Wave of Force

Wave of Force is a Wizard Tier 2 skill unlocked at level 3, creating a force wave from the Wizard, repelling enemies and projectiles.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Wave of Force
Used by:	Wizard
Enabled at:	Clvl 3
Skill Description
Project a wave of force outwards, repelling enemies and projectiles.
Type:	Damage/Knockback
Resource Use:	Costs Arcane Power
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Wizard uses pure Arcane force to push objects, projectiles and enemies alike away from her. The force is primary pushing targets rather than hurting them.

Skill Design

This defensive spell casts a nova-like blast of light that deals just minor damage, but that shoves back enemies and projectiles.

Wave of Force is used twice in the Wizard Trailer released at BlizzCon 2008. The first is used in a room of skeletons -- it does little damage to the skeletons, but blasts all the destructibles in the room to glorious pieces. In the second example, the Wizard uses it while slowing down time, waiting for a group of skeletons' projectiles to come close, and then reflecting them back toward them.

It's hard to know how many scenarios in a fast-paced game like this where you could really benefit from using Slow Time and then Wave of Force to repel projectiles -- Out of the 8 projectiles in the above screenshot, only one or two actually came back to strike their targets. It will be interesting to see what practical uses there are for this spell as more gameplay videos unfold.

Wave of Force repels skeletons.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: does 1-5 damage.

Trait Synergies

Skeleton smash.

Wave of Force 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.
• Temporal Flux: Enemies that have been hit by your Arcane spells are slowed down by 25% for 3 seconds.
• 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Note: The current trait list is very out-of-date and will no doubt be overhauled before game release.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 Wave of Force are known.

Development

Wave of Force was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard was unveiled, as a Tier II skill on the Arcane Skill Tree. Unfortunately, Flux (and other demo players) found little use for defensive skills:[1]

Sadly, I never used it, since it’s basically a defensive skill that wasn’t needed in the Blizzcon Demo. It’s demonstrated in the Blizzcon gameplay movies though, and looks pretty fun. Wave of Force casts a nova-like ring of energy that blasts out from the Wizard, shoving back enemies and reflecting projectiles towards their source. The possibilities created when teaming this with Slow Time are fun to contemplate.

Wave of Force was available at BlizzCon 2009, where it lost a little bit of damage and had a lot lower mana cost. This skill was also available at BlizzCon 2010, but it wasn't one of the Wizard's starting skills.

Previous Versions

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

Media

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Wave of Force specific gallery contents

• 

  Wizard casting Wave of Force in a small room.

• 

  Using WoF to repel skeletons when fighting King Leoric.

• 

  Slow Time with WoF to throw spells back at casters.

• 

  Blasting skeletons with Force.

References

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