Passive skill

Passive skills are skills that add bonuses, usually modifying other skills, that work all the time. They boost overall stats, or modify other skills, but are not used directly.

For instance, an active skill would be one that shot a Fireball. A passive skill would add say, +50% damage to all Fire Skills. Passive skills differ slightly from buffs, which can be very similar bonuses, but with a fixed duration.

In 2010 Blizzard announced that due to recent game changes, there were no longer any passive skills in the Diablo III skill trees. Passive skills remained in the game, but as was revealed at BlizzCon 2010, they were accessed via the traits system. [1] [2]

In July 2011 Blizzard announced that the traits system had been revamped and turned back into a passive skills system.

See the various class skills pages for more details.

• Barbarian skills
• Demon Hunter skills
• Monk skills
• Witch Doctor skills
• Wizard skills

Description

Passive skills are not used directly for attacks, and tend to provide bonuses to numerous other skills, or add percentages to damage, to hit, defense, resistances, and other useful stats. Some effects also comes from passive skills, such as activating a bonus under special circumstances, such as a critical hit, or being hit.

Passive skills are often as or more important than some active skills, but usually receive less attention since they are not flashy or obvious in their effects. An example is making the possibility

Passive skills seldom possess synergistic properties. Passive skills are not signature skills.

Passive Skills Master List

Below find an alphabetical listing of all known passive skills. There were 64 of these seen in July 2011 when the new skill tree system was revealed, and many of them were shared between classes. The number of passive skills increased during further development, and all passive skills are now unique to each class, with none shared between classes.

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Barbarian">Animosity</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Arcane Dynamo</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Archery</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Astral Presence</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Bad Medicine</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Ballistics</skill> <skill class="Monk">Beacon of Ytar</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Berserker Rage</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Blood Ritual</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Bloodthirst</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Blur</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Boon of Bul-Kathos</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Brawler</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Brooding</skill> <skill class="Monk">Chant of Resonance</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Circle of Life</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Cold Blooded</skill> <skill class="Monk">Combination Strike</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Conflagration</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Critical Mass</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Cull the Weak</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Custom Engineering</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Evocation</skill> <skill class="Monk">Exalted Soul</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Fetish Sycophants</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Fierce Loyalty</skill> <skill class="Monk">Fleet Footed</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Galvanizing Ward</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Glass Cannon</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Grave Injustice</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Grenadier</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Gruesome Feast</skill> <skill class="Monk">Guiding Light</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Hot Pursuit</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Illusionist</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Inspiring Presence</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Juggernaut</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Jungle Fortitude</skill> <skill class="Monk">Near Death Experience</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Nerves of Steel</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Night Stalker</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">No Escape</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Numbing Traps</skill> <skill class="Monk">One With Everything</skill> <skill class="Monk">Pacifism</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Paralysis</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Perfectionist</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Pierce the Veil</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Pound of Flesh</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Power Hungry</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Prodigy</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Relentless</skill> <skill class="Monk">Resolve</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Rush of Essence</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Ruthless</skill> <skill class="Monk">Seize the Initiative</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Sharpshooter</skill> <skill class="Monk">Sixth Sense</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Spirit Vessel</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Spiritual Attunement</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Steady Aim</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Superstition</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Tactical Advantage</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Temporal Flux</skill> <skill class="Monk">The Guardian's Path</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Thrill of the Hunt</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Tough as Nails</skill> <skill class="Monk">Transcendence</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Tribal Rites</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Unforgiving</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Unstable Anomaly</skill> <skill class="DemonHunter">Vengeance</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Vision Quest</skill> <skill class="Barbarian">Weapons Master</skill> <skill class="WitchDoctor">Zombie Handler</skill>

Development

At BlizzCon 2008, there were far more passive than active skills in the three character trees, bit it changed in May 2009 and was shown with more detail at BlizzCon 2009.

• Read more about skill development.

Over time the number of passive skills were reduced, and as of Blizzcon 2009 there were about 35 skills for the Wizard, Witch Doctor, and Barbarian, with around a dozen of those passive.

The first big change came in 2010, when the skill trees were completely overhauled, more active skills were introduced, and all of the passive skills were removed. Removed from the skill trees, not from the game, they were turned into the traits system.

The second big change came in July 2011, when passive skills were re-introduced into the game and the traits were removed.

Over the course of development, many passives that were introduced to the game have been later removed.

• See the list of removed passives.

References

• BlizzCon 2008
• Skill Tree Overhaul
• No more passive skills?
• Kastigar's Really Big Barb thread -- IncGamers 8th Sep 2011
• HardRock's Monk Passive Skills -- IncGamers 6th Sep 2011
• HardRock's Wizard Passive Skills -- IncGamers 6th Sep 2011
• HardRock's Demon Hunter Passive Skills -- IncGamers 6th Sep 2011
• HardRock's Witch Doctor Passive Skills -- IncGamers 6th Sep 2011

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