Guides > Witch Doctor > One Man Army

Written by Diablo

Note: this guide is theorycrafting! In this guide we will make the largest, strongest army possible while still doing large amounts of damage, healing, and mana regen. One of the main parts of the build is your Zombie Dog combo, where you can cast them to deal damage and tank and then Sacrifice them dealing AOE damage, gaining mana and healing yourself all at the same time. While doing this all the time, you also get a Gargantuan, various fetishes, and a guy who hexes monsters into chickens. With such a mighty army, how can you lose?

Skills

	Fetish Army Available at level 29 Head Hunters
Cooldown: 120 seconds Summon an army of Fetish creatures to fight by your side for 20 seconds. Dagger-wielding fetishes attack for 28% of your weapon damage as Physical. Adds 2 Hunter Fetishes to the army. Hunter Fetishes shoot blowdarts at enemies dealing 63% of your weapon damage as Poison.

These are good minions melee minions that can soak up damage as well as dish it out. I chose the Indigo runestone for some extra ranged damage, since between the dogs, the gargantuan, and the dagger wielding fetishes you already have quite a bit of melee damage. Their damage is enhanced by Big Bad Voodoo

	Summon Zombie Dogs Available at level 2 Final Gift
Cost: 176 Mana Cooldown: 60 seconds Summon 3 zombie dogs from the depths to fight by your side. Upon death, your zombie dogs have a 85% chance of leaving behind a health globe.

Your dogs are your bread and butter. In this build you use them for damage (Sacrifice), health (Final Gift), mana (Circle of Life), and tanking. They are also enhanced by Big Bad Voodoo. The choice of the Golden runestone for dropping health globes may seem odd at first, but when you factor in the fact that you can basically summon and destroy them at any time, and get health and mana for it, it becomes pretty powerful.

	Hex Available at level 6 Jinx
Cost: 176 Mana Cooldown: 10 seconds Summon a Fetish Shaman for 8 seconds that will hex enemies into chickens. Hexed enemies are unable to perform offensive actions and take 20% additional damage. Increases the damage taken by hexed targets to 90%.

This is good crowd control, and with the Alabaster runestone it also enhances all the damage you and your minions are doing to the hexed monsters. The cast rate of the hex is also increased by Big Bad Voodoo.

	Sacrifice Available at level 16 Pride
All of your zombie dogs explode, each dealing 200% of your weapon damage as Physical to all enemies within 12 yards. Recover 792 Mana for each sacrificed dog.

This is one of the key spells for this build. You sacrifice your dogs to deal a ton of damage, and using the Golden runestone you get a crapload of mana back with it. But that isn't all, the dogs will also drop health globes tahnks to Final Gift, which will heal health AND mana because of your Circle of Life passive.

	Gargantuan Available at level 18 Restless Giant
Cost: 528 Mana Cooldown: 120 seconds Summon a large zombie follower to fight for you. The Gargantuan attacks for 30% of your weapon damage as Physical damage with every swing. When the Gargantuan encounters an Elite enemy or is faced with 5 enemies nearby it enrages for 15 seconds gaining: 50% movement speed 50% attack speed 200% physical damage

This guy is a beast. He is a huge tank with some good damage, which is enhanced by Big Bad Voodoo. The Crimson runestone just gives him some more damage, since we don't need any more tanking.

	Big Bad Voodoo Available at level 25 Slam Dance
Cooldown: 120 seconds Summon a fetish to begin a ritual dance that increases the attack, casting and movement speeds of all allies in the area by 15% for 20 seconds. Also increases the damage of all allies in the area by 40%.

This makes everything you have better for 20 seconds. Need I say more?

If you think there are too many slots devoted to minions, you could take out the gargantuan first, and Big Bad Voodoo second for some a more balanced build. The core of the build that should remain untouched is Zombie Dogs (Final Gift), Sacrifice (Pride), Hex, and Circle of Life. However, I am really a fan of just getting a ton of guys out to do my work for me.

Passives

	Circle of Life Available at level 0
Gain 10% of your maximum Mana whenever you are healed by a health globe.

	Zombie Handler Available at level 0
You can have 4 Zombie Dogs out at once. The health of your Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan is increased by 60%.

	Fierce Loyalty Available at level 0
All your pets get 100% of the benefit of your thorns and Life regeneration items

Items

One of the main things to look out for are any kind of Thorns items, since your army gets the same benefit from them as you do thanks to your passive.

PvE

This build really shines in large fights. Your army tanks for you, so you are never in any real danger, and with your sacrifice combo you should always have health and mana while doing AOE damage to the crowd of monsters.

Boss Fights

You are not quite as strong in boss fights, especially if there is a big AOE attack which clears out your army. But even in that situation you can summon and sacrifice your dogs to stay alive and keep fighting while your other minions cooldowns come back. Just spread out your guys so you don't lose everything at once and you should be fine.

Closing

I was always a huge fan of making giant necromancer armies, the only problem being that it wasn't particularly good. Now with Witch Doctors, you can make the huge army AND decimate your enemies, and it is actually powerful.