5. Group Meta (Zombie Dog Sacrifice)

For 10k paragons, the no-dog version (CE/DE according to circumstances) is enough for speeding 150s. But for lower paragon players (5-8k), in order to achieve the same level of damage output (one-shotting elites on 150), the Zombie Dog mechanic is used to get up to 100% extra damage, which significantly complicates the playstyle.

This variant uses either Big Bad Voodoo – Boogie Man or Grasp of the Dead – Death is Life to spawn up to 3 Zombie Dogs at a time. The former has a bigger radius but only has a 50% chance. The latter has a smaller radius but has a 70% chance. Then, Sacrifice – Provoke the Pack is used to sacrifice the dogs. Each dog sacrificed gives 20% increased damage for 5 seconds. This stacks up to 5 times.

The Zombie Dog variant can also be played with either CE or DE.

Zombie Dog CE is quite simple – hold down SB on elite until oculus is spawned. Then go into oculus, spam sacrifice (to continuously sacrifice dogs and maintain stacks) and continuously cast SB. Sacrifice stacks up to 5 times and hence can give you up to 100% damage.

Zombie Dog DE is the most complicated and requires extremely precise timing.

First of all, the Sacrifice stack is snapshotted at the start of your SB cast and is not continuously calculated into your damage accumulation. This means that for each phantasm, at the moment of its casting, how many Sacrifice stacks you have will determine the damage buff to its entire accumulated damage. This means that you want to cast the 10-second phantasms within 5 seconds after sacrificing your dogs.

First, let’s look at the standard rotation when you have 3 dogs summoned:

• Upon setup, apply Haunt.
• 1 second into physical, Barb stomps for the first time.
• 2 seconds into physical, you sacrifice your dogs and start continuously casting SB.
• Within the next 5 seconds (when the Sacrifice stacks are active), continue to cast SB until oculus circles are spawned. Then stop immediately and go to oculus. The last 3 phantasms will start accumulating. If no oculus spawned in mid-poison, you must also stop, otherwise the Sacrifice stacks will run out and your last 3 phantasms will no longer get the buff.
• While standing in oculus, cast BBB or Grasp of the Dead (on top of your phantasms) and continue to apply Haunt throughout cold.
• Towards the end of cold, Barb stomps for the second time on top of the phantasms. They explode. You get fresh dogs.

When you don’t have dogs, the rotation is the same minus the sacrifice part.

The key is (1) lining up oculus circle with cold CoE; and (2) stop casting SB by mid-poison (before the 5-second sacrifice buff runs out) even if you don’t get an occulus. Once you stop, the last 3 phantasms will get the 60% damage from Sacrifice due to snapshotting.