Charged Bolt

Charged Bolt is a Wizard Tier 1 skill unlocked at level 2, launching electric charges that travel randomly on the floor, dealing lightning damage.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Charged Bolt
Used by:	Wizard
Enabled at:	Clvl 2
Skill Description
Launch a volley of 3 electric bolts that deal X-Y lightning damage each.
Type:	Direct Damage
Resource Use:	Costs Arcane Power
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The true essence of Electromagnetism exists on the threshold of the Ethereal and the Physical Realms. While it is very efficient to transform Mana into electrical energy, it is extremely difficult to control. This spell calls into being multiple pockets of lightning which seem to have a will of their own.

The Wizard has not only the fancy illegal spells at her disposal. Charged Bolt, something even the newest of Vizjerei neonytes learn, is one of the few spells she picked up in actual classes at the old mage clan, or possibly at Zann Esu before they kicked her out.

Skill Design

The Wizard and her carpet.

The spell familiar from Diablo I and Diablo II returns in Diablo III. As previously, Charged Bolt send out a smattering of randomly-scattering charges, each of which deal minor damage to any enemy that passes over them. The strength of Charged Bolt comes not from the damage of each bolt, but from the carpeting effect of repeated casts, since it's a spell with very low mana cost. These can turn the floor into a field of death for any enemy without lightning immunity.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: 1-2 damage per bolt.
• Rank 2: 2-4 damage per bolt. (A)
• Rank 3: 3-6 damage per bolt. (A)
• Rank 4: 4-8 damage per bolt. (A)
• Rank 5: 5-10 damage per bolt. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Trait Synergies

Charged Bolt benefits directly from the following Wizard traits:

• Glass Cannon: Increases damage done by spells and increases armor.
• Intimidation: Increases damage done and reduces vendor costs.
• Quickening: Increases spell casting speed.
• Beast Hunter: Damage bonus against beasts.
• Demonsbane: Damage bonus against Demons.
• Just...Stay...Dead!: Damage bonus against undead.
• Power Surge: Increase critical strike damage.
• Penetrating Spells: Reduces the resistances of your target to your spells by 20%.

Note: The current trait list is very out-of-date and will no doubt be overhauled before game release.

Skill Rune Effects

• No rune effects for Charged Bolt are known.

Development

Charged Bolt was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted, where it was at Tier I on the Storm Skill Tree. Flux was able to try it out:[1]

Three little crackling bits of lightning are sent forth along the ground, where they zig and zag a bit, but move in a more or less straight line away from the Sorceress. I didn’t use this spell much, but it seemed to me that the bolts spread out quite a bit more than they did in D2, and that made it hard to hit anything in front of me with more than one bolt. That’s now how it looks in screenshots though, where the bolts seem to carpet the dungeon floor quite nicely. More testing will be required.

It was still in the game at BlizzCon 2009; there, it had a much lower mana cost, and significantly lower damage than in 2008, indicating the spell was intended to be used more for the "carpet effect" of previous games.

At BlizzCon 2010, it was still in the game but wasn't one of the Wizard's starting skills.

Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Charged Bolt and other Wizard skills.
Or see Charged Bolt (BlizzCon 2008) for the original version of this skill.

In Other Games

Charged Bolt was introduced in Diablo I, where it was, as it is now, a very cheap spell to cast multiple times in hopes of killing many enemies with a carpet of lightning. The spell calls in pockets of lightning that just crawls around randomly, in a general direction.

The second iteration of Charged Bolt was a Sorceress spell in Diablo II, and is basically identical in design. It's one of few Tier 1 spells in the skill trees that scale well even at higher levels, being quite useful at max level.

Media

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Charged Bolt specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2008 Wizard Gameplay Report
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees