The Witch Doctor Acid Cloud Causes a Destructive Poison Rain over your Enemies!

In Diablo 3 , the Witch Doctor is a revamped version of the Necromancer of Diablo 2 , often reffered to as the Necromancers ‘spiritual successor‘.

As opposed to the Necromancer of Diablo 2, the Witch Doctor must get his hands dirty often instead of summoning his various pets. This is in the form of attack spells that cause damage to opponents

Witch Doctor Acid Cloud One such attack spell is the Acid Cloud. Unlocked at level 22, it falls under the Decay sub- category of Active Skills.

It’s the most expensive of the Decay skills in terms of Mana with a cost of 172 Mana over little more than 3 seconds.

The Acid Cloud causes acid rain to fall on enemies in a small radius. This death from above attack is helpful as it’s intial damage is 100% weapon damage of Poison. This is then followed by a area of effect damage of 75% weapon damage of Poison over 3 seconds, through pools of poison remaining on the floor.

Witch Doctor Acid Cloud with Runestones.

Flux’s thoughts on the skill, thanks to Diablowiki.

It’s an interesting description, and a pity we couldn’t see this one in action, to see just how the thrown bottle, explosion, and acid cloud was handled. So how long is the delay between the initial explosion and then start of the acid rain? Would a fast monster take only the 1-5 damage, and move out of the area before the more painful DoT Aoe began?

Three Witch Doctor passives provide benefits to Acid Cloud. They are

Bad Medicine – When Poison damage is dealt to an enemy, their damage is decreases by 20% for 3 seconds.

Pierce the Veil – All damage is increases by 20%, but Mana cost is also increased by 30%.
and

Fetish Sychophants – When a spell of the Physical Realm is cast a 3% chance exists to summon a Fetish that weilds a dagger to fight by your side. This is for 60 seconds.

Witch Doctor Acid Cloud Runestones

Acid Cloud has five Skill runes. The runes and their effects are

Acid Rain – Unlocked at level 26 , it increases the area of effect of the Acid Cloud to 24 yards.

Lob Blob Bomb- Unlocked at level 30 , the residual pools of poison on the ground forms into a slime. This then affects nearby enemies for 25% weapon damage of Poison. It dissipates after 5 seconds.

Slow Burn – Unlocked at level 39,here thethe duration of the poison pools left behind is increased to 6 seconds.

Kiss of Death – Unlocked at level 46, this enables the Witch Doctor to rain down a cloud of acid that now inflicts 110% weapon damage of Poison, which is then followed by 82% weapon damage of Poison to enemies remaining in the area.

Corpse Bomb- Unlocked at level 55, it allows the Witch Doctor to raise a corpse from the ground. the corpseexplodes with a damage of 200% weapon damage as Poison to enemies in the area.

References:

http://www.diablowiki.net/Acid_Cloud

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/acid-cloud