The '''Wizard''' is a pure [[caster|spellcaster]], harnessing arcane and elemental magic to do his/her bidding via a devastating array of offensive spells. The While the Wizard is thought to be quite similar to the [[Sorcerer]] and [[Sorceress]] of previous Diablo games, in design , the play style is quite different. Diablo 3's [[end game]] Wizard play puts a much greater emphasis on defensive skills and conceptcrowd control spells, and has much less movement speed due to the cooldown limitations on [[teleport]].

One key change in Diablo 3 is that the Wizard does not use Other major gameplay differences stem from equipment changes (weapon damage and [[manaCritical hit Chance]], but has a new resource called / [[instabilityCritical hit Damage]]matter for all classes), the removal of skill points, a change and especially the fact that has profound gameplay implicationsmonsters do not have varying resistances to different types of elemental damage.

==Class Design== {|cellpadding="2" width="250px" align="right" style="border-collapse: collapse; float: right; border: none; background: #2D0606; clear:left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 10px; font-size: 10px;"!colspan="2" style="text-align: center; line-height: 12px; font-size: 14px;"|'''[[Diablo III Class]]''' |-|colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|[[File:Wizards.jpg|200px]]|-!colspan="2" style="text-align: center; line-height: 14px; font-size: 16px;"| The female Wizard character in |-| [[Skills]]:| [[Wizard Skills]]|-| [[Passives]]:| [[Wizard Passives]]|-| [[Resource]]:| [[Arcane Power]]|-! colspan="2" | Common [[builds]]:|-| colspan="2" | [[Caster]], [[Battle mage]].|-! colspan="2" |<center>Background</center>|-| Origin:| Xiansai|-| Affiliation:| None current.<br>[[Vizjerei]] (former),<br>[[Zann Esu]] (former)|-| Friends:| None known|-| Foes:| [[Vizjerei]], [[Yshari Sanctum]], [[Diablo IIIValthek]] |}  The Wizard is from the island a fast-action, fast-casting, primarily-ranged attacker. The class is not really a "glass cannon," despite having a Passive skill actuall called [[XiansaiGlass Cannon]]. In fact, an island to that is one of the main complaints about the far north with class; that they are more of a culture similar mage tank than anything else, who must rely on defensive skills or strong [[crowd control]] and enemy [[debuffs]] to Asia survive.  This is in our worldstark contrast to the Sorcerer and Sorceress from previous games in the series, who could be a bit tanky with the right gear, but who mostly relied on speedy attacks and evasion (mostly via unlimited use of the Teleport skill). (The [[Abd alDemon Hunter]] actually plays much more like the glass cannon fast-Hazirmovement mage seen in previous Diablo titles.) See the [[Wizard skills]] writes about page for a full list of all Wizard skills and rune effects. As with all classes, the skills are sorted into six categories. Enabling [[Elective Mode]] in the Game Options allows players to choose any skills from any category, rather than being stuck with one from each in the default, noob-friendly design. * Refer to Diablo3Ladders.com for a listing of [http://www.diablo3ladders.com/skills/mostused/wizard#softcore all Wizard passive skills ranked by popularity].   {| |'''Primary''wizard' wreaking havoc in <br>• [[Magic Missile]] (1)<br>• [[Shock Pulse]] (3)<br>• [[Spectral Blade]] (11)<br>• [[CaldeumElectrocute]] in his (15)| '''Secondary'''<br>• [[Writings Ray of Abd alFrost]] (2)<br>• [[Arcane Orb]] (5)<br>• [[Arcane Torrent]] (12)<br>• [[Disintegrate]] (21)| '''Defensive'''<br>• [[Frost Nova]] (4)<br>• [[Diamond Skin]] (8)<br>• [[Slow Time]] (16)<br>• [[Teleport]] (22)|-Hazir| '''Force'''<br>• [[Wave of Force]] (9)<br>• [[Energy Twister]] (13)<br>• [[Hydra]] (21)<br>• [[Meteor]] (25)<br>• [[Blizzard]] (27)|'''Conjuration'''<br>• [[Ice Armor]] (14)<br>• [[Storm Armor]] (17)<br>• [[Magic Weapon]] (20)<br>• [[Familiar]] (22)<br>• [[Energy Armor]] (28) | '''Mastery'''<br>• [[Explosive Blast]] (19)<br>• [[Mirror Image]] (25)<br>• [[Archon]] (30)|} ==Wizard Passive Skills== [[Image: Entry noMale Wizard2.jpg|thumb|300px|Male Wizard using [[Wave of Force]].]]See the [[Wizard passive skills]] article for a full listing with descriptions and more details. 0007These skills focus more on utility, variety, and defense than on boosts to the Wizard's offensive attacks or damage.   {| | * [[Blur]] (10)* [[Power Hungry]] (10)* [[Evocation]] (13)* [[Glass Cannon]] (16)* [[Prodigy]] (20)* [[Astral Presence]] (24)* [[Illusionist]] (27)* [[Cold Blooded]] (30)|seventh entry* [[Conflagration]] (34)* [[Paralysis]] (37)* [[Galvanizing Ward]] (40)* [[Temporal Flux]] (45)* [[Critical Mass]] (50)* [[Arcane Dynamo]] (55)* [[Unstable Anomaly]] (60)<br>|}  By far the most used and most build-changing passive is [[Critical Mass]] which grants [[critical hits]] a chance to reduce the [[cooldown]] of Wizard skills by 1 second. Numerous Wizard builds rely entirely on "CM" in order to repeatedly use skills with 6, 8, 10 second, or even longer cooldowns. Blizzard has adjusted (lowered) the [[Writings proc coefficient]] values of Abd al-Hazirnumerous Wizard skills several times since launch, since some skills (especially [[Energy Twister]]) that caused many, many hit checks were [[proc]]ing so often that Critical Mass was triggering almost constantly and effectively reducing cooldowns to nothing.

This 19 year old female wizard was sent * Refer to the [[Zann Esu]] [[mage clan]], but later handed over to the powerful [Diablo3Ladders.com for a listing of [Vizjerei]] since she was a "rude and uncooperative student," that the smaller mage clan could not controlhttp://www. They hoped the harsh discipline at Vizjerei "would break her anarchic spiritdiablo3ladders." Yet even the Vizjerei instructors were unable to rein her in. She was continually being caught seeking out dangerous and forbidden magics without care for herself or anyone around hercom/skills/mostused/wizard#softcore all Wizard passive skills ranked by popularity].

===Wizard Traits===During early design passive skills were called "[[Valthektraits]], a great Vizjerei mage confronted her " and she attacked himwere set to allow 1-5 points to be spent in each. She relied on trickery This system was scrapped and deceit to render Valthek unconscious and then proceeded to flee simplified shortly before the city immediately after the encounterbeta test began. The extensive property damage was assumed to be See the result of Valthek's [[magicWizard traits]]al prowess, not page for full info on what the young wizardtraits system looked like.

==Class Design==The Wizard is an aggressive archetypal magic wielder founding his powers on the aggressive fierceness of the storm[[Abd al-Hazir]], the arcane scholar and conjuration. Both historian responsible for most of the male and female wizards are rebellious, headstrong, impulsivein-game lore released pre-game, and brilliant. Too smart and arrogant to fit into the authority of the sorcerer schools of wrote about the wizard's time in a mage academy in [[mage clanCaldeum]]sin his [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. Always on top of their skills and even smarter than their teachers, cocky and self assured0007|seventh entry]].

[[Image:Wiz-disintegrate1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|==Wizard using [[Disintegrate]].]]::''I would respond, "Yeah, you're right; the Wizard is basically a reskinned Sorceress." What we couldn't do with the Sorceress very well was break into what I'd call the old-school pen-and-paper magic user. You know the old magic user who could do a variety of things, like conjure up animals out of midair or create clouds of fog and acid or control time or [[Disintegrate|disintegrate things]] or use death spells. They had this wide variety of magic that they could use compared to the more traditional elementalist -- which is what the Sorceress is, meaning fire, ice, and lightning -- who was just more limited. What we really wanted to do is break into this area, while if we just did the Sorceress again, we'd be like, "OK, you have to do fire, ice, and lightning, but where does disintegrate fit? Where does slow time fit in?" So we decided [that we'd] just take the same class mechanics, and [that we'd] change the basic concept and name and just have a throwback to that old-school magic user to give ourselves a broader range of magic skills. But there was never a huge desire to go away from the basic gameplay of the Sorceress; there's a lot of repeated skills, Style and that's intentional.''Appearance==

One of * [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/male-wizard-gear-set-preview/ Male Wizard gear set], October 13, 2010, set off the key changes to spell casters in Diablo III is the addition biggest debate of +% spell damage modifiersall, about his huge "starfish" hat. ** [http://diablo.incgamers. These sorts of modifiers were found com/blog/comments/more-on many skills in Diablo 2, -the-male-wizard-gear-set/ Many fan complaints and revisions] of his starfish hat.** [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/male-wizard-gear-set-remixes-keep-on a few uniques and runewords, but they were uncommon, and not necessary to kill effectively-coming/ And yet more fan remakes].** [http://diablo.incgamers. As a result, casters in Diablo 2 were much less itemcom/blog/comments/vote-dependent than the combat classes, and -wizards-starfish-hat.-yes-or-no/ A vote found it easier to concentrate on [[Magic Find]very mixed opinions]about the helm, resistances, hit points, and other non-damage bonusesin contrast to the overwhelmingly negative fan comments.

This will not be the case [[File:Wiz-male-comparison1.jpg|frame|thumb|200px|Male Wizard concept vs. in Diablo 3, where mages must add considerable +% spell damage from modifiers to stay ahead of the monster hit point curve-game. A high level Wizard or [[Witch Doctor]] in Diablo 3 will Blizzard made no more be able substantive comments over the fan reaction to kill quickly with the male wizard's appearance and if the character changes any in appearance during the rest of the development cycle, no +spell damage than a [[Barbarian]] or [[Monk]] could succeed with a junk weaponone noticed. A quote from Fluxpoll on Diablo.IncGamers.com found fan opinions widely split on the character's postlook.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/male-Blizzcon 2009 Wizard write up explains this in more detail:wizards-look-your-opinion/]

::When viewing <blockquote>What do you think of the look of the listed damage on each spellMale Wizard?* 2) It's good, it’s important to keep in mind that those are not absolute numbersbut could be improved. 243 votes, in D328. They’re much like weapon damage; modified by your wizard’s attributes79%* 4) Ugh. I'll be playing the female Wiz. 220 votes, your character level26.07%* 5) Hate it. J-pop boy-band reject. 140 votes, by other skills16.59%* 1) I love the male Wizard look. 137 votes, and also by your equipment16.23%* 3) I'm indifferent. Lots of types of items in D3 carry modifiers that boost spell damageM'eh. 104 votes, usually by a percentage12.32%Total Votes: 844</blockquote>

::I found numerous wands, staves, and even pieces This entire controversy stemmed from the look of armor with values between +5-25% spell damage, the character in some artwork and that was just renders; no one objected to the look when playing him in the early stages of the game[[BlizzCon 2009]] demo. We know nothing about higher level equipment bonusesThat trend continued, and it’s entirely possible that the D3 team is projecting high level characters to have +100%, +200%, or who knows, +500%, spell damage. If so they’ll be adjusting controversy did not reappear when the beta test began and the base spell damage accordingly, which might make it look very low to our untrained eyesof the character is a non-issue post-release.

::Here’s an example from early in ===Sorceress Redux?===Some fans initially criticized the Wizard for just being the game, [[Sorceress]] with a new look. [[Jay Wilson]] commented on that was mentioned in the [http://www.diii1up.net/blog/commentscom/full-witch-doctor-skillsdo/ Witch Doctor skills report]previewPage?pager. The skill tree listed damage on my level 2 Skull of Flame spell was 6-9, yet offset=1&cId=3172030&p=1 in an interview with a level 12 Witch Doctor my Inventory screen showed 19-29 for that spell1up. I don’t think I had more than +50% spell damage from equipment, so assuming the display values aren’t wrong (com] in [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Lying_Character_Screen D2’s infamous LCS] style), there are considerable bonuses added to damage from character attributes, which are then further boosted by the spell damage bonuses on your equipmentDecember 2008.

[[Image:Wiz-disintegrate1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Wizard using [[Disintegrate]].]]<blue>Jay Wilson:This "I would respond, "Yeah, you're right; the Wizard is all part basically a re-skinned Sorceress." What we couldn't do with the Sorceress very well was break into what I'd call the old-school pen-and-paper magic user. You know the old magic user who could do a variety of things, like conjure up animals out of midair or create clouds of fog and acid or control time or disintegrate things or use death spells. They had this wide variety of magic that they could use compared to the D3 team’s plan more traditional elementalist -- which is what the Sorceress is, meaning fire, ice, and lightning -- who was just more limited. <br>What we really wanted to make all of do is break into this area, while if we just did the attributes useful Sorceress again, we'd be like, "OK, you have to all charactersdo fire, ice, and lightning, but where does Disintegrate fit? Where does Slow Time fit in?" So we decided [that we'd] just take the same class mechanics, and [that we'd] change the basic concept and name and just have a throwback to that old-school magic user to make more types give ourselves a broader range of modifiers useful/essential to spell castersmagic skills. We don’t know enough yet But there was never a huge desire to judge how well it’s workinggo away from the basic gameplay of the Sorceress; there's a lot of repeated skills, but it should be a substantial change from how spell damage was calculated and scaled up (or not) in D2that's intentional."</blue>

==Spell Damage and Weapon Damage==Attribute Increase Per Level====*'''[[Strength]]:''' x*'''[[Dexterity]]:''' x*'''[[Vitality]]:''' x*'''[[Willpower]]:''' x-->

===Wizard Skills===[[Image:D3_skilltree_wizardshot.jpg|thumb|right|150px|An off-screen still image of the Wizard's skill tree.]]The [[wizard skill]]s are arranged into early effort in Diablo 3 to three distinctive skill tree categories:* [[Storm_Skill_Tree|Storm]]* [[Arcane_Skill_Tree|Arcane]]* [[Conjuration_Skill_Tree|Conjuration]]correct this imbalance used +%spell damage modifiers.All three trees have a combination of active As seen in Blizzcon 2008 and passive skills. Active skills are used in combat2009 demos, while caster weapons had bonuses to spell damage which modified the passive skills usually boost or change flat damage figures on spells, in much the behaviour of the active same way that equipment and skillsinteracted for non-mage classes. A quote from a 2009 Blizzcon demo report details the system:

====Arcane Skills====[[Image:Wiz-slow-time1.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Electrocute]] in a [[Slow Time]] bubble.]]The [[Arcane_Skill_Tree|Arcane tree skills]] consists of many classical pen and paper RPGs:I found numerous wands, including time distortionsstaves, [[Disintegrate]]and even pieces of armor with values between +5-25% spell damage, and other magical forces that are not related to elements like Fire, Ice, Lightning. This tree is also good at enhancing or manipulating other spells known by the Wizard.<div style="clear:both;"></div>====Storm Skills====[[Image:Wiz-frost-nova1.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Frost Nova]]]]The [[Storm_Skill_Tree|Storm tree skills]] specialize was just in the power early stages of the heavens, enabling the wizard to wield electrical energy and casting forth the fierce cold of a blizzard accompanied by the harsh freezing wind. The storm elements also protect and enhance the armour and the power of a wizardgame.<div style="clear:both;"></div>

====Conjuration Skills====[[Image:Wiz-spectral-blade1.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Spectral Blade]]]]The [[Conjuring_Skill_Tree|Conjuring tree skills]] summons protection or offence from That system did not survive through to launch, and after further experimentation the Wizard and Witch Doctor were slotted into the same pool of affixes and weapon functions that the other planes of existencethree classes got. This is where made the game more accessible and consistent across the classic [[Hydra]] spell is locatedclasses, as well as but it's not a universally-popular design with many fans wishing the powerful [[meteor]]. This tree can also be used to increase or modify other spells, similar to spell casters had different priorities in equipment and affixes than the Arcane treecombat characters.<div style="clear:both;"></div>

In ==Wizard Development Pace==The Wizard was the third [[GamesCom 2009 democlass]]to be revealed, we saw making her debut at [[BlizzCon 2008]], several months after the game's initial reveal in June at the [[Paris WWI]]. Later in development Blizzard admitted that the Barbarian and Wizard were by far the most polished classes at launch. Despite that they chose to debut with the [[Barbarian]] and [[Witch Doctor]] since the male version WD was more of an original character type. This was a mixed blessing since many fans were unhappy that the Necromancer was not coming back, but when the Wizard debuted just months later, the in-game wizard class was clearly far more developed than the first timeWD, with many more functional skills.

On 22nd September The Wizard's resource took longer to nail down. The class used Mana as a placeholder resource in the Blizzcon 2008 and 2009demos, [[Bashiok]] even after Blizzard had announced the Wizard will , in late 2009, that Mana was not going to be using traditional [[Mana]]the final version of the class' resource. The system evolved further over the next couple of years, but a with [[resource pool|resourceInstability]] more specialized for the class. This resource was later named for a time, until [[instabilityArcane Power]]was implemented and perfected. [http://wwwdiablo.diiiincgamers.netcom/blog/comments/bashiokblizzcon-on2010-nonhand-mana-resources-andon-cinematicsblascid/]

 The female Wizard is voiced by Grey DeLisle, a veteran of voice acting. She's done many film and television roles, including Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and roles in ''Afro Samurai'', ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'', ''Wolverine and the X->Men'', and many more. She's also had many roles in video games, including a lot of the ''Star Wars'' series, ''Mass Effect'', ''Metal Gear Solid'', ''Baldur's Gate'', ''Fallout'', ''Doom 3'', ''Batman: Arkham City'' (as Catwoman/Selina Kyle), and she also played Nova in [[StarCraft II]]. The male Wizard is voiced by Crispin Freeman, also a veteran voice actor. He's done a gluttonous amount of English dubs for anime, and also many video games including the ''.hack'' series, ''BioShock 2'', ''God of War III'', ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', ''Xenosaga'', ''Saints Row: The Third'', and many more.