Wizard skills

The skill tree, circa 2009. Skills no longer appear in anything like this format. Image by Muldric.

This page lists all known Wizard skills, sorted by skill tree. Follow the links to the individual skill pages for full discussion of every skill, including first hand reports and screenshots.

Wizard skill information:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
• Wizard traits -- The new passive skills system in Diablo III.
• Wizard skill archive - Removed Wizard skills.
• Runestones - The huge skill customization and improvement system.
• Signature skills - Skills that define characters.
• Active skills - Skills where effects are activated by the player.
• Passive skills - Skills where effects are activated automatically, by the computer or by special events.

Contents

Tier One Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 2. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Magic Missile

Magic Missile
Magic Missiles are purple projectiles that deal arcane damage.

• Description: Fires a missile of energy causing X-X arcane damage.

Charged Bolt

Charged Bolt
Snaking bolts of electricity cover the ground with lightning damage for all enemies. Best cast in great numbers, or not at all.

• Description: Launches a volley of X electric bolts that deal X-X lightning damage per bolt.

Spectral Blade

Spectral Blade
A melee ranged magical attack, this hits nearby enemies for considerable physical damage.

• Description: Summons a spectral blade that strikes enemies in front of the Wizard X times causing X-X physical damage with each hit.

Tier Two Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 3. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Ice Armor

Ice Armor

• Description: Surrounds the Wizard in a barrier of ice that increases armor by X%, freezes attackers for X seconds, and causes X-X cold damage. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed. You can only be affected by one armor spell at a time.

Explosive Blast

Explosive Blast
A physical damage attack that turns the Wizard into a time bomb. Click to arm the spell, run into a pack of enemies, and blow up amidst them.

• Description: Builds up energy around the Wizard that explodes after X seconds, causing X-X physical damage in a small radius.

Mirror Image

Mirror Image
The Wizard creates multiple images of himself. These duplicates move and attack enemies in convincing fashion.

• Description: Creates an illusionary duplicate of the Wizard that lasts for X seconds and has X% of the caster's health.

Wave of Force

Wave of Force
A defensive skill that pushes back enemies and enemy projectiles. Works well when combined with Slow Time.

• Description: Causes a wave of pure force that causes a knockback to nearby enemies, repels projectiles and deals X-X physical damage.

Tier Three Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 6. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Frost Nova

Frost Nova
This defensive skill freezes all enemies in a ring around the player, stopping normal monsters and slowing bosses.

• Description: An explosion of ice freezes nearby enemies for X seconds and causes X-X cold damage. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed. Damage will break the freeze effect, but not the chill effect.

Electrocute

Electrocute
A beam weapon, the bolt of lightning locks onto an enemy and deals steadily draining damage, as well as stunning and slowing the target. An excellent skill for hitting moving targets that might dodge projectiles.

• Description: Lightning arcs from the Wizard's fingertips towards an enemy dealing X-X lightning damage.

Tier Four Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 10. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Arcane Orb

Arcane Orb
A projectile that moves slower than most such magical attacks, but that deals considerable arcane AoE damage upon impact and explosion.

• Description: An orb of pure energy that explodes on contact with enemies dealing X-X arcane damage to all enemies in the blast area.

Diamond Skin

Diamond Skin
A powerful defensive skill, this absorbs considerable points from all types of damage for a short duration.

• Description: Turns the Wizard's skin to diamond for X seconds absorbing up to X damage from incoming attacks.

Energy Twister

Energy Twister
Cast tornadoes of arcane damage that deal substantial damage to all they come into contact with. The tornadoes move semi-randomly, making this better against crowds than individuals.

• Description: Summon an energy twister that deals X arcane damage per second to everything in its path.

Hydra

Hydra
Summons a fiery, three-headed dragon that appears from the ground and assails enemies with bolts of flame. Runestone bonuses give great flexibility to this spell.

• Description: Creates a multi-headed hydra that attacks your enemies with bolts of fire, dealing X-X fire damage per attack for X seconds.

Tier Five Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 14. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Disintegrate

Disintegrate
A laser beam of doom, this instantly-hitting, long range attack deals considerable damage to everything in its path.

• Description: Emanate a beam of pure energy dealing X arcane damage per second and disintegrating enemies it kills.

Energy Shield

Energy Shield
The classic protective skill returns, now trading Arcane Power for damage reduction.

• Description: A protective barrier that absorbs damage, draining arcane power in its place. Absorbs X% of all damage dealt to the Wizard.

Ray of Frost

Ray of Frost
A laser beam of cold damage, this one chills enemies, slowing them while dealing damage.

• Description: Project a beam of cold that deals X cold damage per second. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed.

Slow Time

Slow Time
Slow time creates a bubble of protection around the location its cast in, slowing all enemy projectiles and the enemies themselves.

• Description: Warps space and time, slowing nearby monsters and projectiles for X seconds.

Tier Six Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 20. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Arcane Torrent

Arcane Torrent
An arcane style of Meteor Storm, this spell hurls flaming rocks at the targeted spot, dealing AoE damage to anything in the vicinity.

• Description: Arcane meteorites pelt the targeted region dealing X-X arcane damage per second.

Blizzard

Blizzard
Another powerful AoE spell, this one drops damaging ice on a large section of the screen, chilling and injuring anything in the area.

• Description: Call down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing X-X cold damage per second for X seconds. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed.

Magic Weapon

Magic Weapon
A spell for the battle mage, this one imbues huge magical damage into the wizard's weapon.

• Description: Imbues the Wizard's weapon with magical energy, granting X-X increased damage.

Meteor

Meteor
The biggest damage of the death from above skills, this one lands a flaming stone on the targeted location, dealing huge fire damage and leaving a dangerous field of fire in the location for some time.

• Description: Summons a massive meteor from the sky that causes X-X fire damage to all enemies in the affected area. Also leaves a pool of fire that does X fire damage every second for X seconds.

Storm Armor

Storm Armor
A fire and forget skill, this one shocks enemies with electrical bolts for the duration of effect, without requiring the Wizard to aim or target them.

• Description: Surround yourself in electrical energy. Electric bolts are automatically fired at attackers for X-X lightning damage.
  • The Wizard may only use one of the "armor" spells at a time.

Tier Seven Skills

All abilities in this tier are unlocked at Clvl 26. Click to the individual skill pages for more details and screenshots of these skills.

Familiar

Familiar
An assisting creature that boosts the Wizard's damage, without serving as a "tank" to distract their attacks.

• Description: Creates a companion that accompanies the Wizard, attacking enemies for X-X damage. This companion cannot be targeted or damaged by enemies.

Teleport

Teleport
Bamf instantly from one location to another. This skill carries a considerable cool down time in Diablo III, making it something best saved for emergency escapes.

• Description: Teleport instantly to the selected location.

References

• Full Wizard Skill Trees