Tactics for Diablo (spoilers, obv.)

[ViralSpiral]

So I'm curious, since it will matter more on higher difficulties, what sorts of tactics are people using for Diablo? I noticed his bone cages can hit you even if you are moving this time, and you don't get a chance to escape, you just take some unavoidable damage.

Speaking of damage, I noticed his lightning breath actually does some this time. Does it still have the gap it had in D2? Playing a Wizard, I had zero intention of getting close enough to find out the hard way. If not, that's got to be horribly rough on melee types.

Luckily I got to spam hydras and meteors and never had to stand still. I think I zapped him with electrocute all of twice for about .5 seconds each. Not sure what his melee tactics are, but as a kiter, I think those two attacks were my best option.

I also note he gave up on his red-rover charge and has just started teleporting. I guess it's easier to have bosses teleport than write good pathfinding. The fact that my clone was using some of its worst options to attack with was great, though. Really? Shock Bolt? Shadow dude, I never got within half a screen of you. Try using something with range.

[NotSoDarklord]

Bone cages are avoidable although Diablo has a very annoying habit of knocking characters back into the cages. Cages will not deal fatal damage however, so spamming health potion coming out of a cage is generally good enough to save yourself unless you get caged on top of his fire circle.

I assume by the gap you mean the ability to run around in circles from the breath and not get hit? If that is the case then yes. Perhaps I misinterpreted but either way lightning breath does hardly any damage to melee with appropriate levels of resist. On my barb I generally don't bother to move unless I happen to be low health at the time. A shield trivializes his breath even further as the individual ticks can be blocked.

As a melee, Diablo is a pretty standard "Don't stand in the fire" type fight. The most potentially dangerous aspect of the fight is when he puts his DoT on your character, then drops his fire circle on top of you, and immediately follows up with the ranged fireball (which has some pretty silly hit detection). I died on quite a few 10 minute+ long attempts due to simply not respecting his random gib potential.

As far as tactics go, my group used the Method tactic of letting the more dangerous party members die before phase 2 before that was hotfixed. Post nerf the images don't seem nearly as bad. I generally focus shadow clones in the following order: Demon Hunter->Witch Doctor->Wizard->Monk->Barb. Sometimes my group opts to run from the clones entirely and wait for the despawn if the gear levels just aren't there.

As a general note about gearing, I would suggest getting some adequate combination of Life on Hit combined with passive Life Regeneration. A decent amount of both stats will trivialize the second phase as well as reduce the potential for random gibs on the home stretch.

[ViralSpiral]

By gap I mean the one character length gap from his body to the point where the lightning breath actually started that you could safely stand in in D2. Not sure if that was even intentional but it's still there.

He pasted me (only) 4 times, but there was a second player in the game when he spawned, so I was doing solo-2. Not by design, but that's how it worked out. I was keeping him far enough offscreen that I didn't see him most of the time so I don't know if there's a visual cue that he's about to do his lightning breath, but all my deaths were bone cage then immediately breathing on me after he threw me back down. If Diamond Skin was on timer, I died. Splat. But yeah, I learned to do a lot of running and letting potion timer end. Think I had 16 life regen at that point, but 2600 odd life.

[MongoJerry]

With my Wizard for nightmare and hell, I use Magic Missle-Seeker and Venom Hydra for offense. On defense, I have Diamond Skin, Teleport, Frost Nova-Cold Snap, and Energy Armor. Seeker doesn't become available until level 52, and I often get to the entrance to nightmare Diablo's lair at around level 51, so I stay back to level in nightmare until I get to 52. With this setup, if you play absolutely perfectly, you won't take any damage from Diablo at all. Since it's nearly impossible to play perfectly, you'll take a few hits here and there, but the encounter will still be trivial.

In phases 1 and 3, when you are in his main chamber, toss out a venom hydra, run around to the opposite side of one of the two crystal pillars from Diablo, and shoot magic missle-seekers around the corner. When he teleports to you, Frost Nova him, run around the pillar, refresh your hydra and cast more magic missles. If he teleports on you again before Frost Nova comes off cooldown, teleport away. When he fires his red fire attack that spawns the firey pool, try to get out of the area before it lands, but if you can't get far enough away before it lands, Diamond Skin to absorb any damage from the fire ticks. When he starts casting cages, run around and watch for the black patches on the ground. If you're moving, you usually won't get caught by the cages, but sometimes a black patch might appear in front of you, so you might have to turn. When he stops casting the cages, refresh your hydra, get on the other side of a pillar and cast magic missle seekers at him again. The lightning breath and fire explosion attacks are trivial, because they will be stopped by the pillar.

During the shadow phase, I haven't come up with anything fancier than cast hydra, run around keeping Diablo at a distance, and fire off some magic missle seekers when you have plenty of distance on him. When D teleports on you, again Frost Nova or Teleport. The clones are easy to take out from a distance as you noted. 4-5 magic missle seekers plus any damage from the hydra should more than easily take them out. Some people have mentioned that you can run away from the clones and eventually they will despawn on their own. However, I don't do that because the Wizard clones are so easily killed and I don't want to have to deal with them and Diablo at the same time. However, I may sing a different tune when I get to Diablo in Inferno.

[Archon_Wing]

The shadow clones don't have to be fought. If you want, you can just run away from them for a bit. The other thing to note is to abuse the hell out of the health wells in the room, so position yourself accordingly.

[Elric of Grans]

I cannot say how it is for the Barbarian, but the Monk has a couple of easy ways to deal with the Lightning.

For a Wizard, Hydra and/or Blizzard is definitely the best approach, then simply avoid everything else he does. Bone cages *can* be avoided, though I have never beaten him without being caught once. You will also want Diamond Skin; you can pop it after a Bone Cage, or any other time you are at risk of death.

His main attacks are an AoE of flame (do not stand in it), a Fireball that puts a DoT on you (this really hurts, so head to a healing shrine if you are tagged), a circle of fireballs originating from him (technically you can stand between them to avoid being hit, but the hitboxes are a little dodgy) and the lightning (run in circles; the Diablo II bug does not exist). He also teleports a lot, and may take a melee swipe if close enough. In the Realm of Terror, it is useful to kill the clones for Health Orbs, and they are pretty weak anyway. In all honesty, he is easier than most Elites.

[ViralSpiral]

Oddly I didn't see either of the fire attacks people are describing (circle or fire pools), I did see the DoT one, Bone Prisons, and the lightning breath. Maybe he doesn't use those two in normal. I DID notice Ice Armour was perfectly capable of chilling/freezing him. Hadn't remembered Frost Nova (although I do have Teleport and Diamond Skin as MJ suggested.)

It's sort of annoying that Diamond Skin is basically required for Wizards, but on the other hand, I'm glad it's an option. It's nice to have a skill where I can be very temporarily near-invincible while forcing things to stay in a Meteor or Blizzard radius.

[MongoJerry]

Oddly I didn't see either of the fire attacks people are describing (circle or fire pools), I did see the DoT one, Bone Prisons, and the lightning breath. Maybe he doesn't use those two in normal. I DID notice Ice Armour was perfectly capable of chilling/freezing him. Hadn't remembered Frost Nova (although I do have Teleport and Diamond Skin as MJ suggested.)

Frost Nova is fantastic for Diablo. It's not normally a part of my build, but I always switch it in against him.

[Quark]

Diablo only teleports if he's near an obstruction. If he has a clear path to you, he'll choose to walk to you instead.

[ViralSpiral]

I can see why you would. Stone Curse that -works- on Diablo? Why the Hell not? Bet they patch that out, since three Wizards could keep him perpetually SC'd.

[NuurAbSaal]

I cannot say how it is for the Barbarian, but the Monk has a couple of easy ways to deal with the Lightning.

Same. It's just one rather clearly telegraphed attack, no class should have a problem reacting to it. A single +armor Leap will take care of it, for example*. Now, if Sheablo (thehehehehe, sorry...) was also Jailor/Nightmarish/Frozen, things might look differently, but as has been stated: elites > D.

take care
Tarabulus

*at least up until Hell, no idea about Inferno.

[RiotInferno]

One important thing to note about frost nova: If Diablo's is starting his cast animation for a special attack (lightning breath, circle of fire, etc), if you hit him with a Frost Nova, it interrupts the attack, and he moves on to a different attack when he thaws!

[kandrathe]

I cannot say how it is for the Barbarian, but the Monk has a couple of easy ways to deal with the Lightning.

Same. It's just one rather clearly telegraphed attack, no class should have a problem reacting to it. A single +armor Leap will take care of it, for example*. Now, if Sheablo (thehehehehe, sorry...) was also Jailor/Nightmarish/Frozen, things might look differently, but as has been stated: elites > D.

take care
Tarabulus

*at least up until Hell, no idea about Inferno.

With my Barb, I try to fight near one health well, until I use it, then move to the other one. I make Diablo come to me and either leap or charge to avoid his spell casts. This gives me time for my specials to cooldown. But, I'll hit him as I can until I can use the specials again. I tend to get caught in the cages though, so I save my potions for those occasions. For Normal, I just let the Ancients kill him. For nightmare, I used earthquake and wrath of the berserker together. In the Phase II, I just killed the shadow, then stayed out of the fire.

[MongoJerry]

I can see why you would. Stone Curse that -works- on Diablo? Why the Hell not? Bet they patch that out, since three Wizards could keep him perpetually SC'd.

In higher difficulties, the freeze time on Frost Nova diminishes, but it's still useful as a way to either interrupt a special attack or just to get away.

[ViralSpiral]

Ah, good. That would have been silly, three Wizards standing point blank and chain-freezing him, watching him bawl like a baby as he never gets to do...well...anything.