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LoD Poison Dart “Carnevil” Witch Doctor Guide

Last Updated: January 7th 2024

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Introduction

LoN Carnevil Solo Push
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The Carnevil build features a unique playstyle that revolves around Poison Dart being shot by hordes of Fetishes. It has been around for a long time, starting with Season 3 using Zunimassa's Haunt.

Unfortunately, this build fell completely out of relevance despite some buffs in Season 12 and 16 to Mask of Jeram and Carnevil. It is only with Season 17 buffing Carnevil again and The Dagger of Darts (or DoD for short) that this build became one of the strongest Witch Doctor setups in the game.

While Carnevil is often used with Zunimassa's Haunt Set, it can be played using Legacy of Dreams which allows for way more flexibility in terms of gearing and skill setup choices.

Even though the LoD setup is a true powerhouse for speedfarming, Legacy of Nightmares becomes mandatory for high endgame push and is by a long shot the best setup to compete on the No Set leaderboard!

In Season 25, Soul Shards with the amazing Dregs of Lies as well as the rework of Shukrani's Triumph bumped the build as one of the best solo push builds in Diablo III.

This build is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Fetishes, and most importantly Poison Darts they shoot, can proc it. This build develops a completely unique Pet playstyle with intriguing interactions (see Mechanics), where you need to manage your Fetishes very carefully to wreak havoc on your opponents. Positioning is absolutely critical as only the 10 Fetishes closest to you shoot a Poison Dart when you do, aiming where your cursor is. This guide will go over everything you need to know about those wild Dart-shooting Fetishes!

High Burst Damage ✔
Unique Pet Playstyle ✔
Great Attack Speed Scaling ✔
Rewards Excellent Gameplay ✔

❌ Squishy
❌ Difficult Execution
❌ Rarely Gets an Oculus Proc
❌ Vulnerable to Crowd Control

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Dagger of Darts grants us 500% increased damage and allows Poison Darts to pierce targets.
  • Carnevil is the core item that makes this build work as 10 of your Fetishes will now shoot a powerful Poison Dart whenever you do.
  • Mask of Jeram increases all Pet damage by 200%. This effect is additive with Elemental damage on Bracers and Amulet.
  • Depth Diggers gives us another 100% damage boost on our main skill Poison Dart.
  • Stone Gauntlets provide an outrageous amount of mitigation and their negative effect can be fully negated by Ice Climbers.
  • Lakumba's Ornament provides us with another 70% damage reduction with Soul Harvest Languish which already gives us 15% Intelligence and 50% Armor.
  • Aquila Cuirass grants us an easy 50% damage reduction as we barely spend any Mana.
  • Squirt's Necklace provides us with a damage multiplier as long as we are not getting hit. We adopt a ranged playstyle and use Fetishes as meat shields to protect us.
  • Convention of Elements is another separate damage multiplier, giving you triple damage for Poison Darts shot by Fetishes during your Poison cycle.
  • The Witching Hour is used in every setup for the Attack Speed and Critical Hit Damage which are great offensive stats.

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 additional Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance to further boost your character's power.
    • 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! Pay attention to Dregs of Lies stacks and use make sure all your skills are on cooldown when they're getting close to 100 in order to pull off a damage burst due to Sliver of Terror and Shukrani's Triumph.
  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 since Mask of Jeram is additive with Elemental Damage and Attack Speed double dips due to the Carnevil mechanic.
  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

You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance and Damage as well as Fetish Army Damage and Poison Dart Damage. Area Damage works with Fetishes and is a good stat to focus on when you can. Poison Damage is always a decent damage stat but its value is significantly decreased due to Mask of Jeram being additive with Elemental Damage.

Poison Dart Attack Speed Breakpoints

Make sure to focus on Attack Speed to reach a high Breakpoint. It is the most important stat to stack for this build as Fetishes with Carnevil benefit twice from it (see Mechanics).

Cooldown Reduction is not really needed as Grave Injustice will do all the work, especially with some Pickup Radius and Thing of the Deep. It is still a good defensive stat to get on items lacking good offensive options like Shoulders.

Crowd Control Reduction is an incredibly valuable secondary Affix to roll on both Rings, Amulet and Helmet as we are very sensitive to Hard Crowd Control effects and mitigating these will ease up our gameplay significantly. Make sure to get the Primary Affixes locked in before attempting to get CCR though.

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
Echoing Nightmare
LoD Carnevil Solo T16

Concept
In this setup we focus mainly on Movement Speed and some Cooldown Reduction. We have awesome Echoing Fury and Spirit Walk uptime as we are constantly killing enemies with Grave Injustice synergizing with Thing of the Deep and Pickup Radius. We add St. Archew's Gage to protect our Squirt's Necklace for double damage.

Gameplay
Cast Summon Zombie Dogs once at the beginning to create minions for your Fierce Loyalty; simply spam-click Horrify, Spirit Walk and Soul Harvest off cooldown. Use Sacrifice Provoke the Pack before shooting on tougher enemies like Rift Guardians.

Horrify in conjunction with Rechel's Ring of Larceny provides you with an incredible amount of Movement Speed, effectively making you fly through Nephalem Rifts while Goldwrap with Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band (on your follower) will grant you invincibility.

Setups
If you don't like the Convention of Elements rotation, you can swap it with Stone of Jordan without trouble. In groups, swap out The Ess of Johan and Convention of Elements for The Flavor of Time and Avarice Band and replace Warzechian Armguards and Pauldrons of the Skeleton King with Nemesis Bracers and Homing Pads.

LoD Carnevil Solo Speeds

Concept
We have awesome Echoing Fury and Big Bad Voodoo uptime as we are constantly killing enemies with Grave Injustice synergizing with Pickup Radius. We take St. Archew's Gage to protect our Squirt's Necklace for double damage.

The idea is to farm a Greater Rift tier where you can comfortably clear within 3 to 4 minutes. The gameplay is simply a sped up variant of the solo push one.

Gameplay
Keep up your Horrify Frightening Aspect and Soul Harvest buffs at all times. Create huge pulls with Piranhas Piranhado and group them tightly for additional Area Damage and more pierces from The Dagger of Darts. Be aware of your position shooting angle to hit as many enemies as possible!

Setups
If you feel too squishy or want to go for higher Greater Rift tiers, swap St. Archew's Gage with Stone Gauntlets and take back Ice Climbers instead of Illusory Boots. If you feel comfortable damage wise or simply prefer the playstyle, swapping Shukrani's Triumph with Thing of the Deep for its synergy with Grave Injustice is a great option. The third cube slot is open and can be replaced with anything else if you don't like The Ess of Johan.

LoN Carnevil Solo Push

Concept
As Bane of the Stricken becomes mandatory in order to kill the Rift Guardian at the highest tiers, you need to switch to Legacy of Nightmares at some point. Legacy of Dreams is a tankier version and is fine to play as long as the Rift Guardian doesn't take more than 4 or 5 minutes.

Gameplay
Don't forget you play a rotation based build with Convention of Elements. Try to set up the pulls with Piranhas Piranhado for the Poison rotation, cast Big Bad Voodoo and perform a huge damage burst. use downtime to gather up more enemies but be careful to not die as you do not have Fetish Army on your skill bar to instantly recast Fetishes. You need to spawn them one by one by attacking with Poison Dart to proc Fetish Sycophants. Don't forget to use your Fetishes as meat shields by hiding behind them, this is a great way to reduce incoming damage and maintain Squirt's Necklace!

Setups
Feel free to take any Shoulders you have instead of Pauldrons of the Skeleton King as any will do. If survivability is an issue, swap Big Bad Voodoo Slam Dance for Ghost Trance or even use Uhkapian Serpent in combination with Summon Zombie Dogs Life Link instead of BBV for more consistent toughness at the cost of Shukrani's Triumph 100% additive damage buff. If you're feeling comfortable and want to squeeze out as much damage as you can, Circle of Life + Sacrifice Provoke the Pack instead of Horrify is a valid option.

Echoing Nightmare Setup

Concept
For more information, check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best builds and strategies! This build is bad for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift speed build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Drop Horrify for Hex Jinx to increase damage.
  • Replace Piranhado with Wave of Mutilation to increase the range at which you apply the damage debuff.

Gameplay

  1. Click Speed Pylon instantly to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. Around Wave 90, click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
  3. After Wave 100, use Conduit Pylon.
  4. At Wave 122, stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.

We have awesome Echoing Fury, Big Bad Voodoo and Spirit Walk uptime as we are constantly killing enemies with Grave Injustice. Try to dodge and keep your distance due to your low toughness. Don't forget to use your Fetishes as meat shield by hiding you behind them, this is a great way to reduce incoming damage! Be aware of your position and the angle at which you shoot your Poison Darts in order to hit as many enemies as possible. Use Spirit Walk wisely to damage burst with Shukrani's Triumph.

Mechanics

Fetishes & Attack Speed

Carnevil

Mask of Jeram

Shukrani's Triumph

Fetish Army & Poison Dart Damage

Piranhas Piranhado

Summary

  • Put together the core items and level up the Legacy of Dreams gem.
  • Build your army of Fetish Sycophants as soon as you can.
  • Be very mindful about your positioning, your Fetishes position and where you are aiming Poison Dart.
  • Pulling off the proper rotation around Convention of Elements generates a tremendous damage burst with Echoing Fury.
  • Conquer Sanctuary with your deadly army of Dart-shooting Fetishes!

Cheers!

Credits

Written by Chewingnom.

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