Energy Shield

Energy Shield is a Wizard Tier 5 skill unlocked at level 14, which uses Arcane Power to absorb incoming damage.

Contents

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Energy Shield Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Wizard
Skill Description:
A protective barrier absorbs incoming damage. Every point of damage costs 2 Arcane Power.
Skill Details:
Type:	Defensive buff
Quantity:	75 damage
Effect:	Self
School:	Arcane
Arcane Power cost:	5
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	120
Cooldown:	1.5 sec
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

Drawing from long forgotten texts, this magical shield of energy absorbs harmful attacks through energy resonance, draining Arcane Power.

Skill Design

The skill with lots of heritage is back in Diablo III. It's a shield that absorbs all damage taken, converting the damage to Arcane Power loss, draining 2 points of AP for every point of damage absorbed.

This skill is likely to be used by many Wizards, especially if they are going melee-style with Diamond Skin and Magic Weapon, or playing hardcore.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: 75 damage absorbed. Duration: 120 sec.

Synergies

• None known.

Skill Rune Effects

• None known.

Development

Energy Shield first appeared in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, located at Tier III in the Arcane Skill Tree and already one of the D3 Team's favorites. Flux didn't have much to say about it, unfortunately. The full quote:[1]

Not a skill I even considered using, in the easy Blizzcon demo.

Skill trees were removed shortly thereafter. At BlizzCon 2010, Energy Shield was a Tier 5 skill, making it too high-level for players to select.

• See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of the Wizard's skills.

Energy Shield is similar to, and might have replaced, Temporal Armor. That skill was seen in the BlizzCon 2008 demo, and had a slightly different mechanic: protecting the caster from 100% damage once every 6 seconds. Something that could be either very good, if it fended off a strong attack, or quite useless, if it fended off a weak one.

Earlier Games

Energy Shield originates from the grossly overpowered Mana Shield from the original Diablo game, where every point of damage translated into mana lost instead of life. The spell also had unlimited duration, as long as the character didn't die or travel to another level.

In Diablo II, the Sorceress got a nerfed version of the same spell but with the name Energy Shield. The spell got a time limit (needed, since no levels were limited by loading) and only absorbed a fraction of the damage.

Media

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

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Energy Shield specific gallery contents

Related Articles

• Mana Shield (Diablo I)
• Energy Shield (Diablo II)

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Wizard Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
• Diablo II Manual
• Diablo I Manual