Disclaimer: This guide is the Season 34 Guide for the Support Witch Doctor Build which is only viable with Sanctified Powers Sanctified Horrify & Sanctified Haunt Powers.
The support Witch Doctor (usually called the zWD because they do "zero" damage) has been a completely forgotten supporter for quite some time. It was one of the meta supporters back in Season 1 to 3 due to its ability to perma-control monsters with Horrify and Tiklandian Visage on top of its massive damage buffs.
After the addition of Crowd Control Resistance in Season 4, zWD became the most efficient third support in Season 5 and 6 thanks to its incredible offensive buffs that were blowing everyone else out of the water. It however required remarkable understanding of Crowd Control Resistance mechanics and Toad of Hugeness cornerstacking to be grasped at its full potential. Its pinnacle moment in the metagame was a GR130 4man clear that remained unbeaten for almost a year.
Season 7 was a huge letdown for zWD, with absolutely shocking nerfs to all its offensive buffs and even to The Grin Reaper Mimics whose abilities' debuffs were stacking with yours. From this point onwards, zWD has been completely buried and forgotten for all these years.
Season 27 brought a shred of light for zWD by introducing great Sanctified Powers, with Sanctified Horrify granting a 100% additive damage debuff and Sanctified Haunt providing a screen-wide Piranhas pixelpull on top of a Bogadile execute mechanic. Yet, since you can only equip one Sanctified Power at a time, zWD still lags behind the top meta supporters. Anyway it is still a fun build to bring in group to play with friends and have the feel for a build that is a true Diablo III piece of history!
Flavorful ✔ Very Mobile ✔ Easy to Play ✔ Brings Lots of Buffs ✔
❌ Very Niche ❌ Not Very Active ❌ Exclusive to Sanctified Theme ❌ Vulnerable to Crowd Control
Core Setup
Core Item Build
Items
Mundunugu's Regalia (4) Bonus is incorporated in all versions due to its moving Big Bad Voodoo lasting longer and its 60% damage reduction.
Captain Crimsons Trimmings gives an incredible 20% Cooldown Reduction and 20% Resource Cost Reduction along with additional damage reduction.
Illusory Boots used to be a staple, allowing us to move unhindered through monsters and walls for perfect positioning and high mobility. This is not needed anymore due to the Altar of Rites!
Strongarm Bracers provide 30% additive damage, which can be triggered by Piranhas.
Nemesis Bracers to spawn additional Elites on Pylons if nobody else in the group can wear them.
Oculus Ring is included in any support setup and provides 85% multiplicative damage to teammates standing within the circle. The effect does not stack with other Oculus Rings.
The Flavor of Time doubles Pylon duration, which is especially useful for Conduit Pylon.
Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to equip additional items alongside our sets.
Aquila Cuirass grants us a 50% damage reduction buff.
Recommended Potion: Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid to further assist your party by destroying walls.
Season 34 Sanctified Items
Originated from Season 27, Angelic Crucibles are new consumables that drop anywhere once you're Level 70 in Season 34. Using them on items reforges them into Sanctified Items with Primal Ancient stats, and adds one of three new unique Class Powers listed below. For full details on how they work, check out this Seasonal Guide by Chewingnom!
Let's look at our Class Powers and see how they apply to our build:
The best power for us is the Sanctified Horrify for a 100% additive damage debuff on monsters.
The Sanctified Haunt power is great but we usually have to take Sanctified Horrify to bring enough damage buffs to the party and other Supports such as zBarb will pixelpull monsters for the group. It can be used in some 2man setups or specific speed setups.
The Sanctified Gargantuan power doesn't help us, so go for the one at the top.
Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to craft it on matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend Sanctifying one of the following items:
Oculus Ring
The Flavor of Time
Global Stat Priorities
Since we are a support class, we don't need any offensive stats like Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, Area Damage, or Elemental Damage. Instead we will gather as much Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction and Attack Speed as possible. Aim to get permanent Big Bad Voodoo for you and your teammates, which requires a minimum of 67% Cooldown Reduction. Once you hit this CDR Breakpoint, all your abilities have a very low cooldown, hence why Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is not required at all especially since we have Grave Injustice to help if needed. Resource Cost Reduction (RCR) greatly increases our toughness via the Captain Crimsons Trimmings (3) Bonus. Attack Speed is not mandatory but does help to make your overall gameplay feel smoother.
Assembling the Build
1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cubeLegendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!
2. This is a support build, meaning we deal zero damage and need to farm the pieces/materials with a different build/character. We'll use BloodShards and Crafting Materials to acquire the remaining pieces outlined in the steps below.
Gather 3 pieces of the Mundunugu's Regalia set. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
Create a level 1 Demon Hunter and upgrade Swords to get In-geom
Amulets to get The Flavor of Time
Rings to get Oculus Ring and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac
Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.
5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:
Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
Act 2: Illusory Boots
Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
Bounty Turn In: Recipe for Captain Crimson's Trimmings
6. There is one final required piece that is difficult to acquire, The Flavor of Time. With amulets being so expensive to gamble or craft, we'll have to search for it to drop in Nephalem and Greater Rifts. The biggest hint is to party up with other players and kindly ask them to drop any duplicates they find.
7. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:
1. Life % 2. Armor 3. All Resistance 4. Vitality 5. Intelligence
Potion
Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid
For breaking walls to pull enemies and increase DPS
Gems
Gem of Efficacious Toxin is a staple for each support build granting 10% additive damage (stacks) and 10% damage reduction (does not stack). Other supports can also wear this gem because the damage buff stacks.
Iceblink provides 10% increased Critical Hit Chance to the damage dealers. This effect does not stack and is applied by Wall of Death Communing with Spirits or Spirit Barrage Manitou.
Gogok of Swiftness gives 15% Attack Speed, 15% Cooldown Reduction and up to 30% Dodge based on the amount of stacks you have. You gain a stack with each hit up to a maximum of 15, and all stacks are refreshed if you attack every 4 seconds.
Esoteric Alteration for additional toughness or Wreath of Lightning for additional Movement Speed can replace Gogok of Swiftness or eventually Iceblink if another support has it equipped.
Skills
Big Bad Voodoo Slam Dance provides a your group with 15% additive damage and 15% Attack Speed. Ghost Trance can be used to help your group survive. Mundunugu's Regalia(2) Bonus makes it easy to get a permanent uptime on it but you have to pay attention to follow your damage dealers!
Horrify Stalker is an obvious one since we use Sanctified Horrify to bring a 100% additive damage buff to our group. Frightening Aspect can eventually be used to gain a 50% Armor buff for you.
Spirit Walk Severance for obvious mobility purposes and to proc Mundunugu's Regalia(4) Bonus damage reduction.
Piranhas Piranhado is used to apply a 15% additive damage debuff and Strongarm Bracers.
Wall of Death Communing with Spirits is used in push as an easy way to proc Iceblink on top of applying a 25% damage reduction debuff on monsters.
Spirit Barrage Manitou is used in combination with Gazing Demise for speed content simply in order to proc Iceblink passively without doing anything.
Locust Swarm Cloud of Insects allows us to bodypull monsters and proc a 25% damage reduction debuff on them.
Hex Jinx or Toad of Hugeness procs another 15% additive damage debuff on monsters. It is generally not used because it can be very disruptive regarding pulling and packing.
Passives
Grave Injustice is a Witch Doctor staple. It reduces cooldowns when enemies die, allowing a smoother playstyle by resetting all our skills.
Spirit Vessel to escape death since a dead support does not support much.
Bad Medicine provides another 25% damage reduction on monsters. We proc it when we use Piranhas.
Swampland Attunement for more toughness since there is no real need for Tribal Rites cooldown reduction with this build.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Attack Speed
1. Armor
1. Resource Cost Reduction
2. Maximum Mana
2. Cooldown Reduction
2. Life %
2. Pickup Radius
3. Vitality1
3. Critical Hit Chance
3. All Resistance
3. Life per Hit
4. Intelligence
4. Critical Hit Damage
4. Life Regeneration
4. Area Damage2
1 Put all points into Vitality until you reach 3 million HP, then put the rest into Intelligence for All Resistance. 2 Do not take Area Damage as we deal no damage and it will lag the game.
Altar of Rites
The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!
Note: The suggested path assumes you are playing Solo and used the Challenge Rift Cache to help you level up.
Optimal Path
Node 2: Choose Anointed to gain a full set of 70 yellows from level 18-70!
Node 6: Rush to gain double Bounties to help unlock other Nodes in the Altar.
Node 7: Take Vigor to help your build sustain its resources.
Nodes 8-14: These are the last Nodes you can gain until the Challenge Rift resets. Take at least 1 Node at the bottom of each path to unlock all 3 Potion Super Powers. Pick up the Mirror Node at the top for a colossal 41% extra XP all season. Remember to unlock Father once you clear GR70 solo and have your first Primal!
Nodes 15-26: Pick up the final Quality of Life, Damage, and Defense Nodes (in that order) to finish the Altar.
Potion Super Powers: Take Father first, then Mother, and finally Mortal.
Disclaimer: The Mortal and Mother Potions require you to salvage 2 and 3 Primals respectively. Unlock them as soon as you have those materials as they don't cost a point!
Recommended Altar Path Use the Scroll Bar to see Altar Progression
Gameplay
Cast Horrify once at the start of the rift, it should be permanent thanks to Sanctified Horrify. Make sure Big Bad Voodoo is active at all times. Grave Injustice should ensure you always have it ready if you do not have enough Cooldown Reduction. Use Spirit Walk to move through enemies or walls that are in the way, for defense, to dodge affixes and projectiles or similar. Don't waste it when you don't need it!
When making a pull, engage several screens of monsters by bodypulling and spreading Locust Swarm. Don't forget to scout the layout and check for Elites while communicating with your party. Check for Pylons when you feel you made enough progress to spawn one. A few seconds before the damage rotation of your damage dealer, use Wall of Death and Piranhas. Crowd Control Resistance should not be an issue as long as you have a zBarb since Sanctified Whirlwind ignores it.
Hardcore
Witch Doctors can be tough to play in Hardcore because they have no immunity to Crowd Control and only limited defensive utility skills with long cooldowns. Witch Doctor's defensive playstyle mainly relies on Grave Injustice and Spirit Walk combination. Nevertheless, this is a support build so should have no big issues if you are mindful about Elite affixes.
Anyway, you can rotate out Gogok of Swiftness (or Iceblink if someone else already provides it in the group) for Esoteric Alteration to tank up even further. Don't forget to use the Spirit Vessel passive at all times! Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
GR Speeds
GR Push
zWD Group Speeds
Concept Support Witch Doctor is a decent incorporation for Speed Greater Rifts to farm both XP and gear due to its high mobility and its wide variety of defensive and offensive buffs.
Gameplay Cast Horrify once at the start of the rift, it should be permanent thanks to Sanctified Horrify. Make sure Big Bad Voodoo is active at all times. Don't forget to refresh Manitou every 20 seconds as this is our easy way to apply Iceblink and bodypull to some extent. You ultimately want to be ahead of your group, preparing pulls right before they appear and move on right as everything dies. For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.
Setups This setup is allowing for a lot of tweaks depending on your group composition and the other support you're playing with. If you do not have Frailty or The Executioner in the party, you should cube it. Thing of the Deep is good to have, but not mandatory once you have 20+ Pickup Radius and are mobile enough to pick up globes, hence the Weapon Cube Slot can be switched at will. Locust Swarm can be swapped for Hex Jinx depending on the type of content you're playing and your group composition.
zWD Greater Rift Push
Concept In high Greater Rifts, you will generally have a zBarb doing all the hard work in the party and your job will be mainly to buff your group and debuff enemies. You can also do some scouting and bodypulling to help out.
Gameplay Cast Horrify once at the start of the rift, it should be permanent thanks to Sanctified Horrify. Make sure Big Bad Voodoo is active at all times. For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.
Setups This setup is allowing for a lot of tweaks depending on your group composition and the other support you're playing with. If you have Frailty or The Executioner in the party, then you can swap your Weapon Cube Slot to anything else, The Burning Axe of Sankis for additional damage reduction for instance. Locust Swarm can be swapped for Hex Jinx or Toad of Hugeness depending on your group.
Mechanics
Sanctified Horrify
Horrify is now a permanent aura that causes enemies to take 100% more damage (additive damage debuff) and deal 15% less damage.
The other effects from Horrify runes becomes permanent as well.
Sanctified Haunt
Locust Swarm now automatically Haunt all monsters affected.
Casting Piranhas pulls all monsters within 60 yards (1 screen) to the pool.
If you have Bogadile, a lesser enemy stunned is instantly killed.
Elites and Rift Guardians are not killed but take significant damage.
Piranhas + Strongarm Bracers
Strongarm Bracers apply their debuff if a monster was attempted to be displaced. Any displacement constitutes a knockback. Whether or not the monster was successfully displaced is irrelevant, as long as an attempt was made to displace it.
Strongarm Bracers with Piranhas is applied only if the target is moved. Even when the monster is not displaced, as long as it can be moved, it will jump on spot.
Summary
One of the oldest Greater Rift support builds in Diablo III existence!
A niche supporter that unfortunately can't compete with META supports currently.