D3 S28 Witch Doctor Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

S24’s (Ethereal Memory) unique mechanic is the Ethereal Item system. Let me provide you a quick TLDR right here.

Ethereal items QUICK FAQ AND INFO

• Each class has THREE Ethereal weapons. They’re MONSTROUSLY POWERFUL.
• Ethereals roll with a random LEGENDARY POWER from an item of that class.
• Ethereals roll with a random CLASS PASSIVE from that class. (like Hellfire)
• Ethereals have their own “special stat rolls” which are incredibly powerful. Example of such is +100% (up to 300% for some) to all skill damage. Not only are they strong, but there are LOTS OF ROLLS. Wall of text level. Some of them are pretty unique like the DH “increase damage per paragon level”.
• Their drop rate is “rarer than ancients, less rare than primals”.
• Ethereals will vanish after S24.
• In case you missed it, Ethereals WILL vanish after Season 24. Ok?

For the purposes of this guide (a focus on Fresh 70), picking up an Ethereal will almost always be great for you. But, as your build gets more specific, obviously, the randomly rolled Legendary power will dictate its usefulness to your build.

Obviously, a well rolled Ethereal with a Legendary power you can use is a
giga-tier god-level world-shattering item.

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

WEAPON: Craft or find a 2H Mace. The stats you want are INT VIT LpH or Socket (Purple gem for LpH, Red for DMG+, Green for CHD+). Avoid any other stat for now. LPH IS VERY IMPORANT -I’ll explain more on later.

GET ARMOR INSTEAD OF ALL RESISTS!

Witch Doctor is an INT Class – meaning you get free ALL RESISTS from all the INT on your gear. This results in a huge lack of ARMOR. So, in your reroll strategy REMOVE ALL RESISTS from the top half of your gear stats as they’re pretty much USELESS – and replace them with ARMOR. Armor is your best defensive stats BY A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT. Socketing Rubies or Emeralds also give you Armor. VIT is your other main defensive stat.

Self-healing , specifically Life per Hit is an insane god tier stat for early game WD. It’s used in tandem with Zombie Dogs – Leeching Beasts, essentially giving you up to 4x the value for each LpH roll! It’s an absurd survivability tool.

Belt: Is a huge source of defense. INT > VIT > ARMOR > Life%. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness on.

Rings and Amulet: You NEED sockets to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and INT. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/INT.

GEMS: For body pieces you’ll want Emeralds or Rubies for Armor. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs. Considering Witch Doctor and this season… hmm… Amethyst in Helm (Until you need the CDR for Hex).

Helm, Gloves, Shoulders, Boots? I wouldn’t bother too much with these since we will get them from the Haedrig’s Gift bags pretty easily. Just try to reroll off the terrible stats.

Chest / Legs: You want INT VIT ALLRES Sockets (3/2). Life% isn’t bad either. Even if you do get this from your free set – you want decent fillers here since they give such huge defenses.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. The element you want is ELEM%.

Skill% (Skill%) can be found on Helm and Boots. Typically it’s safer to roll on boots but if you’re removing trash stats for it you can take it on helm too. Having it on both is great, at a cost to defensive stats.

Skill% (Skill%) can be found on Chest and Shoulder. Typically it’s safer to roll on shoulder but if you’re removing trash stats for it you can take it on chest too. Having it on both is great, at a cost to defensive stats.

Skill% (Skill%) can be found on Legs and Belt. Typically it’s safer to roll on belt but if you’re removing trash stats for it you can take it on legs too. Having it on both is great, at a cost to defensive stats.

Equip a pet! (Default F1 for “cosmetics menu”). They pick up gold for you!

Getting the “correct” stats beats getting the “perfect” stats for now. REMOVE USELESS STATS and get any USEFUL STAT for massive gains in power.

Remove useless stats

• Life Regeneration – garbage.
• Attack Speed – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
• Excess Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
• Excess Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
• All Resists – Useless for us, take Armor and VIT instead.

Take better stats

• INT VIT – can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
• ARMOR Life% – Great defensive stats.
• Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability. Especially for WD.
• CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.

For clarity this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the Arachyr free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrigs gift bag, going for the first).

The usual GODLY “no set” WD build. You can go without a generator (but slot one in if you want, in place of Locust Swarm). DoT’s, Pets, infinite Haunts. You get the picture.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

For clarity this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the Arachyr free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrigs gift bag, going for the second).

The Arachyr 2pc bonus isn’t a big deal, but you can try it out (replacing Locust Swarm). It’s additional free DPS. Try it with and without the spider skill, to see if you need it.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accomodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of free set and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

For the Torment I, II and random entries, the previous build (no changes) should be enough. If you need a more tryhard variant, check out the Torment IV or GR20 tab for advice.

Now, we need to slot in Hex for Arachyr 4pc. This build is pretty tight… but if you want to swap out a skill… oh boy… They all feel pretty necessary but it’s up to you. Personally I cannot in good faith recommend an open skill.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20) While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: 1h Ceremonial Knives for a bunch of possibilities, hopefully you get Manajuma’s, but there’s a ton of knives you can use.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can, before proceeding to Torment IV.

This is basically the same build but adding more defensive utility.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint whether your build needs help or not. And for S24 and Arachyr, isn’t too bad. WD builds excel in the early seasonal journey.

• Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
• Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
• Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
• Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
• Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
• Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice the if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully you have powerful legendary to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

USE THE SAME BUILD AS THE TORMENT IV TAB!

Arachyr GR20 is not bad. You have MORE THAN ENOUGH DPS, with HAUNT and PETS. Survival is your only issue, as repeated and constant dying is your only risk of failure. Seriously, this shouldn’t be an issue at all unless you’re EXTREMELY WEAK.

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the tasks leading up to this. Be practical and don’t be afraid if your build needs a little help. If you’re weak – Quickly get FOUR GR keys, then complete lower level GR’s. Socket the best Legendary Gems you get (avoiding Legacy of Dreams, obviously).

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared GR20 with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.