Shock Pulse

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From Diablo Wiki

Shock Pulse in action.

Shock Pulse (known as Charged Bolt prior to July 2011) is a Primary Wizard skill unlocked at Level 3, launching electric charges that travel randomly on the floor, dealing lightning damage.

This is a Signature spell. Signature spells are free to cast.

Background

The true essence of Electromagnetism exists on the threshold of the Ethereal and the Physical Realms. While it is very efficient to transform Mana into electrical energy, it is extremely difficult to control. This spell calls into being multiple pockets of lightning which seem to have a will of their own.

The Wizard has not only the fancy illegal spells at her disposal. Shock Pulse, something even the newest of Vizjerei neonytes learn, is one of the few spells she picked up in actual classes at the old mage clan, or possibly at Zann Esu before they kicked her out.

Skill Rune Effects

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

Name	Level	Description

Shock Pulse
(database)
Primary

3

This is a Signature spell. Signature spells are free to cast.

Release a medium range pulse of 3 unpredictable charges of electricity that deal 105% weapon damage as Lightning.

Explosive Bolts
(database)

9

Slain enemies explode, dealing 70% weapon damage as Lightning to every enemy within 10 yards.

Fire Bolts
(database)

18

Cast bolts of fire that each deal 136% weapon damage as Fire.

Piercing Orb
(database)

33

Merge the bolts in a a single giant orb that oscillates forward dealing 105% weapon damage as Lightning to everything it hits.

Lightning Affinity
(database)

47

Every target hit by a pulse restores 2 Arcane Power.

Living Lightning
(database)

54

Conjure a being of lightning that drifts forward, electrocuting nearby enemies for 36% weapon damage as Lightning.

Skill Design

The Wizard and her carpet.

The spell familiar from Diablo I and Diablo II returns in Diablo III. As Charged Bolt did previously, Shock Pulse sends out a smattering of randomly-scattering charges, each of which deal minor damage to any enemy that passes over them. The strength of Shock Pulse comes not from the damage of each bolt, but from the carpeting effect of repeated casts, since it's a spell with very low resource cost. These can turn the floor into a field of death for any enemy without lightning immunity.

Synergies

The following Wizard passives provide a benefit to Shock Pulse, runed or not:

Skill	Unlocked	Description

Glass Cannon

16

Increases all damage done by 15%, but decreases armor and resistances by 10%.

Prodigy
See:
Signature spell

20

When you deal damage with a Signature spell, you gain 4 Arcane Power.

The following skills are Signature spells:
• Magic Missile
• Shock Pulse
• Spectral Blade
• Electrocute

Arcane Dynamo
See:
Signature spell

55

When you deal damage with a Signature spell you may gain a Flash of Insight. After 5 Flashes of Insight, your next non-Signature spell deals 75% additional damage.

The following skills are Signature spells:
• Magic Missile
• Shock Pulse
• Spectral Blade
• Electrocute

Development

Shock Pulse was first shown at BlizzCon 2008 (as Charged Bolt) when the Wizard debuted, where it was at Tier I on the Storm Skill Tree. Flux was able to try it out:[1]

Three little crackling bits of lightning are sent forth along the ground, where they zig and zag a bit, but move in a more or less straight line away from the Sorceress. I didn’t use this spell much, but it seemed to me that the bolts spread out quite a bit more than they did in D2, and that made it hard to hit anything in front of me with more than one bolt. That’s now how it looks in screenshots though, where the bolts seem to carpet the dungeon floor quite nicely. More testing will be required.

It was still in the game at BlizzCon 2009; there, it had a much lower mana cost, and significantly lower damage than in 2008, indicating the spell was intended to be used more for the "carpet effect" of previous games. At BlizzCon 2010, it was still in the game but wasn't one of the Wizard's starting skills.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Charged Bolt became a level 3 skill and was also renamed Shock Pulse.

Beta

The Diablo III Beta started in September 2011, and while it ran, all of the skills continued to undergo extensive iteration. Skill changes varied from changing the levels the skills are unlocked, to changes in resource cost, damage, and even function. A few skills were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Also, the entire skill system received an overhaul with the Beta Patch 13 update in February 2012, with physical runes replaced by rune effects that automatically unlock at various levels for the different skills.

Shock Pulse became a level 5 skill for the beta. Despite it being inefficient to use in most circumstances, Flux found one really good use for it:[2]

Shock Pulse is the Wizard’s fastest boss-killing skill in the beta, despite the fact that you can not hit a single target with more than two of the bolts, and only that many by standing at point blank range. (Because the targets aren’t large enough. Presumably you’ll be able to bowl all 3 into a Siegebreaker-sized enemy every time.) This isn’t due to some massive damage of Shock Pulse, just the lack of other unruned skills that hit multiple times per use.

With the Beta Patch 8 of December 2011, all signature spells became free to cast at any level. With the Patch 13 changes, Shock Pulse was classified as a Primary skill and moved back to level 3.

Previous Versions

See the Wizard skill archive for more details on previous versions of Shock Pulse (or Charged Bolt) and other Wizard skills.
Or see Charged Bolt (BlizzCon 2008) for the original version of this skill.

In Other Games

Charged Bolt was introduced in Diablo I, where it was, as it is now, a very cheap spell to cast multiple times in hopes of killing many enemies with a carpet of lightning. The spell calls in pockets of lightning that just crawls around randomly, in a general direction.

The second iteration of Charged Bolt was a Sorceress spell in Diablo II, and is basically identical in design. It's one of few Tier 1 spells in the skill trees that scale well even at higher levels, being quite useful at max level.

Media

Shock Pulse can be seen in action on video here:

Gameplay: Blizzcon 2008 (when it was called Charged Bolt)

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

Magic carpet of death.

References

BlizzCon 2008 Wizard Gameplay Report
BlizzCon 2009 Full Wizard Skill Trees
Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report — IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
Silva's Wizard Runestone Effects — IncGamers 5th Sep 2011
Wizard Beta Skills Mega-report: Part One — IncGamers 4th Oct 2011
Wizard Active Skills — Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

Fan-made Classes			Fan-made Skills [e]
• Alchemist • Arcane Warrior • Artisan • Aurian Mage • Bard • Channeller • Dragon Warrior	• Flagellant • Giant (U) • Hollow Man • Nomad • Onaga Manji • Phase Knight	• Ranger • Slayer (U) • Techpriest (U) • Telepath • Untainted (U) • Zealot	Dragon Warrior Skills • Bow and Throwing Skill Tree • Dragon Disciplines Skill Tree • Martial Arts Skill Tree	Untainted Skills • Divine Skill Tree • Void Skill Tree • Wrath Skill Tree	Aurian Mage Skill • Holy Power Skill Tree • Shadow Spells Skill Tree • Nature Forces Skill Tree
(U) = Unfinished

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