Source
r/Diablo3witchdoctors•
malfore

Something feels off with my T6 pet doctor and Rhen'Ho. 1.5M DPS, 11M toughness and I'm having a hard time. Help would be appreciated.

Pets

I got a decent Rhen'Ho to drop last night for my pet doctor, so I switched from Zuni fire build to a physical FS pet build. My Zuni fire build was able to do T6 without any issues really, and I just need hexing pants or SMK to complete my gear. Either of those pieces would bring my clear time down to the 8 minute mark or so. The Zuni fire build is just so fun to play, that a lot of times I'll just be clearing Act1 T6 bounties and giving the cache out to 3 random people that still needs a RoRG as a break from rifts.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Malfore-1496/hero/49396078

Anyways, here is my profile with the Rhen'Ho. In game I have 1.52M DPS, 11M toughness, and 1.95 attacks per second due to paragons, but it feels much slower than the Zuni Fire build. I also die a lot more now that I have to stand still and cast the addling toads. I found the physical dog to also be pretty meh compared to the fire dog for trash clearing. With 15 FS, my single target DPS shouldn't be an issue so I switched back to burning dogs for trash clearing. I honestly think that I wouldn't be able to efficiently clear a T6 rift with my current physical set up. Can you veteran WD's out there take a look and let me know what's wrong? Maybe I'm just not use to the playstyle, because I'm lazy as hell. The zuni no attacking playstyle has really spoiled me.

There are also times that I find myself with only a couple of festishes because they all died. Mallet lords and act 5 mobs tend to just rip through FS.

Posted Jun 19, 2014, 3:58 PM UTC

426
Adastrom•

imo, you should get rid of the rorg for a soj and replace the strongarm with aughild bracers. We have the exact same set up (with your items being better than mine) and I can clear t6 from 7-10 minutes.

3
malforeOP•

Do you run fire dog as well, or do you run physical?

2
Adastrom•

I run fire dog. Here is my profile: http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/notanthony-1342/Simba/3248659

1
KirkLucKhanUncleTouchy#1473•

I second this suggestion. It's also nice because when soloing, you can swap in a Unity (assuming your follower has invulnerable item and a 2nd Unity), only lose a little bit of DPS, but get a ton of survival. This lets you either get in the action better for faster clears, or use the extra mitigation to swap in a TotD for more effective CDR. I love my RoRG, but it does lock me into certain builds. My build, for comparison. Not as optimized as yours for DPS but very similar; running Unity + ToTD.

1
shugix•

Yup, same build here. I can vouch that this is very optimal.

1
rottedzombie•

My build's not perfect, but I survive T6 just fine in a group. Very similar to yours, minus the piranha tornado. Clear T5 pretty fast, T6 a bit slower but worth the better drops I've seen.

Link: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wroth-1710/hero/41070203

I scramble around a lot, but it's not much of an issue. I use Horrify - Frightening Aspect as a huge armor boost, effectively putting my toughness at ~19/20 million almost constantly (since the cooldown is so short versus the duration). I've played with paragon points to maximize this.

Also swapped in the Jungle Fortitude passive for an additional 15% damage mitigation. I notice the difference. Takes me a few seconds longer to clear a mob, but I'm dying a LOT less.

I also don't use BBV. I play with FA instead, since it helps get my army up really fast if I need it.

Your build looks really strong. Should be pretty fine for the most part with a minor tweak.

2
Tjmautz•

Your dmg is low and you run fs with fa

-1
rottedzombie•

My damage sees me through T6 just fine :)

1
hugeyhugey#1133 (EU)•

You might wanna change your Piranhas - Piranhado to Piranhas - Wave of Mutilation btw

2
malforeOP•

Yeah I might switch out strong arms and run 3 piece aughild, in which case I would run Wave of Mutilation.

1
hugeyhugey#1133 (EU)•

Wave of Mutilation should also proc Strongarms. Or at least it knocks everything around, so I assume it does.

2
KirkLucKhanUncleTouchy#1473•

Without strongarm (assuming you go 3 pc aughilds + SoJ instead of 2 pc aughilds + RoRG), you don't need to necessarily use either WoM or Nado for knockup. I would recommend giving Frozen Piranhas a try. You might not love it, but the first time you effectively root a goblin or an elite that tends to run from your pets, you will enjoy yourself.

2
dalaio•

Pirahnado is worth running without strongarm bracers for how neatly it packs mobs up for wrathful protector to cleave through (if you run with him that is)

1
Deathwolves•

Really should use stone of jordan with that build as that's kind of the whole point of not using zuni. Also Wave of mutilation spawns way more fetishes and it's more 15% dmg buff. I use wave of mutilation and locust swarm and it replaces fetishes super fast and if theres strafey mobs like anarch or corrupted angels or act v swap out to hwoj wrap. maybe try that. If you used SoJ then prob won't need wrathful protector or grave injustice. It's basically 40-50% elite dmg more than not using it.

also ach! no fierce loyalty it's like the second or third best passive easily.

2
malforeOP•

I do have an SoJ, multiple in fact. One for every WD element.

Do you have a link to your build? I see a couple of you guys in here running locust swarm and It's really intriguing to me. I've never seen it in a pet build before. Is it there just to spawn fetishes faster?

1
Deathwolves•

it's to spawn fetishes faster and movement slow 80% with hwoj wrap. I only need the hwoj wrap for act v mobs, anarchs etc.

build

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
malforeOP•

I'm not...I was comparing physical build with rhen'ho and FS to my Zuni fire build.

Also I just got hexing pants just now so all of this is mute now. I don't have any problems with t6 anymore.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
ckenni•

weird, i had the same issue from switching to attackless Zuni to a Poison pet build with addling toads. The mobility was a big thing i guess thats why i get a lot less on my first setup.

The only thing I can imagine that can be improved is positioning so you dont get hit as much. I'm also still deciding whether its worth staying on Poison/Zuni-less or Physical/with-Zuni

1
malforeOP•

Yeah it feels so different...I might have to switch to a unity or something. I switched from my ToTD to a UK to hopefully help me transition a bit easier.

1
casketoccupant•

1.3M / 11M addling WD here.

Learn to stutter step around. Casting addling toads shouldn't impede your movement if you know how to weave flinging toads and moving seamlessly. You should pretty much always be casting toads and moving. Most of the time I'll channel 3 then move, 3-move, etc. Only in rare cases will I just stand there and spam them.

1
malforeOP•

I do stutter step, but sometimes you get too focus on doing one thing and you don't realize what is happening around you. I guess this is something I need to improve on. Pet builds are my go to for relaxing game play, but that might not be the case anymore with this new play style.

What is your average T6 rift clear times, or T5 if you run that instead. Do you mind linking your profile?

1
casketoccupant•

honestly, hardcore is probably the best medicine for being aware of your surroundings. I typically farm T4 and T5 solo. T6 isn't worth the risk in HC unless in a party. But damage output isn't the problem, bursty damage is.

Play more like a DH or Wiz when using Addling toads. You really have to keep doing it constantly, and be able to do it effectively while moving through the map in order to keep up your 'phants and have a decent clear time.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/asphyxia-1343/hero/49262192

2
AaronEh•

Interesting build - very clever. The game has thrown a good deal of poison gear my way. When the replacement for my fallen pet doctor gets to 70 I'm going to give you build a try - hopefully I can replace the lost T&T's soon enough as well.

1
hugeyhugey#1133 (EU)•

My vision is that the Sycophants will deal with all regular mobs, so I don't need the Burning Dogs rune. Instead, I use the Rabid Dogs rune so my doggy takes care of any (single) strong mobs (certain act 5 mobs, elites if BBV/Gargantuan are on CD etc) that can pretty easily take out my Sycophants.

That way I have good damage when my Sycophants are alive, and since the Rabid Dog shits on any single target, I also have good damage when they are dead.

1
giggity_giggity•

I don't have any advice. I just wanted to say that you're the first person I've seen with the TMF in the right side slot. For some reason I am so used to seeing it on the left.

1
hugeyhugey#1133 (EU)•

Mine is in the right slot :D

1