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The Wizard, Witch Doctor, and Barbarian were all playable as well. (Cleverly, only those three characters were visible to select when the show first began at 10am, but around 12:30, when the opening ceremonies ended, the Monk was suddenly added to the character selection screen.) Each of the other three characters were improved and refined from last year's version, with huge changes to their skill trees and the order of their skills. This year's demo characters were higher level as well, allowing players to experiment with a wider variety of spells and techniques. "New" characters started out at level 6 last year. This year they started at level 12, and could be leveled up to 14 or 15, in the much larger "dungeon" area.
Playing the Witch Doctor was almost a relief after the barrage of options the Wizard presented. A new Witch Doctor has just as many spells, but there are more passives early on, and his active spells are clearly divided between summoning and offensive attack spells. Both must be used to succeed, since his offensive attacks aren't as powerful as those of the Wizard, and his summoned creatures (at least at these early levels) aren't strong enough to do much killing on their own.
The Witch Doctor is somewhat similar to Diablo 2's Necromancer, in that both have summoned creatures, limited offensive spells, and some mind control abilities. The Witch Doctor's mental powers are much more direct and less powerful than were the Necromancer's Curses. Early on the Witch Doctor is able to frighten away enemies, but little more, and none of his Mind Control spells have the offensive potential of some of the Necromancer's Curses. Compensating for this are his offensive spells, which are considerably more effective than those of the Necromancer, if less destructive than those of a true mage, like D3's Wizard or D2's Sorceress.
As a result the Witch Doctor is a tricky juggling act for the designers. He's got to have minions good enough to be useful, but not so strong he can just sit back and watch them go. And he's got to have spell attacks powerful enough to dispatch the enemies, but not so strong that he can survive with just those, Wizard-style. This delicate balance was working fairly well in the Blizzcon build, though I would have liked a few more low level offensive spells. Firebomb and Plague of Toads were the two main options, and both were fun to use, but Firebomb was more effective in 90% of situations, and it got a bit monotonous, endlessly hurling the explosive, fire-grenades. Especially when compared to the Wizard's huge array of low level attacks. There are higher level Witch Doctor spells that sounded like a lot of fun, but they were either too deep down the skill tree, or were disabled in the Blizzcon demo.|||Thanks for the gameplay report. I can't say that I'm liking what I'm hearing. It seems to confirm my fear that the amount of builds for the WD will be very low. With the only difference being how much of a caster or how much of a summoner he is. He doesn't have a lot of utility spells that would allow for an alternative playstyle.|||I had a long conversation with Chris Haga, one of the lead artists on D3 (at lunch thursday before Blizzcon, as part of the Fansite Summit visit to Bliz HQ). He couldn't go into many specific details (I wished I could have talked to him after the Monk reveal), but one of the things he stressed repeatedly was how open they are to change and reworking things. Iteration, iteration, iteration, he reiterated. If something's not fun, or isn't working right, or has problems, they'll change it.
That's the real reason their games take so long to make, but it's also why Bliz games are always so fun. They don't settle for good enough (at least not in their opinion; fans sometimes differ) and they'll rework or throw things out if need be. So while it's kind of lame to be all fanboy and say something like, "trust in them to get the WD fun to play, and if it seems lame now they'll agree and make changes." and yet that's pretty much the size of things. I'm sure we'll all end up disagreeing (with each other and with Bliz) on some balance issues, but I am confident that all of the characters will be a lot of fun to play, and have a lot of varied build options.
Occasional *cough* similarities aside, they know they're not making WoW 2 here, where everything is set on a template and you must support skill x and y, play in parties with set types of chars, etc. They want to allow a huge amount of variety in D3 char types, and just b/c we can't see it yet with the WD doesn't mean it's not there, or that it's not going to be there long term. It looks to me like the WD is under heavy construction; how many skills were NYI, or had just a quick description and not even any relevant stats yet? The Barb and Wiz are clearly much further along in their dev and balancing.|||When I first heard about the WD, I was disappointed. I wanted a necro. I got over it. Then I thought he would be the first char I would try because his mechanics matched my interests the most. But, reading the new information about him makes me think this is less and less the case?
The question is: Why play a mage with a meatshield versus just a mage or a meatshield (i.e. tank)?
The best reason I could think of is that the mage with the meatshield would take time to build up a devastating attack with lots of buffs, debuffs and dps coming in first to be followed by a massive AoE.
Looking at the WD, none of his skills seem to point this direction. In short, he looks like a WEAK mage with a meatshield whose only task is to spam his most damaging skill from behind his dogs. So, why not go for the powerful mage (wizard) or the powerful meatshield tank (barbarian)? The latter two are beginning to look like better options in terms of faster killers, and it is not likely that we will be spamming any more with them than with the WD (if not less).|||Removed
10char|||Judging from his full spell list on the front page, he needs a lot more mind affecting/curses skills and a lot less mana recovery widgets, and crappy passives|||Quote:
Then don't play him. Simple.
I personally like his playstyle, as I'm sure many others do as well. If he's not for you, then play your meatshield or your mage.
Well, well. What would we do without the new guys?
This is a thread about comparing, contrasting, and discussing the development of the Witch Doc. This is not a thread in which you defend your most fave class from any and all constructive criticism. As such, this thread isn't appropriate for the "Well, I like him, so if you don't just don't play Blizzard games and quit being an ingrate" comments.|||Well i believe blizzard will balance everything by the time they release the game.. As we all diablo fans know that monsters in the later part of diablo adventure has immunity to element attacks and thats when witch doctor come in handy. For example a monster immune to ice & fire a wizard will have a hard time killing it that is when a witch doctor come in and spam his poison based attacks and vice versa. D3 might be focusing alot on Co-op gameplay, his summons can be useful when attacked by multiple enemies to block off and spread, even out damages among your team and the summons or to divert attention , much of a support role. i think witch doctor is definitely a fun to play character although i myself wish for more offensive spells.
Anyway Thank You Flux for all the details of the new witch doctor spells it just made me more excited to play the game. Fetish Army! that sounds like Death Knight with Army of the Dead? haha
|||Quote:Then don't play him. Simple.
I personally like his playstyle, as I'm sure many others do as well. If he's not for you, then play your meatshield or your mage.
I hate this sort of response. If it wasn't clear by my comment or the fact that I bothered posting, the WD's mechanics had/have promise to be the one that most fits my play style. I do not enjoy direct player-skill-monster dynamic as much as I do the indirect player-skill-SUMMON-monster dynamic.
The problem is that:
1) I have always found his visuals weak in comparison to the other characters;
2) He now appears actually weak in comparison to the all the other characters, as his summons do no damage and his spells do very little;
3) His skill list makes it look like there will be very few possible builds.
My hopes are that he will undergo a heavy overhaul, getting better skill visuals, damage and variety.|||I'll bet things change somewhat before release. The WD needs to be playable as a "pure" summoner or a pure spellcaster, like the Necro is in D2.
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