Ray of Frost

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From Diablo Wiki

Ray of Frost in action in the beta.

Ray of Frost is a Secondary Wizard skill unlocked at Level 2. It fires a straight beam of cold that chills and damages a single enemy, while draining Arcane Power steadily.

Background

The skill is fun to use and very effective against single targets, with good damage and the slowing property. However the Arcane Power drain is quite high, and thus the damage per second is much lower than a number of other early-game Wizard skills. The fact that the skill does not pierce, as the similar Disintegrate skill does, makes it less useful against large groups of enemies.

Skill Rune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Ray of Frost 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

Ray of Frost
(database)
Secondary

2

Cost: 20 Arcane Power

Project a beam of frozen ice that blasts 215% weapon damage as Cold to the first enemy it hits, slowing the target's movement by 30% for 3 seconds.

Numb
(database)

7

Increase the amount the target's movement is slowed to 60% for 3 seconds.

This skill is affected by your characters: Rune Level (set to 1 for example above)

Snow Blast
(database)

15

Using continuously on a single target increases damage over 1.5 seconds to inflict a maximum of 279% weapon damage as Cold.

Cold Blood
(database)

28

Reduce casting cost to 12 Arcane Power.

Sleet Storm
(database)

38

Create a swirling storm around you, dealing 215% weapon damage as Cold to all enemies caught within it.

Black Ice
(database)

53

Enemies killed with Ray of Frost leave behind a patch of ice that deals 193% weapon damage as Cold to enemies moving through it over 3 seconds.

Skill Design

This skill targets much like Disintegrate, but trades the piercing of that skill for a slowing cold effect. This makes Ray of Frost excellent against single targets, but much less damaging on the whole, especially against large groups of enemies.

Video

A video of Ray of Frost and all of its rune effects can be seen below, courtesy of the DiabloInc You Tube channel.

Synergies

The following Wizard passives provide a benefit to Ray of Frost, runed or not:

Name	Level	Description

Glass Cannon
(database)
Passive

16

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

Arcane Dynamo
(database)
Passive

55

When you deal damage with a Signature spell you may gain a Flash of Insight. After 5 Flashes of Insight, your next non-Signature spell deals 75% additional damage.

The following skills are Signature spells:
Magic Missile
Shock Pulse
Spectral Blade
Electrocute

Development

Ray of Frost was first seen at BlizzCon 2008, but only in the gameplay movie; the Wizard used it against the trap laid out by the Skeleton King. It was available in the gameplay demo at BlizzCon 2009, but was unfortunately too high level to try out by the fans.

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 Ray of Frost became a level 21 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.

Ray of Frost remained at level 21 when the beta started. With the Patch 13 changes, it was classified as a Secondary skill and dropped all the way down to level 5, giving players their first opportunity to try it out. For March's Beta Patch 14, it was dropped even further to level 2, but its damage output was increased slightly.

Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Ray of Frost and other Wizard skills.

Trivia

This is one of the spells that seem to be coming from the dungeons & Dragons inspiration we've seen in Diablo III. The new D3 Team obviously spent a lot of time in mom's basement....

Media

Ray of Frost can be seen in action on video here:

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

Ray of Frost used in the middle of the Skeleton King trap.
Casting the spell before the hordes of skeletons arrive.
Ray of Frost with all five rune effects.
Players finally getting to use it with Beta Patch 13.

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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