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Helltooth / Arachyr Firebats Witch Doctor Guide

Last Updated:July 7, 2024|Change Log

Introduction

Helltooth Firebats Solo Push
View all variants

Firebats is a well-known Witch Doctor skill, used all the way back before Seasons. Further down the road, it has been the META Trash Killer of choice from Season 7 to 9, juggling between Helltooth and Spirit of Arachyr sets.

The latter provides a generic damage multiplier to all Creature skills. In this build we combine this damage boost with the iconic Firebats channeling playstyle and crazy Attack Speed values from the Staff of Chiroptera and Pain Enhancer.

Out of all creature skills, Firebats has the most damage potential with its Attack Speed scaling potential paired with channeling buffs from Taeguk and Mantle of Channeling. On top of that there are high damage multipliers available from Staff of Chiroptera and Bakuli Jungle Wraps.

During Season 24, Ethereals brought an impressive damage potential buff to the setup due to the breathtaking Attack Speed granted by Ghostflame. In Season 25, the build didn't get any benefit from the Spirit of Arachyr rework, being completely outclassed by the new Arachyr Corpse Spiders then by Arachyr Chicken in Season 29.

Unfortunately, Season 30 crushed the potential of the set, cutting by more than half the (6) Bonus damage multiplier while heavily buffing Helltooth Harness. This means that Helltooth is now the way to go when it comes to Firebats build! This guide will cover both variants of the build since the only change is to replace Horrify with Wall of Death and swapping the set.

This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Firebats Cloud of Bats can proc it. This is further enhanced by the incredible Attack Speed scaling of the setup allowing you to melt monsters in high density (see Mechanics). While the build is fun to play, it lacks damage compared to the best performing Witch Doctor builds. Yet with this potential, it is not entirely excluded that Firebats Witch Doctor becomes once again the META Trash Killer in the future! Anyways, let's get into it!

Fun to Play ✔
Strong Set Identity ✔
Medium Range Build ✔
Crazy Attack Speed Scaling ✔

❌ Low Damage
❌ Low Toughness
❌ Lack of Mobility
❌ Causes Tremendous Lags

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • You get 11,500% Firebats damage from Spirit of Arachyr (6) Bonus as well as 75% damage reduction from the Spirit of Arachyr (4) Bonus.
  • If using Helltooth Harness, you get 37,500% damage and 60% damage reduction.
  • Staff of Chiroptera is one of the best items for this build giving 100% faster attacks (more details in the Mechanics section), 75% reduced Mana costs and 150% increased damage.
  • Bakuli Jungle Wraps give 300% increased damage as long as enemies are affected by Locust Swarm or Piranhas.
  • Lakumba's Ornament and Sacred Harvester give tremendous toughness and damage buffs by doubling our Soul Harvest stacks.
  • Ring of Emptiness provides us with a crazy 300% damage buff as long as the target is affected by either Haunt or Locust Swarm.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to complement Spirit of Arachyr with Captain Crimson's Trimmings.

Season 32 Ethereals

Ethereals are powerful rare weapons that can only be found during Season 32. They were initially the Season 24 Theme. They have incredible stats, a random Legendary power, and a free passive for your class. Read our Ethereal Mechanics Guide for full details on how they work and our Ethereal Farming Guide to learn how to acquire them. What you should prioritize on them is the following:

  1. The Legendary Power
    This build requires Sacred Harvester and Staff of Chiroptera to be functional. We need our Ethereal to roll one of these powers so we can cube the other. We also want a good roll on our Legendary power if it has a range. For speed content it is always helpful to have Ethereals with Echoing Fury or In-geom powers, so keep those if you find them.
  2. The Ethereal Itself
    There are 3 different weapons available to us, each with its own benefits:
    • Ghostflame - This is the Ethereal we absolutely want as it is the only one granting 200% damage to Secondary Skills, which includes Firebats. Its insane Attack Speed is very beneficial to us as well, allowing us to reach the 5 FPA Breakpoint in solo push.
    • The Gidbinn and Arioc's Needle - These are better than normal Weapons but they're not giving 200% damage to Firebats, hence they are both tremendously weaker than Ghostflame.
  3. The Ethereal Stat Rolls
    Each Ethereal comes with its own fixed set of powerful affixes. While some have a static value, many have a wide stat range. This means the difference between good and bad and good rolls is significant and something you should look for.
  4. A Useful Passive
    This is just icing on the cake because a fifth passive is not going to make or break your build. You're better off hunting for the things above. Check out the Passives section down below to see which ones you're looking for.

Global Stat Priorities

Firebats Attack Speed Breakpoints

Attack Speed provides insane damage benefits for this channeling build and we definitely want to reach certain Breakpoints (see Mechanics). Generally you always want to have 7% Attack Speed rolled on your weapon in this build as this bonus is calculated multiplicatively to other Attack Speed bonuses.

In group, the majority of our Attack Speed comes from the secondary effect of Pain Enhancer. This means we don't need to stack additive Attack Speed rolls on gear to reach the 3 frames Firebats Breakpoint with 47 Pain Enhancer stacks. In the Solo setup we take the Enchantress with Focused Mind to reach the 8 frames Breakpoint. The faster we attack the more Mana channeling Firebats drains. For that reason we need to use Haunt Draining Spirit in the Trash Killer variant and Spirit Walk Honored Guest in Solo Push to regain our Mana.

Cooldown Reduction is not mandatory for this build, but it's helpful to use a Flawless Royal Diamond in your helm and take a "free roll" on your shoulder for Spirit Walk uptime to move, avoid attacks and gain Mana with Honored Guest. We also gain Cooldown Reduction from Grave Injustice in Solo. Area Damage works with Firebats and all its multipliers so this is one of our most important stats to have all items expect amulet! In solo play, crowd control reduction is a valuable stat on your helm and jewelry to avoid interruptions as much as possible.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

GR Solo Push Helltooth
GR Solo Push Arachyr
Group Trash Killer
Echoing Nightmare
Helltooth Firebats Solo Push

Concept
The Helltooth Harness Solo build takes the awesome monster grouping power of Piranhas Piranhado and combines it with the strong AoE attack of Firebats Cloud of Bats. With Grave Injustice this setup has tremendous Cooldown Reduction as well as Life and Mana recovery rates if the monster density is high and the kill speed is fast. Bane of the Stricken is mandatory to kill the Rift Guardian.

Gameplay
Keep up your Soul Harvest and Wall of Death bonuses at all times and use Spirit Walk to skip bad map layouts, dodge attacks and projectiles, and to regenerate Mana with Honored Guest. DoT up enemies with your Locust Swarm to ensure the damage reduction from Cloud of Insects and the damage buffs from Bakuli Jungle Wraps and Ring of Emptiness. Cast Piranhas Piranhado to group up enemies and start channeling Firebats. Keep pressing Spirit Walk to survive but never stop channeling until you want to move to keep up Taeguk and Cloud of Bats.

Setups
At lower Paragon (below 1,000) Piranhas can be replaced with Summon Zombie Dogs Leeching Beasts for insane recovery. Also feel free to change Confidence Ritual to Spirit Vessel for better survivability.

Arachyr Firebats Solo Push

Concept
The Spirit of Arachyr Solo build takes the awesome monster grouping power of Piranhas Piranhado and combines it with the strong AoE attack of Firebats Cloud of Bats. With Grave Injustice this setup has tremendous Cooldown Reduction as well as Life and Mana recovery rates if the monster density is high and the kill speed is fast. Bane of the Stricken is mandatory to kill the Rift Guardian.

Gameplay
Keep up your Soul Harvest all times and use Spirit Walk to skip bad map layouts, dodge attacks and projectiles, and to regenerate Mana with Honored Guest. DoT up enemies with your Locust Swarm to ensure the damage reduction from Cloud of Insects and the damage buffs from Bakuli Jungle Wraps and Ring of Emptiness. Cast Piranhas Piranhado to group up enemies and start channeling Firebats. Keep pressing Spirit Walk to survive but never stop channeling until you want to move to keep up Taeguk and Cloud of Bats.

Setups
At lower Paragon (below 1,000) Piranhas can be replaced with Summon Zombie Dogs Leeching Beasts for insane recovery. Also feel free to change Confidence Ritual to Spirit Vessel for better survivability.

Arachyr Firebats Group Trash Killer

Concept
In this high Greater Rift focused setup we use full Area Damage and the insane Attack Speed from Pain Enhancer to deal tremendous amounts of AoE damage to enemies. Our zBarb enhances our damage by adding Health Globes with Threatening Shout Grim Harvest and creating pixelpulls with Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash.

Gameplay
Keep up Soul Harvest and Spirit Walk to survive and move through enemies unhindered. DoT up emeries with Locust Swarm and Haunt to get all your damage multipliers up and and regenerate Mana from Draining Spirit. Position yourself with Spirit Walk next to your Supports in dense monster pulls, cast Piranhas and start channeling Firebats. It is important to keep channeling Firebats until your group wants to move again. Do not let go off Firebats before that or else you lose your Attack Speed snapshot (further explained in the mechanics section below). Pray to RNGesus to get an Oculus Ring spawn right under you to increase your damage even further!

Setups
Without zMonk in the party, you cannot keep up Squirt's Necklace, which is why we go for Captain Crimson's Trimmings. At higher Paragon, you can replace Endless Walk with Squirt's Necklace and Convention of Elements. On the Passives feel free to change Swampland Attunement to Spirit Vessel if you prefer playing with a Cheat Death.

Echoing Nightmare Setup

Concept
For more information, check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best builds and strategies! This build is bad for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Drop Horrify for Big Bad Voodoo to increase damage.
  • Replace Piranhado with Wave of Mutilation to increase the range at which you apply the damage debuff.
  • Swap Bane of the Stricken for Pain Enhancer since we are fighting hordes of enemies.

Gameplay

  1. Click Speed Pylon instantly to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. Around Wave 90, click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
  3. After Wave 100, use Conduit Pylon.
  4. At Wave 122, stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.

We have awesome Big Bad Voodoo and Spirit Walk uptime as we are constantly killing enemies with Grave Injustice. Cast your Locust Swarm to DoT monsters. Always cast Soul Harvest when you are in close combat and the skill is off cooldown. Since Firebats has a 3 seconds damage and AoE ramp up, try to stand still and channel as much as possible. Stand on the Spider Queen's Web to get the Spirit of Arachyr (4) Bonus toughness buff. Use Spirit Walk wisely to damage burst with Shukrani's Triumph.

Video Guide

S7 Arachyr Firebats GR115 World #2 4man Action (zMonk PoV)

Mechanics

Firebats Cloud of Bats

Staff of Chiroptera

Shukrani's Triumph

Locust Swarm

Piranhas Piranhado

Gruesome Feast

Summary

  • Put together the core items and acquire the full Spirit of Arachyr set.
  • Iconic and fun playstyle with Firebats.
  • Scales with Area Damage and can snapshot Attack Speed.
  • Lightning fast channeling ticks but cause of many server issues & lags (the DoT effect of Spirit of Arachyr (2) Bonus adds even more strain on servers).
  • DoT enemies up as much as possible and keep up Soul Harvest at all time.
  • Fire away!

Enjoy Arachyr & Cheers everyone!

Credits

Written by Rob with special help from sVr, wudijo & Chewingnom.
Updated by Chewingnom.

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