Summon Zombie Dogs

Summon Zombie Dog is a tier I skill in the Zombie Skill Tree, which summons zombie dogs to do the Witch Doctor's bidding.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]

Summon Zombie Dog Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Skill Description:
Summon 1 level 12 zombie dog to aid you. Can have up to X zombie dogs at a time.
Skill Details:
Type:	Summon
Quantity:	Cast
Effect:	Target
School:	Magical
Health cost:	10 health
Cast time:	Unknown
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	Unknown
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Witch Doctor summons forth vicious undead lackeys to do his bidding.

Skill Design

Two mongrels.

Summon Zombie Dog is the first summoning skill in the Zombie Skill Tree, and is the backbone of early witch doctors specializing in this tree. They aren't very strong individually, but at higher levels and with other skills in this tree, they can swarm and destroy tough enemies with ease. It appears this skill costs Health instead of mana, possibly to enforce the player to use his dogs wisely at earlier levels. Earlier versions of this skill allowed the dogs to be enchanted with Skull of Flame and Locust Swarm, giving fire damage or poison damage, respectively.

This idea was scrapped, since the hassle of having attack skills enchant mongrels turned out to be a bother. What will the player want to enchant their dogs with, fire or poison? There weren't enough factors that helped the player decide. In a recent post by Bashiok, he revealed that this idea will probably be turned into either passives or skill rune effects.

Skill Rank Table

(legend (A) = Assumed)

Rank: 1/5
- Summon 1 level 12 zombie dog to aid you. Can have up to 1 zombie dogs at a time.
- Health Cost: 10 health
Rank: 2/5
- Summon 1 level 12 zombie dog to aid you. Can have up to 2 zombie dogs at a time.
- Health Cost: 10 health
Rank: 3/5
- Summon 1 level 12 zombie dog to aid you. Can have up to 3 zombie dogs at a time.
- Health Cost: 10 health
Rank: 4/5
- Summon 1 level 12 zombie dog to aid you. Can have up to 4 zombie dogs at a time. (A)
- Health Cost: 10 health
Rank: 5/5
- Summon 1 level 12 zombie dog to aid you. Can have up to 5 zombie dogs at a time. (A)
- Health Cost: 10 health

Mongrel enhanced with Locusts.

Synergies

None known.

Skill Rune Effects

None known.

Development

Summon Zombie Dog was seen in every Diablo 3 game demo to date, and was iterated, renamed and moved, judging from the latest demo. The Summon Zombie Dog was called Summon Mongrel (as Mongrel was the original name of the Zombie dog), was in the Voodoo skill tree and mongrels could be enchanted with Locust Swarm or Skull of Flame.

Media

You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery:

References

Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats