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Helltooth Gargantuan Witch Doctor Guide

Last Updated: January 14th 2024

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Introduction

Helltooth Gargantuans Solo Push
VIew all variants

The Gargantuan Witch Doctor is one of the classic pet builds in Diablo 3. As a master of voodoo and spirits, it's very laid back and easy to play. While Gargantuans are outclassed by other setups such as Spirit Barrage, Zombie Bears or Jade Harvester, they can still be used to successfully both in farming and pushing solo Greater Rifts.

While a few setups are possible for this, the best set to use is the Helltooth Harness for its massive 17,500% damage bonus to your Gargantuans. The best part about is: you won't have to rely on a single pet, but instead you will have three little Gargs through The Short Man's Finger that will decimate your foes! Just stay back, activate your buffs and enjoy the show. This makes this build ideal for console and newer players!

With the Witch Doctor changes in Season 25 buffing Lakumba's Ornament for more toughness and allowing Gargantuan to benefit from Ring of Emptiness the build has become a lot stronger than in the past, allowing it to compete with Zombie Bears. Worth noting, the Season 30 offers a massive (6) Bonus damage multiplier buff to 37,500%.

Since you only need two core skills and a few items alongside the set to make it work, you can experiment with other setups, especially for speedfarming lower content. This guide will show you what we believe is best for Nephalem and Greater Rifts alike!

Easy to Play ✔
Great Class Fantasy
Few Buttons to Press ✔
Has Massive Meatshields ✔

❌ Lacks Speed
Very small AoE
❌ Relies on Borked Pet AI
❌ No Match for META builds

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Helltooth Harness set is the core of the build, giving 17,500% damage increase to your Gargantuans after using Wall of Death.
  • Spite effectively adds the most important rune (Humongoid) to the setup, giving your Gargs cleave damage.
  • The Short Man's Finger splits your Gargantuan into three, each dealing 750% of the original damage (for a total of 2,250% damage done).
  • Mask of Jeram adds 200% damage bonus to your Pets. This affix stacks additively with Elemental damage rolls on your items.
  • Tasker and Theo give 50% Attack Speed to your Pets, adding another great bonus and allowing you to reach the right breakpoint.
  • Lakumba's Ornament is a core defensive item for any Witch Doctor build, buffing Soul Harvest with an extra 70% damage reduction.
  • Sacred Harvester is a great boost, adding an extra 15% Intelligence bonus to Soul Harvest and buffing Lakumba's Ornament damage reduction to a tremendous 80% due to additional stacks!
  • Shukrani's Triumph adds 100% additive damage during Spirit Walk and lots of mobility.

Season 30 Soul Shards

Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that initially dropped during Season 25 but they are returning for Season 30! There are 4 available for Weapons based on the Lesser Evils, with another 3 for Helmets based on the Prime Evils. They drop at Rank 0 and be upgraded three times with the brand new Hellforge Embers to unlock additional powers, or be used in the Kanai's Cube as Augments. Here's how they progress:

  • Rank 0: Soul Shards begin with a unique static Legendary Power. Creates a Rank 50 Augment.
  • Rank 1: Gives all powers from the normal gems. Creates a Rank 75 Augment.
  • Rank 2: Grants one additional powerful stat. Creates a Rank 100 Augment.
  • Rank 3: Unlocks 1 of 3 bonus Legendary Powers unique to that Soul Shard. Creates a Rank 125 Augment.

Warning: Leoric's Crown and Broken Crown do not work with Soul Shards!

Read our Soul Shards Guide written by Chewingnom for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:

  1. The Correct Soul Shard & Rank 3 Power
    The best shards for Solo Pushing are:
    • Helmets: We want to use Sliver of Terror for the massive damage buff from our abilities on cooldown. For the Rank 3 power take the Ring of Fire to unleash a devastating AoE blast for big leaderboard pushes! The increased Attack Speed & Critical Hit Chance per skill on cooldown can be a viable option as well if you prefer.
    • Weapons: We want to use Dregs of Lies for the massive bonus damage to Pets. For the Rank 3 power, go for the stacking Pet Damage effect for another major power boost!
  2. The Rank 2 Stat
    The stats that come from the second upgrade are not equal. Here's what we're looking for on them:
    • Helmets: We want either Main Stat for damage or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction to survive. Avoid Armor and All Resistance as their stat ranges are far too low compared to the other options.
    • Weapons: We want Attack Speed to boost our character's power the furthest, although % Damage and Critical Hit Chance are not far behind. Elemental damage is also not worth it due to Mask of Jeram.
  3. The Stat Ranges on the Rank 1 and 2 Powers
    This is just icing on the cake because the ranges will not make or break your build. Still, look for the Soul Shards with the best stat ranges, especially on the offensive stats.

For the other game modes, other Soul Shards can be used. Check the Variants below to see what's used there.

What about extra Soul Shards? Either salvage them for gems, or upgrade and use them in Kanai's Cube for Augments.

Global Stat Priorities

As this is a Pet build, Gargantuan Damage acts as a separate multiplier instead of being in the additive category, making that item affix stronger than usual. Rolling this on your Off-Hand, Chest and Shoulders will be the main priority.

On the other hand, Mask of Jeram's damage bonus counts into the same category as Elemental Damage, which makes this stat comparatively worse here than in most other builds. Your overall offensive stat priority will be: Critical Hit Damage > Gargantuan Damage > Critical Hit Chance > Area Damage > Attack Speed > Physical Damage > Intelligence. Defensively you want to go with Vitality > Armor > Elite Damage Reduction > All Resistance.

Contrary to most other pet builds in the game, there are only very few fixed breakpoints for Gargantuans, which depend on whether Tasker and Theo is equipped and Restless Giant is active. Attack Speed instead scales their damage done per hit. See the Mechanics section for more info.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
Gargs T16

Concept
In Nephalem Rifts damage is not the main priority as the Gargantuans have no issue killing or even one shotting stuff there. Instead, focus on extra speed and utility by running the Boon of the Hoarder, Avarice Band & Goldwrap combo and taking more speed: Horrify Stalker and Spirit Walk Severance. To smooth it out, roll extra Cooldown Reduction where possible (as long as you feel your damage remains high enough) and take the Grave Injustice passive. This setup uses the Poison rune Big Stinker for the damage aura, but running with Restless Giant is totally adequate. Just change the elemental damage rolls on your items accordingly.

Gameplay
Zoom around the map to find elite packs and destroy them with your Gargantuans. Just make sure to keep up your buffs (Wall of Death, Soul Harvest) and ignore stray enemies.

Setups
If your damage feels too low, consider rolling more damage stats (Attack Speed or Damage Range) instead of Cooldown Reduction. If your Squirt's Necklace keeps dropping all the time, consider using Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard instead of Bane of the Trapped to protect it with a shield. Another option for more DPS is to use the Circle of Life passive and replacing Horrify with Sacrifice Provoke the Pack to gain additional damage buffs when you need them. If you are overkilling everything easily, you can drop Spite for Thing of the Deep and replace Avarice Band with Rechel's Ring of Larceny to gain more movespeed with similar pickup radius.

Gargs Speeds

Concept
In this setup we want to combine speed and damage to run lower Greater Rifts effortlessly. Due to the small AoE effect of the Gargantuans, doing extremely fast clears is impossible but if you run at a difficulty where you comfortably oneshot enemies you will be able to clear a run in 2-3 minutes.

Gameplay
Keep up your buffs (Soul Harvest, Wall of Death) while zooming from elite to elite. Try to dodge attacks to not lose your Squirt's Necklace buff too often. Using Horrify at the right time will also help you with that. When you find adequate packs of monsters, pull them together with Piranhado and let your Gargs to their job! Use Locust Swarm on tough enemies to improve their damage.

Setups
If you want the Spirit Vessel passive included for a cheat death, you should drop either Grave Injustice or Confidence Ritual. For extra defense, you could also run with Esoteric Alteration instead of Bane of the Powerful.

Gargs Solo Push

Concept
This is also the variation described in the main section of this guide. For Greater Rift pushing we take all the damage we can get. This includes lots of Area Damage, Attack Speed and all the other damage stats you can get. The build is very slow paced, focused around killing small packs of enemies and positioning yourself, your pets and your enemies in the right place.

Gameplay
As described above: Keep up your buffs (Wall of Death, Soul Harvest) and focus on pulling enemies together. When your Gargantuans get distracted by single enemies, try to position them better so that their cleave hits more targets. For the best DPS, stay close to your enemies for Confidence Ritual and apply Locust Swarm regularly for Ring of Emptiness. On the boss, stack Bane of the Stricken with Wall of Death or Piranhado.

Setups
If you feel like you don't need the cheat death, you could replace Spirit Vessel with Swampland Attunement to be able to tank more damage at a time.

Video Guide

Mechanics

Gargantuan

The Short Man's Finger

Mask of Jeram

Piranhas Piranhado

Summary

  • Summon your Gargantuan squad to protect you!
  • Keep up Soul Harvest and Necrosis from Helltooth Harness up at all times.
  • Position both enemies and your pets to maximize your DPS.
  • Keep up Locust Swarm on your enemies for the damage buff from Ring of Emptiness.
  • Stay back and enjoy your Gargantuans mowing through your enemies!

While this build is not really top of the game right now, it's still quite good and decent enough if you are looking for a pet-focused playstyle.
Good luck!

Credits

Written by wudijo with help from Rob.
Reviewed by Northwar, Raxxanterax.
Updated by Chewingnom.

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