As you may have guessed from the title this guide is about handling bosses and their mobs in Diablo 2. It is mostly meant for playing solo in Nightmare or Hell difficulty. Its use is very small for the brutally overpowered level 92 Barb, though.
Most of the information contained herein is meant for D2 newbies but some bits of it could give nice hints to the experienced player as well (esp. stair traps in General Tips and parts of Boss Bonuses). So please refrain from posting flames regarding the presumed low level nature of this guide. Better help me getting it to a higher level (email
). If you want to discuss some strategies mentioned in this guide - you are welcome.
Often the guide will look at special strategies for the different character classes and main variants. However, I will only mention those classes which I have already played to a sufficient degree. Suggestions for including other variants are appreciated, though. In the meantime I have played some more variants (Jabbazon, Thorns/Sacrifice Paladin, Venomancer, dual wielding Barb, naked Fire only Sorceress), but in my opinion they only lead to very few new strategies. A strategy needing 20 points in one or more specific skills and great abilities in using these skills as well (at least if they are not skills commonly boosted for the concerning character class) is considered a variant strategy. But feel free to tell me.
I will not or only rarely consider strategies based on several pieces of equipment (e.g. Iceblink, Frostburns, ...) because Murphy does not want you to find them and to me trading is only stealing fun... Strategies against lag are also omitted since if you can survive a lag spike in front of a boss mob you will not need any tips at all.
Please accept an apology in advance to all of you gifted with high skills in English language for my poor understanding of grammar and style :-). Corrections of this kind are appreciated only per email (
), not in public forums.
D2 - Diablo 2 (well...) CS - Chaos Sanctuary, web based D2 guide by Blizzard or last part of Act4 in the D2 game NM - Nightmare difficulty AoE - Area of Effect (of spells) Exp - Experience HP - Hitpoints, Health TP - Town Portal WP - Way Point LEB - Lightning Enchanted Boss MSLEB - Lightning Enchanted Boss with Multishot rejuv - Rejuvenation Potion (purple) XX-lock - use the XX attack in rapid succession by selecting it, clicking on the monster and holding the mouse key down LBOD - Lightning Breath Of Death, Diablo's deadly ranged attack MD - magical damage PD - physical damage
Barb - standard Barbarian, using either WW or Bash/LA WW - Whirlwind LA - Leap Attack BO - Battle Orders FP - Find Potion
Sorc - standard Sorceress, capable of using some skills from every elemental tree GS - Glacial Spike FO - Frost Orb SF - Static Field TS - Thunder Storm
Bowazon - the bow or crossbow wielding amazon knowing the whole bow tree MS - Multishot GA - Guided Arrow IA - Immolation Arrow Valk - Valkyrie
M-Pally - Melee Paladin, a Paladin relying on melee skills (e.g. Zeal,Charge,Sacrifice) HF - Holy Freeze
Necro - Necromancer: summoning, reviving, shooting. No restrictions. CE - Corpse Explosion BG/IG/FG - Blood/Iron/Fire Golem IM - Iron Maiden BW - Bone Wall BP - Bone Prison Spirit - Bone Spirit Spear - Bone Spear
Do not fight the whole mob at once if you have to melee
Look at the enchantments before you launch your initial attack (even you WW-Barbs !)
Leading the mob to your TP/WP might be a bad idea :-)
If you expect the fight to be too hard then hire a mercenary
Do not start the battle if you are low on HP/Mana/Potions/Ammo, glance at your weapon's durability (can you say "Dimensional Blade" ?)
If you have to flee and they are faster than you: No Panic! Melee monsters Most monsters will need some frames to start an attack and in this time you are probably out of reach. Circle some trees/corners/doors and with some luck you will be able to cast Town Portal. Then start the chase again and return to your TP when you have distanced the mob by half a screen. Ranged attackers Just focus on dodging their shots. They can not shoot while running...
If the boss revives its mob you have two alternatives:
lure some minions away (far enough to keep the boss from reviving) and kill them. Try to get rid of the bodies... (Barb: FP, Sorc and Bowazon: Freezing attacks, M-Pally: Redemption, Necro: Well... :-))
make a quick attack for the boss and immediately retreat, heal, repeat (quite dangerous without Leap/LA or Teleport)
slay as much minions as you can and leave the whole area (via TP). Play in another area for some time. Upon your return the game will probably have removed many corpses.
If it is a stair trap (i.e. the mob occurs very close to the entrance of an area; often found in Act3 temples): think hard: Do you really need to clear this area? Is there another entrance? Why? Because without Leap or Teleport (maybe +fast cast if your opponents are fast) you will probably die. Period. At least if you are not vastly overpowered or still in normal difficulty. Some advice if you decide to throw the dices:
try to glimpse at the boss' enchantments, then retreat instantly
make a TP outside
prepare your resistances accordingly, try to equip a shield with a high blocking rate
get some fast hit recovery items and some fast cast items (of course only if you have to cast :-))
seek further help (see above: mercs, purple potions, ...)
enter
Barb if you think you are strong enough start WWing (think of the enchantments first!) else Leap, then run away until you have lost some of them Sorc if you have some freezing attacks you may be tempted to use them but think about the generally shortened freeze duration in NM/Hell and some cold resistant monsters (e.g. Vampires). Another threat is the small AoE of GS. If one monster is not frozen they will probably kill you. The strongest point against using freezing attacks standing near a boss mob is that the boss can not be frozen. So you will eventually have to move and will not be able keep the mob frozen. Argh... :-) Maybe your best chance is to start Teleporting away as fast as possible (hoping not to hit another mob...). Another idea: see Bowazon below, use Meteor/Fire Wall/ Hydra... then retreat. Bowazon you could try Freezing Arrow but see Sorc above. Better chance: Use an attack with an AoE and retreat instantly, repeat. You will have some tenth of a second to launch the attack and retreat after entering (well, apparantly monsters' apprehension is quite low...), so you have to click very fast and accurately (do not try this if you are tired). This works fine with Immolation Arrow since your opponents receive damage even after you leave. You will want to equip items that reduce the length of your hit recovery animation (Balance, Stability) to avoid being stunlocked. M-Pally quite difficult if you are not powerful enough to fight them all at once. You may try to dissipate the mob by focusing on one foe while using a knockback attack (Charge or item) but you have to be lucky to get far with this... If there is a way out of the mob try HF-Aura and fastest run boots. Against undeads Sanctuary (yes, its knockback is useful if slvl > 5) works quite well (if you can survive some whacks...). If you have high HP and some full rejuvs, definitely Thorns and a mercenary are an alternative. Necro if you are lucky your minions will shield you for long enough to start some serious CE (or multiple Revives) after the first enemy drops. Else there are some curses which could help you escaping (Terror,Confuse,Attract, Decrepify). If there is enough space you could try Bonewall.
Well, we all know the joy of discovering an Extra Fast MSLEB (Multishot+Lightning Enchanted Boss) with no potions left, but I will look into the various other "bonuses", too, since almost every enchantment holds some danger for some chars and situations.
Aura Mostly harmless :-), but ... Might they are hitting harder so try to fight only very few opponents at the same time Holy Fire put on some Fire Resistance. Pure annoyance. Blessed Aim quite the same effect as Might. The foes are not hitting harder but more often. Might be bad when you can not afford being hit even once (esp. with Extra Fast). A shield will help, though. Holy Freeze this is really tough if you have no suitable ranged attacks. Combined with Extra Fast it is quite lethal. Barb WW still works and even gets some more hits but so does your char... M-Pally Charge is not useful while you are frozen. You still hit the first monster which tries to touch you but you are immobile before this actually happens, allowing the mob to surround you. A full Zeal cycle will also take a lot of time while your foes are hitting you. Sacrifice with high life leech could be an alternative. Thorns with rejuvs will work as well. Else: Try to get out of the aura's range and start shooting. Holy Shock put on some Lightning Resistance. Pure annoyance. Conviction generally your adversaries will hit you more often (like Blessed Aim) and (and this is crucial) harder if they use elemental attacks. Dodge the latter and be very cautious when attacking a boss with additional elemental damage due to Spectral Hit. Fanaticism they are hitting faster and more often, but usually no real problem
Curse CS says "If Unique hits, 50% of the time, an Amplify Damage Curse of (monster level / 4) is cast on attacker." So try to avoid the boss until you have greatly decimated its mob. Else you might have problems to control the rate at which you receive damage. If this is combined with the Extra Strong attribute you may well be dropped by a single hit. Again ranged attacks are in favour. Barbs may consider WWing through the (hopefully lone) boss if its attack is slow enough and thus it is unable to hit them. M-Pallies can walk the same path with Charge but seem more likely to be hit, even with a shield. A high level Smack with a barbed shield may work better. But if there is an additional Extra Fast attribute your chances of survival are low with melee. If you are a Necro with minions or a Bowazon with Valkyrie be aware that you are cursed along with your followers, if they are hit and you are in the spell's range (so keep your distance).
Cold Enchanted Several effects here: You receive cold damage with every hit of the boss, your opponent has 75% cold resist, hits more often and launches a Frost Nova upon death. I am not totally sure of this but cold enchanted bosses, when combined with a Lightning Enchantment, seem to hit you with cold damage when you hit them (and not the other way round). First up your cold resistance. Kill the mob before the boss. Then ranged attackers should move out of the Nova range when the boss' HP are low. Barbs and M-Pallies will have to take the Frost Nova so they should deliver the killing blow only when they are at (almost) full health. They also have to be very cautios with those kind of ranged attacks (WW, Charge), since when they are chilled, it will take a long time to complete the attack. They may be surrounded (not this dangerous for WWing Barb, but easily deadly for the Charging M-Pally). The Frost Nova is affected by the Multishot Enchantment. So in this case melee characters should think about delivering the death blow by a ranged attack (see Fire Enchanted below). If you rely heavily on cold attacks these foes will be tough. Always think of more than just one fighting tactics during character development (at least if you are not planning a variant).
Extra Fast The whole mob is running much faster, the boss will get an additional attack rate increase. This is bad. Although many players think of LEBs as the worst bosses I often found extra fast ones being equally dangerous, at least for some character classes. Many enchantments are quite harmless on their own but with Extra Fast they become quite potent because most strategies dealing with movement and positioning will not work well against an EF mob. It is difficult, somtimes even impossible to fight only one monster at a time. Because being outrun is so bad, most naturally fast monsters (e.g. Flayers) have very low HP. Even if they surround you, you will probably kill them off quickly. In contrast an EF mob has no reduced HP but increased health (as all minions have). Barbs can handle this with WW (like almost every problem), but they should look at the enchantments or they might hit a MSLEB multiple times... Necros and Bowazons have their minions to distract the mob. For Sorcs and M-Pallies (and the above mentioned classes to some extent): One method of dealing with EF monsters is to use a narrow passageway to fight only few monsters simultaneously. You always should know where to find such a spot in your area. If you are outside then look for buildings or fences (Act4), in dungeons and tombs there should be doors or narrow corridors. To get to these locations some very fast running is required. If your char has no fastest run boots you will have to rely on skills like Increased Speed (Barbarian), Vigor (Paladin) and Teleport (Sorceress). The Necro will probably have less problems with fast monsters because of his minions. If he is caught alone he could try Decrepify to escape. The Bowazon is tempted to wear boots without fastest run (but with some other great modifiers) because she rarely has to run away. Valk and Decoy should attract the mob while she dispatches it from a safe distance, eventually recasting her minions. The other possibility is to slow the enemy either by cold damage or (again) with curses.
Fire Enchanted These bosses will sometimes give an additional fire damage upon hitting you. This is no big deal if it is not an Extra Strong and Cursed boss (then it is a candidate for the famous one-hit death). Besides the increased fire resistance (could be bad for some Fire Sorceresses) the main threat of this bonus is the explosion on boss death. Though I personally never have suffered any real great loss of health due to this property, I am aware that others (esp. soloing in 8 player games) have. Ranged attackers will just have to keep some distance to avoid the explosion. Melee attackers should try to be at full health while delivering the killing blow. If you think you possibly can not handle an explosion at full health you have some choices: First bring the boss very near to death, then
apply some poison damage (could be even a strangling potion) and run away or
change to a bow or throwing weapon or
hire a mercenary to finish him or
equip a shield with a high block% and hope for the best... :-)
Lightning Enchanted This is the single most hated enchantment, especially in combination with Multishot and resistance to your favourite attack skill. You should attack LEBs from the greatest distance possible. This is easy for ranged attackers, but they will have to do some recasting or resummoning to keep some minions between the boss and themselves. Bowazons should use Slow Missiles. The Sorcs will have to run/cast repeatedly. If LE is combined with Extra Fast and the boss is actually faster than your Sorc, you will have to distance him with teleports. Some fast cast items would be very useful or the boss could catch you before you are done porting... Melee fighters need maxed lightning resistance, a high HP pool and (for safety) some full rejuvs. Use the attack with the highest damage/hit ratio (Pallies: do not use Zeal but Charge or Sacrifice, Barbs: give LA a try, it even works in melee range!). Try to drag the LEB against some wall and then stand close to the wall yourself (it seems to me, that some bolts can not reach you in this position). If there is no wall you could try to attack from an angle so that the number of bolts hitting you is minimal. Sometimes there is even a direction where no bolts fly (or maybe they are just invisible :-( ). If you have to quit fighting and start running, avoid the already flying sparks... Another choice for the M-Pally is using Smack with a very fast attack rate and a barbed shield. I am not sure if this is a bug (and so could possibly be nerfed in future patches) or if it is intended that a stunned LEB will not emit any bolts while being smacked very fast. There is one more problem with LEBs (probably this is more bug than feature). If they are also Cold Enchanted you will be chilled with your melee attacks hitting this boss. This is very bad because dodging bolts gets so hard then and strong attacks like Charge might get useless. LE and Fire Enchantment works as well, but I think the fire damage could possibly be blocked (this needs testing...).
Magic Resistant Bringing all elemental resists to 75% this attribute can slow you down seriously if you rely heavily on elemental attacks. Generally this is only a real problem for the Sorc. Sorcs may need to make short town trips repeatedly for refilling their Mana Orb, if their Warmth is low. If this enchantment is combined with Extra Fast and Teleporting the boss might be practically invincible for the solo Sorc (see Hephasto in Special Bosses and Teleporting below).
Mana Burn This one can be either deadly or harmless. That depends on your kind of attack. All ranged attackers will just have to keep their distance (by minions or teleport). If the boss can not hit you, Mana Burn is harmless (although increasing Magic Resistance). For a M-Pally using Zeal or Charge, Mana Burn is quite harmless, too, because these skills' mana requirements are low. One successful normal attack or use of Sacrifice should, in combination with some mana leeching, refill a good portion of the Mana Orb. For the Barb this boss bonus can be fatal. If he tries to WW the mob down and gets hit by the boss he will stop very near or in the middle of an angered mob without the opportunity for a new WW. If he has neglected most other attack skills (as many if not most WW-Barbs do) he will have a very hard time to regain enough mana by means of a mediocre attack. This is a good reason for Barbs to carry at least one Mana Potion in their belts. Be cautious in case of ranged attacks. They are also burning mana and could be a great problem for Sorcs (so they really should try to dodge these attacks, or hire a merc for distraction).
Multishot If in combination with Lightning Enchanted this bonus is extremly dangerous else it is just a kind of damage amplification. Shots by Multishot bosses are harder to dodge so keep your distance if you can. I am not totally sure of it but MS bosses which use a homing attack (e.g. a MS De Seis' Spirits) lose the homing ability of the spell for all but one missile/bolt. If you have to melee this could be also beneficial against some bosses because they might use their unenhanced melee attack instead. But this is not reliable so you will have to max the appropriate resistance and equip some rejuvs. If the monster's bolts are flying slowly (e.g. Shamans, but watch out for desync) a Barb could try to LA in the very moment the boss emits them and to retreat thereafter.
Spectral Hit Slightly raised elemental resists and added elemental/poison damage. The danger of this enchantment lies in its variation of the kind of attack. In Hell difficulty you will probably not be able to get all resistances to max. So some attacks may hit you real hard whereas others will be quite weak. If you receive the weak attacks first you could be mistaken about the damage potential of your adversary and die when it suddenly gets in some strong attacks (esp. when combined with Curse and/or Extra Fast). In Hell difficulty you may stay chilled during the fight because of the cold attacks.
Stone Skin Though upgrading the damage resistance is no particularly dangerous attribute in itself, it can get quite tough in several combinations for the non-elemental attackers. If combined with a given natural damage resistance the boss can become almost invulnerable to normal melee attacks (esp. if his healing rate is great). M-Pallies may use Vengeance or some of their ranged/aura attacks but Barbs will have problems without a weapon with high elemental/poison damage. Due to a bug War Cry and Berserk are doing physical damage only. :-(
Extra Strong This "bonus" is responsible for many of the famous one-hit deaths that even Barbs may experience sometimes. If combined with Curse you will certainly try to make attacks that prevent the boss from fighting back. Look above at Curse for some strategies. The wrong combination of attributes can lead to an amazingly high damage potential (e.g. Extra Strong+Curse+ Fire Enchanted+Critical Hit).
Teleport In my opinion this enchantment (at least its healing part) is really unfair. If Teleport is combined with Extra Fast/Holy Freeze and a resistance to your attack type you can spend hours to no avail, at least if the boss has high HP anyway. I once had an epic battle with my (then level 50) FO/SF/TS Sorc against an Extra Fast, Teleporting, Magic Resistant and Lightning Enchanted Hell Hephasto lasting about 3 hours in which I managed to die only twice (both times he teleported almost on top of me and hit immediately, while my health was slightly below max because of some sparks I ate). But finally I had to give up. I just could not beat him in this configuration because of his frenzied teleporting. A boss with Teleport and no special resists can be beaten by highly damaging attacks (and some patience) when its health gets close to 1/3. Equip the rare Lance you are normally afraid to use due to the lack of blocking. Use mass FO/mass Spirit and potions. It is possible for a Bowazon to GA-lock the boss. When a boss has the Teleport ability and some resistance, your first goal is to use an attack unafflicted by its resists. See Stone Skin and Magic Resistant above. If this is impossible there are some more things to try: When your opponent's health is near 1/3
use a stunning attack. Barb: Stun or War Cry, M-Pally: Smite or sometimes a Charge-lock also seems to work, Sorc: Telekinesis (impracticable for high HP bosses and Super Uniques) or
choose a suitable location for battle. If you limit its choice of places to teleport to, you may be able to constantly hit the boss in case of ranged attacks. Search for long and narrow corridors or small isolated buildings/ rooms or
set up a trap. A Necro may find a place with a huge number of corpses (then CE), a Sorc may cast a lot of hydras/blizzards/ firewalls and lure the boss into this and/or
give the beast something to play with. If the boss' hits are not this hard you could hire a mercenary/recast/resummon. When it is attacking it is not teleporting.
Further it is rumored that some teleporting Super Uniques (e.g. some of the Council Members in Act3) stop teleporting after a very long time. I do not know if this is really a feature of the Teleporting AI or if these observations were pure luck.
In NM/Hell you should try to level up immediately before facing most of the bosses in this section, so you will not lose too much experience in case of death.
Blood Raven She is only a problem early on when you are lacking ranged attacks and AoE spells. Normal difficulty tips: The ranged attackers may use "happy feet", meaning in this case waiting for Blood Raven to shoot, dodging the arrow, shooting on her own. Repeat. Move away from raised undeads sometimes. Melee fighters just have to be persistent and need to use some potions. Do not get surrounded by Blood Raven's minions.
The Smith He is the act 1 Hephasto, although having a considerably lower damage potential (lacking the built-in Curse enchantment of Heph and having about 1/4 (Normal difficulty) till 1/2 (Hell difficulty) of his base damage). Easy way for ranged attackers: shoot him through some fence (make sure before that the door is not blocked). Barbs and M-Pallies: With a long ranged weapon you can do the same. Else use the strategies for Hephasto below.
Andariel Well, she never had any attributes worth mentioning in all our encounters. So with some Antidote Potions it is quite easy to kill her. I wait for the day she gets invisible and attacks with a nice Psi Storm :-).
Radament Only thing to say: if you have no means of keeping him from reviving his minions (e.g. by freezing attacks), lure them far away. Also look at Revivers above.
Coldworm The Burrower The boss itself is no problem (just look for the Frost Nova) but beware if you have to melee and the room is too overcrowded. Then it sometimes happens that some monsters are not selected when you move the mouse cursor over them, and thus you will be unable to fight them. You really should think of starting a new game then (I normally never suggest this, but this is a game flaw) or you might die multiple times in the crowd (surrounded by monsters you can not fight with melee attacks) leaving some items on the ground... To prevent Coldworm from spawning too much monsters try to find its room as soon as possible upon entering level 3 of the Maggot's Lair. Often the worm is hiding in a room to the north or east. Take some antidotes with you for his poison is extremely strong (I wish there were potions to counter elemental attacks...).
Fangskin Even if Fangskin and its mob are not this close to the stairs they will see you and start heading towards you. They are Extra Fast and can chill you so you will have a hard time to survive. If you have some minions to stand in front of you it is possible to decimate its mob sufficiently to clear most of the area near to the stairs. Then you will have a safe retreat. Else some character classes (Barb/Sorc/Bowazon) may try to reach the altar in the middle of the room quickly. The Vipers can not reach you there. Finish off all ranged attackers first (Barb with LA/War Cry) while preventing skeletons to reach you in greater numbers by blocking the stairs to the altar. Just be careful to avoid Fangskins sparks... Barb - Leap/LA Sorc - Teleport Bowazon - cast Decoy/Valk to distract the mob, then run... Since the M-Pally and the Necro would have to run through a crowd of monsters they should fight at the stairs. M-Pally - I usually manage this by hiring a merc, then entering with Thorns and retreating just before death. Necro - clear entrance with minions and IM+Spears
The Summoner He uses powerful fire and cold attacks so upgrade those resists. Against his far reaching Fire Wall consider some -MD equipment. Melee fighters should draw out all other monsters on his platform by making short trips to the stairs leading up there and retreating quickly. Dodge his Ice Blast when getting near. If he is alone the Barb can easily and without a risk kill him with LA. The M-Pally should avoid Charge (if he gets chilled while Charging it could get ugly...) but any other physical attack should do because of the Summoner's low HP (at least for a superunique). Ranged attackers just have to aim spells (AoE spells work best) at his platform, dodging or resisting his Fire Walls. Eventually he will drop.
Duriel To survive the initial area loading lag (should be better since 1.04) you may hire a mercenary and ask Tyrael for some guardian angels :-). Try casting a TP as soon as possible, so you will not have to run this long after death... Then it is important to notice that Duriel's normal attack is much less damaging than its Charge. So ranged attackers can choose if they want to constantly run away from Duriel while trying to get in some shots without being killed or get real close while it finishes of your minions/merc and then rely on blocking and/or potions. If you choose the latter then you have to close the gap real fast if it pushes you away (and you should not have a ranged attack selected for your left mouse button!). There is no way to counter its HF-like aura (because it is not a cold aura) so running and shooting is very tiresome and probably lethal due to its real fast charge and the confined space. If the BG/IM bug is fixed the Necro might get into some difficulties because Duriel will finish of his minions quite fast then. He may try it with FG/IM or else he will have to rely on Spirits. Another great strategy for the minionless Necro is permantly recasting BPs and watching IMed Duriel's health dropping quickly. But be sure to finish him off without BP or BW and IM because you will receive no Exp (and no drop) this way. Barbs and M-Pallies should not have great problems. Just stay close.
Sszark The Burning Try to clear as much of the Spider Cavern as possible before fighting Sszark. You will need some room to retreat and heal, waiting for the curse to wear off. In the great majority of dungeon layouts I have encountered the boss was in the southern corner of the Cavern. So avoid this area first. When finally encountering Sszark seperate him from his mob by running. Be very eager to use rejuvs because an Extra Strong, Cursed and Critical Hit is probably the last thing you will see when being caught at less than full health. The Sorc is probably the most endangered character against Sszark, so try some off-screen killing (if your Sorc has no great tanking abilities :-)). Bowazons may use Valks to distract Sszark. Keep your distance or you will be cursed along with your minion.
Witch Doctor Endugu Well, just stay out of his (and his mob's) Inferno range and you should be fine (up your fire resists, though). Melee fighters can try to draw them out by catching Endugu's attention (do not get fried while trying this...). If Endugu starts to move, so will his minions, eventually dissipating and allowing you to face only one Inferno at a time. If needed at all: Bowazons may use Slow Missiles (a Jabbazon really needs this) and Necros can employ Dim Vision.
Battlemaid Sarina She always is Extra Fast and does Spectral Hits. This alone would not be so bad but the fact that she is generally encountered in very confined spaces (act 3 temples) and her quite sizable (and Extra Fast) mob makes her to one of the worst bosses of act 3. If they surround you without a TP or the stairs in your reach, you are dead (maybe except for WW Barbs). If she occurs near to the stairs look at the hints for stair traps above. Else advance very cautiously and try to draw out some of her minions before catching her attention. For the fight against Sarina try to wear a socketed shield with some diamonds and a high block percentage. A prismatic amulet can help against her spectral attacks. If you have minions: run until Sarina focuses on them. If not: hire a merc.
The Council Members in Travincal Clear Travincal first then draw them out one by one. Since you have enough space and no other distracting monsters these Council Members should be easy. Just treat them like any other boss with high HP. Their Hydra attacks are weak (if you have at least moderate fire resistance), but you may need to keep them from healing themselves with some of the strategies against Teleporting bosses. If you approach their building from the left you sometimes may be able to trap them in reach of your spells/bows or even long ranged melee weapons. You will only have to deal with their Hydras then.
The Council Members in the Durance of Hate Level 3 These bosses are much worse then those in Travincal due to the fact that you can not clear the whole dungeon level before fighting them. This means confined space and distracting monsters (those Blood Lords are tough!). Upon entering level 3 clear the first room without getting near the connection to the main room. Keep your minions away from the main room. You will not want to be caught fighting Blood Lords by Bremm, Wyand or Maffer... Done this, cast a TP at the side of the entrance room opposing the stairs. For if you die near the stairs with several bosses dancing on your corpse, you will need a safe way to reenter. Then enter the main room cautiously. Try to attract only one boss at a time and lure him back to the first room. After killing his minions he is just your usual Teleporting, high HP boss with some more annoying properties (see Boss Bonuses for tips). If they are still too strong for you, you only can attempt to "park" them in the entrance room. For the Sorc this is easy - just lure them to the stairs and teleport out of their radius of awareness. Then make a TP. To do this with one of the other character classes you will have to be either very fast or you will need to catch the boss' attention by means of some minions/mercs long enough to get away. The method for parking described in the CS page dealing with Mephisto seems very difficult to pull off, because making a TP with Extra Fast, Extra Strong Maffer Dragonhand at your heels may well be lethal.
Mephisto Clear the level first (or park monsters at the stairs as described above). In my encounters with him Mephisto often had some AI flaws that made him an easy target for ranged attackers. When you were almost one screen away from him, he often seemed to be frozen, not answering your ranged attacks. Furthermore he rarely followed me to the centre of the main room (the central branch of the "fork"). I am not totally sure if these observations are due to AI flaws or just repeated luck. Mephisto's "Skull" missile (CS) is fast, extremly damaging and not resistable (magic damage, not elemental/poison) , whereas his Charged Bolt is slow but widespread. If you can not get him frozen, just focus on dodging those attacks and launch some attacks of your own between his shots. The Bowazon can stay in neighbouring rooms and fire some GAs through the door. She also might try to fire MS from a great distance at him. Leeching will show if she hits anything. The Sorc could also use the neighbouring room tactics with FO or Hydras. This might also work for the Necro and Spirits, but the Necro can do well with (permanently casted) Golem+IM since Mephisto's melee attacks are not this devastating nor is his Poison Nova (although the act end bosses deal 10 times the normal damage against minions). The strategy against Duriel should work as well. That is good news for the Barb and M-Pally. They just have to get close without being hit and start pounding big M. Bring some rejuvs and antidotes though. If they have to run they should avoid running away in straight lines because of M's Skull missile.
Izual Besides the Sorc no class should have problems with Izual. Just up your cold resistance and bring some potions if you have to melee. The Sorc could use some fast cast and fast run items because she will constantly alternate between casting and running for quite some time (Izual has about 50000 HP in Single Player Hell). Use SF+TS until his health is down then finish with your favourite spell(s). If your stamina drains too quickly, start teleporting away. If your Sorc has high HP and a shield with high block percentage she can try to stand in front of Izual (casting SF or Fire Walls) while compensating with potions for his stray hits.
Hephasto The Armorer Well, this one is real tough. He is always Extra Strong, Cursed and Magic Resistant so he is able to kill you in very few hits (Sorc/ Bowazon/Necro probably in one hit). This also means that he can drop any helpers you send after him real fast. Best choice for ranged attackers is to clear the whole River of Flame first then search some place which does not allow him to reach you (should be plenty directly before the CS) and bombard him till he falls. For the Barb it is not this easy but manageable. You will have to have a decent health pool and use BO and potions to upgrade it. Then start attacking with WW, compensate for his stray hits with potions. If you are used to attacking quick foes with LA this is a great (and probably even less risky) alternative. You should try to LA Heph if he stops (though shortly) and then immediately Leap/LA away. If you are good at this, you may kill him fast without being hit once. Just practise this on another fast but less harmful monster first, if you are not so used to LA. If you are cursed and your max HP are not this great, think of waiting for Curse to wear off. Just be sure he does not catch you when his HP are low because he becomes faster with decreasing health. The M-Pally is worst fitted for fighting Heph, at least if he has not pumped his vitality. You probably can not afford one (critical) hit then. This means you need to use a stunning attack to keep him from attacking. To get in your first attack without being hit yourself try HF then change to something more useful (if you think your Smack or Charge are reliable enough). Charge will not work if Heph gets faster towards the end or from the start if he is Extra Fast. Else the M-Pally could resort to his ranged attacks (this can be very tiresome; try hitting an Extra Fast Heph which only rarely enters your screen with those tiny spinning hammers). If Hephasto is Teleporting you will probably die quite a lot before you kill him. Ranged attackers will have to give up their safe places and search for him. Upon finding him he will have regenerated a great amount of health. But you might be lucky that some of the strategies mentioned in Boss Bonuses/Teleport will work. If he is Teleporting and Extra Fast I think only a stunning attack could kill him (and only with much help from Tyrael :-)). Maybe the trap strategy could work for Necros as well (if there is a really huge pile of corpses). Of course some players with level 90 WW-Barbs could be able to kill him with a few hits but they should not read this guide anyway (at least not for this high level chars).
In the CS there are only a limited number of possible seal layouts. I received an image which describes this quite well. You will want to look at it to decide if you need a TP for avoiding being trapped by the mobs of one of the following three bosses.
Grand Vizier of Chaos First you should try to avoid being surrounded by his (quite large) mob. Magic users will dislike their mana draining bolts. So without Leap or Teleport you should cast a TP before opening the seal. If you can not circle them and make your way to the centre of the CS you should use the TP and return via Waypoint. Do not lure them straight to the centre but make a twist towards the entrance to the CS. They should be trapped behind a wall then and you can draw them out one by one with some careful movements. For the Vizier himself look at the Boss Bonuses section. Additionally you may try to "tempt fate". This means you let the Vizier get close to you and in the moment he starts his attack you leave his attack range, letting him miss you. This gives you some time to start a ranged attack, refresh BO, flash an Aura, etc. This strategy is especially effective against Finger Mage type monsters because they often launch their mana draining bolts in a very slow and time consuming animation. Just do not get caught by those bolts...
Infector of Souls As above with the Vizier one danger lies in his large mob potentially surrounding you. Use a TP for safety. To fight only few of his Viper Lords at once you should seek out a natural bottleneck like Diablo's Seal or one of the corridors leading to the central room. Up your fire resistance to counter their Inferno. Of course a WW specialist will not need to do this, at least if the boss is not burning mana. Due to their enhanced speed it may be difficult for ranged attackers to get out some spells/arrows without being caught. It is always possible to lure them out to the River of Flame where you will find a place to attack them from a safe distance.
Lord De Seis This one is responsible for quite a lot of deaths. Upon removal of his thieving ability things got a bit better, but with the wrong enchantments (e.g. Extra Fast, Multishot, Teleporting; but see limitations of Bone Spirits with Multishot above) he still is a deadly foe. If you are out for a challenge you may try to circle him and his mob upon arrival (but by all means avoid to run in a straight line towards them or away from them; run in a circular fashion). But this may very well get you killed if you are cursed with Decrepify and pursued by multiple Spirits. Remember that Decrepify stays active even after the spell's duration is over, if you will not stop running for a moment (can you afford to stop?). So in the case of Lord De Seis it is really advisable to use the TP trick mentioned above (Vizier). You may then draw them out one by one or at least in small groups. Ranged attackers alternatively could try to attack them off screen (FO,MS,BS,...) or from around a corner. A Barb can put LA to great use again (no thieving means no game crashes in mid-air any longer). The M-Pally has to run a lot for dispersing the mob. When you finally fight De Seis alone try to recognize his type of elemental/poison attack first and max the appropriate resistance. Since his HP are not this high you should do well with some rejuvs.
Diablo Everyone's darling. And we thought we had killed him a long time ago (and multiple times... :-)). Good news: He has no special boss bonuses. (Can you imagine a Teleporting, MSLEB Diablo?) Bad news: One of his ranged attacks, the LBOD, is lethal to the unprepared.
His attacks are as follows:
Bone Prison He uses this scarcely, but watch out for your char going into hit animation without apparent reason. If he imprisons you and starts to use his LBOD on you this will be your death. Move out of the prison before it is complete. Fire Twisty Lines With maxed fire resists and maybe some items lowering your received magical damage (see LBOD below for -MD discussion) you are probably able to survive being hit by this "River of Flame". The real danger here is to be caught in stun lock (if your max HP are not this high) while D is getting near you for his LBOD. The Bowazon has an additional chance of being caught in Evade lock, so do not acquire Evade or be wary. To dodge this attack run straight away from D's direction first, then make a twist when the flames get near to you and continue running in this direction. Fire Wall/Nova Even though these attacks are not particularly damaging against a char with maxed fire resistance, they will continually steal some of your health, lowering your chances of surviving the LBOD. Their range is probably unlimited but D will need a line of sight to you. With great enough a distance to D his Fire Nova can be easily dodged. LBOD This red lightning hose deals tremendous damage both physical and lightning type. It is probably not sufficient to have maxed lightning resistance if you are caught stun locked in the middle of a LBOD (only Barbs with extremely high HP+BO stand a chance in Hell difficulty; should be a damage of about 900 points total per LBOD). But you have another chance of lowering the LBOD inflicted damage. In Normal and Nightmare difficulty it may be useful to wear items which lower magical (more important) and physical (less important) damage received. This is because the damage received by LBOD is calculated on a per frame basis, meaning that a -4 MD amulet prevents you from receiving 4*16=64 points of damage per LBOD (there are 25 frames/second (i.e. 50 frames/LBOD), but LBOD seems to attack only every second (third?) tick; there have been new tests which may indicate that LBOD attacks every frame but undergoes some general damage reduction that monsters' magic attacks suffer against players; effect on -MD is none, though). So these kind of attributes are almost totally useless during the whole game (since most attacks are received in only one frame; some exceptions are Fire Walls and Inferno) but they truly shine in the final battle for Normal difficulty (168 dmg/LBOD) and are a good addon for NM (483). But the best way to lower the damage received by LBOD in Hell difficulty (besides lightning resistance) is blocking. Try to change your setup so that you are able to wear a high block% shield: Lance/Martel Barbs try sword and shield, Sorcs change to wand/shield. Only the Bowazon can not use shields along with her bow, so she will have to resort to other strategies. Another thing worth mentioning is that D's LBOD in Hell in fact starts at some distance from his claws. So melee attackers might want to stay very close to D and will not have to worry much about resists and MD. I am not sure if this "feature" was fully intended by the game creators... Cold Touch Diablo sometimes chills you with this melee attack. Only a problem if you have to run away and get a LBOD thrown after you.
Strats for the
Barb Just get close to Diablo without being hit by LBOD (be wary of LA because D may move while you are flying and hose you with LBOD upon landing). Then use your favourite melee attack (and WW is not one of them). A shield with high block% will help. Of course you will need some red or better purple potions. Life leech also helps. The LA strategy described above with Hephasto is more risky with Diablo because of his devastating ranged attack.
Sorc It is possible for the Sorc to reduce D's health quite fast with SF. But if you neither have a great SF range nor you have followed the resist/blocking/-MD/-PD approach, prepare to die a lot. Probably the "attack from safety" approach from the Bowazon below will work, too. If D stays on the other side of a wall (hosing it with LBODs), you can safely stack Fire Walls on him. Perhaps it is safer to keep D at a great distance and use some far reaching attacks like FO, Hydra, Blizzard, Fire Wall or Blaze. You can easily guess D's location by looking at his Fire Nova. But be prepared that you will waste a huge amount of mana with this tactics due to Diablo's great speed. Make TPs for recharging your Mana Orb if your Warmth is too low. If you ever see something glowing at the edge of the screen start running or teleporting.
Bowazon You have multiple choices. You could search for a (relative) safe place (e.g. the "corners" to the north of D's seal) and start shooting GAs at Diablo. Or if you are lucky your high level Valk (casted on top of D, to escape the LBOD in Hell difficulty) can occupy Diablo for long enough to stack some IA on him. But you will have to be in his LBOD range for this... Else try to use MS from a great distance (see Sorc above). Some leeching will show you if you are hitting him.
M-Pally Same as Barb, could try Thorns
Necro You may try the same strategy the Bowazon may employ with GA only with your Spirits. If you do not like this: You will quickly run out of corpses to revive so you have to rely on golems and IM. Be always prepared to dodge the LBOD though. D is not always attacking the nearest target (the golem) but sometimes he will try to hit you. He is able to make short work of your golems so you will have to recast them over and over again. Some town trips for recharging mana will probably be needed. While IMed D is fighting your golem (yes, the whole millisecond long... :-)) feel free to shoot some Spirits.
Another thing I recognized while fighting Diablo is the following "feature". If you have reduced his life to a sliver and then TP back to do some gambling/shopping/inventory dragging for too long he will be fully healed upon your return. This happened frequently to me because in Single Player I like to leave some stuff on the ground (in town) and I need some time to decide which items to keep before the game ends.
Is there any way for a Barb to deal great elemental/poison damage? I.e., not just a weapon of Thunder and maybe some +cold damage equipment, but elemental damage that is scaled somehow by some magical modifier or skill. War Cry and Berserk do physical damage due to a bug, so no hope there. Specifically I am searching for any possibility for a Barb to deal, say, 120 points of cold damage (or lightning, or mixed elements...).
I am desperately searching for some really useful strategy for a M-Pally to clear a small room filled with a nastily enchanted Archer boss mob. E.g. the boss is Cursed, Multishot and Might Enchanted. I can not imagine any way to survive this with a M-Pally at a reasonable level. Anyone?
Erthshade (LL) for finding nits with cursed bosses and a Goblin Toe wearing Bowazon (!)
Tommi Gustafsson (LL) and (indirectly) Jarulf for giving me a lot of info on LBOD
Arkady Zilberberg for the Bone Prison strat against Duriel
Sirian (LL) for the "tempting fate" term
Toxaris (LL) for an image of seal layouts and its unknown creator
Shlonglor and the CS for info and images
everyone I forgot to mention (email
)
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This guide is copyrighted 2001 by Ergates (email
). You may freely use this guide for noncommercial purposes, if it is not altered, and if I am credited. Commercial use without my written permission is prohibited. Diablo 2 is copyrighted by Blizzard Entertainment.
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