Well, you’ve finally reached Fresh Level 70 Witch Doctor. If this is your first character this season, you will be getting the Spirit of Arachyr as a free set from Haedrig for completing the seasonal journey! We will be discussing the build progression and protips in our Fresh 70 WD Guide EVERY STEP OF THE WAY to help you get the free set in no time! Let’s go!
Witch Doctor free set for season 16 is Spirit of Arachyr.
It is also the SEASON OF GRANDEUR – meaning all characters have the effects of
Ring of Royal Grandeur applied!
How does Season of Grandeur affect me?
It doesn’t affect your leveling process or “early process” of being level 70. The free RoRG effect only really takes place once you have 3/5/6+ of a set – with heavy implications on full end-game builds.
This guide is not about that, but I can give you a heads up about this season’s effects.
There are two possible outcomes of a free RoRG in any build.
- You have space for a filler item. Builds that DO NOT USE OR NEED RoRG simply gain a space for ONE MORE LEGENDARY EFFECT. This is the “minimum” effect of this season, but should not be underestimated. Any build can benefit from, for example, Aquila Cuirass or Nemesis Bracer.
- You gain an accessory slot. Builds that NATURALLY NEED RoRG will open up a space for another accessory. Usually resulting in the addition of CoE and/or Zodiac in your build which is ALWAYS ABSURDLY POWERFUL.
Ideally, something absolutely broken happens. I can’t account for every possibility because the community always surprises me – but one thing’s for sure… the effects of season of grandeur can be condensed into one of those two scenarios.
Fresh 70 Witch Doctor: Free set available! | No free set!
Getting the Free Set | Free Set 70 | Gaining Power | Bridging to the End-game
WD Leveling Guide | D3 Guide Directory
Fresh 70 Witch Doctor: Getting the Free Set!
AT ANY TIME YOU CAN BEAT TORMENT I+ Malthael:
You can CRAFT AND USE REAPER’S WRAPS for a huge boost!
Click below to reveal the instructions you need for each step:
Fresh 70 Witch Doctor: 6pc Free Set Build
| S16 WD’s Spirit of Arachyr Free Set Build | |
| Skills | Runes |
| Locust Swarm (Corpse Spiders) | Cloud of Insects (Blazing Spiders) |
| Firebats (Main DMG) | (Try all the Fire runes, use what you like!) |
| Spirit Walk | Severance (Jaunt for tryhard) |
| Soul Harvest | Languish (Soul to Waste for speed) |
| Hex (Required for 4pc) | Jinx |
| Zombie Dogs (Semi Open) | Leeching Beasts |
| Passives | |
| Spiritual Attunement (Mana!) | Blood Ritual (Mana!) |
| Swampland Attunement | Grave Injustice / Rush of Essence |
Looks like junk, doesn’t it? Arachyr is a rather “open” set but is seriously restricting if you wanna make the EARLY BUILD feel “smooth” and “fast”. I guarantee that every part of the above build contributes to a HIGHLY SYNERGISTIC whole! A “how to play” is discussed below but first a summary…
The above build uses “2.5” MANA REGEN passives. You can help yourself out by beating any Torment Malthael and crafting REAPER’S WRAPS!
So, now what!?
Torment V+ should be your new “minimum” to farm – don’t worry, it’ll jump after the next step – getting your legendary gems!
A quick review before proceeding…
As you’re proceeding with the next steps, keep these important things in mind!
Gaining Power!
We now need to gain as much power as we can.
Legendary Gems
This is the easiest way to gain power simply because acquiring them has little to no RNG. Getting 3 of your best gems will increase your power dramatically in a short time span.
Click on the tabs to see Spirit of Arachyr’s “Big 3” gems, and “others”.
There are four great gems for this specific Arachyr build early on…
Taeguk: I hate recommending Taeguk on something as clunky as Firebats BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS. It scales EXTREMELY WELL and is your MOST POWERFUL GEM hands down. Breaking Taeguk to dodge or heal sucks, though. So to counter that – we stack defense (as we’re pretty soft right now).
Invigorating Gemstone Ok ok… Hold up. I know. Leveling this to 25 makes you CC IMMUNE – allowing you to FIREBATS WITHOUT HASSLE! It’s a very off the beaten path gem that I personally used to great effect! This effect is a hybrid of both “offense and defense”… you’ll be surprised! Use it for augments when you’re done with it!
Esoteric Alteration is your lategame THICC DEFENSE gem of choice. HOWEVER, since our early game suffers from a lack of defense, stacking this up early is great! This plus your incredible self-healing make you near invincible.
PERSONALLY, I USED Taeguk > Invigorating > Esoteric until midgame, swapping out one of the defensive gems for Powerful or Trapped later on.
Powerful: If you’re in the market for more DPS and a little defense, this just plain helpful – the best part is that you don’t have to spend more than 25 on it! The defensive boost against elites is welcome, to say the least.
Any other gems worth it?
Bane of the Stricken: The damage range of this build is so unbelievably high that Stricken would only be needed on staggeringly high GR levels. Keep it in mind, though… for 99% of your time in-game, Powerful will take it’s place.
Bane of the Trapped: a basic DPS gem, everyone loves good ‘ol Trapped. I really don’t know when you would use this, but as far as DPS gems go this one is strong and consistent.
Boon of the Hoarder: You need this for speedfarming – get it up to 50 ASAP!
(See: Speedfarming General | Witch Doctor Speedfarming | Best WD Speedfarming Build)
Aside from the gems listed above, any other gem is considerably worse. Also, GR 34 is enough to get these gems to level 25. Just go for efficient farming and cheap empowering.
With 3 of your best gems at L25 – try much higher Torment levels. So now the real farming begins!
Playing the Build & Adjustments
Here’s some really basic tips for playing Spirit of Arachyr to help you as you progress into higher difficulties. It’s by no means comprehensive, but still helpful.
As you progress and get items, your build may have a weak point here and there that you can patch up given the simple skill, rune, and passive changes listed below.
Like I said earlier, this is the basic rotation:
- Spirit Walk in – get in the thick of things.
- Soul Harvest – stack up your Armor with Languish.
- Hex – Get the rest of your defense and regen via the 4pc.
- Locust Swarm – Reduce their damage (Cloud of Insects) + anti-chump DoT.
- Firebats ’em dead.
- Move, rinse repeat – Grave Injustice allows a seamless cycle.
Spam Soul Harvest as long as it’s up! It’s never bad even if you Soul Harvest the last dude in a pack – just don’t ever Harvest AIR.
Be a little more careful with HEX – judge when you NEED to reapply it in the tail-end of an encounter since it’s quite an important spell to have when you OPEN a new fight!
It may feel a little weird but give it a few minutes and you’ll be rolling them in no time.
More offense or Mana needed?
Offense is usually categorized in Damage or, indirectly, Resource Gain.
We “need” 1-2 Mana Regen passives to help us out EARLY ON. Build evolutions will allow us to drop these in the near future –
- Spiritual Attunement – Basic, always on.
- Blood Ritual – Always on. (Slightly worse than Spiritual mid-game).
- Rush of Essence – Conditional, terrible NOW. But this becomes BEST later on when we change the build to fit in Ring of Emptiness + Haunt.
You can try to mix and match ’em to your needs. A lot of items you can pick up may also help you on this front but remember our ultimate goal is to MINIMIZE the mana regen items/passives we need – making sure we have “just enough”.
Damage?
There is no practical way to increase our damage right now. However, you need to keep some passives in mind for when you find key item pieces –
Pierce the Veil – seems terrible considering our mana problem but certain items will allow you to eventually use this with ease. The best brainless DPS passive for WD. Confidence Ritual is the next best thing, I’d wager.
More defense needed?
Defense is usually categorized in either Toughness or Self-healing capability.
LIFE PER HIT can carry you for quite a while, via Leeching Beasts. While the dogs won’t survive the final iteration of the build (or can they…), you will squeeze ’em for all they’re worth for now. Weapon and Bracer are some non-intrusive places to get this on, but anywhere is fine earlier on.
Armor… this makes it the third time I mention this? Haha. An important part of any INT characters defensive stack. Notice how you have many runes which increase Armor by %. Just as all % increases go, the higher the base – the better the final result!
The above aren’t build adjustments, but simply reminders on how powerful these two are for your Witch Doctor right now.
Passives? Swampland Attunement is a godlike passive which inflates your toughness to near impenetrable levels early on, and is key for survival in the late game. It’s worth getting “increase pickup radius” on as many of your pieces as you can – since it empowers Grave Injustice as well.
Locust Swarm-Cloud of Insects is part of the base build since you’re not relying on swarm for damage. It’s simply a bonus DoT to “help out” for now. The damage reduction is far more valuable than any of the DPS runes.
Soul Harvest-Languish is already recommended in the base build. This rune has the highest impact out of any of them, barring the movement one for speedfarming content.
Horrify-Frightening Aspect is a crazy boost to Armor but a HEAVY INVESTMENT as it uses up a skill slot. The fear and Immobilize is worth a ton of virtual defenses, too.
There are a bunch of other Defensive boosts you can try, but the above are the highest impact ones. Jungle Fortitude Passive, maybe? Zombie Handler Passive for more life and an additional dog?
More mobility needed?
Fierce Loyalty (passive) as long as you’re using dogs this passive is amazing for getting a little bit of speed. If you’re doing bounties STICK THIS IN YOUR BUILD. A huge mobility boost for such little effort…
Soul Harvest – Soul to Waste is a simple rune change that gives a large boost in mobility. Remember that you’re dropping Languish for this so be careful.
Grave Injustice – already recommended. Carries hard. This passive seems odd at first but when you suddenly play without it you’ll see how sorely you’ll miss it. Spirit Walk 100% uptime between packs is a good thing!
WD’s have no problem getting faster – but any other niche changes are too greedy for now.
(See: Speedfarming General | Witch Doctor Speedfarming | Best Witch Doctor Speedfarming)
Items to look for
Okay, now that the easy part of powering up is done, it’s time for the farmy bit. Here, I will be listing all the high-impact items you can pick up, and how to get them (aside from drops).
To ease up on mana costs and possibly freeing up a passive – Reaper’s Wraps plans drop from any Torment Malthael. It bears repeating since it’s such a non-RNG way to power up!
RING OF EMPTINESS deserves special mention! It will drastically change your build – more on this later. Sadly, there is no easy way to bait these out with either shards or DB’s, but if you really can’t find it, it’s time to dump blood shards and DB’s for it.
Using Blood Shards:
Belt: Bakuli Jungle Wraps speaks for itself. 200% boost that fits right into our build. Sadly, killing faster is the LEAST of our problems… THANKFULLY, GOLDWRAP ALSO COMES FROM THIS PILE and you can wear/cube ’em both.
Bracer: Coils of the First Spider (and, of course, Nemesis for speeds) is best for 99.99+% of content you’re gonna tackle. For the other .01%, it’s Lakumba’s Ornament. You’ll be happy to pick up any one of ’em. Oh, Krelm’s IS SURPRISINGLY GREAT to prevent Firebat interruption!
Shoulder: Mantle of Channeling – a basic item any channeling user should consider.
Chest: Cindercoat is a pretty good early game filler item. Reduces our mana requirements by quite a chunk.
Any other defensive filler will help you greatly right now.
Just reminding you of the Bounty Rings:
Ring of Royal Grandeur from Act I Bounties(unneeded this season of grandeur!)- Avarice Band from Act III Bounties – great for speedfarming.
Using Death’s Breath – Rare to legendary:
There are A LOT of weapons that can help you as WD (IE Sacred Harvester), but if we want to empower our build ASAP…
Upgrading Staff for Staff of Chiroptera OR Wormwood. Either of ’em has some serious implications in your build! Discussed in the tab below (along with Ring of Emptiness).
Strictly speaking, those two are all you need for any content I’d consider for fresh 70 (pre GR70+). Keep an eye out for a good Sacred Harvester, as always.
There’s no other weapon classification that comes close aside from the weapons mentioned above. Getting any of those two staves is immense value.
RINGS are another story. It’s 100% worth dumping DB’s into rings until you get Emptiness. You also get great things from this like Compass Rose and fillers like CoE. Unlike other classes or builds, a single ring can actually have a huge impact.
I picked up the Staff of Chiroptera! DITCH your Mana Regen passives! (If you’re still using Locust Swarm manually – keep Spiritual Attunement). I’d use Pierce the Veil at this point!
I picked up Wormwood! Remove Locust Swarm from your bar unless you badly need the DR from Cloud of Insects. You can also ditch a mana passive since manually casting this is a pain. It saves time and breaking the “Rhythm” of your rotation. Great QoL item.
I picked up Ring of Emptiness! It can be pulled off without Wormwood – but that’s for the tryhardiest of tryhard builds. YOU MUST SQUEEZE HAUNT IN – and Creeping Death. Once you put Haunt, the best mana passive now becomes Rush of Essence.
Having access to these 3 items gives you many, many choices – and this isn’t the place to discuss that. Long story short, for speedfarmy content you’d want:
- Staff of Chiroptera equipped
- Wormwood in cube
- No Locust in bar, replaced by Haunt (Lingering or Resentful)
- Mana passive is ‘any’ favoring Rush of Essence.
- Creeping Death “preferred.”
- You see what I mean by choices!?!?
The Classics: Good for any type of newer character, and even the most battle-hardened of builds.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: “Break” your 6-piece to make space for a good filler item! Lol free this season.
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is basically a godlike source of pseudo CDR that would assist most builds.
Accessory Sets: Focus–Restraint or Traveler’s Pledge. Completing any of these 2-sets is a vast power jump. +100%++ is substantial for only 2 slots.
Convention of Elements: Good ‘ol CoE. Wear it, Kanai it, as a filler or till the end of time. Learning to maximize CoE in any build you choose is a turning point for higher GR’s.
Unity: Straight 50% damage reduction in the cube. Too bad you need two of ’em.
Goldwrap + Avarice + Boon of The Hoarder: I don’t care how many times I have to remind you about this combo.
Bridging to the End-Game
So you skipped a whole chunk of the powering up phase with the free set. Now what? Like I always say, “Speedfarming first before pushing GR’s”. So, convert what you have NOW to be as speedfarmy as possible, first.
- Witch Doctor Speedfarming Builds & Primer
- D3 Speedfarming with any Class!
- Witch Doctor Best Speedfarming Build
Other Witch Doctor Guides:
- Witch Doctor Leveling
- Raiment of the Jade Harvester | Jade Harvester Set Dungeon
- Helltooth Harness | Helltooth Set Dungeon
- Spirit of Arachyr | Arachyr Set Dungeon
- Zunimassa’s Haunt | Zunimassa’s Set Dungeon
Check out our D3 Guide Directory for other resources.
Fresh 70 Witch Doctor: Free set available! | No free set!
Getting the Free Set | Free Set 70 | Gaining Power! | Bridging to the End-game
I can’t get any set pieces to drop from Izual in Torment 2. Is it just luck and RNG?
Is this your first class that you played this season? If yes, you should get the 2nd free set in your mailbox right after you kill Izual.
So what do I do once Ive followed the above? Unless im missing something here all you do is talk about build and playstyle?
You can now start farming for items (getting ancient legendaries, death’s breath, materials for kanai-ing). Long term goals are up to you really. You can aim to climb the WD leaderboard, complete the season journey (shift+J) to get stash tab/s or just complete achievements (Y). It depends on you.
This guide is to help you somehow beef up your fresh 70 witch doctor, with or without the free set, so you could go clear higher torments asap. Once you’ve completed the above, you can even try other Witch doctor set builds or classes.
Which gems should you level ASAP? You list Zei’s, Powerful, and Trapped but only talk about Trapped and Enforcer which isn’t listed.
Oh ZEIS??? That’s a typo! Leave powerful @ 25 (level sparingly), dump points into Enforcer and Trapped. FIXED LGEM SECTION
wow thats insane! Best guide ever found sofar! GJ !!
Thanks for this awesome guide! Followed it with super success! Awesome looking forward to see more like this!
This needs updating for S8
yes sir… we are working on it! will post once its ready
what about paragon points?
hi! its just the basic paragon priorities.
Core – Primary stat > Vit > Move speed (depends, 25 points at most) > Max Resource (optional). all other points will be placed in primary
Offense – CHC > CHD > CDR > Attack Speed
Defense – Res All > Life > Armor > Life Regen
Utility – Area Damage > RCR > LoH > Gold Find
Thank you so much for this guidea. It helped me out a ton. I am new to seasonal and Diablo 3. I am confused when you say ‘GR 38 is enough to 25 a gem.’ Does that mean I need to get to GR38 to get a gem up to 25? Thanks again.
we’re glad we’re able to help you! 🙂 GR38 is enough to level a gem up to 25 with 100% success rate
I have a doubt.
I just got the set of 6 free pc, but, before completing the set, I got the Quetzalcoatl, so it’s worth losing the 6 bonus level?
Ok nervermind, i send a post before but because I didnt know how the Kunai’s Cube works. Now I do (didnt play for a long time).
are you going to update this for Season 10 set ?
updated it last tues.
What do you mean when you say Belt of Trans works along Fetish Sycophant? Is it that you get Fetishes up faster?
Yes, you get them up faster. Also, in the eventual Darts build keep in mind that the belt only triggers off SPENDERS. The Passive works with all attacks. It can be suboptimal to have them both, but in the early game – them working in tandem can be a load off your mind.
Am I using acid cloud wrong if I am not getting Fetishes up to the passive max? I can do it easily with haunt but that is also much easier to spam.
Love yalls guides btw, third season using them and it is always great.
You’re absolutely correct and that’s why I mentioned both of those skills. Fetishes are much easier to gather with Haunt compared to Acid Rain. But alas, the Haunt coverage is pretty bad. Honestly there’s no way around suffering usability issues of Z6 early on.
last time I played diablo 3 was at the auction house disaster.Now I am back,taking a break from overwatch and the game completely change,without thinking about my build its already enormous,You helped me a lot and I really appreciate the time and effort you put on this.
Thank you very much
Thank you for your kind words! It’s what these guides are made for good sir!
I am using Z6 and have tried to follow this guide as closely as possible but I just can’t seem to get my fetishes up past 8. I am using haunt and I spam it liberally and move around and stuff. I tried acid rain but it just doesn’t work for me that well because it is not fire and forget like haunt (targeting issues) and I run out of mana so quickly and then stand there twiddling my thumbs. So not sure what I am missing because I am trying different things but since my gems got to 25 I can’t get past GR40 (T7) in time and that feels like I am behind the curve.
Advice? Suggestions? Appreciation in advance and thanx for the bitchin’ guide 🙂
Brilliant guide! Perfect and exactly what I needed for the new ladder.
Only suggestion would be advice to slowly transition into what looks like the most powerful build this season, which seems to be Jade Harvester.