Anyone else feels Zombie BEAR feels kinda..

[raveharu]

feels kinda off?

I mean, witch doctor and bears, they don't really relate to each other. Maybe Jay has a fetish for bears?

[Karth]

Slashdot: I was playing a Witch Doctor, and I used the spell that summons a zombie for you, and I got a rune that turned it into a swarm of bears. We got a real kick out of that.
Julian Love: Yeah! Zombie Bears! It’s kind of funny, that’s one of the skills that came up – the way we work is that we sit down and throw a lot of crazy ideas out, and sometimes it’s a little scary, throwing an idea that you think “I’m not sure how the group will react. This is kind of wacky.” And I remember sitting in the group and they were saying, “What are we going to do? We need something else.” And I said, “I’m not even sure why this works, but I’m just going to say it: Zombie Bears!” And everybody went, “Yes!” And that was it. Look at the way to it feels to play that skill in the game – it just sounds fun, right?

They kinda sound like cows, too, don't they? Notsomuch bears. But I guess the noises a bear can make with a rotting trachea trachea may be limited. o.O

[sacridoc]

Yeah it's dumb. Apparently WDs were supposed to be Necro/Druid kinda like how DH is Amazon/Assassin. It doesn't really fit though, and some of the other spells feel the same.

The whole zombie thing is pretty dumb honestly. What's the difference between raising a skeleton and raising a zombie? It's just a way to jump on things already in pop culture.

In D2 it made sense to have like separate skill trees because you had skill points and you would choose a discipline. So you could be a "Poison Necro."

In D3 it just feels confused.

I like the fetishes, insect/bat theme and poison dart is a good idea. But some of the other spells just don't fit.

[flint]

Zombies are the only part of the witch doctor that is distinctly Voodoo based. The bears do feel very out of place, though.

[OldDirtyNapkin]

The class is fun with the right gear, but I agree, a number of the skills are out of scope and sloppy.

[Vooodu]

I HATE bears. Seriously...They annoy me so much, especially in public games.

[Painman]

Yeah, they definitely seem out of place, but they do nuke stuff pretty well. I only bust 'em out vs. elite packs.

I never used any variant of Zombie Charger while leveling, just didn't like the limited range (same with lots of WD skills), so now that I'm in Inferno I'm learning how to work it as I go. I still prefer to stay out of the thick of it, lvled up as a pet doc with grasp/acid/firebomb but had to adapt. Still using grasp/acid/firebomb with Garg as an aggro magnet, and that still works well enough vs. trash, but the best strategy for me vs. elites is to just wipe 'em with ZB if I can. Or at least hurt them badly while trying, and then SW the hell out of there. Battles of attrition just aren't my WD's current specialty.

I'm glad that 1.04 is coming soon. I miss my zombie entourage.

[wcparker]

I agree. The WD has an awesome voodoo feel, but Haitian grizzly bears are rare indeed.