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Witch Doctor Discuss the Diablo 3 Witch Doctor character here.

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Old 17-06-2009, 19:41   #1
LaZeR
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Lightbulb Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

I've been thinking about Blizzard statement that Mongrel is one of the many pets in the WD disposel. However, he is the ONLY pet we've seen so far. And comparing number of active spells to the Wiz and the Barb- There aren't a lot of room to increase it. Especially if Blizzard don't want the minions to his main damage but more of a distraction.

Anyway, that made me think- Maybe all of his skills are considered summons aswell? I mean, Plauge of Toads- The WD SUMMONS toads to jump and explodes on enemie. Spider Statue- The WD SUMMONS Spiders to attack his enemies.
Why this is interesting you ask? Well:

1. It bring up a new aspect of summoning- Summoning a minion, but not for long. For example he can have a skills called Ancestral Rage where he SUMMONS a tribal warrior to fight, but vanishes over time.

2. If these skills are considered Summons they can be buffed as minions. One exmaple- Sacrifice. You can blow up not only your Mongrel, but also your Spiders and Toads. This can make Sacrifice the main skill of the WD and be a whole lotta fun.

What do you think? I think it's an amazing way to give summoning the difference from D2 Necro Summoning, which is what Blizzard is after, as they said repeatedly
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Old 17-06-2009, 21:51   #2
stillman
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

Yeah, that is interesting. It would be interesting if you could somehow buff those locusts, and then, use those buffed locusts to buff the mongrels.

Not all of them are clear summons though. Like the fire lobing one. You wouldn't have much time to enhance/buff that thing.
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Old 18-06-2009, 04:53   #3
Telzen
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

Yeah I've said it many times, that we've seen half of the active skills for the WD already and there is only one summon so far. My arguement for why the WD doesn't really replace the Necro. I'm thinking though that in the other half of skills there will be 1-2 other summons for us to use. I don't see the point in using Sacrifice for stuff like plague of toads. Those are just spells that take the form of animals.
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Old 18-06-2009, 13:04   #4
LaZeR
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

Toads are out of place cause the explode anyway.
But that was just an example of the fact that if you consider Animal Spell as Summons, you can treat them like summons- Buff, De-Buff, Sacrifice etc.

The differences between making it Summon Spells and just Spells are two:

1. You get the feeling like you're controling an army of Jungle creatures, like the Necro had. You can, at any given time, have Spiders, Toads, Mongrel and hopefully more at your side (which will disappear, ofc, over time).
2. Again- You make them summons. They behave like summons and treated like summons. Instead of, for exmaple, launch a giant Anaconda on an enemie, you summon it and it control itself, attacking the first thing it sees. Meanwhile, you can Explode it, buff it, or sacrifice it (and interesting idea).
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Old 19-06-2009, 15:18   #5
TheWhetherMan
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

The WD should be able to sacrifice several minions, at least the ones that follow him around. That being said, I don't think a build that focuses on summoning dudes, then buffing/debuffing, only to sacrifice them would be fun or practical. That would involve up to 6 (3 spells, 3 spell changes) actions for what would basically be a direct attack, assuming you use one buff or debuff and you want to get back to square one (summon A). I think sacrifice should be a way of getting extra value out of your summons, not a primary attack.
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Old 19-06-2009, 18:09   #6
LaZeR
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

1. You don't have to Sacrifice them. It's a possibility.
2. Buffing should be made IMO by Active Skills, like SoF buffs Mongerls.
3. I see your point. However, even if you wouldn't be able to Buff/Sacrifice your Summong Spell Skills, I think they should make the Summonable anyway, just to get the feeling you control an Army.
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Old 19-06-2009, 19:23   #7
TheWhetherMan
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

Quote:
Originally Posted by LaZeR View Post
1. You don't have to Sacrifice them. It's a possibility.
2. Buffing should be made IMO by Active Skills, like SoF buffs Mongerls.
3. I see your point. However, even if you wouldn't be able to Buff/Sacrifice your Summong Spell Skills, I think they should make the Summonable anyway, just to get the feeling you control an Army.
1. I know. My point was, I want them to be useful when they're running around, not just when they're blowing up.
2. Right, I agree. Buffs should mainly come from your other active skills.
3. I'm not sure what you mean, but just to clarify, I like the idea of buffing and sacrificing minions. I just want the passives that improve minions to be as potent as the skills that encourage you to sacrifice them.
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Old 19-06-2009, 22:12   #8
LaZeR
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

Now I don't follow you.
I thought your point was that if Sacrifice was made the main skills of the WD you'd basically only explode your Minion Spell, and not use them/let there finish their purpose (for exp you'd blow up you Spider before he had a chance to attack anyone).

I understand this problem. I have thought of any solution for it, but two:

1. Make Minion Spell un-Sacrificable. But keep them as Minions, instead of just Spell as they are presented in D3 now, so you could still get the feeling of controling a massive army.

2. Make Sacrifice different for each Minion. Difficult, and kinda clashes with the Rune Skill concept, but still possible. For exp: Sacrificing you Mongrel delivers damage, Sacrifing your Spiders creats poison nova, Sacrifcing your Anaconda stuns enemies in radius, Sacrifing your Spirit (why not?) recovers you mana.
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Old 20-06-2009, 16:44   #9
TheWhetherMan
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

OK sorry. Bottom line: I want a WD that focuses on summon spells to be viable, even if sacrifice isn't part of the build.

I want to see at least one passive that directly improves the combat effectiveness of your summons, and I want to see at least one more skill that summons a mobile monster.

If your OP is correct, if sacrificing minions is at the heart of WD summoning, I'll be disappointed. Unless, of course, they're saving more powerful, long-lasting summoning skills for a certain class in the expansion...
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Old 20-06-2009, 18:26   #10
LaZeR
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Re: Wait a minute.. (WD Breakthrough)

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWhetherMan View Post

If your OP is correct, if sacrificing minions is at the heart of WD summoning, I'll be disappointed. Unless, of course, they're saving more powerful, long-lasting summoning skills for a certain class in the expansion...
This line was quoted because that's exactly what I undestood Blizz DON'T want to make. A powerful, long lasting Summons. I think they want the WD's minios to be more of a distraction, where the WD himself delivers the actual damage.

This however brings up a major problem about Sacrifice. Let us study it a bit:

1. Mongrel can't be more damaging then Sacrifice. Then you wouldn't use Sacrifice at all.

What does that tell us?

2. Mongrel are not there for the damage. They are for distraction only.

3. Sacrifice's damage is better than Mongrels', and not the other way around. That's a problem: People would just summon to explode, without actually using the Mongrels (which can be overpowered if summoning is as easy as D2)

4. This brings up a new problem: If Mongrels don't deliver damage, but are ther mainly to keep monsters budy while the WD make the actual killing- Why would you Sacrifice them? You'd want to keep them around while you're blasting them with Skull of Flame. You don't want them dead and enemies going for you, are you?

Which leaves us with the conclusion:

5. Sacrifice is useless.
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