Familiar

Familiar is a Conjuration Wizard skill unlocked at Level 22, summoning a companion that fights for the caster.

Background

Familiar in action.

A Familiar assists in the killing, but does not distract monsters from their own attacks.

SPOILER WARNING

The following screenshot of the Familiar is not embedded since many fans feel that high level skill visuals are spoilers. Click through to see it.

• Familiar with a female Wizard.

Skill Rune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Familiar 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">Familiar</skill>

Skill Design

The Familiar assists the Wizard in battle, attacking enemies at range for 2 minutes. The monsters, on the other hand, ignore the Familiar and can not hurt it.

Synergies

The following Wizard passives provide a benefit to Familiar, runed or not:

Skill	Unlocked	Description

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Development

Familiar was added in BlizzCon 2010 as a Tier 7 skill, presumably responding to some need of the Wizard. Unfortunately, it was at too high a level to play.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Familiar became a level 27 skill.

Beta

The Diablo III Beta started in September 2011, and while it ran, all of the skills continued to undergo extensive iteration. Skill changes varied from changing the levels the skills are unlocked, to changes in resource cost, damage, and even function. A few skills were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Also, the entire skill system received an overhaul with the Beta Patch 13 update in February 2012, with physical runes replaced by rune effects that automatically unlock at various levels for the different skills.

Familiar was moved to level 24 early in the beta. With the Patch 13 changes, it was classified as a Conjuration skill and moved back up to level 27. For March's Beta Patch 14, Familiar was dropped to level 22.

Familiar has always been too high level to play, so there are no gameplay reports of it.

Media

Familiar can be seen in action on video here:

• No videos yet.

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Familiar specific gallery contents

References

• 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 — 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