Instead of knocking thralls unconscious and dragging them to be buried and turned into a zombie, how about we get a new type of binding that can drag the dead. Graves are for the dead, wheels are for the living. So you have to kill your target and then drag them to the grave.
NPC human bodies give zombies (per normal sorcery) and maintain their bad ass nature and ability to travel in packs
Skeletons corpses + vial of sacrificial blood give skeletons pets
Skeleton warrior corpses + vial of sacrificial blood give skeleton warrior pets
Wight corpses + vial of blood + 20 witch fire gives wight pets
Legionnaires + vial of blood + heart of the hero gives legion warrior pets
other undead pets
1 undead head+20 bones+ vial of blood gives the undead variant
I like it - returns an element of the old Witch Doctor knowledge to the game, while integrating it with the new existing sorcery. It also feels very much in keeping with the lore (insofar as player sorcery can be), Also seems pretty fairly costed (obviously might need tweaking once in action, but seems a very reasonable starting set up for costs). I hope the devs will give it some consideration…
I posted an idea similar to this but you would gather bones from say pickaxe from crocodiles so you could have a starter pet skeleton if you found yourself in the desert with nothing lol.
You could use similar resources in the mound, as you can farm bones and flesh, but you would need a way to gauge how strong the zombie will be when it rises as the strength of the zombie at the moment is the level and faction npc it belongs too.