Firebats
Firebats is a Witch Doctor skill enabled at level 9. It casts forth a spray of flaming bats, which deal substantial fire damage to enemies in the vicinity.
Contents
[hide]Background
| Diablo III Active Skill [e] | |
|---|---|
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| Firebats | |
| Used by: | Witch Doctor |
| Enabled at: | Clvl 9 |
| A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for X fire damage per second. | |
| Type: | DoT |
| Resource Use: | Costs Mana/time |
| Alabaster rune: | Unknown |
| Crimson rune: | Unknown |
| Golden rune: | Unknown |
| Indigo rune: | Unknown |
| Obsidian rune: | Unknown |
The Witch Doctor spews fire from his mouth whilst bats fly into the flame, sending forth flaming bats to attack enemies in front of the Doctor.
Skill Design
This skill is a sort of Inferno, dealing fire damage to anything in front of the Witch Doctor for as long as he keeps casting the spell. It takes a moment to start producing damage, and requires the Witch Doctor to remain stationary while he casts it.
There is a steady mana drain while the spell is in use.
Skill Rank Table
- Rank 1: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 10 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana.
- Rank 2: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 20 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
- Rank 3: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 30 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
- Rank 4: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 40 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
- Rank 5: A swarm of fiery bats burn enemies in front of you for 50 fire damage per second. Cost: 120 mana. (A)
(A) = Assumed
Synergies
- No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet known.
Skill Rune Effects
The known rune effects for Firebats are:
- Unknown rune: boosts the range and damage of the Firebats.
- Unknown rune: turns Firebats into a sort of defensive field, with the bats constantly swarming around the Witch Doctor and only extending out to damage enemies when they move into melee range.
Development
Firebats was first seen in the WWI 2008 build. It was originally located in the Spirit Skill Tree, then moved to the Voodoo Skill Tree, before skill trees were removed entirely.
The skill's damage and range was lowered with the introduction of skill runes; unmodified Firebats were much less effective in the BlizzCon 2010 build than they had been back in 2008. Flux commented on using this skill:[1]
The other interesting thing about this skill was the firing mechanism. You couldn’t click it. If you did nothing would happen. Literally; sometimes one bat would squeak out, but usually not even that. The spell dealt very good DoT, but you had to hold down the mouse button to let the bats flow forth. It took a second or two for the full flow to get going, and once it did the damage was great, but you had to commit to using it.
Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Firebats became a level 9 skill.
Previous Versions
See the Witch Doctor skill archive for more details on previous versions of Firebats and other Witch Doctor skills.
Media
Firebats can be seen in action on video here:
You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:
Firebats vs. flaming zombies.
Firebats on an Unburied.
Firebats swarm a Cultist.
References
- BlizzCon 2008 Witch Doctor Gameplay Report
- BlizzCon 2009 Full Witch Doctor Skill Trees and Stats
- BlizzCon 2010 Witch Doctor Hands-on Report
- Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
| Classes of the Diablo games |
Skills - Active skills - Skill runes - Passives - Resource - Movement ability [e] Barbarian Demon Hunter Monk Necromancer Witch Doctor Wizard Followers Other Classes Fan-made |
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| Witch Doctor skill categories: Primary Secondary Defensive Terror Decay Voodoo |
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