Firebats

Firebats is a Witch Doctor skill enabled at level 9. It casts forth a spray of flaming bats, which deal substantial fire damage to enemies in the vicinity.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Firebats
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Enabled at:	Clvl 9
Skill Description
A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for X fire damage per second.
Type:	DoT
Resource Use:	Costs Mana/time
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Witch Doctor spews fire from his mouth whilst bats fly into the flame, sending forth flaming bats to attack enemies in front of the Doctor.

Skill Design

This skill is a sort of Inferno, dealing fire damage to anything in front of the Witch Doctor for as long as he keeps casting the spell. It takes a moment to start producing damage, and requires the Witch Doctor to remain stationary while he casts it.

There is a steady mana drain while the spell is in use.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 10 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana.
• Rank 2: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 20 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
• Rank 3: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 30 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
• Rank 4: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 40 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
• Rank 5: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 50 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Synergies

Firebats swarm a Cultist.

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

Skill Rune Effects

The known rune effects for Firebats are:

• Unknown rune: boosts the range and damage of the Firebats.
• Unknown rune: turns Firebats into a sort of defensive field, with the bats constantly swarming around the Witch Doctor and only extending out to damage enemies when they move into melee range.

Development

Firebats was first seen in the WWI 2008 build. It was originally located in the Spirit Skill Tree, then moved to the Voodoo Skill Tree, before skill trees were removed entirely.

The skill's damage and range was lowered with the introduction of skill runes; unmodified Firebats were much less effective in the BlizzCon 2010 build than they had been back in 2008. Flux commented on using this skill:[1]

The other interesting thing about this skill was the firing mechanism. You couldn’t click it. If you did nothing would happen. Literally; sometimes one bat would squeak out, but usually not even that. The spell dealt very good DoT, but you had to hold down the mouse button to let the bats flow forth. It took a second or two for the full flow to get going, and once it did the damage was great, but you had to commit to using it.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Firebats became a level 9 skill.

Previous Versions

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

Media

Firebats can be seen in action on video here:

• Video: August 2011 Witch Doctor Skill Animations

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Firebats specific gallery contents

• 

  Firebats vs. flaming zombies.

• 

  Firebats on an Unburied.

• 

  Firebats swarm a Cultist.

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Witch Doctor Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
• BlizzCon 2010 Witch Doctor Hands-on Report
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Character Previews From Jay Wilson -- IncGamers 9th Aug 2011

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