Why do people think of WD as a firemage?

[jakotaco]

Seriously, they have given us a grenadelike weapon that creates a large flame effect and a spell summoning burning bats, that's about it. But somehow most people seems to think of the fire spells as a WD domain.

My impression is that the few fire skills the Witch Doctor has been given has nothing to do with controling the element of fire.

Well, that's about what I had to say... I was just getting tired of seeing every other thread claiming things like "none of the unrevealed classes will use fire because the WD is the fire char" or "the witchdoctor seems to be mostly a fire char with some curses and summons on the side" or something else along those lines expecting witch doctors to have another tree of fireballs and instant incineration.

I am not making sense, I know... but I just had to say it :coffee:

[Farmrush]

The WD's primary damage types for his spells appear to be fire and poison, but I haven't seen anyone claim he is a firemage until now. At least not a large majority.

[stillman]

Well the Wizard has like one fire spell (hydra), and it's not Diablo without a load of fire damage, so maybe the WD is indeed the firestarter. It would be hard make it all up to the archer class to be the fire expert. Same with holyman class, if those are in d3.

[teh_Thrasher]

just as long as the witch doctor can keep up with the DPS of the other classes ill be fine.
because the necro didnt really keep up =\ summons climbed and then just leveled off and eventually declined in the later difficulty levels of d2. and the bone spells couldnt really kill the higher level monsters in 1-2 hits.

oh and back to the actual subject. making 1 char a 1 element character is never the way to go cause eventually ull come across someone immune to that element and ull have to find people to play with just to get past it. so dont just say the WD is only fire.
blizzard wont make the WD a "1 trick pony"

[Sass]

I figured it worked like the Sin's FireBlast. I'm not sure on whether or not any class is taking up the elemental role, but WD seems ... well I'd rather see more to make any kind of guess.

[konfeta]

He struck me more as a vodoo/spirit/physical caster...

[Mad Mantis]

From what I read not even Blizz know where they want to take the WD. He could very well be the Fire Mage.

[konfeta]

If he is the Fire Mage, I want his high tier fire skill to be Diablo 1's Apocalypse.

[Naja]

I think he's the fire mage. Considering that as early as the first gameplay video, he is described as a "master of disease and fire."

As I've mentioned earlier, the Witch Doctor borrows heavily from the WoW Warlock, which is also a summoner with mind control spells that deals poison and fire direct damage spells.

[phool]

I imagine the WD will be barely more of a firemage than D2's druid was an water/ice/coldmage. Still don't understand why WD is constantly compared to necro over druid...

[konfeta]

Druid didn't rock out with zombies.

[Sass]

Nor did the Nec use Fire & summon dogs :P (albeit, undead, which strikes me as a nec/druid combo attack)

[phool]

Druid had poison, elemental, summons, corpse-related skills... I suppose if we got a death knight equivalent to the paladin with redemption renamed aura of the lich that would be a necromancer replacement, too :rolleyes:

[AkumaSlayer]

In some ways it would be a necromancer replacement.

[ThomasJ]

I never thought of the witch doctor as a fire mage but it seems to me the fire effects seem o be more flashier than locust swarm in the video. I always thought of him as a voodoomancer with multiple talents ;)

[Matora]

I never thought of the witch doctor as a fire mage but it seems to me the fire effects seem o be more flashier than locust swarm in the video.

The first spell we see the WD cast. I'd love to see what some of the runes do for those locusts. I think Blizz is focusing more on the fire because as stated, we like explosions and things burning. Personally I prefer creepy, deep colored spells.

[knightmawko]

It has been stated, somewhere, by, I wanna say Bashiok himself but Im not sure, that the firebomb skill defines the WD, so alot of people assume that this is a gateway skill to much much more powerful fire based abilities.

After seeing firebat I am pretty much set on the WD as my first class, unless the next two are even sweeter.

[Cius]

I do not think they will have only one character that does fire damage. That was the great thing about D2. There where many builds for each character. Off the top of my head D2 had the following fire builds:

Fire sorc
Caster fire druid
Melee fire druid
Fire Zon
Fire pally (weak I know)
Fire trap assassin

If one looks through the mat/pat/guardian compilation in the single player forum you can get an idea of how many different ways there are to play each and every character. There is no way that Blizzard would be dumb enough to break that model by making any D3 characters limited to a specific damage type or role. From what I have seen the Witchdoctor will have at least 3 primary damage types in Fire, poison and magic and a 4th would be his summons probably.

[FreshMeat]

just as long as the witch doctor can keep up with the DPS of the other classes ill be fine.
because the necro didnt really keep up =\ summons climbed and then just leveled off and eventually declined in the later difficulty levels of d2. and the bone spells couldnt really kill the higher level monsters in 1-2 hits.

oh and back to the actual subject. making 1 char a 1 element character is never the way to go cause eventually ull come across someone immune to that element and ull have to find people to play with just to get past it. so dont just say the WD is only fire.
blizzard wont make the WD a "1 trick pony"

Eh.... summons necro annhilates the game as fast or faster than a hammerdin, which is faster than any other class. Level 20+ corpse explosion, maxed skellies and magery, kinda brings the house down fast.