Season 1 has just ended, and you might be planning to try something new with the start of the next season. If you were considering rolling with a Witch Doctor, Dardor’s “Crafty Spirits” build offers a great starting point to get your voodoo rolling on day one.

About the Build:

Every character journey starts from the same place, and when a new season begins, we get to experience that fresh outset together. This experience can feel daunting for some players, but it can also reinvigorate your Diablo goals. If you’re a Witch Doctor player who’s intimidated by the experience, then Dardor#1625's introductory “Crafty Spirits” build might be right up your alley.

This Witch Doctor's just getting started… but that's the point!

Using almost exclusively a combination of crafted items to hit the ground running, Dardor’s build is an accessible way to jump a few difficulty levels while you hunt down more powerful pieces of gear. Oriented around Cold damage, it offers crowd control, a slew of bodyguard pets, and a ton of survivability.

The Skills:

The primary themes with the Crafty Spirits build are Cold damage, pets, and a dash of the supernatural.

Active Skills:

• Haunt (Consuming Spirit)
  • One of your active damage dealing abilities
  • Provides substantial Life per Second
• Spirit Barrage (Phlebotomize)
  • Primary damage dealing ability
  • Chance to Charm frequently grants you useful temporary allies
• Piranhas (Frozen Piranhas)
  • Damage amplification is helpful in group and solo play
  • Chills enemies, keeping them away from your fragile form
• Spirit Walk (Healing Journey)
  • Get out of Jail(er) free card
  • Healing Journey rune acts similarly to a second, smaller potion cooldown
• Gargantuan (Humongoid)
  • Fits into the Cold Damage and pet themes, serving both purposes
• Summon Zombie Dogs (Leeching Beasts)
  • Offers an entourage of faithful beasts to keep demons at bay
  • Reproduces your Life on Hit, ensuring that you’re always healing even when you’re unable to cast

Passive Skills:

• Rush of Essence
  • Allows Haunt and Spirit Barrage to be used at-will
• Creeping Death
  • Powers up both Haunt and Piranhas, ensuring the longevity of their debuffs
• Zombie Handler
  • Adds survivability for yourself and your pets
• Fetish Sycophants
  • No pet build is complete without a cadre of these creepy companions

The Items:

Crafted items are a cornerstone of this build, allowing you to jump up in difficulty without having to wait for that perfect item to drop. Plenty of other items can complement this build as you find them and the sets used are malleable enough to allow easy shifts to accommodate new pieces.

Shia has acquired some of the pieces for her end-game journey, but she has plenty of room to grow!

Recommended Items:

• Aughild’s Authority (3-piece)
  • Equal share boosts to your toughness and damage
  • Recommended pieces: Any
• Guardian’s Jeopardy (3-piece)
  • Offers substantial toughness
  • Boost to movement speed is helpful before you have substantial Paragon points to cap it out
  • Recommended pieces: Any
• Asheara’s Vestments (4-piece)
  • Even more toughness
  • Offers another set of pets in the form of your followers
  • Recommended pieces: Gloves, Pants, and Boots
• Ring of Royal Grandeur
  • Recommended to make easier use of all the above sets
  • Relatively easy to acquire from Act I Horadric Caches
• Utar’s Roar
  • Ensures an early source of +% Cold Damage
  • Craftable and a potential quick method for acquiring an Ancient weapon

Complementary Items:

• Frostburn
  • Bonus source of +% Cold Damage
  • Offers excellent crowd control with its legendary affix
• Rimeheart
  • Fits into the Cold theme
  • Synergizes well with Frostburn
• Zunimassa’s Haunt (4-piece)
  • Keeps your Fetish Sycophants around indefinitely
  • Great set for transitioning into as you acquire more pieces
• Visage of Giyua
  • Frees up a passive from Fetish Sycophants, allowing more build flexibility
• Mask of Jeram
  • Damage increase for all pets is hugely beneficial
• Uhkapian Serpent
  • Provides a huge boost to survivability by splitting damage with your Zombie Dogs

Recommended Legendary Gems:

• Enforcer
  • Additional pet damage will vastly increase your efficiency
• Taeguk
  • With no primary skill, you’ll consistently benefit from this gem’s buff
• Bane of the Trapped
  • Consistent Chilled effects from your abilities will grant you this damage boost regularly

Recommended Stats:

• As a pet-based build, you’ll see huge returns from Attack Speed and Critical Hit Damage
• Since Cold Damage is your primary element, +% Bonus to Cold Damage is recommended
• When considering your Toughness, make sure to prioritize Armor over All Resistance; you’ll have plenty of resists from Intelligence and crafted set bonuses

Recommended Difficulty and Game Mode:

At the time of submission, Dardor had taken this build up to Torment IV in Normal Mode. This is not meant to be an end game build, but to help you tackle the early game quickly while you build up an assortment of gear and decide on your end game route. It’s recommended to use this build for activities like leveling, Nephalem Rifts, and Bounties.

Because of its dedication to survivability, this is a build I could see working for an early Hardcore season character. Just bear in mind that efficiency isn’t what is most important with this build; it’s staying alive and tackling difficulties you might not otherwise feel ready to explore.

Why We Like This Build:

While I was already looking forward to the transition, the end of Season 1 has made me even more excited to jump into Season 2 as soon as possible. Playing a Witch Doctor intimidates me, perhaps because I enjoy smashing face as melee so much. I often get lost when I log back in to my Witch Doctor, and it’s nice to have an accessible build that introduces the core themes of the class without inundating me with too much information.

Greater Rifts aren't entirely off-limits, which Dardor makes clear!

I like to think everyone is just as excited about the upcoming fresh start as I am, and the “Crafty Spirits” build might just be what I start out with once February 13 rolls around and Season 2 begins.

Tell Us What You Think!

How do you approach the start of a new season? Are there items that you try to gear for right away? Is there a go-to build that you use before a particular Legendary changes your approach? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to send in your builds in for our next round of features!

This wraps up our sixth round of Play Your Way builds, and we’ll be holding the voting poll for our livestream next week. Be sure to stop by to cast your vote!