MIX: Diablo 3 - 2.2 GR50+ Pet Doctor build guide by isokay

I'm just another Witch Doctor currently playing on EU Hardcore and recently I've been pushing for top 5 on the leaderboard. While I haven't succeeded yet (just a matter of finding the right rift now), I have come close and am willing to share my journey with you guys.

Personally I detest the Carnevil build, no disrespect to Carnevil players out there but it feels like a weaker version of a Demon Hunter. I enjoy being up close to the action and living on the edge with my Pet Doctor, more on that later.

I've used about a hundred 53 keystones so far and tested out many iterations of my build (skills/items) and I've come to the conclusion that my current version is probably the best possible setup.

For reference my profile: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Orianna-2312/hero/58412097

Without further ado, the build. I'll go over the skills, passives, gear, gems, paragon points for those under 800, follower and some playstyle tips. I am playing Hardcore however I am aware that there are some modifications to be made for the Softcore version of my build.
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SKILLS

Spirit Walk - Jaunt

I believe this one really speaks for itself. Lets us get out of sticky situations, walk through walls, get up close safely etc. I don't see this build working without Spirit Walk even in Softcore, it would simply be too risky.

Fetish Army - Tiki Torchers

Here is the first deviation of the build compared to the standard Legion of Daggers, I've done a lot of testing with this rune. As a Pet Doctor we fish for a high density rift, the Tiki Torcher will often be hitting 5+ mobs. Simple math tells us that the 2 Tiki Torchers need to do 540% weapon damage to make up for the lost damage of the 3 Fetishes, divided by 106.25% (85% * 1.25, the Tiki Torcher attacks 25% faster than a normal Fetish) this comes down to 5.27 mobs, this means that as long as the Tiki Torchers are hitting 2-3 mobs each the damage is about equal. An added bonus is that in tight corridors where usually surface area is a problem you will now see a boost in damage due to the Tiki Torchers being in a good position.
TIP: If your Tiki Torchers are in a bad position, simply resummon your Fetish Army and they will reposition. In this fashion you can also summon Fetishes behind enemy lines by using Spirit Walk to get through them, summoning the Fetish Army and quickly walking back through the mobs.

Soul Harvest - Languish

Here is the second deviation of the build. A cookie cutter build will run Hex - Jinx, I will explain my deviation in the alternative skills section. As for Soul Harvest, this skill is great and very easy to keep up at 5 stacks, which means 15% more Intelligence. A flat Intelligence bonus actually translates to a flat 15% damage bonus. Soul Harvest has a lot of great runes, but 30% increased Armor is too much toughness to pass up on.
TIP: When I first read the Languish rune I though the Armor bonus was just for 5 seconds. Don't be fooled like me, this is just the slow effect, the Armor bonus stays up for the entire duration. The duration of the buff far outlasts the cooldown, so there is no need to use this skill on cooldown, make sure you have 5 mobs in range when you do use it.

Big Bad Voodoo - Slam Dance

Just like Spirit Walk this skill really speaks for itself, spam it as much as possible. The way I understand it is that it double dips, you being in it increases your Fetishes' damage and if the Fetishes are in it as well their damage is increased even more. Personally I haven't payed attention to it since I am always in melee so this is always the case for me but correct me if I am wrong!

Haunt - Poisoned Spirit

This is a great ability to trigger the Zunimassa 6pc on individual mobs on top of being a nice single target damage boost. On top of this it procs a slow on the mobs for Bane of the Trapped. This ability could be replaced with other spenders like Spirit Barrage or Acid Cloud but personally I think the damage bonus of Poisoned Spirit and the Slow are invaluable, especially on the Rift Guardian.
TIP: When Haunt jumps from a dead mob to another mob this triggers the Zunimassa 6pc on the target mob for 6 seconds.

Piranhas - Zombie Piranhas

This is another skill with great runes. Between the runes Frozen Piranhas, Zombie Piranhas and Piranhado the rune Zombie Piranhas is my favorite. I feel that the utility offered by Piranhado is great especially with the Tiki Torchers but the cooldown is simply too long and Grave Injustice is a passive that we unfortunately cannot acquire as well as in higher level GR's we simply dont kill enough mobs. I feel that the extra range added by Zombie Piranhas outweighs the value of the slow that Frozen Piranhas gives, especially since we are in melee and we have Haunt - Poisoned Spirit slowing the mobs.

ALTERNATIVE SKILLS

Summon Zombie Dogs - Chilled to the Bone

I started out the season playing this skill. I am not a fan of it due to the simple lack of surface area for this many pets. The bonus damage it offers is great especially on the Rift Guardian but very often they will be attacking different targets than your Fetishes thus nullifying the effect of the bonus damage.

Hex - Jinx

I initially replaced Summon Zombie Dogs by this skill but I came to dislike it because the Jinx damage is additive with other skill damage so when it comes down to it it is not 20% increased damage at all. An argument could be made for the crowd control it offers but I often see it hex completely wrong mobs or be out of position.

Grasp of the Dead - Death is Life

I have used this skill instead of Hex in lower level Greater Rifts in combination with Gruesome Feast. On higher levels though we simply don't kill enough mobs for it to outweigh Soul Harvest.

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PASSIVE SKILLS

Jungle Fortitude

I feel this added toughness is a must have on Hardcore. Pet Doctor does not have a lot of Life per Second since the loss of Summon Zombie Dogs - Leeching Beasts so minimizing the damage taken is a lot better than having extra life, which is why this passive beats out Zombie Handler in my opinion.

Pierce the Veil

This one speaks for itself, a very good damage increase at the cost of mana which honestly is not a very big problem but more on that later.

Spirit Vessel

A no brainer, there is no point in playing without Spirit Vessel on Hardcore. For Softcore a point could be made that it is not needed. In that case I would replace it with Gruesome Feast.

Rush of Essence

I hate this passive, but it is mandatory to be able to spam Haunt and at the same time use Piranhas whenever it comes of cooldown. I have experimented a lot without this passive because I absolutely detest it but it makes the build feel very clunky. I have tried running Soul Harvest - Swallow Your Soul for extra mana, it works but I feel that the loss of 30% Armor is too big.

ALTERNATIVE PASSIVE SKILLS

Gruesome Feast

This passive is great, and it is the passive I would run if I had a Hellfire Amulet with CHC and CHD. I do however feel that the bonuses of this ability come at the wrong time. The most common time to pick up a Health Globe is after killing an Elite pack, when the bonus isn't needed that much anymore. Thats why I elect to not run it in my initial 4 passive skills. That said, I believe that this passive outperforms Jungle Fortitude on Softcore.

Grave Injustice

I used to run this passive in lower level Greater Rifts, where it works great. The truth is though, Pet Doctor doesn't have many cooldowns that need reducing. A shorter Spirit Walk and Piranhas cooldown is nice but on higher level Greater Rifts we run into the same problem I have mentioned several times before now: we don't kill enough mobs.
TIP: If you're running lower level Greater Rifts run Grave Injustice together with Piranhas - Piranhado and Fetish Army - Tiki Torchers, you will plow through the rift!

ITEMS

Head - Mask of Jeram

Intelligence
Vitality
Critical Hit Chance: ~6%
Pet Damage: ~100%
Socket: 23% Life

Shoulders - Aughild's Power

Intelligence
Vitality
Resistance to All Elements/Armor (better than % Life, see Jungle Fortitude vs. Zombie Handler)
Fetish Army Damage: ~15%

Torso - Zunimassa's Marrow

Intelligence
Vitality
Fetish Army Damage: ~15%
3x Socket: 280 Intelligence

Hands - Tasker and Theo

Intelligence
Attack Speed: ~7%
Critical Hit Chance: ~10%
Critical Hit Damage: ~50%
Pet Attack Speed: ~50%

Waist - Belt of Transcendence

Intelligence
Vitality
Resistance to All Elements/Armor
% Life: ~15%

Wrists - Aughild's Search

% Fire Damage: ~20%
Intelligence
Vitality
Critical Hit Chance: ~6%

Legs - Zunimassa's Cloth

Intelligence
Vitality
Armor
2x Socket: 280 Intelligence

Feet - Zunimassa's Trail

Intelligence
Vitality
Resistance to All Elements
Armor

Finger - Ring of Royal Grandeur

Intelligence
Attack Speed: ~7%
Critical Hit Damage: ~50%
Socket

Finger - Zunimassa's Pox

Intelligence
Critical Hit Chance: ~6%
Critical Hit Damage: ~50%
Socket

Neck - Countess Julia's Cameo

Intelligence
Critical Hit Chance: ~10%
Critical Hit Damage: ~100%

Main Hand - Starmetal Kukri

Intelligence
% Damage: ~10%
Critical Hit Damage: ~35%
Socket: 130% Critical Hit Damage

Off Hand - Zunimassa's String of Skulls

Intelligence
Vitality
% Life: ~15%
Critical Hit Chance: ~10%
Fetish Army Damage: ~25%

ITEM DISCUSSION

I've tried several different item builds but came to the conclusion that this is the best setup for Hardcore. Softcore has a few deviations which I will get into.
Countess Julia's Cameo

Out of all the rifts I did, the affix that nailed me the most was Jailer, especially when combined with a pack of blue mobs. At GR53 Jailer hits me for about 90% of my health (55m toughness), when this is repeated every 5ish seconds by a pack of 3-5 blue mobs its time for me to leave the rift... On top of this Arcane Sentry's can really fuck up your positioning a lot.
As for the other immunity necks, I find that Mortar is quite easy to dodge unless it is a Horde pack, Descecrator barely tickles, Fire Chains can only be annoying if it is combined with Teleporter and Molten, well..
Thunderstorm is manageable with quick reactions and can be predicted quite easily, Electrified is nullified by the Fetishes and Orbiter is very easy to avoid.
Frozen Pulse is very easy to avoid, Frozen on the other hand is a bit harder, especially when combined with something like Waller. If I were to chose any other Neck I would chose the Talisman of Aranoch.
The Poison affixes are an absolute joke, Plagued is barely tickling and Poison Enchanted you can see comming from a mile away giving you plenty of time to reposition.

Belt of Transcendence

I personally dislike any belt other than The Witching Hour, I did a lot of testing with it because I had a Hellfire Amulet with the Fetish Sycophants passive. I have found that while it is possible to keep up 15 Fetishes like this, very often in key moments you will dip to around 10 Fetishes which is a very big loss in toughness, this happened a lot on Elite packs which in turn caused me to proc Spirit Vessel many times leading me to drop the belt in favor of Belt of Transcendence which in itself gives a big toughness boost.

Aughild's Custodian

The Aughild's set is a Hardcore only thing, on Softcore I suspect people will be skipping Elite packs thus the set bonuses won't be nearly as attractive. There are good alternative's: Lacuni Prowlers are very very good. Make sure they roll with the same stats as the Aughild's Search with Attack Speed added to this. The Vitality could be dropped for % Movement Speed to gain more Intelligence from Paragon Points. As for the Shoulders slot, there isn't really anything that stands out so anything with good stats will do.

Armor, Resistance to All Elements, % Life, % Movement Speed

Generally speaking Armor and Resistance to All Elements will beat out % Life, this is under the condition that there is nothing that one shots you. A certain buffer of life is needed, this is why I think 15% Life is better than 8% Elite Damage on Off Hand. On slots like Shoulders I prefer Resistance to All Elements over % Life because of our little Life per Hit/Life per Second.
On a slot like Legs you can get extra Armor compared to slots like Waist/Shoulders so Armor > Resistance to All Elements on that slot. With the large amount of bonus armor we get from Soul Harvest - Languish and possibly Taeguk even on slots like Waist and Shoulders Armor >= Resistance to All Elements, but it is very close.
On the slots where you don't have Resistance to All Elements try to make sure you have a secondary Resistance, preferably Cold or Lightning.

Tasker and Theo

Tasker and Theo could be replaced by Zunimassa's Finger Wraps, this allows for the use of Convention of Elements. I have done a lot of testing with this ring and I dislike it for the following reason. Pet Doctor is a build that needs constant damage, not burst damage. As a Pet Doctor you try to gather large clumps of mobs and move from clump to clump. There is downtime between clumps and sometimes on Elite packs there is downtime too if you have to reposition and your Fetishes are teleported back to you. Convention of Elements will often roll over to Fire Damage at the wrong time and the bonus will be nullified, that's why I prefer Tasker and Theo.

GEMS

Bane of the Trapped

Speaks for itself honestly, by far the best gem in the game.

Enforcer

Good damage increase, the added toughness for the pets will become a must have at ~GR55, I notice that on GR53 my Fetishes are actually taking damage!

Pain Enhancer

This gem is so incredibly powerful if you play with balls. Get up into the face of the mobs, tag as many as you can with Haunt and Piranhas and you can see your damage shoot up. Make sure you memorize what the range of Pain Enhancer is as it is only 20 yards.

ALTERNATIVE GEMS

Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard

I would love to use Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard but I simply dont see room for it. Pain Enhancer and Bane of the Trapped both offer far too much damage and I'm affraid that without Enforcer's toughness boost to the Fetishes they wont survive nearly as well as they do now. With Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard I would have to rethink a few of my items as % Life would go up in value due to the insane Life per Second the gem offers.

Taeguk

While Enforcer is great at boosting the toughness of the Fetishes it does not boost your own toughness. Taeguk on the other hand boosts your own toughness and is actually a slight damage increase over Enforcer if you manage to keep the stacks up. As long as your Fetishes stay alive it is worth using Taeguk instead, however I suspect on GR55+ you will have serious problems keeping your Fetishes alive without Enforcer

PARAGON POINTS

Core

25% Movement Speed > Intelligence

Offense

Critical Hit Chance = Critical Hit Damage > Attack Speed > Cooldown Reductioon

Defense

Armor = Resist All > Life > Life Regeneration

Utility

Life on Hit > Area Damage = Resource Cost Reduction > Gold Find

Not much I can really add to this, the first 600 Paragon Levels are really key for Pet Doctors as you want to quickly max out CHC/CHD/IAS and Armor/Resist All/Life.

FOLLOWER

While the Templar's healing and tanking powers are great, with 22 Fetishes in front of us we simply don't need a tank. Unfortunately we don't benefit all that much from the Templar's last skill either (Mana Regeneration). Therefor, the best follower for Pet Doctor is in my opinion the Enchantress, she helps us to stay in melee range significantly by crowd controlling enemies. The best build I have found on the Enchantress is the following:

ITEMS

Focus - Smoking Thurible

I have tried using the Hand of the Prophet because many of the Enchantress's skills are amazing, however the Enchantress will die so often to Elite affixes that it's not worth it. As for stat priorities on the Focus, it doesn't really matter.

Finger - Wyrdward

Attack Speed: ~7%
Cooldown Reduction: ~8%
Stun Chance: ~35%

Finger - Oculus Ring

Attack Speed: ~16%
Bonus Damage: ~40%

While the Damage amplifying circle only procs when the Enchantress lands a killing blow, this does happen a few times per rift and it is a HUGE damage increase so make the most of it.

Amulet - The Ess of Johan

Attack Speed: ~7%
Cooldown Reduction: ~8%

I have played with both The Ess of Johan and Dovu Energy Trap but I have to admit, especially with Tiki Torchers the pull effect is invaluable. There is no debate, it is hands down the best neck the Enchantress can have. Dovu Energy Trap is great on the Rift Guardian but lets be honest, Pet Doctors melt any Rift Guardian there is pretty much.

Main Hand - Sultan of the Blinding Sands

Attack Speed: ~7%
Cooldown Reduction: ~10% (if possible)
Blind Chance: ~40%

It will be very hard to get one of these with both Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction, I'm not even sure it's possible without rerolling. What you want to reroll is the standard Holy Damage to Lightning Damage, this will allow it to proc Wyrdward and add even more crowd control.

SKILLS

Charm

Speaks for itself, this is a far better option than Forceful Push which actually does more harm than it does good because it causes your Fetishes to have to reposition

Missile Ward

This skill is better than its Powered Armor counterpart simply because a lot of the dangerous affixes and mobs fall in the ranged damage category.

Disorient

Here I opted for more crowd control rather than a very small (3%) damage buff. The crowd control has a lot shorter cooldown and can be very significant.

Mass Control

As much as I like the Attack Speed buff the Enchantress gives Mass Control is too powerful to pass up on. The amount of crowd control this brings to the table is immense, especially useful on elite pack. Choosing between these two skills is very hard and this is the reason why I did some testing with Hand of the Prophet which unfortunately didn't work out.

ALTERNATIVE FOLLOWER

The crowd control version of the Enchantress really shines on Hardcore, on Softcore however it's very common to skip Elite packs as they are not our strong suit making crowd control a lot less required. With Gruesome Feast being a great passive over Jungle Fortitude on Softcore (see alternative passive skills) a Health Globe oriented Enchantress is much better suited for Softcore.

ITEMS

Focus - Smoking Thurible

This doesn't change, the Enchantress still needs to stay alive, especially when skipping mobs it becomes tricky for her to survive without the Smoking Thurible

Finger - Broken Promises

Attack Speed: ~7%
Cooldown Reduction: ~8%
Critical Hit Duration: 3 seconds

Finger - Oculus Ring

Attack Speed: ~16%
Bonus Damage: ~40%

Amulet - The Ess of Johan

Attack Speed: ~7%
Cooldown Reduction: ~8%

Whatever you do, make sure you do not have Critical Hit Chance on any of the rings or amulet, you do not want any random critical hits as you are aiming for 5 consecutive non-critical hits.

Main Hand - Solanium

Attack Speed: ~7%
Cooldown Reduction: ~10% (if possible)
Health Globe Chance: 4%

Similar to the Sultan of the Blinding Sands try to aim for both Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction, with the priority being Attack Speed.

SKILLS

There are two changes I would make to the skill build of the Enchantress when playing Softcore:

Erosion > Disorient

Due to the smaller focus on crowd control the 3% increased damage that can be picked up here will prove useful.

Focused Mind > Mass Control

Similar to above, since we will mostly be fighting trash mobs that are relatively simple to deal with Mass Control is no longer needed. 3% increased Attack Speed for both us and the Enchantress will provide a nice damage boost to our Fetishes and the rate at which the Enchantress will spawn Health Globes.

Guide by isokay

MIX

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Friday, May 29, 2015

Diablo 3 - 2.2 GR50+ Pet Doctor build guide by isokay