Escape Skills
Escape skills refer to abilities in Diablo III that allow characters to quickly vacate a dangerous area or situation, either by granting some sort of invulnerability or letting a character escape from a dangerous situation. (Or both.) True Escape Skills are abilities like Teleport or Smoke Screen, panic button type skills that will generally save a character's life if they are deployed in time.
Survival Skills are grouped in with Escape skills since they allow characters to escape death. These are skills like Shadow Power or Serenity that don't add any movement boost or monster debuff, but that enable a character to survive huge damage that would otherwise kill them off.
Movement skills are a related classification; these allow characters to move at a higher rate of speed, and/or pass through monsters or obstacles such as Waller or Jailer monster CC abilities. Movement skills may also be Escape Skills, but not all are. Many movement skills are simply speed boosts that do not grant any invulnerability or intangibility, though of course being able to move faster than the monsters chasing you is a very good way to not die.
Contents
Strategy
Using at least one escape skills is all but mandatory for lower level characters and Hardcore players. These skills are not needed all the time, but they may be essential to survive dangerous situations. The most common are found on bosses and champions in Hell and Inferno, where the enemies get 3 or 4 Elite Modifiers which can combine to prove very lethal. Elites with modifiers such as Arcane Enchanted + Desecrator + Vortex + Waller can trap a character in place and inflict massive damage upon them, and are very likely to prove lethal to players without an escape skill at the ready.
Escape and Movement skills are not mandatory; players can focus on their offense and accept occasionally death as the price of faster overall killing. High level characters with very good gear can also ignore or minimize their Escape Skills since very good gear can make a character strong enough to take the damage, or to kill monsters before they can deal out lethal damage.
Hardcore characters can not generally follow this path and must play more conservatively and use at least one Escape or Movement skill at all times.
In addition to their survival features, Movement Skills such as Sprint or Vault or Tempest Rush can be used to traverse the dungeons more quickly than otherwise possible, greatly increasing the killing speed (but eliminating down time) for many characters.
Barbarian
In addition to the skills listed below, the Barbarian has numerous attacks with defensive features, such as knockback, slow, or other debuffs to enemies. These are very useful to survive, but don't quite count as escape or movement abilities.
Survival/Escape Skills
- Furious Charge: (db) All rune effects allow for very rapid movement through any number of enemies. This skill will not pass through Waller walls or other solid obstacles.
- Leap: (db) All rune effects allow the Barbarian to leap to a targeted spot, moving over any number of enemies. This skill will leap over Waller walls and other solid obstacles
Movement Skills
- Frenzy: Vanguard (db) grants an 15% bonus to movement speed.
- Sprint (db): This skill grants a substantial boost to movement speed for 3 seconds, but does not enable the Barbarian to pass through enemies or obstacles.
- Whirlwind (db): This attack skill enables the Barbarian to spin through any number of enemies and also breaks all destructibles, but does not pass through Waller walls or other solid obstacles.
Demon Hunter
Demon Hunters have numerous skills such as Caltrops and Entangling Shot that debuff monsters, slowing or stunning enemies. These abilities can certainly help a DH survive danger, but they aren't precisely movement or escape skills in of themselves.
Survival/Escape Skills
- Rain of Vengeance: Stampede (db) This skill will knock back any number of enemies, opening up a path for a running escape for a surrounded or cornered Demon Hunter.
- Shadow Power (db): This survival skill does nothing for movement, but grants huge life steal for a short duration, which many Demon Hunters harness to increase their EHP and survive attacks that would otherwise kill them. The rune effect Gloom is the most popular for the 35% boost to life steal.
- Smoke Screen (db): A prototypical escape skill, this one turns the Demon Hunter invisible to enemies and grants full invulnerability for a short duration. Smoke Screen breaks Jailer and allows the DH to pass through any number of enemies, but can not pass through Waller walls. It also works as a movement skill by triggering the Tactical Advantage passive speed boost.
- Vault (db): Vault moves the Demon Hunter 35 yards in an acrobatic tumble at very high speed. It's a movement skill that also escapes Jailer and passes through enemies, but does not move over obstacles like Waller walls. It's a great movement option as well, especially when paired with the Tactical Advantage passive speed boost.
Movement Skills
- Evasive Fire (db): This skill causes the Demon Hunter to do a backflip when enemies are nearby. The flip will not break Jailer or clear Waller walls, but it can pass through monsters that would otherwise block movement. The faster run bonus from Tactical Advantage is also triggered by an Evasive Fire backflip.
- Strafe (db): This skill allows the Demon Hunter to move through any number of enemies, but does not provide protection or break Jailer or pass through solid objects like Waller walls.
- Hot Pursuit (db): This passive skill grants a 15% movement speed bonus (may exceed the 25% equipment cap) when the Demon Hunter is at full Hatred.
- Tactical Advantage (db): This passive skill grants a huge 60% bonus to movement speed for 2 seconds after using Evasive Fire (executing a backflip), Vault, or Smoke Screen. Fast moving/farming Demon Hunters Vault, run for 2 seconds at high speed, Vault again, run for 2 seconds, etc.
Monk
Escape Skills
Movement Skills
- Frenzy: Vanguard (db) grants an 15% bonus to movement speed.
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Witch Doctor
Escape Skills
Movement Skills
- Frenzy: Vanguard (db) grants an 15% bonus to movement speed.
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Wizard
Escape Skills
