Grenades

Grenades is a Tier 1 Demon Hunter skill, which requires a character level of 2.

When using this skill the Demon Hunter tosses out three small metal objects that skitter along the dungeon floor, bouncing off walls and through doorways.

They detonate after about a one-second delay, dealing substantial fire damage to any targets in the vicinity. Higher levels in the skill raise their damage, and can be combined with Runestones to turn the Grenades into a formidable support skill.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]

Grenades Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Demon Hunter
Skill Description:
Thrown grenades that bounce and detonate after a delay.
Skill Details:
Type:	Damage
Quantity:	None
Effect:	Target
School:	Fire
Mana cost:	Low
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	1 sec delay
Cooldown:	None
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

Splosions!

The skill releases a set number of grenades (dependant upon skill rank and possibly runes) into the targeted area. The grenades are physics-enabled, so they are able to bounce around objects like barrels or off of platforms such as walls and doors. After a one second delay, they explode in quick succession, doing splash fire damage to any objects or enemies close by.

Skill Design

The Demon Hunter tosses three of the spiked grenades with one point in the skill. The toss determines how far they are aimed; clicking very near the Demon Hunter just drops them, while pointing at the edge of the screen hurls them very quickly, to bounce well out of sight (barring walls or other obstructions.) The grenades pass freely through enemies and other players, but are fully controlled by the physics of the dungeon levels; they bounce off of walls and objects, and will fall over the sides of levels where there are breaks in railings, etc.

Flux reported about his time using the skill from BlizzCon 2010^[1]:

Grenades I enabled with a skill point from leveling up to 10, and they worked like nothing in Diablo 3. At level one it threw out 3 grenades, which spread out slightly, to where you very seldom hit the same monster with two of them. About 1 second after they were thrown, the grenades blew up, dealing decent splash damage to anything there. It was very hard to hit an individual monster though, since the grenades moved very quickly and bounced off of enemies and obstacles. Especially if the monster was nearby.

Grenades was best used against mobs, since you could throw them very quickly, scattering 9 or 12 of the grenades across the mid-range of the screen, dealing good AoE to everything in the vicinity. They could be thrown quite a distance also, well off the screen, though aiming that way was just about pure luck. It would have been awesome in the arena, though. The second level of the dungeon in the demo featured numerous jail cells, which often had half a dozen skeletons and skeletal shieldmen in them. They were lots of fun with Grenades, since the bombs would bounce off the walls and stay where you wanted them to, then detonate with great effect.

Skill Rank Table

Rank: 1/5 Throw out three grenades that explode for X-X fire damage.

Runestone Effects

Tink, tink, tink...boom.

None yet known, since Runestones were not enabled in the Blizzcon 2010 build. It's fairly easy to speculate on some potentials though, based on what we know of normal rune modifications.

Alabaster Rune: Wild card.
Crimson Rune: More damaging (larger?) Grenades.
Golden Rune: Lower resource cost per skill use.
Indigo Rune: More Grenades per toss.
Obsidian Rune: Wild card.

Potential wild card rune functions: changed damage type, sticky grenades (would adhere to enemies), homing grenades.

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^[2]:

Also selling the idea of ranged attacks is Grenades. I love this skill in our game because we have a 3D engine so you can actually bounce grenades off the walls and floors. I think it'll be an awesome way for players to come up with some creative uses for grenades, throwing them around corners. It actually bounces around and it shows, again, and it sells the Demon Hunter's themes - ranged attacks, gadgetry, preparation and planning. This is premeditated demon killing going on.

Graphics

Grenades is a rather subtle skill compared to many that you will find in Diablo III. The Demon Hunter lobs the grenades in an under-hand fashion, the amount of grenades varying depending on the skill rank. The grenades are trailed in the air by a subtle black smoke effect until they detonate one after another.

The explosions are huge and fiery, filing much of the screen and entirely obscuring enemies in the vicinity.