Wizard Skills
This page contains every Wizard skill in Diablo 3. There are 24 skill total, and you’ll be able to choose 7. Underneath each skill we’ve listed a summary of what that skill does, as well as a short “tool-tip”-like description. If you check out the pages for each of the skill trees (Arcane, Storm, and Conjuration), you’ll see more detailed information such as mana cost, ranks, and runestone affects.
They’ve made a lot of changes to the skills since Blizzcon 2009, many of which were announced at Blizzcon 2010. All the classes now have 24 skills in total, and each character gets to choose 7 of those. 7 skills might not seem like a lot, however, if you’ve seen gameplay footage of the wizard, you’ll know how active and hectic they can be. If you haven’t seen gameplay footage, please check out the gameplay tab above. After sampling all of the character classes, I have to say that the wizard is the most fun to play, and that’s ultimately why I chose to roll one upon release. There are so many skill combinations that provide a exciting game experience, I don’t know how I’m going to pick which 7 skills to use. Blizzard has made several blue posts explaining that the entry level (Tier I) spells will be very straight forward (Do damage to target) and then you’ll slowly work up to more advanced skills. This sounds, to me, like a great way to introduce players to the game, and to prepare us for more strategic gameplay later on.
Below is more information on how spell damage works, and how it’s affected by your gear. You’ll also find more information on the skill trees in general, as well as the list of wizard skills to-date. If you’d like more in-depth information on each of the skills, please check out the pages for each specific skill tree (located at the very top-right of each page, or at the very bottom of this page).
Diablo 3 Spell Modifiers
Although most spells will list the damage, all these numbers are relative, as they are also affected by you wizard’s attributes, traits, equipment, character level, runes and other skills. If you played Diablo 2 you’ll know how much items can affect your damage and other factors of the spells. Diablo 3 is no different in this regard, many items, traits and runes will affect how powerful the spell is, as well as how it functions .
It’s hard to say, at this point, how much these other factors will affect spell damage (will the increase be as dramatic as in Diablo 2?). However, we do know that even early on in the game there are items that give as much as +25% spell damage. It’s easy to think that at this rate, by the time you got to max level, you’d have as much as +1000% spell damage, however, I believe Blizzard has learned that percentage buffs continue to be equally as helpful at higher levels, and so I doubt will see that kind of inflation. That being said, you’ll notice that the spell damage tends to look a little low because of the increase through other factors.
Blizzard as already stated that they plan to make all of the attributes helpful for all classes. Therefore, spell casters, for example, will gain benefits from many different stats and bonuses… not just +spell damage. It seems that they’ve really streamlined the equipment system in Diablo 3, to really simplify the process of collecting gear for your wizard. This, along with the 18 equipment tiers, and the individual item drops, should make Diablo 3 much less hectic than its predecessor in this regard.
Skills and Skill Trees in Diablo 3
There are now 24 Wizard skills, down from the 57 listed at Blizzcon 2008. Since then they’ve decided to go a different direction with the skill system. The introduction of traits has allowed Blizzard to clear out all of the passive and redundant skills. All skills will be active spells and abilities, and traits will be passive. Of these 24 skills, you’ll be able to choose 7 of them that your character can use. This will add a lot more strategy (as compared the Diablo 2), however it should also keep it simple enough to keep track of all the skills on your action bar at the same time. They’ve also mentioned that they want to allow players to “re-spec”, however the specifics on that have not been finalized. We could see the number of skills change again, but it looks like they’re happy with the current system.
We haven’t been able to find any accurate skill trees (for any class) since they went down to 24 skills. However, if you’d like to play with a “skill calculator” which was up-t0-date until recently, simply click on the image to the right. You’ll notice that the skill try contains both active and passive skills. You can assume that anything marked as “passive” will be removed and added to the traits section. You can also use the list of skills below as a reference to which skills should be on the final skill tree. This skill try also only shows 6 tiers, however there are now 7 tiers.
Originally that had planned to have the Diablo 3 skill tree work much like the talent trees in World of Warcraft: you would need to spend 5 points in one tier in order to get skills from the following tier. However, now that you’ll only be able to take 7 skills, that will change a little. You’ll still be limited to Tier 1 skills at low level and gain access to the higher tiers as you level up. This was done so that they could match the skills you’ll be using with the early gameplay. Blizzard didn’t want players to start off with overly-complicated skills and get frustrated, however, this doesn’t mean that the first tier skills won’t be viable for end game. And, of course, if you decide you want to have all Tier 7 skills, you can re-spec once you’re at the appropriate level. Some players have discussed the idea of only getting 4 skills so that they could maximize them instead of spreading their points out, however Blizzard has assured as that it’s built so that there is a significant advantage in having all 7 skills (this is mostly due to defensive skills and skills with long cooldowns).
Reference:
Tier One Skills
Once your character reaches level 2 they will have access to all of the tier 1 skills:
Magic Missile
Magic Missiles are purple projectiles that deal arcane damage.
• Description: Fires a missile of energy causing X-X arcane damage.
Charged Bolt
Snaking bolts of electricity cover the ground with lightning damage for all enemies. Best cast in great numbers, or not at all.
• Description: Launches a volley of X electric bolts that deal X-X lightning damage per bolt.
Spectral Blade
A melee ranged magical attack, this hits nearby enemies for considerable physical damage.
• Description: Summons a spectral blade that strikes enemies in front of the Wizard X times causing X-X physical damage with each hit.
Tier Two Skills
Once your character reaches level 3 they will have access to all of the tier 2 skills:
Ice Armor
• Description: Surrounds the Wizard in a barrier of ice that increases armor by X%, freezes attackers for X seconds, and causes X-X cold damage. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed. You can only be affected by one armor spell at a time.
Explosive Blast
A physical damage attack that turns the Wizard into a time bomb. Click to arm the spell, run into a pack of enemies, and blow up amidst them.
• Description: Builds up energy around the Wizard that explodes after X seconds, causing X-X physical damage in a small radius.
Mirror Image
The Wizard creates multiple images of himself. These duplicates move and attack enemies in convincing fashion.
• Description: Creates an illusionary duplicate of the Wizard that lasts for X seconds and has X% of the caster’s health.
Wave of Force
A defensive skill that pushes back enemies and enemy projectiles. Works well when combined with Slow Time.
• Description: Causes a wave of pure force that causes a knockback to nearby enemies, repels projectiles and deals X-X physical damage.
Tier Three Skills
Once your character reaches level 6 they will have access to all of the tier 3 skills:
Frost Nova
This defensive skill freezes all enemies in a ring around the player, stopping normal monsters and slowing bosses
• Description: An explosion of ice freezes nearby enemies for X seconds and causes X-X cold damage. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed. Damage will break the freeze effect, but not the chill effect.
Electrocute
A beam weapon, the bolt of lightning locks onto an enemy and deals steadily draining damage, as well as stunning and slowing the target. An excellent skill for hitting moving targets that might dodge projectiles.
• Description: Lightning arcs from the Wizard’s fingertips towards an enemy dealing X-X lightning damage.
Tier Four Skills
Once your character reaches level 10 they will have access to all of the tier 4 skills:
Arcane Orb
A projectile that moves slower than most such magical attacks, but that deals considerable arcane AoE damage upon impact and explosion.
• Description: An orb of pure energy that explodes on contact with enemies dealing X-X arcane damage to all enemies in the blast area.
Diamond Skin
A powerful defensive skill, this absorbs considerable points from all types of damage for a short duration.
• Description: Turns the Wizard’s skin to diamond for X seconds absorbing up to X damage from incoming attacks.
Energy Twister
Cast tornadoes of arcane damage that deal substantial damage to all they come into contact with. The tornadoes move semi-randomly, making this better against crowds than individuals.
• Description: Summon an energy twister that deals X arcane damage per second to everything in its path.
Hydra
Summons a fiery, three-headed dragon that appears from the ground and assails enemies with bolts of flame. Runestone bonuses give great flexibility to this spell.
• Description: Creates a multi-headed hydra that attacks your enemies with bolts of fire, dealing X-X fire damage per attack for X seconds.
Tier Five Skills
Once your character reaches level 14 they will have access to all of the tier 5 skills:
Disintegrate
A laser beam of doom, this instantly-hitting, long range attack deals considerable damage to everything in its path.
• Description: Emanate a beam of pure energy dealing X arcane damage per second and disintegrating enemies it kills.
Energy Shield
The classic protective skill returns, now trading Arcane Power for damage reduction.
• Description: A protective barrier that absorbs damage, draining arcane power in its place. Absorbs X% of all damage dealt to the Wizard.
Ray of Frost
A laser beam of cold damage, this one chills enemies, slowing them while dealing damage.
• Description: Project a beam of cold that deals X cold damage per second. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed.
Slow Time
Slow time creates a bubble of protection around the location its cast in, slowing all enemy projectiles and the enemies themselves.
• Description: Warps space and time, slowing nearby monsters and projectiles for X seconds.
Tier Six Skills
Once your character reaches level 20 they will have access to all of the tier 6 skills:
Arcane Torrent
An arcane style of Meteor Storm, this spell hurls flaming rocks at the targeted spot, dealing AoE damage to anything in the vicinity.
• Description: Arcane meteorites pelt the targeted region dealing X-X arcane damage per second.
Blizzard
Another powerful AoE spell, this one drops damaging ice on a large section of the screen, chilling and injuring anything in the area.
• Description: Call down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing X-X cold damage per second for X seconds. Cold damage chills enemies, slowing their movement and attack speed.
Magic Weapon
A spell for the battle mage, this one imbues huge magical damage into the wizard’s weapon.
• Description: Imbues the Wizard’s weapon with magical energy, granting X-X increased damage.
Meteor
The biggest damage of the death from above skills, this one lands a flaming stone on the targeted location, dealing huge fire damage and leaving a dangerous field of fire in the location for some time.
• Description: Summons a massive meteor from the sky that causes X-X fire damage to all enemies in the affected area. Also leaves a pool of fire that does X fire damage every second for X seconds.
Storm Armor
A fire and forget skill, this one shocks enemies with electrical bolts for the duration of effect, without requiring the Wizard to aim or target them.
• Description: Surround yourself in electrical energy. Electric bolts are automatically fired at attackers for X-X lightning damage.
◦ The Wizard may only use one of the “armor” spells at a time.
Tier Seven Skills
Once your character reaches level 26 they will have access to all of the tier 7 skills:
Familiar
An assisting creature that boosts the Wizard’s damage, without serving as a “tank” to distract their attacks.
• Description: Creates a companion that accompanies the Wizard, attacking enemies for X-X damage. This companion cannot be targeted or damaged by enemies.
Teleport
Bamf instantly from one location to another. This skill carries a considerable cool down time in Diablo III, making it something best saved for emergency escapes.
• Description: Teleport instantly to the selected location.
Reference:
You can see each of the 3 Skill Trees Below:
Arcane Wizard Skills
Storm Wizard Skills
Conjuration Wizard Skills
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