Starting with Diablo III in 2012, I learned to love the beam. Seemingly overnight, the famous RPG franchise transformed in my mind from being about vast dungeon adventures with a variety of characters, to being that game where I hold down one button to shoot magical beams at things until they disappear.
The game’s wizard class has two different core beam spells, each with their own elemental rune modifiers that change their effects and behaviors. Near the very beginning of the game, players unlock an ice beam that’s incredibly powerful, both freezing and damaging enemies without using too much energy. About a third of the way through its leveling structure, the second more powerful disintegration beam emerges. It loses the slowing capabilities of the ice but can go through all enemies in its wake without a hitch.
These two powers clicked with me so well that I stopped doing all other things in the game the moment I found them. Before this, I never really liked playing as wizard characters in RPGs. I would gravitate towards anyone with a sword and shield, or failing that, someone with a bow. But Diablo III’s wizard class permanently re-wired my gaming brain. Then, cementing this even further, Blizzard made improvements to the powers of…
