Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a Witch Doctor skill unlocked at level 12. One of the Witch Doctor's biggest damage skills, Sacrifice causes a Zombie Dog to explode, dealing substantial damage to nearby enemies.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Sacrifice
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Enabled at:	Clvl 12
Skill Description
Explodes a Zombie Dog, dealing X% of the zombie dog’s health as damage to monsters nearby.
Type:	Direct Damage/AoE
Resource Use:	Costs Mana
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Witch Doctor dispatches his zombie dogs if they are of no more use to him.

Skill Design

The specifics of how the damage is determined are not yet known. Does the "20%" figure refer to the dog's maximum health, or its health at the time of death?

If it is the latter, then it would be advisable to summon a new dog, and then immediately sacrifice it, rather than using this skill on older Mongrels that are nearly dead.

The explosion in which the dogs are sacrificed is magnificent, and can easily take out multiple enemies if timed and positioned correctly.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 20% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana.
• Rank 2: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 40% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)
• Rank 3: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 60% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)
• Rank 4: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 80% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)
• Rank 5: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 100% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)

(A) = Assumed

A sequence of images showing sacrifice.

Synergies

Sacrifice in the Arena.

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

Skill Rune Effects

• No rune effects for Sacrifice are known.

Development

Sacrifice premiered with Diablo III in the WWI 2008 gameplay video, and was a Tier II skill in the Voodoo Skill Tree. For BlizzCon 2009, Sacrifice was moved to the Zombie Skill Tree, but was otherwise unchanged.

Though it was not a starting skill in the BlizzCon 2010 PvM demo, Flux found it to be very useful in the PvP demo:[1]

The biggest damage skill he had, and one I made extensive use of. It was especially good late game, when hunting down the last Wizard. I’d chase with the dogs ahead of me, hurling Firebombs at, or just to cut off, the Wizard. As soon as one of the dogs got in range, even if it was just close enough to take one swipe at the running target… bang.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Sacrifice became a level 12 skill.

Previous Versions

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

Media

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Sacrifice specific gallery contents

• 

  The distinctive explosion.

• 

  Mongrel detonation in the Arena.

• 

  Mongrel detonation in the Arena.

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Witch Doctor Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
• BlizzCon 2010 PvP Hands-on Report
• JudgeHype.com July 2011 Press Event Coverage - The Barbarian (Translated by Zediono)