New skills: Firebats and Plague of Toads

[Naja]

What's interesting about these new spells is how they seem to merge together two "branches" of the Witch Doctor's skill sets.

For example, take a look at this new monstrosity:

http://www.shacknews.com/screenshots.x?gallery=10868&game_id=5483#img127280

It looks like a combination of D2's Inferno with a summon spell...what are those creatures in the flame? Bats? Is Blizzard making a Starcraft joke? ;)

http://www.shacknews.com/screenshots.x?gallery=10868&game_id=5483#img127285

Another curious skill. It seems that our friend has the uncanny ability to summon poison dart frogs that either do damage by proximity, or automatically explode, doing disease damage (which we can infer from the green appearance of the target). If these are indeed suicide minions, then I'm reminded of Starcraft again! This time with Starcraft 2 - the Zerg "Baneling" unit (a suicide unit that explodes when it gets close to an enemy, splashing everything around it with corrosive acid).

I'm particularly interested by the fact that these skills seem to automatically veer towards one elemental skill - frogs tend to be naturally poisonous, bats tend to revolve around fire. Maybe Mongrels are unique in the respect that they can be empowered by either poison of fire?

[psuedoenviro]

Check out the game play video around 3:40-3:50. They leap around and appear to explode.

http://www.incgamers.com/Videos/265/Diablo-3-Gameplay

[Wirt]

Oooh, new skills in the screenshots, what do we think of it?

Personally i really, REALLY, love the look of Firebats. The toads on the other hand... is it not a joke?

Wirt

[Naja]

Toads don't look too shabby in the gameplay video. When they explode, they blanket the ground in poisonous muck that lasts for quite a while. I'm reminded of the Banelings from Starcraft 2.

Although to be sure, I was really hoping for poisonous spiders...

[Mad Mantis]

So Locusts and Frogs. Any chance the WD also gets the rest of the biblical plagues as skills?

The Frogs look nice. I'm wondering if they too can be combined with the mongrels. Could make for a very interesting army for a WD.

[Naja]

Toads don't seem to be "minions" per se, but more like direct damage skills that happen to take the form of summons (a la Locust Swarm, or Bone Spirit).

You cast them, and they explode upon impact with a monster.

[Mad Mantis]

I know that the toads aren't minions, but since the locusts could be combined with the mongrels I'm hoping that the toads can be as well. This way you could have acid spitting mongrels.

[Matora]

Heh, combine mongrels with frogs. They claw at their enemies and spit explosive frogs of acid. (Or on a slightly more serios note, explode on death automatically)

[iewcce]

Lol the starcraft2 timebomb! Motherships skill:P

[FeydAway]

The toads were bleh. I stopped using them almost immediately. I played one round using nothing but firebats and the mana regen aoe spell. Firebats is fun, though the damage is not huge. You really need to add a rune I think.

Also, firebatted my dogs to make flame dogs.

[Mad Mantis]

Also, firebatted my dogs to make flame dogs.

But can you make toad dogs?

[Lyrs]

Battle Toads! **** YES!

[Jcakes]

Yes I want Toad Dogs (anyone else reminded of simpsons ... or killer dogs with bees in their mouths so when they bark they shoot bees at you)

[Mad Mantis]

What kind of elemental attack would bees take up? We have the locusts for physical damage, toads for acid/poison and fire bats for fire. Bees are cool, but they need a niche.

[Matora]

They could be a spirit of nature infused into the mongrels/toads/whatever.

Arcane damage.

[LaZeR]

Toads are really cool. It seems that the WD countinues with agenda much like one of the winners in the "design a tree skill" (can't remember his name) was going of "summons are summoned to dispatch" which is the best idea I've read so far.

The firebats, however, seem stupid. Nice idea, bad result.

[Naja]

Too bad to hear about how little damage these two new skills did.

I'm sure Blizzard will correct this eventually.

Firebats looks really damaging!

[AcidReign]

What kind of elemental attack would bees take up? We have the locusts for physical damage, toads for acid/poison and fire bats for fire. Bees are cool, but they need a niche.

Bees could just do physical damage, with a chance to stun, poison, or slow. They'd be more of a disruptive skill :crazyeyes:

[Mad Mantis]

They could also function like Dim Vision or Terror. Not counting really on their attacks, but more the numbers in a huge swarm.

[Jodaus]

Also, firebatted my dogs to make flame dogs.

Yeah, this was by far the coolest thing about the WD for me. It seems as if your zombie dog minions take on some aspect of the primary skill you are using at the time, as I got both my dogs to turn green and (I assume) do poison damage after using frogs near them, then they started to burn once caught in the splash of my flame skull skill.

The flaming skull skill is the most wicked thing in the WD arsenal that I saw. You can just spam nuke crowds of mobs from afar with exploding skulls! So sweet. :thumbup:

Firebats took me a few minutes to understand. It's a skill very similar to the wizard's new pure energy laser skill, where you actually hold the clicker down for the duration of the spell as it saps your mana. The visual is extremely cool, but as FeydAway stated it was almost worthless as far as damage went.

This was my favorite class hands down, and I did get a chance to play all three. The skills were the most unique and visually exciting, and the gameplay was intense! They aren't totally made of glass, either; I was able to find a nice +spell damage sword and wasn't afraid to join my zombie puppies on the front lines when my mana ran low. Mana issues aren't even really a problem with the AoE regen ability, which is free to cast and sucks so much mana from surrounding enemies.

A lot of WD skills do "black magic" damage, too. Something about that just makes me :)

[Naja]

Yeah, this was by far the coolest thing about the WD for me. It seems as if your zombie dog minions take on some aspect of the primary skill you are using at the time, as I got both my dogs to turn green and (I assume) do poison damage after using frogs near them, then they started to burn once caught in the splash of my flame skull skill.

The flaming skull skill is the most wicked thing in the WD arsenal that I saw. You can just spam nuke crowds of mobs from afar with exploding skulls! So sweet. :thumbup:

Firebats took me a few minutes to understand. It's a skill very similar to the wizard's new pure energy laser skill, where you actually hold the clicker down for the duration of the spell as it saps your mana. The visual is extremely cool, but as FeydAway stated it was almost worthless as far as damage went.

This was my favorite class hands down, and I did get a chance to play all three. The skills were the most unique and visually exciting, and the gameplay was intense! They aren't totally made of glass, either; I was able to find a nice +spell damage sword and wasn't afraid to join my zombie puppies on the front lines when my mana ran low. Mana issues aren't even really a problem with the AoE regen ability, which is free to cast and sucks so much mana from surrounding enemies.

A lot of WD skills do "black magic" damage, too. Something about that just makes me :)

Awesome to hear of this, Jodaus! What was your impression of Plague of Toads? Did it look/sound cool? What was its damage like?

Did you see any other Witch Doctor skills we haven't heard of yet? Did you see a skill tree of any kind? Was the Witch Doctor's rate of killing on par with the Wizard and Barbarian? Were Mongrels the only summon still?

[Jodaus]

What was your impression of Plague of Toads? Did it look/sound cool? What was its damage like?

When you cast it, two or three little green toads make a beeline for the nearest monster and explode when they touch them, causing splash poison damage to additional surrounding monsters as well. You can put two main spells on your toolbar to hot-TAB switch between (for the right-click) and I used this and the flaming skull spell.

Did you see any other Witch Doctor skills we haven't heard of yet?

In answer to your "Should witch doctors be able to summon poisonous spiders" thread, they DO have a spider-related spell that conjures a swarm of the buggers that come up from the ground and, from what I understand, consume a mob. I didn't use this spell myself (you started at lvl 6 and usually only leveled three or four times and I spent my points elsewhere) but the ability sounded really cool.

The Locust Swarm ability has been discussed before I believe, and I put one point in it just to see it in action. It's a fairly small "swarm" of blue/green locusts that roll over mobs, and looked to do about as much damage as Firebats, but then again we're only talking about the entry level spells here so I'm sure if you beef them up they are much more potent. Looks cool though.

Wall of Zombies is fun to use. They do a pretty good job of keeping mobs away, especially if deployed on a staircase, and they grab and bite at anything within reach.

Did you see a skill tree of any kind?

I saw all three skill trees, but unfortunately didn't have a notepad on me to write anything down. Our play time was very structured and limited, so I just tried to tear through the content and quick-scanned the available skills so I could put points in the ones that sounded cool. I'm sure Flux and Elly will have this info up soon though.

Was the Witch Doctor's rate of killing on par with the Wizard and Barbarian?

Absolutely! The wizard was the hardest for me to do much damage with, which may or may not be because it's the newest class and needs a little more tweaking, but the witch doctor is a powerhouse. I found making liberal use of the flaming skull attack coupled with Firebats or the poison frogs could usually kill groups of mobs faster than my barbarian friend since he had to melee and I could just sit back and nuke. :alright:

Were Mongrels the only summon still?

Unfortunately yes, but you could summon up to two of them. There were lots of empty spaces on the skill trees and no skills whatsoever listed in the level 20 tier, so I have no doubt more summonables will be available. I spoke with Bashiok personally, and he told me that the build we were playing was a good month behind what they actually had.

[Naja]

When you cast it, two or three little green toads make a beeline for the nearest monster and explode when they touch them, causing splash poison damage to additional surrounding monsters as well. You can put two main spells on your toolbar to hot-TAB switch between (for the right-click) and I used this and the flaming skull spell.

How was this skill, damage wise?

In answer to your "Should witch doctors be able to summon poisonous spiders" thread, they DO have a spider-related spell that conjures a swarm of the buggers that come up from the ground and, from what I understand, consume a mob.

Sweet. Any indication if this is a minion that comes out of the ground like a Mongrel, or if it's just expended upon use like the frogs? Melee or disease damage?

Unfortunately yes, but you could summon up to two of them. There were lots of empty spaces on the skill trees and no skills whatsoever listed in the level 20 tier, so I have no doubt more summonables will be available. I spoke with Bashiok personally, and he told me that the build we were playing was a good month behind what they actually had.

That sounds great. How much damage did Minion Explode (what's it officially called?) do?

Also, how does Soul Harvest? How much damage does it cause? Does it leech mana, life or both?

[Jodaus]

How was this skill, damage wise?

Fairly weak, it was a poison DoT though so its primary use is to send into larger crowds of monsters. It made a good combination with the fire skull explosions since they would be suffering from the poison, then you could take out two or three whole mobs with a few flaming skulls.

Sweet. Any indication if this is a minion that comes out of the ground like a Mongrel, or if it's just expended upon use like the frogs? Melee or disease damage?

I'm sure there's someone here who can answer this better, as I said I never used the spell but I don't believe it was a summoned creature. I'd wait for Flux to explain this one.

That sounds great. How much damage did Minion Explode (what's it officially called?) do?

I loved my flaming dogs so I didn't put any points into this. They were my meat shields. :D

Also, how does Soul Harvest? How much damage does it cause? Does it leech mana, life or both?

Soul Harvest is a free to use AoE. It doesn't do any damage, and replenishes mana like a mana potion, the amount depending on how many mobs are around to "leech" from.

[Naja]

Soul Harvest is a free to use AoE. It doesn't do any damage, and replenishes mana like a mana potion, the amount depending on how many mobs are around to "leech" from.

Weird! If you look at the Witch Doctor page on the official Diablo 3 site, Soul Harvest is clearly shown killing monsters.

Did the dev team say anything about making Soul Harvest a harmless mana recharge skill? Or maybe it does damage at higher levels?

[Kiley]

Sounds like a bunch of cool damage over time and weakening spells, but in a game of pure mass destruction, I have to ask, while playing, do you feel powerfull as the WD or is it really slow paced?

I'd hate to have a class that has to spec tanks pets just to live long enough to have their 5 dot's slowly kill packs of mobs, while I am standing next to a wizard class who needs no tanks or time for spells to work, because he kills everything in 2 second with 2 huge blast.

I'm kinda worried the slow disease spreading, damage over time stacking concept just doesn't fit within a game where other classes accomplish the same thing with a single big *BOOM*. Know what I mean?

[Tyraels Twin]

I know that the toads aren't minions, but since the locusts could be combined with the mongrels I'm hoping that the toads can be as well. This way you could have acid spitting mongrels.

The mongrels did turn green when they were on top of toads that exploded, when I played at blizzcon. hard to tell if the dogs then did more damage.

[Naja]

You're forgetting all the flame skills, plus his minions, plus the minion explode ("Sacrifice") skill.

Add to this frightening combination the Witch Doctor's ability to instantly regenerate mana (Soul Harvest), and you have a non-stop killing machine, with plenty of decent direct-damage to augment his damage-over-time skills.