Wave of Force (BlizzCon 2008)

Wave of Force, also known as WoF, is a Tier 2 skill from the Wizard's Arcane skill tree, creating a force wave from the Wizard, repelling enemies and projectiles.

Archived Article [e]
Wave of Force (BlizzCon 2008) is an archived article about material previously included in Diablo 3. However, it has currently been removed or the article contains outdated facts. The information is stored in Diablo Wiki for posterity. Please note: Links in this article lead to both updated and archived material.

This article was last up to date:

BlizzCon 2008

Currently updated version of this article is:

Wave of Force

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]

Wave of Force Active, 1 ranks
Used by:	Wizard
Skill Description:
Project a wave of force outwards, repelling enemies and projectiles.
Skill Details:
Type:	Damage & Knockback
Quantity:	1-8 damage
Effect:	AoE around caster
School:	Arcane
Mana cost:	25
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	Unknown
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Wizard uses pure Arcane force to push objects, projectiles and enemies alike away from her. The force is primary moving targets rather than hurting them.

Skill Design

This defensive spell casts a nova-like blast of light that deals just minor damage, but that shoves back enemies and projectiles.

Wave of Force is used twice in the Wizard Trailer released at BlizzCon 2008. The first is used in a room of skeletons -- it does little damage to the skeletons, but blasts all the destructibles in the room to glorious pieces. In the second example, the Wizard uses it while slowing down time, waiting for a group of skeletons' projectiles to come close, and then reflecting them back toward them.

It's hard to know how many scenarios in a fast-paced game like this where you could really benefit from using Slow Time and then Wave of Force to repel projectiles -- Out of the 8 projectiles in the above screenshot, only one or two actually came back to strike their targets. It will be interesting to see what practical uses there are for this spell as more gameplay videos unfold.

Wave of Force repels skeletons.

Skill Rank Table

Rank 1: 1-8 damage, 25 mana.

Skeleton smash.

Synergies

None known.

Skill Rune Effects

None known.

Development

Wave of Force was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 when the Wizard was unveiled. It was only changed slightly in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, lowering mana cost and damage dealt, but increasing to a maximum of 5 ranks. You can find the latest version here.

Media

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

Wizard casting Wave of Force in a small room.
Using WoF to repel skeletons when fighting King Leoric.
Slow Time with WoF to throw spells back at casters.
Blasting skeletons with Force.

References