Diablo 3 Wizard Build

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Levels 1-10

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 1 – Magic Missile is the first Primary Skill the Wizard has available to them. Simple fire and forget Skill which does a percentage of your weapon damage and does not cost any Arcane Power. Later on it can be Skill Runed to launch multiple Magic Missiles dealing less damage per projectile or even pierce through multiple enemies.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 2 – The Wizard gains access to a 2nd Active Skill slot as well as the Arcane Orb Skill. Arcane Orb explodes on impact location for a high amount of weapon damage as Arcane and splashes damage to all enemies within 10 yards of impact.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 3 – Shock Pulse is now available which I find fairly lacklustre due to the unpredictability of the electric charges. They move in random directions starting at the Wizard’s feet, making it difficult to hit targets.

Diablo 3 Wizard build Level 4 – The 3rd Active Skill slot is now available. In addition to that the Skill Frost Nova can be activated as well which freezes enemies within a short distance of the Wizard for 3 seconds. It has a 12 second cooldown and does not do much damage but still useful to get away from agile enemies that are melee range.

Diablo 3 Wizard build Level 5 – Ray of Frost is available at this level which is a channeled Skill. It slows the movement and attack speed of any enemy hit by it and does a significant amount of damage. Great for single targeting enemies down. I would replace Magic Missile with Ray of Frost at this level. Take note that to equip Ray of Frost in your Primary Active Skill slot you may need to turn on the “Elective Mode” under the Gameplay menu in Options.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 6 – Charged Blast. the first Skill Rune you have access to unlocks at Level 6 which affects the Magic Missile Skill. It increases the amount of damage Magic Missile does. Even then, I still recommend taking Ray of Frost over Magic Missile due to overall damage output being higher.

Diablo 3 Wizard build Level 7 – Arcane Orb gains the Skill Rune Arcane Nova which modifies how Arcane Orb works. The Skill then becomes a Point Blank Area of Effect Skill which does damage to everything within 20 yards of the Wizard.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 8 – Explosive Bolts for the Shock Pulse Skill unlocks at this level. This causes enemies slain by Shock Pulse to explode, dealing Lightning damage to all enemies within 10 yards of the explosion.

Diamond Skin, a defensive Skill is unlocked at this level. This absorbs a large amount of damage for 3 seconds, making the Wizard nigh invulnerable.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 9 – The 4th Active Skill slot is available at this level and the Wizard also gains access to the Wave of Force Skill. This throws enemies away from the Wizard along with any projectiles within range. In addition to that, enemies hit by this Skill are slowed by 60%.

Spectral Blade for the Wizard unlocks. This strikes all enemies directly in front of the Wizard for weapon damage. The Skill itself is underwhelming in terms of damage but it does have its uses. One example would be for players looking to create a viable melee Wizard. For now, we’ll stick to the most practical Skills for leveling.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 10 – This is where you pick up your first Passive Skill slot as well as the first two Passive Skills for the Wizard. Between the two, Power Hungry and Temporal Flux, I recommend picking up Power Hungry for the first Passive Skill slot. This ensures the Wizard never runs out of ammunition as they will be able to continuously kill enemies, causing health globes to drop, therefore regenerating the Wizard’s Arcane Power.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 11-20

Diablo 3 Wizard build Level 11 – Electrocute, the 4th Primary Skill the Wizard has access to unlocks. As Primary Skills don’t use Arcane Power, this is a great filler Skill when low on Arcane Power as it can even hit multiple targets. At Level 18, Electrocute can be Skill Runed to hit up to 6 targets.

Frost Nova has access to the Shatter Skill Rune which gives it a 50% chance to launch another Frost Nova should frozen enemies be killed. Is not required at lower levels but if you have Frost Nova activated then you may as well have this Skill Rune activated.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 12 – Critical Mass, a Passive Skill for the Wizard unlocks. This may sound useful but at this point where there aren’t that many Skills with cooldowns and even less critical chance stacked on the Wizard, Critical Mass does not occur often.

Arcane Torrent, an Active Skill unlocks at this level. This is a channeled Skill which deals area of effect damage to all enemies near target impact location. This is a very good Arcane Power dump as it kills enemies quickly and in large amounts.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 13 – Split, a Skill Rune for the Magic Missile Skill unlocks. This is useful if the Wizard decides to use Magic Missile as their filler Skill which costs zero Arcane Power. However, in terms of dealing as much damage to as many enemies as possible in the amount of time available, I still recommend sticking to Electrocute as it can bounce to 2 other targets.

A 4th Passive Skill unlocks for the Wizard called Glass Cannon which increases all the damage done by the Wizard by 15% but reduces all armor and resistances by 10%. I think this is a great Passive Skill to equip as it flat out increases the amount of damage the Wizard is able to put out. Also, at this level, this is fine as enemies don’t deal that much damage either way and being able to kill enemies quicker simply means more Health Globes will be coming your way.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 14 – The 5th Active Skill slot unlocks at level 14. The Wizard’s first Armor Skill called Ice Armor is available as well and should definitely be used immediately. Whenever an enemy attacks the Wizard in melee range they receive a percentage of weapon damage as Cold damage and it slows down their attack and movement speed.

The Snow Blast Skill Rune for Ray of Frost unlocks as well at this level which increases the damage of the Skill by a significant amount. The increased damage only occurs if the Skill is channeled longer than 1.5-2 seconds long though but that is enough.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 15 – Tap the Source, a Skill Rune for Arcane Orb will unlock at this level which reduces the casting cost of the Skill. If you are already using Arcane Orb as your Arcane Power dump to deal area of effect damage, then this will help manage the Wizard’s resource a lot more. However, replacing Arcane Nova with Tap the Source will drop the Wizard’s damage output quite a bit so keep that in mind if you do notice your character killing enemies slower than usual.

A new Skill called Energy Twister unlocks for the Wizard at level 15. This Skill does a significant amount of damage to anything caught in it’s path, however, one reason why I dislike using it is the fact that the direction or path it takes is completely random. It’s very possible that an enemy 5 yards from the Wizard takes absolutely no damage while you try to hit it using this Skill.

An extremely useful Passive Skill unlocks at this level for the Wizard called Prodigy. At this point in level, the Wizard has only one Passive Skill slot which makes it difficult to decide which Skills to activate. However, it is quite a close call between Prodigy and Glass Cannon. Prodigy makes it so that all your Primary Skills cause the Wizard to gain Arcane Power which makes it possible to replenish your own Arcane Power significantly quicker. Glass cannon increases the damage the Wizard deals but the Wizard also deals less damage if they are out of resources and forced to use their Primary Skills. Personally, I would say go with your preference, but at level 20, you should have both these Passive Skills activated.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 16 – Deep Cuts unlocks for the Spectral Blade Skill. Once again, this isn’t very significant unless you intend your Wizard to go the melee route. The Skill Rune causes all damaged enemies hit by Spectral blade to bleed for 3 seconds or so taking damage based on a percentage of weapon damage.

Another Skill Rune unlocks at this level called Crystal Shell which will increase the amount of damage Diamond Skin will absorb before the Wizard starts to receive damage.

At level 16, the Wizard also receives a new Skill called Slow Time which reduces all enemy movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 20%. Slow Time even slows down ranged projectiles by 90%, making it an absolute cinch to dodge ranged fire.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 17 – Fire Bolts for Shock Pulse unlocks at this level which changes the damage Shock Pulse deals to Fire instead of the normal Lightning damage. It also increases the amount of damage the Skill deals. This may seem insignificant, swapping out Lightning Damage to Fire Damage, but you will need to take into account there are Passive Skills which tie in to deal additional Fire damage to targets which are burning. e.g. Conflagaration Passive Skill.

The 2nd Armor Skill unlocks for the Wizard at level 17 called Storm Armor. This is a more offensive version of Ice Armor which shocks ranged attackers as well. However, it doesn’t apply any additional effect like how Ice Armor chills enemies hit by it. At this level, Storm Armor is only so-so and I would not replace Ice Armor with it. Later on however, the Skill Runes they have available truly magnify their abilities which allow you to decide which direction you wish to fine tune your Wizard.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 18 – At level 18, the Wizard unlocks Chain Lightning for the Electrocute Skill which causes your Primary Skill which costs no Arcane Power to hit 6 enemies instead of 3. This is a huge jump as the Wizard can now mow down lesser enemies quickly and be able to focus on the 1 or 2 higher health pool enemies left. I highly recommend this Skill and Skill Rune.

Another extremely useful Skill Rune is unlocked at level 18 called Impactful Wave which causes Wave of Force to knock enemies even further back, and stuns them for 3 seconds which gives the Wizard plenty of breathing room.

Another Passive Skill for the Wizard is Astral Presence which provides a passive increase to the maximum amount of Arcane Power the Wizard can store as well as Arcane Power regeneration per second. This does not increase damage output for the wizard as much as Glass Cannon and Prodigy do so I do not recommend it as yet. At higher levels, when there are more Passive Skill slots available, it may be useful in burst situations where the increase in Arcane Power storage would provide another hard hitting Skill.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 19 – The final Active Skill slot is unlocked at level 19 as well as access to the Explosive Blast Skill. On a short cool down but a huge Arcane Power cost, Explosive Blast deals damage as Physical which means it is affected by Armor and not Resistances. The damage is fairly significant and it can be used as an Arcane Power dump but the Skill itself only affects 12 yards from the Wizard which makes it a very short ranged Skill. That being said, at this level, Arcane Orb with the Arcane Nova Skill Rune still hits harder and costs less Arcane Power.

Arcane Torrent also receives a new Skill Rune named Disruption which increases the Arcane damage enemies take whenever hit by Arcane Torrent. As Arcane Torrent itself deals Arcane damage, this effectively increases the amount of damage Arcane Torrent deals as well which makes it a suitable Arcane Power dump.

The Illusionist Passive Skill unlocks at level 19 for the Wizard. This Skill resets the cooldowns on Mirror Image and Teleport immediately after the Wizard is hit for 15% or more of their total Health. This works well in PvP situations where getting away from absurdly hard hitting Skills is important. In a PvE setting while leveling, this may not be as useful. At level 19, this is a terrible Passive Skill as the Wizard does not have access to either Mirror Image or Teleport yet.

Diablo 3 Wizard Build Level 20 – The 2nd Passive Skill slot is unlocked and I highly recommend using both Glass Cannon and Prodigy in tandem with each other as one increases the amount of damage the Wizard deals and the other increases Arcane Power regeneration to prevent the Wizard from running out of resources.

If you intend to create a Wizard whose sole purpose is to slow enemies down and deal as much Cold damage as possible, the Passive Skill Black Ice is available at level 20 as well. The flat increase to Cold damage dealt to chilled targets by 20% is in no way insignificant, however, using Glass Cannon provides 15% but does not restrict the damage dealt to only Cold damage.

The Disintegrate Skill is unlocked at this level which looks very much like Ray of Frost but with a twist. Disintegrate penetrates through everything in it’s path and can be aimed unlike Energy Twister. This Skill is perfect for hitting high priority enemies which are hiding behind a horde of lesser mobs and I highly recommend it be used instead of Ray of Frost. Not to mention that this Skill also deals Arcane damage which can be increased should you have the Skill Arcane Torrent Skill Runed with Disruption.

Another unique Skill the Wizard has at their disposal at level 20 is the Hydra. It basically plants a turret which lasts for about 15 seconds which will attack enemies that come into range of it. The Hydra Skill seems underwhelming, however it is one of the few Skills the Wizard has available which allows them to deal damage while being mobile at the same time. Skill Runes for the Hydra affect what type of damage they deal as well as additional effects such as an area of effect splash to their projectiles or damage over time.