by Hotstreak - 10 years ago     show comments

Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks Storm Watch where we are going over Naziba the Witch Doctor. Naziba is a ranged damage dealer that does poison damage, lots of AoE, and will try to overwhelm you with pet summons.

Back Story

Naziba, the Heretic.

All Witch Doctors hail from the Umbaru tribes. Secluded deep in the jungles of Kehjistan, the Umbaru people are unlike any other in the lands of Sanctuary. They have very deeply rooted spiritual beliefs and teach that this life is nothing but a shadow of what really awaits us on the other side.

Real life exists in the Mbwiru Eikura, the Unformed Land, and our spirits go there when we die. Due to this belief the Umbaru have learned to not fear death and ritual sacrifice is a normal part of life in their tribes. One of these practices is the Igani Bawe or Harvest of Souls, which is a ritualistic war between the different tribes. Participating in this mock battle is one of the highest honors for a Witch Doctor and they spend their lives preparing for it. Even though no lives are lost during the ‘hunt’ anyone captured by an opposing tribe is to be sacrificed after the war has ended. Since this ritual sacrifice is decreed by the spirits of the Unformed Land no one questioned the practice, at least no one until Naziba did.

During the last Harvest Naziba defied his peoples’ laws and stopped an opposing tribe from taking the life of his master because he knew the truth. Naziba knew that the elders had lost contact with the spirits and truly knew nothing of the Unformed Land that lies beyond their reach. The elders were using the laws and traditions of the Umbaru to further their own power and were not offering any spiritual guidance to their people.

Naziba encountered others and planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of other Witch Doctors to help his people on the proper path to the Unformed Land before he set off on his own personal journey to the lands of the West where a great evil was rising that threaten not only his own tribe but all the people of Sanctuary.

Backstory provided by Neinball (Twitter)

Talent and Abilities

A useful passive that turns your damage into poison damage and also gives you health and mana if a player dies with the effect of the DoT.

 Corpse Spiders (Q)

This is a pretty basic ability that throws a DoT on your target when hit.  I see this being a very spammable skill that you are always hitting to keep that DoT up. This will also be a good team fight or pushing skill since hit can hit multiple enemies within the area of effect.

 Ritual of the Dead (W)

Ahh a good ole trap skill to single out enemies and to keep them from running away. Need to keep a support from supporting? Mummies. Need to keep someone from running away? Mummies! This will be a pretty good all around skill but it will require a little bit of skill to land since it has a delay before taking effect.

 Plague of Toads (E)

This is a pretty standard AoE skill that just adds to Naziba’s AoE ability. Going in to team fights against a Naziba will be kind of annoying because you know you are going to get lots of AoEs in your face and you are also going to get lots of DoTs applied to you.

Heroic Abilities

 Gargantuan (R)

This skill is going to be good in all situations. Summoning a golem gargantuan will help you push lanes, get more leverage in team fights, and be good for some ganks. This will also help you turn the tide in some 1v1 battles.

 Big Bad Voodoo (R)

Here is another big AoE in Naziba’s skill selection that will just add to Naziba’s already strong AoE capabilities. This skill has a channeling effect though so you will have to use it wisely or you could risk wasting it or getting yourself killed.

Conclusion

Naziba is a ranged damage specialist that has an emphasis on AoE damage. Along with a cool gargantuan, toads, spiders, and a nice trapping ability, I don’t see much synergy between skills. That is probably because they all have pretty much the same effect, AoE and more AoE. But, that is not to say that Naziba won’t be kick ass since he has some really good team fight ability. Come back next week when we will be going over the famous Starcraft Ghost Nova.