Diablo III- Skills Article CLII: The Wizard, Mastery Skills- Archon Sub-Skills

The Archon comes with a set of three subskills (four if you count Cancel, which basically reads ‘I don’t want to be this awesome no more’).  Two of the runes for the skill activate additional subskills that you can use while in Archon mode for a total of five nice skills and one that really only matters if you’re getting your butt kicked anyways.  These archon skills are ludicrous, just so you know, so don’t expect to ever see anything like them for use anywhere else unless another class gets granted an ‘ultimate form’ like the Archon.

Arcane Blast (Cooldown 5 Seconds): Purple arcane energy explodes from your skin, dealing 110% weapon damage as Arcane damage to all enemies within 10 yards.

Probably the weakest of all the Archon skills, Arcane Blast has the unique benefit of not interrupting any other skill you are using.  This means that you can trigger it while firing your Disintegration Wave without bothering to stop said wave.  Naturally, of course, the simplest way to use Archon is to sit there in Archon form beaming out Disintegration and occasionally blowing up everything that tries to stab you in the back.  Arcane Blast defaults to hotbar slot 1.

Arcane Strike: Strike the ground in front of you, causing an explosion that deals 250% weapon damage as Arcane damage to all enemies in the area (a circle of roughly 5 yard radius).

The base attack of Archon form, Arcane Strike is your heaviest source of damage- but it’s a bit of a slow attack, coming out only about three times in two seconds.  The area effect is nice, but because it is circular, it actually doesn’t work very well at melee range.  Still, it makes a good interim skill while you’re letting your Archon Arcane Power pool refill, since it doesn’t cost anything.

Disintegration Wave (20 Arcane Power per second): You emanate a purple beam of energy that deals 300% weapon damage as Arcane damage every second to enemies in it and destroys the bodies of any enemies it kills.

Probably the most powerful overall skill available in Archon form, Disintegration Wave is the only way you have of consuming your Arcane Power as an Archon.  This is actually fairly good, since the damage exceeds Frost Ray, affects an entire line like Disintegrate, and isn’t interrupted by Arcane Blast.  Keep in mind that when you trigger Archon, your Arcane Power Pool immediately fills to maximum, but using Disintegration Wave consumes it as normal.

Archon Teleport (Cooldown 10 Seconds): Teleport up to 20 yards, irrespective of obstacles, enemies, or terrain between you and your target location.

Archon Teleport is hard to justify.  It’s shorter than regular Teleport, and since the Disintegration Wave reaches across the entire screen, there are very few reasons to waste your time as an Archon repositioning when you could be killing things instead.  Particularly since the other rune effects for Archon are usually more powerful.  Still, even a reduced Teleport is a Teleport, and if you can manage to keep up longer durations of Archon, then this can be worth using.

Archon Slow Time (Cooldown 20 Seconds): For the next 8 seconds, enemies within 10 yards of you have their movement and attack speeds Slowed by 40% and projectiles are slowed by 60%.

Archon Slow Time is very easy to benefit from.  While it’s not as strong or large as the standard Slow Time effect, even unruned, it’s still a powerful defensive ability that also keeps things where you can keep hitting them.  What’s more, unlike standard Slow Time, this version moves with the Archon, keeping it always in effect where the Archon needs it most.