Best survival skills : Witch Doctor

This class is very powerful in crowd control, life leech and summoning.

• Survival skills for Witch Doctor

• Grasp of the Dead
• This area of effect spell is fantastic to crowd control big packs of mobs, as it slows them drastically.


• Firebats
• Using this skill with the Vampirebats skill rune, you can leech life from your enemies.


• Haunt
• The Haunt skill itself is a channelling spell, which damages the target, but there are two life-saving skill runes, which can be linked to the skill. The Consuming Spirit rune returns life every second while you use the skill, and the Grasping Spirit adds slow effect to the skill.
   


• Summon Zombie Dogs
• You can summon three Zombie Dogs using this skill, which increases your chance to survive by itself already, but the skill can be even more powerful. Having the Life Link skill rune, your Zombie Dogs absorb 10% of all damage done to you, or having the Leeching Beasts rune, the Zombie Dogs gain a given amount of life based on the damage they deal, and you receive half of this life.


• Horrify
• A very nice crowd control skill, as it causes the surrounding enemies run in fear for a given amount of time. Additionally, if you have the Stalker skill rune, it increases your movement speed after casting Horrify, so this skill can be very useful if you are overcrowded.


• Spirit Walk
• For a shirt time period, you can leave your physical body, and enter the spirit realm. In this state your movement is unhindered, I don't have to mention how useful this can be on Hardcore mode. Beside that, the Healing Journey skill rune gives life regain while being in the spirit realm.


• Hex
• Hex summons a Fetish shaman, who turns enemies into chickens. This reduces your incoming damage, but if you have the Hedge Magic skill rune, the shaman will periodically heal your allies.


• Soul Harvest
• Using the Soul Harcest with the Siphon skill rune, it gives you a great amount of life per emeny harvested. The Languish rune adds movement speed reduction effect to the skill.


• Sacrifice
• You need to have Zombie Dogs to use this skill, as it is sacraficing them. For survivability, the For the Master skill rune can be useful, as you can gain life for each Zombie Dog you sacrifice.


• Mass Confusion
• Another crowd control skill in the Witch Doctor's arsenal. This aoe spell causes confusion in the lines of the enemy, causing them to figh for you (attacking each other). Beside that, the Mass Hysteria skill rune even stuns those monsters, who aren't confused.


• Spirit Barrage
• Using this damage dealing spell with the Phlebotomize effect, it gives you life leech based on damage dealt.


• Wall of Zombies
• You raise zombies from the ground, who attack all nearby enemies, but the Unrelenting Grip skill rune even slows them.


• Big Bad Voodoo
• You conjure a Fetish, that begins a ritual, which increases the attack and movement speed of you and your allies. This is already very powerful, but the Fetish can go into Ghost Trance, which heals nearby allies for a nice proportion of their maximum life in every second.

It's important to know, that some attack skills can also have slow effect with special skill runes, e.g. Poison Dart, which can indirectly affect your survivability. Up to now it seems the Witch Doctor has the most crowd control skills, but it is highly needed due to the high vulnerability of the class.