[Witch Doctor] - Tallman's Finger Build

[Zagam 1,982]

For you Witch Doctors lucky enough to pick up Mask of Jeram, Tasker and Theo, and a Tallman's Finger ring, here's a build I created with HUGE success both solo and group play.

 

Gear Priorities

+Poison Damage/+Zombie Dog Damage

+Crit Chance

+Crit Damage

+Attack Speed

 

Skills

Plague of Toads - Rain of Toads

Acid Cloud - Slow Burn

Spirit Walk - Healing Journey

Summon Zombie Dogs - Rabid Dogs

Big Bad Voodoo - Slam Dance

Horrify - Face of Death

 

Passives

Fetish Sychophants

Midnight Feast

Zombie Handler

Pierce the Veil

 

Reason

This build is focused around one thing - your big ass dog!  With Tallman's Finger, your Zombie Dogs are combined into one big dog with increased damage and health.  The effect is crazy.  Over the weekend, I picked up a Thunderfury, MoJ, Tasker and Theo, and Tallman's Finger, so I took my gear from my Wizard and slapped it on my Witch Doctor and replaced the fire pieces with new crafted.  I haven't optimized this build at all yet - I only have +19% Poison and +15% dog damage.  The effects I've seen are still out of control.

 

Armory

http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/zagam-1660/Zagam/3850861

 

Gameplay

With this build, you'll be watching your dog own some serious face.  Your focus is using Rain of Toads to build up your Sycho army while using Acid Cloud to drop a Poison DoT on the ground as well as contribute some AoE damage.  You should be able to get about 4 casts with Pierce the Veil - this is ok because this isn't your source of damage.  If you watch, your dog will be zipping around landing huge hits on mobs.  The passive abilities I outlined above make it so your dog hits with the force of 5 dogs put together plus some - it is truly crazy.  With my gear, he is critting for 50-55m without Big Bad Voodoo up.  This is without the DoT that his rune gives!  For Elites, drop BBV and watch your dog crit up to 80m with an insane attack speed.  If mobs jump on you or you want to control them for you or your teammates, slip a Horrify in for a 3 second stun that works on just about everything.  Feel free to swap Horrify for Pirhanas or some other ability that you like. 

 

Build Pros

If you've ever struggled with your Gargantuan just standing around when you pop him up, it's because your enemies have a limited amount of space to fill within its hitbox.  Typically, if you have a high number of Sychos up, your Garg won't have anywhere to stand.  His AI, as you might know, isn't the best - so often times, you'll summon him and he'll just stand there dazed and confused.  Your dog has a MUCH stronger AI - your dog will run out and kill things before you even see them.  Tallman's Finger also frees up a lot of space for your Sychos to stand so you'll have fewer Sychos standing around not poking things.  This increases your passive DPS by a long shot.  As for Rift Guardians and Champions/Bosses, this build is INSANE.  I walked into T6 Ghom with my gear and threw down a BBV and let my dog solo Ghom - it took him 16 seconds.  You will bring single target DPS against any bosses or Elites.  In my opinion, the single target damage you bring far outweighs the loss in AoE.  The other strength of this build is that you'll be nowhere near combat making Toughness a little less of a priority.  No more spamming Vampire Bats in melee range.  You can sit back and hit mobs off of your screen with Acid Cloud and your dog will be slaying stuff before you see it.  Horrify as a defensive here takes care of you if you're vortexed or get swarmed by fast mobs.

 

Build Cons

If you like being the major source of damage, you should play a Wizard or a different Witch Doctor build.  The majority of your damage will be coming from your pets, mostly your dog.  Your Rain of Toads will crit for 6-7m, your Acid Cloud will crit for 10-12m, and your dog will crit for 50-60m.  Your role is to use Rain of Toads to get more Sychos and throw out some splash AoE.  In groups, use Horrify as a defensive or offensive ability to snare and stun mobs.  Your AoE will be rather lacking in this build as your dogs and Sychos will only attack one mob at a time.  Your AoE is rather limited to the Acid Cloud splash and the splash of Rain of Toads. 

 

Other Thoughts

You could swap out a different spender for Acid Cloud, but I couldn't get one that felt right.  Locust Swarm required proximity and one of the strengths of this build is staying out of stuff - you can sit WAY back and throw toads or spam Acid Cloud.  I tried Pirhanas but didn't enjoy the CD.  I also tried Zombie Bears, but again, this required proximity.  Plus with Pierce the Veil, my mana ran dry quickly.  You may like something else, but I strongly suggest you try this out sometime.  If you want to see your dog in action, head to Ghom on a Torment level above what you're used to.  This should show you the power of his single target damage.

[Zagam 1,982]

I'm actually going to be swapping Horrify for Mass Confusion tonight - why horrify when you can turn them on each other?  Silly oversight on my part.

[kitsu 55]

have you tried spiders to spawn sychos? i like it because you can just smash the jar anywhere and the spiders attack whoever they want.

[Zagam 1,982]

Never was a fan of spiders.  I always try different abilities within a rift just to see how it fits.  I've been playing a Fire Archon Wiz for so long that having to actually use abilities other than the beam of destruction has been fun/interesting.

[kitsu 55]

whoa

 

question 1

Are there benefits of torrent over disintigrate?

 

question 2

Does wave of force knock back mallet lords?

 

oh you meant not playing a wiz entirely. lol. gotcha.

 

did you try the angy chicken rune for hex? it's one of the reasons i ever played a wd and it was recently buffed. i also like to swap the hp extra dog passive for the 30% run speed out of combat and an extra dog passive.