Difference between revisions of "Arcane Orb"

Revision as of 01:19, 12 March 2012

Arcane Orb upon impact.

Arcane Orb is a Secondary Wizard skill unlocked at Level 5, 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.

Synergies

Arcane Orb benefits from the following Wizard passives: None added yet.

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.

Beta

Skill tiers were removed shortly before the beta started in September 2011, and Arcane Orb became a level 8 skill. Flux described how to use it effectively:[3]

They do hit with a big boom, and if you get one to the edge of a big pack, it will deal substantial damage. The tricky part about using them (aside from the huge AP cost) is that they are large and move very slowly. This makes it easy to miss. Say you have a big clump of monsters, with several individuals scattered in front. You want the Arcane Orb to hit the big pack, not the solo enemy, but it’s hard not to. In that situation you’d be better off using some other skill, even Magic Missile, to kill the individual before launching your Arcane Orbs into the bigger cluster of targets.

With the Beta Patch 8 of December 2011, Arcane Orb was dropped to level 3. 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. For March's Beta Patch 14, it was bumped up to level 5, and its damage was nerfed quite a bit.

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 Beta Skills Mega-report: Part Two -- IncGamers 5th Oct 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:IconArcaneOrb.png|left]]
-[[File:Arcane-orb-3.jpg|thumb|400px|right|Arcane Orb upon impact.]]
+[[File:Arcane-orb-3.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Arcane Orb upon impact.]]
-'''Arcane Orb''' is a Secondary [[Wizard skill]] unlocked at [[clvl|Level]] 2, which explodes on touch, delivering [[Arcane]] damage.
+'''Arcane Orb''' is a Secondary [[Wizard skill]] unlocked at [[clvl|Level]] 5, which explodes on touch, delivering [[Arcane]] damage.
 <br><br><br>__TOC__
@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 This one very quickly became Flux's skill of choice for ranged attacks.[http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/full-wizard-skill-trees/] 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 Dervish]]es, 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]]:
+Arcane Orb benefits from the following [[Wizard passives]]: None added yet.
-{{Passive skills header}}
-{{Wizard Passive Temporal Flux}}
-{{Wizard Passive Glass Cannon}}
-{{Wizard Passive Arcane Dynamo}}
@@ Line 37: / Line 30: @@
 <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.
+===Beta===
+Skill tiers were removed shortly before the [[beta]] started in September 2011, and Arcane Orb became a level 8 skill. [[Flux]] described how to use it effectively:[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/wizard-beta-skills-mega-report-part-two]
-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.
+<blockquote>''They do hit with a big boom, and if you get one to the edge of a big pack, it will deal substantial damage. The tricky part about using them (aside from the huge AP cost) is that they are large and move very slowly. This makes it easy to miss. Say you have a big clump of monsters, with several individuals scattered in front. You want the Arcane Orb to hit the big pack, not the solo enemy, but it’s hard not to. In that situation you’d be better off using some other skill, even Magic Missile, to kill the individual before launching your Arcane Orbs into the bigger cluster of targets.</blockquote>
+With the [[Beta Patch 8]] of December 2011, Arcane Orb was dropped to level 3. 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. For March's [[Beta Patch 14]], it was bumped up to level 5, and its damage was nerfed quite a bit.
 ===Previous Versions===
 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 84: / Line 80: @@
 * [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://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/ Wizard Active Skills] -- Diablo III 12th Sep 2011
+* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/wizard-beta-skills-mega-report-part-two Wizard Beta Skills Mega-report: Part Two] -- IncGamers 5th Oct 2011
+* [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/ Wizard Active Skills] -- Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

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