Imagine you're in a park, at a bar, on the beach, wherever you'd like. It's a nice day outside and you're having one of those days where things just seem to be going your way. You're looking damn hot (and i'm talking Ron Burgandy steak and scotch hot). At the start of the day some kid decides he wants to be an asshole and try to start shit with you. But guess what, you beat his punk ass straight into the dirt and he hobbles off. Applause erupts! Hooray! You decide you're not going to let that little fuck throw off the awesomeness in your day you pick up where you left off being a boss. Everyone knows you. Everyone is envious and wants to be you or just hang around and talk with you. The rest of the entire day has been like this. But now you're tired and thinking it's time to go back to your place and just chill out for the rest of the night. (If you want to make this an R to X rated fantasy throw in the hottest man/woman you can think of here and the fact you're bringing them home with you). Now... just as you're about to put an end to your outing and head back home you see something coming up from the distance, but you're not sure what it is. So you hang around a little bit longer to see if you can get a better look at it. Nope... still kinda blurry, but you get the feeling you recognize it. You give it a couple more seconds. Oh yeah! Now I see! It's the bastard child of an asshole who wanted to start something earlier. Looks like he/she is back for more. Well, time for an encore performance of earlier. You walk up, take a swing... nothing. The kid just looks at you unphased and smirks... annnnnnnnnd then beats you over the head with a crowbar covered in acid and weighs about 100 poundsl. You go down, hard! You're feeling woozy. Then out of nowhere a stampede of rhinoceroses come out and start trampling all over you. Throwing you up in the air and ransacking your innocence. Then when you think it's all said and done and you're lying there bleeding, broken, bruised, and motionless, Tiger Woods hops out from behind a tree and gives you a 5-iron shot right to the balls (or labia if you're a woman). End of imagination time. Did everyone get that? Great! Because that's what it felt like after I beat Diablo 3: Hell Mode.
Welcome to Diablo 3: Inferno Mode!
Ok, first things first. It's kind of ironic that I didn't go into Inferno mode expecting it to be THAT much harder than Hell mode. Even after in a previous blog post I go about saying how much harder Hell mode was to Nightmare mode. Well, I'm a dumbass and apparently have trouble listening to the advice I can give myself. Or I'm a glutton for punishment. Which wouldn't totally be out of the norm either. Regardless though I reallllllllllllly underestimated what I was in for when I started.
Enemies feel like they've had their health quadrupled since the last playthrough. Although normal enemies aren't really the biggest rage-inducers in the game anymore. It's the rares and champions that get my blood boiling. Both of these types of enemies had a huge upgrade since the last difficulty. Both rares and champions both stack 4 different special abilities which are applied completely at random. Also, their strength and damage output has been raised to a level where I can get easily 2-shotted by almost any rare or champion and occasionally 1-shotted by some larger enemies. Now for reference, I'm currently at 27k health, ~180 resistances across the board, and somewhere around 2300 armor at level 60. So if my math is right, and it better be since I'm an engineer, an average hit does somewhere between 15k-20k damage. Which means that from this point on standing face-to-face with any of these kinds of enemies is nothing less than an early grave.
It also means I had to re-tool my character to adapt to this new problem. Which currently, the easiest way I can find to get around Inferno mode without too much rage face was to make an extreme kiting build where the run-and-shoot method is the only way you'd survive. For the most part, it works pretty well. I can get through just about all normal enemies and most rares. Champions are still a bit of a pain in the ass depending on which special abilities they are given (same with rares). In fact, there's a few of them that actually make them almost impossible to kill. You can see why I think that below. Mind you this is all based on the Demon Hunter build, so other characters may have an easier/harder time dealing with each ability.
Rare/Champion Special Abilities (Inferno)
Arcane
Effect - Rotating beams of arcane energy spin in a circle causing high damage output if you hit them.
Rage When Encountered - 5/10
This ability isn't TOO bad to deal with as long as you have enough room to maneuver around. If you encounter one of these in a cave where there's very narrow strips of room, these can essentially become walls of death when 3-4 of them appear next to each other and you have no where else to go. Otherwise, just using Vault to get around them isn't that hard to do.
Avenger
Effect - Whenever one of the rares/champions/minions in a pack dies, the other ones still alive get bigger, faster, and deal more damage. Whenever there's one enemy left, it becomes incredibly strong.
Rage When Encountered - 4/10
The avenging ability really isn't a threat to me unless there's 1 or 2 enemies in a pack remaining. Then comes worry time. Since they gain speed and damage, a 2-hit kill from an enemy can become a 1-hit kill which makes the kiting even more essential.
Desecration
Effect - Enemies will spawn a pool of energy under you. After a 2 second delay, physical damage will be applied if you're still standing in the effected area.
Rage When Encountered - 2/10
I'd be more than happy to encounter this ability. Honestly. The damage output isn't all that bad when you're standing in it... IF you're standing in it. Since there's a 2 second activation time, you can usually take a step in any direction to get out of it. Unless another ability locks you in place as they cast it, but even then there's a host of ways for a Demon Hunter to get away.
Electrified
Effect - Whenever an enemy takes damage, electrical sparks flow on the ground dealing damage.
Rage When Encountered - 1/10
Probably the easiest ability to deal with when an enemy has it. The electrical sparks move along the ground pretty slowly and their range isn't all that great. So as long as you're not standing directly next to an enemy dealing damage (which you SHOULDN'T as a Demon Hunter), you'll be fine.
Extra Health
Effect - Doubles the normal health of an enemy.
Rage When Encountered - 7/10
This one kinda blows when I see it. Because it means I have to be even more careful with whatever abilities I have since I don't want to run out of energy while I'm grinding it down. It's even more of a pain in the ass with champions since they already have an obserdly high amount of health as it is. This makes them super hard to kill.
Fast
Effect - Enemy gains a large increase in movement ability.
Rage When Encountered - 10/10
Fuck... This... Ability. It sucks. Hard. Demon Hunters rely largely on kiting. This single ability really negates any real ability to kite. Which means you're getting hit. A lot. And when it only takes 1, 2, or 3 hits to kill you. Good fucking luck. Sucks even worse when already fast enemies like frogs or spiders get this. They're like lightning bolts that do nothing but fuck assholes. YOUR asshole.
Fire Chains
Effect - When enemies in a pack are close enough to each other a chain of fire appears between them. If you stand in the way of the chain you are dealt damage.
Rage When Encountered - 3/10.
Usually not the worst thing to encounter since I'm usually kiting around. Plus since it only works when 2 or more of them are together, you can bet your ass I'm not standing around. Just kite, win, profit.
Frozen
Effect - Random balls of frost appear on the screen. After a 3 second delay, the balls burst and if you are standing within their blast range you take damage and are frozen in place for 2 seconds unable to move or activate most abilities.
Rage When Encountered - 6/10
This one kind of sucks, but really only depends on how lucky you are in where the balls are placed (insert dirty joke here) and if you have room to run around. If you do get hit by one of the frozen landmines, it could really mean a fast death for you if you don't have a way to break stun (Smokescreen).
Health Link
Effect - Whenever one enemy takes damage, the damage is spread evenly between all other alive enemies in the group.
Rage When Encountered - 4/10
Since damage gets split evenly, its essentially not possible to pick off a single enemy in the group at a time. But it will also reduce the number of shots you have to make since hitting just one of the enemies effects them all.
Horde
Effect - Only appears on Champions. The champion has additional minions with him.
Rage When Encountered - 4/10
This one's a bit of a trade off. It does suck that you have to kill more enemies which can be stronger, but it also means that the champion has one less special ability since this doesn't really apply to them.
Illusionist
Effect - Enemy will cause 4-5 copies of themselves with highly reduced health and damage.
Rage When Encountered - 2/10
Not a big ability to face at all. Since usually I'm spamming high AOE attacks anyway, the illusions which they create are in a big pile and usually get hit by the same AOE attacks I'm using anyway and die. Plus there's a minor possibility the illusion will drop a health globe which it does. Which makes rare/champion fights much easier.
Invulnerable Minions
Effect - Only appears on Champions. All of the champion's minion are invulnerable. To kill them you must kill the champion. Once the champion dies, all minions die.
Rage When Encountered - 8/10
Who was the bastard who decided this was a fun ability to throw in the game? This one is a royal waste of life. You have to be VERY precise and picky about when to use your abilities. If it hits one of the minions instead of the champion, it's a waste. I usually have to use nothing but abilities which travel through enemies to kill these ones.
Jailer
Effect - Enemies will occasionally trap the hero. Forcing him/her to be immobilized for 2 seconds.
Rage When Encountered - 7/10
Again, any ability which tends to reduce or neutralize a Demon Hunters ability to kite and/or run away it a pain in the ass. Most of the time this ability will only allow the enemy to get dangerously close to you, but with a Vault or Smokescreen can easily get away again. However, the problem with this ability is the frequency of which it happens. It happens a LOT. Which seriously strains your discipline.
Knockback
Effect - When an enemy hits you, you are flung into the air several yards away, dazzled, and move at a reduced movement speed for a second.
Rage When Encountered - 3/10
This one can actually help you as much as hurt you. The fact you're flung a good distance away from the enemy is definitely a plus. Problem is the stun afterwards. Depending on where you are and where you're flung too.
Missile Dampening
Effect - Very rare ability. Only appears on champions. Causes a bubble shield to follow the champion causing any ranged projectiles within the shield to slow in speed a great distance. If the projectile hits the champion it still deals full damage.
Rage When Encountered - 2/10
Ok, so ironically you would think that this one would cause me a little more stress than what I indicated, but it doesn't. It's because of my build. Since I use Evasive Fire, the projectile is instant, so there's no travel and it's not effected by the slow effect. And secondly, since I use Lightning Ball, when they go into the shield, they can actually hit more times since the enemy it by it longer and in turn can deal MORE damage than normal.
Molten
Effect - Enemies leave a trail of fire behind them which deals damage if you walk over it. Also, when enemies die a ball of fire charges then explodes for massive damage over their corpse.
Rage When
Encountered - 5/10 (sometimes 10/10)
Dear Blizzard,
When taking ideas for abilities, please don't take the one ability which a lot of people raged over in Call of Duty (a.k.a. Martyrdom). It's bad enough I have to essentially play a mini-game of Tron and/or caterpillar with the bad guys. But every now and then I forget they live a nice surprise to which I find and then bang my head on my desk afterwards.
Mortar
Effect - Enemies fire off volley's of fireballs which have to travel a minimum range. Standing within the minimum range makes you unable to hit with the mortar shots.
Rage When Encountered - 8/10
This is an anti-Demon Hunter ability if I ever saw one. To avoid it you have to either stand super close or super far away. Makes ranged fighting a pain in the ass. Plus of you're dumb enough to stand still and fight. It'll only take one volley of mortars to kill you. Or drop you down to almost no health.
Nightmare
Effect - When hit, you are unable to use abilities for a second and run in fear away from the enemy.
Rage When Encountered - 3/10
Not the worst ability in the world to see. Anything that gets me farther away from champions or rares is a plus. Although the loss of abilities sucks. Just try to keep mobile since it only activates if you're hit.
Plagued
Effect - Enemies leave pools of poison which damage you if you stand in them.
Rage When Encountered - 5/10
The only real problem with the plauged ability is the length of time the pools remain on the screen. They feel like they hang around FOR-EV-ER. And if you're in a cramped area the entire floor could be covered in poison which means a...... happy day! Oh shit.. brain fart... FUUUUUUUUU...
Reflects Damage
Effect - 2% of damage caused to enemies will be reflected back at the caster.
Rage When Encountered - 8/10
Guess what? I'm going to do a little math lesson with everyone today. 2% of what number is roughly 25,000? The answer is a shit ton! And guess what else? The total health in a rare or champion pack usually equals a shit ton! Yay!
But seriously, you pretty much have to have some major health regen or some awesome kiting skills WITHOUT causing damage so you can use health globes to deal with these without dying. It's a pain in the ass.
Shielding
Effect - Frequently, shields appear around enemies making them invulnerable for a short duration.
Rage When Encountered - 6/10
All this does is prolong a fight. If you're gonna die, you're gonna die more with this. If you're gonna win, it's just gonna take longer.
Teleporter
Effect - Enemies will instantly appear next to you.
Rage When Encountered - 8/10
Why wouldn't I be raging after I just spent all that energy kiting and avoiding an enemy just to have him instantly appear next to me, cold cock me in the throat, and kill me. Yeah, that sounds like fun! But seriously, this one is just more annoying than anything since it forces me to be even more mobile than usual. It can lead to spontaneous deaths though...
Vampiric
Effect - 5% of damage caused by enemies onto you is converted into life for the enemy.
Rage When Encountered - 4/10
Not a big deal as long as YOU DON'T GET HIT. Then it kinda sucks. But just kite and you'll be fine.
Vortex
Effect - Enemies cause a gust of wind which forces you back to a position immediately next to the caster.
Rage When Encountered - 7/10
This one isn't as bad as Teleporter but it's pretty damn close. The only reason this one isn't on the same level as Teleporter is because there's a maximum distance before this ability can be used. Which is somewhere around half the screen. So if you're good enough to stay really far away from these enemies you can avoid it all together, but most of the time it's just as big a pain in the ass a Teleporter.
Waller
Effect - Enemies cause walls to spring up out of the ground preventing movement past them unless they are destroyed or disappear after 6 seconds.
Rage When Encountered - 6/10 (Annoyance when encountered 10/10)
Walls suck in enclosed spaces. Walls are useless in open spaces. I really shouldn't go any further into description because it would just be dumb. But i'm feeling not-so-bright so here goes. If you fight a Waller, be prepared to run back-and-forth a lot. Probably past the enemy which casted it. As long as you're fast enough, you'll be fine.
I'm going to make it my mission to update this blog with pictures of each of the abilities as I encounter them to better identify them. Might be a little while though since it's my gf's birthday weekend coming up and I'll probably be spending all of my time with her. It will be done though, guaranteed.
Secondly, on an unrelated note, I'm strongly considering spending a good chunk of time diving between Diablo 3 and DOTA 2 in the near future. I'm not sure what I want to talk about with Diablo 3 next, so it's gonna be more spontaneous blog posts with it. However, with DOTA 2 slowly coming out of it's own, I want to probably blog about each of the heroes and what I like and don't like about them.
But at the same time I want to entertain whoever reads this, so if you have any opinions/suggestions I'm all ears. Just leave a comment and i'll see what I can do.
Happy Gaming!
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