When to face Diablo?

[internetdotcom]

Well, the problem here is that most of Diablo's attacks are either weak, or easy to dodge.

Hi

For me Diablo is the toughest boss, I have no difficulty in handling other act bosses, except sometimes Duriel in normal, but there you can self-rush yourself :rolleyes:

There is a reason people go on about Meph- and Baalruns, but not about Diabloruns! It's to dangerous if you play HC :ph34r:

good karma

Yes, Diablo is hard. But unless you're horrifically underleveled (under about 23, maybe), and have no resistances, then he's still not too hard to handle.

Personally, Mephisto's the hardest for me. Well, with ranged characters at least. This is because I find it extremely difficult to dodge his cold orb. It's kind of fast, you know. But, Diablo's attacks are much slower and easier to handle. If he does the lightning breath, then you just have to catch the animation he does beforehand, and start running circles around him; it'll pass just behind you. And with the heavy-damage firsestorm, you just get out of the way. It's not like it's hard to see it coming.

The only attack of consequence that leaves is his cold touch, and that's only dangerous because it makes it harder to dodge his other attacks. Even with this one, you can just run like hell, and hide somewhere until it wears off. And that's only in the extreme circumstance that you can't just deal with the cold in-battle until it stops.

Yes, Diablo is hard, but like I said, he's one of the easiest of the bosses to survive, once you get his attack patterns down, and you know when to run where to minimize your damage.

Though, I had a bit of trouble with him just yesterday. It was a blaze/meteor sorceress. :) I couldn't tell where his firestorm was, because most of the screen was covered in flames. I still pulled it off without a death.

Well, sounds like I'll be ok, but I think I will level to 30 for venom and my shadow master. Luckily, my lightning resis is ok now. Question : His red lightning, how much is fire damage, and how much is lightning damage?

Yeah, they really made meph harder, likely because people were running him. He used to be a pushover. To deal with his cold attack, you could always get half freeze duration, or the set belt (arctic binding I think it is) that has cannot be frozen, or another such item. I was fortunate enough to find this belt, and found it really helped in Travincal in act 3. The only bad thing about this belt is that you only get 3 rows of potions, not 4, but no biggie, you can always go to town and refill.

Yeah, once I get used to the animations of his attacks and how to avoid them, I should be ok. Where do you hide in the chaos sanctuary without getting cornered? Oh, and how do you find his drops to be since 1.10, better than before? Do you get many sets/uniques?

[Bob the Beholder]

Well, sounds like I'll be ok, but I think I will level to 30 for venom and my shadow master.  Luckily, my lightning resis is ok now.  Question :  His red lightning, how much is fire damage, and how much is lightning damage?

Yeah, they really made meph harder, likely because people were running him.  He used to be a pushover.  To deal with his cold attack, you could always get half freeze duration, or the set belt (arctic binding I think it is) that has cannot be frozen, or another such item.  I was fortunate enough to find this belt, and found it really helped in Travincal in act 3.  The only bad thing about this belt is that you only get 3 rows of potions, not 4, but no biggie, you can always go to town and refill.

Yeah, once I get used to the animations of his attacks and how to avoid them, I should be ok.  Where do you hide in the chaos sanctuary without getting cornered?  Oh, and how do you find his drops to be since 1.10, better than before?  Do you get many sets/uniques?

From my own memory, the lightning breath is half physical, and half lightning. This was from back before the expansion, though, so it might have been changed since then.

And as to hiding, it's not so hard. The entrance area to the Chaos Sanctuary usually works. Just run there, quick. Diablo tends to have problems getting past the large lava-pits/walls/whatever they are, as the side passages that you can go through are pretty narrow.

The drops I'm not an authority on. I haven't gotten anything good from an uber-drop since about two months after Diablo II came out.

[internetdotcom]

Well, sounds like I'll be ok, but I think I will level to 30 for venom and my shadow master.  Luckily, my lightning resis is ok now.  Question :  His red lightning, how much is fire damage, and how much is lightning damage?

Yeah, they really made meph harder, likely because people were running him.  He used to be a pushover.  To deal with his cold attack, you could always get half freeze duration, or the set belt (arctic binding I think it is) that has cannot be frozen, or another such item.  I was fortunate enough to find this belt, and found it really helped in Travincal in act 3.  The only bad thing about this belt is that you only get 3 rows of potions, not 4, but no biggie, you can always go to town and refill.

Yeah, once I get used to the animations of his attacks and how to avoid them, I should be ok.  Where do you hide in the chaos sanctuary without getting cornered?  Oh, and how do you find his drops to be since 1.10, better than before?  Do you get many sets/uniques?

From my own memory, the lightning breath is half physical, and half lightning. This was from back before the expansion, though, so it might have been changed since then.

And as to hiding, it's not so hard. The entrance area to the Chaos Sanctuary usually works. Just run there, quick. Diablo tends to have problems getting past the large lava-pits/walls/whatever they are, as the side passages that you can go through are pretty narrow.

The drops I'm not an authority on. I haven't gotten anything good from an uber-drop since about two months after Diablo II came out.

Really, there is no fire damage in the red lightning?

If you run, will he chase you outside the chaos sanctuary?

I know what you mean about the drops. I get crap too, even now. Mostly just some crappy rares.

And when you are going toe to toe with him, would you use cobra for the leech, or tiger for the extra damage? I'm leaning towards tiger. Hopefully I can hit him frequently enough that I dont lose all the charges. LOL

[Minionman]

Diablo won't chase you all the way to the seals or past the 2nd group of walls from the entrance. If you need healing you could put a town portal near a seal or run the the river of flame waypoint. Diablo is actually pretty easy to run from, at least compared to Duriel.

[Striker]

And when you are going toe to toe with him, would you use cobra for the leech, or tiger for the extra damage?  I'm leaning towards tiger.

Why not both? You can get, at most, three different types of charges going at once. I used to have Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, and Phoenix Strike going all at once when I attacked something with my MA assassin back in v1.09.

[internetdotcom]

Diablo won't chase you all the way to the seals or past the 2nd group of walls from the entrance.  If you need healing you could put a town portal near a seal or run the the river of flame waypoint.  Diablo is actually pretty easy to run from, at least compared to Duriel.

So could you then theoretically just run until he stops chasing you, then hit him with spells or arrows till he dies?

[internetdotcom]

Why not both?  You can get, at most, three different types of charges going at once.  I used to have Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, and Phoenix Strike going all at once when I attacked something with my MA assassin back in v1.09.

Very true, but I'm just afraid that I will hit him so infrequently that one or more of the charges will expire before I can release them. Speaking of which, how long does a charge stay on before expiring? And does each charge have its own timer, or does the timer get reset when another charge is added?

[adeyke]

9 seconds. Separate timer for each skill, but not for each charge. That is, if you hit with a certain skill before the timer is up, you'll both gain a charge (if you don't already have 3) and reset the timer. However, while you're charging that skill, your other charges could run out (a change from 1.09).

[Minionman]

So could you then theoretically just run until he stops chasing you, then hit him with spells or arrows till he dies?

Theoretically you might be able to, but the areas that Diablo will stop chasing you are not out in the open, so only traps or guided arrow would have a chance of hittng him. However, if you need a break from fighting Diablo, these are the places to go.

[Bob the Beholder]

And when you are going toe to toe with him, would you use cobra for the leech, or tiger for the extra damage?  I'm leaning towards tiger.  Hopefully I can hit him frequently enough that I dont lose all the charges.  LOL

My opinion, you should use 'em both. Though you won't be hitting as often as you like (he's got something like 57 percent chance to block all physical attacks, if I remember correctly), the chance that you'll hit with both of them in effect isn't too bad. Even if one wears off, you'll likely have the other still on there.

[Rinnhart]

So flip back to the other skills and pop him once to maintain the charges. No biggy.

[Munkay]

Actually, I've been wondering the sme thing with my Dentist.

Upon first read, I was wondering if this was going to turn into a story about bonding over DII at the dentists office. :P

-Munk

[internetdotcom]

9 seconds.  Separate timer for each skill, but not for each charge.  That is, if you hit with a certain skill before the timer is up, you'll both gain a charge (if you don't already have 3) and reset the timer.  However, while you're charging that skill, your other charges could run out (a change from 1.09).

Hey there, yeah I think it is 9 seconds. I fought Izual again last night a couple of times, and managed to get 9 charges going at once (damn that guy has a lot of hit points! LOL). He's about the only monster I have time to get more than 3 charges on, since he has so many hit points. And it still took forever to take him down.

Update : Last night I found some nice items, including 2 claws, one with +1 martial arts, and one with +1 shadow disciplines. I also maxed out both my fire and lightning res, and levelled up to 29, about 2/3 of the way to that elusive 30 mark. I am managing fairly easily on /players 5 (mind you, I dont dare do anything higher than /players 1 when I enter chaos sanctuary). So I think I will be facing big D in the next day or two, depending how much I can play. Thanks everyone for your incredible feedback.

[internetdotcom]

Theoretically you might be able to, but the areas that Diablo will stop chasing you are not out in the open, so only traps or guided arrow would have a chance of hittng him.  However, if you need a break from fighting Diablo, these are the places to go.

Yeah, good point. Well, its just as well, a MA assassin is meant for hand to hand combat anyway. :)

[internetdotcom]

My opinion, you should use 'em both.  Though you won't be hitting as often as you like (he's got something like 57 percent chance to block all physical attacks, if I remember correctly), the chance that you'll hit with both of them in effect isn't too bad.  Even if one wears off, you'll likely have the other still on there.

Yeah, I just hope I dont charge them both up, then lose the charges as I have to run from one of his attacks.

[internetdotcom]

So flip back to the other skills and pop him once to maintain the charges. No biggy.

Yeah, hopefully I will hit him often.

[internetdotcom]

Upon first read, I was wondering if this was going to turn into a story about bonding over DII at the dentists office.  :P

-Munk

Ah yes... D2 .... the universal love language.. LOL