Difference between revisions of "Arcane Orb"

Revision as of 18:22, 4 March 2012

Arcane Orb upon impact.

Arcane Orb is a Secondary Wizard skill unlocked at Level 2, which explodes on touch, delivering Arcane damage.

Background

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

Skillrune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Arcane Orb rune effects page for a more thorough description of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

<skill class="Wizard">Arcane Orb</skill>

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.

Synergies

Arcane Orb benefits from the following Wizard passives:

Skill	Unlocked	Description

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[[{{{name}}}]]

45

{{{desc}}}

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[[{{{name}}}]]

16

{{{desc}}}

{{{icon}}}

[[{{{name}}}]]
See:
Signature spell

55

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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.

It was dropped to level 3 during the beta, and when the skill system was once again overhauled for the Beta Patch 13 in February 2012, Arcane Orb was classified as a Secondary skill and moved to level 2.

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.
The maximum range shown thanks to some elevation.

Maximum Arcane Orb range and casting speed demonstration, from the Diablo 3 beta.

References

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 -- Diablo III 12th Sep 2011

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:IconArcaneOrb.png|left]]
+[[File:Arcane-orb-3.jpg|thumb|400px|right|Arcane Orb upon impact.]]
 '''Arcane Orb''' is a Secondary [[Wizard skill]] unlocked at [[clvl|Level]] 2, which explodes on touch, delivering [[Arcane]] damage.
 <br><br><br>__TOC__
 ==Background==
-[[File:Arcane-orb-3.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Arcane Orb upon impact.]]
 The Wizard summons a glowing orb that upon touch will deal great damage to all foes and objects in its range.
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 <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. It was moved to level 3 during the [[beta]], and when the skill system was once again overhauled for the [[Beta Patch 13]], Arcane Orb was classified as a Secondary skill and dropped to level 2.
+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.
+It was dropped to level 3 during the [[beta]], and when the skill system was once again overhauled for the [[Beta Patch 13]] in February 2012, Arcane Orb was classified as a Secondary skill and moved to level 2.

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

Difference between revisions of "Arcane Orb"

Revision as of 18:22, 4 March 2012

Contents

Background

Skillrune Effects

Skill Design

Synergies

Development

Previous Versions

In Other Games

Media

References