Diablo 3 class reviews: Witch Doctor

Today's review is the Witch Doctor

The rating system is:

5/5: Very well executed. Super fun. Can't stop playing.
4/5: Very fun. Definitely enjoy playing.
3/5: Kind of fun, but just not inspiring. Will play again.
2/5: Could be good if the concept was reworked. Probably won't play again.
1/5: Doesn't work. Just horrible. Not going to play ever.

Sawsheezle's thoughts:
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Witch Doctor:

Active stat: Intelligence (this is what determines your damage #).

I was hesitant to play the Witch Doctor due to my profound love of the Necromancer from D2. I now have accepted that nothing will probably ever equal my love for the Necro and have started to really like the Witch Doctor. While Diablo 3 has seen an extremely massive overhaul of the skill/attributes system which I do not like (more comments later), the Witch Doctor actually plays the most like a D2 character. Every class has their own unique resource for which they use to power their skills and the Witch Doctor (WD) is the only one who still makes use of mana. Also, the mana pool for the WD grows as the character levels just like in D2 and unlike every other class in D3. The WD makes use of voodoo and some necromancy for his skills and to good effect. Most of the skills are similar to the Necromancer and you can even use a spiritual dagger or shrunken head just like in D2. You can call forth minions, but they take up your skill slots which sucks because once you call your minion it usually lives for a long time and your skill slot is just worthless while it is alive. In D2 you could use as many skills as you would like, but possibly suffered if you didn't level them up properly. Now we can only use a certain number of skills. Why? There are many skills I would never use. Why can't I just use all of the ones I want? More complaints coming later. Overall, the WD is really fun and I feel this class is "realistic" (unlike the Monk...) in the world of Diablo. You gain more mana and you can do more skills (a novel concept for D3) and it works.

Most favorite skill: Soul harvest. Gain intelligence (aka damage) by collecting souls. Awesome.
Least favorite skill: Zombie Dogs. Only three at once, a 30 second cooldown, and they die easily? F that.

Favorite thing: The WD is a Necromancer. You can blow up your zombie dogs.
Worst thing: Having minions is nice, but limits the number of spells you can use to attack.

Overall rating: 4/5

RyDub's thoughts:
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Love, love, love the witch doctor. From the voice actor to even the way he walks (kinda hunched over like he's stalking his prey), the witch doctor is phenomenal. It plays just about like the necromancer, which was by far my favorite class from D2. You have your zombie dogs (like the skeletons from D2), a hulking Frankenstein-esque gargantuan (like the golems), plus a spirit barrage (kinda like bone spirit). The witch doctor even gets some attacks that let it personally deal some heavy damage. Firebomb is the skill I'm referring to. You launch a ball of fire that explodes on impact. The skill is especially cool because of the animation. When it explodes, the outline of a man on fire erupts from the place of impact. It happens so quick though. I think it's really cool. I definitely agree with Sawsheezle in that once you summon your dogs or gargantuan, that skill space is now worthless. Kinda sucks.

Most favorite skill: Grasp of the dead. Lets you slow down enemies while causing damage in a specified area. You can even change runes to let it either extend the time being slowed, % slowed down, or more damage.
Least favorite skill: Spirit walk. Only good for escaping. Waste of time.

Favorite thing: Basically a necromancer.
Worst thing: Very squishy, meaning you can die very fast if enemies start to attack you directly. That's what minions are for though.

Overall rating: 4.7/5