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Nightmare difficulty adds additional modifiers to the selection pool, and all random bosses and champion packs will have two modifiers semi-randomly selected from . All of the pool.Normal Difficulty Affixes are possible, with several new modifiers possible on Nightmare:
* [[Arcane Enchanted]], [[Extra Health]], [[Fast]], [[Horde]], [[Fire Chains]], and [[Vampiric]].
Hell difficulty adds additional modifiers to the selection pool, and all random bosses and champion packs will have three modifiers semi-randomly selected from the pool.Normal, Nightmare, and the new Hell affixes:* [[Avenger]], and [[Health Link]], and . ([[Invulnerable Minions]]was Hell/Inferno only prior to its removal from the game.)
There are no additional Boss Modifiers enabled in Inferno, though the fact that random bosses and Champions get 4 modifiers on that difficulty level can create combinations not seen previously.
In July 2012 Blizzard revealed that boss modifiers were sorted into three groups, which limited which mods could spawn with each other on the same monster. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-on-post-validayion-auction-house-ui-v1-04-details-and-more#more-23877]
<blue><bfont color="#FFFFFF">3) Why aren’t monster affix combinations restricted in some way?</bfont><br>
Monster affixes are actually grouped into categories and then restricted based on those categories (to a degree). Our restrictions aren’t as tight as some players have suggested, but in the end we found that adding extra limitations often made Elite pack encounters very predictable and repetitive, which kind of went against our design goal for these types of monsters.
[[Illusionist (Boss modifier)|Illusionist]]<br>
[[Missile Dampening]]<br>
<nowiki>* </nowiki>[[Invulnerable Minions]]<br>
[[Shielding]]<br>
[[Vampiric]]
* Boss only:
** [[Horde]]
** [[Invulnerable Minions]](Removed in [[Patch 1.04]].)
** [[Missile Dampening]]
[[File:Boss-arcane-enchanted-run3.jpg|thumb|400px|The original, highly-dangerous, Hydra style of this modifier.]]
[[Arcane Enchanted]] bosses are "enchanted" with [[Arcane]] energy. Rather than adding Arcane damage to their attacks, they cast Arcane objects that look like second hands off of a clock and rotate around, damaging any players or minions in their slowly-moving path. These are highly-damaging at higher difficulties, and are capable of almost instantly killing any character without strong Arcane Resistance. They are especially dangerous when paired with [[crowd control]] Affixes like Waller or Jailer.
* Monster Level Minimum: 15
* Damage Type: Standard.
* Additional Resistances: None.
* Will Not Spawn With: [[Extra Health]], [[Health Link]], [[Horde]], [[Illusionist]], [[Missile Dampening]], [[Invulnerable Minions]], [[Shielding]], [[Vampiric]]
<br>
===Electrified===
[[Electrified]] bosses emit enemies function much like a steady stream lightning-based form of sparks (plus more when they are hit) that skitter along the ground and deal lightning damage to anything they encounter, much like the Wizard's [[Shock PulseReflects Damage]] skill, dealing lightning damage back to attackers. They also have higher resistance This Affix was visually nerfed shortly after release, likely for frame rate/performance reasons. Prior to lightning damagethe visual nerf, which monsters with Electrified sent out sparks in many instances (such as to a Demon Hunter using [[Lightning Ball]] all directions when they were hit by ranged or a Monk using [[Fists of Thunder]]) is more noticeable than their electrified spark melee attacks.
[[File:Boss-electrified1.jpg|thumb|350px|Electrified boss putting out massive sparks.]]
* Monster Level Minimum: 20
* Damage Type: Lightning.
* Additional Resistances: None.
<br>
===Extra Health===
[[Extra Health]] grants a 50% hit point bonus to Champions, as well as Bosses and their minions. Note that all such monsters already have considerably increased hit points compared to normal monsters of their type, and this 150% is an increase on that existing bonus. This mod provides no other changes, but can pair with defensive mods such as [[Shielding]] or [[Health Link]] to make for a very long fight. This is especially a problem in Inferno, as it increases the odds of hitting the [[Enrage]] timer.
* Monster Level Minimum: 31 (Nightmare and above.)
* Damage Type: N/A.
* Additional Resistances: None.
* Will Not Spawn With: [[Avenger]], [[Health Link]], [[Horde]], [[Illusionist]], [[Missile Dampening]], [[Invulnerable Minions]], [[Shielding]], [[Vampiric]]
<br>
===Fast===
[[Fast]] monsters get a 40% bonus to their movement speed, as well as a 20% bonus to attack speed and a 10% bonus to casting speed. The modifier is especially dangerous for [[glass cannon]] type characters, who survive by running and staying out of reach of the monsters. Fast is Ironically, This ability can be most dangerous annoying when it spawns on monster types that are quick to begin withwandering, or monsters with other movement impairing modifiers shaman type enemies such as [[Waller]]Fallen Shaman and Zombie Pukers, [[Jailer]], or [[Vortex]]as they amble around in random directions and may move quite far during the course of a battle.
Rooting and slowing [[CC]] effects are essential against Fast enemies, as are movement skills.
* Monster Level Minimum: 31
* Damage Type: N/A.
* Additional Resistances: None
[[File:Firechains.jpg|thumb|450px|Fire Chains triangle between 3 desert wasp Champions.]]
[[Fire Chains]] are glowing, fiery chains that link champions in groups of 2 or 3, and deal heavy fire damage to any character that is touched by the chains. Four champions will '''not''' link into a square or trapezoid; instead there are a pair of chains linking two enemies, which will switch back to the triangle shape when one of the four is killed. Chains have a limited reach of about the visible screen80 yards, and if one of the Champions moves too far from the others, the chain connecting them will wink out of existence, then instantly return when/if the Champions move into closer proximity.
The chains do not radiate or reach out, so it isn't that hard to avoid in most situations, but the monsters with this property seem to have their AI tweaked to do a bit more circling and moving around. Thus a melee character can take on one Champion, and it will either keep moving and get behind to stretch the chains over the player, or the other champions will move past and around, stretching the chains that way.
===Frozen===
[[File:Modifier frozen.jpg|thumb|450px|Frozen grenades from [[Sicklefang]] explode & freeze]]
[[Frozen]] spawns on Champions, Bosses, and Boss minions and causes those enemies to regularly create a number of small scattered few blueish-white orbs that hang in space, growing rapidly in size before detonating in short range Frost Novas. These are damaging to any player, pet, or follower this hit and more dangerous still is their freezing effect, which leaves the frozen target helpless and motionless for a short duration.
While this property is not encountered until some distance through Normal difficulty, players get an early preview of it when they first encounter [[Captain Daltyn]] below [[Adria's Shack]]. [[Izual]] is another Elite with Frozen as an inherent property, and he creates a larger number of orbs spread over a larger area during his battle, as well as casting unavoidable Frost Novas.
Patch v1.0.4 in August 2012 reduced the damage Frozen deals to pets and followers to 10%.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/official-patch-1-0-4-notes/]
[[Health Link]]ed champions share a single common health pool, as if all 3 or 4 enemies had their life shared in the same bulb. This makes the individual champions seem very robust, since the damage they take is shared between the entire group, effectively tripling or quadrupling the hit points of any single monster. The effect has a fun side effect though, since when the shared health pool is emptied, all of the Champions will die in rapid succession, sometimes almost simultaneously.
Health Link has a maximum range, and if one of the Champions is lead more than a screen away from the others, it will lose health normally, without sharing with the others. This property is shown visually by splashes of blood that flash between the Champions as one takes damage and the others lose health to compensate.
* Monster Level Minimum: 20
* Damage Type: N/A.
* Additional Resistances: None
* Will Not Spawn With: [[Avenger]], [[Extra Health]], [[Horde]], [[Illusionist]], [[Missile Dampening]], [[Invulnerable Minions]], [[Shielding]], [[Vampiric]]
During development this modifier was called [[Life Link]] and could be encountered on bosses and their minions, as well as champions.
===Horde===
[[Horde]] is a boss-only property that causes more minions to spawn at the start of the battle. The number of additional enemies seems to be semi-randomincreases with the difficulty level, with just a few extra on Normal, and up to 3 more appearing6 or 8 on Inferno. This property does not alter the boss' stats or behavior, and the minions aren't any different either; there are just more of them.
Horde is most dangerous when the monster type is dangerous, or when the other Boss Modifiers are nasty ones. Modifiers that minions can cast along with the boss, such as [[Frozen]] and [[Arcane Enchanted]], become very numerous when paired with Horde. [[Reflects Damage]] and [[Electrified]] can be very dangerous as well, since a character may hit the boss and several minions at once, taking the RD from all of them simultaneously.
Horde can be confused with [[Illusionist]], but Horde just creates more minions at the start of the fight. It does not allow the boss to make more during the battle, and all the Horde minions are full power and hit points, and their damage is very real.
* Damage Type: N/A.
* Additional Resistances: N/A.
* Will Not Spawn With: [[Avenger]], [[Extra Health]], [[Health Link]], [[Illusionist]], [[Missile Dampening]], [[Invulnerable Minions]], [[Shielding]], [[Vampiric]]
<br>
[[File:Illusionist-skeleton1.jpg|thumb|300px|A few zombies can result.]]
[[Illusionist_(Boss_modifier)|Illusionist]] Bosses and Champions are able to create duplicates of themselves during the battle, adding 4-6 more enemies in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, these duplicates are harmless; unable to deal any damage with their attacks and blessed with very few hit points. They are largely an illusion and work mostly as a distraction, since they are indistinguishable from the other monsters. This property is akin to the Wizard's [[Mirror Image]] skill, in that both create a lot of visual flash and action, but no real damage.
As Illusions have very minimal hit points they will die very quickly to any sort of [[AoE]] attack. They can also be spotted by their health bar display, as their total hit points will be a tenth (or less) of the Boss. Effects such as [[Fire Chains]] and [[Molten]] will not appear below the Illusions; only the real monsters.
The biggest danger from Illusionist is deception. Players can not tell which ones are real and which are fake, and may waste time attacking or running from harmless duplicates. The Illusions do take up space like real monsters though, and can physically block characters from escaping their midst. They are also annoying as ranged attackers, since though projectiles are harmless, they are identical in appearance to the "real" ones fired by the Boss or Champions.
* Damage Type: N/A.
* Additional Resistances: None.
* Will Not Spawn With: [[Avenger]], [[Extra Health]], [[Health Link]], [[Horde]], [[Missile Dampening]], [[Invulnerable Minions]], [[Shielding]], [[Vampiric]].
[[Jailer]]. This modifier grants the boss or champion the ability to briefly cage players and their minions. A reddish-orange circle appears around the targets, locking them into place for a short duration during which characters can fight and fire spells or projectiles, but can not move from their location. Jailer is most dangerous when used by monsters that deal high damage, or in conjunction with [[AoE]] boss modifiers like [[Arcane Enchanted]], [[Plagued]], or [[Desecrator]].
A number of class skills including [[Spirit Walk]], [[Teleport]], [[Smoke Screen]], [[Leap]], [[Furious Charge]], [[Wrath of the Berserker]], [[Archon]], and [[Dashing Strike]] allow characters to break out of the Jailer's circle, or move while the Jail remains around them. See the [[Jailer]] article for a full detailslist.
* '''Monster Level Minimum:''' 10
*''' Damage Type:''' N/A.
* '''Additional Resistances:''' None.
* '''Will Not Spawn With:''' [[Knockback]], [[Nightmarish]], or [[Vortex]]. (Added Changed in patch v1.0.4.)[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/official-patch-1-0-4-notes/]
<br>
[[Knockback]]. This modifier grants the boss or champion a knockback attack which will send a character, pet or follower flying away from the monster that hits them. This is not a slight stumbling bump backwards, as many normal monsters can land; it's a special hit and knocks the target back a considerable distance, often half the screen or further (40+ yards). This can be quite funny early in the game, when a Witch Doctor watches his [[Mongrels]] get repeatedly launched across the entire screen by some tiny boss with this property. It can also be somewhat helpful to ranged attackers, as the boss will knock them so far back that it's almost as if they used some sort of movement skill themselves.
The real danger comes in the debuff, since knocked back characters and pets are confused, slowing their movement and attack speed for a moment second after the impact.Characters can be knocked back into other dangerous effects such as Molten or Arcane and die while still badly slowed.
* Monster Level Minimum: 1
* Damage Type: n/a
* Additional Resistances: n/a
* Will Not Spawn With: [[Avenger]], [[Extra Health]], [[Health Link]], [[Horde]], [[Illusionist]], [[Invulnerable Minions]], [[Shielding]], [[Vampiric]]
<br>
===Molten===
[[File:Molten2.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Molten trail]]
[[Molten]] works much like the Sorceress' Blaze skill in Diablo 2. It creates a trail of fire below flame behind the feet of the monster, leaving a damaging trail of fire that takes several seconds to fade away. The most dangerous part of the Affix comes when the boss, minion, or championdies, or boss' minion which deals considerable as a glowing fiery core is left behind. It expands for a few seconds before detonating, dealing huge damage to any character who steps into in the flamesradius of effect. The flames do not project out Characters need to move away from the bossexplosions, so it is safe to melee combat one, but monsters with and this property tend to mill around and move past players, thus covering large areas with the flaming effect. It's can be very dangerous when paired matched with CC properties such as [[Vortex]], as players will be yanked right into the midst Waller, or Jailer, or even just when lots of other monsters are in the flameway, blocking a character's escape.
* Monster Level Minimum: 12
[[File:Mortar-bug5.jpg|thumb|400px|Mortar display bug during the [[Beta]] test.]]
[[Mortar]] is a property that causes a constant stream of fiery projectiles to shoot out from the boss or champions, in all directions. These missiles are meant to only The mortars do not land at least 10 [[yards]] from right beside the boss, thus making creating a safe zone that allows melee characters to largely ignore the property irrelevant to melee attackers. The accuracy of the projectiles isn't always very good[http://blues.incgamers.com/Posts/10/1/40/819/168089/explain-mortar], and especially though when this appears on 3 or 4 multiple championsare spewing our Mortars at once, the field much of fire can easily fill the entire screen. Mortar is most dangerous to ranged attackers, and on higher difficulty levels players must learn to move after literally every single shot. Since the Mortars target the location your character was standing when they were fired, and have very small splash damage, and the Mortars have some flight time, it's not impossible to shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot, move, etc, thus forever remaining a step ahead of the pursuing shower of can be covered by their explosions.
Due to the visuals of the 3D engine, it's much easier to see and react to Mortars when they are fired from the sides or the top of the screen. Battling a Mortar that's below your character is a much greater challenge and should be repositioned if possible.
* Monster Level Minimum: 31
===Nightmarish===
When [[Nightmarish]] bosses hit a target with a melee or ranged attack, they have a chance to inflict an effect similar to that of the the Witch Doctor's [[Horrify]] skill. Characters or minions so affected will run for a second in a straight line (if possible) directly away from the champion, boss, or boss' minion that caused the effect. While running , players are helpless and can not cast any spells or have no control over their movements at allcharacter. If their the running direction is blocked by a wall or other monsters, they characters may simply stand still, a complete sitting duck to all enemy attacks.
Though this modifier is merely annoying in the early going, it can be one of the most dangerous on higher levels, since characters need to hit, move, cast spells, heal, etc, constantly. Not doing those for a second can be deadly, even aside from the problems with potentially running right into a stream of missiles or a hotspot from [[Arcane]], [[Molten]], [[Plagued]], [[Desecrator]] or others.
Ranged attackers with Nightmarish inflict the effect much more often due to the higher volume of their projectiles.
[[File:Fire-chains-plagued-zombies1.JPG|thumb|350px|[[Plagued]], [[Fire Chains]] zombies.]]
[[Plagued]] bosses create green pools of damage beneath their feet and in the immediate vicinity. These pools are not targeted at the player the way [[Desecrater]] is, but the Plague pools can stack up for extra damage, they appear frequently, are larger and last for can cover quite a considerable duration. During bit of the screen during a long battle the entire screen can be covered in green pits, and this is very dangerous in enclosed areas where players can entirely run out of safe places to stand. [[Jailer]],[[Waller]] and other movement impairing effects are very dangerous when combined with Plagued.
As well as dealing damage, the Plague pool inflicts a short term debuff that reduces the armor of Barbarians and Monks by 50%, and causes the Witch Doctor, Wizard, and Demon Hunter to take [[Reflected Damage]].
[[Reflects Damage]], is a higher level boss and champion modifier that causes players to take some damage for every point of damage they deal to enemies. Unlike Thorns, this damage hurts ranged attackers and even spell users. For instance, Wizards will drop hit points steadily as their [[Hydra]] pelts monsters with projectile attacks, even if the monster is so far away the Wizard can't even see it.
This effect is most dangerous to [[glass cannon]] type characters who do not have high regeneration or healing or life leech, as they will take steady damage even if they're not being hit by the enemy. It's less troublesome to most melee attackers, as they're built to absorb and leech and heal during combat, and the slight added damage from Reflects Damage isn't generally large enough to impact their play style. Reflects Damage becomes more dangerous as a character increases in [[DPS]], since the reflected damage is a percentage of the attack. While all characters require [[Life on Hit]] or [[Life Steal]] equipment to survive RD and [[Electrified]] enemies, characters with higher damage will generally require additional healing or damage mitigation skills to avoid beating themselves to death.
* Monster Level Minimum: 31
[[File:Shielding.jpg|thumb|400px|[[Maghda]] in her [[Lair of the Witch|Lair]]]]
[[Shielding]] is a modifier that creates a transparent bubble around a boss or champion, rendering them temporarily immune to all forms of damage. Shielded monsters can still be affected by some debuffs to their movement speed, but while shielded they are immune to most [[CC]] effects. The shields seem to appear and disappear at regular intervals, without a precisely set duration of on/off.
Only one [[Elite]] has shielding; [[Magda]], though her shield is triggered by a timer on the fight itself, rather than a semi-random timer as with regular monsters.
Patch v1.0.4 nerfed the [[Shielding]] property in several ways. See , limiting it so it appears on only one monster out of the article for full detailsChampions or boss/minions at a time, and so it does not appear on the last monster remaining from such a group.
* Monster Level Minimum: 31
[[File:Teleporter-skeleton-summoner2.jpg|thumb|400px|A Skeletal Summoner teleports into range.]]
[[Teleporter]] allows bosses, or individual champions, to teleport to a random location, generally appearing directly on top of their targeta character they are battling. This makes gives the ability especially dangerous an interesting effect; many melee characters quite like it since it brings the enemy right to them, while ranged attackers, who wish to maintain a distance from especially of the enemyGlass Cannon variety, find it very dangerous. It Teleporter can also create amusing situations where with ranged attacking monsters who prefer to attack from a distance teleport in close, as they will Teleport into kissing-range, then immediately walk back to get away, giving the hero free hits without attacking as they fleetry to return to their preferred ranged distance.
Teleporter is similar to [[Vortex]] in effect, but is less dangerous since with Teleporter the monsters come to the hero, rather than dragging the hero into their midst, where [[Molten]] or [[Fire Chains]] or [[Arcane Enchanted]] or other such mods might be busy creating a killing ground.
===Vampiric===
[[Vampiric]] is life leech in Diablo III, though the effect seems to boost damage as well, in addition to granting the monster some healing as it deals damage. This modifier provided a huge The amount of healing is fairly minor, making this one of the less-difficult or noticeable boss modifiers. It was much more impressive during development, but was toned down in when the release game affix provided almost full healing for monsters when they landed even a single hit on a target. Players found this modifier extremely difficulty to the point that handle during play demos at Blizzcon, as it's not a big deal in most battlesmade some bosses almost impossible to kill, and only really comes into effect especially when the monsters can they could hit something repeatedly, minions such as while beating on a [[minion]] or [[petZombie Dogs]] and instantly refill their entire health bar. In the final game the healing is much reduced, and hardly ticks at all when the monsters hit minions, pets, or [[follower]]s.
* Monster Level Minimum: 31
[[File:The archivist2.jpg|thumb|400px|Vortex affix from [[The Archivist]]]]
[[Vortex]] is basically reverse [[Teleporter]], as it causes players characters to warp in and appear directly beside into close proximity to the champoion or boss or champion (but not minion) with the propertyAffix. This modifier is can be very dangerous to dangeorus for ranged attackerswho wish to stay away, especially glass cannon type builds, and when combined with [[AoE]] damage other damaging Affixes such as [[Molten]] or [[Fire ChainsArcane Enchanted]] or [[Plagued]], it can be instantly deadly.
The Vortex triggers periodically, and is not based on a % chance from the monster landing hits. There seems to be a maximum distance outside of which it will not work; character who remain off the screen are very seldom Vortexed in, and it's a pull, not a warp, so geographical features such as walls and other obstacles might stop the pull before a character is yanked right next to the enemy.
[[File:Bane_the_terrible_yellow.jpg|thumb|400px|Waller affix on a Goatman in zoomed view.]]
[[Waller]] grants monsters the ability to raise stone walls that block player movement for a second or two, before crumbling back into nothing. Walls block limit player movement (though some skills such as [[Leap]] and [[Teleport]] can move over them), as well as blocking most player projectiles. Monsters are generally blocked from moving or firing over the Most melee attacks will work right past walls as well, and wallers in levels with narrow corridors can create amusing sequences of perpetually blocked access, where neither providing the monsters or target is directly on the characters can get to each other to fightside and within reach.
* Monster Level Minimum: 10
===Ballista===
[[Ballista]] was a new property seen in the Blizzcon 2010 demo on some ranged attackers such as [[Skeletal Archers]]. This modifier appeared to increase the size and damage of their projectiles, but the damage wasn't noticeably bigger, and the shots didn't explode upon impact, as Warcraft 2 fans might have expected, given the utility of the human catapult, the Ballista, in that title. It was removed prior to beta testing.
===Cold Aura===
[[Cold Aura]] reported by a fan from the Blizzcon 2009 demo. It has not been was never seen sinceafterwards, and is considered unconfirmed. It reputedly worked just as it did in Diablo 2, chilling and slowing players within the radius of effect. Interestingly, it was not until after that year's Blizzcon that [[Jay Wilson]] let it be known that [[Auras]] would return to the game, most likely as [[Monk skills]].
* Monster Level Minimum: ?
* Available to: Bosses only.
The theory was to force players to manage the battle, and to whittle all of the Champions down to nearly dead, before trying to kill them all in rapid succession. In practice it was just annoying -- characters with AoE attacks had a considerable advantage over melee attackers and furthermore, some monsters (such as Skeletal Summoners) tended to move apart, making it nearly impossible to kill all of them in the allotted time.
===Doppelganger===
===Stoneskin===
[[Stoneskin]], which granted a considerable boost to physical resistance in Diablo II, was present during Diablo 3's development and was seen in demos, but it is not present in the final game. Likely this was removed when elemental damage types were flattened, and as having a specific resistance to one type of damage seemed pointless with fire, cold, lightning, poison, and physical all working exactly the same. (Only cold varies slightly in the final game, trading a bit less damage for an added chill/slow effect.)