Taunt

Taunt is a Tier IV skill from the Barbarian's Juggernaut Skill Tree, which forces enemies around the Barbarian to attack him, and debuff their damage dealt.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Taunt Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Barbarian
Skill Description:
Taunt monsters to attack you at close range for X seconds. Taunted monsters do Y% less damage while taunted.
Skill Details:
Type:	Debuff
Quantity:	Cast
Effect:	Circular AoE
School:	Physical
Fury cost:	Unknown
Cast time:	None
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	None
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Barbarian taunts his enemies, accusing them of being pathetic weaklings, thus lowering their morale and forcing them to retaliate.

Skill Design

Taunt is a warcry, and as such, is made to help you and your allies. The debuff will help Barbarians with high damaging monsters, making them less of a threat. It can also be used to to catch pesky monsters like the Fallen, if no Overseer is present. Also, it can be used to help allies if they are attacked by monsters which they cannot handle themselves.

It is almost identical to the Diablo 2 Taunt, except not lowering their armor. It is Unknown if it will affect bosses, and will it cause them to switch targets? It could also just lower the boss damage?

Skill Rank Table

(A) = Assumed

• Rank: 1/5
  • Taunt monsters to attack you at close range for 6 seconds. Taunted monsters do 55% less damage while taunted.
  • Fury Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 2/5
  • Taunt monsters to attack you at close range for 6.5 seconds. Taunted monsters do 60% less damage while taunted. (A)
  • Fury Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 3/5
  • Taunt monsters to attack you at close range for 7 seconds. Taunted monsters do 65% less damage while taunted. (A)
  • Fury Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 4/5
  • Taunt monsters to attack you at close range for 7.5 seconds. Taunted monsters do 70% less damage while taunted. (A)
  • Fury Cost: Unknown
• Rank: 5/5
  • Taunt monsters to attack you at close range for 8 seconds. Taunted monsters do 75% less damage while taunted. (A)
  • Fury Cost: Unknown

Synergies

Skill Synergies

• Revenge: Running into a big group of enemies and using Taunt will make them weaker and force them to attack you, followed by Revenge which will cause damage to them all and heal you for a good amount.

Skill Rune Effects

• None known.

Development

Taunt was first introduced in the BlizzCon 2008 demo. The old Taunt would only force enemies to attack you, without the damage debuff, making the usefulness of this skill questionable, only used to help allies, or keep fallen and ranged close.

Media

You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Taunt-specific gallery contents

References

• Full Barbarian Skill Trees and Stats
• Taunt in the Diablo 2 wiki.