So the witch doctor has an awesomely original theme that could fit perfectly in the diablo universe. You have this mysterious tribal man from an obscure jungle culture. He is alien to the rest of the diablo universe, both in appearance and behavior. For other classes it's either easier to understand how they work (the barbarian for instance) or the complexity is reduced because we are already familiar with the concepts (such as the wizard). When a barbarian slams down his axe, or the wizard shoots a disintegrating ray we can understand the scope of their power. Things disintegrate when you shoot lasers at them, skulls crack when smashed into the ground
Compare this to the WD. An example of voodoo magic would be piercing a doll figurine. You can see the subject squirming in pain, but what is the force behind it? What is the source of the WD's power? How does it work? The answers aren't immediately clear. To me this is what makes the WD so sinister and intriguing. There is a lot of potential to make an extremely interesting character.
Sadly, i think the opportunity is being somewhat squandered. Let's look at his skills. Think about some things you associate with Halloween. I'm going to go ahead and guess some of you thought of bats and spiders (possibly even toads). Did the WD just materialize out of some kids nightmare after a night of trick or treating? I feel the WD is only scary in a Boo! Haunted House kind of way, not in a psychologically disturbing kind of way. I actually liked the toads though, i associated them with plague which is fitting. Other skills like vomiting acid, soul harvest and spirit walk are disturbing yet interesting too. Zombie circus acrobats that make toppling corpse ladders are not. How does that even damage anything less pathetic than itself?
Luckily we've only seen some of the lower tier skills so far. I don't mind the less powerful skills to be less than awe-inspiring, there's still a lot of room to make this class awesome. What do you guys think? Do you like the current WD? How do you think the skills will evolve in the later tiers?
- Cocks in socks
edit: gramrar|||Muah! I couldn't have said it better myself!
Actually, I don't post too often but I signed in just now with the intention to post a less eloquently titled thread called "WD = 3 x meh", but instead came across your thread that expressed my feelings exactly (uncanny timing). There are many things the dev team are doing with the game that I feel iffy about but hold a wait-and-see position with. The direction of the Witch Doctor is not one of them.
As you said, the Witch Doctor has the most potential for the devs to go wild as far as abilities go because his powers are not clearly defined. Instead we have zombie bears that had you not been told were zombie bears, make you say "wtf am I looking at?" as they appear magically, interact with the enemy by passing them through like a hologram (a la zombie charger) and then just as magically disapear into the ground. Then therre's the poison snake skill that shoots a snake that squirms around on your opponents face (squirming is an age-old expression of weakness and defeat, something Diablo the Lord of Terror himself shall feel the wrath of (?)), and not to mention the hilariously put zombie-acrobat corpse-ladder you mentioned above. In my oppinion, his signature skill shown thus far is the very underwhelming low-tier Firebomb. Despite what the devs think, clearly someone is not using their imagination.
The Witch Doctor should be scary to the minions of hell and a force to be reckoned with because his power is mystic and unknown. Again, like you said he's not gonna be cracking a goatman cranium with one hard strike or disintegrating them with pretty lights like the Wizard, and that's where I think we can get creative! The WD has the Horrify skill that scares the bejeezus out of the minions of hell. Great! The skill animation itself does the job but I think the theme and flavor could be better done and the concept behind the skill of 'Horrify' heightened; be elaborated upon. That said, let's elaborate on that idea of being scary to the minions of hell (they are, by default, already scared of Meteor summoning Wizards and unstoppable tank Barbarians), and bleed it onto other 'themed' WD skills. It is therein that I believe we have found the other half of the WD's true "power"!
We want skills that make YOU as the player AND the minions of hell go 'WTF??' because they're actually cool and genuinely frightening, not because they seemingly fit a general theme and are bizarre just to be out there ( i.e. zombie bears, e.g. giant toad, zombie circus etc). Enemies should be more afraid of what the Witch Doctor will throw at them than many-a-room in the Burning Hells could hope to spawn for the same effect, so his own WD 'theme' must be truly terrifying and particularly nasty to compete. An example I've thought of is something akin to the very frightening enounters with the demon walls of the Final Fantasy series. Instead of a super lame zombie ladder that doesn't look to harm a fly (a fly would be too quick to move out of the way, I'd imagine) there could be a tall creepy totem made of bone, flesh and sinew rise from the ground with the barking-mad head of a Witch Doctor-inspired monster perched at the top. It has super-twitchy face and head movement and long scraggly hair (tink smething along the lines of The Grudge). It would have arms outstretched and hands with looong fingers/blades, reaching for the ground where enemies lay- the stuff of Chinese nightmares! The totem would crash to the ground doing AoE damage and super damage to the very unlucky monster to be grasped by this FREAK of NATURE...|||I don't have any issues with the development of the WD so far. IMO he's the most creative of all the guys out there yet. I think his skills are creative enough and stick with the game pretty well.
This whole notion of the WD being some kinda horror character that's going to scare the MINIONS of HELL into submission is a little over the top. When I think WD, I think skinny old man, covered in leaves, playing jacks with a pile of bones. Not some Scion of Fear or Tormentor of Souls; a Necromancer not a WD would have filled that role. It seams like the developers took a different approach for the WD that I am perfectly fine with.|||It's a typically misinterrpreted westerner approach to it. A witch doctor has nothing to do with voodoo and disease.
Heck, if anything, a witch doctor is a medicine man - a healer! The definition of witch doctor originally meant a person who can heal the ailments created by witchcraft.
The name 'witch doctor' versus what it does in diablo 3 is a joke.|||i actually really liked all the skills i've seen so far OTHER THAN the stupid climbing zombies... maybe in practice it could work, but it just looks so ridiculous.
and i also agree that when i think witch doctor i don't think of this crazy horror and evil filled bastard... to me it seems more tribal, and the fact that its nothing like what a real life witch doctor is, they can make it any sort of strange thing they want to.|||You're right, the Necromancer would have far better filled that role.
Also, I should I add demoralizing, crippling and decimation to the word scary when describing my take on a D3 Witch Doctor; something all of our other champions have seemingly no problem portraying in a show of power. Actually, scary is unclaimed territory.
So like what the OP had asked, what makes the Witch Doctor kick ***? What is his tangible power?? I need to believe!!! All I know is he is a skinny old man playing jacks with feeble-a** zombies. Zombies! Zombies are pretty low-rank in the undead army (think Blood Moor-low), and far far far lower still, when viewed as part of the hoards of hell, that is, the type of zombie our WitchDoctor Champion chooses to play with.|||Frantic! You're so right. I got so caught up in my ideas for Diablo 3 that I almost forgot the truth! I feel a tad ashamed.|||Quote:
You're right, the Necromancer would have far better filled that role.
Also, I should I add demoralizing, crippling and decimation to the word scary when describing my take on a D3 Witch Doctor; something all of our other champions have seemingly no problem portraying in a show of power. Actually, scary is unclaimed territory.
So like what the OP had asked, what makes the Witch Doctor kick ***? What is his tangible power?? I need to believe!!! All I know is he is a skinny old man playing jacks with feeble-a** zombies. Zombies! Zombies are pretty low-rank in the undead army (think Blood Moor-low), and far far far lower still, when viewed as part of the hoards of hell, that is, the type of zombie our WitchDoctor Champion chooses to play with.
Do you think the WD has some kinda identity crisis?
He's just not a scary character, simple as that. I don't see how he could be seeing as how the DH is meant to fill that role. I think he puts a welcome spin on the "dark/summoner" type play-style pretty well.
And how does he not match up too the other characters in terms of "show of power"? cause he doesn't smash things or blow things up with ridiculous looking lazer beams? C'mon man, from what we have seen so far, the WD seems to be fully capable of holding his own, with moves THAT WE HAVE NOT SEEN BEFORE. Yeah some of them are a little showy, but you know what, at least they are fairly original.
I might not be as knowledgeable as you when it come to zombie rankings, but there are only so many things that you can bring back from the dead. I for one and satisfied with what we have seen from the WD in that department. He is a Witch Doctor, not a lord of the undead.|||what MikeG said...couldn't agree more|||MikeG, I believe I addressed all the questions you pose in the first couple of posts from this thread, where I feel I emphatically expressed my opinion and backed up my ideas. Where did you do the same? It seems you have countered my passionate, well thought-out concepts/opinions with your own general counter-opinions of little explanation.
Also, are you really implying that the WD kicks *** for the skills that we HAVEN'T SEEN? I say he does not match up because from a lore perspective his power makes me yawn, the subject matter is not easily translated to make go BOOM, and I don't think it's been accomlished yet. From a graphic and function perspective, they're completely lacking any oomph; the newest skill to follow the WD holographic pass-through trend is the spider who killed many by just walking around.
Yeah, originality never meant anything without style.
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