Known spells

[Es Mors]

Allright, first subforum thread!

Let's discuss the spells we have already seen:

Firebomb, Horrify, Locust Swarm, Mass Confusion and Soul Harvest. You can see them in action here.

Also, we saw the beyond awesome zombie wall in the gameplay video. I already look farward to playing with that.

I don't like the Locust Swarm graphics much, they remind me of the wasp swarm spell that elves have in Heroes of M&M 5.

Share your thoughts about the witch doctor spells!

[Mad Mantis]

The graphics of the locust swarm bother me as well. I like the idea of ravenous insects stripping foes of their meaty bits, but the animation at this points doesn't really do it justice.

Zombie Wall is nice and for once allows your barriers to add something.

I'm wondering what the other summons will be. Hopefully the WD will be able to get some of the undead minions that the Necro had.

[Es Mors]

Also I noticed that the horrify spell could turn out more annoying than usefull. I mean, we all hate it when fallen or the little guys in act 3 run away from us, and from what I see in the video, it's exactly the same. Of course, it's different when you actualy make them run away yourself, but you still have to go and hunt them down almost one by one afterwards.

[Mad Mantis]

It functions just like Terror does. That can be a real life saver at times. You'll probably only use this when things are too tough to handle.

What I do find sad is that CE is most likely gone. Exploding a minion just doesn't have the same feel to it. What I do like about exploding your minions is that you'll probably need more strategy. You'll need to ask yourself whether you need the extra tank or if the extra damage will be what wins the battle.

[Davidus]

lots of short spell movies here
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/8234.html

[Flux]

skill notes i wrote up for wiki addition very soon. semi rough. not gone over the gameplay with a fine toothed comb yet.

firebomb -- this skill allows the WD to lob blazing projectiles, like molotov cocktails, at his enemies. They may be thrown varying distances, from most of the way across the screen to nearly at the WD's feet. The burning bottle tumbles end over end in mid-air, and explodes with a burst of flame when it lands, dealing fire damage and knocking back anything in the immediate vicinity. The spell seems to involve some sort of fire spirit, not just a flammable substnce, since a flaming figure is briefly visible overhead when the firebomb bursts. It also sets targets aflame, and they take continued damage from the fire for several seconds. There are fires left burning on the ground after a firebomb detonates, but these do not seem to deal damage to, or set fire to, targets that walk through them.

horrify -- This curse-like spell works like the terror curse (or the barbarian's grim ward skill), but functions almost like a terror aura; causing any mosnter near the WD to flee in fright. MOnsters in range are overcome with fright and immediately scatter, running away from the WD. The skill works by summoning a frightening spirit, which appears above the WD and screams and shakes its arms at the monsters. Presumably, any monsters that come into range while the horrify spirit is active are affected by it, essentialy making the WD a moving object of terror. This limits the skill as well, since it can't be cast on individual targets, or cast a great distnce from the WD. There look to be 2 durations; how long each individual fright lasts on afflicted monsters, and how long the frightening spirit remains over the WD's head, capable of horrifying or re-horrifying naything that comes into range. some monsters are seen being horrified twice by the same cast.


locust swarm -- This projectile attack works a bit like a bug-based inferno. The WD sends out a spray of green insects; they swarm over anything in range, and eat them to the bone, like flying piranha. Each swarm seems to last for a given amount of time, and if they kill one monster and still have some duration remaining, they will spread to others. they gain time by consuming each target though, and in a mob the locust swarm can act in chain lightning fashion, leaping from one enemy to another. a single swarm can last much longer than usual, killing a dozen or more targets if they are closely spaced. The locusts can also be sprayed on the WD's minions, where they will ride along, without hurting the minions, and grant poison damage to the minion's attacks.

mass confusion -- this curse-like mind control attack summons a blue spirit wherever the wd targets it. The spirit confuses some of the monsters in range, causing a aqua light to appear over their heads. Confused monsters seem to lose their AI, and they mill around more than usual. They may also attack, or be attacked by, other monsters. They are not the WD's minions though, and are not under his control, so he can kill confused monsters just like any other monster.

soul harvest -- this skill creates a nova-like ring of blue smoke aorund the WD. all targets within the ring are damaged, and if the damage is enough to kill them, their souls (white/blue ghosts) swirl into the air, then down into the witch doctor, where they presumably add to his mana or life. The radius of the skill is not very large, so monsters need to be nearly in melee range to be affected.

zombie wall -- This skill works much like the Necromancer's bone wall; causing a straight line of obstacles to erupt from the earth. Not merely obstacles though, this wall is made of zombified creatures who claw at and deal damage to any monsters who come into range. Monsters attack the wall on sight. The zombies are very powerful in the wwi 2008 gameplay movie, ripping every monster to shreds in seconds, but it's assumed the skill is high level, or the character has a lot of points in it, since it looks overpowered. The wall will theoretically serve a defensive purpose as well; blocking shots from ranged attackers. It's not known if it can stop the advance of larger monsters, who might just step over it or crush it.

[Beowulf]

skill notes i wrote up for wiki addition very soon. semi rough. not gone over the gameplay with a fine toothed comb yet.

firebomb -- this skill allows the WD to lob blazing projectiles, like molotov cocktails, at his enemies. They may be thrown varying distances, from most of the way across the screen to nearly at the WD's feet. The burning bottle tumbles end over end in mid-air, and explodes with a burst of flame when it lands, dealing fire damage and knocking back anything in the immediate vicinity. The spell seems to involve some sort of fire spirit, not just a flammable substnce, since a flaming figure is briefly visible overhead when the firebomb bursts. It also sets targets aflame, and they take continued damage from the fire for several seconds. There are fires left burning on the ground after a firebomb detonates, but these do not seem to deal damage to, or set fire to, targets that walk through them.

horrify -- This curse-like spell works like the terror curse (or the barbarian's grim ward skill), but functions almost like a terror aura; causing any mosnter near the WD to flee in fright. MOnsters in range are overcome with fright and immediately scatter, running away from the WD. The skill works by summoning a frightening spirit, which appears above the WD and screams and shakes its arms at the monsters. Presumably, any monsters that come into range while the horrify spirit is active are affected by it, essentialy making the WD a moving object of terror. This limits the skill as well, since it can't be cast on individual targets, or cast a great distnce from the WD. There look to be 2 durations; how long each individual fright lasts on afflicted monsters, and how long the frightening spirit remains over the WD's head, capable of horrifying or re-horrifying naything that comes into range. some monsters are seen being horrified twice by the same cast.


locust swarm -- This projectile attack works a bit like a bug-based inferno. The WD sends out a spray of green insects; they swarm over anything in range, and eat them to the bone, like flying piranha. Each swarm seems to last for a given amount of time, and if they kill one monster and still have some duration remaining, they will spread to others. they gain time by consuming each target though, and in a mob the locust swarm can act in chain lightning fashion, leaping from one enemy to another. a single swarm can last much longer than usual, killing a dozen or more targets if they are closely spaced. The locusts can also be sprayed on the WD's minions, where they will ride along, without hurting the minions, and grant poison damage to the minion's attacks.

mass confusion -- this curse-like mind control attack summons a blue spirit wherever the wd targets it. The spirit confuses some of the monsters in range, causing a aqua light to appear over their heads. Confused monsters seem to lose their AI, and they mill around more than usual. They may also attack, or be attacked by, other monsters. They are not the WD's minions though, and are not under his control, so he can kill confused monsters just like any other monster.

soul harvest -- this skill creates a nova-like ring of blue smoke aorund the WD. all targets within the ring are damaged, and if the damage is enough to kill them, their souls (white/blue ghosts) swirl into the air, then down into the witch doctor, where they presumably add to his mana or life. The radius of the skill is not very large, so monsters need to be nearly in melee range to be affected.

zombie wall -- This skill works much like the Necromancer's bone wall; causing a straight line of obstacles to erupt from the earth. Not merely obstacles though, this wall is made of zombified creatures who claw at and deal damage to any monsters who come into range. Monsters attack the wall on sight. The zombies are very powerful in the wwi 2008 gameplay movie, ripping every monster to shreds in seconds, but it's assumed the skill is high level, or the character has a lot of points in it, since it looks overpowered. The wall will theoretically serve a defensive purpose as well; blocking shots from ranged attackers. It's not known if it can stop the advance of larger monsters, who might just step over it or crush it.

Very nice.

[dragonhelmuk]

I'm actually a bit confused by the mass confusion spell myself... ;>It seems to be quite similar to the Assassin/Necromancer confuse skill except it has a very big range, (which seems to centre on the player) and quite a short duration. Also, looking at the confusion animation on the Blizzard site, I couldn't see any confused creatures attack each other; they only attacked other creatures who weren't confused. In fact, at one point confused creatures seemed to ignore each other just to attack a non confused creature. Does that mean it functions more like a conversion spell? Or was it just because like Flux said, they were a bit too confused to initiate anything, and so were just responding to the violence of the non-confused monsters?

[Mad Mantis]

In the first iterations of Confuse the monsters under its effects only targeted monsters not under its effects. That was later removed. I couldn't see it that clearly in the video, but I do hope that confused monsters will target everything and not just non-confused monsters.

[Es Mors]

We're all forgetting the summon mongrel spell (presuming that's the name). Also, the gameplay video hints that there will be more creatures that we can summon. Quote:

"... the witch doctor commands pets to do his bidding. The first of these pets is the mongrel..." (emphasis by me)