Difference between revisions of "Arcane Orb"

Revision as of 17:19, 10 August 2011

Arcane Orb is a Wizard skill unlocked at level 8, exploding on touch, delivering Arcane damage.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]

Arcane Orb
Used by:	Wizard
Enabled at:	Clvl 8
Skill Description
An orb of pure energy deals X-Y on contact and an additional Z-A arcane damage to all enemies in the blast area.
Type:	Direct Damage/AoE
Resource Use:	Costs Arcane Power
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Wizard summons a glowing orb that upon touch will deal great damage to all foes and objects in its range.

Skill Design

A glowing orb of energy travels about 10 yards, before bursting in a nova of destruction. The spell looks something like the D2 Sorceress' Frozen Orb, but without the spray of ice spears as it flies across the room. It works like the Fireball of Diablo I.

This one very quickly became Flux's skill of choice for ranged attacks.[1] It dealt substantial damage with a big AoE splash, and had a reasonable mana cost. He is dubious about the listed 1-2 AoE damage, since a few of these into a group of enemies left no survivors.

The drawback to Arcane Orb is that it moves very slowly; more slowly than any other Wizard skill and this makes it very hard to hit moving targets, or back row enemies. It was not very useful against Dune Dervishes, since those monsters move side to side a lot, and when they're not walking they're spinning around in their Whirlwind mode, in which they reflect most projectiles off at odd angles. They certainly reflected every Arcane Orb fired at them, though that could be fun since my shots weren't neutralized, just redirected, and the bounces would often head right into some Fallen or other targets.

Skill Rank Table

Rank 1: 11-16 direct arcane damage, 1-2 AoE damage.
Rank 2: 13-19 direct arcane damage, 2-4 AoE damage.
Rank 3: 15-22 direct arcane damage, 3-6 AoE damage. (A)
Rank 4: 17-25 direct arcane damage, 4-8 AoE damage. (A)
Rank 5: 19-28 direct arcane damage, 5-10 AoE damage. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Synergies

No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet known.

Skill Rune Effects

No rune effects for Arcane Orb are known.

A runed version of Arcane Orb has been seen in video here, but it's unclear what the effect is.

Development

Arcane Orb was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted, on the Arcane Skill Tree at Tier III. By BlizzCon 2009, the damage had been ever so slightly tuned down, and so had mana cost. Flux talked about a missed opportunity:[2]

There was one scenario area in the desert (shown in the gameplay movie) where about five Dune Dervishes burst out of the ground at once. I didn’t think to try it at the time, but in retrospect I wish I could have herded the Dervishes into a cluster, and then tried throwing in some Arcane Orbs. Just to see if my Orbs would have been bounced around like pachinko balls.

Arcane Orb was available in the BlizzCon 2010 demo, but wasn't one of the Wizard's starting skills. Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Arcane Orb became a level 8 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Arcane Orb and other Wizard skills.
Or see Arcane Orb (BlizzCon 2008) for the original version of this skill.

In Other Games

Arcane Orb seems to be a spiritual successor to Diablo II's Sorceress skill Frozen Orb, which also features a slow-moving globe floating across the screen, but includes a spray of ice spears.

Media

Arcane Orb can be seen in action on video here:

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

Arcane Orb just exploded.
Skill animation sequence.

References

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 60: / Line 60: @@
 <blockquote>''There was one scenario area in the desert (shown in the gameplay movie) where about five Dune Dervishes burst out of the ground at once. I didn’t think to try it at the time, but in retrospect I wish I could have herded the Dervishes into a cluster, and then tried throwing in some Arcane Orbs. Just to see if my Orbs would have been bounced around like pachinko balls.</blockquote>
-Arcane Orb was available in the [[BlizzCon 2010]] demo, but wasn't one of the Wizard's starting skills. Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Arcane Orb became a level 8 skill.
+Arcane Orb was available in the [[BlizzCon 2010]] demo, but wasn't one of the Wizard's starting skills. Skill tiers were removed for the [[July 2011 Press Event]], and Arcane Orb became a level 8 skill.
@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 See the [[Wizard skill archive]] for more details on previous versions of Arcane Orb and other Wizard skills.<br>
 Or see [[Arcane Orb (BlizzCon 2008)]] for the original version of this skill.
 ===In Other Games===
@@ Line 102: / Line 103: @@
-{{Slave navbox Diablo III|Wizard}}
+{{Skill navbox Diablo III|Wizard}}

Fan-made Classes			Fan-made Skills [e]
• Alchemist • Arcane Warrior • Artisan • Aurian Mage • Bard • Channeller • Dragon Warrior	• Flagellant • Giant (U) • Hollow Man • Nomad • Onaga Manji • Phase Knight	• Ranger • Slayer (U) • Techpriest (U) • Telepath • Untainted (U) • Zealot	Dragon Warrior Skills • Bow and Throwing Skill Tree • Dragon Disciplines Skill Tree • Martial Arts Skill Tree	Untainted Skills • Divine Skill Tree	Aurian Mage Skill • Holy Power Skill Tree • Shadow Spells Skill Tree • Nature Forces Skill Tree
(U) = Unfinished				Untainted Skills • Divine Skill Tree