Acid Cloud (172 Mana): Acid spills down on the target area from above, dealing 100% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies in a 12-yard radius and an additional 25% weapon damage as Poison damage per second to any enemy in the area for the next 3 seconds.
Yet another lingering area-of-effect damage spell for the Witch Doctor, Acid Cloud has a way of spreading itself around. Jokes aside, the area is decently sized, and the damage certainly isn’t anything to sneeze at. It can be a little tough to place, but by the level you get access to it, its cost is starting to become bearable, and the lack of a cooldown on it makes it relatively easy to place another cloud if the first one turns out to be in a bad location. Combining this, as with many other Witch Doctor skills, with battlefield control is a good way to get a lot more damage out of it. Even without that, it’s a great way to knock a bit of Life off of powerful monsters and do horrifying things to any minions they’ve got near them.
Acid Rain (172 Mana): Acid spills down on the target area from above, dealing 100% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies in a 24-yard radius and an additional 25% weapon damage as Poison damage per second to any enemy in the area for the next 3 seconds.
Acid Rain takes the area of Acid Cloud and doubles it, not only making it easier to place but allowing it to catch a much larger number of enemies with its damage. If your aim is terrible, or if you just like making sure a lot of things get acid vomited on them by a floating tiki, this is going to be a favored rune for you.
Lob Blob Bomb (172 Mana): Acid spills down on the target area from above, dealing 100% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies in a 12-yard radius and an additional 25% weapon damage as Poison damage per second to any enemy in the area for the next 3 seconds. Additionally, a small slime is created that oozes towards and attacks enemies for 25% weapon damage as Poison damage at your attack rate. This slime lasts for 5 seconds.
Lob Blob Bomb generates a strange sort of minion effect out of Acid Cloud, and while the extra damage is welcome, the slimes that it creates aren’t exactly maneuverable, though they’re quicker than they look like they ought to be. A good way to make sure you keep pumping out the damage, if slightly unreliable and more than slightly bizarre.
Slow Burn (172 Mana): Acid spills down on the target area from above, dealing 100% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies in a 12-yard radius and an additional 25% weapon damage as Poison damage per second to any enemy in the area for the next 6 seconds.
Probably the premier form of Acid Cloud for raw damage dealing, Slow Burn extends the duration of the acid pool that the splash leaves behind, making the entire skill notably more impressive. While the actual damage dealt can wind up limited by enemies dying before it’s all dealt or just leaving the area while the damage is still active, the total damage is quite nice. Better for patient Witch Doctors or those who have slows either available to them or on their allies, but still a nice effective skill.
Kiss of Death (172 Mana): You belch acid, dealing 110% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies in a 20-yard cone and an additional 21% weapon damage as Poison damage per second to any enemy in the area for the next 4 seconds.
Kiss of Death alters Acid Cloud from a long range spell that drops a damage zone into a mid-range spell that creates a zone off of your location. Players who are good at positioning themselves will often find this effect much more useful, particularly as it specifically is more useful at killing things as they approach the Witch Doctor, thus acting in a more protective manner. While the overall area is more or less the same, the different shape means a different tactical application, so make sure you’re using the one that you’re more effective with.
Corpse Bomb (172 Mana): A corpse erupts from the ground and then explodes, dealing 200% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies in a 12-yard radius.
Skipping the damaging zone altogether, Corpse Bomb is the skill variant for use when you want damage and you want it now. While the damage is likely to be less than from Lob Blob Bomb or the Slow Burn, it’s all there up front, so things will tend to die a bit more quickly from it than they would from damage over time. Whether this works better for you or not is up to you to determine- play around with it a bit. There’s a very interesting tactical difference between creating a ‘no-walk zone’ and simply mangling everything in an area suddenly, so you should predicate your choice on what fits the way you handle the battlefield.
