Witch Doctor skills

From Diablo Wiki

This page lists all known Witch Doctor skills, sorted by skill tree. Follow the links to the individual skill pages for full discussion of every skill, including first hand reports and screenshots.

Useful skill links:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
• Zombie Skill Tree - Zombie skills.
• Spirit Skill Tree - Spirit skills.
• Voodoo Skill Tree - Voodoo skills.
• Witch Doctor skill archive - Removed Witch Doctor skills.
• Skill runes - One new way to customise skills.
• Signature skills - Skills that define characters.
• Active skills - Skills where effects are activated by the player.
• Passive skills - Skills where effects are activated automatically, by the computer or by special events.

Contents 1 Zombie skills 1.1 Tier I 1.2 Tier II 1.3 Tier III 1.4 Tier IV 1.5 Tier V 1.6 Tier VI 2 Spirit skills 2.1 Tier I 2.2 Tier II 2.3 Tier III 2.4 Tier IV 2.5 Tier V 2.6 Tier VI 3 Voodoo Skills 3.1 Tier I 3.2 Tier II 3.3 Tier III 3.4 Tier IV 3.5 Tier V 3.6 Tier VI 4 Development 5 References

Zombie skills

The Zombie tree focuses on summoning various minions. Like any skill tree focusing on any element of gameplay, it cannot be called a skill tree if it doesn't have signature skills that can actually kill. Luckily for us, the Zombie tree has a few cool skills that makes enemies easy to kill, like Sacrifice, Parasite and Wall of Zombies.

Tier I

• Summon Zombie Dog
  • Summon a pet Zombie Dog (formerly known as Mongrel).
• Mind and Body
  • A passive skill; regenerates mana and health.

Tier II

• Zombie Charger
  • Summon a reckless, enraged zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
• Sacrifice
  • Detonate a nearby Zombie Dog in an explosion, dealing damage X% of the Zombie Dog's health to monsters nearby.

Tier III

• Grasp of the Dead
  • Summon undead hands that reach out from the ground, attacking all enemies within 8 yards of the targeted location.
• Unrelenting Assault
  • Enables one of your Zombie Dogs to instantaneously resurrect itself upon its death.

Tier IV

• Gargantuan
  • Summons a large zombie follower to fight for you.
• Leader of the Pack
  • Increases spell damage by 1% for every Zombie Dog under your command.

Tier V

• Parasite
  • Launch a parasite at an enemy dealing 3 damage per second. If the target dies while under the effects of the Parasite a Zombie Dog emerges from the slain body.
• Wall of Zombies
  • Zombies emerge from the ground and attack nearby monsters for 7 damage per second.

Tier VI

• Ferocity
  • Increases the health and damage of your Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan by 8%.

Spirit skills

The Spirit tree focuses on mana regeneration, crowd control, and being more adept at surviving. Like any skill tree focusing on any element of gameplay, it cannot be called a skill tree if it doesn't have signature skills that can actually kill. Luckily for us, the Spirit tree has a few cool skills that makes enemies easy to kill, like Haunt, Soul Harvest and Mass Confusion.

Tier I

• Haunt
  • Launch a Spirit to invade the bodies of your enemies, causing sustained damage over time; the spirit lasts longer when inhabiting a host than when searching for one.
• Spirit Vessel
  • Replenishes your mana when consuming a health globe.

Tier II

• Soul Harvest
  • Draw out the life of enemies to replenish your mana.
• Rituals
  • Increase your spell power by a percentage (%) of your vitality.

Tier III

• Spirit Sense
  • Increase damage against targets with low health by X% percentage.
• Horrify
  • Don a spectral mask that horrifies enemies, causing them to run away from you.

Tier IV

• Spirit Barrage
  • A multitude of spirit bolts bombard enemies in targeted areas.
• Ritual of Blood
  • Whilst active, X% of all mana costs are paid for with health.

Tier V

• Spirit Walk
  • Traverse your physical body into the spirit realm, allowing unhindered movement for a time.
• Meditation
  • Your spirit spells return X% of their mana cost over 10 seconds.

Tier VI

• Death Pact
  • Induce momentary invulnerability whenever you are reduced to 10% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 seconds.
• Mass Confusion
  • Induce paranoia in enemies, causing some to fight for the Witch Doctor for a period of time.

Voodoo Skills

The Voodoo tree focuses on offensive effects via short-time summoning spells. Like any skill tree focusing on any element of gameplay, it cannot be called a skill tree if it doesn't have signature skills that can actually kill. Luckily for us, the Voodoo tree has a lot of cool skills that makes enemies easy to kill, like Skull of Flame, Firebats and Locust Swarm.

Tier I

• Skull of Flame
  • Lob a skull filled with fire dealing 4-5 fire damage to all enemies caught in the explosion.
• Jungle Fortitude
  • Increase your Vitality by 5% of your Strength, 5% of your Dexterity, and 5% of your Willpower.

Tier II

• Hex
  • Summon a Fetish caster to cast hexes on enemies for 6 seconds.
• Corpse Spiders
  • Summon 3 spiders to attack nearby enemies for 8-13 poison damage per hit.

Tier III

• Locust Swarm
  • Assault nearby foes with a swarm of locusts that spread to additional, nearby targets.
• Plague of Toads
  • Release a handful of toads that deal poison damage to anybody who steps on them.

Tier IV

• Pit of Fire
  • Call up to 4 Fetishes to bathe a region in fire.
• Firebats
  • Launch a swarm of bats, saturated in a fiery blaze to burn targeted enemies.

Tier V

• Acid Cloud
  • Detonate a bottle of acid in the air to damage enemies with the initial explosion and, over time for enemies who remain in it's area of effect.
• Blood Rites
  • Increase your spell damage by consuming health globes.

Tier VI

• Fetish Army
  • Summon an army of Fetishes to fight by your side.

Development

The Witch Doctor's skills and skill trees were first seen at BlizzCon 2008. The following BlizzCon in 2009 revealed each tree and their skills in much more detail; each tree now decked out the Witch Doctor with an array of passive and active skills. It also showed the Plague Skill Tree had been renamed to the Zombie Skill Tree. A caveat however, is that many skills were disabled for use, indicated by the text "Not Yet Implemented".

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skills

Diablo III Skills [e]
Skills - Skill runes - Active skills - Passive skills - Signature skills - Fanmade skills
Barbarian (all) • Berserker • Juggernaut • Battlemaster • Archive	Monk (all) • Tree A • Tree B • Tree C • Archive	Witch Doctor (all) • Zombie • Spirit • Voodoo • Archive	Wizard (all) • Conjuring • Arcane • Storm • Archive	Unannounced • Tree 1 • Tree 2 • Tree 3 • Archive

Zombie Skills [e]
Tier I • Summon Zombie Dog • Mind and Body	Tier II • Zombie Charger • Sacrifice	Tier III • Grasp of the Dead • Unrelenting Assault	Tier IV • Gargantuan • Leader of the Pack	Tier V • Parasite • Wall of Zombies	Tier VI • Ferocity

Spirit Skills Navigation [e]
Tier I • Haunt • Spirit Vessel	Tier II • Soul Harvest • Rituals	Tier III • Spirit Sense • Horrify	Tier IV • Spirit Barrage • Ritual of Blood	Tier V • Spirit Walk • Meditation	Tier VI • Death Pact • Mass Confusion

Voodoo Skills [e]
Tier I • Skull of Flame • Jungle Fortitude	Tier II • Hex • Corpse Spiders	Tier III • Locust Swarm • Plague of Toads	Tier IV • Pit of Fire • Firebats	Tier V • Acid Cloud • Blood Rites	Tier V • Fetish Army