Unofficial Patch 1.6 Notes: We can now cast while Spirit Walk is active!

**pcguy** · 09-04-2012, 20:24

Witch Doctor

Name	Old	New
Gargantuan – Wrathful Protector	Summon a more powerful Gargantuan that only lasts for 15 seconds. The Gargantuan’s fists burn with fire, dealing an additional 55% of your weapon damage as Fire and knocking enemies back.	Summon a more powerful Gargantuan that only lasts for 15 seconds. The Gargantuan’s fists burn with fire, dealing 55% of your weapon damage as Fire and knocking enemies back.
Hex – Advanced Tooltip	Cost: 49 Mana Cooldown: 10 secondsSummon a Fetish Shaman for 8 seconds that will hex enemies into chickens. Hexed enemies are unable to perform offensive actions and take10% additional damage.	Cost: 49 Mana Cooldown: 15 secondsSummon a Fetish Shaman for 12 seconds that will hex enemies into chickens. Hexed enemies are unable to perform offensive actions and take 10% additional damage.
Grasp of the Dead – Rain of Corpses	Corpses fall from the sky, dealing 76% weapon damage as Physical to nearby enemies.	Corpses fall from the sky, dealing 80%weapon damage as Physical over 8 seconds to nearby enemies.
Locust Swarm – Advanced Tooltip	Cost: 392 ManaUnleash a plague of locusts that swarms enemies, dealing 320% weapon damage as Poison over 8 seconds. The locusts will jump to additional nearby enemies.	Cost: 196 ManaUnleash a plague of locusts that swarms an enemy, dealing 360% weapon damage as Poison over 8 seconds. The locusts will jump to additional nearby enemies.
Locust Swarm – Searing Locusts	Engulf the target with burning locusts that deal416% weapon damage as Fire over 8 seconds.	Engulf the target with burning locusts that deal 468% weapon damage as Fire over 8seconds.
Haunt – Advanced Tooltip	Cost: 98 ManaHaunt an enemy with a spirit, dealing 575%weapon damage as Arcane over 15 seconds. If the target dies, the spirit will haunt another nearby enemy.	Cost: 98 ManaHaunt an enemy with a spirit, dealing 575%weapon damage as Arcane over 12 seconds. If the target dies, the spirit will haunt another nearby enemy.
Haunt – Draining Spirit	The spirit returns 8.2 Mana per second.	The spirit returns 10.2 Mana per second.
Haunt – Resentful Spirit	Summon a vengeful spirit that does 287%weapon damage as Arcane over 3 seconds.	Summon a vengeful spirit that does 287%weapon damage as Arcane over 2 seconds.
Sacrifice – Advanced Tooltip	Banish your Zombie Dogs and cause them to explode, each dealing 200% of your weapon damage as Physical to all enemies within 12yards.	Banish your Zombie Dogs and cause them to explode, each dealing 275% of your weapon damage as Physical to all enemies within 12yards.
Poison Dart – Snake to the Face	Transform your Poison Dart into a snake that has a 25% chance to Stun the enemy for 2 seconds.	Transform your Poison Dart into a snake that has a 30% chance to Stun the enemy for 1.5seconds.
Firebats – Hungry Bats	Rapidly summon bats that seek out nearby enemies and engulf them in flames for 280%weapon damage per second as Fire.	Rapidly summon bats that seek out nearby enemies for 280% weapon damage as Fire.
Spirit Walk – Advanced Tooltip	Cost: 49 Mana Cooldown: 15 secondsLeave your physical body and enter the spirit realm for 2 seconds. While in the spirit realm, your movement is unhindered. Your link to the spirit realm will end if you cast any spell or your physical body sustains 50% of your maximum Life in damage.	Cost: 49 Mana Cooldown: 15 secondsLeave your physical body and enter the spirit realm for 2 seconds. While in the spirit realm, your movement is unhindered. Your link to the spirit realm will end if your physical body sustains 50% of your maximum Life in damage.
Spirit Walk – Healing Journey	Gain 7% of your maximum Life every second while Spirit Walk is active.	Gain 7% of your maximum Life every second while Spirit Walk.

**z00t** · 09-04-2012, 21:37

Was going to make this same post - you beat me to it

.

Here are my thoughts on what these exciting changes mean for our favourite class!

Haunt an enemy with a spirit, dealing 575% weapon damage as Arcane over 12 seconds (down from 15 seconds)

This is both a buff and a nerf - it's a buff because it now deals more damage-per-second, but a nerf for those of us who may have counted more on its utility in a fight than its damage (IE - casting it 5 times in a fight, and then letting each one regen health for you for the full 15 seconds with the Consuming Spirit rune).

That said, I think that the niceness of the increased damage-per-second outweighs whatever 3 seconds of extra utility could provide, so I'm definitely very happy with this change.

Note that Draining Spirit now regens more mana per tick, so it's even better than before!

The Resentful Spirit rune is also now straight-up better, I think. That kind of single-target DPS for only 98 mana is nothing to scoff at.

Rain of Corpses : Corpses fall from the sky, dealing 80% weapon damage as Physical over 8 seconds to nearby enemies.

80% weapon damage over 8 seconds? That's rather puny - I hope that it means 80% weapon damage to EACH affected target. Even then, it's rather low :(. Hopefully it still has a slowing effect to make it a more attractive rune option.

Locust Swarm Cost: 196 Mana (down from 392)/ Unleash a plague of locusts that swarms an enemy (instead of 'enemies), dealing 360% (up from 320%) weapon damage as Poison over 8 seconds. The locusts will jump to additional nearby enemies.

Was Locust Swarm nerfed from being changed to initially affect only a single enemy instead of multiple ones? That will depend entirely on how reliably and quickly the swarm spreads to other enemies. Assuming it's still as fast as the video on the game guide, I'd say that this is a significant buff to the skill!

Previously, Locust Swarm dealt less damage AND had nearly DOUBLE the cost! This made it EXTREMELY specialised as a horde-killer, but extremely inefficient (mana-wise) when used on a single target, or against only a handful of tough enemies.

With Locust Swarm now costing almost half as much as it did before, it becomes a much more attractive option in a wider variety of situations - I'm really excited at the fact that I'm no longer 'wasting' mana if I need to use this skill against only a few enemies.

Spirit Walk Cost: 49 Mana / Cooldown: 15 seconds / Leave your physical body and enter the spirit realm for 2 seconds. While in the spirit realm, your movement is unhindered. / Your link to the spirit realm will end if your physical body sustains 50% of your maximum Life in damage.

As PCGuy mentioned....this is quite a doozy! Being able to cast spells while in Spirit Walk? HECK YEAH! This opens up new strategies while retaining the previous ones - I think everyone's happy with that :P.

**Pansy** · 10-04-2012, 04:09

Seems like a fairly good patch for WDs overall. I do like that the mana cost reduction of locusts will make it a bit more friendly with pierce the veil's increased mana usage, making that combo of spells a bit less daunting for WDs without a massive mana pool. Haunt's DPS increase is pretty nice too.

The spirit walk change might make for some interesting petless WD build options (pet builds too, serving as a versatile "oh crap" button if they have the room on the skill bar) with the ability to cast while doing it with the patch change. Might be interesting in PvP too.

**WD pimpin summons** · 10-04-2012, 04:50

I hope the Hex change means it will have time to cast its spell more often instead of just increasing the CD and summon time.

**Horcsog** · 10-04-2012, 07:12

Ye, we can use Spirit Walk every 15 sec to gain 30% mana back, that's very awesome!

**pcguy** · 10-04-2012, 07:27

Originally Posted by WD pimpin summons

I hope the Hex change means it will have time to cast its spell more often instead of just increasing the CD and summon time.

When I tried it, Hex would be cast on two enemies before the fetish would unsummon. I believe the 4 second increase signifies that the fetish will now cast Hex on three enemies instead of just two.