Difference between revisions of "Plague of Toads"

Revision as of 11:28, 16 September 2011

Plague of Toads is a Physical Realm Witch Doctor skill unlocked at level 2, which summons a pack of poisonous toads who hop into enemies and explode, dealing poison damage.

Background

Plague of Toads in action

The Witch Doctor sends forth toads that hop into enemies, exploding in an acidic blast.

Skill Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Plague of Toads rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Icon	Skill	Description

Plague of Toads
Physical Realm
(Level 2)

[e]

Cost: 211 Mana

Release a handful of toads that deal 155% weapon damage as Poison to enemies they come in contact with.

|}

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

Skill Design

The toads behave much like Charged Bolts, scattering out from the Witch Doctor and spreading out semi-randomly. The accuracy of this skill with just one cast is suspect. It's best spammed, cast six or eight times in rapid succession against a large number of attackers, especially if the enemies are moving around erratically and are thus more likely to encounter multiple toads each.

Runestones can change this strategy, of course.

Synergies

No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet known.

Development

Plague of Toads was first seen in the BlizzCon 2008 gameplay demo. The old version was in the Plague Skill Tree (later renamed to Zombie Skill Tree), and the toads were a green/gray-ish color. Flux had the opportunity to try the skill:[1]

Plague of Toads were great fun to use too, though less damaging than Firebats. At level 1 (the only level possible for active spells in the Blizzcon demo) the WD tossed out three toads, which then hopped forward like scaly, slimy, living Charged Bolts. They weren’t entirely mindless—they homed in on enemies, and exploded with a splat of green acid (poison) when they hit a target. If there was no target in range, the toads would hop 3 or 4 times, covering maybe half the visible screen, before bursting in air. They left behind splats of acid on the ground that would damage enemies who stood in it.

For BlizzCon 2009, Plague of Toads was at Tier III in the Voodoo Skill Tree. Their color was enhanced to a sort of yellowish orange, but their intelligence seemed to have downgraded. Flux explained:[2]

While the looks were upgraded, their function had been lessened a bit. The toads are stupider, more like the amphibian Charged Bolts they sort of resemble. They no longer home in on targets, and very seldom do you hit a normal target with more than one toad from the same cast. That might be less true at higher levels (or with the multi-strike rune socketed), as you gain more toads.

Plague of Toads was available in the BlizzCon 2010 gameplay demo as a Tier 1 skill in the new tree-less system, but it wasn't one of the Witch Doctor's starting skills. Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Plague of Toads became a level 2 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Witch Doctor skill archive for more details on previous versions of Plague of Toads and other Witch Doctor skills.

Media

Plague of Toads can be seen in action on video here:

You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:

Toads on a Dune Thresher.
A Beast feeling the explosive nature of toads.
Larger image.

References

BlizzCon 2008 Witch Doctor Gameplay Report
BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
@Diablo on Crafted Sets and Toad Licking -- Incgamers 12th Dec 2010
Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
Witch Doctor Active Skills -- Diablo III 13th Sep 2011

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer corpses

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer bloodandbone

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+<noinclude>
 [[File:IconPlagueToads.png|left]]
-'''Plague of Toads''' is a [[Witch Doctor skill]] enabled at [[clvl|level]] 2, which summons a pack of poisonous toads who hop into enemies and explode, dealing poison damage.
+'''Plague of Toads''' is a Physical Realm [[Witch Doctor skill]] unlocked at [[clvl|level]] 2, which summons a pack of poisonous toads who hop into enemies and explode, dealing poison damage.
-<br><br><br><br>__TOC__
+<br><br>__TOC__
 ==Background==
-{{Skillbox D3
+[[File:Plague-of-toads2.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Plague of Toads in action]]
-|game= Diablo III
-|portrait= Plague-of-toads2.jpg
-<!-- |portrait-width= -->
-|name= Plague of Toads
-|user= Witch Doctor
-|clvl= 2
-|description= Release a handful of toads that deal [[poison]] damage to anybody who steps on them.
-|type= Damage/[[AoE]]
-|resource= Costs [[Mana]]
-|alabaster= Blinding gas
-|crimson= [[Fire]] damage
-|golden= Reduced cost
-|indigo= Rain of toads
-|obsidian= One giant toad
-}}
 The Witch Doctor sends forth toads that hop into enemies, exploding in an acidic blast.
 ==Skill Effects==
 The following is a very quick list. See the [[Plague of Toads rune effects]] page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.
-{{Active skill header}}
+{{Active skills header}}
-</noinclude>
+</noinclude>{{Witch Doctor Skill Plague of Toads}}
-{{Skill effects|Plague of Toads|IconPlagueToads.png|([[clvl|Level]] 2)|
+| [[image:IconCrimson.jpg|40px|link=Crimson]]
-Release a handful of toads that deal {{c_lime|71 - 99}} Poison damage to enemies they come in contact with.<br>Cost: {{c_lime|211}} Mana.}}
+| [[Explosive Toads]]
-| width="40px" | [[image:IconCrimson.jpg|40px|link=Crimson]]
-| width="140px" | [[Explosive Toads]]
 | Mutate to red bullfrogs that explode for {{c_lime|156 - 219}} Fire damage.
 |-
@@ Line 41: / Line 25: @@
 | width="40px" | [[image:IconObsidian.jpg|40px|link=Obsidian]]
 | [[Toad of Hugeness]]
-| Summon a giant toad that swallows enemies whole for up to {{c_lime|5}} seconds, digesting for {{c_lime|64}} physical damage per second.<br>{{c_grey|This rune adds a {{c_lime|5}} second cooldown to the skill.}}
+| Summon a giant toad that swallows enemies whole for up to {{c_lime|5}} seconds, digesting for {{c_lime|64}} physical damage per second.<br>
+{{c_gold|This rune adds a {{c_lime|5}} second cooldown to the skill.}}
 |-
 | width="40px" | [[image:IconGolden.jpg|40px|link=Golden]]
@@ Line 53: / Line 38: @@
 <noinclude>
 |}
-<p style="text-align:center">Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.</p>
+{{center|Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.}}
@@ Line 64: / Line 49: @@
 ==Synergies==
 * No [[synergies]] with any of the [[passive skill]]s are yet known.
-==Skill Rune Effects==
-The [[rune]] effects for Plague of Toads were revealed at [[BlizzCon 2010]] by [[Wyatt Cheng]] in the gameplay panel.<ref>[http://www.diablowiki.net/Gameplay_Panel_Blizzcon_2010#Specific_Skill_Rune_Examples BlizzCon 2010 Gameplay Panel Transcript]</ref>
-[[File:Runes-plague-of-toads-all.jpg|thumb|400px|Plague of Toads rune options.]]
-* [[Alabaster rune]]: The toads also blind enemies.
-* [[Crimson rune]]: Flaming toads add fire damage to their attack.
-* [[Golden rune]]: Reduced cost per cast. From PCG issue 221-- it adds more toads per cast.
-* [[Indigo rune]]: Changes the skill to a rain of toads, which fall down on the targeted location.
-* [[Obsidian rune]]: One huge frog that uses a sticky tongue to capture and consume monsters in one bite. It spits out the treasure and items. Can eat [[Champions]] (possibly only at higher/highest rune level?), but not [[bosses]] or (presumably) bigger enemies.
-** [[Bashiok]] (jokingly?) said[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-on-crafted-sets-and-toad-licking/] that the mega-toad would "lick them to death" when faced with monsters it could not eat in one shot.
-**In comments to that same news post, '''Exile''', a fan who tried this skill with the Obsidian rune at Blizzcon 2010, reported that the toad would eat bosses, deal some damage, then spit them back out. This forced the other players in the party to stand and wait while the toad chewed up the boss, before hacking it back out so the battle could go on. This is likely a temporary state of affairs, and the "lick to death" option sounds more viable for a final game solution.
@@ Line 131: / Line 100: @@
 * [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-on-crafted-sets-and-toad-licking/ @Diablo on Crafted Sets and Toad Licking] -- Incgamers 12th Dec 2010
 * [http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7960229#post7960229 Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report] -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
+* [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/ Witch Doctor Active Skills] -- Diablo III 13th Sep 2011
 {{Skill navbox Diablo III|WD}}
+[[category:Witch Doctor skills]]
+[[category:Active skills]]
+</noinclude>

Fan-made Classes			Fan-made Skills [e]
• Alchemist • Arcane Warrior • Artisan • Aurian Mage • Bard • Channeller • Dragon Warrior	• Flagellant • Giant (U) • Hollow Man • Nomad • Onaga Manji • Phase Knight	• Ranger • Slayer (U) • Techpriest (U) • Telepath • Untainted (U) • Zealot	Dragon Warrior Skills • Bow and Throwing Skill Tree • Dragon Disciplines Skill Tree • Martial Arts Skill Tree	Untainted Skills • Divine Skill Tree	Aurian Mage Skill • Holy Power Skill Tree • Shadow Spells Skill Tree • Nature Forces Skill Tree
(U) = Unfinished				Untainted Skills • Divine Skill Tree