Witch Doctor skills

Witch Doctor Skill Tree interpretation by Muldric.

This page lists all known Witch Doctor skills, sorted by skill tree. Follow the links to the individual skill pages for full discussion of every skill, including first hand reports and screenshots.

Useful skill links:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
• Zombie Skill Tree - Zombie skills.
• Spirit Skill Tree - Spirit skills.
• Voodoo Skill tree - Voodoo skills.
• Witch Doctor skill archive - Removed Witch Doctor skills.
• Skill runes - One new way to customise skills.
• Signature skills - Skills that define characters.
• Active skills - Skills where effects are activated by the player.
• Passive skills - Skills where effects are activated automatically, by the computer or by special events.

The Zombie skill tree is a Witch Doctor skill tree containing lots of summoning type spells and skills. The tree was known as Plague skill tree before BlizzCon 2009.

Useful skill links:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
• Witch Doctor skills - Witch Doctor-specific skill design.
  • Zombie Skill Tree - Zombie skills.
  • Spirit Skill Tree - Spirit skills.
  • Voodoo Skill Tree - Voodoo skills.
• Witch Doctor skill archive - Removed Witch Doctor skills.

Archived Article [e] Witch Doctor skills is an archived article about material previously included in Diablo 3. However, it has been removed or the article contains outdated facts. The information is stored in Diablo Wiki for posterity. Please note: Links in this article lead to both updated and archived material. This article was last up to date: BlizzCon 2009 Updated version of this article is: None Current information can be found at: Witch Doctor skills; skill trees were removed prior to BlizzCon 2010

Witch Doctor's Zombie skill tree as of BlizzCon 2009.

Zombie skills

The Zombie tree focuses on summoning various minions. Like any skill tree focusing on any element of gameplay, it cannot be called a skill tree if it doesn't have signature skills that can actually kill. Luckily for us, the Zombie tree has a few cool skills that makes enemies easy to kill, like Sacrifice, Parasite and Wall of Zombies.

Tier I

• Summon Zombie Dog
  • Summon a pet Zombie Dog (formerly known as Mongrel).
• Mind and Body
  • A passive skill; regenerates mana and health.

Tier II

• Zombie Charger
  • Summon a reckless, enraged zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
• Sacrifice
  • Detonate a nearby Zombie Dog in an explosion, dealing damage X% of the Zombie Dog's health to monsters nearby.

Tier III

• Grasp of the Dead
  • Summon undead hands that reach out from the ground, attacking all enemies within 8 yards of the targeted location.
• Unrelenting Assault
  • Enables one of your Zombie Dogs to instantaneously resurrect itself upon its death.

Tier IV

• Gargantuan
  • Summons a large zombie follower to fight for you.
• Leader of the Pack
  • Increases spell damage by 1% for every Zombie Dog under your command.

Tier V

• Parasite
  • Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 3 damage per second. If the target dies while under the effects of the Parasite a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body.
• Wall of Zombies
  • Zombies emerge from the ground and attack nearby monsters for 7 damage per second.

Tier VI

• Ferocity
  • Increases the health and damage of your Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan by 8%.

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats Discussion

The Spirit skill tree is a Witch Doctor skill tree true to its namesake, manipulating the intangible spirits of enemies, conjure new ones to attack or fight for the Witch Doctor or even manipulate the Witch Doctor's spirit.

Useful skill links:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
• Witch Doctor skills - Witch Doctor-specific skill design.
  • Zombie Skill Tree - Zombie skills.
  • Spirit Skill Tree - Spirit skills.
  • Voodoo Skill Tree - Voodoo skills.
• Witch Doctor skill archive - Removed Witch Doctor skills.

Archived Article [e] Witch Doctor skills is an archived article about material previously included in Diablo 3. However, it has been removed or the article contains outdated facts. The information is stored in Diablo Wiki for posterity. Please note: Links in this article lead to both updated and archived material. This article was last up to date: BlizzCon 2009 Updated version of this article is: None Current information can be found at: Witch Doctor skills; skill trees were removed prior to BlizzCon 2010

Witch Doctor's Spirit skill tree as of BlizzCon 2009.

Spirit skills

The Spirit tree focuses on mana regeneration, crowd control, and being more adept at surviving. Like any skill tree focusing on any element of gameplay, it cannot be called a skill tree if it doesn't have signature skills that can actually kill. Luckily for us, the Spirit tree has a few cool skills that makes enemies easy to kill, like Haunt, Soul Harvest and Mass Confusion.

Tier I

• Haunt
  • Launch a Spirit to invade the bodies of your enemies, causing sustained damage over time; the spirit lasts longer when inhabiting a host than when searching for one.
• Spirit Vessel
  • Replenishes your mana when consuming a health globe.

Tier II

• Soul Harvest
  • Draw out the life of enemies to replenish your mana.
• Rituals
  • Increase your spell power by a percentage (%) of your vitality.

Tier III

• Spirit Sense
  • Increase damage against targets with low health by X% percentage.
• Horrify
  • Don a spectral mask that horrifies enemies, causing them to run away from you.

Tier IV

• Spirit Barrage
  • A multitude of spirit bolts bombard enemies in targeted areas.
• Ritual of Blood
  • Whilst active, X% of all mana costs are paid for with health.

Tier V

• Spirit Walk
  • Traverse your physical body into the spirit realm, allowing unhindered movement for a time.
• Meditation
  • Your spirit spells return X% of their mana cost over 10 seconds.

Tier VI

• Death Pact
  • Induce momentary invulnerability whenever you are reduced to 10% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 seconds.
• Mass Confusion
  • Induce paranoia in enemies, causing some to fight for the Witch Doctor for a period of time.

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skill Tree Stats and Discussion

The Voodoo skill tree is a Witch Doctor skill tree containing the most of the offensive skills for the Witch Doctor, supplementing some abilities in the Zombie Skill Tree with several skills that summon Fetishes.

Useful skill links:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
• Witch Doctor skills - Witch Doctor-specific skill design.
  • Zombie Skill Tree - Zombie skills.
  • Spirit Skill Tree - Spirit skills.
  • Voodoo Skill Tree - Voodoo skills.
• Witch Doctor skill archive - Removed Witch Doctor skills.

Archived Article [e] Witch Doctor skills is an archived article about material previously included in Diablo 3. However, it has been removed or the article contains outdated facts. The information is stored in Diablo Wiki for posterity. Please note: Links in this article lead to both updated and archived material. This article was last up to date: BlizzCon 2009 Updated version of this article is: None Current information can be found at: Witch Doctor skills; skill trees were removed prior to BlizzCon 2010

Witch Doctor's Voodoo skill tree as of BlizzCon 2009.

Voodoo Skills

The Voodoo tree focuses on offensive effects via short-time summoning spells. Like any skill tree focusing on any element of gameplay, it cannot be called a skill tree if it doesn't have signature skills that can actually kill. Luckily for us, the Voodoo tree has a lot of cool skills that makes enemies easy to kill, like Skull of Flame, Firebats and Locust Swarm.

Unknown Tier

• Poison Dart

Blizzard revealed a new Witch Doctor skill, Poison Dart in early August, 2010. [1] Since the three skill tree system has been changed, this skill was never actually in a tree, but if it had been it clearly would have fit into the Voodoo tree.

No official description of the skill was given, but Poison Dart was said to be a projectile attack that fired darts at enemies.

Tier I

• Skull of Flame
  • Lob a skull filled with fire dealing 4-5 fire damage to all enemies caught in the explosion.
• Jungle Fortitude
  • Increase your Vitality by 5% of your Strength, 5% of your Dexterity, and 5% of your Willpower.

Tier II

• Hex
  • Summon a Fetish caster to cast hexes on enemies for 6 seconds.
• Corpse Spiders
  • Summon 3 spiders to attack nearby enemies for 8-13 poison damage per hit.

Tier III

• Locust Swarm
  • Assault nearby foes with a swarm of locusts that spread to additional, nearby targets.
• Plague of Toads
  • Release a handful of toads that deal poison damage to anybody who steps on them.

Tier IV

• Pit of Fire
  • Call up to 4 Fetishes to bathe a region in fire.
• Firebats
  • Launch a swarm of bats, saturated in a fiery blaze to burn targeted enemies.

Tier V

• Acid Cloud
  • Detonate a bottle of acid in the air to damage enemies with the initial explosion and, over time for enemies who remain in it's area of effect.
• Blood Rites
  • Increase your spell damage by consuming health globes.

Tier VI

• Fetish Army
  • Summon an army of Fetishes to fight by your side.

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skill Tree Stats and Discussion

Development

The Witch Doctor's skills and skill trees were first seen at BlizzCon 2008. The following BlizzCon in 2009 revealed each tree and their skills in much more detail; each tree now decked out the Witch Doctor with an array of passive and active skills. It also showed the Plague Skill Tree had been renamed to the Zombie Skill Tree. A caveat however, is that many skills were disabled for use, indicated by the text "Not Yet Implemented".

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skills