Difference between revisions of "Arcane Enchanted"

Revision as of 22:06, 1 January 2012

Arcane Enchanted is one of the Boss Modifiers in Diablo III; a special property that Bosses and Champions spawn with that grants them special abilities. This modifier "enchants" the monster with "arcane" energy; Arcane is one of the main damage types in Diablo III, distinguished by a purple coloration.

Unlike all of the other elemental type boss modifiers, Arcane does not add a purple glow + Arcane damage to the monster's regular attacks. There are no visual cues at all, until the monsters cast one of their "Arcane turret" attack modules.

Properties

Numerous "second hands" create a hazardous field.

Arcane Enchanted bosses, as seen in the Diablo 3 Beta it does not grant Arcane damage or special effects to the monster (as most of the other damage type mods do). The Arcane only manifests at key moments during the battle, or upon the death of the boss or champion. At that point an Arcane turret is created, which deals Arcane damage to players and their pets in the blast zone.

The turret form is currently a "second hand" type of long, straight bar that rotates around a central axis. These are far less dangerous than the original Hydra head style, and many players have expressed a desire to see the Hydra form back on higher difficulty levels.

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  Demon Hunter and Templar take hits.

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  Graveyard second hand skeleton.

Removed Hydra Form

The Hydra form of Arcane Enchanted was the most dangerous modifier in the early Beta. At that point, the "turret" was a single Hydra head, just like the three-headed dragon that appears with the Wizard skill. Each of these dragon heads spit small balls of Arcane energy at a very rapid firing rate. The Hydras were cast at various points during the fight, and always when the boss or Champion died, and the hydra heads generally appeared directly beneath the feet of the player.

Numerous Hydra heads force a speedy Demon Hunter retreat.

Each of the Arcane balls did fairly minor damage, and they did not start firing for a second or so after they appeared, but players who didn't react quickly could still get swamped in a hurry, and there were numerous videos of character deaths to this modifier in the early beta.

In reaction to these deaths, the developers completely changed the form of the arcane turret to a slowly-rotating "second hand" type of turret, that was far less dangerous, and which proved quite unpopular with fans.

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  Champion Carrion Bat.

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  Hydra heads spring up.

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  Lots of Hydras from puking zombies.

Arcane: New in Diablo III

The Arcane type of damage is new in Diablo III, and was not present in Diablo 1 or Diablo 2. Arcane is most commonly found on a number of Wizard spells, and is easily-spotted by the bright purple coloration of such attacks.

There are boss modifiers for all of the damage types, but Arcane clearly presented a naming challenge for the developers. The other elemental damage type boss modifiers all got a one-word name: Poison = Plagued, Lightning = Electrified, Fire = Molten, and Cold = Frozen. But Arcane doesn't translate so easily. You can envision the developers trying out terms like "Arcane-ified" or "Arcaned," and finding them wanting. Hence the two word solution, "Arcane Enchanted."

It's odd that the developers didn't go with that format for all of the boss modifiers, just for the sake of consistency. Cold Enchanted, Fire Enchanted, Lighting Enchanted, and Poison Enchanted along with Arcane Enchanted. After all, that's how the boss modifier naming system worked in Diablo II.

It's possible that the difference there is intentional, as the other four elemental type bosses manifest it constantly during battle and add it to their attacks, while the Arcane Enchanted are not glowing purple and only cast their turret attacks now and then?