Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a Support Witch Doctor skill unlocked at level 16. One of the Witch Doctor's biggest damage skills, Sacrifice causes a Zombie Dog to explode, dealing substantial damage to nearby enemies.

Background

Sacrifice in action

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

Skill Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Sacrifice rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Icon	Skill	Description

Sacrifice Command (Level 16)

[e] All of your zombie dogs explode, each dealing 200% of your weapon damage as Physical to all enemies within 12 yards.

Next of Kin

[e] Each sacrificed dog has a 70% chance to resurrect as a new zombie dog.

Provoke the Pack

[e] Increase all damage done by 40% for every sacrificed dog for 60 seconds.

Pride

[e] Recover 792 Mana for each sacrificed dog.

For the Master

[e] Gain 3513 Life for each sacrificed dog.

Black Blood

[e] Black inky goo shoots out and slows all affected enemies by 60% for 9 seconds.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

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.

A sequence of images showing sacrifice.

Synergies

Sacrifice in the Arena.

• No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet 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 16 skill.

Previous Versions

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

Media

Sacrifice can be seen in action on video here:

• Video: August 2011 Witch Doctor Skill Animations

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
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Witch Doctor Active Skills -- Diablo III 13th Sep 2011

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer corpses

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer bloodandbone

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses