Revision as of 17:27, 11 October 2008

An ongoing listing of Wizard skills, as seen on the Blizzard site and transcribed from footage during Blizzcon 2008 demo gameplay.

Storm Tree

Tier I Skills

Charged Bolt

Official Skill Description: (Rank 1/1) Launch a volley of 3 electric bolts that deal 1-8 lightning damage each. Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 sec.

Mana cost: 8.

Thunderstruck

Official Skill Description: (Rank 2/15) Increases the critical hit chance of all lightning spells by 10%. Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 sec.

Empowered Magic

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases the effect of willpower on your spell damage by 20%.

Lightning Speed

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases casting speed by 3%

Tier II Skills (5 points req.)

Storm Armor

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Surround yourself in electrical energy. Electrical bolts are automatically fired at attackers for 1 to 8 damage.

Mana cost: 15.

Frost Nova

Chill out!

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) An explosion of ice pelts nearby enemies for 1-3 cold damage. Has an additional 25% chance of a critical hit. Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.

Mana cost: 25.

Cooldown: 12 sec.

A long cooldown on this skill may prevent it from being a staple of a Wizard's arsenal, and more of a panic button when things get a little too close for comfort, since cold damage will slow or freeze enemies in their tracks. This skill has been borrowed from the DII Sorceress, but with some added features, including an increased chance of critical strikes. Storm Power and Lethal Energy will both add to this skill's lethality by adding to its critical strike chance and damage.

Deep Freeze

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases the critical hit chance of all cold spells by 5%. Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.

Power Armor

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15): Increases the damage dealt by your storm armor charged bolts by 10%.

Static Charge

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Convert 5% of all damage taken into mana.

Tier III Skills (10 point req.)

Electrocute

Electrocute

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Lightning arcs from the wizard’s fingertips towards enemies, electrocuting them for 4-5 damage. Electrocute affects up to 2 targets. Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 sec.

Mana cost: 8.

This skill is reminiscent of the Sorceress's Chain Lightning from Diablo II. Most useful for taking down groups of closely packed enemies since the lightning will hop from one target to the next. During one of the videos at Blizzcon 2008, it was shown that Electrocute can be enhanced with a Multi-Strike Rune, upping the amount of targets that the Electrocute's Chain Lightning effect will hit. A Lethality Rune was also shown in conjunction with Electrocute, which caused some enemies to explode in an AoE electric Nova upon death.

Ray of Frost

Ray of Frost

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Project a beam of cold energy that deals 6 cold damage per sec. Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets. Requires 10 points in Storm tree.

Mana cost: 16 mana per sec.

This skill is similar to the fire-based Disintegrate spell; however, it does not pass through targets or increase damage over time. This spell seems useful for freezing and keeping enemies at bay, adding to the Wizard's arsenal of offensive spells that double as insurance against melee creatures.

Static Residue

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Enemies damaged by your lightning spells discharge an additional 1 to 3 lightning damage per sec to nearby enemies for 3 seconds.

Lethal Energy

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases the chance to score critical hits with melee and spell attacks by 5%.

Improved Charged Bolt

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increase the number of bolts released by your charged bolt spell by 1.

Tier IV Skills (15 points req.)

Tornado

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Summon a large tornado that damages everything in its path.

Mana cost: 15.

Akin to the Druid's Twister skill from Diablo II, however these tornadoes are formed from pure energy. In the released 5-1/2 minute gameplay trailer of the Wizard, multiple tornadoes are cast one after another, each lasting for close to 5 seconds. Their path seems to take random lefts and rights as it moves away from the casting point, stopping only when its timer has expired. Expect some interesting Rune uses with this spell, as by itself, it seems a little too sporadic and short-lived to be of much useful combative use.

As in DII with the Druid, the best use of the tornadoes will likely be multiple, concentrated casts in a small area packed with enemies, to ensure the most damage in the shortest period of time. Higher levels of the skill may increase their size or may simply increase raw damage. Epic Storm will increase the number of simultaneous tornadoes you can cast, and Lethal Energy will increase the chance to score critical strikes.

Blizzard

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Call down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing 6-10 cold damage per sec for 3 sec. Critical hits from cold damage freezes targets.

Mana cost: 70.

Storm Power

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increase damage of all lightning and ice spells.

Epic Storms

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases size of Blizzard and number of twisters you can have for your energy twister.

Arcane Tree

Tier I

Magic Missile

Corpses left from Magic Missile

Official Skill Description: (Rank 1/1) Fire 1 missile (s) of energy at your enemies causing 7-13 arcane damage to them. Critical hits from arcane damage silence targets for 4 secs.

In early levels, Magic Missile might be the Wizard's bread and butter. In later levels, it might prove invaluable as a cheap and direct means of silencing a monster for 4 seconds -- plenty of time to dispatch of them before they can cast a nasty spell on you, or raise the fallen to fight again.

Magic Missile's effectiveness is increased by a variety of spells, the most noteworthy of which is Improved Magic Missile, which increases both the damage and number of missiles released on a cast. The range and spread of higher levels of Magic Missile is reminiscent of the DII Necromancer's Teeth. When an enemy dies at the hands of an Arcane spell, a purple glow is left on the corpses.

Mana cost: 8.

Arcane Power

Official Skill Description: (Rank 2/15) Increases all arcane damage dealt by 24% (next point 36%).

Efficient Magics

Official Skill Description: (Rank 2/15) Lowers the mana cost of spells by 6% (next point by 9%).

Penetrating Spells

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Reduces the resistance of your targets to your spells by 8%. Targets with negative resitance take additional damage from spells.

Tier II (5 points req.)

Disintegrate

Molten Trickery

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Eminate a beam of pure energy dealing 10 arcane damage per second. Damage is modified by 80% each time the beam passes through the target. Critical hits from arcane damage silence targets for 4 secs.

A laser beam of molten pwnage, Disintegrate would be at its full effect when taking down line formations of enemies. It'll cut through targets without mercy; however, each target will decrease the rest of the beam's damage by 80%, allowing the beam to reach through a total of five creatures before its damage is fully mitigated.

Damage ticks every second of use, and critical strikes (as with any Arcane Spell) will silence the target for 4 seconds. In the screenshot to the left, you can see an example of Disintegrate being used to take down the structural bearings of a wall, crushing the unfortunate skeletons in its path.

Mana cosst: 12 per sec.

Wave of Force

Wave of Force

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Project a wave of force outwards, repelling enemies and projectiles and dealing 1-8 damage.

Mana cost: 25.

Wave of Force is seen two times in the Wizard Trailer released at the same time as Blizzcon 2008. The first is used in a room of skeletons -- it does little damage to the skeletons, but blasts all the destructibles in the room to glorious pieces. In the second example, the Wizard uses it while slowing down time, waiting for a group of skeletons' projectiles to come close, and then reflecting them back toward them.

It's hard to know how many scenarios in a fast-paced game like this where you could really benefit from using Slow Time and then Wave of Force to repel projectiles -- Out of the 8 projectiles in the above screenshot, only one or two actually came back to strike their targets. It will be interesting to see what practical uses there are for this spell as more gameplay videos unfold.

Arcane Armor

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) While your Storm Armor, Stone Armor, Stone Skin or Temporal Armor spells are active, your armor is increased by 20%.

Arcane Weakness

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Enemies damaged by your arcane spells are affected with arcane weakness, increasing damage taken by 10% for 5 sec.

Arcane Speed

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Reduces the cooldown of all arcane spells by 5%.

Tier III (10 points req.)

Arcane Orb

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) An orb of pure energy explodes on contact dealing 12-16 arcane damage to all enemies in the blast area. Critical hits from arcane damage silence targets for 4 sec.

Mana cost: 18.

Slow Time

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Warp space and time lowing nearby monsters and projectiles. Enemy attack cooldown increase: 1 sec.

Mana cost: 20.

Arcane Distortion

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Enemies damaged by your arcane spells are slowed by 35% for 3 sec.

Mana Recovery

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Enemies have a 7% chance to drop a mana globe that return 25% of maximum mana when picked up.

Improved Magic Missile

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases the number of missiles launched by your magic missile spell by 1 and increases their damage by 8%.

Tier IV (15 points req.)

Temporal Armor

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Surrounds the wizard in a protective shell that stops all damage from an attack every 6 sec. The shell dissipates after absorbing 12 attacks.

Teleport

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/1) Teleport to the selected location up to 40 feet away.

Mana cost: 23.

Greater Mana

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases maximum mana by 12%.

Mana Burst

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/15) Increases the damage of any spellcast from full mana by 25%.

Runic Might

Official Skill Description: (Rank 0/5) Increases the effects of all runes.

Conjuration Tree