Archon

Archon is a Mastery Wizard skill unlocked at Level 30, which transforms the Wizard into a being of pure energy. While in Archon form, the Wizard has access to a powerful set of unique Archon skills.

Archon form is the most damaging spells and attacks possible for the Wizard. The DPS output is massively increased and it's a great way to transform and take on Elites in the higher difficulty levels. It is not exactly a panic button though, in the way that the Barbarian's Wrath of the Berserker transformation is, since the primary boosts for the Wizard are offensive, not defensive. You can quite easily die while in Archon form, and the limited skills available decrease the Wizard's strategic options considerably.

Background

Archon in action.

Calling upon the most powerful elemental forces, the Wizard channels the power of an Archon, gaining a set of unique skills and a massive damage increase for a short period of time.

Skill Rune Effects

Refer to the Archon rune effects article for thorough descriptions of all five rune effects in this skill, including screenshots, videos, strategy tips, and other related information.

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Wizard">Archon</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Combustion">Archon</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Teleport">Archon</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Pure Power">Archon</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Slow Time">Archon</skill> <skill class="Wizard" rune="Improved Archon">Archon</skill>

Archon Abilities

The following abilities are only available while in Archon form. Other normal Wizard skills can *not* be used while in Archon, so there is a trade off to this form; much higher damage, but with a limited variety of offensive skills, and little or no defensive/movement skills.

Arcane Blast	Cooldown: 5 seconds Release an explosion of pure energy dealing 115% weapon damage as Arcane to all nearby enemies. Available with all Archon skill runes. Can be cast during and does not interrupt Disintegration Wave.
Arcane Strike	Strike the ground in front of you, causing 250% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies in the area. Available with all Archon skill runes.
Disintegration Wave	Thrust a beam of pure energy forward dealing 300% weapon damage as Arcane. Available with all Archon skill runes.
Slow Time (rune effect)	Cooldown: 20 seconds Project a bubble of warped space and time that moves with you, slowing the movement and attack speed of enemies by 40% and the speed of projectiles by 60% for 10 seconds. Available only with the Slow Time (rune effect).
Teleport (rune effect)	Cooldown: 10 seconds Teleport through the ether to the selected location up to 20 yards away. Available only with the Teleport (rune effect).

Synergies

The following Wizard passives provide a benefit to Archon, runed or not:

Name	Level	Description

<skill class="Wizard">Evocation</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Glass Cannon</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Temporal Flux</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Critical Mass</skill> <skill class="Wizard">Arcane Dynamo</skill>

Development

Archon was first seen at the July 2011 Press Event, where it was a level 29 skill. Unfortunately, no information about the skill's function was available at the time.

BlizzCon 2011 Arena Demo

The skill was first available to players in the BlizzCon 2011 PvP Arena demo. The Eliminator talked about some of the Archon skills in his PvP demo report:[1]

The most popular skill in Archon form was the Beam. It worked just like a much more damaging Disintegrate, though it had a shorter range. I don’t know if the skill does critical hits, because I can’t remember ever seeing any when I used it. The beam did do a low of 900 to a high 1300 a second. That was without things being hit by Arcane Torrent or being Frozen by Frost Nova. If they had either debuff on them they died fast.

The Eliminator also shared some general advice:

It only took one encounter with an Archon to know you don’t want to mess with a healthy one solo. One that was at about half health would go down rather fast from a WoTB Barb and a few Hammers. An Archon Wizard really felt like a game changer, but they weren’t unbeatable if you dealt with them quickly, and since the Wizard does not have Teleport in Archon form, they could be avoided as well.

That demo presented a souped up version of Archon, with Slow Time and Teleport both available. In the release client, these are only enabled by rune effects, and players can not have both at once, forcing a more discrete choice between defensive or movement capabilities.

Beta

The Diablo III Beta started in September 2011, and while it ran, all of the skills continued to undergo extensive iteration. Skill changes varied from changing the levels the skills are unlocked, to changes in resource cost, damage, and even function. A few skills were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Also, the entire skill system received an overhaul with the Beta Patch 13 update in February 2012, with physical runes replaced by rune effects that automatically unlock at various levels for the different skills.

With the Patch 13 changes, Archon was classified as a Mastery skill and moved to level 30.

Media

Archon can be seen in action on video here:

• Video: August 2011 Wizard Skill Animations

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Archon specific gallery contents

• 

  Disintegration Wave, original form.

• 

  Archon explosion, original form.

A video showing the massive potential of this ability when paired with great equipment can be seen below. This video is somewhat deceptive as it only shows a few excerpts of locations when Archon is most effective; against slow enemies, without ranged attackers, when there are numerous targets to keep refreshing the duration, etc. But it's still an amazing killing spree for shortly after release, when Inferno was still unbalanced and too difficult for most players to survive at all.

References

• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report — IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects — IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
• Blizzcon 2011 PvP Demo: The Wizard — IncGamers 28th Oct 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

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Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses