Difference between revisions of "Jailer"

Revision as of 23:24, 8 July 2012

A Witch Doctor, Mongrels, and Templar jailed by the Dataminer.

Jailer is a Boss Modifier in Diablo III. Bosses and Champions (and Elites) who possess this ability can "jail" characters and their pets for a short period of time. While jailed an orange circle of light appears around the target, and they are held in that location until the jail dissipates.

Jailer bosses have a 25% chance to jail their targets with each attack, and the effect last for up to 3 seconds, though on Normal difficulty the duration is much shorter than that. Various equipment can also lessen the duration of the effect.

Jailed targets can still fight, hit enemies, cast spells, drink potions, etc. They just cannot move, though some skills will allow an escape from the jail. This boss property is also possessed by a good number of Elites, most notably (and appropriately) by The Warden.

Jailer:

• Monster Level Minimum: 10
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Strategy

Jailer is often inconvenient and scary, but as it's only cast occasionally and the duration is fairly short it's not usually lethal. The biggest danger, other than being hit by enemy attacks that you can not move to avoid, comes from other Boss Modifiers. Though Jailer does no damage, it can pair with deadly AoE properties like Arcane Enchanted, Plagued, Desecrator, or Mortar to destroy an immobilized character.

Players need to learn not to panic and to keep fighting while jailed -- new players often freak out and spend all their time struggling to escape, rather than continuing the battle. It's also helpful to know which of your skills can and cannot escape the jail, so you do not waste resources using skills that won't help. For instance, Demon Hunters can not break out with Vault or the backflip from Evasive Fire, though they can cast those skills while jailed, wasting Discipline while moving not an inch, and potentially having no resource left once they are free.

Escape Skills

The jail can be broken out of by a number of skills. These include:

• Barbarian Skills
  • Dashing Strike
  • Leap
  • Wrath of the Berserker will break out if cast by a jailed Barbarian, and while in WotB form the Barbarian can not be jailed.

• Demon Hunter Skills:
  • None to escape.
  • Smoke Screen will stop monsters attacking as they can not see the target.

• Monk Skills:
  • Serenity grants "immunity to all control-impairing effects" including Jailer.
  • Seven Sided Strike.
  • Dashing Strike will not break the jailer, but the Monk will teleport to the target, the jail moving with him.
  • All of the Monk's protection abilities also work while jailed, so the class can shield and defend as necessary.

• Witch Doctor skills:
  • Spirit Walk allows the Witch Doctor to pass right through the Jail.

• Wizard skills:
  • Teleport
  • Archon will break out of the jail, and a Wizard in Archon form can not be jailed.

No-Escape Skills

These movement skills and their rune effects will not break out of the jail.

Barbarian:

• Sprint.

Demon Hunter:

• Vault and Evasive Fire. Smoke Screen does not break out of the jail, but monsters will stop attacking the invisible Demon Hunter.

Monk:

• Tempest Rush does not break out of the jail or make the Monk immune to being jailed. Dashing Strike moves to the target but does not break out.

Witch Doctor:

• No movement skills other than Spirit Walk, which escapes the jail. Any pets summoned while Jailed will appear outside the jail and move freely.

Wizard:

• Mirror Images cast while the Wizard is jailed will appear outside the jail and move around normally.

Media

The jailer property does not alter the appearance of the boss or Champion in any way, so players don't know about it unless they see the tooltip hover text, or the orange jail cell pops into existence around them.

• 

  Jailed by a Scavenger.

• 

  Boss with Jailer affix.