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The Witch Doctor, abbreviated WD, is a pure spellcaster, dealing with elemental magic, nature magic, necromancy and alchemy. The class has taken some inspiration from the Necromancer of Diablo II.
Contents [hide]==Background==1 Background{{Classbox2 Class Design |game= Diablo III2|portrait= Witch_Doctors.1 Necromancer Replacement?jpg3 Spell Damage4 Attributes and Skills |portrait-width= 205px4.1 |name= Witch Doctor |classtype= official|role= [[Caster]], [[Summoner]]|attrib= [[Willpower]] [[Mana]]<!-- Class Skills -->4.1.1 Zombie Skills|skilltree1= [[Plague Skill Tree]]4.1.2 |skilltree2= [[Spirit SkillsSkill Tree]]4.1.3 |skilltree3= [[Voodoo SkillsSkill Tree]]<!-- Background -->|origin= [[Teganze]], [[Torajan|Torajan jungles]]|affiliation= [[Tribe of the Five Hills]] <!-- [[umbaru]] race -->5 Development|friends= None Known6 Media|foes= [[Clan of the Seven Stones]], [[Tribe of the Clouded Valley]]7 Resources}}8 ReferencesThe Witch Doctor comes from the an area of the [[Torajan]] jungles called [[Teganze]] on the southern tip of the great eastern continent, just southwest of [[Kurast]] (where {{wl|[http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Act_Three Act Three]}} took place in [[Diablo II]]). You can see it located on the [[World map]] close to Kurast.
[edit]
BackgroundDiablo III Class [e]
Witch Doctor
Role: Caster, Summoner
Primary Attributes: Willpower Mana
Class Skills
Plague Skill Tree
Spirit Skill Tree
Voodoo Skill Tree
Background
Origin: Teganze, Torajan jungles
Affiliation: Tribe of the Five Hills
Friends: None Known
Foes: Clan of the Seven Stones, Tribe of the Clouded Valley
The Witch Doctor comes from the an area of the Torajan jungles called Teganze on the southern tip of the great eastern continent, just southwest of Kurast (where Act Three took place in Diablo II). You can see it located on the World map close to Kurast.
The fearsome Witch Doctor of the umbaru is believed to be a legend by many, but Abd al-Hazir has seen them with his own eyes, documented in his thirteenth entry of his Writings.
The Witch Doctor uses terrifying precision to assault his foe's mind and body with elixirs and powders evoking fires, explosions, and poisonous spirits. He can also summon and control undead creatures from the netherworld to combat his enemies.
He and she comes from the Tribe of the Five Hills, who frequently engages in tribal warfare with both the Clan of the Seven Stones and the Tribe of the Clouded Valley as a ritual rather than conquest. The tribes use these wars to replenish their supply of human sacrifices their civilization revolves around. Only those taken in battle are considered worthy of the ritual sacrifice according to the code of heroism and honour of the tribes.
The tribes define themselves by their belief in the Mbwiru Eikura, which roughly translates to "The Unformed Land". Their belief holds that the true, sacred reality is veiled behind the physical one we normally experience. Their vitally important public ceremonies are centred upon sacrifices to the life force that flows from their gods, who inhabit the Unformed Land, into this lesser physical realm.
Witch Doctors are finely attuned to this Unformed Land and are able to train their minds to perceive it through a combination of rituals and the use of selected roots and herbs found in the jungles. They call the state in which they interact with this other world the Ghost Trance.
The second most sacred belief of the tribes is their philosophy of self-sacrifice and non-individuality, of suppressing one's self-interest for the good of the tribe.
Their most current war created an intense social upheaval among ==Class Design==The Witch Doctor looks a bit like the tribes due to an incidenttop half of one of [[Diablo II]]'s {{wl|[http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Flayer_Shaman Flayer Shaman]}}, especially when outfitted in one of which details are lackinghis oversized, but might be colourful tribal masks. There is even a Flayer Shaman called {{iw|Witch_Doctor_Endugu Witch Doctor Endugu}}. Judging by the reason [[Witch Doctor skills|skills thus far demonstrated]], the WD fights a lot like a {{wl|[http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Necromancer Necromancer]}}, using cunning and guile, rather than direct physical attacks. Witch Doctor has travelled west Doctors possess a number of mind control spells, the ability to Tristramsummon and control [[undead]] servants, and a variety of direct damage [[elemental]] attacks.
The Witch Doctor looks a bit like the top half of one of Diablo II's Flayer Shaman, especially when outfitted in one of his oversized, colourful tribal masks. There is even a Flayer Shaman called Witch Doctor Endugu. Judging by the skills thus far demonstrated, the WD fights a lot like a Necromancer, using cunning and guile, rather than direct physical attacks. Witch Doctors possess a number of mind control spells, the ability to summon and control undead servants, and a variety of direct damage elemental attacks.
Simple Mongrel and fire-enhanced Mongrel, primary minion of the WD.
For [[Leonard Boyarsky]] describes the Witch Doctor, we wanted to get a rich, voodoo vibe: [http://uk. We wanted to avoid straight up master-caster feelpc. He's not just conjuring things out of thin airgamespy. WDs don't just channel magic. They take real world objects and infuse them with voodoo magic. Our spell descriptions for the WD were like, "He's going to throw a shrunken head filled with a chemical concoction." Or "He's going to create insect swarms by blowing voodoo dust from his palms." Or "He's going to sprinkle dust in the air and cause illusions and frighten monsters awaycom/pc/diablo-iii/885172p1." html]
The team felt that it wouldn't be a real Witch Doctor without zombies. They go together naturally, but they didn't want normal slow wandering zombies. They mashed the idea of Zombies with the Firewall of previous games and came up with zombie wall.
Leonard Boyarsky describes ::'''Q:''' Is the witch doctor a replacement or spiritual successor to the Witch Doctor{{wl|[http: [1//diablo2.diablowiki.net/Necromancer Necro] }}? They seem to have rather similar skills.The ::'''A:''' We don't view the Witch Doctor as a replacement. The Necromancer is angry, someone who's been broken by a life that's dealt very cool char. We thought about him as a few too many hard knocks class and not enough joy. This tried to see if we could improve on him, which is someone tired of being smacked in something we did with every class, and that led us to create the headWitch Doctor. If we ever decided to make a Necromancer, so he uses his mystical powers to get into the heads of others (and if that doesnWitch Doctor wouldn't work, a swarm of locusts will get under their skin)prevent us from doing so.
Jay Wilson commented further on this and detailed what makes the Witch Doctor different than the Necromancer in an interview with 1up.com in December 2008. [2] We wanted to create a class whose pets were not his primary source of damage output. [...] Most Necromancer builds are very pet heavy. The pets do a lot of the damage, and a lot of mechanics are built around debuffing the enemy so your pets can be better against them or taking advantage of the bodies your pets create by blowing them up with corpse explosion. The Witch Doctor's pets are more of a distraction -- they're his form of crowd control. [...] 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. [...] 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. [edit]==Spell Damage==
[edit]Attributes ::I found numerous wands, staves, and Skills[edit]Witch Doctor Skillseven pieces of armor with values between +5-25% spell damage, and that was just in the early stages of the game. We know nothing about higher level equipment bonuses, and it’s entirely possible that the D3 team is projecting high level characters to have +100%, +200%, or who knows, +500%, spell damage. If so they’ll be adjusting the base spell damage accordingly, which might make it look very low to our untrained eyes.
The ::Here’s an example from early in the game, that was mentioned in the [http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/full-witch-doctor-skills/ Witch Doctor skills are arranged into three distinctive report]. The skill tree categorieslisted damage on my level 2 Skull of Flame spell was 6-9, yet with a level 12 Witch Doctor my Inventory screen showed 19-29 for that spell. I don’t think I had more than +50% spell damage from equipment, so assuming the display values aren’t wrong (in [http: Zombie Spirit Voodoo//diablo2.diablowiki.net/Lying_Character_Screen D2’s infamous LCS] style), there are considerable bonuses added to damage from character attributes, which are then further boosted by the spell damage bonuses on your equipment.
All three trees have a combination ::This is all part of the D3 team’s plan to make all of active the attributes useful to all characters, and passive skillsto make more types of modifiers useful/essential to spell casters. Active skills are used in combat We don’t know enough yet to judge how well it’s working, while the passive skills boost but it should be a substantial change from how spell damage was calculated and scaled up (or change the behaviour of the active skillsnot) in D2.
The Zombie tree skills are focused on spells that summon Zombie and Zombie-related monsters. Several passive skills were revealed in the Blizzcon 2009 build of the game, that augment the Witch Doctor's minions.
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Spirit Skills
Soul Harvest
The Spirit tree skills appear to be heavily focused on augmenting the Witch Doctor====Attribute Increase Per Level====*'''[[Strength]]:'''s own abilities, such as health & mana regeneration, and even staving off death by inducing invulnerability. So far there are very few offensive skills in this tree. x*'''[edit[Dexterity]]:''' xVoodoo Skills*'''[[Vitality]]:''' x Wall of Zombies*'''[[Willpower]]:''' x-->
The Voodoo tree skills all focus more on the offensive aspects of the Witch Doctor; summoning Fetishes to fight, throwing acid on enemies or even summoning a whole army. Compared to the Spirit Skill Tree, there are very few passive skills in this tree.
[edit]
Development
no edit summary
The '''Witch Doctor''', abbreviated '''WD''', is a pure [[caster|spellcaster]], dealing with elemental magic, nature magic, necromancy and alchemy. The class has taken some inspiration from the [[Necromancer]] of [[Diablo II]].
The fearsome Witch Doctor of the [[umbaru]] is believed to be a legend by many, but [[Abd al-Hazir]] has seen them with his own eyes, documented in his [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0013|thirteenth entry]] of his [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir|Writings]].
The Witch Doctor uses terrifying precision to assault his foe's mind and body with elixirs and powders evoking fires, explosions, and poisonous spirits. He can also summon and control [[undead]] creatures from the netherworld to combat his enemies.
He and she comes from the Tribe of the Five Hills, who frequently engages in tribal warfare with both the Clan of the Seven Stones and the Tribe of the Clouded Valley as a ritual rather than conquest. The tribes use these wars to replenish their supply of human sacrifices their civilization revolves around. Only those taken in battle are considered worthy of the ritual sacrifice according to the code of heroism and honour of the tribes.
The tribes define themselves by their belief in the [[Mbwiru Eikura]], which roughly translates to "[[Unformed Land|The Unformed Land]]". Their belief holds that the true, sacred reality is veiled behind the physical one we normally experience. Their vitally important public ceremonies are centred upon sacrifices to the life force that flows from their gods, who inhabit the Unformed Land, into this lesser physical realm.
Witch Doctors are finely attuned to this Unformed Land and are able to train their minds to perceive it through a combination of rituals and the use of selected roots and herbs found in the jungles. They call the state in which they interact with this other world the [[Ghost Trance]].
The second most sacred belief of the tribes is their philosophy of self-sacrifice and non-individuality, of suppressing one's self-interest for the good of the tribe.
Their most current war created an intense social upheaval among the tribes due to an incident, of which details are lacking, but might be the reason the Witch Doctor has travelled west to [[Tristram]].
[edit[Image:Wd-mongrel2.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Simple [[Mongrel]] and fire-enhanced Mongrel, primary minion of the WD.]]Class DesignThe [[D3 Team]] has described the Witch Doctor as old and grizzled and fanatical. His magic is not clean and easy, like the fire or lightning a {{iw|Sorceress Sorceress}} can produce with a snap of her fingers. Witch Doctors get dirty. They summon [[Wall of Zombies|walls of zombies]] that rip apart attacking enemies, they call forth undead demon hounds called [[Mongrel]]s that they can detonate to deal heavy damage to their enemies, and they fashion the skulls of the dead into explosive grenades. The D3 team discussed the Witch Doctor's design concepts in the [[WWI 2008: Denizens of Diablo Panel|Denizens of Diablo panel]] at the [[WWI 2008]].
::''For the Witch Doctor, we wanted to get a rich, voodoo vibe. We wanted to avoid straight up master-caster feel. He's not just conjuring things out of thin air. WDs don't just channel magic. They take real world objects and infuse them with voodoo magic. Our spell descriptions for the WD were like, "He's going to throw a shrunken head filled with a chemical concoction." Or "He's going to create insect swarms by blowing voodoo dust from his palms." Or "He's going to sprinkle dust in the air and cause illusions and frighten monsters away."''
The D3 Team has described the team felt that it wouldn't be a real Witch Doctor as old and grizzled and fanaticalwithout [[zombies]]. His magic is not clean and easyThey go together naturally, like the fire or lightning a Sorceress can produce with a snap of her fingers. Witch Doctors get dirtybut they didn't want normal slow wandering zombies. They summon walls mashed the idea of zombies that rip apart attacking enemies, they call forth undead demon hounds called Mongrels that they can detonate to deal heavy damage to their enemies, and they fashion Zombies with the skulls Firewall of the dead into explosive grenades. The D3 team discussed the Witch Doctor's design concepts in the Denizens previous games and came up with [[Wall of Diablo panel at the WWI 2008Zombies|zombie wall]].
::''The Witch Doctor is angry, someone who's been broken by a life that's dealt a few too many hard knocks and not enough joy. This is someone tired of being smacked in the head, so he uses his mystical powers to get into the heads of others (and if that doesn't work, a swarm of locusts will get under their skin).''
===Necromancer Replacement?===
The WD is clearly {{wl|[http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Necromancer Necromancer]}}-like, in his mixture of summonings, mind control curses, and sub-mage quality magical attacks, but the [[D3 team]] does [[WWI_2008:_D3_Design_Fundamentals_Panel|not view the character as a replacement]] for the Necromancer.
[[Jay Wilson]] commented further on this and detailed what makes the Witch Doctor different than the Necromancer in an interview with 1up.com in December 2008. [http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3172030&p=1]
::We wanted to create a class whose pets were not his primary source of damage output. [edit...]Most Necromancer Replacement?builds are very pet heavy. The pets do a lot of the damage, and a lot of mechanics are built around [[debuff]]ing the enemy so your pets can be better against them or taking advantage of the bodies your pets create by blowing them up with corpse explosion.
::The WD is clearly NecromancerWitch Doctor's pets are more of a distraction --like, in they're his mixture form of summonings, mind [[crowd control curses, and sub-mage quality magical attacks, but the D3 team does not view the character as a replacement for the Necromancer]]. Q: Is the witch doctor a replacement or spiritual successor to the Necro? They seem to have rather similar skills[. A: We don't view the Witch Doctor as a replacement. The Necromancer is a very cool char. ] We thought about him as wanted to have this general notion of a class character who controlled all things slimy and tried to see if we could improve on himgross, like zombies, bats, which is something we did with every classsnakes, and spiders, but he didn't rely on them -- he just throws them out there. [...] Each element is like that led us to create , where it's another distraction while the source of primary damage is the Witch Doctorhimself. If we ever decided to make a This makes him play very differently than the Necromancer, the Witch Doctor wouldn't prevent us from doing sowhich was intentional.
One of the key changes to spell casters in Diablo III is the addition of +% spell damage modifiers. These sorts of modifiers were found on many skills in Diablo 2, and on a few uniques and runewords, but they were uncommon, and not necessary to kill effectively. As a result, casters in Diablo 2 were much less item-dependent than the combat classes, and found it easier to concentrate on [[Magic Find]], resistances, hit points, and other non-damage bonuses.
This will not be the case in Diablo 3, where mages must add considerable +% spell damage from modifiers to stay ahead of the monster hit point curve. A high level Wizard or [[Witch Doctor ]] in Diablo 3 will no more be able to kill quickly with no +spell damage than a [[Barbarian ]] or [[Monk ]] could succeed with a junk weapon. A quote from Flux's post-Blizzcon 2009 Wizard write up explains this in more detail: When viewing the listed damage on each spell, it’s important to keep in mind that those are not absolute numbers, in D3. They’re much like weapon damage; modified by your wizard’s attributes, your character level, by other skills, and also by your equipment. Lots of types of items in D3 carry modifiers that boost spell damage, usually by a percentage. I found numerous wands, staves, and even pieces of armor with values between +5-25% spell damage, and that was just in the early stages of the game. We know nothing about higher level equipment bonuses, and it’s entirely possible that the D3 team is projecting high level characters to have +100%, +200%, or who knows, +500%, spell damage. If so they’ll be adjusting the base spell damage accordingly, which might make it look very low to our untrained eyes. Here’s an example from early in the game, that was mentioned in the Witch Doctor skills report. The skill tree listed damage on my level 2 Skull of Flame spell was 6-9, yet with a level 12 Witch Doctor my Inventory screen showed 19-29 for that spell. I don’t think I had more than +50% spell damage from equipment, so assuming the display values aren’t wrong (in D2’s infamous LCS style), there are considerable bonuses added to damage from character attributes, which are then further boosted by the spell damage bonuses on your equipment. This is all part of the D3 team’s plan to make all of the attributes useful to all characters, and to make more types of modifiers useful/essential to spell casters. We don’t know enough yet to judge how well it’s working, but it should be a substantial change from how spell damage was calculated and scaled up (or not) in D2.
::When viewing the listed damage on each spell, it’s important to keep in mind that those are not absolute numbers, in D3. They’re much like weapon damage; modified by your wizard’s attributes, your character level, by other skills, and also by your equipment. Lots of types of items in D3 carry modifiers that boost spell damage, usually by a percentage.
==Attributes and Skills==<!--===Attributes=======Starting Attributes====*'''[[Strength]]:''' x*'''[[Dexterity]]:''' x*'''[[editVitality]]:''' xZombie Skills*'''[[Willpower]]:''' x *'''[[Life]]:''' xLocust Swarm*'''[[Mana]]:''' x
===Witch Doctor Skills===The [[Witch Doctor class was unveiled at WWI 2008, together with the Barbarianskill]]s are arranged into three distinctive skill tree categories:* [[Zombie_Skill_Tree|Zombie]]* [[Spirit_Skill_Tree|Spirit]]* [[Voodoo_Skill_Tree|Voodoo]]. Besides All three trees have a few name changes for spellscombination of active and passive skills. Active skills are used in combat, not much had changed for while the Witch Doctor by mid June 2009passive skills boost or change the behaviour of the active skills.
====Zombie Skills====
[[Image:Wd-locust-swarm1.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Locust Swarm]]]]
The [[Zombie Skill Tree|Zombie tree skills]] are focused on spells that summon Zombie and Zombie-related monsters. Several passive skills were revealed in the Blizzcon 2009 build of the game, that augment the Witch Doctor's minions.
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
====Spirit Skills====[[Image:Wd-soul-harvest3.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Soul Harvest]]]]The [edit[Spirit_Skill_Tree|Spirit tree skills]]appear to be heavily focused on augmenting the Witch Doctor's own abilities, such as health & mana regeneration, and even staving off death by inducing invulnerability. So far there are very few offensive skills in this tree.Media<div style="clear:both;"></div>
====Voodoo Skills====[[Image:Wd-zombie-wall1.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Wall of Zombies]]]]The [[Voodoo_Skill_Tree|Voodoo tree skills]] all focus more on the offensive aspects of the Witch Doctor; summoning Fetishes to fight, throwing acid on enemies or even summoning a whole army. Compared to the [[Spirit Skill Tree]], there are very few passive skills in this tree.<div style="clear:both;"></div> ==Development==The Witch Doctor class was unveiled at [[WWI 2008]], together with the [[Barbarian]]. Besides a few name changes for spells, not much had changed for the Witch Doctor by mid June 2009. <!--==Trivia==Use only if actual trivia. If so, add to [[:Category:Trivia]] as well--> ==Media==You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery: * [http://www.diii.net/gallery/ Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures ]* [http://www.diii.net/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=all&si=Witch+Doctor Witch Doctor-specific gallery contents ]* [http://www.diii.net/gallery/showgallery.php?si=doctor&x=0&y=0&limit=&thumbsonly=0&perpage=24&cat=546&ppuser=&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&cat=546 Witch Doctor Screenshots]. * [http://www.diii.net/gallery/showgallery.php?si=witch&x=0&y=0&limit=&thumbsonly=0&perpage=24&cat=563&ppuser=&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&cat=563 Witch Doctor Concept Art]. * [http://www.diii.net/gallery/showgallery.php?si=witch&x=0&y=0&limit=&thumbsonly=0&perpage=24&cat=550&ppuser=&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&cat=550 Witch Doctor Wallpapers]. <gallery>Image:Wd-1.jpg|Witch Doctor in gameImage:Wd-concept1.jpg|WD concept artImage:Wd-firebats1.jpg|[[Spirit_Skill_Tree#Firebats|Firebats]] unleashed.Image:Skill_witchdoctor_firebomb.jpg|[[Skull of Flame]] animation shots.Image:Wd-concept2.jpg|High quality conceptImage:Wd-concept3.jpg|Crazy WDImage:Wd-concept4.jpg|Male WD conceptImage:Wd-concept5.jpg|Female clothing conceptsImage:Wd-concept6.jpg|Female WD hottieImage:Wd-concept7.jpg|Male WD actionImage:Wd-concept8.jpg|Female sketchesImage:Witch_Doctors.jpg|Female and male WDs.</gallery> ==Resources==* [[Umbaru]]* [[Tribe of the Five Hills]]* [[Clan of the Seven Stones]]* [[Tribe of the Clouded Valley]]* [[Khazra]]* [[Torajan Jungles]]* [[Teganze]]* [[Mbwiru Eikura]] / [[Unformed Land|The Unformed Land]]* [[Ghost Trance]] ==References==* [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0013|Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0013: The Witch Doctor]]* [[Media Coverage|Diablo III Media Coverage Archive]] for all interviews, previews, pictures and more. {{Class navbox floor}}{{Skill navbox}} [[Category:Classes]][[Category:Umbaru]][[Category:Basics]][[Category:Lore]]
