Wizard skills

This page lists all known Wizard skills, as of August 2011. Follow the links to the individual skill pages for full discussion of every skill, including first hand reports and screenshots.

Useful skill links:

• Skills - General skill design and mechanics.
  • 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.
  • Signature skills - Skills that define characters.
• Arcane Power - The Wizard's energy resource.
• Runestones - The huge skill customization and improvement system.
• Wizard skill archive - Removed Wizard skills.
• Wizard traits - Passive skills in Diablo III were called traits for a while before reverting back.

Contents

Active Skills

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

Click to the individual skill pages for more details about these skills including numbers, screenshots, runestone information, blue quotes, and much more.

Frost Nova

Frost Nova is available at level 1.
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.

Magic Missile

Magic Missile is available at level 1.
Magic missiles are fast-moving, conjured projectiles that deal arcane damage.

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

Ice Armor

Ice Armor is available at level 2.

• 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.

Shock Pulse

Shock Pulse is available at level 3.
No description available.

Wave of Force

Wave of Force is available at level 4.
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.

Spectral Blade

Spectral Blade is available at level 5.
A magical melee 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.

Electrocute

Electrocute is available at level 6.
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.

Magic Weapon

Magic Weapon is available at level 7.
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.

Arcane Orb

Arcane Orb is available at level 8.
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 is available at level 9.
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 is available at level 11.
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.

Disintegrate

Disintegrate is available at level 12.
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.

Storm Armor

Storm Armor is available at level 13.
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.

Explosive Blast

Explosive Blast is available at level 14.
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 is available at level 15.
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.

Slow Time

Slow Time is available at level 16.
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.

Teleport

Teleport is available at level 18.
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.

Hydra

Hydra is available at level 19.
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.

Ray of Frost

Ray of Frost is available at level 21.
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.

Energy Armor

Energy Armor is available at level 22.
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.

Arcane Torrent

Arcane Torrent is available at level 23.
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.

Meteor

Meteor is available at level 24.
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.

Blizzard

Blizzard is available at level 26.
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.

Familiar

Familiar is available at level 27.
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.

Archon

Archon is available at level 29.
No description available.

Passive Skills

Passive skills replaced Traits during late game development in 2011. Many Traits were simply changed to passive skills, but some are all new. See the Barbarian traits page for a full list of those passives.

Icon	Name	Req Level	Description
	Blur	10	Reduces melee damage taken by X%.
	Drain Power	10	All basic attacks (?) provide X Arcane Power.
	Quickening	10	Increase casting speed by X%.
	Flight Before Fight	13	Increases run speed by X% when the Wizard is blocked in melee.
	Glass Cannon	13	Increases damage dealt by X%, but reduces armor by Y%.
	Aggression	15	Increases attack by X%.
	Superior Skill	15	Increases precision by X%.
	Expert Defense	17	Increases defense by X%.
	Astral Presence	20	Increases maximum Arcane Power by X%.
	Black Ice	20	Damage dealt to frozen targets is increased by X%.
	Temporal Flux	21	When an enemy takes damage from an Arcane skill, its speed is reduced by X% for 4 seconds.
	Piercing Attacks	25	Reduces the magical resistances of enemies by X%.
	Temporal Shift	26	Reduces cooldowns of skills by X%.
	Unstable Energy	28	When under X% HP, the next skill knocks back all targets it hits. Can happen once every 90 seconds.
	Knowledge is Power	30	Unknown.

Development

Removed Skills

• Charged Bolt

References

• Full Wizard Skill Trees
• JudgeHype.com July 2011 Press Event Coverage - The Wizard (Translated by Zediono)