Ray of Frost

Ray of Frost is an Offensive Wizard skill unlocked at Level 21, shooting a constant beam of cold from the hands of the Wizard.

Background

Ray of Frost in action

The Wizard uses her powers of the elements to gush forth a beam of pure cold, damaging anyone that comes in its way.

Skill Effects

The following is a very quick list. 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.

Icon	Skill	Description

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[[{{{name}}}]] Secondary

2

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Black Ice

[e] Enemies who die leave a patch of ice on the ground that causes 385% weapon damage per second as Cold to enemies moving through it.

Snow Blast

[e] Damage increases slowly over 1.5 seconds to inflict a maximum of 715% weapon damage per second as Cold.

Cold Blood

[e] Reduce casting cost to 3 Arcane Power per second.

Sleet Storm

[e] Create a swirling storm of sleet dealing 150% weapon damage per second as Cold to all enemies caught within it.

Numb

[e] Increase enemy slow amount to 50% for 8.5 seconds, but damage is reduced to 220% weapon damage per second as Cold.

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 the DiabloInc You Tube channel.

All rune effects for Ray of Frost.

Skill Design

This skill sounds like a cold based Disintegrate, minus the piercing ability, but it's never been seen in use since the very first Wizard gameplay movie, from BlizzCon 2008. It was too high level to try out at BlizzCon 2009.

Synergies

Ray of Frost benefits from the following Wizard passives:

Skill	Unlocked	Description

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[[{{{name}}}]]

16

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

55

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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.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Ray of Frost became a level 21 skill.

Previous Versions

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

Trivia

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

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

• Cinematic: Wizard
• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2008

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Ray of Frost specific gallery contents

• 

  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.

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