Frost Nova

Frost Nova is a Tier 3 skill unlocked for the Wizard at level 6, sending out a flash of severe frost, damaging and often slowing enemies.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Frost Nova Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Wizard
Skill Description:
An explosion of ice pelts nearby enemies for 1-2 cold damage. Has an additional 50% chance of a critical hit.
Skill Details:
Type:	Direct Damage
Quantity:	1-2 to 5-6
Effect:	Self AoE circle
School:	Cold
Mana cost:	8
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	12.0 sec
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Wizard has learned some knowledge of the Zann Esu mage clan that first tried to foster her like it did the Sorceress heroine, and improved on it. She has modified the staple Frost Nova to deal more damage and have a higher chance of hitting vital areas of opponents, freezing them in one spot.

Skill Design

Frost Nova is pretty much the same skill it was in D2, but with vastly improved graphics. Instead of just a ring of frost, it now sends out a gaseous ring that's speckled with dozens of shooting, snowball-like projectiles. As it was in D2, the skill is not very damaging and is best used for defensive purposes, a fact that's reinforced by the eternity of a 12 second cool down it's saddled with.

However, its is improved over the D2 version in several ways. It now has a pretty good chance of freezing the enemy rather than just chilling it, and it casts very quickly; so fast you can hardly even see the ring expanding out. It looked much faster and less detailed in the BlizzCon 2009 build than it has in previous screenshots, which I found disappointing.

The substantial cooldown decreases slightly with higher skill levels, but it's still an eternity after the zero cooldown on the D2 Frost Nova, it's not so bad if you use it wisely. Cast Frost Nova at the start of a battle, giving yourself some time/space to back up and pelt the enemy with projectiles, or hold it back for emergencies. Few battles in the BlizzCon 2009 demo lasted longer than 8 seconds, and not more than once or twice was the Wizard actually swarmed to the point that he needed this kind of freezing escape spell.

Skill Rank Table

Put a table of the skill rank and damage/mana/fury per rank.

• Rank 1: 1-2 cold damage. Additional 50% chance of a critical hit.
• Rank 2: 2-3 cold damage. Additional 60% chance of a critical hit.
• Rank 3: 3-4 cold damage. Additional 70% chance of a critical hit. (projected)
• Rank 4: 4-5 cold damage. Additional 80% chance of a critical hit. (projected)
• Rank 5: 5-6 cold damage. Additional 90% chance of a critical hit. (projected)

Synergies

Frost Nova benefits directly from the following traits:

• Black Ice: Frozen targets take 25% more damage from all sources.
• Glass Cannon: Increases damage done by spells and increases armor.
• Intimidation: Increases damage done and reduces vendor costs.
• Quickening: Increases spell casting speed.
• Beast Hunter: Damage bonus against beasts.
• Demonsbane: Damage bonus against Demons.
• Just...Stay...Dead!: Damage bonus against undead.
• Power Surge: Increase critical strike damage.
• Penetrating Spells: Reduces the resistances of your target to your spells by 20%.

Skill Rune Effects

• None known.

Development

Hydra was first shown at BlizzCon 2008, and changed slightly in appearance to BlizzCon 2009, in that the animation and graphics were sped up, possibly as a balancing change. The skill is assumed to still be available in Blizzard's internal game build today.

Previous Versions:

• Frost Nova (BlizzCon 2008)

Media

You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Frost Nova-specific gallery contents

• 

  Official shot of female Wizard casting it.

• 

  Skill icon.

References

• Full Wizard Skill Trees
• BlizzCon 2008 Wizard Gameplay Report