Blizzard

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Blizzard is an Offensive Wizard skill unlocked at Level 26, calling down shards of ice on opponents.

Background

Ice Armor in action

Calling upon the elements, drawing huge amounts of cold energy to the physical plane, a torrent of icy shards pelt an area directed by the Wizard.

Skill Effects

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

Icon	Skill	Description

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[[{{{name}}}]] Force

27

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Frozen Solid

[e] Enemies caught in the storm have a 52% chance to be frozen for 3 seconds and the critical strike chance with Blizzard is increased by 80%.

Unrelenting Storm

[e] Increase the duration of the Blizzard to 10 seconds.

Snowbound

[e] Reduce the casting cost to 24 Arcane Power.

Stark Winter

[e] Increase the size of the Blizzard to cover 22 yards, and deal 300% weapon damage per second as Cold.

Grasping Chill

[e] After the Blizzard ends, cover the ground in a low lying mist for 6.0 seconds that slows any enemies who enters it.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

Skill Design

Like a lot of other neat high level skills (most of them owned by the Barbarian) this one has been seen in videos, but never used by anyone other than at Blizzard.

Visually, a large cloud forms above the Wizard's enemies, from which large chunks of ice crash down to earth.

Synergies

• No synergies with any of the Wizard passives are yet known.

Development

A Diablo II Blizzard spell.

Blizzard was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted, at that point a Tier IV skill in the Storm Skill Tree. It was a Tier V skill in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, which made it too high-level for players to select it.

Blizzard was again present in the BlizzCon 2010 demo, but still too high-level to play. Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Bizzard became a level 26 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Blizzard and other Wizard skills.

In Other Games

Blizzard is a spell with a lot of heritage. The first version of this spell is seen in the classic WarCraft I from 1994 as a human Wizard spell (irony), and has been present in any Blizzard game (bar Diablo I) since. WarCraft II has it as a human mage spell, StarCraft doesn't have it, but has a very similar psionic storm, Diablo II has it as a Sorceress spell, WarCraft III has it as an Archmage hero ability and World of WarCraft has it as a Mage spell.

The principle is the same, with frozen shards dealing AoE damage, and is a staple spell in Blizzard Entertainment games that is unlikely to change any time soon.

Media

• 

  Low-quality first look at Blizzard.

• 

  Blizzard without a rune.

Blizzard can be seen in action on video here:

• Video: Blizzcon 2010 Arena

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Blizzard specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects -- IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
• Wizard Active Skills -- Diablo III 12th Sep 2011

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer corpses

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer bloodandbone

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses