Slow Time

Slow Time is a Wizard Tier 5 skill unlocked 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 Active Skill [e]
Slow Time
Used by:	Wizard
Enabled at:	Clvl 14
Skill Description
Warp space and time, slowing nearby monsters and projectiles.
Type:	AoE Debuff
Resource Use:	Costs Arcane Power
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

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

Slow Time bubble forming

• Rank 1: 1 second increased monster attack cooldown.

Synergies

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

Skill Rune Effects

Slow Time with unknown (but pretty) rune effect

• No rune effects for Slow Time are known.

A runed version of Slow Time has been seen in video, but it's unclear what the effect is.

Development

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

At BlizzCon 2010, Slow Time was one of the Wizard's skills in the PvP demo. Flux found it useful:[1]

One of the most useful skills in the Arena. Not just for the Wizard, but for the whole team. A Wizard who managed to cast one of these out in the center of the arena, where most of the early round action took place, gave her team a huge advantage. Enemy Barbs were nearly frozen in it, Mongrels were basically stuck there for the duration of the spell, and even other casters hated to be inconvenienced. It wasn’t as much on defense, since there weren’t many projectiles flying in the demo, but it was great to block movement.

Previous Versions

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

Media

Slow Time can be seen in action on video here:

• Diablo 3 Wizard Trailer - BlizzCon 2008 -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (at 2:11, with Wave of Force)
• Diablo 3 Wizard Gameplay - BlizzCon 2008 -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (at 1:50)
• Diablo 3 Demon Hunter Gameplay - BlizzCon 2010 (2/2) -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (rune'd, at 5:40)
• Diablo 3 PvP Arena Battles Gameplay - BlizzCon 2010 -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (rune'd, at 1:00)

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Slow Time specific gallery contents

• 

  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

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