Fetish Army

Fetish Army is a Witch Doctor Tier 7 skill unlocked at level 26, which summons group of Fetish demons to fight for the Witch Doctor. This is the Witch Doctor's only summoning skill that generates a large number of minions, albeit non-traditional, short-lived ones. It has never yet been shown publicly.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Fetish Army Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Skill Description:
Summon an army of fetish creatures to fight by your side.
Skill Details:
Type:	Summon
Quantity:	Duration
Effect:	Target
School:	Magical
Mana cost:	12 mana
Cast time:	Unknown
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	None
Synergies:	Unknown
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

This skill summons Fetishes, the little monsters from Act III in Diablo II, to fight for the Witch Doctor.

Skill Design

As of Blizzcon 2009, Nothing was known about the skill other than the name and the written description. Some months later a bit more information was added by Bashiok in a March 2010 forum post. [1]

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. But it's really more of an AoE that happens to do its damage by sending out little dudes to fight.

The witch doctor is more about using a small number of summons as damage soaks, and then casting spells for the majority of his damage. Some of which are themselves larger one-off summons. He's not a mass summoner, that's just not the intended flavor of the class.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: Summon an army of level 15 fetishes to fight by your side. Cost: 12 mana.
• Rank 2: Summon an army of level 16 fetishes to fight by your side. Cost: 12 mana. (A)
• Rank 3: Summon an army of level 17 fetishes to fight by your side. Cost: 12 mana. (A)
• Rank 4: Summon an army of level 18 fetishes to fight by your side. Cost: 12 mana. (A)
• Rank 5: Summon an army of level 19 fetishes to fight by your side. Cost: 12 mana. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Synergies

• Fetish Leader -- Increases damage done by Fetish skills.
• Ferocity -- Increases damage done by your summons.
• Care of the Master -- Increases the health of your summons.

Skill Rune Effects

Blizzard's @Diablo twitter account let us know about one effect in January 2010. [2]

Witch doctor’s Fetish Army now has all rune effects complete. An army of fetishes in skeleton form? Yes please.

This is clearly an homage to the exploding (and very deadly) Stygian Doll type of fetish, seen in the Durance of Hate in Act III of Diablo II. If this follows the Diablo II style of the monster, this runestone effect will cause the dolls to explode upon impact with enemies, making them very short-lived, but very damaging.

Development

Fetish Army was first named in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, where it could be seen in the Voodoo Skill Tree at Tier VI. It has never yet been seen in use, but is known to still be in the game and to have been iterated quite a bit, visually.

Media

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Fetish Army specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
• Blue Posts on shields, zookeeper builds, healing spells -- Incgamers 11th Mar 2020