Disintegrate

Disintegrate is a Tier 5 skill unlocked for the Wizard at level 14, doing damage to opponents in an AoE line. It's a signature skill of the Wizard.

The skill works like a laser beam, firing a straight line of Arcane damage that moves instantly from the Wizard's hand to the edge of the screen. This makes the spell reach the enemies faster than any other spell in the game, and its ability to pass through as many targets as are in the way gives it impressive piercing ability.

The drawbacks are fairly low damage, especially to targets behind the front row, and the fact that the Wizard is stuck in place while casting it.

Contents

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Disintegrate Active, 1 ranks
Used by:	Wizard
Skill Description:
Emanate a beam of pure energy dealing X arcane damage per second. Damage is modified to 80% each time the beam passes through the target.
Skill Details:
Type:	Direct Damage
Quantity:	12 damage/sec
Effect:	Line AoE
School:	Arcane
Mana cost:	12/sec
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	Concentrate?
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

A Wizard can call forth a torrent of Arcane energies to make matter simply vanish.

Skill Design

Disintegrate fires a red, ruler-straight laser beam of arcane damage, striking everything in a line AoE right to the edge of the screen. The beam remains active as long as the mouse button is depressed (mana permitting), and can be moved around in all directions, emanating out from the stationary Wizard like spikes from a hub.

The spell does bonus damage (apparently doubling with critical hits) after it locks onto a target for more than about half a second. The beam turns from red to purple to give a visual indication of this; see the tutorial screenshots below.

On the whole, Disintegrate seems like more of a support skill than a main weapon. The Arcane Power drain is fairly fast, and the damage isn't very high. Its utility comes from hitting multiple monsters in a line, and the speed of it; Disintegrate is the only known skill that can instantly reach all the way to the edge of the visible screen. Literally instantly; as soon as the mouse is clicked the skill reaches from the Wizard all the way to the edge of the screen, which makes it good to hit fast moving monsters, or opponents in the Arena.

It's very useful to take out low hit point enemies from a distance. Monsters like skeletal archers or other ranged attackers who spawn behind other melee enemies are great to cook with Disintegrate, since the beam can get to them instantly, before their arrows or projectiles have traveled across the screen to the Wizard.

The damage decreases to 80% with each additional target it strikes, so if the goal is to kill the 3rd or 4th monster in a row it may take a while. Of course the ones closer are taking more damage and will die fairly soon, thus bringing the target closer to being the first impact and dealing higher damage. The damage decrease goes like this, with the damage 80% of the base with each monster in a row. 100%, 80% to the second, then 80% of that to the 3rd, which is 64%. It continues to decrease to 51%, 41%, and 33% to the 6th, should a Wizard find so many targets in a row.

Double Damage Upon Target Lock

Disintegrate critical hit tutorial.

Disintegrate kicks into a higher level of damage once it's been locked onto the same target for more than about half a second. This is indicated by the red beam turning purple, and was most clearly seen in the Arena demo at Blizzcon 2010, since the damage being dealt popped up with visible numbers.

This locked on +damage function has been there since the initial skill design, but there wasn't a visual element added to it until sometime in 2010; it's not visible in the old, mid-2008 movie of Disintegrate posted on Blizzard's character page.

The +damage with a target lock on isn't listed in the official skill description, but it's something the team talked about when Disintegrate was profiled as one of the Wizard's signature skills at Blizzcon 2008. [1]

The next spell, Disintegrate, was described as the ultimate face melting skill, and introduces a new mechanic. When you use Disintegrate, you will begin to emit a jet of searing red heat for as long as you hold down the mouse button. By sweeping the mouse around, you'll change the direction of the beam. The longer the beam holds on a specific enemy, the more damage it will do to that enemy.

You can see a demonstration of this to the right, with three screenshots taken from the Blizzcon 2010 PvP demo gameplay movie. Click to see it at full size.

Hands on Reports

Players have had a lot of fun using Disintegrate at various demos, and have posted some useful reports on the skill's function.

Blizzcon 2009 PvM Demo

Flux was able to use Disintegrate in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, and discussed it at length in his BlizzCon 2009 Wizard gameplay report.

Disintegrate was the the most fun, or at least most talked about, Wizard skill from Blizzcon. Virtually everyone put a point into Disintegrate, either because they liked the name, or because they’d seen someone else using that red laser of death, and wanted to try it themselves. (I fell into the later camp.) Disintegrate has been featured in a variety of screenshots; the straight red laser line it emits is hard to mistake. When using this skill, the Sorceress emits a laser-like beam of red energy that passes through multiple targets, dealing progressively less damage to each. What makes it so distinctive is that it stays active as long as you depress the mouse button (and have enough mana), and that it can be aimed like a beam weapon and swept from side to side. It's indisputably fun to stand there and basically hose down every enemy in sight, without moving a step.

What makes the spell so effective is not the damage, which is fairly low. (It deals 10 damage per second.) It's the speed, since unlike every other Wizard skill (and every Sorceress skill) this one moves at the speed of light. The instant you click the mouse, Disintegrate is hitting things at the edge of the screen. The damage is lessened by each monster it passes through, but in practice (at least in the early going) this just means it can kill everything you shoot at in 5 seconds. The ones in front die in 2 seconds, and as soon as they're down the damage increases to the ones behind them.

Disintegrate is most effective against weaker enemies in bunches, and especially against ranged attackers at the far edge of the screen. I constantly found skeletal archers at the edge of the screen, and used Disintegrate to obliterate them before they could do more than get off a single shot at me. Killing them with say, Magic Missile, would have taken much longer. I would have had to cast half a dozen missiles, they would have had to fly all the way across the screen, monsters in the way would have absorbed some of them, and all that while the archers would have been firing at me. Thus Disintegrate isn't hugely damaging, but it saves you a great deal of time and damage by instantly wiping out low hit point enemies from a distance.

Disintegrating from within Slow Time.

On the other hand, Disintegrate was not very effective against larger targets. Bosses or big monsters were hurt by it, but not nearly as badly as other spells hurt them. It's said that Disintegrate increases in damage the longer it's trained on the same enemy. I was never able to test that out (it killed all the small stuff and ranged attackers too quickly), and it's not listed in the spell's hover description, but even if it's true, it's hard to use this spell for that purpose when you're playing alone. Big monsters don't stand back and let you fry them; they rush up to attack you, and up close Spectral Blade or Magic Missile did far more damage than Disintegrate. I don't think Disintegrate would be a great choice against a powerful ranged enemy either, such as a boss pack of archers, since while it would be useful to kill them, you have to stand still while you're using it, and their arrows would pin cushion you in the meantime.

That's one of the most interesting things about using Disintegrate; that it's more effective if you're not moving. But Wizards seldom have that luxury, at least not when they're playing alone. A solo Wizard is a hit and run machine, throwing magical projectiles, rushing back or to the sides to dodge returned fire, darting in to land a few Spectral Blade strikes, etc. Disintegrate looks like it'll be very useful against weak, ranged attackers, or else will be best used in a multiplayer game, when some other character is up front tanking, giving the Wizard the freedom to pour this one on non-stop.

Blizzcon 2010 Arena Demo

Dueling Wizard action.

Disintegrate was also one of the main attack skills pre-assigned to Wizards in the Battle Arena in the Blizzcon 2010 demo. Flux reported on it again, from his Mega Arena Hands-On report.

Disintegrate was very useful, and the speed of it let you hit anything in a straight line, but it wasn’t very damaging, and the fact that you had to stand still to use it made it dangerous. A skill that fired out projectiles, which the Wizard could constantly have tossed out while moving, would have been awesome.

...Most players, especially non-Wizards, seemed to overreact to the danger of the Disintegrate beam. It looked impressive, and sent a steady display of damage taken numbers up, but they were 12s and 15s and 20s, etc. And Disintegrate could only be used while standing still, which meant a Wizard firing it was a sitting duck. It wasn’t wise to stand and trade fire with a Wizard who had Disintegrate locked onto you, but it wasn’t enormously dangerous, if you kept moving. It just looked scary.

...I’ve talked about Disintegrate a lot already. Very useful blasting, instant speed to the edge of the level, but it requires a clear line or sight, and it holds the Wizard in place whiel using it. Smart Wizards I saw used it a lot, but in bursts. Any time they had a clear shot they’d cook someone from a distance, ideally over one of the openings in the ground. The damage per second wasn’t huge, but it added up and was very easy to hit with.

Spell Colour Feedback

Disintegrate, recolored Arcane style.

Not as bad as the art controversy, but some fans complained Disintegrate looks too much like a fire spell. Bashiok replied to this feedback by saying:

It doesn’t actually feel anything like fire in-game. The screenshots don't really give a good impression of the way it looks and acts. In a screenshot you may think… well it has a lot of colors of fire, but in motion you just don’t get that impression. It comes across as a red-dominated skill. And the sound of the ability actually plays a huge part in how it feels, and it feels like a very focused and powerful energy beam.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: 12 damage/sec. 12 mana/sec.

Only Rank 1 is known so far.

Synergies

• None known.

Runestone Effects

Little is yet known about the effects of runestones on Disintegrate.

• Alabaster rune: Unknown.
• Crimson rune: Presumably higher damage.
• Golden rune: Presumably slower Arcane Power drain per second while Disintegrate is active.
• Indigo rune: Unknown. (A multishot Disintegrate would be amazingly powerful.)
• Obsidian rune: Unknown.

Development

Disintegrate was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard was unveiled. It was slightly updated in the version shown at BlizzCon 2009, where it received 2 extra damage per second, up from 10.

Previous Versions:

• Disintegrate (BlizzCon 2008)

Trivia

With Diablo III, Blizzard have looked more at the traditional Dungeons & Dragons pen & paper RPG for inspiration. The The Disintegrate spell is one of the "trademark" D&D spells, which name is likely taken in tribute to the pen & paper RPG.

Media

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

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Disintegrate-specific gallery contents
• Disintegrate video

• 

  Disintegrate used in a Slow Time bubble.

• 

  Disintegrate used on Zombies.

• 

  Disintegrate used on a Skeleton.

• 

  Concept art.

Disintegrate in character artwork by Blizzard artist Josh Tallman.

Related Articles

• Disintegrate (BlizzCon 2008)