Difference between revisions of "Ray of Frost"

Latest revision as of 07:17, 8 June 2012

Ray of Frost in action in the beta.

Ray of Frost is a Secondary Wizard skill unlocked at Level 2. It fires a straight beam of cold that chills and damages a single enemy, while draining Arcane Power steadily.

This skill is often compared to Disintegrate as both fire a straight beam of energy, but they are quite different in function. Both have a high resource drain while active, but Ray of Frost does not pierce, making it much less damaging against multiple enemies. It does do good damage to a single target though, and the chilling effect slows enemies, making it helpful to land more hits on an approaching foe.

Background[edit | edit source]

The skill is fun to use and very effective against single targets, with good damage and the slowing property. However the Arcane Power drain is quite high, and thus the damage per second is much lower than a number of other early-game Wizard skills.

Skill Rune Effects[edit | edit source]

Refer to the Ray of Frost rune effects article for thorough descriptions of all five rune effects in this skill, including screenshots, videos, strategy tips, and other related information.

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Wizard">Ray of Frost</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Numb">Ray of Frost</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Snow Blast">Ray of Frost</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Cold Blood">Ray of Frost</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Sleet Storm">Ray of Frost</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Black Ice">Ray of Frost</skill>

Skill Design[edit | edit source]

This skill targets much like Disintegrate, but trades the piercing of that skill for a slowing cold effect. This makes Ray of Frost excellent against single targets, but much less damaging on the whole, especially against large groups of enemies.

Video[edit | edit source]

A video of Ray of Frost and all of its rune effects can be seen below, courtesy of the DiabloInc You Tube channel.

Synergies[edit | edit source]

The following Wizard passives provide a benefit to Ray of Frost, runed or not:

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Wizard">Glass Cannon</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Arcane Dynamo</skill>

Development[edit | edit source]

Ray of Frost was first seen at BlizzCon 2008, but only in the gameplay movie; the Wizard used it against the trap laid out by the Skeleton King. It was available in the gameplay demo at BlizzCon 2009, but was unfortunately too high level to try out by the fans.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Ray of Frost became a level 21 skill.

Beta[edit | edit source]

The Diablo III Beta started in September 2011, and while it ran, all of the skills continued to undergo extensive iteration. Skill changes varied from changing the levels the skills are unlocked, to changes in resource cost, damage, and even function. A few skills were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Also, the entire skill system received an overhaul with the Beta Patch 13 update in February 2012, with physical runes replaced by rune effects that automatically unlock at various levels for the different skills.

Ray of Frost remained at level 21 when the beta started. With the Patch 13 changes, it was classified as a Secondary skill and dropped all the way down to level 5, giving players their first opportunity to try it out. For March's Beta Patch 14, it was dropped even further to level 2, but its damage output was increased slightly.

Previous Versions[edit | edit source]

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Ray of Frost and other Wizard skills.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

This is one of the spells that seem to be coming from the dungeons & Dragons inspiration we've seen in Diablo III. The new D3 Team obviously spent a lot of time in mom's basement....

Media[edit | edit source]

Ray of Frost can be seen in action on video here:

You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:

Ray of Frost used in the middle of the Skeleton King trap.
Casting the spell before the hordes of skeletons arrive.
Ray of Frost with all five rune effects.
Players finally getting to use it with Beta Patch 13.

References[edit | edit source]

BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report — IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects — IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
Wizard Active Skills — Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer corpses

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer bloodandbone

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[File:IconRayFrost.png|left]]
-'''Ray of Frost''' is an Offensive [[Wizard skill]] unlocked at [[clvl|Level]] 5. It fires a straight beam of [[cold]] that chills and damages a single enemy, while draining Arcane Power steadily.
+[[File:Ray-of-frost1.jpg|thumb|400px|Ray of Frost in action in the [[beta]].]]
+'''Ray of Frost''' is a Secondary [[Wizard skill]] unlocked at [[clvl|Level]] 2. It fires a straight beam of [[cold]] that chills and damages a single enemy, while draining Arcane Power steadily.
-Ray of Frost had only been seen in videos until the February 2012 [[Beta Patch 13]] and the huge skill and runestone revision that patch introduced to the beta. At that point Ray of Frost was moved down to Clvl 5, giving players a chance to try it out.
+This skill is often compared to [[Disintegrate]] as both fire a straight beam of energy, but they are quite different in function. Both have a high resource drain while active, but Ray of Frost does not pierce, making it much less damaging against multiple enemies. It does do good damage to a single target though, and the chilling effect slows enemies, making it helpful to land more hits on an approaching foe.
-==Function==
+==Background==
+The skill is fun to use and very effective against single targets, with good damage and the slowing property. However the Arcane Power drain is quite high, and thus the damage per second is much lower than a number of other early-game Wizard skills.
-The skill is fun to use and very effective against single targets, with good damage and the slowing property. However the Arcane Power drain is quite high, and thus the damage per second is much lower than a number of other early-game Wizard skills. The fact that the skill does not pierce, as the similar [[Disintegrate]] skill does, makes it less useful against large groups of enemies.
-None of the skillrune effects are available to try out in the beta.
+==Skill Rune Effects==
+Refer to the [[Ray of Frost rune effects]] article for thorough descriptions of all five rune effects in this skill, including screenshots, videos, strategy tips, and other related information.
+{{skill description header}}
+<skill class="Wizard">Ray of Frost</skill>
+<skill class="Wizard" rune="Numb">Ray of Frost</skill>
+<skill class="Wizard" rune="Snow Blast">Ray of Frost</skill>
+<skill class="Wizard" rune="Cold Blood">Ray of Frost</skill>
+<skill class="Wizard" rune="Sleet Storm">Ray of Frost</skill>
+<skill class="Wizard" rune="Black Ice">Ray of Frost</skill>
-==Beta Screenshots==
-The skill looks largely unchanged from earlier versions; see images and video of that further down this page.
+==Skill Design==
+This [[skill]] targets much like Disintegrate, but trades the piercing of that skill for a slowing cold effect. This makes Ray of Frost excellent against single targets, but much less damaging on the whole, especially against large groups of enemies.
-<gallery>
+===Video===
-File:Ray-of-frost1.jpg
-File:Ray-of-frost4.jpg
-</gallery>
-==Skillrune Effects==
-See the [[Ray of Frost rune effects]] page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.
-{{Active skills header}}
-{{Wizard Skill Ray of Frost}}
-{{Wizard Skillrune Black Ice}}
-{{Wizard Skillrune Snow Blast}}
-{{Wizard Skillrune Cold Blood}}
-{{Wizard Skillrune Sleet Storm}}
-{{Wizard Skillrune Numb}}
-{{center|Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.}}
-===Ray of Frost Video===
 A video of Ray of Frost and all of its rune effects can be seen below, courtesy of [http://www.youtube.com/Diablo3Inc the DiabloInc You Tube channel].
 <youtube>k2Uo2X8iF0U</youtube>
-==Skill Design==
-This [[skill]] targets much like Disintegrate, but trades the piercing of that skill for a slowing cold effect. This makes Ray of Frost excellent against single targets, but much less damaging on the whole, especially against large groups of enemies.
 ==Synergies==
-Ray of Frost benefits from the following [[Wizard passives]]:
+The following [[Wizard passives]] provide a benefit to Ray of Frost, runed or not:
-{{Passive skills header}}
+{{skill description header}}
-{{Wizard Passive Glass Cannon}}
+<skill class="Wizard">Glass Cannon</skill>
-{{Wizard Passive Black Ice}}
+<skill class="Wizard">Arcane Dynamo</skill>
-{{Wizard Passive Arcane Dynamo}}
 ==Development==
-'''Ray of Frost''' was first seen at [[BlizzCon 2008]], but only in the gameplay movie; the Wizard used it against the trap laid out by the [[Skeleton King]]. It was available in the gameplay demo at [[BlizzCon 2009]], but was unfortunately too high level to try out by the fans. The skill is assumed to still be available in Blizzard's internal game build today.
+'''Ray of Frost''' was first seen at [[BlizzCon 2008]], but only in the gameplay movie; the Wizard used it against the trap laid out by the [[Skeleton King]]. It was available in the gameplay demo at [[BlizzCon 2009]], but was unfortunately too high level to try out by the fans.
+Skill tiers were removed for the [[July 2011 Press Event]], allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Ray of Frost became a level 21 skill.
-Skill tiers were removed for the [[July 2011 Press Event]], and Ray of Frost became a level 21 skill.  Not until the [[Beta Patch 13]] in February 2012 did fans get to use it, thanks to the much lowered Clvl requirement.
+===Beta===
+{{Beta skill notes}}
+Ray of Frost remained at level 21 when the beta started. With the Patch 13 changes, it was classified as a Secondary skill and dropped all the way down to level 5, giving players their first opportunity to try it out. For March's [[Beta Patch 14]], it was dropped even further to level 2, but its damage output was increased slightly.
 ===Previous Versions===
@@ Line 79: / Line 69: @@
 Image:Ray_of_Frost2.jpg|Casting the spell before the hordes of [[skeleton]]s arrive.
 Image:Rayoffrost_runed.jpg|Ray of Frost with all five [[rune]] effects.
+File:Ray-of-frost4.jpg|Players finally getting to use it with [[Beta Patch 13]].
 </gallery>
-<!--
-==Related Articles==
-''Articles that are related, but not emphasised enough in any other section, or articles that just need further attention.''
--->
 ==References==
 * [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/full-wizard-skill-trees/ BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees]
-* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7960229#post7960229 Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report] -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
+* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7960229#post7960229 Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report] — IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
-* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8007624#post8007624 Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects] -- IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
+* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8007624#post8007624 Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects] — IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
-* [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/ Wizard Active Skills] -- Diablo III 12th Sep 2011
+* [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/ Wizard Active Skills] — Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site
-{{Skill navbox Diablo III|Wizard}}
+{{Skill navbox Diablo III|Wizard|secondary}}
+[[category:Active skills]]
 [[category:Wizard skills]]
-[[category:Active skills]]
+[[category:Wizard active skills]]

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