Diablo III Patch 1.03 : Patch Notes

Patch 1.03 v.1.0.3.10057 - Released 06.19.2012 in the Americas.

General

• To prevent monsters from being unintentionally kited into town from other areas of the game, portals have been placed at both ends of the bridge from New Tristram to The Weeping Willow. Towns have always been intended to be a safe haven from combat, and this change will help keep the denizens of New Tristram safe from the dangers that lurk beyond its walls.
• The real-money auction house is now available for Chilean, Argentinian, and Brazilian currencies

Battle.net

General

• Friends will now sort alphabetically by name within the Friends List, first by Real ID and then by BattleTag
• The Quick Join menu will now also sort alphabetically by name, first by Real ID and then by BattleTag
• Chat settings and preferences will now be saved whenever you log out
• Reporting another player using the Report > Spam option will now mute that player for the duration of your gaming session

Bug Fixes

• Using the /who command in a heavily populated chat channel should no longer cause the client to crash
• The "Invite to Party" button should no longer become grayed-out if a player:
  - Declines a party invite
  - Requests a party invite and then declines it
  - Accepts a party invite, but immediately then leaves the party
• The character screen should now always display the display the correct act and quest information
• If Real ID has been disabled for a Battle.net account, attempting to add a Real ID friend in Diablo III will now prompt the player with the following error message: "Battle.net is unable to add friends because you have Real ID disabled."

Classes

Barbarian
Active Skills

• Ignore Pain
  Skill Rune – Contempt for Weakness
  The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
• Overpower
  Skill Rune – Crushing Advance
  The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
  The tooltip has been updated to represent that both melee and ranged damage are reflected
• Weapon Throw
  Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be slowed: "Hurl a throwing weapon at any enemy for 100% weapon damage and Slow the movement of the enemy by 60% for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)

Passive Skills

• Relentless
  Now reduces the Fury cost of all skill by 75%, down from 100% (the 50% damage reduction remains unchanged)

Demon Hunter
Active Skills

• Cluster Arrow
  Skill Rune - Dazzling Arrow
  Tooltip now displays the correct type of weapon damage dealt by Dazzling Arrow: "Enemies hit by grenades have a 55% chance to be stunned for 2 seconds and changes the damage to Physical." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
• Grenades
  Skill Rune - Stun Grenades
  Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be stunned: "Hurl grenades that have a 25% chance to Stun enemies for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)

Bug Fixes

• Caltrops
  Skill Rune – Jagged Spikes
  Effect will now only stack up to 10 times on a single target
• Elemental Arrow
  Skill Rune – Nether Tentacles
  Tentacles will now only hit each target once

Monk
General

• Monks can now use spears, two-handed weapons, and two-handed swords

Active Skills

• Serenity
  Skill Rune – Instant Karma
  The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
• Seven-Sided Strike
  Skill Rune - Sustained Attack
  Tooltip has been updated for clarity: "Reduces the cooldown of Seven-Sided Strike to 23 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
• Mantra of Retribution
  Damage will now cap based on the maximum Life of the target

Bug Fixes

• Near Death Experience
  Fatal damage absorbed by Serenity will no longer trigger Near Death Experience

Witch Doctor
Active Skills

• Summon Zombie Dogs
  Skill Rune – Leeching Beasts
  Tooltip has been updated for clarity: "Your Zombie Dogs heal 50% of the damage they deal as Life divided evenly between themselves and you." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)

Wizard
Active Skills

• Diamond Skill
  Skill Rune – Mirror Skin
  The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the amount of damage absorbed by Diamond Skin
• Magic Weapon
  When activated, a buff icon will now appear that displays the amount of time remaining
• Meteor
  Skill Rune - Star Pact
  Now deals damage as Arcane instead of Fire

Passive Skills

• Paralysis
  Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be stunned: "Lightning damage dealt to enemies has up to a 8% chance to Stun the target for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)

Items
General

• + Attack Speed bonus values on weapons and armor have been reduced by 50%
  This change does not apply to quivers
• High-end items (items level 61-63) will now drop in all Acts of Inferno and Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty
  The new approximate drop rates are as follows:
  Hell - Act III and Act IV
  iLvl 61: 9%
  iLvl 62: 1.9%
  iLvl 63: 0%
  
  Inferno - Act I
  iLvl 61: 17.7%
  iLvl 62: 7.9%
  iLvl 63: 2.0%
  
  Inferno - Act II
  iLvl 61: 18.6%
  iLvl 62: 12.4%
  iLvl 63: 4.1%
  
  Inferno - Act III and Act IV
  iLvl 61: 24.1%
  iLvl 62: 16.1%
  iLvl 63: 8.0%
  
  Please see the Patch 1.0.3 Design Preview for more information and specific details
• Repair costs have been increased for item levels between 53 and 63
• Magic Find will no longer be considered when looting objects in the environment such as chests, barrels, vases, pots, and corpses
• The item quality of all components needed to craft the Staff of Herding, as well as the Staff of Herding itself, have been changed from Common to Legendary (i.e. their item names will appear orange in color)
• The Staff of Herding can no longer be salvaged or dropped
• Crafted items that are dropped on the ground due to a player’s inventory being full can no longer be seen or picked up by other players
• Unique monsters in Hell and Inferno difficulty are no longer guaranteed to drop two Magic items when slain
• Weapon racks will no longer drop weapons 100% of the time
• Destructible objects no longer have a chance to drop items, and will only have a small chance to drop gold when destroyed

Weapons and Armor

• "Balanced" superior items (i.e. Balanced Short Sword) will now grant a percent attack speed increase that only affects the weapon itself, rather than a flat increase to attacks per second that affected both equipped weapons when dual-wielding
• Crowd Control Reduction from items and skills will now reduce the percentage value of Slow, Chill, and Attack Speed debuffs rather than reducing how long the debuff lasts
  For example: previously, if you were debuffed by a 60% slow that lasted for 2 seconds while wearing gear that provides 20% Crowd Control Reduction, your movement speed would be reduced by 60%, but only for 1.6 seconds. Now, the same amount of Crowd Control Reduction will reduce the Slow effect to 48%, but the effect will remain for the full 2 second duration.
• Manticore now has one additional bonus affix
  
  User Interface
  [list]
• Minimum damage and Maximum damage values will now display separately in an item's tooltip (i.e. "+2-4 Damage" will now display as "+2 Minimum Damage” and “+2 Maximum Damage")
• Tooltips for items on the ground will now show comparison stats
  Resist values will now be taken into effect when calculating the Protection comparison stat (the Protection value is an average protection estimate of all your resists)
• When comparing a two-handed weapon against two currently-equipped one-handed weapons, the game will now simulate the removal of both one-handed weapons (instead of simply removing the main-hand weapon, which resulted in an inaccurate comparison)
• When selling items to a vendor, the most recently sold items will now always display at the bottom of the Buyback tab

Bug Fixes

• Items level 50 and above will now display their item level in the tooltip
• Damage Over Time (DoT) skills will now properly benefit from items with the +Critical Chance affix
• Legendary items with the +Attack Speed bonus will now correctly provide a bonus to attack speed
• Please note that this fix will only affect new Legendary drops. Existing Legendary items will be addressed in future patch.
• Players wearing +Life on Kill items should no longer receive a benefit from this affix when "killing" friendly monsters (e.g. when a witch doctor re-summons a Spider Queen while another Spider Queen is still active)
• Fixed a bug with linking items with socketed gems in chat
• Fixed a bug where vendors would occasionally not have any items for sale
• Fixed a bug where selling more than 12 items to a vendor and then buying back 1 of those items could cause multiple items to disappear from the Buyback tab
• Fixed a bug where swapping a 1-slot item (i.e. a ring) with 2-slot item (i.e. a weapon) in the second or third tab of a player’s stash would sometimes cause the 2-slot item to be filtered incorrectly to the first tab
• Fixed a bug that was causing Collector's Edition dyes to sell for the same price regardless of stack size

Crafting
General

• The gold and material crafting costs for all items level 1-59 have been reduced by 50% to 75%

Blacksmith

• The gold cost to level the Blacksmith has been reduced by 50%
• The number of Pages of Blacksmithing, Tomes of Blacksmithing, or Tomes of Secrets required to level the Blacksmith has been reduced
  Base levels now require 1 page/tome, down from 5
• Milestone levels now require 2 pages/tomes, down from 5
• The number of Pages of Blacksmithing and Tomes of Blacksmithing required to craft items level 1-59 has been reduced
• Items with 3 affixes no longer require Pages of Blacksmithing or Tomes of Blacksmithing to craft
• The gold cost of crafting items with 4 affixes and 5 affixes (including items in Inferno difficulty) has been reduced
• Weapon crafting costs have been reduced
• The chance for level 60 items to produce Legendary crafting materials when salvaged has been reduced

Jeweler

• The gold and material cost to combine gems ranks 2-8 has been reduced
• Combinations for these ranks now only require 2 gems, down from 3
• The gold cost to combine each rank of gems is now as follows:
  Rank 2 - Flawed: 10 gold (down from 500 gold)
  Rank 3 - Regular: 25 gold (down from 750 gold)
  Rank 4 - Flawless: 40 gold (down from 1250 gold)
  Rank 5 - Perfect: 55 gold (down from 2000 gold)
  Rank 6 - Radiant: 70 gold (down from 3500 gold)
  Rank 7 - Square: 85 gold (down from 7500 gold)
  Rank 8 - Flawless Square: 100 gold (down from 20,000 gold)

Followers
General
Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the maximum Life of your followers was being displayed as different values in different parts of the game UI

Enchantress
Skills

• Mass Control
  Radius reduced from 15 yards to 8 yards
  If Enchantress also has Reflect Missiles trained, Mass Control will no longer accidentally hex the player when both skills are activated
  Skill will now correctly target enemies in all circumstances

Bosses
General

• Bosses have had their pathing improved
• The quality of the item for the fourth stack of Nephalem Valor from bosses has been slightly reduced

Skeleton King
Abilities

• Will now summon Skeletal Archers in Hell and Inferno difficulties

The Warden (mini-boss)
General

• Now has Fast and Molten affixes, in addition to Jailer
• In Inferno difficulty, the Warden will also gain the Desecrator affix

Butcher
Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the corner panel fires in the Chamber of Suffering were doing twice as much damage as intended

Ghom
Abilities

• Gas Cloud
  Radius of Gas Cloud has been slightly reduced
  Slowing effect has been removed
  The amount of damage dealt by Gas Cloud when first entering the cloud has been reduced, but the amount of damage incurred for remaining in the cloud has been increased
  In Inferno difficulty, Gas Clouds will last longer, spawn 2 at a time, and (after 4 minutes) spawn more quickly

Maghda
Bug Fixes

• Punish Dust projectiles can no longer be reflected

Zoltun Kulle
General

• Zoltun Kulle will now enrage in Inferno difficulty after 3 minutes, using his Ceiling Collapse ability more often and for much higher damage

Abilities

• Ceiling Collapse
  Can now be cast at a player from any range
• Fireball
  Fireball attack now moves slower
  Can now be cast at a player from any range
• Teleport
  Will now Teleport and run away from the player less often
  Will now occasionally Teleport to the player

Belial
General

• Belial will now enrage in Inferno difficulty after 3 minutes in his final phase, increasing the number of green pools dropped across the entire encounter platform

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that was causing Belial to use his breath attack away from the player rather than towards the player under certain circumstances

Siegebreaker
General

• Overall damage has been reduced
• No longer vulnerable to Confuse and Charm effects
• Will now drop a health globe every 25% health mark (i.e. at 75%, 50%, and 25% health)
• Now enrages after 4 minutes
• In Inferno difficulty, Siegebreaker will now gain the Reflects Damage affix

Cydaea
Abilities

• Spiderlings
  Spiderlings will now have an easier time hitting players, but their damage has been reduced by 20% to compensate
• In Inferno difficulty, Spiderlings will now live longer, be more spread out, and (after 4 minutes) spawn more often

Rakanoth
General

• In Inferno difficulty, Rakanoth will now become much more aggressive after 3 minutes

Izual
General

• Health pool has been increased
• The number of Oppressors that join the fight has been reduced from 4 to 2
• Will no longer target Followers or Tyrael as frequently

Abilities

• Base Attacks
  Base attack damage has been lowered
  No longer does Cold damage on top of base attacks
• Charge
  Charge damage has been reduced
  Knockback has been removed
  Will Charge slightly more often, but will only target players
• Frozen Bombs
  Frozen Bomb damage has been reduced
  Bombs will now explode faster
  Only 8 Bombs will now spawn around the player rather than 12
  Bombs will spawn at Izual's feet less often
• Frost Explosion
  Frost Explosion damage has been reduced by 70%
  Duration of freeze has been increased
  Damage dealt to players while frozen will now break the effect
  Players can now use defensive cooldown while frozen
  Players can no longer avoid being frozen by doing high amounts of amount to Izual

Bug Fixes

• Izual will no longer spawn twice if a player skips his introductory cut-scene

Diablo
Bug Fixes

• Damage Over Time (DoT) effects will now be properly cancelled when Diablo becomes invisible and casts Shadow Clones in Phase Two
• Diablo "Stomp" ability is now correctly classified as a debuff instead of a buff
• Fixed a bug that was causing pets to not attack Shadow Clones

Monsters

General

• Champions, Rares, and Uniques have had their pathing improved
• Elite packs (Champion/Rare) now drop an additional item for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, which is guaranteed to be of Rare quality
• Damage from monsters in Acts II, III, and IV in Inferno difficulty has been reduced
• Colossal Golgor base damage has been reduced
• Herald of Pestilence tentacle attack damage has been reduced
• Soul Ripper and Soul Lasher damage has been reduced and both monsters will now run away less often
• Wasps in Act II, Mage Constructs in Act II, and Winged Mollocks in Acts III and IV will now run away less
• Succubus monsters will now run away less and for a shorter distance
• The health pools of Woodwraiths in the Highlands now match the health pools of Woodwraiths in the Fields of Misery
• Lacuni and Scavenger Rares and and Champions will now un-burrow when called by their allies
• Bloodclan Warriors no longer knockback when buffed and attack slightly slower
• Morlu no longer have the Invulnerable Minions, Health Link, or Fire Chains affixes
• Plagued, Arcane Enchanted, and Electrified monsters no longer have resistance to Poison, Arcane, and Lightning damage (respectively)
• Leaders of Invulnerable Minions packs have had their health pools reduced
• Mortar monsters can now hurl projectiles farther, but their minimum range has also been increased by 100%

Bug Fixes

• Interrupting a monster attack before it lands will now properly trigger its cooldown
• Treasure Goblins will now drop gold piles for all nearby players
• Lacuni Warrior Rares and Champions will now reset their enrage timer correctly in Inferno difficulty
• The Succubus "Blood Star" debuff will no longer affect the player if the damage from the projectile is dodged/blocked/etc
• The damage from the Succubus “Blood Star” debuff will now scale based on the current cost of a player's skill, even if the cost is reduced by items or skill runes
• Monsters with the Extra Health affix should no longer gain more health every time players leave and join the game
• Monsters with the Reflects Damage affix will no longer reflect Follower damage back to the player
• Monsters with the Health Link and Knockback affixes will no longer knockback friendly monsters
• Fixed a bug that was causing Champion Wallers to occasionally create walls at their location rather than the player's location
• Fixed a bug where Sandwasp projectiles could sometimes become invisible

Bug Fixes
General

• The experience bar for characters at level cap on a Guest Pass account will now display 0/0 experience. If the account holder upgrades to the full game, their characters will be at 0/41000 experience towards the next level.
• The speed of the animation that plays when resurrecting another players should no longer scale with your attack speed
• Attempting to cast a skill while spamming the Town Portal hot key will now correctly interrupt the Town Portal cast and animation
• Players who use Town Portal while in a tar pit will no longer keep the tar pit debuff after being teleported
• It is no longer possible for players in Hell difficulty to skip to Inferno difficulty by creating and leaving Public Games
• It is no longer possible to prevent character death in a single-player game by pausing the game in one game client and then logging into the same account from a different game client
• Fixed a bug where The Lyceum in the Southern Highlands was not appearing
• Fixed a bug where players could switch their offerings in the Trade window right before clicking "Accept" and, due to high latency, the game would not always be able to verify that both players were accepting the same offerings
• Fixed a bug that was allowing players to temporarily pick up items that belonged to another account
• Fixed a bug that was causing players to become stuck when using a banner to port to another player that was in an "un-walkable" location (i.e. to a barbarian in the middle of performing Leap)
• Fixed a position desync bug (aka "rubberbanding") that could happen when some movement skills (Strafe, Whirlwind, Tempest Rush) ended because the player ran out of the appropriate resource
• Fixed several issues where a player's character would get stuck or "rubberband" while moving if their movement speed was slowed in any way
• Several performance improvements have been made to both the PC and Mac client

Auction House

• Item tooltips in the auction house will now correctly reflect stat bonuses provided by socketed gems
• Items with class-specific affixes should now display the class restriction properly
• It should no longer be possible for players to purchase a stack of items so large that it cannot be sent to their stash
• The data displayed in each auction house tab should now properly reset when logging out

Diablo III Exclusive Mark of Valor Class Sigils : Available 6/21/2012

If you participated in the Mark of Valor event prior to the official launch of Blizzard's Diablo III on May 15th, your account should have been flagged to receive the appropriate exclusive class sigil for any class you participated with in the Mark of Valor event.

The Sigil for Each Class

If your account was flagged to receive the exclusive sigil during the Mark of Valor event you should log on to a character to receive your Sigils on or after June 21st 2012. Each Sigil comes with its own achievement too, so it will help you rack up achievement percentages. Tip: You have to access a game, public OR solo, to receive the Sigils. Logging into your account will not activate them.

He is my Wizard, Thnx, with his new awesome Wizard sigil with the Triumphant banner from the Angel's Bane achievement.

Thnx : 60 Wizard

Best Gaming Mouse for Diablo 3

My LOGITECH 910-001259 Gaming Mouse G500 was working great for me in Diablo III until my Doberman, Taki, chewed through the wire. So I did the research to decide which gaming mouse would be the best mouse for Diablo 3, and it was the SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse 62151.  Luckily I spotted this beast for sale during my weekly OfficeMax visit. I couldn't pass the deal up, and I'm glad that I did not.

The SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse 62151 is the most fluid mouse I have had the pleasure to set these fingers on. It has an amazing 5700 DPI, with laser movement detection: no clogged up ball. It features a symmetrical design, rather than the Logitec's G5 or G500, or even those intense Razr mice which usually have a asymmetrical shape. The SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse 62151 has 7 buttons, ample for Diablo III.

If you are switching between MMOs and D3, try the RAZER RZ01-00280500-R3M1 Razer Naga Special Edition - Molten. The Razer RZ01-R3M1 mouse has 5600 DPI, but 17 MMO specific keybindable buttons. I just happen to like the Molten look to make it closer to the SteelSeries' Diablo III gaming mouse.

Should I Start A Wizard in Diablo III?

Should I roll Wizard in Diablo 3?

Thnx : Lvl 60 Wizard

I found this following post at diablo3tips.com it help answer this question, it has a couple of great tips if you are thinking about rolling a Wizard. My experience starting my Wizard in Diablo III was that it felt slow in the beginning, and like I had no customization of what spell to use. That quickly changed. In Diablo III, the Wizard eventually has the most damage types of any class to choose from, so after hitting 60 and gearing up a bit the options are abundant!

"I’ve long passed the threshold of farming for items for my Barbarian as I’m Lev el 60 and aren’t able to clear Act 2. So for now, I’m moving on to my next favourite class, the Wizard.
At first, it may seem rather drastic as I was playing a Barbarian and am yet able to familiarize with being the squishiest class in the game. Of course, I only say that because the friends I play with in Inferno who are Wizards need to be hit only once to die. It doesn’t mean Demon Hunters and Witch Doctors can take more damage, just that I tend to see the Wizard dying more often.
Since I decided to start leveling a Wizard, I noticed several things that weren’t apparent while playing the Barbarian.

• 1. Holding down <Shift> while attacking is a god send. This isn’t obvious to a Barbarian user as most of the fighting is in melee. Even if it isn’t in melee, as a Barbarian you tend to click on enemies, walk toward them and THEN begin to melee. As a Wizard (typical Wizard, not the melee ones), you want to stay as far away from enemies as possible and holding <Shift> down ensures you don’t move forward by accident.
• 2. Binding your “Force Move” key to “~”, the keystroke next to the “1″ on your keyboard works wonders. As a Barbarian, most of the time a melee Skill is assigned to my left click so a mis-click on enemy will still move me in that direction. For the Wizard, if your left click is assigned to a Skill like Magic Missile, mis-clicking on an enemy will cause you to launch a projectile instead of moving. And this can be a serious issue at times while kiting.
• 3. Learning from my previous games, although this isn’t Wizard specific, I now tend to check the Jewel Vendor (Not Covetous Shen) for ring and amulet upgrades. If you haven’t noticed by now, rings and amulets are a very expensive piece of equipment to upgrade and are in low supply at the lower levels. Only recently, at level 15, upon entering Act 2, I managed to pick up two 17 Int/5% Attack Speed Rings which were huge upgrades for my Wizard at the time.
• 4. Stats – For leveling, I’ve found that I prioritize Vitality>Intelligence. Of course, if there are both of the stats on the item itself, I won’t complain. This goes to extreme cases as well. For example, I picked up a 2-h Bow with Intelligence and Vitality on it. I immediately dropped my 1-h Wand and Offhand for it. Beyond those two stats is variable. Personally, I do value +Exp per Monster and it’s the 3rd most stacked attribute I have after Intelligence."

Here is the direct link to this article: Rolling a Wizard Tips – Things You Need to Know

My Diablo III Wizard Level 60 Inferno Questing Spell Setup

My Current Inferno Questing Spell Setup for my Diablo III Wizard:

Actives:

• Slot 1: Blizzard with Snowbound

• Slot 2: Teleport with Fracture

• Slot 3: Magic Weapon with Force Weapon

• Slot 4: Energy Armor with Force Armor

Mouse:

• Left Click: Hydra with Venom Hydra

• Right Click: Mirror Image with Duplicates

Passives:

• First Slot: Cold Blooded

• Second Slot: Illusionist

• Third Slot: Galvanizing Ward

This is the best wizard spell setup I've found so far for questing, but sometimes I will switch out Galvanizing Ward with Glass Cannon or Blur. I feel like the health regeneration of Galvanizing Ward is really nice in between battles if I do not want to waste a potion or worry about putting it on cool down, and Galvanizing Ward especially shines in long boss fights.

This build is nice because its safe and effective. When its down to one it can be frustrating not to have a single target signature spell to hit the enemy with, but in the long run this build will result in less dying.

When the slow but steady pace does get wearisome, I switch to this build:

Active:

• Slot 1: Diamond Skin with Crystal Shell

• Slot 2: Hydra with Vendom Hydra

• Slot 3: Teleport with Fracture

• Slot 4: Energy Armor with Force Armor

Mouse:

• Left Click: Electrocute with Lightning Blast

• Right Click: Disintegrate with Chaos Nexus

Passives:

• First Slot: Illusionist

• Second Slot: Temporal Flux

• Third Slot: Arcane Dynamo

I'll die more often with this build, but farming through goes quicker. I'll switch Arcane Dynamo with Galvanizing Ward or Glass Cannon, I have yet to nail down which is better in that slot.

I encourage your feedback and the Diablo III Wizard community input! Comment with your builds and/or critiques!

Once you're ready for it check out my Diablo III Wizard Level 60 Inferno Farming Spell Setup Build

My Diablo III Wizard Level 60 Inferno Farming Spell Setup

My Current Inferno Farming Build for my Diablo III Wizard:

Active skills:

• Slot 1: Diamond Skin with Crystal Shell

• Slot 2: Teleport with Wormhole

• Slot 3: Magic Weapon with Force Weapon

• Slot 4: Energy Armor with Force Armor

Mouse:

• Left Click: Disintegrate with Chaos Nexus

• Right Click: Hydra with Venom Hydra

Passives:

• First slot: Astral Pressence

• Second slot: Illusionist

• Last slot: Temporal Flux

So far the best wizard build I've tried for farming in Inferno. I used to use Fracture with Teleport and it was useful against Fast enchanted, but it just felt a little slow for farming without Wormhole.

As for Disintegrate, Arcane Orb just does not have the same feel as Frost Orb from D2, and because Blizzard has that nostalgic feel from Diablo II so I'd like to see if I could incorporate Blizzard into a build. I'd like to try to find an alternative for Disintegrate, but its such an amazing spell and it seems Arcane Orb just doesn't compare.

I'm thinking of going for a Sparkflint and Archon build with Slow Time and Frost Nova for Act 3 Inferno farming. There are a ton of Wizard spell setups to choose from, but many other Wizards are finding this to be the key for Act 3.


I encourage your feedback and the Diablo III Wizard community input! Comment with your builds and/or critiques!

Diablo III Wizard Skills / Spells List

These are the skills and abilities for the Diablo III Wizard class. Bear in mind that all of the spells have Runes that will alter the effects of the spell either in a small way like a damage boost, or a major way like turn a missile attack into a damage shield!

Diablo 3 Wizard Skills – Primary

• Magic Missile. Unlocked at level 1. Launches a magic missile, dealing 110% weapon damage as Arcane.
• Shock Pulse. Unlocked at level 3. Releases 3 electric pulses along the ground which travel move randomly across a medium range, dealing 105% weapon damage as lightning. The same target can only be hit once by Shock Pulse.
• Spectral Blade. Unlocked at level 11. Summon a Spectral Blade which deals 135% to enemies directly in front of you. Note that this skill must be cast from melee range.
• Electrocute. Unlocked at level 15. Shoot a lightning bolt that can jump to up to two nearby targets, dealing 80% weapon damage to each target hit.

D3 Wizard Abilities – Secondary

• Ray of Frost. Unlocked at level 2. Cost: 20* Arcane Power. Channel a beam of frost that deals 215% weapon damage as Cold to the target it is hitting. This attack actually fires very quickly and deals its 215% weapon damage based on attack speed – you deal 215% weapon damage over the attack interval of the weapon – it is not upfront. *It also does not use up 20 Arcane Power right away but rather 20 Arcane Power per 215% weapon damage dealt. This skill is channeled.
• Arcane Orb. Unlocked at level 5. Cost: 35 Arcane Power. Fires an magic orb that explodes when hitting a target, dealing 175% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies within 10 yards of the explosion.
• Arcane Torrent. Unlocked at level 12. Cost: 20 Arcane Power. Fires a barrage of Arcane Projectiles that deal 175% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies near the impact location (small range). This spell is actually broken into two parts, sending out two volleys which deal 87.5% of weapon damage and cost 10 Arcane Power at twice your attack speed. It deals 175% weapon damage based on weapon speed. For example, if your weapon’s attack speed is 1 attack per second, then you will fire off two half-strength Arcane Torrents every .5 seconds at 10 Arcane Power.
• Disintegrate. Unlocked at level 21. Cost 20 Arcane Power. Channels a beam of pure energy that pierces through all enemies, dealing 155% weapon damage as Arcane. Like Ray of Frost, this skill is channeled and has its damage broken into many small attacks and deals 155% weapon damage over the course of 1 attack based on weapon speed.

Diablo 3 Wizard Abilities List – Defensive

• Frost Nova. Unlocked at level 4. Cooldown: 12 seconds. No Arcane Power cost. Blasts nearby enemies with frost, stunning them for 3 seconds.
• Diamond Skin. Unlocked at level 8. Cooldown: 15 seconds. No Arcane Power cost. Generates a shield that absorbs damage and lasts 6 seconds.
• Slow Time. Unlocked at level 16. Cooldown: 20 seconds. No Arcane Power cost. Places a bubble of warped time that lasts 8 seconds. The speed of incoming projectiles are slowed by 90% as they move through the bubble. Enemies inside the bubble have their movement speed reduced by 30% and their attack speed reduced by 20%.
• Teleport. Unlocked at level 22. Cost: 15 Arcane Power. Cooldown: 16 seconds. Teleport instantly to another location up to 35 yards away. Note that in Diablo 2, you could teleport anywhere on the screen that you could see. In Diablo 3, 35 yards is only about 1/3-1/2 a screen away, depending on orientation.

Diablo 3 Wizard Skills – Force

• Wave of Force. Unlocked at level 9. Cost: 25 Arcane Power. Cooldown: 15 seconds. Creates a shockwave that deals 200% weapon damage and knocks back and briefly reduces the movement speed of all enemies by 60%. While the radius is not reported by the tooltip, it is quite large, seeming to hit all enemies within about 15 yards.
• Energy Twister. Unlocked at level 13. Cost: 35 Arcane Power. Releases a tornado that moves randomly and deals 360% weapon damage over 6 seconds to enemies within its path (60% weapon damage per second).
• Hydra. Unlocked at level 21. Cost: 15 Arcane Power. Summon a multi-headed Hydra that lasts for 15 seconds and that attacks nearby enemies, dealing 28% weapon damage as Fire per hit. You can only have 1 Hydra active at a time.
• Meteor. Unlocked at level 25. Cost: 60 Arcane Power. Call down a massive meteor, dealing 200% of weapon damage as Fire to enemies on the ground it crashes into. The ground it hits then becomes scorched with molten fire, dealing 60% weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds.
• Blizzard. Unlocked at level 27. Calls down shards of ice to pelt an area, dealing 210% weapon damage as Cold over 6 seconds. Multiple casts of Blizzard in the same area do not stack.

D3 Wizard Spells – Conjuration

• Ice Armor. Unlocked at level 14. Cost: 25 Arcane Power. Surrounds you in Ice Armor that lasts 120 seconds. Melee attacks are chilled or Frozen for 2 seconds after hitting you with Ice Armor active.
• Storm Armor. Unlocked at level 17. Cost: 25 Arcane Power. Lasts 120 seconds. Surrounds you in Storm Armor that shocks ranged and melee attacks for 70% of weapon damage as Lightning.
• Magic Weapon. Unlocked at level 20. Cost: 25 Arcane Power. Lasts 5 minutes. Imbues your weapon with magical energy, increasing your weapon damage by 10%.
• Familiar. Unlocked at level 22. Cost: 20 Arcane Power. Lasts 5 minutes. seconds. Summons a mystical companion to fight alongside of you. This companion cannot be targeted or damaged by enemies and deals 20% of weapon damage as Arcane per attack.
• Energy Armor. Unlocked at level 28. Cost: 25 Arcane Power. Lasts 120 seconds. Surrounds you in Energy Armor that increases your armor by 65% but also reduces your Arcane Power by 20 while active.

Diablo 3 Wizard Abilities – Mastery

• Explosive Blast. Unlocked at level 19. Cost: 20 Arcane Power. Cooldown: 6 seconds. Draws in energy over 1.5 seconds and then explodes, dealing 225% weapon damage as physical to all enemies within 12 yards.
• Mirror Image. Unlocked at level 25. Cooldown: 15 seconds. No Arcane Power cost. Summon two mirror images of you that have 25% of your life and last for 7 seconds. These mirror images will cast spells but are unable to do any damage.
• Archon. Unlocked at level 30. Cost: 25 Arcane Power. Cooldown: 120 seconds. Transform into a powerful Arcane for 15 seconds. While in Archon form, your Armor and resistances increases by 40%. Your abilities are also replaced by Archon abilities. Each enemy killed while Archon is active adds 1 second to its duration.