Witch doctor: Season2 GR45 complete with Tiki Sac. GR42+ guide.

Hello fellow WD's!

This season my 'project' was to get a high as I could with Petdoc (no Jade play at all) as I havent played beloved WD since prior to GR's being released, I had a fair bit to catch up on (ie I had no idea how much damage this class can output) but the biggest problem is how you deal damage to mobs and cannot choose who you kill so in higher tier you need as much time as possible.

Last night I did 45 in 11:4x got Rank16 and only seems to br 1 other petdoc higher, so I feel confident to write a guide about this class now

As season is closing and 2.2 is coming Tiki Sac will stay generally the same playstyle and I never seen any GR guides for Tikisac apart from gear/skill choices not how to actually succeed in higher tiers so if you are looking at this im going to assume you have these items below and are looking for advice on how to play (I dont record my runs anymore as haters gonna hate no matter what)

• SMK (Ancient just means a higher ceiling) and Homunculus (a 4 second Ancient Homunc with FA damage and crit can be harder than AncientSMK)
• 8 Sec Tiki - Needs 8 sec or you waste CDR
• Aughild 3 piece - Chest/Bracer/Shoulder - Make them Ancient ofc
• Cains 2 piece - Boots/Pants
• Witching Hour / Unity / SoJ
• Ess of Johan - this is a fantasic item I would say its BiS for petdoc

These Skills are mandatory, dont change them unless you swap Toads for Haunt in which you need Rush of Essence

• Toads / FA / Spirit Walk / BBV / Sacrifice / Horrify
• Spirit Vessel / Psychos / Grave Injustice (or RoE) / Pierce the Veil

The key to the build is stacking mobs, even though you have Melee Fetishes and can only hit 1 target at once, they are much more efficient when mobs are stacked together in a group plus fetishes save time by not running to each mob to hit them, but to stack mobs effectively you need to know how to engage them, there really is only a few very dangerous mobs in this game which arent elites/champs.

When I play solo I play very similair to zDPS - I just run ahead scouting for juicy packs and Champs while keeping Horrify up another extremely important part is knowing what to kill and what to skip as they arent worth the time -

• Best friends -

These guys are what you want and tonnes of them, a whole rift really the PetDoc thrives off massive mobs with huge HP, they are always worth killing because you only do Single target dmg

• Golgors / Mallet Lords / Executioners (unpullables) these are my favourite mobs, you use them as "Pull rods" and with the Ess of Johan you will start pulling everything to them, run directly up to them and start building a pack around them. I have never died once to any of these as trash, infact they have never even hit me but as Champs/Elites they can be dangerous
• Tusked Bogans / Brood Mothers / Unburied / Death Maidens / Stoneboys (large pullables) These guys are pretty good yet many of them spawn tiny adds which waste your time, block the mob and dont give progression. Unburied are just the best mob anyway in the game but they are pullable as well making them even juicier, killing these are generally worth it as long as they make more adds.
• Ponies / Teddies - bugged mobs that give 3x the progression of a normal mob, if you can get Whimsey mobs on a high tier you are lucky as its around 1/100 rifts for these guys, they are Stoneboy in mob form
• Thralls / Lacunis / Soul Lashers / Fallen Champs are quite good as long as they dont have tonnes of shitty trash around them like Fallen Champs have many Grunts around them that give 0.01 progression per kill. If you see Cultists praying let them turn.

Lacuni Stalkers or the ones who throw grenades have a 'dash' attack which can be used as you Horriy them but they can land outside the circle and become unstunned allowing them to attack you again with a projectile

• Undead are great but dont get hung up on killing them all, just kill large groups and move on. Dust Eaters however kill them all as they give .5 per kill which is stupid progression
• Cancer Mobs

These mobs are awful mainly because they give no progress, usually are annoying in someway and are most likely ranged, some of these bastards even get their own category because they are so bad, most of my deaths are to these guys in trash form in higher tiers

Grotesques - Love these on any other class but this one, even worse with Ess pulling large groups of them to you, I cant tell you how many times they have proc'd my SV or killed me from them dieing and I simply cant see them explode, sometimes I have to run away and keep them at the edge of the Horrify and even then sometimes the explosion can still hit you. Its 1 shotness from 41-42 onwards. They can be the cause of you failing said rift if you keep dieing to them or losing control as you have to move

Exarch - Hate them. No progress hardly, they stay well out of Tiki range just dropping lightning into you, I kill them somtimes so they stop annoying me

Anarch - Hate them even more than Exarchs. The charge attack they do not only can 1 shot you, it leaves a trail of fire on the floor which then kills you in 2 seconds but when they do the charge it usually leaves them outside the Horrify meaning they can just do it again and again until you lock them down. Lock them down asap

Exorcist - OMFG These guys are worse than Elites and some RGs, its insta 1 shot even tho they technically have a Channelling DoT, Most dangerous mob in the game. A Champion pack with Jailer on 44 is less likely to kill you than 1 Exorcist.

Random mobs to avoid - Almost all small mobs (Winged Assassins arent too bad) Fallen Grunts of all colours, Adds, Insects, Succubus, Armaddons (dont give good progress) Barbed Lurkers (unless you immediately lock them down and they are Champs)

• Affixes - Most affixes arent too bothersome once you have locked down a mob but there a few that stand out that will ruin your rift easy.

Reflect - This is retarded. At 41+ Toads insta 1 shots you if you hit a mob with it, but even if you arent it seems Pain Enhancer/Horrify combo seem to proc it as everytime I face a RD mob I lose 50-70% HP instantly by just standing there. Horrify procs Pain Enhancer, no idea why as it doesnt Crit.

Electrified - Cant stop it, only way is Xeph which is not recommendable, the only way to deal with it is standing about 13 yards away. Also Electrified procs their other affixes like Nightmarish so you may find yourself just running away from mobs which will cause chaos, may get you killed, watch out for this one

Molten - Spirit Walk can avoid this but sometimes shit just blows up concurrently and you cant dodge them without dieing so you must move..which can cause chaos. When a mob is pulled with Molten it will trail fire underneath them which can lead to death as you may not be able to move.

Then theres the dangerous yet avoidable such as -

Arcane will 1 shot but easy to dodge and move, Plagued will not go away so if a mob has created lots of poison maybe move on, Poison Enchanted is powerful but easy to dodge, Desecrator is temporary so Spirit Walk it.

• Rift Guardians

So you are you 99% and you have 5 mins left..you got this right? maybe as long as you dont pull a dreamcrusher, This is where the Petdoc seriously falls over, hardly any class loses lots of effectiveDPS because they cannot keep minions supplied because they are being wiped out in 3-4 seconds, ive failed a few rifts I assumed I had easily got because the damage can flatline sometimes.

Rule for RGs is: You want Stonesinger if failing that you want a Standalone RG that doesnt spawn adds, an RG with adds that also wipes out you and your fetishes are nightmares

■Agnidox - Good RG as no Adds. Can kill you easily though

■Blighter - HATE this guy on every other class but love him on Petdoc, Fetishes body block his poison attacks you only have to dodge his floor attacks occasionally. Very easy

■Bloodmaw - Bloodmaw bugs out and you can stunlock him just run away when he enrages and then go back and stunlock him again. Hes easy

■Bone Warlock - Easy takedown until he spawns adds which interfere with DPS and Fetishes, try pull his minions directly onto him

■Cold Snap - Stay within 25 yards or he FCs you, Freezes your minions, Pulse can 1 shot you at 44+. Dangerous

■Crusader King - Wastes tonnes of time, his Swing attacks can wipe ALL your fetishes out instantly

■Ember - Easy, just stand away from the Meteors and let Fetishes take them, even his Lunatics cant do shit as you lock them down instantly

■Erethon - Worst RG without Adds, this guy is tough, he has high armor it seems or HP, his melee attacks wipe out Fetish and if you are too far he just charges at you constantly..good for luring him to Pylons though

■Eskandiel - THE WORST. I used to think Saxtris was, this guy is the worse, failed many rifts to him, his Minions are much stronger than Saxtris's so they dont die much leaving hardly anytime to attack Eskandiel, Arcane 1 shotsyou, Wave attack 1 shots you, hate this guy

■Infernal Maiden - Easy, She tele's to you occasionally easy to dodge, Fire attack doesnt even 1 shot

■Man Carver - Hook attacks will 1 shot you, no pattern to this guy I stay as close as possible but it still doesnt stop the Hooks

■Orlash - You can lock him down but he can still attack, he is easy but wastes time

■Perdition - I figured this one out! Spam toads until he casts his AoE Knife attack - Run away - Run back he will then Telep to you and 1 shot USE SPIRIT WALK for this and repeat this pattern until he dies. He cant even kill me now

■Perendi - Suffers somesort of lockdown and does nothing, stay away from him

■Raiziel - Pretty easy, can kill you and Fetishes just be on your toes

■Rime - Dodge the floor effects and your fine

■Sand Shaper - Easy just dodge the Tornados

■Saxtris - Not as bas as Eskandiel but still bad, open areas make him a lot easier

■Stonesinger - Love you Stoneboy

■Tethrys - Technically the least dangerous RG, fetishes swamp her and her projectiles cannot pierce

■The Binder - Very easy, if you stand behind her you CANNOT die as her spider poison spit can only shoot forwards

■The Choker - Takes a while as he hides in corners and inside the walls so Fetishes cant get him. I fkn hate Barbed Lurkers

■Voracity - The higher you go the less fun he is.



Ive covered most things, I may of missed something which I can add tomorror when im back at work.

Goodluck with your RGs. Im trying for 46-47 by end of Season 2 and thanks for reading

Posted in: Guide, Witch Doctor