Thank you BlizzCon.  Yep, Diablo has unveiled it’s newest character class, the Wizard.  Off the bat, this class is relatively closer to what D&D fans are used to in a caster class, strict school of spells (I.E. evocation = fireball.

The Wizard uses a combination of destructive and time-altering spells to conquer their enemies and passive abilities to increase their spell’s power (much like what a typical Battle Wizard will look like).  Blizzard places it’s innovation skills to improve the already deadly caster class with some very clever abilities. Take for one the Slow Time skill. Slow Time creates a bubble around the Wizard which slows down anything inside it, including magic attacks, arrows, and monsters. If you’ve seen the Protoss Mothership in Starcraft II videos, it’ll look hauntingly similar.

Drooling yet?  Here’s a gameplay video from Joystiq.

The Wizard has 3 skill trees : the Storm Talent tree, Arcane talent tree and Conjuration talent tree.

From the gameplay, people were able to stem out the Wizard’s Storm talent tree as shown below.  (THis is still just one of the three talent trees.)

DIABLO 3 – WIZARD STORM TALENT TREE

[source Diii and GNL]

Charged bolt – Rank 1/1: Launch a volley of 3 electric bolts that deal 1-8 lightning damage each. Mana cost: 8.  Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 sec.

Thunderstruck – Rank 2/15: Increases the critical hit chance of all lightning spells by 10%.  Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 sec.

Empowered Magic – Rank 2/15: Increases the effect of willpower on your spell damage by 20%.

Lightning Speed – Rank 0/15: Increases casting speed by 3%

Requires 5 Points Allocated in the Skill Tree

Storm Armor – Rank 0/1: Surround yourself in electrical energy.  Electrical bolts are automatically fired at attackers for 1 to 8 damage.  Mana cost: 15

Frost Nova – Rank 0/1: An explosion of ice pelts nearby enemies for 1-3 cold damage.  Has an additional 25% chance of a critical hit.  Mana cost: 25.  Cooldown: 12 sec.  Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.

Deep Freeze – Rank 0/15: Increases the critical hit chance of all cold spells by 5%.  Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.

Power Armor – Rank 0/15: Increases the damage dealt by your storm armor charged bolts by 10%.

Static Charge – Rank 0/15: Convert 5% of all damage taken into mana.

Requires 10 Points Allocated in the Skill Tree

Electrocute – Rank 0/1: Lightning arcs from the wizard’s fingertips towards enemies, electrocuting them for 4-5 damage.  Electrocute affects up to 2 targets.  Mana cost: 8.  Critical hits from lightning damage stun targets for 2 sec.  Requires 10 points in Storm tree.

Ray of Frost – Rank 0/1: Project a beam of cold energy that deals 6 cold damage per sec.  Mana cost: 16 mana per sec.  Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.  Requires 10 points in Storm tree.

Static Residue – Rank 0/15: Enemies damaged by your lightning spells discharge an additional 1 to 3 lightning damage per sec to nearby enemies for 3 seconds.  Requires 10 points in Storm tree.

Lethal Energy – Rank 0/15: Increases the chance to score critical hits with melee and spell attacks by 5%.  Requires 10 points in Storm tree.

Improved Charged Bolt – Rank 0/15: Increase the number of bolts released by your charged bolt spell by 1.  Requires 10 points in Storm tree.

Requires 15 points Allocated in the Skill Tree

Tornado – Rank 0/1: Summon a large tornado that damages everything in its path.  Mana cost: 15. Requires 15 points in Storm tree.

Blizzard – Rank 0/1: Call down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing 6-10 cold damage per sec for 3 sec.  Mana cost: 70.  Critical hits from cold damage freezes targets.  Requires 15 points in Storm tree.

Storm Power – Rank 0/15: Increase damage of all lightning and ice spells.  Requires 15 points in Storm tree.

Epic Storms – Rank 0/15: Increases size of Blizzard and number of twisters you can have for your energy twister.