Teleport

Teleport is a Wizard Tier 7 skill unlocked at level 26, allowing the caster to instantly transport herself a short distance through the air.

This skill is the Wizard's movement ability.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Teleport
Used by:	Wizard
Enabled at:	Clvl 26
Skill Description
Teleport to the selected location up to X feet away. Teleport can only be used every Y seconds.
Type:	Movement
Resource Use:	Costs Arcane Power
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Teleport skill is a way for trained magic users to traverse the Ether - and with the speed of thought - materialize in another location a short distance from the entry point. This skill works without the aid of external gateways like the Town Portal spell or Waypoints, but is likely using similar techniques to transport. The Teleport spell is only reliable for short distances, to jump gaps, or to escape immediate danger.

It's unknown why the spell is only usable in short distances, but the likely scenario is that it becomes significantly harder to return to the Physical realm, the farther away you try to re-emerge, and is why these beacon-like gateways have been made for Waypoints and Town Portal spells.

Skill Design

Mid-air appearance.

Teleport has been seen in videos, and was testable for the first time in the PvP Arena demo at Blizzcon 2010. The main difference in the Diablo III version (compared to the Diablo II version) is in the character animation. In the new version, the Wizard leaps up into the air when casting it, appears in the air at the location she targets the skill, and falls to the ground after she appears. This makes the spell less of an instant escape/movement option. Just in case that wasn't clear enough, the developers have added a fairly lengthy cooldown to the skill. They seem to be serious about not letting Teleport be the queen of all fast moving, item run spells! However, the spell can be used offensively with the addition of skill runes.

In one of the BlizzCon 2008 panels, Teleport was demonstrated with a striking skill rune socketed in it. With the rune, the spell was given an offensive component, dealing damage to all monsters in the area to which the wizard teleported. Socketing in a Hydra Rune (former name: Multi Strike) would instead cause the Wizard to split into images of herself when teleporting, making the skill useful to distract monsters, just like Mirror Image. The names of the skill runes have since been changed and it is unknown whether similiar rune effects for Teleport have been retained.

Each class has been given their own type of movement ability with unique designs/feels.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: Maximum range 100 feet, 8 sec cooldown. Cost: 23 Arcane Power.

Synergies

• No synergies with any of the traits are yet known.

Skill Rune Effects

Teleport with Striking Rune.

• Unknown rune: Explosion AoE damage where the Wizard lands.
• Unknown rune: Splitting into images like Mirror Image to distract monsters.

Development

Teleport was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted. Back then, it was at Tier IV in the Arcane Skill Tree and wasn't playable in the demo.

When Teleport was seen in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, it had a greatly increased range (from 40 to 100 feet), a slightly lowered mana cost, and had been moved to Tier VI. Again, however, it wasn't playable.

Teleport was finally available for play at BlizzCon 2010, where it was one of the Wizard's skills in the PvP demo. Flux allayed fears about the speed of the animation:[1]

Teleport was fun to use, and I was surprised at how quick it was. I’d thought with the new Diablo III animation—where the Wizard leaps up into the air before vanishing, and appears in mid-air and drops to earth on the other end—that it would be kind of slow. Not noticeable. Teleport felt as instantaneous as the Teleport in Diablo II. The delay was from the cooldown, which was around 8 seconds. This effectively turned Teleport into an emergency escape skill, one that was great during the busy scramble of an early round, but one that wasn’t so useful late game, if you were outnumbered and being hunted down.

Previous Versions

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

In Other Games

In Diablo I, all classes with enough intellect could use the Teleport spell, albeit any class besides the Sorcerer did so with a much longer casting time, as with all spells.

In Diablo II there was only one class capable of using Teleport without the use of the rune word Enigma, the Sorceress. This was due to Diablo II having individual skill trees rather than just a spellbook like in the original Diablo.

Media

Teleport can be seen in action on video here:

• Diablo 3 Runes in Action - BlizzCon 2008 -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (at 0:49)
• Diablo 3 Demon Hunter Gameplay - BlizzCon 2010 (2/2) -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (at 5:32)

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Teleport specific gallery contents

• 

  Teleport used with a Striking Rune.

• 

  Teleporting Wizard appears in mid-air.

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Wizard Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
• BlizzCon 2010 PvP Hands-on Report