Diablo III- Skills Article CXXIII: Witch Doctor, Theorycraft One- Spreading Doom

The basic goal of this build is to define the Witch Doctor as a source of effects that multiply- both themselves and each other.  As the Witch Doctor kills more things, the effects spread further and faster, causing even more enemies to die.  The majority of the skills in this build either take greater effect when an enemy dies, or cause an effect that spreads over an area and makes things die even faster than they already were.

Primary Skill: Firebomb (Flash Fire)
Secondary Skill: Locust Swarm (Pestilence)
Defensive Skill: Horrify (Ruthless Terror)
Terror Skill: Mass Confusion (Paranoia)
Decay Skill: Zombie Charger (Undeath)
Voodoo Skill: Big Bad Voodoo (Jungle Drums)
Passive Skills: Bad Medicine, Circle of Life or Rush of Essence, Fetish Syncophants

Firebomb and Zombie Charger are the two skills this build will be throwing most frequently- and fortunately, both of them trigger Fetish Syncophants.  With Locust Swarm and Mass Confusion as opening attacks on virtually every fight, and the Zombie Charger running in to kill things and respawn itself, Bad Medicine is a natural choice for this build’s defensive option- the poison damage from both spreads easily, causing a big dip in damage from incoming attacks.  Circle of Life is the only really debatable passive here- while Zombie Dogs aren’t very good, littering the battlefield with them occasionally can be fun.  For a more definite effect-focused alternative, Rush of Essence can be handy, recouping a good part of the cost of both Mass Confusion and your occasional Horrify- which is itself a Mana-restoring effect.  Expect to use Horrify if you start running yourself dry on Mana via Zombie Charger- as it will both clear the area around you for safety and, with the benefits of both Ruthless Terror and Rush of Essence on it, give you a very satisfying Mana charge.  It’s quite possible, particularly if you favor Firebomb over Zombie Charger, that you won’t find yourself running low enough on mana to need Rush of Essence on top of Ruthless Terror, which is why Circle of Life is provided as an option.

With this build, you want to get as many enemies as possible in one place at a time.  This can be accomplished by either running around like an idiot until multiple enemy groups converge, or by having allies with skills like Cyclone Strike or Wrenching Smash on hand.  Less direct methods of corralling enemies are possible, but they tend to be very difficult and should only be attempted by players who naturally tend to work that way, so don’t worry yourself overmuch about it.

This is one of the relatively rare possible Witch Doctor builds that doesn’t define itself even partially by its choice of passives, instead allowing the selection of active skills to determine what the best passive skills are for it.