Magic Missile
Magic Missile is a Wizard skill enabled at level 1, invoking a bolt of arcane magic thrown against an opponent.
Contents
Background
Diablo III Active Skill [e] | |
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Magic Missile | |
Used by: | Wizard |
Enabled at: | Clvl 1 |
Fire 1 missile(s) of energy at your enemies causing 3-5 arcane damage to them. | |
Type: | Direct Damage |
Resource Use: | Costs Arcane Power |
Alabaster rune: | Homing missile |
Crimson rune: | Increased damage |
Golden rune: | Unknown |
Indigo rune: | Multi-strike |
Obsidian rune: | Unknown |
The Magic Missile is a bolt-type spell much like the classical Firebolt but using Arcane energies instead of Elemental (like Fire).
Skill Design
Magic Missile is basically a Firebolt that deals Arcane Damage. In early levels, Magic Missile might be the Wizard's bread and butter. Using this skill fires a small purple projectile that moves across the screen in a straight line and at a fairly fast pace, and it can be cast repeatedly without any cooldown.
In later levels, it might prove invaluable as a cheap and direct means of silencing a monster for 4 seconds -- plenty of time to dispatch of them before they can cast a nasty spell on you, or raise the fallen to fight again. This property hasn't been explained yet, but the consensus is that a silenced monster will be unable to use some of its skills or abilities, such as Skeletal Mages losing the ability to resurrect their slain minions. The difficulty will be in hitting the shaman behind the minions, since Magic Missile will strike another monster if it's between the Wizard and the targeted boss.
When an enemy dies at the hands of an Arcane spell, a purple glow is left on the corpses.
This was the default ranged spell at BlizzCon 2008, but with Arcane Orb and Electrocute available right from the start in 2009, Magic Missile was hardly touched. It didn't seem to have changed in function since 2008.
Magic Missile Video
Skill Rank Table
- Rank 1: Fires a missile of energy, doing 3-5 Arcane damage.
Synergies
- No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet known.
Skill Rune Effects
The following rune effects for Magic Missile are known:
- Crimson: Charged Blast: Damage increased to X-X Arcane damage.
- Indigo: Missile Fork: Fires X missiles that do X-X damage each.
- Obsidian: Penetrating Blast: Missiles have a X% chance to pierce through their target and hit additional targets.
- Golden: Attunement: Whenever Magic Missile hits a target you gain X Arcane Power.
- Alabaster: Missile Seeker: Missiles track the nearest target and damage is increased to X-X Arcane damage.
Development
Magic Missile first appeared at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted, where it did 7-13 arcane damage at level 1. By BlizzCon 2009, it had been nerfed slightly, doing less damage and costing a little less mana (later changed to Arcane Power). This skill was on the Arcane Skill Tree until skill trees were disbanded.
At BlizzCon 2010, Magic Missile was one of the Wizard's starting skills, and a very useful one, according to Flux:[1]
The level five MMs were quite powerful, capable of killing almost any normal monster with a single shot. The casting rate wasn’t that fast though, which was good and bad. Good because you could cast MMs forever, since they weren’t fast or expensive enough to deplete your Arcane Power. Bad because I wanted to kill faster. Faster!
Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Magic Missile became a level 1 skill.
Previous Versions
See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Magic Missile and other Wizard skills.
Or see Magic Missile (BlizzCon 2008) for the original version of this skill.
In Other Games
Magic Missile is much like Diablo II's Sorceress skill Fire Bolt, only doing Arcane damage instead of Fire damage.
Trivia
In Diablo III, Blizzard seems to have gone back to games like Dungeons & Dragons for inspiration. A spell called Magic Missile is a staple low-to-mid level magic bolt in the traditional pen & paper RPG. The Magic Missile also increases number of missiles, as does the original. Wikipedia describes D&D Magic Missile like this.[1]
- A bolt of pure energy from the caster's fingertips, which in most editions of the game never misses its target unless prevented by magical means. The number of bolts one can cast increases with practice.
Media
Magic Missile can be seen in action on video here:
- Gameplay: Blizzcon 2008
- Video: Blizzcon 2010 Rune Effects
- Gameplay: July 2011
- Video: August 2011 Wizard Skill Animations
You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:
Related Articles
- Improved Magic Missile is a retired skill whose only purpose was to increase the efficiency of Magic Missile. Skill runes made it unnecessary.
References
- ↑ D&D Arcane Spells -- Wikipedia
- BlizzCon 2008 Wizard gameplay report
- BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
- BlizzCon 2010 Wizard Hands-on Report
- Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
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(X) = the level at which the skill becomes unlocked. |
Wizard skill categories: Primary Secondary Defensive Force Conjuration Mastery |
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Magic Missile |
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Level 10: |
Level 5: Level 10: |
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Diablo II: |
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Dragon Warrior Skills |
Aurian Mage Skill | |
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