Spectral Blade

Spectral Blade is a Signature Wizard skill unlocked at Level 6, dealing powerful damage in melee range.

This is a Signature spell. Signature spells are free to cast.

Spectral Blade is a melee-range, physical-damage, magical attack spell of the Wizard. The weapon is not actually used for the attack, instead it is holstered and the attack is purely magical, though weapon damage is a key factor in determining the damage. Other modifiers from the weapon, such as cold or poison damage, are also included.

Background

Spectral Blade in action.

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 Rune Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Spectral Blade rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Icon	Skill	Description

{{{icon}}}

[[{{{name}}}]] Primary Signature spell

11

{{{desc}}}

Healing Blades

[e] Whenever the blades do critical damage, you are healed 100% of the damage caused.

Deep Cuts

[e] Enemies hit by the blade will bleed for an additional 45% weapon damage done over 3 seconds.

Siphoning Blade

[e] Every enemy hit grants 7 Arcane Power.

Thrown Blade

[e] Extends the blades out to reach everything within 20 yards dealing 72% weapon damage.

Impactful Blades

[e] Hits have a 45% chance to cause knockback and slow the movement of enemies by 60% for 2 seconds.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

Skill Design

Zombies get harvested in a zoomed in view from a graveyard.

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 slightly 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.

The skill was changed during development, and as of the beta test (October 2011) the Wizard's weapon damage is a key component in the damage delivered. During beta testing, Clvl 13 Wizards did around 5 per slash with weapon weapons, and more than 20 with bigger axes and mauls. The possible damage will obviously increase greatly with better equipment and higher level characters.

As of the beta test, Magic Weapon does not increase the base damage of Spectral Blade, but does improve the damage of critical strikes. This is thought to be a bug.

Synergies

Spectral Blade benefits from the following Wizard passives:

Skill	Unlocked	Description

{{{icon}}}

[[{{{name}}}]] See: Signature spell

20

{{{desc}}}

{{{icon}}}

[[{{{name}}}]] See: Signature spell

55

{{{desc}}}

Weapon Damage Testing

During the Diablo 3 Beta, Spectral Blade was the only Wizard skill to incorporate the weapon damage into the spell damage. Flux did extensive testing of the skill with various weapons and posted the results in his Wizard Gameplay Report[1]. Screenshots showing the damage output with the various weapons used can be seen below.

• 

  Adventuring War Axe of the Leech.

• 

  Hand Axe of the Snake. (Poison damage.)

• 

  Club of the Eel. (Lightning damage.)

• 

  Brutal Steel Wand of Winter. (Cold damage.)

Development

Wizard cleaving some Zombies.

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:[2]

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:[3]

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:[4]

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.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Spectral Blade became a level 5 skill.
Spectral Blade changed to level 6 skill in the beta.

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:

• Cinematic: Wizard
• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2008
• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2010 (in the Arena)

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
• 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 -- Diablo III 12th Sep 2011

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