Now that we know the full list of the Witch Doctor Spells I�m sure that a lot of you have opinions, observations, issues and comments on this skill set. I�d be interested to see what the WD community thinks about Blizz�s latest view of the WD.
After seeing his skill list I got quite a few impressions. Having no hands-on experience and seeing that most of the skills aren't implemented yet, you'll have to take some of my opinions with a grain of salt.
First up, the WD comes across as pretty one dimensional. You have summons and damage spells. For a successful build you�ll probably be needing both a tank and the dps so that forces you into a single playstyle. There are some utility spells to make these two things more powerful and some skills obsessed with the orbs, but nothing that radically alters what he does. I was kind of hoping that we could have more variety in the way the character plays. Seems to me that every WD will have one type of beefy summon and a few direct damage spells of their choice. Granted we have a lot of different spells to nuke things, but it all comes down to the same basic playstyle.
Secondly, the summons. This skill tree raises more questions than it answers because most of it isn�t implemented. What is it with the character level on some of the skills? Why is it fixed? What will this mean in the game? Will we be able to increase that level or are they destined to stay low level? Can we have several different summon types or do we lose the Zombie Dogs if we raise a Gargantuan? How many minions is an army of Fetishes? Can we increase that number? Do they behave like the Zombie Dogs or more like Plague of Toads?
Another part of the summons I find odd is that I don't see the transient playstyle that Blizz wanted for the summons come into play. So far we know that they seem like nothing more than glorified Clay Golems. Useful for tanking, but unable to do any damage. Sacrifice only seems to be worth it at high levels with a huge investment in all things related to the health of the summons. There aren't any other spells that rely on killing your own minions. Wall of Zombies seems useless. Just one rank and no way to boost its life and damage. A completely useless skill.
Thirdly, the nuking spells. They seem to be similar to each other. Sure you've got different elements. But it seems like all they do is start with a single target affecting projectile (maybe with DoT or a very low AoE) and end up at skills with a large AoE (maybe with DoT). I don't see why I would want to use the skill lower on the ladder other than as a way to get to the high level tiers.
Finally, some general remarks. Seeing that have a few skills that use our attributes I hate the idea of auto-stats even more. The damage on all skills (particularly the summons) seems really low. Either this will get tweaked or we need to invest in all passives to boost a skill to useful proportions. All in all I like the type of summons we are getting but I am disappointed by the lack of depth in the skills.
If people want it I'll make a sticky with the list of all the skills we know so far.|||I don’t think the demo build comes anywhere near the final talent tree the WD, or any of the other classes, will have in the actual game. Like you already stated, everything we’ve seen thus far has to be taken with a grain of salt and is far from complete. So I think it is rather unnecessary to criticize a build that will most likely change in the near or distant future.|||Most important for me that wd have some "teleport like" ability. Seems like we will have real balance now, and only in terms of damage|||What annoys me the most is the lack of progress with this char.
This could easily be the Skill Tree in Blizzcon 08. I know you're going to join Harrison and say "it's gonna take time", but after a year of work I expected much more- Look at the Wiz.
It just makes it impossible for us to assess the WD now..|||I don't see the point in investing into the zombie tree if the summons are unable to kill. I hope they change it later so you can make a true summoner.
And frogs, please... a REAL witchdoctor would be lawling if he saw something as ridiculous and kiddy as that.
It's shameful that the barbarian has more explosive looking skills. Sending out shockwaves and crashing giant hammers over monsters heads while the WD sends some lame parasite or tosses a toad. The barbarian seems more like a magician than he does. They made the barbarian all mythic and godlike while they made the WD into some cartoony comic mage.|||Quote:
And frogs, please... a REAL witchdoctor would be lawling if he saw something as ridiculous and kiddy as that.
Define "REAL witch doctor", please.|||Necro.
The post, and the response. =)|||Quote:
Define "REAL witch doctor", please.
If you don't understand the term "real", then don't bother asking.|||Quote:
If you don't understand the term "real", then don't bother asking.
What would you consider a witch doctor?
A (wo)man that lives in a tribe, using 'magic' (I'm sceptical of magic and psychics) to heal people.
A crazy coot that believes stabbing dolls will inflict pain upon you.
Perhaps the witch doctor specialised in controlling other people is more your taste.
And then there's the witch doctor down the street which cures you by feeding you plants.
Just stating a "REAL witch doctor" would laugh at people using explosive, acid-laden frogs to kill demons (of all things) is vague at best, if not just stupid.
@Daerius: 2 days old is necro'ing?|||On summons:
As you hinted at, it has been displayed that spell damage (lets take Skull of Flame for an example) increases both with equipment and stats (please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the impression that I got from Flux's reports).
Even though it was not the case in the blizzcon build, I see no reason why the level of your summons would not increase in a similar manner - although more likely with your character level rather than a particular stat or item.
This would ensure that summons stay useful throughout the game (hopefully).
Of course this is total speculation... but to me it would make sense, especially since they make a point of including the summons' level on the hover display. I hope this is the case, at least.
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