Parasite

Parasite is a Witch Doctor Tier 7 skill unlocked at level 26. The skill has never yet been seen in use, but the description promises to send a damaging, Haunt-like parasite into your enemies, which will generate a Mongrel if the enemy dies while under the effect of the parasite.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Parasite Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Skill Description:
Launch a parasite at an enemy, dealing X damage over X seconds. If a target dies while under the effects of parasite, a zombie dog emerges from the slain body.
Skill Details:
Type:	DoT
Quantity:	Damage/sec
Effect:	Target
School:	Magical
Mana cost:	Unknown
Cast time:	Unknown
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	Unknown
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Witch Doctor sends forth a parasite to inhabit the body of his enemies, causing excruciating pain over long durations and becoming a minion of the witch doctor once the target is drained of life.

Skill Design

It is unknown for how long this DoT lasts, or how much damage it does. This seems like essentially a free way to get more Mongrels, but since Mongrels are easy enough to cast on their own, the utility of this one is suspect. Perhaps a bold Witch Doctor could go without any points in Mongrels and just use Parasite to keep up a flock of minions.

It's not known how this one will interact with Mongrels; since a Witch Doctor can only have X number of Mongrels at once, will additional Mongrels spawned by this skill count against that cap? Would the oldest existing Mongrel expire, or explode in a Sacrifice when a new one appeared via Parasite?

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 3 damage per second. If the target dies from the damage a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body.
• Rank 2: Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 6 damage per second. If the target dies from the damage a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body. (A)
• Rank 3: Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 9 damage per second. If the target dies from the damage a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body. (A)
• Rank 4: Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 12 damage per second. If the target dies from the damage a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body. (A)
• Rank 5: Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 15 damage per second. If the target dies from the damage a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Synergies

• No synergies with any of the Witch Doctor traits are known.

Skill Rune Effects

• Unknown rune: Launches a jar full of spiders instead of a single parasite.

Development

Parasite was first seen listed as a skill in the BlizzCon 2009 demo at Tier V on the Zombie Skill Tree. It was still there in BlizzCon 2010 (moved down to Tier 7), but it's never been seen in use.

Media

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Parasite specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats