Slow Time

Slow Time is a Tier 5 skill unlocked for the Wizard at level 14, creating a bubble where time flows slower for everyone but the Wizard (and other players). It's a signature skill of the Wizard.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]

Slow Time Active, 1 ranks
Used by:	Wizard
Skill Description:
Warp space and time, slowing nearby monsters and projectiles. Enemy attack cooldown increase 1 seconds.
Skill Details:
Type:	Enemy Debuff
Quantity:	1 sec
Effect:	Circle AoE
School:	Arcane
Mana cost:	20
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	20 sec
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

Slow Time is presumably one of the spells the Wizard learned from the Ancient Repositories of Caldeum where she was interrupted by Valthek.

Messing with timespace is something not even the Vizjerei do any more, and is considered one of the most dangerous forms of magic.

Skill Design

Slow Time creates a bubble that surrounds the Wizard. Any enemies or enemy projectiles that enter the bubble are greatly slowed. The Wizard, her spell projectiles, and her allies are not affected by the slow time bubble, giving them a huge advantage over the greatly slowed enemies. The bubble remains where it was cast, persisting for several seconds, but the Wizard can move as soon as the spell is cast, though if she moves outside the bubble monsters may again target her without their shots or attacks being slowed.

It's assumed that some boss monsters (and their projectiles?) will be immune to the slowing effect, but this is not yet known, and is subject to further balancing anyway.

This spell has been used with Wave of Force to first slow enemy projectiles, and then throwing them back at the enemy.

Skill Rank Table

Rank 1: 1 second increased monster attack cooldown.

Only Rank 1 is currently known.

Synergies

None known.

Skill Rune Effects

None known.

Development

Slow Time was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard was unveiled. It was updated only ever so slightly in the demo shown at BlizzCon 2009, where it had moved down one tier in the Arcane Skill Tree, to Tier 4.

Previous Versions:

Slow Time (BlizzCon 2008)

Media

You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery:

Shooting Electrocute out of a Slow Time bubble.
Slow Time with Wave of Force to throw spells back at casters.
Disintegrate cast from within a time bubble.

References