficacious Toxin with this build. At rank 90 it gives 6500% weapon damage over 10 seconds, which is more than either Haunt or Locust Swarm, and will continue to scale. If the consumed DOT from the 6 piece Jade set also works on the Efficacious Toxin DOT, that would be a huge bump, not including the additional 10% across the board damage boost. Can anyone confirm whether or not the Jade set DOT consumption will also apply to the ET poison DOT?

[Guest mobus1603]

I've noticed that when Haunting Girdle is used with the Resentful Spirits rune that only two spirits are released and not a third from the Haunting Girdle. It doesn't appear that they stack. Am I wrong?

[mobus1603 0]

I've noticed when casting Haunt with the Resentful Spirits rune and wearing the Haunting Girdle, there are still only two spirits released and not a third from the Haunting Girdle, so it doesn't appear that they stack. Am I wrong? I certainly can't see the third spirit, but maybe I'm just missing it.

[Arkpit 101]

On 5/5/2019 at 12:10 AM, mobus1603 said:

I've noticed when casting Haunt with the Resentful Spirits rune and wearing the Haunting Girdle, there are still only two spirits released and not a third from the Haunting Girdle, so it doesn't appear that they stack. Am I wrong? I certainly can't see the third spirit, but maybe I'm just missing it.

Depends on the situation. Unless there are 3+ monsters to apply the effect on you will not see the extra haunts.

Seems to work fine for me but I prefer going poison in the end for the little extra damage.

[Arkpit 101]

On 4/29/2019 at 11:11 PM, dojiijii said:

I've been wondering about using the Gem of Efficacious Toxin with this build. At rank 90 it gives 6500% weapon damage over 10 seconds, which is more than either Haunt or Locust Swarm, and will continue to scale. If the consumed DOT from the 6 piece Jade set also works on the Efficacious Toxin DOT, that would be a huge bump, not including the additional 10% across the board damage boost. Can anyone confirm whether or not the Jade set DOT consumption will also apply to the ET poison DOT?

The gem doesn't work with your set effects which makes the damage barely noticable. Jade only applies the effects of your abilities.

Without Creeping Death + Quetzalcoatl and the Jade set your Haunt and Locus would barely touch the HP of the monsters.

[Elekim 4]

As usual, some minor suggestions I think will improve the guide (at least for newbyes):

1) In the "Gear" section it is written: "Note that if you choose the survivability route in gearing, this slot [the off-hand, with Henri's Perquisition] is interchangeable with a Vile Hive, depending on your better item roll". Maybe this should be mentioned also in the Kanais' Cube section, where Vile Hive is suggested (instead of the worst-rolled between it and Henri's Perquisition.

2) In the speed farm variation page it is written: "While doing lower Greater Rifts or regular Rift farming, you should also swap Bane of the Stricken for the well-rounded damage and toughness increase of Bane of the Powerful". Maybe the option of socketing Bane of the Powerful instead of Bane of the Stricken in lower GRs should be mentioned also in the Gems section of the "Gear,..." page of the main (GR) build.

3) Which are the best Follower and Potion for this build?

[Elekim 4]

Two more notes about the tables:

1) In the skill page, when talking about Grave Injustice, it is written: "Take notice of the pickup radius synergy and try to obtain that stat in the secondaries of your gear". However, this secondary attribute is never mentioned nor suggested in the Gear page and in the stat priority tables...

2) For Jade Harvester's Wisdom in the head slot "All Resistances" is suggested in the table, but not "Armor": is this a typo?

[mobus1603 0]

On 4/29/2019 at 4:11 PM, dojiijii said:

I've been wondering about using the Gem of Efficacious Toxin with this build. At rank 90 it gives 6500% weapon damage over 10 seconds, which is more than either Haunt or Locust Swarm, and will continue to scale. If the consumed DOT from the 6 piece Jade set also works on the Efficacious Toxin DOT, that would be a huge bump, not including the additional 10% across the board damage boost. Can anyone confirm whether or not the Jade set DOT consumption will also apply to the ET poison DOT?

The 10-second DOT from the Toxin gem is indeed consumed with the 6-piece Jade Harvester set. It also gets the +%poison damage bonus from gear and the 200% bonus on the poison rotation of the COE ring. The DOT can be spread by your follower, pets and spells (including Soul Harvest); however, the DOT won't be consumed and reapplied from the same Soul Harvest.
I find this to be the only viable solo build for this gem. It may just be a 10-second DOT, but it becomes pretty powerful at a high level when it's consumed every few seconds. The nearly constant 10% buff/debuff to/from ALL monsters is nice, too.
Here's a video with proof that Jade Harvester consumes the Toxin gem's DOT:

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by mobus1603

[mobus1603 0]

You're correct about armor being preferable to all resist for intelligence classes.

Edited August 2, 2019 by mobus1603

[mayahastheknife 1]

The Kanai's cube paragraph for the jewelry slot needs to be fixed, as it currently mentions both RoRG and CoE with Barb references.

[Guest Hello]

With the addition of Captain Crimson's, Gogok should be clearly the superior choice over Esoteric Alteration since it directly increases damage, whilst also providing some utility in attack speed and some toughness with dodge chance.

[Guest Question]

Isn't The Furnace still better than Echoing Fury for this build?

[Guest Bubble181]

With Ring of Emptiness now only needing either Haunt or Pestilence in 2.6.8 - would it make sense to drop Pestilence entirely in favor of a more ulitiarian skill or defensive skill?

[Guest Hello]

On 3/2/2020 at 6:49 AM, Guest Bubble181 said:

With Ring of Emptiness now only needing either Haunt or Pestilence in 2.6.8 - would it make sense to drop Pestilence entirely in favor of a more ulitiarian skill or defensive skill?

Well, viable considerations include Hex: Jinx for extra CC and damage, or perhaps Summon Zombie Dogs: Life Link + Uhkapian Serpent for extra defense if one does not prefer Henri's Perquisition. Thing of the Deep is also another viable mojo, and has great synergy with Swampland Attunement which can replace Spirit Vessel (or Confidence Ritual if being more conservative).

[Guest inf3rno]

Still 300 seconds worth of DoT is mentioned in the guide. The actual value is 10.000 seconds.