Magic Missile

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IconMagicMissile.png

Magic Missile is a Rapid Cast Wizard skill unlocked at Level 1, invoking a bolt of arcane magic thrown against an opponent.

This is an Academic spell. Academic spells cost 1 less Arcane Power every time you gain a level.



Background

The Magic Missile is a bolt-type spell much like the classical Firebolt but using Arcane energies instead of Elemental (like Fire).


Skill Effects

Wiz-magic-missile1.jpg

The following is a very quick list. See the Magic Missile rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Skill Effect
IconMagicMissile.png
Magic Missile
1

Launch a missile of magic energy causing 4 - 5 Arcane damage.
Cost: 15 Arcane Power
This is an Academic spell. Academic spells cost 1 less Arcane Power every time you gain a level.

IconCrimson.jpg Charged Blast Damage increased to X - X Arcane damage.
IconIndigo.jpg Fork Fires X missiles that do X - X damage each.
IconObsidian.jpg Penetrating Blast Missiles have a X% chance to pierce through their target and hit additional targets.
IconGolden.jpg Attunement Whenever Magic Missile hits a target you gain X Arcane Power.
IconAlabaster.jpg Seeker Missiles track the nearest target and damage is increased to X - X Arcane damage.


Magic Missile Video

A video of Magic Missile can be seen below, courtesy of the DiabloInc You Tube channel.


Skill Design

Magic Missile impact on Zombie.

Magic Missile is basically a Firebolt that deals Arcane Damage. In early levels, Magic Missile might be the Wizard's bread and butter. Using this skill fires a small purple projectile that moves across the screen in a straight line and at a fairly fast pace, and it can be cast repeatedly without any cooldown.

In later levels, it might prove invaluable as a cheap and direct means of silencing a monster for 4 seconds -- plenty of time to dispatch of them before they can cast a nasty spell on you, or raise the fallen to fight again. This property hasn't been explained yet, but the consensus is that a silenced monster will be unable to use some of its skills or abilities, such as Skeletal Mages losing the ability to resurrect their slain minions. The difficulty will be in hitting the shaman behind the minions, since Magic Missile will strike another monster if it's between the Wizard and the targeted boss.

When an enemy dies at the hands of an Arcane spell, a purple glow is left on the corpses.

This was the default ranged spell at BlizzCon 2008, but with Arcane Orb and Electrocute available right from the start in 2009, Magic Missile was hardly touched. It didn't seem to have changed in function since 2008.



Synergies

Double missiles.


Development

Quadruple missiles.

Magic Missile first appeared at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard debuted, where it did 7-13 arcane damage at level 1. By BlizzCon 2009, it had been nerfed slightly, doing less damage and costing a little less mana (later changed to Arcane Power). This skill was on the Arcane Skill Tree until skill trees were disbanded.

At BlizzCon 2010, Magic Missile was one of the Wizard's starting skills, and a very useful one, according to Flux:[1]

The level five MMs were quite powerful, capable of killing almost any normal monster with a single shot. The casting rate wasn’t that fast though, which was good and bad. Good because you could cast MMs forever, since they weren’t fast or expensive enough to deplete your Arcane Power. Bad because I wanted to kill faster. Faster!

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Magic Missile became a level 1 skill.


Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Magic Missile and other Wizard skills.
Or see Magic Missile (BlizzCon 2008) for the original version of this skill.


In Other Games

Magic Missile is much like Diablo II's Sorceress skill Fire Bolt, only doing Arcane damage instead of Fire damage.


Trivia

In Diablo III, Blizzard seems to have gone back to games like Dungeons & Dragons for inspiration. A spell called Magic Missile is a staple low-to-mid level magic bolt in the traditional pen & paper RPG. The Magic Missile also increases number of missiles, as does the original. Wikipedia describes D&D Magic Missile like this.[1]

A bolt of pure energy from the caster's fingertips, which in most editions of the game never misses its target unless prevented by magical means. The number of bolts one can cast increases with practice.


Media

Magic Missile can be seen in action on video here:

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



Related Articles

  • Improved Magic Missile is a retired skill whose only purpose was to increase the efficiency of Magic Missile. Skill runes made it unnecessary.


References

  1. D&D Arcane Spells -- Wikipedia