Witch Doctor Skill Trees [Archive] - Diablo 3 & Diablo 2 Forums @ Diablo: IncGamers

Jodaus

16-10-2008, 21:31

After kicking myself for not taking notes, I decided to email Bashiok last night and see if he would be so kind as to provide me with the names of the three WD skill trees and their related skills. He was more than happy to oblige, and here is his response:

First tree is Plague which has skills like Plague of Toads, Spider Statue, and Locust Swarm

Second tree is Spirit which has skills like Skull of Flame, Soul Harvest, Firebats, and Mass Confusion

Third tree is Voodoo which has Summon Zombie Dog, Sacrifice, Wall of Zombies, and Horrify

The skills, skill names, and trees are of course not final but this is what was shown at BlizzCon.

I did use Mass Confusion and Horrify, two pretty cool buffs that mind control and fear enemy mobs, respectively. Spider Statue I'm not sure on though. Sacrifice is the official name of the "blow up your zombie dog" skill.

Enjoy. :thumbup:

LaZeR

17-10-2008, 14:19

Wow. Cool!
Although I don't fully understand how the skills are divided among the tree. I mean, why Soul Harvest and Mass confusion are Spirit and Horrify is Voodoo? And why Firebats are Spirit?

And most important- I want more summoning! Blizz probably don't want the WD to become too much like the Necro, but the Zombie Dogs just can't be the only minion he'll have (although the "benefit from elemental near them" abbility sounds cool).I want a whole jungle army with crazy jungle abbilities!

PS- Sacrifice should really get a better name. Summon Explosion (SE) IMO as some kind of a joke on the Necro's Corpse Explosion (CE). But if it's a separate skill, does it mean we can blow other stuff other than Dogs?

zero

17-10-2008, 14:51

great info!!

Jaxxkelly

17-10-2008, 17:28

Mass Confusion is a VooDoo skill aswell than? Just as Horrify?

Jaxxkelly

17-10-2008, 17:53

Something else though.
This link was posted on the Barbarian forum showing the Barbarian Skill trees and some new skills:
http://www.joystiq.com/photos/blizzcon-2008-diablo-iii-in-depth-hands-on/1093568/full/

It also has 2 WD screenshots if I'm correct. They don't show much except the Skull of Flame description and some skill icons in the toolbar.
However the first WD screenshot (the one that shows when you follow the above link)shows a black icon on the top right of the screen. Is that the icon for Mass Confusion or is it an other (new) WD skill?
I think it is black because it's not activated but not sure about that.

Any ideas about that??

It seems to be a lvl 10 skill by the way..

Jodaus

17-10-2008, 20:02

However the first WD screenshot (the one that shows when you follow the above link)shows a black icon on the top right of the screen. Is that the icon for Mass Confusion or is it an other (new) WD skill?

Yes, I believe that is Mass Confusion because I know the spell was in the lvl 10 tier. I cast it on two bone archers from the other side of a chasm and watched as they turned on one another, so its uses are pretty entertaining. Too bad it didn't work on the Skeleton King. :unimpressed:

Mass Confusion is a VooDoo skill aswell than? Just as Horrify?

No, Mass Confusion is in the Spirit tree while Horrify is in the Voodoo tree. Personally I think they both belong in the Voodoo tree (since they both control another creature's reaction/emotions) but like Bashiok said, everything is still being renamed and shuffled around. There is still a lot they are working on; from what I gathered the dev team was working on polishing up Act II with two more acts still to go, so there's till plenty of time for things to get changed.

Hellspawn

17-10-2008, 20:17

I did use Mass Confusion and Horrify, two pretty cool buffs that mind control and fear enemy mobs, respectively. Spider Statue I'm not sure on though. Sacrifice is the official name of the "blow up your zombie dog" skill.

Enjoy. :thumbup:

So did you run around Horrifying stuff that got close, then casting Confusion when they were a safe distance away and watch them slaughter each other? Fun tactic? Anything besides the boss immune to horrify or confuse? Does attacking things break the horrify or confusion spell?

Jodaus

18-10-2008, 00:14

So did you run around Horrifying stuff that got close, then casting Confusion when they were a safe distance away and watch them slaughter each other? Fun tactic? Anything besides the boss immune to horrify or confuse? Does attacking things break the horrify or confusion spell?

I used Horrify a few times to get mobs off of me, and I think I only ever managed to fear two mobs at once (but I was only about lvl 8). I used Mass Confusion purely for my own amusement. :D

My general tactic was to spam Skull of Flame when they were a good distance off and then Plague of Toads or Firebats if they got close or managed to kill my dogs. Soul Harvest to replenish mana when need be, rinse repeat.

Naja

18-10-2008, 00:26

Let's just hope they come up with a cooler name than "Fire Bats". That skill looks so damned cool; it deserves a fitting title.

Keighvin

18-10-2008, 05:14

I think Mass Confusion being Spirit and Horrify being Voodoo makes sense, since the animation for Horrify I think is a voodoo doll, or some kinda mask or something, while Mass Confusion doesn't seem to have physical manifestation, unless I'm mistaken on that point.

Jaxxkelly

18-10-2008, 10:34

I thought I saw some masks with Mass Confusion. But even more mask-like than with Horrify.

Mad Mantis

18-10-2008, 13:16

Let's just hope they come up with a cooler name than "Fire Bats". That skill looks so damned cool; it deserves a fitting title.

Then try to come up with some names. We could even dedicate a thread to this and maybe come up with a contest, although I don't have prizes at the moment.

Naja

18-10-2008, 20:55

*Starts new thread*

onishin

20-10-2008, 02:25

I think the fact horrify and mass confusiuon are in different skilltrees is to allow players to have defensive skills whatever path (skilltree) they choose to specialize in. Just like temporal, storm and stone armor in wizard skills distribution

lionheart

25-10-2008, 17:58

True, I agree with onishin. They have to balance all three skill trees, and thats why they spread them around, at least makes sense like this...

onishin

25-10-2008, 23:19

Any word on when will we see the stats on the WD skills?

Mad Mantis

26-10-2008, 19:49

None yet. I'll go bug Flux about it.

Naja

27-10-2008, 01:22

Mantis, could you also ask about getting a gameplay report to accompany those skills, just like the Barbarian had?

Mad Mantis

27-10-2008, 08:58

I've sent the request to Flux, all we can do now is wait.

Es Mors

20-02-2009, 00:02

First tree is Plague which has skills like Plague of Toads, Spider Statue, and Locust Swarm

Second tree is Spirit which has skills like Skull of Flame, Soul Harvest, Firebats, and Mass Confusion

Third tree is Voodoo which has Summon Zombie Dog, Sacrifice, Wall of Zombies, and Horrify

The skills, skill names, and trees are of course not final but this is what was shown at BlizzCon.

*drool*

A buch of those sound very awesome, especially Spider Statue. I can't find anywhere to actualy see them, I guess no video footage made it out of BlizzCon?

Telzen

28-02-2009, 07:20

Which ones have you not seen? Most of those are from when the game was announced. Check the D3 site's WD page and the 20 minute gameplay video on there. Then there are some new videos from Blizzcon that are about the wizard but also have the other classes like this one:
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/22069

Though I believe there is no video showing Spider Statue.

Es Mors

28-02-2009, 12:37

bhugy

26-03-2009, 06:36

The idea of Spider Statue seems kind of weird. I don't really get why the WD would summon a big piece of marble and not just some spiders. I get that it's a trap kind of spell and he's not just creating pets, but imo something more jungle-looking would be more appropriate. I guess if the statue was all cracked and covered in moss or something, but something like "Spider Nest" where he creates a tunnel from which the spiders emerge would maybe be more organic and witchdoctor-y.

Firebats is also kind of weird. Why would he bother setting bats on fire if he could just throw fire at the enemies. Yeah, it's a cooler concept than just having another plain-Jane fire looking spell, but what if the fire was just shaped like bats? It would have the same vibe of him summoning up the animal spirits of his home jungle, or whatever, and it wouldn't have the odd (at least to me) aspect of utilizing actual, somehow extremely flammable animals.

Valmy

26-03-2009, 10:13

I would prefer a SpiderWeb, immobilizing the enemies and then eating them alive with the
spiders!
But totem looks cool, I think it fits very well with the WD concept.

For the bats... yeah, it's more cool this away. I also can't understand why he use the fire this way, but perhaps his fire is low range and he prefers to cast it near him, and let the bats fly away over his victims.

Or perhaps he have to pay tribute to his gods using animals ans spirits.

Anyway, I like it too much ^_^

bhugy

26-03-2009, 12:22

I like the idea of Spider Web. It would still function like a trap sort of spell; it would be more like crowd control since it would immobilize monsters AND attack them instead of just attack those that happen to be passing by, and it makes more sense that the WD would be summoning a web than a statue. Although, I haven't seen any pics or video of Spider Statue, so hey maybe it's pretty awesome.

And I definitely think Fire Bats as it is now is a lot better than if it just looked like Inferno or any other spell that just lobs an orangey-red glob.
Using actual bats does fit in with what we know of his character, it seems. The poison frogs hop around and explode and he can blow up his mongrels, so it makes sense that he sets bats on fire. There's a whole theme of animal cruelty evolving in the WD...

Valmy

26-03-2009, 12:32

True, and designers also mentioned serpents too, bhugy. One of the remaining skills of the WD will be with vipers ;)

I can't wait too see it.

bhugy

26-03-2009, 12:40

Hmmm, maybe in keeping with the whole "WD is cruel to animals" thing, they'll give him a snake-cannon skill. That way they could please the people who want guns AND everyone who wants snakes!

Hardy har har.

But really, I can't wait to see how they use snakes in his spells. I could definitely see some kind of summon where the snake constricts enemies or eats them whole. Or a zombie-snake pet to go with the zombie dogs would be cool too.

Gosh darn it, Blizzard!! Announce something new!!

Grug

26-03-2009, 15:31

The whole "bats on fire" thing is related to the Statue. Blizz had said the theme of the Witch Doctor is that he's using voodoo magic. It's not like the wizard's magic where you can just cast stuff from your hand. The voodoo magic requires special materials. The Skull of Flame is a Skull filled with chemicals. When locust swarm is cast, he takes some special dust and blows on it, making it turn into locusts. Similarly, the Spider Statue is a special totem to call spiders and channel them. And the Bats are lighting them on fire and using bats as the actual projectiles. The toads come from Stones (I think).