Corpse Spiders

Corpse Spiders is a Physical Realm Witch Doctor skill unlocked at level 7. It summons a rotting zombie corpse from which spiders swarm out, which attack nearby enemies.

Background

Corpse Spiders in action

The Witch Doctor summons a defiled Zombie who vomits up spiders that attack nearby monsters.

Runestone Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Corpse Spiders 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

Corpse Spiders Physical Realm (Level 7)

[e] Cost: 473 Mana Summon 4 spiders to attack nearby enemies for 38% weapon damage as Physical.

Medusa Spiders

[e] Summon paralyzing spiders that have a 45% chance to slow enemies movement by 60% with every attack.

Blazing Spiders

[e] Summon fire spiders that deal 52% weapon damage as Fire.

Widowmakers

[e] Summon widowmaker spiders that return 71 Mana to you per hit.

Spider Queen

[e] Summon a mother spider that births spiderlings dealing 39% weapon damage per second as Poison to enemies in the area. Lasts 16 seconds. You may only have one mother spider summoned at a time.

Leaping Spiders

[e] Summon jumping spiders that leap up to 25 yards to reach their target and attack for 42% weapon damage as Physical.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 4 runestones.

Skill Design

This skill was initially called Spider Totem. In the earliest version it summoned three large spiders from the earth wherever the Witch Doctor targeted the spell. They swarmed over nearby enemies, dealing poison damage.

During development in 2009 this skill was changed to Corpse Spiders, and the summon now pulled a Zombie partially out of the earth, from which the spiders burst (or were vomited) forth.

Carrion Spiders being summoned.

Synergies

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

Development

The old Spider Totem Spell.

Corpse Spiders was first revealed during BlizzCon 2008; it was originally known as Spider Totem (later Spider Statue) and was on the Plague Skill Tree (itself later renamed to Zombie Skill Tree). It worked like a trap (the Assassin skills from Diablo II) with a radius of poison damage. When cast a small totem would appear out of the ground, from which hundreds of small spiders would emerge, and swarm over nearby monsters, dealing poison damage.

By BlizzCon 2009, this skill had changed dramatically. Renamed to Carrion Spiders and moved to the Voodoo Skill Tree, it had a completely different visual. Flux tried it in the gameplay demo, and described it:[1]

This skill is now called Carrion Spider, a summoning spell that causes a human corpse to erupt from the ground. This gruesome zombie sits up out of the earth and vomits out a large, milky-colored spider, before sinking back into the ground and vanishing from sight. The spider then functions as a minion, racing over to an enemy and latching onto them, dealing considerable poison damage for some duration of time. The spell can be cast repeatedly, just to watch the gruesome zombie animation, and sometimes the spider actually bursts through the zombie corpse’s chest, rather than waiting to be vomited up.

During BlizzCon 2009's Heroes and Monsters panel, the development team discussed the changes made to it. The Spider Totem had a noisy look, a player would cast this in a combat situation, and the entire screen was filled with small spiders which made it hard to concentrate. Also, they didn't like the totem thematic, as the Witch Doctor is more dark than that.

For BlizzCon 2010, the name was changed (once again) to Corpse Spiders. Although available in the gameplay demo, it wasn't one of the Witch Doctor's starting skills.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Corpse Spiders became a level 7 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Witch Doctor skill archive for more details on previous versions of Corpse Spiders (or Spider Totem, or Spider Statue, or Carrion Spiders) and other Witch Doctor skills.

Media

Corpse Spiders can be seen in action on video here:

• No videos yet.

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Corpse Spiders specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Witch Doctor Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
• BlizzCon 2009 Heroes and Monsters Panel
• 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