Plague of Toads (34 Mana): Release a spread of three toads that hop in semi-random directions. When a toad touches an enemy or has gone almost half a screen of distance, it explodes and deals 130% weapon damage as Poison damage to any enemy in a small area of effect.
Plague of Toads is an interesting and potentially very useful area-of-effect skill. Unfortunately, this potential is rarely realized. The high cost makes it difficult to use frequently, even given the large Mana pool that is available to Witch Doctors, and the fact that the toads change direction frequently makes it virtually impossible to aim the skill with any reliability at all. If you’re facing a large mass of enemies and don’t have to worry about them coming closer- such as while they’re held by another player- then this skill can become useful- otherwise, it’s essentially the Demon Hunter’s Grenades skill with a high cost and extra randomness added in.
Explosive Toads (34 Mana): Release a spread of three toads that hop in semi-random directions. When a toad touches an enemy or has gone almost half a screen of distance, it explodes and deals 169% weapon damage as Fire damage to any enemy in a small area of effect.
This is virtually the same as the regular Plague of Toads. If you’re not too worried about the worse damage typing, the increased damage amount can be a boon to the skill, but it remains exceedingly difficult to actually hit what you want with it, and the cost is still prohibitive.
Toad of Hugeness (34 Mana, Cooldown 5 Seconds): Summon a single large toad that swallows an enemy whole and digests it for 5 seconds, dealing 100% of your weapon damage as Physical.
While mostly silly, this skill has a few small uses. Since it’s not a high-speed skill, the mana cost is somewhat mitigated, and occasionally taking an enemy out of combat for 5 seconds will be very important. Sadly, occasionally isn’t most of the time, the damage isn’t anything to be wowed by, and the toad won’t grab a new enemy if it kills the one it’s got. Really not worth much as a skill.
Rain of Toads (34 Mana): It rains toads in the area for the next 2 seconds, dealing 130% weapon damage as Poison damage to all enemies hit by falling toads.
The Toads skill remains a gimmick more than anything else with this variation. While the damage is more reliable than Plague of Toads (to a point) and slightly larger, it’s still impossible to really target anything for death, and the fact that it takes 2 seconds to fully implement the unreliable damage is a saddening drawback.
Addling Toads (34 Mana): Release a spread of three toads that hop in semi-random directions. When a toad touches an enemy or has gone almost half a screen of distance, it explodes and deals 130% weapon damage as Poison damage to any enemy in a small area of effect and has a 15% chance to confuse each enemy it hits for 4 seconds.
The gimmicks keep going with this rune, which has a very unreliable Confusion effect to go along with its very unreliable damage effect. As with the basic Plague of Toads- can be fun if you’ve got a big swath of enemies being held back by your allies, but otherwise not of much use.
Toad Affinity: Release a spread of three toads that hop in semi-random directions. When a toad touches an enemy or has gone almost half a screen of distance, it explodes and deals 130% weapon damage as Poison damage to any enemy in a small area of effect.
This is where the real value of Plague of Toads is- while the base skill is pretty banal, removing the mana cost entirely lets you throw toads forever while still using your Mana to power other (and more useful) effects. Without the mana cost, the relative unreliability of the toads becomes a nonissue, as you can keep hurling them out as fast as you can swing your weapon. While still not a very impressive skill, Toad Affinity at least makes Plague of Toads into something you could use on a regular basis.
