Zombie Skill Tree
The Witch Doctor has three skill trees, with a variety of active and passive skills in each. Only 11 WD skills were revealed at Blizzcon, (more than 55 each were shown for the Wizard and Barbarian) so our knowledge of this character's abilities is much less extensive. Furthermore, all 11 skills were active skills, so we know nothing of the WD's passives and masteries.
The Witch Doctor's tree skill trees are:
Contents
Diablo III Skill Trees
Unlike the skill trees in Diablo II, the trees in Diablo III are not focused on just one aspect of a character. All known D3 skill trees have a wide variety of skills, with more passive than active, and all allow for a variety of play styles.
All active skills in the BlizzCon build were capped at 1 skill point (or rank, as skill levels are called in D3), while most passives went up to 15 points. This will not be the case in the final game; active skills will allow more than 1 point, and passives may have different maximum ranks, to allow better game balancing. Know that skills will be modified, that some will be removed, that others will be added, and that the numbers are almost certain to change.
Plague Skill Tree
Plague Skills Plague of Toads Locust Swarm Spider Statue
Locust Swarm
The locusts can also be sprayed on the WD's minions, where they will ride along, without hurting the minions, and grant poison damage to the minion's attacks.
Plague of Toads
This skill works like a short-range, Charged Bolt of amphibians. In the Blizzcon demo 3 toads were tossed out with each casting. They hopped forward, spreading out slightly, but homing in on targets if any were in range. Their homing wasn't very good; they never changed direction or made a sharp turn, but if a target was roughly in front of the Witch Doctor, at least two of the toads were sure to leap into it.
When the toads found a target or after several hops (covering about half the screen) they exploded in splats of green acid, which dealt poison damage to the enemy. Toads also left behind puddles of acid on the ground, which would damage monsters that stepped on them.
Like all of the spells in Diablo III, this one has a great sound effect, with the toads making their "ribbit" noises and wet slapping sounds as they hop forward. The animation is excellent as well. The toads really look like they have weight and mass as they gather themselves to leap, and land with a little thud after each spring.
Spider Statue
This skill was first seen at Blizzcon, and has not yet been featured in a screenshot. It's essentially a trap with a small damage radius. When cast a small statue appears out of the ground. From it spiders emerge, and swarm over nearby monsters, dealing poison damage. Monsters take more damage per second the longer they remain in range.
Projected Passives
No passive skills have yet been revealed in this skill tree, but by comparing these skills to the known trees and skills for the Wizard and Barbarian, some educated guesses can be made.
It's a safe bet that we'll see a passive that boosts the damage of all skills in this tree, or perhaps all of the Witch Doctor's poison damage skills. Other passives will improve the individual skills; something like Improved Plague of Toads/Locust Swarm/Spider Statue, granting more damage, better odds of critical strike, etc. It's also a decent bet that there will be faster casting rate and/or lower mana cost passives for the WD, as there are for the Wizard, since the character is designed to cast quickly and keep moving, and will need mana for that.
