Blizzard

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Blizzard is a Force Wizard skill unlocked at Level 27, calling down shards of ice on opponents.

Background

Blizzard 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.

Skillrune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Blizzard 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">Blizzard</skill>

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.

Video

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

Synergies

Blizzard benefits from the following Wizard passives: None added yet.

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.

Beta

Skill tiers were removed shortly before the beta started in September 2011, and Bizzard became a level 26 skill. When the skill system was once again overhauled for the Beta Patch 13 in February 2012, Blizzard was classified as an Arcane skill and moved to level 27. For March's Beta Patch 14, Blizzard was somewhat nerfed. Also, the category "Arcane" was renamed "Force".

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

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

• 

  Low-quality first look at Blizzard.

• 

  Blizzard without a rune.

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 -- Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

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