Difference between revisions of "Sand Wasp"

Revision as of 02:24, 24 November 2012

The Sand Wasp is a giant insect beast native to the deserts of the Borderlands. Sand Wasps buzz around, attacking with a melee sting, but they can also launch a ranged attack, firing out a string of tiny glowing green wasps.

They are the same wasp essentially, but with different coloured wings.

This Sand Wasp is a fairly weak monster when dealt with one-on-one. They become dangerous in groups, or especially on a crowded screen, since they can fire out repeated sprays of miniature wasps. These glowing green bullets cruise straight across the screen at a slow speed, but with several wasps firing them at once they can become quite numerous and more than a nuisance.

Depending on what other monsters appear, it might be a good idea to try and kill one or more of the wasps, to make sure you're not drained from constant baby-wasp barrage as you are fighting more important foes, like a Desert Dervish.

Subtypes

Act II

Desert Hornet
Dune Stinger
Sand Wasp

In Alphabetical Order

Desert Hornet

Found in Act II - Desolate Sands and Eastern Channel
Poison melee attack
Stinger Missiles - Four green "mini wasp" projectiles that target your position from long range. They fly in a straight line so simply move to avoid them.
Inflicts round about the same level of damage and has the same health points as the other two wasps, they just have different coloured wings.

<mob>Desert Hornet</mob>

Dune Stinger

Found in Act II - Road to Alcarnus, Stinging Winds and Tunnels of the Rockworm
Poison melee attack
Stinger Missiles - Four green "mini wasp" projectiles that target your position from long range. They fly in a straight line so simply move to avoid them.
Inflicts round about the same level of damage and has the same health points as the other two wasps, they just have different coloured wings.

<mob>Dune Stinger</mob>

Sand Wasp

Found in Act II - Black Canyon Bridge, Black Canyon Mines, The Crumbling Vault, Deserted Cellar, Howling Plateau, Road to Alcarnus, Stinging Winds and Sundered Canyon
Poison melee attack
Stinger Missiles - Four green "mini wasp" projectiles that target your position from long range. They fly in a straight line so simply move to avoid them.
Inflicts round about the same level of damage and has the same health points as the other two wasps, they just have different coloured wings.

Background

We have seen giant insects before, primarily in Diablo II, Act III. Whether this desert wasp has anything to do with the jungle one remains to be seen.

The Diablo I expansion (which is not quite canon) also had a multitude of insects, which could possibly be related.

Development

The Sand Wasp was first seen at the GamesCom 2009 demo and shortly after that at BlizzCon 2009. The inspiration for this enemy was old time arcade games, where players are forced to dodge bullets from opposing ships.

Blizzcon 2009 Panel

Sand Wasp mini-game!

The Sand Wasp and its unique ranged attack was discussed in the Heroes and Monsters panel at Blizzcon 2009. The following summarizes the panel discussion, but is not a direct quote:

The Sand Wasp is a natural creature. Not a demonic enemy. It's meant to show that the world of Sanctuary is very dangerous; it's not just the mutated demons that can kill you.

Sand wasps are swarming creatures. They're not very tough on their own, and are a fairly easy kill for any character. They're dangerous in conjunction with others; other wasps or especially other monsters to occupy the character and let the wasps fire freely. We call multiple wasps attacking at once the "Bullet hell effect." where their mini-wasps clog the air.

This concept was tough to work into the game. We tried a lot of different projectiles from the wasps, but none really worked. Eventually we got the idea to use tiny wasps, but it was still had to communicate to the whole team, from artists to programmers, what sort of effect to create; where the concept came from. Eventually we realized that it was emulating an old arcade action game, and made a little demo version to show what we were thinking about. (Animated movie of the Galaxian-like arcade shooter plays.)

Sand Wasp concept art.
Wasp and BBs
A pair of wasps hovering.
Mini-wasps fired like BBs.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The '''Sand Wasp''' is a giant insect [[beast]] native to the deserts of the [[Borderlands]]. Sand Wasps buzz around, attacking with a melee sting, but they can also launch a ranged attack, firing out a string of tiny glowing green wasps.
-<br>
-<br>
-== Diablo III Monster ==
+They are the same wasp essentially, but with different coloured wings.
-<div style="clear:both;"></div>
-{{Monsterbox
-|game= Diablo III
-|portrait= Sand_Wasp.jpg
-<!--|portrait-width= 200px-->
-<!--|name= Monstername-->
-|bosstype= nonboss
-|classif= Beasts
-|family= Sand Wasp
-|role= Cannonfodder/Ranged
-|life= Low
-|mana= N/A
-|armor= Unknown
-|resist= Unknown
-|armament= Baby Wasps
-|dps= Unknown
-|dmg_low= Unknown
-|dmg_high= Unknown
-|range= [[Ranged]]
-|speed= Unknown
-|movement= Fast
-|modifier= None
-|spells= Spit Baby Wasp
-|found= [[Borderlands]]
-}}
 This Sand Wasp is a fairly weak monster when dealt with one-on-one. They become dangerous in groups, or especially on a crowded screen, since they can fire out repeated sprays of miniature wasps. These glowing green bullets cruise straight across the screen at a slow speed, but with several wasps firing them at once they can become quite numerous and more than a nuisance.
 Depending on what other monsters appear, it might be a good idea to try and kill one or more of the wasps, to make sure you're not drained from constant baby-wasp barrage as you are fighting more important foes, like a [[Desert Dervish]].
-===Spells and Abilities===
+==Subtypes==
-* Fire Mini-Wasp
-This is more an ability than a spell, since any Sand Wasp can do it numerous times, potentially launching dozens of tiny wasps, in bursts of four at a time. The mini-wasps aren't very damaging, but they can be quite numerous and very annoying and distracting to players who are locked up in combat with other enemies.
-[[Image:Desert-wasp02.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Mini-wasps fired like BBs.]]
+'''Act II'''
-Sand Wasps are very common through most of the surface levels in Act Two, but they seldom spawn in large groups, and no boss packs were seen in the [[BlizzCon 2009]] build. They did occur as Champions and solitary bosses, which were considerably more difficult than individual normal wasps.
-The AI of the wasps is similar to that of {{iw|Blood_Hawk Blood Hawks}} found in Diablo II. The Wasps tend to hover around and move in semi-random fashion, and could be fairly easily ignored, if not for their annoying projectile attacks.
+*Desert Hornet
+*Dune Stinger
+*Sand Wasp
-<!--
+'''In Alphabetical Order'''
-===Known X Types===
-Use on a "family" monster article.
+==Desert Hornet==
-* Can be used in "Goatman" or the like
-* Display the different types of enemies, like weapon/equipment carried, or behaviour difference.
+* Found in Act II - [[Desolate Sands]] and [[Eastern Channel]]
-* Example: Warrior, Archer, Mage
+* Poison melee attack
--->
+* '''Stinger Missiles''' - Four green "mini wasp" projectiles that target your position from long range. They fly in a straight line so simply move to avoid them.
+* Inflicts round about the same level of damage and has the same health points as the other two wasps, they just have different coloured wings.
+<mob>Desert Hornet</mob>
+==Dune Stinger==
+* Found in Act II - [[Road to Alcarnus]], [[Stinging Winds]] and [[Tunnels of the Rockworm]]
+* Poison melee attack
+* '''Stinger Missiles''' - Four green "mini wasp" projectiles that target your position from long range. They fly in a straight line so simply move to avoid them.
+* Inflicts round about the same level of damage and has the same health points as the other two wasps, they just have different coloured wings.
+<mob>Dune Stinger</mob>
+==Sand Wasp==
-<!--
+* Found in Act II - [[Black Canyon Bridge]], [[Black Canyon Mines]], [[The Crumbling Vault]], [[Deserted Cellar]], [[Howling Plateau]], [[Road to Alcarnus]], [[Stinging Winds]] and [[Sundered Canyon]]
-===Known Subtypes===
+* Poison melee attack
-Use on a a "family" monster article, or a "sub-family" monster article.
+* '''Stinger Missiles''' - Four green "mini wasp" projectiles that target your position from long range. They fly in a straight line so simply move to avoid them.
-* Can be used in "Goatman" or the like
+* Inflicts round about the same level of damage and has the same health points as the other two wasps, they just have different coloured wings.
-* Can be used in "Goatman Shaman" or the like
-* Use for things like clan/colouring of same type of enemy
-* Example: Moon Clan, Blood Clan, Death Clan
--->
-<!--
+<mob>Sand Wasp</mob>
-===Related Monsters===
-List any monster that has a relevance, such as other goatmen, or Grotesque/Lamprey.
--->
-<!--
-===Famous Monsters===
-List any "character" monster, such as King Leoric for skeletons and the Butcher for Overlords.
--->
 ==Background==
-The sand wasps presumably dwell in the desert regions of [[Sanctuary]], where they await their prey. Their main attack seems to be the act of shooting baby wasps at the target. Whether or not they are aggressive towards humans is because of [[demon]]ic corruption, or just hunger is unknown.
-==Previous Appearances==
 We have seen giant insects before, primarily in [[Diablo II]], Act III. Whether this desert wasp has anything to do with the jungle one remains to be seen.
@@ Line 102: / Line 81: @@
 -->
-==Media==
-You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery:
-* [http://www.diii.net/gallery/ Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures]
-* [http://www.diii.net/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=all&si=Sand+Wasp Sand Wasp-specific gallery contents]
 <gallery>
@@ Line 111: / Line 87: @@
 File:Desert-wasp03.jpg|Wasp and BBs
 File:Desert-wasp04.jpg|A pair of wasps hovering.
+Image:Desert-wasp02.jpg|Mini-wasps fired like BBs.
 </gallery>
-==References==
-* [http://www.diii.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3182&cat=564 Sand Wasp concept]
 {{Monster navbox|beasts}}
+[[Category:Monsters]]
+[[Category:Beasts]]
+[[Category:Sand Wasps]]

Boss and Champion Special Boss Modifiers
Uniques Modifiers	Strong CC (Limit 1): Knockback -- Nightmarish -- Vortex -- Jailer Defensive (Limit 1): Avenger(C) -- Health Link(C) -- Horde(B) -- Illusionist -- Missile Dampening(B) -- Shielding Aggressive (No Limit): Arcane Enchanted -- Desecrator -- Electrified -- Fast -- Fire Chains(C) -- Frozen Pulse* -- Frozen -- Molten -- Mortar -- Plagued -- Poison Enchanted* -- Reflects Damage -- Teleporter -- Waller (B) = Boss Only modifier. -- (C) = Champion Only modifier -- * = Reaper of Souls only
Removed Modifiers	Ballista -- Cold Aura -- Die Together -- Doppelganger -- Extra Health -- Invulnerable Minions(B) -- Life Link -- Magical -- Mirrored -- Multishot -- Mythical -- Powerful -- Stoneskin -- Vampiric
Key Quest Uniques and their Special Modifiers
Act One Uniques	Araneae - Web Spit	Leoric - Summon Skeleton, Teleport Strike, Triple Cleave		The Butcher - Smash, Grappling Hook, Spear, Frenzy Charge
Act Two Uniques	Maghda - Forcefield, Summoning Ritual, Punish, Moth Dust, Teleport.	Zoltan Kulle - Fiery Boulder, Time Bubble, Ceiling Collapse, Energy Twister,Vanish, Creepy Laugh		Belial - Phase One: Triple Fireball, Summon Vipers. Phase Two: Poison Meteors, Ground Pound, Lightning Strike, Lightning Breath.
Act Three Uniques	Ghom - Acid Slime, Sneeze, Gas Cloud, Chomp.	Siegebreaker - Triple Hit, Charge, Leg Stomp, Grab and Throw.	Cydaea - Pain Bolts, Web Trap, Spider Pits.	Azmodan - Bellyflop, Laser Attack, Falling Corpses, Demon Gate, Pool of Destruction, Globe of Annihilation.
Act Four Uniques	Rakanoth - Cleave, Teleport Strike, Blade Strike, Volley, Summon Minion.	Izual - Frost Nova, Frozen, Summon Minions.	Diablo - Phase One: Claw Rip, Charge, Hell Spikes, Shadow Vanish Grab, Curse of Destruction, Ring of Fire, Ground Stomp, Curse of Anguish, Curse of Hatred. Phase Two: Shadow Clone. Phase Three: Overdrive, Lightning Breath.