Plague of Toads

Plague of Toads is a Witch Doctor Tier 1 skill unlocked at character level 2, which summons a pack of poisonous toads who hop into enemies and explode, dealing poison damage.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Plague of Toads Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Skill Description:
Description: Release a handful of toads that deal poison damage to anybody who steps on them.
Skill Details:
Type:	Direct Damage
Quantity:	Duration
Effect:	Circular AoE
School:	Magical
Mana cost:	9
Cast time:	Unknown
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	Unknown
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Witch Doctor sends forth toads that hop into enemies, exploding in an acidic blast.

Skill Design

The toads behave much like Charged Bolts, scattering out from the Witch Doctor and spreading out semi-randomly. The accuracy of this skill with just one cast is suspect. It's best spammed, cast six or eight times in rapid succession against a large number of attackers, especially if the enemies are moving around erratically and are thus more likely to encounter multiple toads each.

Runestones can change this strategy, of course.

Skill Rank Table

GO-GO-GADGET TOADS!

• Rank 1: Release a handful of toads that deal 6-9 poison damage to anybody who steps on them. Cost: 9 mana.
• Rank 2: Release a handful of toads that deal 8-11 poison damage to anybody who steps on them. Cost: 9 mana. (A)
• Rank 3: Release a handful of toads that deal 10-13 poison damage to anybody who steps on them. Cost: 9 mana. (A)
• Rank 4: Release a handful of toads that deal 12-15 poison damage to anybody who steps on them. Cost: 9 mana. (A)
• Rank 5: Release a handful of toads that deal 14-17 poison damage to anybody who steps on them. Cost: 9 mana. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Synergies

Several of the known Witch Doctor traits have bonuses that boost the effectiveness of Plague of Toads.

• Plagued -- Increases the damage of Animal and Plague skills.
• Quickening -- Increases the Witch Doctor's spell-casting speed.
• Staff Specialization -- Increases damage done by skills when the Witch Doctor is wielding a staff.
• Right-Handed -- Increases damage done by skills when the Witch Doctor is wielding a weapon in his/her right hand.
• Beast Hunter -- Damage bonus against Beasts.
• Demonsbane -- Damage bonus against Demons.
• Just... Stay... Dead! -- Damage bonus against Undead.

Skill Rune Effects

The runes for Plague of Toads were discussed at BlizzCon 2010. Wyatt Cheng narrated a short video of them in action:

Next up let's look at Plague of Toads on the Witch Doctor . The Crimson Rune makes all of your frogs on fire and then something a little more gameplay oriented, you've got mana reduction (Golden rune) so you can have a lot more frogs and then Alabaster rune will blind monsters which gives you some crowd control ability and then we change the skill completely and make a toad blizzard (Indigo rune) then finally we wanted to have a giant toad (Obsidian rune) but what's he going to do? He's going to eat monsters and he digests them but he doesn't digest the loot.

Plague of Toads rune options.

The rune effects for Plague of Toads (as of Blizzcon 2010) are as follows:

• Alabaster rune: The toads also blind enemies.
• Crimson rune: Flaming toads add fire damage to their attack.
• Golden rune: Reduced cost per cast. From PCG issue 221 it more toads per cast.
• Indigo rune: Changes the skill to a rain of toads, which fall down on the targeted location.
• Obsidian rune: One huge frog that uses a sticky tongue to capture and consume monsters in one bite. It spits out the treasure and items. Can eat Champions (possibly only at higher/highest rune level?), but not bosses or (presumably) bigger enemies.
  • Bashiok (jokingly?) said[1] that the mega-toad would "lick them to death" when faced with monsters it could not eat in one shot.
  • In comments[2] to that same news post, Exile a fan who tried this skill with the Obsidian rune at Blizzcon 2010, reported that the toad would eat bosses, deal some damage, then spit them back out. This forced the other players in the party to stand and wait while the toad chewed up the boss, before hacking it back out so the battle could go on. This is likely a temporary state of affairs, and the "lick to death" option sounds more viable for a final game solution.

Development

Plague of Toads was seen in every Diablo 3 game demo to date, and was moved and visually changed, judging from the latest demo. The old Plague of Toads was in the Plague Skill Tree (which itself, was renamed to Zombie Skill Tree), and the toads were a green/grey-ish color.

Media

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

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Plague of Toads-specific gallery contents

• 

  Toads on a Dune Thresher.

• 

  A Beast feeling the explosive nature of toads.

• 

  Larger image.

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats