Spectral Blade

Spectral Blade is a Wizard Tier 1 skill unlocked at level 2, dealing powerful damage in melee range.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Spectral Blade
Used by:	Wizard
Enabled at:	Clvl 2
Skill Description
Summons a spectral blade that strikes each enemy in front of the Wizard 3 times causing X-Y physical damage with each hit.
Type:	Direct Damage
Resource Use:	Costs Arcane Power
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

Spectral Blade is used for Wizards willing to meet their enemies toe to toe. It's a powerful melee spell that will kill most enemies early on.

Skill Design

Mirror Images casting Spectral Blade.

This skill was the default left click attack at the BlizzCon 2008 build, and also used heavily in the BlizzCon 2009 demo and it worked quite nicely. It was a melee+spell, hitting anything up close with all 3 slashes, but extending the slashes far enough that targets out of melee range would be hit by one or perhaps two of the attacks. Each slash could also strike multiple targets, making this one potentially quite damaging against multiple, close-range enemies.

There is a slight casting delay on Spectral Blade, making it too slow to stun lock enemies. A Wizard who uses this one at the point blank range where it's most effective will be hit back by any targets who do not succumb to the first assault.

This spell was tweaked since the BlizzCon 2008 version, when it did 1-6 damage per hit, but hit 1-3 times. That allowed a huge spread of damage, from 1-18, and the team must have found it worked better to keep this low level skill a bit more predictable in damage range.

Skill Rank Table

Wizard cleaving some Zombies.

• Rank 1: 3 Hits with 1-2 physical damage per hit. (A)
• Rank 2: 3 Hits with 2-4 physical damage per hit. (A)
• Rank 3: 3 Hits with 3-6 physical damage per hit.
• Rank 4: 3 Hits with 4-8 physical damage per hit.
• Rank 5: 3 Hits with 5-10 physical damage per hit. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Trait Synergies

Spectral Blade benefits directly from the following Wizard traits:

• Glass Cannon: Increases damage done by spells and increases armor.
• Intimidation: Increases damage done and reduces vendor costs.
• Quickening: Increases spell casting speed.
• Beast Hunter: Damage bonus against beasts.
• Demonsbane: Damage bonus against Demons.
• Just...Stay...Dead!: Damage bonus against undead.
• Power Surge: Increase critical strike damage.
• Penetrating Spells: Reduces the resistances of your target to your spells by 20%.

Note: The current trait list is very out-of-date and will no doubt be overhauled before game release.

Skill Rune Effects

• Unknown rune: Increased damage.
• Unknown rune: Lowered Arcane Power cost.

Development

Spectral Blade was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard was unveiled, as a Tier I skill in the Conjuring Skill Tree. Originally, it dealt 1-6 damage with 1-3 hits, so it could do 1-18 damage with each use, meaning it required some strategy to use effectively. Also, it wasn't the best skill in all situations, as Flux explained:[1]

It’s not a spell that can be used machine gun style though, even if enemies are in range. There’s a short delay after each cast, a cool down that’s longer than the Wizard has with her projectile spells. As a result Spectral Blade doesn’t look like a real boss-killer. It also didn’t seem to stun or interrupt the attacking motion of monsters, the way melee attacks sometimes did, so it’s not a way to render targets helpless while you slash them to bits.

It was changed slightly in the BlizzCon 2009 version, increasing the number of hits to always be 3, but lowering the damage per hit instead to even it out, removing some of the strategy involved in using it. Flux gave details:[2]

Last year, 3 hits were usually granted on point blank targets, while enemies at the edge of the skill’s range (who were generally not yet in melee range of the Wizard) were most likely to take just a single hit. I didn’t actually use this one much, with so many other, more interesting spells on offer, (and since I very seldom allowed enemies to get into melee range) so I can’t say if it really does always hit three times, but it was very effectively putting down almost anything I hit with it.

At BlizzCon 2010, Flux found its short range to be a handicap:[3]

I used it a few times in the demo this year; it did potentially more damage than MM, even with fewer skill points, but the melee range thing isn’t what you want to be doing with a Wizard. Better you kill them from a distance with MM than use a slightly more damaging skill at melee range, when they can hit you back. Being hit is for grunting meat shields like Barbarians and Monks; sophisticated classes like Wizards don’t like to get their uniforms smudged by filthy monster paws.

Previous Versions

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

Media

Spectral Blade can be seen in action on video here:

• Diablo 3 Wizard Trailer - BlizzCon 2008 -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (at 2:06)
• Diablo 3 Wizard Gameplay - BlizzCon 2008 -- Diablo3Inc's Channel (at 0:02)

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Spectral Blade specific gallery contents

• 

  Spectral Blade in action.

• 

  Mirror Images casting Spectral Blades.

• 

  Closeup of the blades.

Related Articles

• Improved Spectral Blade is a retired skill whose only purpose was to increase the efficiency of Spectral Blade. Skill runes made it unnecessary.

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Wizard Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
• BlizzCon 2010 Wizard Hands-on Report
• BlizzCon 2010 PvP Hands-on Report