'Diablo 3' Release Date: New Witch Doctor Class Revealed, 'Crippling Diseases, Potent Alchemy and Ancient Rites' To Come [VIDEO]

By Lisa Eadicicco | April 23 2012 7:47 PM

The release date for Blizzard's Diablo 3 is approaching, and the company has unveiled yet another exciting revelation for eager gamers. With the conclusion of this weekend's open beta stress test, Blizzard launched a video to show off one of the game's five classes, the Witch Doctor.

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The release date for Blizzard's "Diablo 3" is approaching, and the company has unveiled yet another exciting revelation for eager gamers. With the conclusion of this weekend's open beta "stress test," Blizzard launched a video to show off one of the game's five classes, the Witch Doctor.

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The Witch Doctor wields supernatural forces, assaulting the bodies and minds of his enemies via crippling diseases, potent alchemy and ancient rites, the narrator says during the unveiling video as gameplay footage is shown.

The Witch Doctor also has the power to bring down fire, acid and locusts upon its enemies. More than simply a mage, this class type contains the ability to summon pets such as zombies and spiders to battle alongside them. Another advantage to the Witch Doctor is their crowd control techniques, such as rooting enemies in place and even turning them into chickens, writes Gaming Blend.

It's easy to see the parallels between the Witch Doctor and classes in other RPGs, writes the gaming news website's Pete Haas. If you played Necromancer in D2, Witch Doctor will offer a similar experience. The class should be appealing to those of you with Warlocks in WoW, too.

This is the fourth class to be revealed thus far, leaving only one more to be unveiled. Blizzard will be updating its website again Tuesday to give fans more information about the Witch Doctor. So far, the Demon Hunter, Barbarian, Monk and Witch Doctor classes have been revealed. This leaves only leaves the Wizard class, which Blizzard is sure to unveil soon.

The Witch Doctor is one of the new classes to come to the Diablo franchise, although it does possess elements of previous character classes such as the Sorceress, Druid and Necromancer. The character type seems to be loosely based on the voodoo practitioner typically found in regions such as Haiti. Both male and female Witch Doctors will be available in Diablo 3, and are said to possess great spiritual power and manipulative hexes and curses that can hinder their enemies.

They can be seen easily controlling the minds of their foes, raising the legions of the dead without the use of corpses and lobbing alchemical projectiles at unwary victims, it reads on the Diablo 3 Wikia.

Blizzard also announced recently that the beta testing phase for Diablo 3 will officially end May 1 in anticipation of the game's release. The company extended its beta invite to 275,000 additional players earlier in April, jam-packing the test right before it concludes its final run.