Boss Modifiers

Diablo III Boss Modifiers or "Elite Affixes" are special bonus properties that Elite enemies use in addition to their normal attacks. These Elite Affects grant the bosses a wide variety of elemental damage effects, as well as things like faster movement speed, shielding, teleportation, and much more.

• Random boss monsters (Champions with Blue names and Rares with Yellow names) spawn with one property on Normal, and add one another modifier at about level 30, 50, and 60, to a maximum of 4.
• Uniques and Bosses (purples) special cases. These have pre-set Elite Affects and do not gain random modifiers at higher levels, though they may use more of their preset Effects. For instance, The Warden has no effects at lower levels, but gains Molten and Jailer at higher levels.

This directory page gives brief descriptions of the properties; click to the individual articles for far more detail, including screenshots, movies, and strategy tips.

• See also the Diablo II Boss Modifiers.

Higher Level Modifiers

In D3v, Elite Affixes were added by difficulty level, with 1 on Normal, 2 on Nightmare, 3 on Hell, and 4 on Inferno. With the scaling difficulty added in D3v2, random Elites add a 2nd property around lvl 30, a 3rd around lvl 50, and a 4th around lvl 60.

All Elite Effects scale in by level, with only a few simple effects available to monsters below level 20 or so. At the lowest levels, Elites can only use Nightmarish, Knockback, or Teleporter. Players in the Diablo 3 beta test saw this evolution in action, as Elites in the level 5-13 range initially had Effects including Arcane Enchanted, Molten, and Frozen which were ultimately moved to higher monster levels.

The following Boss Modifiers were all that could be found in Normal difficulty in D3v. These are now the Modifiers players will see on bosses below level 30ish.

• Desecrator, Electrified, Fire Chains, Frozen, Illusionist, Jailer, Knockback, Molten, Mortar, Nightmarish, Plagued, Reflects Damage, Shielding, Teleporter, Vortex, Waller.

Elites from level 31-50 (formerly Nightmare diff) add more abilities. These include:

• Arcane Enchanted, Extra Health, Fast, Fire Chains, Horde, and Vampiric.

Elites above level 51 add the last few, nastiest Elite Effects:

• Avenger and Health Link.
  • Invulnerable Minions was Hell/Inferno only, prior to its removal from the game.

There are no additional Boss Modifiers enabled in Inferno difficulty, though the fact that random bosses and Champions get 4 modifiers on that difficulty level can create combinations not seen previously.

Modifier Grouping

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 Elite. [1]

Why aren’t monster affix combinations restricted in some way?

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.

We know that not all players will see eye-to-eye with us on how these categories are organized, and we expect some criticism and disagreement, especially from such a passionate group of gamers. While we’re happy with where affix combos are right now, we’re open to feedback and especially constructive discussion. :)

This means that a given Elite can only have 1 (at most) of the Strong CC affixes, and 1 (at most) of the Defensive affixes. Thus an Elite on Inferno could have 1/1/2, 1/0/3, 0/1/3, or 0/0/4, respectively. These limits are meant to assist players by preventing an Elite from spawning with multiple overlapping functions, such as an Elite with Knockback + Nightmarish + Vortex that would constantly jerk and shove a character around, helplessly.

Strong CC (Limit 1)	Defensive (Limit 1)	Aggressive (No Limit)
Jailer Knockback Nightmarish Vortex Wormhole *	Avenger (C) Extra Health Health Link (C) Horde (R) Illusionist Missile Dampening (R) Shielding Vampiric	Arcane Enchanted Desecrator Electrified Fast Fire Chains (C) Frozen Frozen Pulse * Molten Mortar Orbiter * Plagued Poison Enchanted * Reflects Damage Teleporter Thunderstorm * Waller

R = Rares only C = Champions only * = Added in D3v2 and Reaper of Souls

Patch 2.0.5 added further restrictions on some combinations of Elite Affixes:

Champions and Rares can no longer spawn with four of the following monster affixes and the frequency at which they can spawn with three has been reduced Arcane Enchanted Desecrator Fire Chains Frozen Frozen Pulse Molten Mortar Orbiter Plagued Poison Enchanted Wormhole Champions and Rares can no longer spawn with both Plagued and Desecrator at the same time.

Rares vs. Champions

Some modifiers can only be found on Champions (never on Rares) and some can only be found on Rares (never on Champions).

• Champion only:
  • Avenger
  • Fire Chains
  • Health Link

• Boss only:
  • Horde
  • Invulnerable Minions (Removed in Patch 1.04.)
  • Missile Dampening

Only one modifier differs markedly when used by Champions or Bosses. The Waller Affix creates three sided boxes when used by a Boss, but only short, straight walls (which may overlap to create corners or dangerous T-shapes) when cast by Champions. Multiple Elites with Waller will stack up their walls helter-skelter, and running into a Rare and Champions with Waller at the same time can create no-movement situations for characters.

Boss minions share some abilities with their Boss, but not all. For instance Bosses and minions can Knockback targets and generate Arcane Enchanted lasers, but only Bosses (and not minions) can cast Vortex, Jailer, cast Frozen, or emit Mortar projectiles. These are noted in the "Available To" details below, and covered in detail on the individual Elite Affix pages.

Rare and Champion Modifiers

This page is the master list of boss modifiers, arranged alphabetically. Each entry has a brief listing here; click to the individual pages for a fully detailed listing with screenshots and gameplay reports.

All Uniques (purple) have 1 or more Elite Affects, but these are preset and not randomly added at higher difficulty levels. Some Uniques, especially the bigger quest/story Bosses, Rift Guardians, and Act Bosses, have special abilities that are not available to regular Elites.

Arcane Enchanted

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 hand of a clock as they rotate around, damaging any players or minions they meet. 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 or Frozen.

• Monster Level Minimum: 15
• Available to: All
• Damage Type: Arcane
• Size: 25 yards from base to tip of Arcane needle.
• Summoning Time: 2 seconds (will vanish if summoner dies before fully-active)
• Duration: 10 seconds to make one full rotation.
• Additional Resistances: None

Avenger

Avenger is a Champion-only modifier that links the champions, granting a temporary bonus in size, strength, and speed to the surviving champions whenever one is slain. The bonuses are most visible in the increased size of the enemy, and players may wish to use strategy and attempt to damage all of the monsters evenly, so that one or two won't still be nearly full health when the others die and they gain power ups.

• Monster Level Minimum: 51.
• Available to: Champions only.
• Damage Type: Standard.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will Not Spawn With: Extra Health, Health Link, Horde, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, Shielding, Vampiric.

Desecrator

An Unburied spawns a mass of Desecrator pits.

Desecrators create an orange-colored "glowing void zone" beneath the feet of a character. These function like small Firewalls, dealing damage to any character who stands in them. The void zones take a second or so to come into effect, giving a visual warning so players have time to move, assuming they are not blocked in by modifiers like Waller or Jailer. (

The Desecrated pools remain in place for 12 seconds, and during long battles with a boss and minions all casting Desecration, entire screens can be come virtually impassable due to the pits of damage.

• Monster Level Minimum: 22
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions.
• Damage Type: Hellfire and melee
• Radius of effect: 6 yards
• Damage begins: Immediately light, scales up quickly, persists 1 sec after leaving AoE.
• Additional Resistances: None

Electrified

Electrified boss putting out massive sparks.

Electrified enemies function much like a lightning-based form of Reflects Damage, dealing lightning damage back to attackers. This Affix was visually nerfed shortly after release, likely for frame rate/performance reasons. Prior to the visual nerf, monsters with Electrified sent out sparks in all directions when they were hit by ranged or melee attacks. Afterwards they still emit sparks, but in much smaller quantities.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: Champions and Bosses.
• Damage Type: Lightning.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Extra Health

Extra Health grants a 50% hit point bonus to Champions, as well as Bosses and their minions. This property is dangerous when it extends fights, and players used to killing monsters quickly enough to avoid real trouble from their damaging properties such as Plagued or Arcane Enchanted may need to retreat or take a different tactic when dealing with Extra Health enemies.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions receive the benefit.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Health Link, Horde, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, Shielding, Vampiric

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. Ironically, this ability can be most annoying when it spawns on wandering, shaman type enemies such as Fallen Shaman and Zombie Pukers, 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
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None

Fire Chains

Fire Chains triangle between 3 desert wasp Champions.

Fire Chains are glowing, fiery chains that form between 2 or more Champions with this property. The chains deal heavy damage to any player or pet they touch. Fire Chains have a maximum range of about 80 yards, and if one of the Champions moves too far from the others, the chain connecting them will wink out of existence, though it will return once the Champions move into closer proximity.

Patch v1.0.4 in August 2012 reduced the damage of the Fire Chains by 20%.[2] That patch also enabled Fire Chains for players, courtesy of the Maximums sword, a legendary weapon that summons a demon that is connected to the player by a Fire Chain.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions only.
• Damage Type: Fire and Ranged (missile/projectile classification).
• Damage ticks 10x per second.
• Links: Two or more Champions. (Three will create a triangle. Larger numbers will not form squares, but zigzags or two separate possibly overlapping lines.)
• Additional Resistances: None

Frozen

Frozen grenades from Sicklefang explode & freeze

Frozen spawns on Champions, Bosses, and Boss minions and causes those enemies to regularly create a 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.

Frozen initially left behind a core of ice at the monster's death, which exploded a moment later, much as Molten does. This property was tweaked during development and replaced by the much more dangerous spread of ice cores that we see in the released game.

Patch v1.0.4 in August 2012 reduced the damage Frozen deals to pets and followers to 10%.[3]

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: All (Rare Minions will cast Frozens.)
• Range: 15 yards explosion radius.
• Delay: 4 seconds from creation to explosion.
• Damage Type: Cold
• Duration: Targets frozen for 2 seconds.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Frozen Pulse

Frozen Pulse hovers ominously.

Frozen Pulse creates a small blue orbs that homes in on a character target, dealing cold damage and causing a chilling/slowing debuff to targets within its small radius of effect. The Pulse looks like a spiky blue ball, a bit like a Frozen just before it explodes.

Frozen Pulse orbs will seek soon after they appear, but can only move for a couple of seconds. A player can avoid them entirely, or hold still to let them lock on, then move away without the Pulse pursuing after the initial seconds of movement.

• Monster Level Minimum: 12
• Available to: Random Elites and some Uniques. (Not Champions or Minions.)
• Damage Type: Melee, Cold, plus CC slowing effect.
• Movement timing: Orb triggers after 1.5 seconds and moves for 1.5 seconds. Motionless thereafter.
• Duration: 10 seconds after Orb appears.
• Slowing effect: 60% reduced movement speed.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Can Not Spawn With: No limits.

Health Link

Health Linked 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. (Often the last one to die takes an overflow of damage and dies out of sight of your character, requiring some searching to find the loot.

Health Link has a maximum range, and if one of the Champions is 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
• Available to: Champions only.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Horde, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, 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 Rare-only property that causes more minions to spawn at the start of the battle. The number of additional enemies increases with the difficulty level, with just a few extra on Normal, and up to 8 or 10 minions at the highest levels. 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 minions possess additional Elite Affects such as Frozen, Arcane Enchanted, Plagued, etc. 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 means 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.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Bosses only.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: N/A.
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Health Link, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, Shielding, Vampiric

Illusionist

A few zombies can result.

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 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, and as they count as targets, they will add to the kill or buff totals for skills or weapons, which can be helpful for some characters.

Illusions look identical, but do not exhibit real or false Elite Affects such as Molten, Fire Chains, etc.

The biggest danger from Illusionist is deception or their habit of physically blocking players from moving, since they are real monsters with collision, though they deal no damage. Ranged attackers are the most annoying type of Illusionists, as the projectiles fired by the duplicates look identical to real attacks.

• Monster Level Minimum: 15
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Health Link, Horde, Missile Dampening, Shielding, Vampiric.

Jailer

Jailer. This modifier grants the boss or champion the ability to briefly cage players and their minions. A purple circle (it was reddish-orange pre-D3v2) appears on the ground around each target (characters, pets, and minions), locking them into place for a short duration. While jailed characters can attack normally, they just can not move. 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, Vault, Smoke Screen, Leap, Furious Charge, Wrath of the Berserker, Archon, and Dashing Strike, as well as several items allow characters to break out of the Jailer's circle, or move while the Jail remains around them. Any skills that break Jailer will prevent the jail from appearing when cast, if they are active.

See the Jailer article for a full list.

• Monster Level Minimum: 10
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
  • Uniques: The Warden, Dataminer. Diablo's Bone Prison is a different ability with a similar effect.
• Damage Type: Physical. Minor amount of damage is applied when cage is created.
• Duration: 2 seconds
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will Not Spawn With: Knockback, Nightmarish, Vortex or Wormhole. (Changed in patch 1.0.4.

Knockback

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 to gain space for their ranged attack.

The real danger comes in the debuff, since knocked back characters and pets are confused, slowing their movement speed for a 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: 4
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions.
• Damage Type: Physical.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will not spawn with: Jailer, Nightmarish, Vortex or Wormhole (As of v1.0.4.)

Missile Dampening

Missile Dampening.

Missile Dampening is a seldom-seen modifier that looks a bit like a Slow Time bubble around the Rare. The bubble moves as the boss does, and functions much the same as the Slow Time Wizard skill. It reduces the speed of all incoming projectiles to a crawl, though it does not affect the movement speed of characters within the bubble.

The bubble protects the boss from projectile attacks, but not forever, as projectiles continue to move, albeit very slowly. This can set up some very cool visuals, as dozens of missiles can stack up at the edge of the bubble, seeming to float there, and then delivering tremendous damage when they finally move into range, or another monster walks into them. This is most impressive with projectiles that hit multiple times to anything in the vicinity (such as Lightning Ball) since they move so slowly while "dampened" that they can deal dozens of hits, rather than just one or two as normal.

This property became extremely dangerous for a time shortly after D3v2 went live, as monsters that could reflect missile attacks would hurl all the stacked up projectiles back at once, dealing huge damage and usually death to all nearby characters. The reflected damage was reduced in Patch 2.0.2

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Rares only.
  • Uniques: The Act Two Keywarden Sokahr.
• Damage Type: n/a
• Additional Resistances: n/a
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Health Link, Horde, Illusionist, Shielding, Vampiric

Molten

Molten trail

Molten creates a trail of 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 champion dies, as a glowing fiery core is left behind. It expands for a few seconds before detonating, dealing huge damage to any character in the radius of effect. (As of Patch 2.0.5 this fire explosion is not affected by reduces damage gear.[4])

Characters need to move away from the explosions, and this property can be very dangerous when matched with CC properties such as Vortex, Waller, or Jailer, or even just when lots of other monsters are in the way, blocking a character's escape.

• Monster Level Minimum: 12
• Available to: Champions, Bosses and their Minions.
• Damage Type: Fire.
• Fire Duration: 3 seconds for trail to fade.
• Fire Radius: Trail is 5 yards in width.
• Explosion Radius: Explosion hits within 18 yards.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Mortar

Mortar is a property that causes a constant stream of fiery projectiles to shoot out from the Rare or Champion, in all directions. The mortars do not land within 10 yards of the boss, creating a safe zone that allows melee characters to largely ignore the property, though when multiple champions are spewing our Mortars at once, much of the screen can be covered by their explosions.

Mortar display bug during the Beta test.

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.

Patch 1.0.4 in August 2012 reduced the damage Mortar deals to pets and followers to 10%. Prior to this the effect was slaughtering pets since they lacked the AI to avoid the explosions.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
• Damage Type: Fire.
• Projectiles: 3 bombs per mob
• Radius: 6 yards from explosion target.
• Additional Resistances: None.

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 have no control over their character. If the running direction is blocked by a wall or other monsters, 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 Enchanted, Molten, Poison Explosion, Desecrator or others.

Ranged attackers with Nightmarish inflict the effect much more often due to the higher volume of their projectiles.

Patch 1.0.4 nerfed this ability slightly, providing frightened targets with 6 seconds of immunity to being frightened again after each incidence. This prevented characters, pets, or minions from being feared and re-feared in rapid succession, as was possible and very annoying prior to that patch.

• Monster Level Minimum: 2
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and Boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will not spawn with: Jailer, Knockback, Vortex, or Wormhole.

Orbiter

Orbiter swirls around a Unique.

The Orbiter effect creates a large ball of lightning in some random spot near the Elite or Unique that spawns it. The initial lightning ball becomes the sun, sitting stationary while a dozen or more smaller lightning orbs rotate (orbit) around it in a slow circular motion. Damage comes from the central Sentry, but mostly from the orbiting lighting balls. They are more dangerous near the center of the "solar system" as they move more slowly and will tick more times on a stationary target.

• Monster Level Minimum: 30
• Available to: Random Elites and some Uniques. (Not Champions or Minions.)
• Damage Type: Lightning, and melee.
  • Number of orbiters: 5-9 per central Sentry
  • Duration: 15 seconds
  • Damage radius: 5 yards from central Sentry, 3 yards from orbiter dots.
  • Damage ticks: 30x per second
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Can Not Spawn With: No limits.

Plagued

Plagued, Fire Chains zombies.

Plagued enemies 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 they are larger and can cover quite a bit of the screen during a long battle. All plagued pools created during a battle remain until all monsters that can cast them have been killed. This may result in a screen full of green death, all lasting until one last Minion is tracked down and killed.

Patch 1.0.4 in August 2012 reduced the damage Plagued deals to pets and followers to 10%, as they lacked the AI to move out of them and died repeatedly.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: Rares and minions, as well as Champions.
• Damage Type: Poison.
• Damage radius: 10 yards. Multiple overlapping pools will stack.
  • Damage persists 1 second after leaving the pool area.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Poison Enchanted

Poison Enchanted is dangerous in close quarters.

Poison Enchanted is a modifier that enables a boss to shoot out glowing spots which explode in an X-shaped blast of poison damage along the ground.

Rares and Champions cast puddle-like poison slimes that move along the ground for 2 seconds before erupting and sending out a Molten-like ground damage effect. This attack is most dangerous in areas with narrow walkways, where it can not be avoided and where multiple streams can stack up.

• Monster Level Minimum: 30
• Available to: Elites (not minions) and Champions.
• Damage Type: Poison
  • Slimes move for 2 seconds before triggering, expand in the X-shape for 3 seconds, and linger in damaging form for 6 seconds.
• Damage Radius: 3 yards (Molten is 5y)
• Additional Resistances: n/a
• Can Not Spawn With: ?.

Reflects 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 regeneration or Life per Hit, as they will take steady damage as they try to kill the enemy. RD is 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.

Patch 2.0.1 greatly nerfed in the amount of damage reflected, making this property much less dangerous. (Combined with most characters wearing more armor and resistance and regen thanks to Paragon Points and more the various anti-squishy features of D3v2 and RoS. The chief danger from RD in Reaper of Souls is to characters with the Conduit Pylon, as it deals enormous damage and can result in instant suicide when encountering a RD pack.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions and bosses.
• Damage Type: Physical.
• Additional Resistances: N/A.

Shielding

Maghda in her 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 and all damage. The shields lasts for several seconds, and may not be active on more than one or two enemies in a pack at the same time.

Patch v1.0.4 nerfed the Shielding property in several ways, limiting it so it appears on only one monster out of the Champions or boss/minions at a time, and so it does not remain in effect on the last monster remaining from such a group.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions and bosses, and their minions.
  • Uniques: Maghda had periodic shielding pre-D3v2, but no longer. Her Uber version still exhibits the property.
• Damage Type: n/a
• Additional Resistances: n/a
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Health Link, Horde, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, Invulnerable Minions, Vampiric

Teleporter

A Skeletal Summoner teleports into range.

Teleporter allows bosses, or individual champions, to teleport to a random location, generally appearing directly on top of a character they are battling. This gives the ability an interesting effect; many melee characters quite like it since it brings the enemy right to them, while ranged attackers, especially of the Glass Cannon variety, find it very dangerous.

Teleporter can create amusing situations with ranged attacking monsters, as they will Teleport into kissing-range, then walk away without attacking as they try 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.

• Monster Level Minimum: 3
• Available to: All
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Thunderstorm

The Thunderstorm effect calls down a lightning strike, dealing a repeated nova-effect over a 12 yard radius. Thunderstorm pulses five times in the same location, and characters who keep on their toes can see it starting and move as soon as it appears, limiting the damage they take. It's much harder to avoid during an intense battle, especially for melee characters who are locked in place during the fight.

Ranged attackers find this Affix annoying, since it will often appear right on top of them, even if they are a good distance from the Rare with the property.

• Monster Level Minimum: 10
• Available to: Random Elites, Champions, and some Uniques. (Not minions.)
• Damage Type: Lightning
  • Five consecutive pulses of damage in the same spot.
• Additional Resistances: Unknown.
• Can Not Spawn With: Unknown.

Vampiric

Vampiric is a sort of monster life leech, enabling them to heal as they deal damage. The amount of healing is fairly minor, making this one of the less-difficult or noticeable boss modifiers. In practice it just makes the enemy feel as though they have slightly higher than normal hit points, and gives some utility to stun or freeze effects, since monsters not dealing damage will not heal Vampire style.

The healing was fearsome during development, and would enable monsters to essentially refill their entire health bars just by landing a few hits on a character or pet.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions, Rares, and minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Health Link, Horde, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, Invulnerable Minions, Shielding.

Vortex

Vortex affix from The Archivist

Vortex causes characters to warp into close proximity to the champion or Rare (but not minion) with the Affix. This can be very dangerous for ranged attackers who wish to stay away, especially when combined with other damaging Affixes such as Molten or Arcane Enchanted.

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, corners of dungeon levels, and other obstacles will interrupt the pull.

As with Teleporter, this is not a mod that melee characters find very dangerous, and it can actually work against the AI of some ranged attacker bosses, who will stop attacking and attempt to retreat when the Vortex triggers and they suddenly find a character in close proximity.

• Monster Level Minimum: 15
• Available to: Champions and Rares, but not minions.
• Damage Type: Physical and melee. (Minor damage when Vortex hits.)
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Will not spawn with: Jailer (as of the v1.0.4 patch[5]), Knockback, Nightmarish or Wormhole.

Waller

Waller affix on a Goatman in zoomed view.

Waller grants monsters the ability to raise stone walls that block player movement and most projectile attacks for several seconds, before crumbling back into nothing. Walls limit player movement (though some skills such as Leap and Teleport can move over them), as well as blocking most player projectiles. Most melee attacks will work right past walls, providing the target is directly on the other side and within reach.

Monsters are generally blocked from moving or firing over the walls as well, and wallers in levels with narrow corridors can create amusing sequences of perpetually blocked access, where neither the monsters or the characters can get to each other to fight.

Champions can only create short, straight walls, while Rares create larger, three-sided rectangles that box fleeing players in, forcing them to run back past the boss and other monsters to escape. (After D3v2 walls from Rares usually have an opening in one side, near the corner joint, making them much less confining.)

Multiple Waller walls will overlap, creating T's and corners and sometimes even boxing players in without any escape for the duration of the wall.

Though Waller does no damage on its own, it is one of the most dangerous modifiers when paired with big damage AoE properties such as Molten, Frozen, Arcane Enchanted, Plagued, Desecrator, and others. Those effects can appear past walls, or hit right over them, nailing characters who are trapped by the walls. Or characters may just be held in place, a sitting duck for big boss attacks.[6]

• Monster Level Minimum: 10
• Available to: Champions and Rares.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Wormhole

Wormhole

Wormhole creates two pink circles which are linked like Portals. Any character who moves over one will instantly appear at the other, at which point the Wormholes will both vanish. Players have a second to move off of a Wormhole when it first appears without being transported, but once the initial second has passed, transportation happens instantly if a player moves over any part of the circle.

Being Wormholed is not always a bad thing; players can sometimes use a Wormhole to move from the center of the action off to the side. More often this effect is dangerous for ranged attackers in much the same fashion as Vortex, as the Wormhole will move a character from a safe spot into the heart of the action.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: Random Elites and some Uniques.
• Size: Circles are 6y in radius.
• Damage Type: Arcane, melee, and very minor.
• Additional Resistances: None.
• Can Not Spawn With: Knockback, Nightmarish, Vortex, Jailer.

Removed Boss Properties

This section lists modifiers that were seen during development or testing, but that are not included in the final game. Many other properties changed greatly during development; see the individual modifier articles for more details on those.

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 was never seen afterwards, 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.
• Damage Type: Cold
• Additional Resistances: Cold

Die Together

Die Together was a Champion-only modifier removed from the game during development. Its removal was announced in the Beta v6 patch notes in November 2011, and further explained by Blizzard afterwards. The modifier linked the lives of each Champion in the pack, enabling any dead monsters to resurrect (with limited hit points) approximately 10 seconds after death so long as any of the other Champions remained alive.

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

Doppleganger was the original name of the modifier now called Illusionist. See that entry for full details.

Invulnerable Minions

Invulnerable Minions was removed from the game in patch v1.0.4, in August 2012.[7] The information below is archived from when the feature was existent.

Invulnerable Minion pack. A boss with the Invulnerable Minions trait can be exceedingly dangerous and downright annoying, as the minions are completely invulnerable to all forms of attack. They never drop their shields (unlike Shielding bosses) and can not be damaged by any attack, though they are susceptible to various CC attacks and can be slowed, chained, frightened, frozen, etc. They only way to kill them is to kill the boss (who is not invulnerable or shielded), at which point all of the minions die at once. Invulnerable Minions are dangerous as they can hit and damage without being killed, and are very hard for character builds that rely on hits for healing, procs, or other effects. These minions are also very good at getting in the way and tanking for their bosses, as they block ranged attacks from hitting their vulnerable leader. Skills that pierce or deal AoE are useful to bypass this shielding annoyance. Monster Level Minimum: 51 (Hell and Inferno only). Available to: Bosses (not Champions). Damage Type: n/a Additional Resistances: n/a Will Not Spawn With: Avenger, Extra Health, Health Link, Horde, Illusionist, Missile Dampening, Shielding, Vampiric.

Magical

Magical. This modifier was seen several times during Blizzcon 2009 play testing, but its effect wasn't apparent to any of the players.

Multishot

Multishot was seen in Blizzcon demos, and referred to by Bashiok in 2010[8], but it was never seen in the Beta and is not present in the final game. There are fairly few ranged attackers in Diablo III, and this might explain why Ballista and Multishot were both removed during development.

Multishot was watched with much more anticipation than other mods due to its legendary status in Diablo II, where prior to v1.10 fixing the bug that caused numerous extra bolts to be released, MSLE (Multi-Shot Lightning-Enchanted) bosses were virtually instant death to any character without huge hit points, lightning resistance, and lightning absorption.

Given that history, fans were curious how MS might interact with mods like Mortar or Electrified in Diablo III.

Mythical

Mythical was seen several times during Blizzcon 2009 play testing, but its effect wasn't apparent to any of the players, and they are not seen in the final game.

Powerful

Powerful was seen in the Blizzcon 2010 demo, but not understood completely. It sounded akin to the "Extra Strong" mod from Diablo 2, which granted bonus damage to monsters, but that wasn't clear from the play testing.

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, 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.)