Magic Missile

Magic Missile in action.

Magic Missile is a Primary Wizard skill unlocked at Level 1, invoking a bolt of arcane magic thrown against an opponent.

This is a Signature spell. Signature spells are free to cast.

Contents

Background

The Magic Missile is a bolt-type spell much like the classical Firebolt but using Arcane energies instead of Elemental (like Fire).

Skillrune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Magic Missile rune effects page for a more thorough description of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

<skill class="Wizard">Magic Missile</skill>

Skill Design

Magic Missile impact on Zombie.

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.

Video

A video of Magic Missile can be seen below, courtesy of the DiabloInc You Tube channel.

Synergies

Magic Missile benefits from the following Wizard passives: None added yet.

Development

Double missiles.

Quadruple missiles.

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!

Beta

Skill tiers were removed shortly before the beta started in September 2011, and Magic Missile became a level 1 skill. Flux tried it out again, and reported on it:[2]

Naturally, the base version of Magic Missile isn’t all that powerful. It’s great for single targets, and has nice range and quite respectable damage, but with just a single projectile per cast the Wizard can not keep up with fast spawning enemies, and MM isn’t much good for bosses either. I’m not just estimating about that either, since I actually put it to the test. MM was fine for 95% of the beta areas, including the lower levels of the Cathedral, but when I got boss packs, or set event areas of summoners, there were too many fish for my skillets, and I got overrun and had to retreat or use other skills.

The skill system was once again overhauled for the Beta Patch 13 in February 2012, and Magic Missile was classified as a Primary skill (but remained at level 1).

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.

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:

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Magic Missile specific gallery contents

• 

  Magic Missile cast by female Wizard.

• 

  Killed Zombie glowing.

• 

  Female Wizard "missiling".

• 

  Magic Missile multi-shot.

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

• 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
• Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects -- IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
• Wizard Beta Skills Mega-report: Part One -- IncGamers 4th October 2011
• Wizard Active Skills -- Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

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