I was one of the lucky ones to win a key from this site, so I feel I should share some personal opinions on the different classes. My plan is to play a character up to lvl 13 and in the process test all of the different skills/runes available to us. The Witch Doctor was my first character, so here is what I have to say.
I have read several posts regarding the WD and how "boring" or "awkward" he was to play. I myself found the character very easy to play. The skills were simple to understand and use, and in the right combination he is quite deadly.
First I'll talk about the skills I enjoyed using throughout my levelling experience.
Poison Dart - This is one of the skills I was not sure about, but once I started using it I found it to be very useful, especially to attack individual demons or barrels. We had access to 2 different skill runes in the beta (Splinters which shoots multiple darts in quick succession and Numbing Dart which slows target movement). Both had their place, but I definitely got more us out of the Splinters skill rune.
Grasp of the Dead - This skill was essential for controlling monsters, and at times the damage that the skill dealt killed them without any other attacks needed. We had access to one skill rune called groping eels that increases the skills damage and was a nice addition.
Summon Zombie Dogs - This seems like the go to skill as a WD, summoning 3 zombie dogs to fight for you. The dogs helped to keep groups busy and at distance so that the WD had time to get his other attacks off and maximizing damage. One skill rune was available to us named Life Link which had the dogs absorb some of the damage you take.
Haunt - This spell haunts an enemy doing quite a bit of damage, and when the monster dies it has a chance to jump to another enemy and start damaging them as well. This spell worked well for me if I threw down Grasp of the Dead and then spammed it at the mobs.
Firebats - This spell is exactly what it sounds like. You shoot a swarm of fiery bats at the enemy burning them up. This is one of the skills I originally did not expect to like, but after using it I became a fan. You receive this skill at lvl 12, and for me it replaced my use of Poison Dart as the go to skill.
The skills that I didn't care for in the beta are as follows:
Corpse Spiders - I found it difficult to control where the spiders would go/who they would attack. Even with the skill rune Leaping Spiders, I just never felt this spell or could get it to work the way I wanted.
Plague of Toads - Another one of those spells I just couldn't get to work the way i wanted. It was hard to control and had limited duration.
Hex - I can't imagine why a spell that turns people into chickens didn't appeal to me, but overall it just didn't seem fun to use.
Horrify - As a spell that fears mobs I again expected to find this useful, but the spell didn't seem to work the way it was intended or I expected more from it.
Fire Bomb - This is one of the skills I had dialed into my final set up until I actually used it. Don't get me wrong....throwing a flaming skull into a crowd and watching it explode in a fiery mess sounds great, and it was ok. I had a hard time controlling the bombs where I wanted them to go, so that is probably why it ends up on this part of the list.
Please understand that these are just my opinions and that everyone plays their characters differently. As a matter of fact, one of my earliest posts was about the different things I was looking forward to in Diablo III and I listed the ability to have 2 different players playing the same class in a game together. I was able to experience that with the WD in a few games and as expected, we all played a little differently. Everyone used the Zombie Dogs as expected, but where I used Haunt and Fire Bats another player used Poison Dart and Corpse Spiders. Yet another WD used Fire Bomb and Hex. I think people's fears about every WD being exactly the same (cookie cutter) is just not going to be the case.
Sorry it was so long, but I wanted to give you a feel of how the class played. I must confess that I did die once during the Jar of Souls event due to my laggy computer (and lack of skill). I really enjoyed playing the WD as expected, so I am still leaning toward this as my first character at live. My next character review will be the Wizard, which is currently at level 12.
but with corpse spiders they basically really suck if you dont aim them perfect without leaping spiders. and even with leapers you have to be good where you place them according to the mobs and where the mobs move. i love using them and at first it was difficult but once you get the hang of aiming them right they became super fun.
frogs are completely random and dont last long at all. its pretty much useless without a rune. exploding toads will be MUCH better because its far more dmg and they explode in a little AOE. and rain of toads should be amazing too. thats aimable like a small area gets bombarded with toads for 2 seconds for a lot of dmg.
haunt i think still sucks unless you have awesome DPS and your attacking mobs much lower then you. but i think it will be much better at higher levels when it takes longer to kill mobs.
i didnt like hex either because it would only hex 1-2 guys before dissapearing in 8 seconds. just didnt seem worth casting. id say with the first rune that heals your group it may be worth getting then as an extra heal since the WD really doesnt have much other healing.
firebomb i didnt like because it just felt slow. when i get the frenzy shrine it feels much better
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"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
Excellent write up. I've been looking forward to playing as the witch doctor, and what you described seems to be about what I expected. I'm glad to know that the witch doctor, at least from what you have described, sounds like it will be everything I had hoped. I like that firebats became your mainstay for dealing damage. Perhaps horrify and hex will become more useful with some rune augmentations or at higher difficulties.
Yea, good write up man. Like you touched upon and as I found - the WD's pets aren't/don't seem to be for dps purposes. They seem to be more for keeping mobs away from you while you cast your dps spells. With that in mind, come release I'm going to tailor my WD's pets for longevity rather than damage output.
Nevermind, looks like Jay Wilson already confirmed what I said years ago... womp womp :-P
The Witch Doctor's pets are more of a distraction -- they're his form of crowd control. They're very transient, they don't matter as much to him, and they aren't really a primary source of damage. We wanted to have this general notion of a character who controlled all things slimy and gross, like zombies, bats, snakes, and spiders, but he didn't rely on them -- he just throws them out there. One of his most permanent pets is his Zombie Dogs, and we have a spell to blow them up because they're just not that important to him. We consider Zombie Wall to almost be a pet as well; it's a short-term pet, but it's a pet nonetheless. Each element is like that, where it's another distraction while the source of primary damage is the Witch Doctor himself. This makes him play very differently than the Necromancer, which was intentional.
I love the feel of the Witch Doctor. I usually don't like "pet" classes but I don't feel that the Witch Doctor is one, even though it kind of is. Poison Dart is an amazing ability once you obtain the splinters rune. Along with Grasp of the Dead and Zombie Dogs after level 6 the Witch Doctor really becomes a powerhouse. Although the Witch Doctor is not going to be my first class it will most likely be my second. It lived it up to my expectations and then some. Yet all the classes I've played so far have exceeded what I thought about them. I think the only people who may be not be please are ones looking for a lazy summoner build. That may be possible at later levels of normal but overall it appears how Jason Wilson said, the pets are a form of CC.
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I have read several posts regarding the WD and how "boring" or "awkward" he was to play. I myself found the character very easy to play. The skills were simple to understand and use, and in the right combination he is quite deadly.
First I'll talk about the skills I enjoyed using throughout my levelling experience.
Poison Dart - This is one of the skills I was not sure about, but once I started using it I found it to be very useful, especially to attack individual demons or barrels. We had access to 2 different skill runes in the beta (Splinters which shoots multiple darts in quick succession and Numbing Dart which slows target movement). Both had their place, but I definitely got more us out of the Splinters skill rune.
Grasp of the Dead - This skill was essential for controlling monsters, and at times the damage that the skill dealt killed them without any other attacks needed. We had access to one skill rune called groping eels that increases the skills damage and was a nice addition.
Summon Zombie Dogs - This seems like the go to skill as a WD, summoning 3 zombie dogs to fight for you. The dogs helped to keep groups busy and at distance so that the WD had time to get his other attacks off and maximizing damage. One skill rune was available to us named Life Link which had the dogs absorb some of the damage you take.
Haunt - This spell haunts an enemy doing quite a bit of damage, and when the monster dies it has a chance to jump to another enemy and start damaging them as well. This spell worked well for me if I threw down Grasp of the Dead and then spammed it at the mobs.
Firebats - This spell is exactly what it sounds like. You shoot a swarm of fiery bats at the enemy burning them up. This is one of the skills I originally did not expect to like, but after using it I became a fan. You receive this skill at lvl 12, and for me it replaced my use of Poison Dart as the go to skill.
The skills that I didn't care for in the beta are as follows:
Corpse Spiders - I found it difficult to control where the spiders would go/who they would attack. Even with the skill rune Leaping Spiders, I just never felt this spell or could get it to work the way I wanted.
Plague of Toads - Another one of those spells I just couldn't get to work the way i wanted. It was hard to control and had limited duration.
Hex - I can't imagine why a spell that turns people into chickens didn't appeal to me, but overall it just didn't seem fun to use.
Horrify - As a spell that fears mobs I again expected to find this useful, but the spell didn't seem to work the way it was intended or I expected more from it.
Fire Bomb - This is one of the skills I had dialed into my final set up until I actually used it. Don't get me wrong....throwing a flaming skull into a crowd and watching it explode in a fiery mess sounds great, and it was ok. I had a hard time controlling the bombs where I wanted them to go, so that is probably why it ends up on this part of the list.
Please understand that these are just my opinions and that everyone plays their characters differently. As a matter of fact, one of my earliest posts was about the different things I was looking forward to in Diablo III and I listed the ability to have 2 different players playing the same class in a game together. I was able to experience that with the WD in a few games and as expected, we all played a little differently. Everyone used the Zombie Dogs as expected, but where I used Haunt and Fire Bats another player used Poison Dart and Corpse Spiders. Yet another WD used Fire Bomb and Hex. I think people's fears about every WD being exactly the same (cookie cutter) is just not going to be the case.
Sorry it was so long, but I wanted to give you a feel of how the class played. I must confess that I did die once during the Jar of Souls event due to my laggy computer (and lack of skill). I really enjoyed playing the WD as expected, so I am still leaning toward this as my first character at live. My next character review will be the Wizard, which is currently at level 12.
but with corpse spiders they basically really suck if you dont aim them perfect without leaping spiders. and even with leapers you have to be good where you place them according to the mobs and where the mobs move. i love using them and at first it was difficult but once you get the hang of aiming them right they became super fun.
frogs are completely random and dont last long at all. its pretty much useless without a rune. exploding toads will be MUCH better because its far more dmg and they explode in a little AOE. and rain of toads should be amazing too. thats aimable like a small area gets bombarded with toads for 2 seconds for a lot of dmg.
haunt i think still sucks unless you have awesome DPS and your attacking mobs much lower then you. but i think it will be much better at higher levels when it takes longer to kill mobs.
i didnt like hex either because it would only hex 1-2 guys before dissapearing in 8 seconds. just didnt seem worth casting. id say with the first rune that heals your group it may be worth getting then as an extra heal since the WD really doesnt have much other healing.
firebomb i didnt like because it just felt slow. when i get the frenzy shrine it feels much better
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