Bolas

Bola Shot is a Tier 1 Demon Hunter skill, which requires a character level of 2. It fires a pair of bombs on a rope that wrap around the target, sticking and dealing explosive damage to the main target and any targets close to it after a couple of seconds of delay. This skill is not limited to monsters, as the bola can also attach to doors, barrels, and other targettable destructibles.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Bolas Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Demon Hunter
Skill Description:
Shoot out an explosive Bola that wraps itself around its target.
Skill Details:
Type:	Damage
Quantity:	None
Effect:	Target
School:	Physical
Mana cost:	Low
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	2 sec delay
Cooldown:	None
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The skill deals light damage upon the initial hit, but packs a considerable explosive charge after a couple of seconds. Multiple Bolas can be wrapped around the same target, yielding repeated explosions in rapid succession. The explosions damage other enemies in the immediate vicinity.

Skill Design

Bolo in flight.

Flux reports about his time using the skill from BlizzCon 2010:

Bola Arrow fires what looks like a blurry Frisbee. It’s actually two bombs on a string, which whirl around and wrap around the neck of monsters, as seen in the Demon Hunter cinematic.

In practice it’s like Explosive Arrow with a time delay fuse; you hit monsters and deal tiny damage with the impact, but then about 1.5 seconds later the bomb goes off and deals substantial fire damage. This skill was fun and effective, but not great to stack on a single target, since you could shoot them 5 or 6 times before the bomb started going off, and usually 2 or 3 would kill anything short of a boss. Thus wasting almost all the damage of your last 3 or 4 shots. I found it most effective to hit monsters with one or two Bolas, and then move on to shoot something else, trusting them to die when the time delay ran out.

Skill Rank Table

Rank: 1/5 After X seconds the Bola explodes, dealing X% weapon damage to the target and an additional X% weapon damage to all targets within X feet.

Skill Rune Effects

• None known.

Development

This skill was first shown at BlizzCon 2010 as one of the originals when the Demon Hunter was unveiled. According to Wyatt Cheng from a BlizzCon 2010 panel:

It feels really tactical, it has a slight delay that you can use to your advantage in the right situations.

Graphics

The Bolo shot attached to a monster.

The bola is fired from the Demon Hunter's weapon, spinning in a dark crimson spiral until it reaches its target, leaving a quickly-fading glowing orange trail. After a short delay, the bola explodes.

Media

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

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Bola Shot images and screens

• 

  Bola shot detonating on a cultist.

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  A close-up look of the bola, courtesy of the BlizzCon 2010 trailer.