Yesterday, we talked about rolling around with our Barbarian and Demon Hunters, throwing grenades and smashing groups of enemies with our Groundstomp and Earthquakes. Today let’s take a look at the other 3 classes’ AoE Farming Skills; the Wizard, With Doctor and Monk.

Wizard

The Wizard has been my favorite class during the beta. There are only 13 levels available so only a few of the great AoE spells can be tested. My hands down favorite is Arcane Orb which throws an orb that blows up when it hits its target, doing 225% arcane damage to all enemies within 10 yards. The Wizard also has a few other low level AoEs like Frost Nova and Energy Twister which throws out a twister that does 36% weapon damage to everything in its path.

The hallmarks of Wizard AoE, though, are going to be Blizzard and Meteor. Blizzard will cost 45 Arcane Power  and doing 65% weapon damage while Meteor will cost 65 Arcane Power and do 305% weapon damage initially but leave a 50% weapon damage per second dot for 3 seconds.

Wizards will likely be jumping around with Teleport dropping their various AoEs, this class will definitely be a strong AoE farmer.

Monk

The end-game AoE Monk will surely be defined by their Wave of Light spell which uses 100 Spirit and throws a total of 480% damage out to all enemies in front of them. You may also see Lashing Tail Kicks flying around, which is a Chuck Norris style round house kick that hits and knocks back nearby enemies.

In order to generate all this rage Monks may use Sweeping Wind which applies an AoE dot and generates 6 spirit per attack, Exploding Pain which will cause dying targets to explode dealing 30% of their health to nearby enemies or perhaps Crippling , a spirit generating ability that causes 110% weapon damage to all enemies in front of the Monk with the chance to snare and debuff their ability to fight back.

The Monks AoE abilities will be more clear when end game Monks start experimenting with mass killing in the live version of Diablo 3.

Witch Doctor

The Witch Doctor’s signature is the summoned creatures doing the Witch Doctor’s bidding. Fetish Army, the raising of an army of fetish creatures to fight by your side by 20 seconds, will likely be a hallmark of end game play. Mass Confusion will incite paranoia in enemies, causing them to fight on your team for 8 seconds. Most of the Witch Doctor’s creature summoning skills will do mass damage, so there isn’t much need for specific AoE skills.

The only pure AoE skills I foresee for the Witch Doctor are Acid Cloud, a Blizzard type AoE that does 125% weapon damage to enemies in the targeted area, along with a 25% dot that remains on targets that don’t leave the area. Firebomb also has promise, for 443 mana the Witch Doctor can throw an explosive skull at enemies, exploding and doing 155% weapon damage to enemies within 8 yards.

These skills combined with the right play styles will define Diablo 3 farming in the first few months of play. You can read all about the unreleased classes at: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.