A user on battle.net forums recently commented that the Witch Doctor's "Plague of Toads" skill was "lame". This baffles me, because out of all the skills that I played around with at BlizzCon last year, the toads were easily my favorite and seemed perfect for the character. Bashiok also commented in on the subject:
"If you're basing the entirety of your purchasing decision on if Plague of Toads remains in the game or not, then sure, otherwise that's a giant leap of logic.
I'm saying if you don't think it's cool enough there are tons of other skills to spend points on. I happen to personally think it's a cool ability. It works really well, the sounds and visual of a plague of toads hopping around and exploding in poisonous goo is entertaining to me. It fits the style and feel of the witch doctor class, and it's a fun and useful skill. I like it.
If you don't think it's a good ability, you don't have to use it. The great thing about Diablo III is there are lots of options for building a character. If you don't like an ability for whatever reason, it doesn't work with the build you're going for, it seems weak, or you just don't like the way it looks, don't get it. There are plenty of skills to spend your points in. The witch doctor trees have only been shown in a very limited amount, so I know that's kind of hard to put into focus, but he has tons of awesome (AWESOME) skills. Pick the ones that appeal to you. Customize your character as you see fit.
Saying it's not cool enough is completely subjective, and based on limited knowledge. So I disagree with you, I think it is awesome, and it should be a skill. There's no consensus here. So where does that leave us?
We could argue back and forth how appealing something is to each individual person. Or! We could agree that not every skill will appeal to every player, and through diversity and choice we welcome a wide range of players to choose how they wish to play."
He then went on and responded to the following user comment:
"I'm happy that you often mention sounds with skills, though. That is a very, very important aspect of any skill in any game. I hope to hear more about that soon. (pardon the pun).
I know I probably won't since game companies tend to gloss over sound creation and highlighting those features but it is very important, as was mentioned in some thread about the sound the health globes make. Distinctive and unmistakable is key."
"I would love! to have a dedicated feature just to the sound engineering that goes into the game. It's truly amazing how much of an abilities power and feeling comes from the audio.
Jay had an anecdote at ... the last BlizzCon I think, where he talked about seismic slam. It was one of if not the first barbarian abilities created, actually first in the game entirely, and they were working on it and working on it, and just never really happy with it, and then one day the sound came back for it and they got it all working in game, and finally it all came together. It became this stunningly powerful feeling ability. I think that speaks volumes (nyuk nyuk) about how important sound is to the feeling of a game.
That same lesson is true through the development of the game. A new skills goes in and it seems awesome, it looks cool, but until you get the sound attached it just seems incomplete.
Just because a lot of the sounds are early renditions though, as amazing as they are, we'd need to make sure the audio engineers are far enough along where they'd want to showcase them. They're perfectionists. So hopefully a sound feature is something we can do, but if I had to guess it won't be for a while yet."
So what do you guys think about the Witch Doctor's skills from what we've seen so far? I for one love 'em. And yes, sounds are vital and it's unfortunate that the foley artists often don't get the same credit that the graphic artists do.
Same with me. I dont know how you go about saying the toads are lame. Maybe that user has yet to play the demo. Incinderary beam and plague of toads were my favorite to use out of all the characters.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Those before me shall quiver in my wake as I unleash the fury within!
i dont know maybe its just me but the plague of toads seems kinda un diabloish to me. When u look at skills like corpse explosion or poison explosion(although i never once used it in diablo 2 still cool though) plague of toads doesnt seem like it lives up to those kind of skills.
Sadly...I don't find the spell very appealing either. It does remind me of Hammers.
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 personnally thik this skill is awesome and im gonna be sure to include it in my build.
It's a really fun skill to watch. Who would think a small frog would spit acid all over you.
I just think the people who are bent on not liking this skill either jjust dont get it or are not open minded
I think your not open minded for thinking I'm not open minded for choosing to dislike the skill.:O
Frogs are lame. Therefore, the skill is also pretty lame.
"Witch doctor! It's up to you I can't go on! What will you do to defeat Diablo?!?!"
"I'm gonna throw some frogs at 'em!That should do the trick right?!"
Diablo: "Not even Death can.....Ooooohhhh nooeezzz...My one weakness, frogs, how did you know??"
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
Well thats the point frogs seems pretty harmless...
Imagine youre a skeleton you walk in the forest and see a human you just walk to go rip is head (of course) he starts throwing frogs at you so you just ignore them they are pretty harmless. Then when you walk on one of them it blows up and your feet starts to melt WTF!
or
Youre a big bad ass with a club so you just swing your club in the toads but shit youre club starts melting and you receive acid in your eyes
Frogs looking harmless is the coolest thing about this skill!
And Diablo would probably be like
Oh some nice frogs lets have a group hug! Blam acid all over him!
Well thats the point frogs seems pretty harmless...
Imagine youre a skeleton you walk in the forest and see a human you just walk to go rip is head (of course) he starts throwing frogs at you so you just ignore them they are pretty harmless. Then when you walk on one of them it blows up and your feet starts to melt WTF!
or
Youre a big bad ass with a club so you just swing your club in the toads but shit youre club starts melting and you receive acid in your eyes
Frogs looking harmless is the coolest thing about this skill!
And Diablo would probably be like
Oh some nice frogs lets have a group hug! Blam acid all over him!
WD won the round again
Why not implement poison darts instead since he's African...
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 think that the concept is cool but they should of used the pets the the witch doctor can summon. Similar to the one that it already has that can blow up its and damage enemies(cant remember the name) but when the pets exploded it should of sprayed acid on the ground and made a poison cloud or something. Course they already have something similar to this so instead of the pets send a disease into any enemy and have them explode and send acid and a poison cloud out. Not sure how that would work on skeletons though. That sounds more like Diablo.
I never actually played with the skill before so I can't come to a verdict here. I'll put the skill in my maybe box and wait till the game gets released
I think poison darts should be an other skill entirely, nah keep the plague, it's unique and fresh... that's how I like it!
PFfffft nothing in Diablo3 is lame.....until I get my guy in there
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
I think your not open minded for thinking I'm not open minded for choosing to dislike the skill.:O
Frogs are lame. Therefore, the skill is also pretty lame.
"Witch doctor! It's up to you I can't go on! What will you do to defeat Diablo?!?!"
"I'm gonna throw some frogs at 'em!That should do the trick right?!"
Diablo: "Not even Death can.....Ooooohhhh nooeezzz...My one weakness, frogs, how did you know??"
Frogs are lame, yes, but Diablo 2 Twister, Find potion, Teeth, Poison Dagger were all pretty lame imo. But when I didn't want to use a lame skill, I didn't use them.
Yes, toads are a bit weird. But it simply because I think some people here (and alot on Bnet forums) still believe the WitchDoctor is a renamed Necro. When I hear Witchdoctor, I think about african shamans that do potions with snakes, toads and bats. Just give the witchdoctor a chance to prove his worth.
I agree that exploding toads are a rather lame concept and seem a bit out of place in the Diablo universe but honestly whatever. When I play, I'll just pretend the skill doesn't exist and go from there. Hell, I might not even play Witchdoctor, I'm still not sure the character's my type. So yeah, I'm going to take Bashiok's advise and just ignore the skill.
What happened to the days when people would play a game that a development team would put out, instead of having to be so effing opinionated about every little damn thing going into it? Is the skill going to make you NOT play the game? No. Is the presence of the skill going to ruin your entire Diablo 3 gameplay experience? No.
Really, the whole argument goes back to the "OMG TOO MANY RAINBOWS" crap. If you don't like it, fine. Don't like it. It doesn't matter if you like it or not, nobody at Blizzard is going to do anything but mock the collective mass of you that voice your opinion (i.e. the rainbow pony shirt).
After reading the complaints about this skill, I think I'm going to make it a point to personally PK people that bitch & moan about the toads, just to piss them off... under a rainbow waterfall.
To me- the idea of frogs against Diablo is very lame.
You say- it looks fun. The same as flying exploading pigs would look 'fun'.
But Diablo should be a 'bit' more serious than that. I don't say that this skill is not effective and doesn't look nice, but the 'fun' and visual effect of the spell shouldn't be considered most important if it doesn't fit the realm.
C'mon people, you really like the IDEA of fighting against Diablo and killing him by toads? Doesn't this sound like hidden 'cow' lvl which was supposed to be a cool joke? lol. This just isn't serious for the game like this even though it might look super fun (for kids).
And it's obvious that Bashiok will be defending the idea, what else can he say- that it sucks?
cheers
You do have a point though if you put yourself in the lore or background of the Witchdoctor...the things that are around him that he uses everyday...is his arsenal. I cave man is surrounded by stone and lumber...he made a primative mace
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Those before me shall quiver in my wake as I unleash the fury within!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
He then went on and responded to the following user comment:
"I'm happy that you often mention sounds with skills, though. That is a very, very important aspect of any skill in any game. I hope to hear more about that soon. (pardon the pun).
I know I probably won't since game companies tend to gloss over sound creation and highlighting those features but it is very important, as was mentioned in some thread about the sound the health globes make. Distinctive and unmistakable is key."
So what do you guys think about the Witch Doctor's skills from what we've seen so far? I for one love 'em. And yes, sounds are vital and it's unfortunate that the foley artists often don't get the same credit that the graphic artists do.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
It's a really fun skill to watch. Who would think a small frog would spit acid all over you.
I just think the people who are bent on not liking this skill either jjust dont get it or are not open minded
I think your not open minded for thinking I'm not open minded for choosing to dislike the skill.:O
Frogs are lame. Therefore, the skill is also pretty lame.
"Witch doctor! It's up to you I can't go on! What will you do to defeat Diablo?!?!"
"I'm gonna throw some frogs at 'em!That should do the trick right?!"
Diablo: "Not even Death can.....Ooooohhhh nooeezzz...My one weakness, frogs, how did you know??"
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Imagine youre a skeleton you walk in the forest and see a human you just walk to go rip is head (of course) he starts throwing frogs at you so you just ignore them they are pretty harmless. Then when you walk on one of them it blows up and your feet starts to melt WTF!
or
Youre a big bad ass with a club so you just swing your club in the toads but shit youre club starts melting and you receive acid in your eyes
Frogs looking harmless is the coolest thing about this skill!
And Diablo would probably be like
Oh some nice frogs lets have a group hug! Blam acid all over him!
WD won the round again
Why not implement poison darts instead since he's African...
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I think poison darts should be an other skill entirely, nah keep the plague, it's unique and fresh... that's how I like it!
I dont know if youre serious but....
This skill would be so uninteresting I would not play it as Much as i would like to play plague of toads.
It's fresh, funny and deadly! (just like my gf)
I may understand who says the skill is not "diabloish" but still a bit of innovation is good in a game.
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Frogs are lame, yes, but Diablo 2 Twister, Find potion, Teeth, Poison Dagger were all pretty lame imo. But when I didn't want to use a lame skill, I didn't use them.
Yes, toads are a bit weird. But it simply because I think some people here (and alot on Bnet forums) still believe the WitchDoctor is a renamed Necro. When I hear Witchdoctor, I think about african shamans that do potions with snakes, toads and bats. Just give the witchdoctor a chance to prove his worth.
Really, the whole argument goes back to the "OMG TOO MANY RAINBOWS" crap. If you don't like it, fine. Don't like it. It doesn't matter if you like it or not, nobody at Blizzard is going to do anything but mock the collective mass of you that voice your opinion (i.e. the rainbow pony shirt).
After reading the complaints about this skill, I think I'm going to make it a point to personally PK people that bitch & moan about the toads, just to piss them off... under a rainbow waterfall.