Diablo III- Skills Article CXXVIII: The Wizard, Primary Skills- Shock Pulse

Shock Pulse: Emanate 3 electrical pulses along the ground that move erratically and deal 105% weapon damage as Lightning damage to one target each.

This spell will be very familiar to anyone who found themselves using Charged Bolt in Diablo II.  Like its predecessor, this spell is very hard to actually hit with at its longer reach, but can be devastatingly effective in close quarters, as often two or even all three bolts will hit the same target.  If you feel that you don’t want to worry about more distant enemies, this is vastly superior to Magic Missile, but trying to use it at medium range can prove both frustrating and futile.

Explosive Bolts: Emanate 3 electrical pulses along the ground that move erratically and deal 105% weapon damage as Lightning damage to one target each.  Any target killed by one of these bolts explodes in a burst of electricity that deals 70% weapon damage as Lightning damage to all enemies within 10 yards.

An immensely useful crowd-clearing spell, Explosive Bolts still suffers from the crippling inability to do much at medium range (where it tends to peter out, being incapable of long range), but the burst effect it has on minions it kills makes up for that a lot.  In a crowded area, 10 yards is a surprisingly long way, and fights such as Iskatu can be quickly rendered moot- since the rune counts targets killed by the explosion as being killed by the bolts, they then explode as well, and you can clear out remarkably large areas, or deal very nice damage to more powerful demons that lurk in the middle of groups of minions.  Still, at later levels, this starts to get outshone as even minions become significantly durable.

Fire Bolts: Emanate 3 pulses along the ground that move erratically and deal 137% weapon damage as Fire damage to one target each.

Pretty crimson bolts that deal fire damage, Fire Bolts has surprisingly little to offer- the damage increase is nice, but the damage type is more often resisted than Lightning, and it doesn’t change the functionality of the base skill at all.  Generally, if you could use Fire Bolts, you’ll like Explosive Bolts more.

Piercing Orb: Emanate a pulsing electrical orb along the ground that deals 105% weapon damage as Lightning damage to any enemies it passes through.

Piercing Orb is a lot more controllable than Shock Pulse, but it still only has a range that lets it reach halfway to the edge of the screen.  Since the damage remains the same, it still is passable as a way to clear out clusters of minions, but again- if you’re dealing with clusters of minions, Explosive Bolts is more likely to be handy.  The only real advantage to Piercing Orb is that it actually hits your targets at medium range- which can be a big advantage over Shock Pulse, but by this level you have better alternatives.

Lightning Affinity: Emanate 3 electrical pulses along the ground that move erratically and deal 105% weapon damage as Lightning damage to one target each, as well as restoring 2 Arcane Power when they hit something.

Although regaining Arcane Power is nice, this actually works out to being a worse deal for it than using Magic Missile’s Arcane Power rune.  Since Shock Pulse can’t hit reliably at medium range, or at all at long range, you’re only going to be regaining 2 Arcane Power most of the time- and if you’re in close range, you’re better off using Explosive Bolts to actually kill what you’re shocking and not need the Arcane Power to begin with.

Living Lightning: Create a small lightning entity that drifts forwards slowly and attacks nearby enemies for 37% weapon damage as Lightning damage.

Living Lightning proves an interesting alternative to Explosive Bolts for attacking clusters of enemies.  Since the single entity moves straight forwards, it’s actually possible to target a group at medium or even longer ranges with the entity, and the fact that it continually attacks nearby enemies means that it can wind up doing considerable damage even if it doesn’t actually kill anything.  Generally speaking, your choice of runes for Shock Pulse is going to be between this and Explosive Bolts.