Bolas

Bola Shot (not Bolo Shot) is a Demon Hunter Tier 1 skill unlocked at level 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.

Contents

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Bola Shot
Used by:	Demon Hunter
Enabled at:	Clvl 2
Skill Description
Shoots out an explosive Bola that wraps itself around its target.
Type:	Direct Damage/AoE
Resource Use:	Costs Discipline
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

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

Bola in flight.

Bola Arrow fires what looks like a blurry Frisbee, spinning in a dark crimson spiral until it reaches its target, leaving a quickly-fading glowing orange trail. It’s actually two bombs on a string, which whirl around and wrap around the neck of a monster. After a short delay, the bola explodes, doing substantial damage to the target, and less damage to nearby monsters.

It's difficult to miss with them, since if they’re aimed anywhere near a target, and any part of the bola touches, the whole thing will stick. Bola Shot also works against larger targets, such as sarcophagi and other destructibles that are too large for the ropes to actually wrap around.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 5: After 1.0 seconds the Bola explodes, dealing 200% weapon damage to the target and an additional 100% weapon damage to all targets within 8 feet.

Trait Synergies

• No synergies with any of the traits are yet known.

Skill Rune Effects

• No rune effects for Bola Shot are known.

Development

The Bola shot attached to a monster.

Bola Shot was first shown at BlizzCon 2010 when the Demon Hunter debuted. According to Wyatt Cheng from the Gameplay Panel:[1]

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

After testing it in the gameplay demo, Flux described using it:[2]

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.

Media

Bola Shot can be seen in action on video here:

• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2010

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

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Bola Shot specific gallery contents

• 

  Bola Shot tool tip; Blizzcon 2010.

• 

  Bola Shot detonating on a cultist.

• 

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

References

• BlizzCon 2010 Gameplay Panel Transcript
• BlizzCon 2010 Demon Hunter First Impressions
• BlizzCon 2010 Demon Hunter PvM Hands-on Report