Introducing the Witch Doctor: Part One

If we are to use Diablo II as a comparison, the Witch Doctor would be the Necromancer with a few traits of Sorceress mixed in. The Witch Doctor has the ability to summon minions to aid him in battle as well as being a very potent damage dealer. Read on for a review of the Witch Doctor.

The current beta build ends at the Skeleton King, which would be the Diablo II equivalent of killing Blood Raven or rescuing Deckard Cain in Tristram, with a level cap of 13. While the beta is rather short at the moment, there is still a lot of things to do and learn, especially for those like me looking to get ahead in retail. You can play around with the five classes to get a feel of what character class you want to play, learn how the Auction House works and level Blacksmithing to level 4.

The Witch Doctor and his abilities
The Witch Doctor gets to have all the fun right away. Plague of Toads (2) is the Witch Doctor's strongest single-target damaging skill at the moment. The second strongest AoE ability in the game after Firebomb (11), is Grasp of the Dead (3). Grasp of the Dead and Plague of Toads will be your core abilities for the entire beta phase. Grasp of the Dead deals a lot of damage over time and slows down enemies by 50%.

These are the offensive abilities in the game that are good and worth using in the current state of the game:



The rest of the skills you have at the moment are situational at best, and doesn't give you anything extra that you don't already have from level 3. Haunt is one of those skills that appear weak when you first get it at level 4, but as a matter of fact is a very good ability for killing enemies prone to running away, like Tomb Guardians, Treasure Bandits and Jondar. You can have three Haunts up at the same time, but they do not stack on the same target.

As you level up you unlock skill slots, once at level 6 and another at level 12. At level 10 you also unlock a passive skill slot. When you start the game you begin with two skills, Zombie Dogs and Poison Dart. Poison Dart is a good single-target damage dealer, but is severely outperformed by Plague of Toads at level two.


At level I prefer to bring back Zombie Dogs, but Haunt is a good ability to use as well. Zombie Dogs acts as a constant source of damage absorption and damage output, whereas Haunt is used less often. Haunt is good for attacking runaway enemies or larger packs of monsters if your Grasp of the Dead is on cooldown.

You can replace Plague of Toads with Firebats at level 9 if you want, as Firebats is a frontal cone AoE that is guaranteed to hit the targets in front of you. Plague of Toads can be very random. Your toads can go in any direction and Firebats is a very cost effective ability.

Level 10 unlocks one passive skill slot and you learn two passive skills, Vermin and Circle of Life. Vermin gives you a 20% damage bonus to Plague of Toads, Firebats and Corpse Spiders. Circle of Life returns a percentage of your max mana whenever you step on a health globe. Mana regenerates very fast and you will seldom run out of mana. Since you will be using Plague of Toads or Firebats, Vermin is the passive ability to use until level 13 when you get Spiritual Attunement. Spiritual Attunement is a passive that increases your max mana by 20% and gives you a constant 1% mana regeneration buff.


When you reach level 11 you replace your main offensive ability, either Firebats or Plague of Toads with Firebomb, the most accurate and highest damage dealing AoE. You toss a Firebomb which explodes into a fiery demon that attacks your enemy. In conjunction with Grasp of the Dead and Haunt you can reach very high Massacre experience bonuses, as you have three good ranged abilities that allows you to remain in combat and kill more monsters.

Spirit Walk (12) is another ability that is a good, but situational panic-button escape ability that lets you run slightly faster when activated. You unlock your fourth skill slot at level 12, and it's time to add Haunt or Zombie Dogs to your skill bar.


At level 13 my skill bar looks like this: Zombie Dogs, Grasp of the Dead, Haunt, Firebomb and Spiritual Attunement as passive.

Final thoughts
While the beginning of the game is intended to be very easy, if we compare the Witch Doctor to the other character classes, the Witch Doctor is very powerful from the start in the current beta build. You will have no problem killing any number of monsters standing in your way, and the Witch Doctor is a very versatile and fun character class to play. The Witch Doctor can kill single enemies very fast with Plague of Toads and Haunt, and has no problems killing larger groups of monsters with Grasp of the Dead, Firebomb and Haunt. You'll have no problems with reaching very high Massacre killing spree's, which is exactly what Diablo is all about at the end of the day.