Zombie Charger

Zombie Charger is a Tier Two Witch Doctor skill.

It summons a zombie that charges forward, disintegrating rapidly into a poison cloud. This skill deals considerable poison damage, but the range is quite short. It can be greatly improved with Runes.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Zombie Charger Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Witch Doctor
Skill Description:
A reckless, suicidal zombie deals poison damage to all enemies in its way.
Skill Details:
Type:	Summon
Quantity:	Cast
Effect:	Target
School:	Magical
Mana cost:	12 mana
Cast time:	Unknown
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	Unknown
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The base version of this skill essentially functions as a poison cloud that spreads disease to everything in a short path in front of the Witch Doctor.

Skill Design

The zombie is humanoid, but it disintegrates so quickly into a green acid that it's hard to get a good look at it.

Skill Rank Table

Skill stats as seen at Blizzcon 2009. There will be changes in the final game.

• Rank: 1/5
  • Summon a reckless zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
  • Health Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 2/5
  • Summon a reckless zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
  • Health Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 3/5
  • Summon a reckless zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
  • Health Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 4/5
  • Summon a reckless zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
  • Health Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 5/5
  • Summon a reckless zombie from the ground to assault your enemies.
  • Health Cost: Unknown

(legend (A) = Assumed)

Synergies

Numerous Witch Doctor traits increase his spell damage across the board, as well as against specific types of enemies. The only traits that specifically boost Zombie Charger are:

• Zombie Master -- Increases damage done by Zombie skills.

Runestone Effects

Only one runestone effect is known for Zombie Charger, the instantly-legendary "Zombie Bears." It's not known which rune creates this bonus.

The effect was created by Julian Love and revealed at Blizzcon 2010, where it became something of a running joke, and was brought up in interviews and panels with unbearable frequency. [1]

Slashdot: I was playing a Witch Doctor, and I used the spell that summons a zombie for you, and I got a rune that turned it into a swarm of bears. We got a real kick out of that.

Julian Love: Yeah! Zombie Bears! It’s kind of funny, that’s one of the skills that came up – the way we work is that we sit down and throw a lot of crazy ideas out, and sometimes it’s a little scary, throwing an idea that you think “I’m not sure how the group will react. This is kind of wacky.” And I remember sitting in the group and they were saying, “What are we going to do? We need something else.” And I said, “I’m not even sure why this works, but I’m just going to say it: Zombie Bears!” And everybody went, “Yes!” And that was it. Look at the way to it feels to play that skill in the game – it just sounds fun, right?

Media

No clear images of Zombie Charger (or the zombie bears) have been seen; the skill is just a blur of green smoke in every screenshot that's been taken from the gameplay movie.

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures

References

• Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
• Julian Love @ Blizzcon 2010 Interview