Desert Dervish

The Desert Dervish is a large, powerful monster found in the desert areas of Act 2. Dervishes launch into a spinning Whirlwind attack, during which they deal heavy damage, as well as reflecting most types of projectiles.

Diablo III Monster

Diablo III Monster [e]
Desert Dervish
Classification:	Demons
Monster Family:	Monster
Role:	Knockbacker
Monster Stats Norm/Night/Hell/Inferno
Life:	Unknown
Mana:	Unknown
Armor:	Unknown
Resistance:	Unknown
Offence Norm/Night/Hell/Inferno
Armament:	Spinning blades
DPS:	Unknown
Low Damage:	Unknown
High Damage:	Unknown
Range:	Melee
Speed:	Unknown
Movement:	Slow
Monster Modifiers
None
Spells/Abilities
Knockback, Reflect Projectiles
Found In
Near The Canyon Rim Mines

One of the more powerful monsters found on the surface of the Act 2 desert, the Dervish moves slowly and absently, seldom coming directly at the player. It waits to be attacked, and when a player closes to within range it launches into a whirlwind attack, spinning around, dealing heavy damage and knocking back any enemies in melee range. The Dervish is also capable of reflecting many types of projectiles while it spins, making it difficult for artillery characters to damage.

Strategy

The key to killing a Dervish is to stand back until it comes out of the spin, when it is vulnerable. A wise player will then quickly close in and hit it fast and hard, since it will begin spinning again after a couple of seconds. All types of spells will hurt the Dervish when it is not spinning, but when it is many projectiles are reflected away. These projectiles are still damaging; they can hurt other monsters, but they will not touch the Dervish while it is spinning.

Some spells can hurt the Dervish, though it's not always clear which. The Wizard's Magic Missile and Arcane Orbs are reflected away, but Electrocute hits the Dervish just like it would any other monster.

Dervishes have very large footprints, and can be hit by multiple spells at once. Witch Doctors have great success against the Dervish with Plague of Toads since the Dervish is so large that 2 or 3 toads from each cast will strike it. Charged Bolt is also effective, for the same reason. Neither of these spells is reflected away, either, perhaps because they are ground-based, rather than floating?

Death Animation

Dervishes have a spectacular death animation, as they fly up and around like a broken helicopter, before crashing down into the ground with a dust-hurling crash.

Spells and Abilities

• Knockback

The Desert Dervish has a knockback ability when spinning. When not spinning, there is no chance of knockback.

A dervish seen in the Blizzcon 2009 gameplay movie.

Background

Nothing is yet known about the background of this monster.

Previous Appearances

This monster type has never before seen its like in a Diablo Game.

Development

The Desert Dervish was first seen in August 2009 in the GamesCom 2009 demo build. It's interesting Blizzard added a "dervish" type monster, since they originally talked about a Dervish class. The name might have lent itself to this monster, though the term "dervish" to describe a spinning individual is in fairly common usage.

In a piece of concept art, the Desert Dervish is referred to as a "Dune Dervish".[1] Either we'll see both a "Desert" and "Dune" Dervish, or they just changed the name as to not be confused with the Dune Thresher.

Media

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

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Desert-Dervish-specific gallery contents

• 

  Desert Dervish before spinning.

• 

  Spinning, showing the massive chained axe.

• 

  Death animation part 1.

• 

  Death animation part 2.

• 

  Concept art of "Dune Dervish".

References

• GamesCom Wizard Gameplay Footage
• Dune Dervish concept by Vic from November 2007