Posts with tag diablo-3-witch-doctor

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you.

Patches are always trying times, more so for pure classes than any other. Hybrids benefit by generally only having a single DPS spec that Blizzard focuses on balancing; pures have to worry about which of their three specs is going to remain viable and scale well into the next raiding tier. While some of that is dependent upon the raw damage a spec is capable of putting out, many times the situation is far more complicated than that. Tier bonuses, encounter design, and gearing all play a vital role in determining which spec reigns supreme and which falls by the wayside.

We've talked before about all of these topics, but it's time to focus that on how the game is shaping up for the next raid. While most of the encounter design is still slightly unknown to players, there are things that we do know and concerns that we have to be wary of. This week, we'll take a look at what might be in store for demonology, the part that tier 13 plays in that, and how the bosses themselves will be the deciding factor.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you.

I have been grateful as of late to have been invited into the Diablo 3 beta. While this might just seem like some bragging that has no relation to WoW, you couldn't be more wrong. If there is one thing that I have learned while playing through Diablo 3, it is that the game has been heavily influenced by the many paths that WoW has taken over the years. While the ARPG and MMO genre may not appear to have much crossover at first glance, the fundamentals are all there, more so in a game such as Diablo.

The witch doctor class in particular has been heavily inspired not just by the Diablo necromancer but also by WoW's warlock, even going so far as to have the Haunt spell, much in the same capacity that we do. As much as the development team has clearly learned from WoW, I think it is fair to say that there are quite a few things that went into creating such an amazing new game, and some of those things can also be brought back into WoW.

The BlizzCon costume contest took place yesterday afternoon with roughly 90 entries (give or take a few, depending on how you count group efforts). We did have a screenshot of one entrant in black that was unfortunately too dark to include, but this is an otherwise comprehensive gallery of all contest entrants, the five finalists and winner. There were a number of extraordinary costumes this year, and we highly recommend giving them a look. However, I think Jay Mohr was correct in observing that it's only a matter of time before someone's going to topple over on digitigrade stilts. Please, folks -- it's okay to suffer for your art, but it's not okay to break your ankles over it!

The five finalists (you'll find them toward the end of the gallery) portrayed Ysera, the female monk from Diablo III, Jaina Proudmoore, the female witch doctor from Diablo III, and Illidan Stormrage. The eventual winner was Christina Estrada as the female monk.

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BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!

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