[TobiasOhawk]

The Doll is at best a support tool rather than an offensive weapon. Here is my recommendation.

(3/5) Attune. (Lets you attune either 3 friends to heal or 2 friends and an enemy you intend to drain.)

(1/5) Poke. (You get one point by default and you should leave it that way for leveling up.)

(1/5) Swarm. (Again 1 point by default and no reason to spend any more)

(5/5) Heal. (Your friends will thank you for this one, great recharge rate.)

(1/5) Curse. (Only 1 point needed here for the 60 second 30% increase in damage taken.)

(0/5) Scorch. (Useless skill as other weapons are better for causing high damage.)

(5/5) Cure. (Slower recharge than heal but can remove an unfriendly curse.)

(0/5) Grave Shackles. (Unless you plan to max this skill to hold enemies in place while you or someone else charges a staff attack then ignore it, lower ranks of this skill don't last long enough to be much help.)

(5/5) Life Drain. (This is how you heal yourself. FTW No arguments there, max this bad boy!)

--Passive Effects--
(0/5) Focus. (No need to spend points here as you'll have plenty of voodoo later on.)

(0/5) Spirit Ward. (I'm not sure about this one, I have it maxed on Tobias but any doll wielding enemy can be neutralised very easily so it's only use may be in PvP which I haven't tried yet.)

This is how I'll be spending points on my new and improved Pirate, but the points spent above only add up to 18 so you'll have 6 more points to spend as you please.

As for your Curse damage question, you can Curse enemies then switch to any weapon and still receive the 30% increase in damage.