New skills: Firebats and Plague of Toads

[Naja]

What's interesting about these new spells is how they seem to merge together two "branches" of the Witch Doctor's skill sets.

For example, take a look at this new monstrosity:



It looks like a combination of D2's Inferno with a summon spell...what are those creatures in the flame? Bats? Is Blizzard making a Starcraft joke?



Another curious skill. It seems that our friend has the uncanny ability to summon poison dart frogs that either do damage by proximity, or automatically explode, doing disease damage (which we can infer from the green appearance of the target). If these are indeed suicide minions, then I'm reminded of Starcraft again! This time with Starcraft 2 - the Zerg "Baneling" unit (a suicide unit that explodes when it gets close to an enemy, splashing everything around it with corrosive acid).

I'm particularly interested by the fact that these skills seem to automatically veer towards one elemental skill - frogs tend to be naturally poisonous, bats tend to revolve around fire. Maybe Mongrels are unique in the respect that they can be empowered by either poison of fire?

[psuedoenviro]

Check out the game play video around 3:40-3:50. They leap around and appear to explode.

http://www.incgamers.com/Videos/265/Diablo-3-Gameplay

[Wirt]

Oooh, new skills in the screenshots, what do we think of it?

Personally i really, REALLY, love the look of Firebats. The toads on the other hand... is it not a joke?

Wirt

[Naja]

Toads don't look too shabby in the gameplay video. When they explode, they blanket the ground in poisonous muck that lasts for quite a while. I'm reminded of the Banelings from Starcraft 2.

Although to be sure, I was really hoping for poisonous spiders...

[Mad Mantis]

So Locusts and Frogs. Any chance the WD also gets the rest of the biblical plagues as skills?

The Frogs look nice. I'm wondering if they too can be combined with the mongrels. Could make for a very interesting army for a WD.

[Naja]

Toads don't seem to be "minions" per se, but more like direct damage skills that happen to take the form of summons (a la Locust Swarm, or Bone Spirit).

You cast them, and they explode upon impact with a monster.

[Mad Mantis]

I know that the toads aren't minions, but since the locusts could be combined with the mongrels I'm hoping that the toads can be as well. This way you could have acid spitting mongrels.

[Matora]

Heh, combine mongrels with frogs. They claw at their enemies and spit explosive frogs of acid. (Or on a slightly more serios note, explode on death automatically)

[iewcce]

Lol the starcraft2 timebomb! Motherships skill:P

[FeydAway]

The toads were bleh. I stopped using them almost immediately. I played one round using nothing but firebats and the mana regen aoe spell. Firebats is fun, though the damage is not huge. You really need to add a rune I think.

Also, firebatted my dogs to make flame dogs.