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|foes= [[Clan of the Seven Stones]], [[Tribe of the Clouded Valley]]
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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 {{wliw|[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.
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 [[Wall of Zombies|zombie wall]].
[[Leonard Boyarsky]] describes the Witch Doctor: <ref>[http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/diablo-iii/885172p1.htmlLeonard Boyarsky @ BlizzCon 2008]- Gamespy, October, 2010</ref>
::''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).''
::'''A:''' We don't view the Witch Doctor as a replacement. The Necromancer is a very cool char. We thought about him as a class and tried to see if we could improve on him, which is something we did with every class, and that led us to create the Witch Doctor. If we ever decided to make a Necromancer, the Witch Doctor wouldn't 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. <ref>[http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3172030&p=1Jay Wilson Interview]- 1up.com, December, 2010</ref>
::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 [[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.
===Build Variety?===
One question that arose in early conversation about the Witch Doctor, after players got to try out the class at [[Blizzcon]] 2008 and 2009, was how varied his potential builds would be. Jay Wilson addressed this issue in an October 2009 interview. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-exclusive-full-transcript/Jay Wilson Interview]- IncGamers.com, October 2009</ref>
::'''''Diii.net: '''The Witch Doctor build seems fairly narrow in concept. He’ll always have mongrels for tanking, some mini-mage support, and some minion attacks and a bit of mind control. Looking at his skill tree now, there doesn’t seem to be that many potential Witch Doctor builds, which isn’t true of the [[Wizard]] or [[Barbarian]]. Can you comment on that? Is it just that we don’t know enough about the Witch Doctor yet?
===ZooKeeper Build===
The Witch Doctor is not going to support the "zookeeper" style of build, where a player has numerous weaker summons which can be used to swarm enemies. The class is more about precisely managing a few minions at once, rather than summoning up a horde of helpers. This point was made by [[Bashiok]] in a March 2010 forum post about the [[Fetish Army]] skill. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blue-posts-on-shields-zookeeper-builds-and-healig-spells/Bashiok forum post]- IncGamers.com, March 2010</ref>
::Fetish army is really the only mass-summon spell the witch doctor has. The fetish army spell effects are coming along too, it's looking pretty amazing.
The Witch Doctor is the only class in Diablo 3 who uses [[mana]] as a character resource. In this the WD is very conventional and familiar to people who played Diablo and Diablo 2. The character casts spells that cost X amount of mana, which regenerates over time, at a rate determined by various factors including total mana pool, item modifiers, and relevant skills. (Details are as of yet far from complete.)
Mana is also regained when the Witch Doctor uses [[health orbs]]; an issue [[Jay Wilson]] addressed while answering a question about the [[Wizard]] during an October 2009 interview. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-exclusive-full-transcript/Jay Wilson interview]- IncGamers.com, October 2010</ref>
::'''''Diii.net: '''Do you envision the health globes will boost [non-mana resources] in the way that the Wizard and Witch Doctor gained mana from them at Blizzcon?
But the key is that we don’t necessarily want to... we don’t want to cannibalize an existing gameplay mechanic. So when you take health globes that are already important, and you make them even more important, then that doesn’t really create gameplay. For the WD, the health globes weren’t that important a lot of times, since he very rarely took damage with his pets, so for him by enhancing his desire for health globes, we’re really putting gameplay where it wasn’t. So whatever we’re designing a class that’s what we look at.
==Attributes Skills and Skills==<!--===Attributes=======Starting Attributes==Traits==*'''[[Strength]]:''' x*'''[[Dexterity]]:''' x*'''[[Vitality]]:''' x*'''[[Willpower]]:''' x*'''[[Life]]:''' x*'''[[Mana]]:''' x
The [[Witch Doctor skill]]s were arranged in three skill trees, [[Zombie_Skill_Tree|Zombie]], [[Spirit_Skill_Tree|Spirit]], and [[Voodoo_Skill_Tree|Voodoo]], prior to 2010. They have since been arranged into one large list. The following is a very short version of it.
* [[Witch Doctor skills]] all active skills.
* [[Witch Doctor traits]] all passive skills.
Tier Two Skills
* [[Zombie Charger]] -- A reckless, suicidal zombie deals X-X poison damage to all enemies in its way.
* [[Corpse Spiders]] -- Summon X spiders to attack nearby enemies.
* [[Haunt]] -- Haunt an enemy with a spirit dealing X arcane damage over X seconds. If the target dies, the spirit will automatically haunt another nearby target.
Tier Four Skills
* [[Firebats] -- A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for X fire damage per second.
* [[Locust Swarm]] -- A plague of locusts assault enemies dealing X damage per second over X seconds. The locusts will jump to additional nearby targets.
Tier Five Skills
[[Image:Wd-zombie-wall1.jpg|thumb|left|250px|[[Wall of Zombies]]]]
* [[Acid Cloud]] -- Acid rains down dealing an initial X-X poison damage followed by X-X poison damage per second to nearby enemies who remain in the area.
* [[Firebomb]] -- Lob an explosive skull that deals X-X fire damage to all enemies caught in the explosion.
* [[Horrify]] -- Don a spectral mask that horrifies all enemies within X feet, causing them to run in fear for X seconds.
* [[Wall of Zombies]] -- Zombies erupt from the earth and attack nearby enemies for X damage per second.
==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.
===Official Character Lore===
As related in the [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0013|13th entry in the writings]] of [[Abd al-Hazir]].
<blockquote>Most believe the fearsome [[witch doctor]] of the [[umbaru]] race a legend, but I have seen one in battle with my own eyes. And it was difficult to believe, even then. He dispatched his opponent with terrifying precision, assaulting his victim's mind and body with elixirs and powders that evoked fires, explosions, and poisonous spirits. As if these assaults were not enough, the witch doctor also had at his command the ability to summon [[undead]] creatures from the netherworld to rend the flesh from his enemy's body.
<br>
<br>
I came upon this rare display as I ventured deep into the interior of the dense [[Torajan]] jungles that cover the southern tip of the great eastern continent, in the vast area known as the [[Teganze]], with the goal of seeking out the tribes that reside there. This area is extremely secluded, and heretofore unseen by foreign eyes. I was fortunate to befriend the witch doctor I saw in battle, and, through him, his tribe: the [[Tribe of the Five Hills]].
<br>
<br>
The culture of the umbaru of the lower Teganze is fascinating and perplexing to those hailing from more civilized walks of life. For instance, the Tribe of the Five Hills frequently engages in tribal warfare with both the [[Clan of the Seven Stones]] and the [[Tribe of the Clouded Valley]], but these are matters of ritual and not of conquest. I had heard tales that these wars are waged in order that the victors may replenish their supply of raw materials for the human sacrifices that their civilization revolves around, and when I timidly asked my hosts more about this topic, I must admit their laughter made me fear for my safety. However, through stumbled attempts at communication of such complex topics as what constitutes heroism and honor in their society, I gathered that only those taken in battle are considered worthy of the ritual sacrifice, much to my relief.
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Upon further discussions with my hosts, I discovered that these tribes define themselves by their belief in the [[Mbwiru Eikura]], which roughly translates to "[[Unformed Land|The Unformed Land]]" (this is an imprecise translation, as this concept is completely foreign to our culture and language). This belief holds that the true, sacred reality is veiled behind the physical one we normally experience. Their vitally important public ceremonies are centered upon sacrifices to the life force that flows from their gods, who inhabit the Unformed Land, into this lesser physical realm.
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<br>
The [[witch doctor]]s are finely attuned to this Unformed Land and are able to train their minds to perceive this reality 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]].
<br>
<br>
Alongside the primacy of the belief in the life force and the Unformed Land, 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. This idea, so foreign to our culture, struck me as something I wished to delve into much more deeply.
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Unfortunately, there was intense social upheaval among the tribes due to an incident involving their most current war (inasmuch as I could discern in the ensuing bedlam), and the charged atmosphere warranted my quick departure before I could ask anything further of my hosts.</blockquote>
==References==
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<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.
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{{Class navbox|WD}}
[[category:Witch Doctor]]
[[Category:Classes]]
[[Category:Umbaru]]
[[Category:Basics]]
[[Category:Lore]]
