Bolas

Bola Shot (not Bolo Shot) is a Demon Hunter skill unlocked at level 5. 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 5
Skill Description
Shoots out an explosive Bola that wraps itself around its target.
Type:	Direct Damage/AoE
Resource Use:	Costs Hatred
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 Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Bola Shot rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Skill		Effect
Bola Shot (Level 5)		Shoot out an explosive bola that wraps itself around its target. After 1 second, the bola explodes dealing 120% weapon damage as Fire to the target and an additional 90% weapon damage as Fire damage to all other targets within 7 yards. Cost: 20 Hatred.
	Volatile Explosives	Increase the explosion radius to 14 yards.
	Acid Strike	Shoot 9 poison bolas that deal 27% weapon damage each. The bolas no longer explode for area damage to nearby targets.
	Thunder Ball	When the bola explodes it deals 120% weapon damage as Lightning damage and has a 35% chance to stun the target for 3.0 seconds.
	Bitter Pill	After the bola explodes, you have a 30% chance to gain 8 Discipline.
	Imminent Doom	Augments the bola to deal 288% weapon damage as Arcane to the target and an additional 216% weapon damage to all other targets within 7 yards, but increases the explosion delay to 2 seconds.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

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.

Bola Shot Video

A video of Bola Shot can be seen below, courtesy of the Diablo.IncGamers.com You Tube channel.

Synergies

• No synergies with any of the passive skills 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.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Bola Shot became a level 5 skill.

Media

Bola Shot can be seen in action on video here:

• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2010

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

• Diablo III 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
• JudgeHype.com July 2011 Press Event Coverage - The Demon Hunter (Translated by Zediono)

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