The idea of summoning a gigantic spider is awesome and totally relevant to the Witch Doctor's class, but the way it's been displayed in the latest gameplay video (link above) leads me to believe that the skill needs some rethinking before the game's release.
The spider is summoned by throwing a glass vial on the ground like the WD's firebomb. That just seems... insanely random and unnatural to me. Why not add some cool effect where the spider spins out of a web from the ground or something else that looks less awkward. However, I recognize that this could just be a rune effect and that the player has the ability to customize how they'd like their spider to be summoned; I just don't understand why they'd select that rune to show in a gameplay trailer if there are better ones.
Secondly, the spider doesn't actually attack anything. I could have its purpose wrong, but I assume it was implemented to deal damage. It just walked around and took up space on the screen. Maybe the rune causes the spider to deal damage without contact.. or maybe it's a summon like the Druid's spirits and sages from Diablo II that just boosts stats. But if it's just a booster, why make it a totally badass and seemingly lethal giant spider? Once again, I just don't think the skill "makes sense."
Perhaps I'm just being critical as a big WD fan; I just wanted to see if anyone else had opinions on the addition.
First off yeah your right it looks kinda weird but I believe this particular footage was used from their own prepolished testing phase.
1. The red outlines outlines around the monsters are similar if not identical to the panel presentation of blizzard (i think 2010?)
2. They used the same throwing animation for the firebomb.
3. To me (like you said) it seems so illogical even for a video game. I mean a spider the size of a car does not come out of a jar the size of your head. Maybe they chose to do this because way to many of the witch docs summons come out of the ground
p.s. what do you guys think of the MW move (i think its a zombie wall rune variant) with the zombie's jumping on each others shoulders and falling? I thought it was creative and looks fun to use but maybe a little gimmicky
Yeah I'm sure they could do better, but that's such a little detail that I really wouldnt worry about it right now. I'm more worried if they can get the main features right without problems.
3. To me (like you said) it seems so illogical even for a video game. I mean a spider the size of a car does not come out of a jar the size of your head. Maybe they chose to do this because way to many of the witch docs summons come out of the ground
In a game where you can accept a zombie summoning witch doctor or a wizard that commands the elements, you can't think of any way that maybe magic could be used to, I don't know, make a regular sized spider suddenly grow to gigantic proportions? It's magic. Magic excuses and allows for everything.
I thought I saw at one point that it looked like the spider did some instant damage on deploy in an AOE as well as that slow thing, maybe (or whatever the aura is). It seems like a temporary pet that you summon into the fight rather than expecting it to chase enemies around the map like your dogs would. WD is looking really cool and might be my first class I try.
He's a witch doctor. The idea is that he has a ton of elixirs,shrunken heads, trinkets, beads, vases full of weird things. It makes perfect sense.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
But omg thats what a fucking bizarre wicthdoctor spell is suppose to look. Weird and bizarre.
The witch docotr is execly the kind of guy that is awesome without being cool.
The Zombie ladder makes less sense imo. Why would a bunch of Zombies climb on top of each other like some sort of clown act just so they can fall down on their enemies?
I know it's a silly thing to bicker about, but I gotta agree with you pwnsickle, I don't like how the skill looks.
I don't mind the jar at all, he's a Witch Doctor, jars are a part of his culture. I do however mind two things, the spider just appears when the jar breaks; I'd like to see some kind of smooth spawning graphic, which I know is hard considering how quickly the skill activates. Secondly and more unreasonable, the spider's movement speed doesn't match its walking animations, where as for example the zombie dogs has very fluid movement that looks believable.
The spawning part I understand, there are only so many frames to play with to make the animations look good. This was brought up in a Blue post a while back, how D3 has a much higher FPS cap than D2, thus more room to create animations, so I would like to see that improve, though if it didn't I wouldn't really care.
The terrible movement animations have no technical reason to be so bad come release. To me the spider looks like a big toy, again in comparison with the awesome looking zombie dogs with their smooth movement animations in conjunction with their movement speed. Right now it's still early in the polishing stage of development though, if polishing has even started at all, so it's understandable as of now.
We also have to realize that it's not a true pet skill, so the team might not put as much effort into it.
“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” - Albert Einstein
The Zombie ladder makes less sense imo. Why would a bunch of Zombies climb on top of each other like some sort of clown act just so they can fall down on their enemies?
Totally agree. The zombie ladder is just too silly. Some times they have retarded ideas for the rune effects. Trying to make funny thinks wonb't work - skills are not suppose to be funny.
The way I took it to work was that he had trapped and shrunk a spider via voodoo magic in a jar and he's letting it loose now. Not really a summon. I think the effect is definitely some sort of AoE, it has no desire to attack anything it seems, probably will be a rune to turn it into an attacking summon.
The animation on it is a little choppier than I'd like and I'm sure it's not the final version. I thought the funnier part, and I hate to mention it, but it looked like a spider from WoW.
inb4 graphics debate. Just had to point it out.
Overall I liked it though and can't wait to see how it evolves and changes with runes.
Lol@people bashing the zombie ladder. It's obviously the greatest skill ever created. Ever. There are zombies...and then there are zombie ladders...
Don't listen to them Zombies....Just keep on climbin' to the top!!!!!
#Zombieswag
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Only level 60 Zombie rockstars can do the zombie stage dive.
#zombieswag
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I'll agree that the spider's visuals look a bit ... underwhelming. Hopefully it's not quite fully polished.
But - I will say that it does immediately attack nearby enemies, it's just that they're dying too soon. After that, it seems to head back to its origin point rather than the WD's side so it's definitely distinguished from the permanent pets.
I would just like to point out that if my sources are correct, that thing is called a "Corpse Spider," which indicates to me that the WD had body parts in a jar, and his voodoo rearranged the body parts into a spider. Whether the spider itself, once made, is aesthetically pleasing, is another story.
http://cl.ly/0G0p1y0X2c3y2J0n2y1C
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-oT585bQUo&feature=player_embedded
After 1:05
The idea of summoning a gigantic spider is awesome and totally relevant to the Witch Doctor's class, but the way it's been displayed in the latest gameplay video (link above) leads me to believe that the skill needs some rethinking before the game's release.
The spider is summoned by throwing a glass vial on the ground like the WD's firebomb. That just seems... insanely random and unnatural to me. Why not add some cool effect where the spider spins out of a web from the ground or something else that looks less awkward. However, I recognize that this could just be a rune effect and that the player has the ability to customize how they'd like their spider to be summoned; I just don't understand why they'd select that rune to show in a gameplay trailer if there are better ones.
Secondly, the spider doesn't actually attack anything. I could have its purpose wrong, but I assume it was implemented to deal damage. It just walked around and took up space on the screen. Maybe the rune causes the spider to deal damage without contact.. or maybe it's a summon like the Druid's spirits and sages from Diablo II that just boosts stats. But if it's just a booster, why make it a totally badass and seemingly lethal giant spider? Once again, I just don't think the skill "makes sense."
Perhaps I'm just being critical as a big WD fan; I just wanted to see if anyone else had opinions on the addition.
1. The red outlines outlines around the monsters are similar if not identical to the panel presentation of blizzard (i think 2010?)
2. They used the same throwing animation for the firebomb.
3. To me (like you said) it seems so illogical even for a video game. I mean a spider the size of a car does not come out of a jar the size of your head. Maybe they chose to do this because way to many of the witch docs summons come out of the ground
p.s. what do you guys think of the MW move (i think its a zombie wall rune variant) with the zombie's jumping on each others shoulders and falling? I thought it was creative and looks fun to use but maybe a little gimmicky
In a game where you can accept a zombie summoning witch doctor or a wizard that commands the elements, you can't think of any way that maybe magic could be used to, I don't know, make a regular sized spider suddenly grow to gigantic proportions? It's magic. Magic excuses and allows for everything.
I thought I saw at one point that it looked like the spider did some instant damage on deploy in an AOE as well as that slow thing, maybe (or whatever the aura is). It seems like a temporary pet that you summon into the fight rather than expecting it to chase enemies around the map like your dogs would. WD is looking really cool and might be my first class I try.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
But omg thats what a fucking bizarre wicthdoctor spell is suppose to look. Weird and bizarre.
The witch docotr is execly the kind of guy that is awesome without being cool.
I don't mind the jar at all, he's a Witch Doctor, jars are a part of his culture. I do however mind two things, the spider just appears when the jar breaks; I'd like to see some kind of smooth spawning graphic, which I know is hard considering how quickly the skill activates. Secondly and more unreasonable, the spider's movement speed doesn't match its walking animations, where as for example the zombie dogs has very fluid movement that looks believable.
The spawning part I understand, there are only so many frames to play with to make the animations look good. This was brought up in a Blue post a while back, how D3 has a much higher FPS cap than D2, thus more room to create animations, so I would like to see that improve, though if it didn't I wouldn't really care.
The terrible movement animations have no technical reason to be so bad come release. To me the spider looks like a big toy, again in comparison with the awesome looking zombie dogs with their smooth movement animations in conjunction with their movement speed. Right now it's still early in the polishing stage of development though, if polishing has even started at all, so it's understandable as of now.
We also have to realize that it's not a true pet skill, so the team might not put as much effort into it.
Totally agree. The zombie ladder is just too silly. Some times they have retarded ideas for the rune effects. Trying to make funny thinks wonb't work - skills are not suppose to be funny.
The animation on it is a little choppier than I'd like and I'm sure it's not the final version. I thought the funnier part, and I hate to mention it, but it looked like a spider from WoW.
inb4 graphics debate. Just had to point it out.
Overall I liked it though and can't wait to see how it evolves and changes with runes.
Don't listen to them Zombies....Just keep on climbin' to the top!!!!!
#Zombieswag
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
#zombieswag
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
But - I will say that it does immediately attack nearby enemies, it's just that they're dying too soon. After that, it seems to head back to its origin point rather than the WD's side so it's definitely distinguished from the permanent pets.
ROFL that made my day
I can only hope i'm not a zombie myself by the time the game is on shelves.
HILARIOUS
I've been a hard core Warrior/Barbarian/Knight kind of guy all my life but something about the Witch Doctor tickles my fancy.