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.

Skill Rune 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.

Name	Level	Description

Blizzard
(database)
Force

27

Cost: 45 Arcane Power

Call down shards of ice to pelt an area, dealing 210% weapon damage as Cold to all enemies in the area over 6 seconds. Multiple casts in the same area do not stack.

Grasping Chill
(database)

35

After the Blizzard ends, the ground is covered in a low lying mist for 3 seconds that Slows the movement speed of enemies by 60%.

Frozen Solid
(database)

42

Enemies caught in the Blizzard have a 20% chance to be Frozen for 3 seconds.

Snowbound
(database)

47

Reduces the casting cost of Blizzard to 20 Arcane Power.

Stark Winter
(database)

54

Increases the size of Blizzard to cover 22 yards, dealing 210% weapon damage as Cold over 6 seconds.

Unrelenting Storm
(database)

60

Increases the duration of Blizzard to deal 280% weapon damage as Cold over 8 seconds.

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

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

Skill	Unlocked	Description

Glass Cannon

16

Increases all damage done by 15%, but decreases armor and resistances by 10%.

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. Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Blizzard became a level 26 skill.

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.

Blizzard remained at level 26 when the beta started. With the Patch 13 changes, it 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:

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

Fan-made Classes			Fan-made Skills [e]
• Alchemist • Arcane Warrior • Artisan • Aurian Mage • Bard • Channeller • Dragon Warrior	• Flagellant • Giant (U) • Hollow Man • Nomad • Onaga Manji • Phase Knight	• Ranger • Slayer (U) • Techpriest (U) • Telepath • Untainted (U) • Zealot	Dragon Warrior Skills • Bow and Throwing Skill Tree • Dragon Disciplines Skill Tree • Martial Arts Skill Tree	Untainted Skills • Divine Skill Tree • Void Skill Tree • Wrath Skill Tree	Aurian Mage Skill • Holy Power Skill Tree • Shadow Spells Skill Tree • Nature Forces Skill Tree
(U) = Unfinished

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