Arcane Torrent

Arcane Torrent is an Arcane spell used by s in Diablo III.

In-game
Arcane Torrent creates a constant stream of missiles which follow the player's cursor and hit its location after a brief delay, ignoring most obstacles and intervening enemies (but not solid walls). Deals damage with every tick to all enemies within approximately 4 yards of the impact point. This damage increases by 305% as Arcane for every tick of channeling, up to 1010% damage as Arcane (that is, reaching full potency after 2 ticks, normally 2 seconds). Stopping the channeling will reset that bonus.

If the Wizard moves after casting, missiles will still hit the targeted location, but cannot move while channeling. Arcane Torrent has a limited range, roughly 60 yards.

Arcane Torrent is very useful against Waller elite packs, as it can shoot over walls, blocking the enemies' own fire, but not impairing the Wizard's. Moreover, its missiles are not considered projectiles, and therefore are not slowed by Slow Time or Missile Dampening affix.

Due to the delay between launch and the moment of impact, it may be challenging to aim at the moving target. The delay varies very little with distance, hitting even the Wizard's location in no less than 0.35 seconds.

Arcane Torrent may not be used on empty air areas (i.e. off-border on some maps) and most types of impassable terrain, making it less useful against flying enemies.

Leaving this skill with the Cascade rune or none at all (to keep its damage type Arcane) and combining it with the Temporal Flux passive ability, as well as the Magic Weapon buff with the Conduit rune makes Arcane Torrent a very lethal AoE damage dealer plus crowd control skill, combining the best aspects of Arcane Torrent and Ray of Frost and allowing to fire it for a very long time.

Runes:

 * Flame Ward: damage type changes to Fire, and while channeling, also reduces all damage taken by the Wizard by 15%, increased by 5% for every second of channeling, up to 25% total reduction.
 * Death Blossom: initial damage increases to 1215%, and channeling bonus to 640% per second (up to a total of 2495%), but the torrent can no longer be controlled, hitting a random location anywhere within range with each missile.
 * Arcane Mines: missiles are replaced with mines, placed on the ground and becoming armed after 2 seconds, exploding for 825% damage as Arcane within 10 yards radius when enemy comes into range. Affected enemies are also slowed (both movement and attack) by 60% for 3 seconds. The total number of mines that can be placed simultaneously is limited to six.
 * Static Discharge: damage type changes to Lightning. Each missile also releases two piercing sparks of energy on impact, which fly in random direction for up to 20 yards and zap the enemies they pierce through for 150% damage as Lightning. As missiles are streamed at the rate of roughly 4-5 per tick, it will normally result in 8-10 sparks per second.
 * Cascade: each enemy hit has a 12.5% chance to launch a free missile to nearby enemy, hitting for 582% damage as Arcane within 4 yards.

Non-rune enhancements

 * Taeguk (Legendary Gem): increases damage done by 2% per tick (+0.04% per rank) and armor by 2% per tick (rank 25 bonus), stacking up to 10 times.
 * Mantle of Channeling (Legendary Pauldrons): while channeling Arcane Torrent, increases damage done by 20-25% and reduces damage taken by 25%.
 * Deathwish (Legendary Sword): while channeling Arcane Torrent, increases damage done by 250-325%.
 * Etched Sigil (Legendary Source): for every second of channeling, will also cast Energy Twister at the same target, and increases damage of Energy Twister by 200-250% while channeled.
 * Hergbrash's Binding (Legendary Belt): reduces Arcane Power cost by 50-65%.

Development
Prior to Patch 2.1, it used the plain damage, regardless of channeling time. Developers wanted to add a 30 Arcane Power initial cost to compensate, but then decided to decrease the starting damage and add the channeling bonus.

Originally this skill had a Power Stone rune, which was the only existing remnant of Mana Globes (a variant of Health Globes).

Trivia

 * The Death Blossom skill rune may be in reference to The Last Starfighter film, in which the heroes use the ship's last ditch option by the same name. When activated, it would wildly fire in random directions, at an increased power output and speed.