Energy Twister

Energy Twisters targeting Jondar the Necromancer.

Energy Twister (originally named Tornado) is a Force Wizard skill unlocked at Level 13, summoning a twister made out of energy that hurts everything nearby.

The tornado is spawned from the Wizard, flying out in a semi-random direction and dealing damage to all enemies it encounters.

Background

Combining magical force and air, the Wizard brings a continuous, but time limited, twister out of the aether to destroy enemies.

Skill Rune Effects

Refer to the Energy Twister rune effects article for thorough descriptions of all five rune effects in this skill, including screenshots, videos, strategy tips, and other related information.

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Wizard">Energy Twister</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Mistral Breeze">Energy Twister</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Gale Force">Energy Twister</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Raging Storm">Energy Twister</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Wicked Wind">Energy Twister</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Storm Chaser">Energy Twister</skill>

Skill Design

This skill sends out a twister from the Wizard, moving slowly away from the caster in roughly a straight line and doing moderate damage to everything it hits. It appears impressive, but it's high resource cost makes it only suitable for occasional use.

Synergies

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

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Wizard">Glass Cannon</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Temporal Flux</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Arcane Dynamo</skill>

Development

Energy Twister was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted, then named Tornado and placed at Tier IV on the Storm Skill Tree. For BlizzCon 2009, this skill was moved to Tier III and renamed Energy Twister. Why the name was changed is unknown, but the functionality remained roughly the same. Flux tried it out in the PvM demo:[1]

This one was impressive, but very unpredictable. The graphic is great; you can see that in the Blizzcon 2009 gameplay movie, and it does more in more or less a straight line, but without some sort of tank I didn’t find it very easy to hit enemies with. Arcane Orb was nearly as damaging, far easier to aim, and cheaper on the mana. This Wizard just has so many cool active spells to try out it’s impossible to get a handle on everything in a short play time.

Energy Twister 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, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Energy Twister became a level 11 skill.

Beta

Energy Twister remained at level 11 when the beta started. Flux thought it was nice to look at but underwhelming:[2]

Energy Twister looks pretty, and it’s kind of fun to play with. I took more screenshots of it than of most skills, since the visuals were nice. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well, and I’m not honestly sure what the skill is supposed to do well. The tornadoes aren’t any good at AoE damage (too small a radius), they take a long time to reach even close targets, they move erratically and can’t be aimed, they have some slight stunning effect that draws monsters in, but it’s not strong enough to have much effect, and they don’t deal that much damage even when they do hit something.

With the Patch 13 changes, Energy Twister was classified as an Arcane skill and moved to level 15. For March's Beta Patch 14, Energy Twister was dropped to level 13 but also nerfed a bit. Also, the category "Arcane" was renamed "Force".

Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Energy Twister (or Tornado) and other Wizard skills.

In Other Games

Energy Twister is an updated version of the Druid's skill Twister from Diablo II.

Media

Energy Twister can be seen in action on video here:

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

An Energy Twister
Wizard fighting skeletons with twisters.
Male Wizard - March 2010

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

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