The Storm Armor skill for the Wizard says:
Bathe yourself in electrical energy, periodically shocking a nearby enemy for 175% weapon damage as Lightning. Lasts 10 minutes.
But what causes the "periodic shock of a nearby enemy"? Sometimes I've seen Storm Armor go off multiple times in rapid succession, sometimes it doesn't seem to go off for several seconds.
Is the shock rate related to attack speed?
(I realize the Reactive Armor and Shocking Aspect runes might change this behavior a bit, but I'm primarily interested in the base behavior.)
Best Answer
Are you using the Shocking Aspect rune? It procs (triggers) off critical hits. So it will strike more often if you have more critical hits. Attack Speed increases the number of times that it is possible to crit, so it indirectly makes this effect occur more often. Its maximum frequency is only limited by the number of critical hits that you can have.
The base Storm Armor strikes once per second and its rate is unaffected by attack speed. Source: http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/wizard-the-ancient-repositories/52133-storm-armor-proc-rate
Note that it may take longer than a second to recognize that something is an enemy. Or you may not be seeing the enemy that is struck. Either can cause it to seem like there is more than one second between strikes.