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Helltooth Zombie Bears Witch Doctor Guide

Last Updated: January 15th 2024

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Introduction

Helltooth Zombie Bears Solo Push
View all variants

The stampede is on the way and you're the one commanding the charge! This build utilizes the immense power of the Helltooth Harness to deliver a devastating stream of Zombie Bears to destroy everything in your path. An old school Witch Doctor fan favorite has been enhanced in Season 22 with a new Mojo Ursua's Trodden Effigy, an improvement to the Scrimshaw as well as a giant boost to the 6 piece Helltooth Harness bonus from 9,000% to 17,500%!

You'll spend your time running around using Locust Swarm to gather up enemies, while maintaining your Toughness buffs from Soul Harvest and the Helltooth Harness. Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Blood Ritual work together with high Resource Cost Reduction to make your Zombie Bears cost virtually no Mana, allowing you to spam them at will.

While the build was never the strongest, it always made its way through as a competitive build. It's only with Season 30 that the build really get a chance to shine more due to a massive (6) Bonus buff to 37,500%.

This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Zombie Bears can proc it. The build has a very mindful playstyle since Zombie Bears have collision with layout, meaning the player has to be extremely careful about his positioning and aim on monsters to destroy the battlefield with a mob of scary Zombie Bears. Let's get into it!

Bears! ✔
High Toughness
Never Resource Starved ✔
Great Against Large Packs ✔

Lack of Mobility
Hard Positioning
Weak Single Target
❌ Not Group Friendly

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • Helltooth Harness (4) Bonus and (6) Bonus are the primary focus of this build as they give 60% Damage Reduction for 10 seconds when you use your Zombie Charger or Wall of Death and a 17,500% Damage buff for 15 seconds after casting Wall of Death.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings gives a massive Toughness boost since you are focused on Resource Cost Reduction with this build. The Cooldown benefits aren't utilized as much in solo but still provide a great Damage buff.
  • Scrimshaw reduces the Mana cost of Zombie Charger by 75% and boosts its Damage by 6-7 times. This Main-Hand also has a Primary Stat option to get another 80% additive Damage buff to the skill.
  • Ursua's Trodden Effigy gives Zombie Charger up to a 150% Damage buff as well as spawning more Zombie Bears, launching 8 per cast instead of 3.
  • Ring of Emptiness provides a 300% Damage buff as long as the target is affected by Locust Swarm.
  • Finally Ring of Royal Grandeur allows you to utilize both Helltooth Harness and Captain Crimson's Trimmings.

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 Essence of Anguish for the Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction. For the Rank 3 power take the 50% increased Poison Damage, which actually applies to all damage done. Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your follower's Weapon so it can stack the buff automatically.
  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 either % Damage or Poison Damage to boost our character's power the furthest.
  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

Our offensive priorities are: Critical Hit Chance & Damage > Poison Damage > Zombie Charger Damage > Attack Speed & Area Damage > Resource Cost Reduction > Cooldown Reduction. A mix of Attack Speed and Area Damage is nice as they can both help in different areas of a Rift. Attack Speed will help greatly on the Rift Guardian where you'll struggle the most and having some Area Damage will help throughout the Rift a decent amount as we group enemies together.

When doing T16 or speed Greater Rifts prioritize Cooldown more to give yourself as much Spirit Walk uptime as possible and to get a greater Damage buff from the Captain Crimson's Trimmings set. You unfortunately don't have any Crowd Control immunity on a Witch Doctor so try to roll at least 1-2 Crowd Control Reduction Secondary Stats on your Helm or Jewelry. There are many desirable stats for this build which means Vitality is sometimes left behind a bit but this can be made up for easily using Paragon points if needed.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Push
GR Solo Speeds
Zombie Bears T16

Concept
For Nephalem Rifts moving as fast as possible is the primary objective and to do so you'll be taking advantage of our good friend Gold as well as grabbing as much Cooldown as possible for improved Spirit Walk uptime. Skill wise you'll be changing from Languish to Soul to Waste as well as picking up Horrify Stalker, for Passives we grab Fierce Loyalty, Grave Injustice and Gruesome Feast.

Throw an In-geom into the Cube. Pick up Horrify Stalker and put on Rechel's Ring of Larceny to get a tremendous Movement Speed buff. Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard can be used to gain a shield for Squirt's Necklace. The final touch is the combination of Goldwrap, Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder which make you immortal once gold starts dropping.


Gameplay
This build is a little clunky compared to some others but still quite fun and speedy in Nephalem Rifts. The big difference here is we need to make sure to keep our Horrify buff up at all times but the rest is mostly business as usual but with extra speed! Once you arrive to some enemies use Wall of Death, Soul Harvest and Piranhas to get your buffs then channel Zombie Bears until the enemies perish.

Setups
If you're doing more than enough damage, you can replace Wormwood with In-Geom and take Stone of Jordan over Ring of Emptiness. Another option is to just swap the weapon and manually cast Locust Swarm (instead of Piranhado) for the buff.

In groups, take Nemesis Bracers instead of Warzechian Armguards for the additional elites from pylons! If you still feel strong enough, swap Captain Crimon's Trimmings with Sage's Journey.

Zombie Bears Solo Push

Concept
The Solo Push build is the one described in the Core section of this guide as well as the focus of the Gameplay section above. You are going to DPS with Zombie Bears, keeping up buffs at all times as you progress through the Rift. Go for Area Damage as a higher stat priority on this build instead of focusing on Cooldown Reduction like the other Variants. On top of that you'll need extra Toughness while pushing, use Belt of Transcendence so the Fetish's can act as a distraction.

Gameplay
Slowly make your way through the rift dragging all enemies along with you while casting Zombie Bears. Once you have a large pack in the center of an area unleash a stampede of Zombie Bears. Things will feel pretty good until you get to the Rift Guardian, try to give yourself a lot of time as we are at our weakest during the boss fight by a considerable margin. Keep those Stricken stacks building up and never let your Soul Harvest fall off. If it does be VERY careful as you get your stacks up to 5+ before trying anything heroic.

Setups
Another variant is using Wall of Zombies to push around enemies. If you have extreme trouble surviving, replace Piranhas Piranhado with Summon Zombie Dogs Leeching Beasts for insane recovery.

Belt of Transcendence can be a solid option as the Fetish's will act as a distraction and help keep the enemies grouped up for you to burst them down.

Instead of Endless Walk you can also play the build with the Squirt's Necklace + Convention of Elements combo. Like this you won't have to stand still all the time but it only works better when you can keep up the amulet's buff sometimes.

Zombie Bears Speed GR

Concept
In speed Greater Rifts you are essentially doing the same thing as in solo but at a much faster pace, in content that we can decimate in a few minutes at most. You will be giving up a decent amount of toughness to pick up Movement Speed while maintaining enough Damage to make sure they go quick.

Gameplay
Here you are going to be moving a lot faster as well as having your Spirit Walk much more often compared to the pushing variant. Use this to your advantage and jump from Elite to Elite while your Locust Swarm is following you, cast Wall of Death and Piranhas when you see an Elite or large pack of enemies then hit them with Soul Harvest and channel the Zombie Bears! Watch your Squirt's Necklace and play around Convention of Elements as much as possible.

Setups
If you feel too squishy, replace Shukrani's Triumph with Sacred Harvester in the cube.

Video Guide

Guide Video

Mechanics

Zombie Charger Zombie Bears

Locust Swarm

Piranhas Piranhado

Gruesome Feast

Summary

  • You are the Lord of the Bears and no one can tell you differently.
  • Keep your Wall of Death and Soul Harvest buffs active and never let them fall off, especially on the Rift Guardian as they provide a large portion or your Damage and Toughness respectively.
  • Use your Wall of Zombies to push all the enemies into a tight line to maximize the effectiveness of your Area Damage.
  • Don't forget to get a Life per Hit roll on your Bracers or Weapon so the Leeching Beasts can heal you immensely.

The buffed Zombie Bears come back as a blast from the past and add an exciting - although at times a bit clunky - build to the Witch Doctor's arsenal. It's not the strongest, but can be used for solo pushing into the higher tiers regardless. But be careful, PETA is watching you!

Credits

Written by Chewingnom & Facefoot.
Reviewed by Raxxanterax & wudijo.

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