Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a Witch Doctor Tier 3 skill unlocked at level 6. One of the Witch Doctor's biggest damage skills, Sacrifice causes a Zombie Dog to explode, dealing substantial damage to nearby enemies.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Sacrifice Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Skill Description:
A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing X% of the zombie dog’s health as damage to monsters nearby
Skill Details:
Type:	Direct Damage
Quantity:	% of health
Effect:	Circular AoE
School:	Magical
Mana cost:	5 mana
Cast time:	Unknown
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	Unknown
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

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

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.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 20% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana.
• Rank 2: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 40% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)
• Rank 3: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 60% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)
• Rank 4: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 80% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)
• Rank 5: A nearby zombie dog explodes, dealing 100% of the zombie dog’s health to nearby monsters. Cost: 5 mana. (A)

(A) = Assumed

A sequence of images showing sacrifice.

Synergies

Sacrifice in the Arena.

Though the Witch Doctor traits cover bonuses across the board to numerous spell casting exercises, none grant any specific bonuses to Sacrifice.

One trait does effect Mongrel deaths, though it's not known how these correlate with Sacrificed Mongrels vs. Mongrels killed by monsters.

• Unrelenting Assault -- 10% chance that a Zombie Dog will be brought back to life when it dies.

Skill Rune Effects

• None 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.

Previous Versions

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

Media

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