Diablo 3 Advanced Strategy Guide

Separate Builds for Bosses and Leveling ___________________ 3

Adjusting to More Powerful Elite Enemies __________________ 4

Nightmare _________________________________________ 5

Hell ______________________________________________ 5

Inferno ____________________________________________ 6

What to Expect _____________________________________ 6

The Different Acts ___________________________________ 7

Preparation ________________________________________ 7

Progression ________________________________________ 7

Understanding Nephalem Valor ________________________ 8

Farming Mechanics __________________________________ 8

Four Affixes ________________________________________ 9

Boss Guide __________________________________________ 9

Diablo ___________________________________________ 15

The lower levels of Diablo 3 are pretty straightforward. With little to no knowledge

you should be able to make your way through the normal part of the game and

you could probably even manage Nightmare with a little bit of skill testing and

practice. The real challenge starts when you make your way to Hell and it

escalates dramatically from there to Inferno.

Understanding what you have to do to be successful in those higher level

difficulties will help you make it to the top levels and help guide you through the

game smoothly. While this guide isn’t going to cover every aspect of the game, it

will teach you plenty of the advanced techniques that you should know about if

you plan on playing the later levels of the game.

When you make it to the end of the game it pays to know how to beat the Inferno

Bosses effectively, and understanding the more complex farming mechanics of

Inferno will help you make the gold that you need to advance your character

through the last leg of the game. On top of that, understanding how to be flexible

as you play the game is going to help you handle any of the elite bosses that you

encounter, because they become very challenging at the later levels (even more

so than the bosses).

Separate Builds for Bosses and Leveling

One of the most important steps that you have to take as you make the transition

from a green player to a seasoned veteran is to get separate builds for bosses

and leveling. Enemies outside of boss battles and bosses themselves represent

very different fights, so it only makes sense that you should be approaching them

differently.

Your build while you are working through the quest line and fighting regular and

elite enemies should focus more on area of effect damage and ways to

manipulate crowds of enemies. You will almost always be killing larger groups of

enemies, and the more effective you are at this the faster you will level up.

While you are in a boss battle you have to think a lot more about how you are

going to do a high amount of single target damage, and avoid his particular

special moves. This means that you should have at least one powerful attack that

is meant for a single target, and plenty of defense or evasion abilities.

With your two separate builds you can switch from one to the other when you

switch to and from boss battles and you will be a much more effective player

because of it.

Note – It’s important to note that you won’t be able to have separate builds for

bosses and normal groups of enemies when you make it to Inferno because of

the Nephalem Valor buff (explained below). Instead you will have to come up

with a hybrid build that is going to be effective with both bosses and everyone

else.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take advantage of being able to have two

different builds up until that point, because the flexibility will make the game quite

a bit easier to get through.

Adjusting to More Powerful Elite Enemies

As you progress through the game you will have to account for more powerful

elite enemies even more so than the bosses in the game. Surprising as it may

be, there are many instances where the elites are harder to kill than the bosses.

With each new difficulty level you need to rethink how you are going to handle

the elites because they get a huge boost.

More Affixes with each new difficulty

As you get to the new difficulty levels one of the first things you will notice is that

the elites have more affixes than they did before. This can lead to some seriously

devastating combinations that will make the game much more challenging than it

was on the first difficulty. The affixes are basically the little words underneath the

name of the elite enemy that describes what special moves it has. An enemy with

the Waller affix will lock you into place with randomly spawning dirt walls. This

can lead to serious problems if you are a ranged class. The Mortar affix gives the

elite enemy the ability to lob explosives directly at you and generate some

serious damage.

When you get more than one of these abilities together you have to figure out

how to deal with the combination which can be pretty challenging.

On top of gaining more than one special ability, they are smarter, they work more

to gang up on you and they are more aggressive than before meaning that you

can’t just run away from them and hope to survive that way. Even with a high

amount of armor you are going to take more damage than before, if a single hit

took away half your life in the last difficult there is a good chance that it will nearly

kill you now.

With each new difficulty you have to refine your play style a little more and really

think about how you are going to handle the new obstacles being placed in front

of you.

Nightmare

Nightmare isn’t much more difficult than Normal, but you will notice that it doesn’t

take as long for you to die if you play recklessly. Instead of being able to run

headlong into rooms without considering what will happen, you have to take your

time a little bit more and plan out your attacks before you rush into things.

The enemies do a noticeably higher amount of damage and the elite enemies

have two affixes instead of one. That means that they have two special abilities

and you will start to run into a few combinations that are pretty dangerous, such

as mortar and wall together.

In order to get ready for Nightmare you should buy a new set of gear when you

make it to the new difficulty. Other than updating your gear you just have to be a

little more cautious than you were before and you will probably have to go back

through and repeat a few of the boss fights because you probably won’t down

them all in the first try.

Hell

The transition from Nightmare to Hell is just as noticeable as from Normal to

Nightmare. The enemies were just starting to be able to kill you in Nightmare, in

Hell they will drop you pretty quickly. There are going to be more enemies out

there that will kill you in a single hit. The best way to get ready for Hell is to get

the best gear you can and start focusing on defensive skills and abilities more.

While you could get away with an offensive build before, in Hell you will die much

quicker, so it only makes sense to do whatever you can to make yourself harder

to kill. That means getting some shields and mobility abilities such as Teleport

and Diamond Skin.

You also need to think about getting resistances and vitality more than you did in

the past. The more vitality you have, the less likely that you will be killed with a

single hit. The same goes for resistance, and resistance will really help with the

boss fights.

Three Affixes

One of the things you’ll notice the most is that the elites have three affixes now.

That means that nearly every pack that you run into will have an ability that is

difficult for you to handle. When they get a few different difficult abilities you will

have a very hard fight on your hands and will probably be killed very quickly.

Change your skills around for specific purposes and do whatever it takes to stay

alive in the more difficult level.

Inferno

What to Expect

Inferno is what many of the Diablo 3 players are working toward, because it

promises to be the highest level challenge you will experience in the game. It

really is a whole different game altogether when you make the transition from

Hell to Inferno. Even the weak enemies at the beginning of the first act will

probably put you on the floor before you know it. Everything moves faster and

hits much, much harder.

The original plan for Inferno was for it to be a completely flat difficulty, where you

could farm any part of the game and still face the same level of challenge. After

thinking about it for a little while Blizzard decided to scrap that plan and instead

the first act starts off with that difficulty and it quickly escalates to even higher

levels as you progress through the game.

The Different Acts

The enemies in each of the four acts increase in difficult as you go. The first act

has monsters of level 61, the second has monsters of 62 and both three and four

feature the same level of 63. Although going up one level doesn’t seem like a

significant change, the monsters from one act to another feel very different when

you are actually fighting them.

Preparation

In order to prepare for the start of Inferno you have to get up to level 60, and earn

as much gold as you can. The more money you have the easier it is going to be

to transition to Inferno. As soon as you hit 60 upgrade your gear as much as you

possibly can. Focus on vitality and resistance as much as you can, don’t worry

about boosting your damage until you are sure that you can survive at all in

Inferno.

Progression

Unlike in Diablo 2 your progression path really relies on your ability to gather

gold. It doesn’t matter how you get the gold; the more gold you have the better

gear you can obtain. For this reason many players prefer to go with gold find

gear over magic find whenever they can, because it is just more reliable.

Start off with max vitality, defense, and resistance.

Kill all the bosses in the first Act.

Boost DPS until you can kill the bosses and elites with ease.

Farm until you have enough gold to buy gear powerful enough for the next

act.

Jump to the next act and start all over again.

This progression pattern is pretty straight forward and simple. If you aren’t able to

take on even the weakest monsters of Inferno after you finish Hell, you will have

to go back to Hell and farm for gold until you have gear that can withstand the

enemies.

Understanding Nephalem Valor

If you are serious about farming Inferno for gear, then you need to understand

how Nephalem Valor works. Whenever you kill an elite or champion enemy you

will get a single stack of the Nephalem Valor buff. This buff boosts your magic

find and gold find by 15 percent and lasts for 30 minutes. While that in itself is a

pretty nice boost, it doesn’t stop there. The next time you kill a champion or elite

enemy you will receive another stack of the buff if the original buff remains on

you. On top of the additional stack, the buff is completely refreshed and you will

get 30 percent more gold and magic find for the next 30 minutes. This cycle

continues until you reach five stacks and you can maintain those stacks by killing

a steady stream of elite enemies.

It is important to note that killing the enemies with the violet names, or the rare

enemies, won’t give you the buff or refresh it. On top of that, if you leave the

game, switch any of your skills, (passive or active) or your skill runes you lose the

buff immediately.

Blizzard is basically rewarding players for sticking with the same build all the

time, so it pays to find a build that works for you when you are farming for gear.

Some players simply avoid bosses while they are farming gear from elites, and

others decide to challenge the bosses with their farming build and hope for the

best. Either way it is very important that you manage your Nephalem Valor (NV)

buff while you are farming for new gear.

Farming Mechanics

Unlike in the previous difficulties, in Inferno the loot that the bosses drop isn’t

reduced dramatically. You can get some pretty great gear by going back through

and killing the same boss over and over again. What you farm really depends on

what you enjoy doing, but you are the best off if you combine killing elite

enemies, bosses, and opening up containers.

When you down those elites you get the nice NV buff that will help increase the

value of your runs. By picking out an area that not only has elites, but also a

large number of containers, you maximize the amount of loot that you can pick

up in the shortest amount of time possible.

Farming Checklist

Pick a spot you can get to without running.

Always use a spot with elites that you can kill.

Focus on areas with elites as well as plenty of containers.

Kill any bosses if they are easy to get to from your farming spot, but don’t

focus on a boss if it wastes a lot of time.

Maintain the same skills after you kill the first elite.

Switch between damage gear and gold find gear near the end of an elite

kill whenever possible.

Four Affixes

Inferno elite enemies can often be more powerful than the bosses themselves

because they have four affixes or four special abilities. You will often run across

combinations that will leave you dead before you even know what is going on.

While you are killing the elites your only real course of action is to avoid all of the

more nasty combinations whenever you can until you have good enough gear to

withstand them.

Boss Guide

The boss guide section will help you through the more difficult boss fights. With

an easy to read set of tips you can enter any of the boss fights knowing what to

expect. When you make it to Inferno you have to consider things that you don’t

think about at the lower difficulty levels. Not all of the fights work the same as

they did at the lower levels and this set of tips will help with the learning curve.

Skeleton King

Although the Skeleton King is one of the easiest boss fights in the game, your

first time fighting him on inferno will still be very difficult. He uses most of the

same mechanics that he does in the other difficulties, but you have to handle

them a little more cautiously than you normally would.

It is very important that you have a decent AOE ability for this fight to handle all

the packs of skeletons that you are going to encounter.

The fight is pretty basic and if you know how to handle the few mechanics that

are present you should be able to beat it in a few attempts.

Minions – He will summon a group of skeletons, you should separate yourself

from the pack of skeletons and the king to avoid being killed instantly. He will

summon a high number of minions throughout the fight and it is very important

that you kill them as soon as they are there to avoid a buildup.

Cackle – When he starts to cackle jump back out of the way or use a defensive

ability because he is about to unleash a powerful melee attack.

Summon – There are times when he will summon you to him and ranged

classes will have to use a defensive move, or a move like teleport to quickly get

away from him again.

The Butcher

The Butcher is going to be one of the first boss fights that is very challenging.

There is a good chance that you will have to go through it several times before

you are able to beat it, but the main thing is to learn all of the different mechanics

of the fight.

There are signs to look for while you are fighting the Butcher that will help you

beat him. You just have to pay attention constantly and be ready for his different

attacks.

Grate Fires – Pay attention to the grates and when you see a fire forming make

sure you aren’t above it or you will die very quickly.

Jumping Up and Down – As soon as he starts jumping up and down you need

to move to the side of him and resume killing him. He will slam his hammer down

on the ground and kill you if you happen to be in his way.

Arm Swing – When he swings his arm up it means he is either going to send out

a stream of fire or a set of spiked chains. Ranged classes should stand back as

far as possible for this and melee should jump to the side to avoid the fire.

Charge – Right after the fire stream the Butcher will charge in your direction. You

have to be ready to get out of the way or you will be hit very hard.

Enrage Timer – If you take too long on this fight the entire floor will catch on fire.

There is a good chance the fire will kill you if you don’t have high enough

resistance.

Maghda

Maghda is one of the smaller bosses in Act II. Although she has a pretty low life

pool she is still pretty challenging and there are a few things you should know

about before going into a fight with her.

Plague Breathe – She attacks with plague breathe that will follow you around

the screen until it eventually goes away. Make sure to stay out of range of it or

you will be hit hard.

Summons – She summons packs of enemies that you have to deal with

carefully. They hit very hard and ranged classes will be killed by them very easily

if they get close. Your best bet is to use AOE skills to kill them quickly while

maintaining your distance.

Melee classes should fight them far away from Maghda so that they can avoid

any of her special attacks that continue to go on while you are fighting the other

enemies.

Always avoid attacking Maghda when she is surrounded by her shield because

your attacks won’t do any damage to her.

Zoltun Kulle

As one of the last bosses in Act II Zoltun Kulle is very challenging. He has plenty

of special moves and you really need to know what you are doing in order to stay

alive for the entire fight.

Elementals – In the beginning of the fight you have to kill the two elementals

while avoiding damage from all of Zoltun’s attacks as well. They hit pretty hard so

you will probably have to kite them a little whether you are melee or ranged.

Move around while you kill them and avoid all of the other attacks.

Fireballs – The fireballs that drop down from the sky are easy to avoid because

they are so slow. Run away from them when you see them falling as you should

be fine.

Rock Rain – A large cluster of stones falls down from the air periodically. The

best way to avoid this is to either use a defense skill when you are going to be

hit, or jump out of the way quickly. It won’t kill you right away but it will hurt you

quite a bit.

Energy Twister – Avoid the small tornadoes on the ground because they hit very

hard. They are pretty easy to walk around though so you should never be hit by

one.

Slow Time – When the elementals are dead Zoltun will start putting slow time

bubbles on the floor that will expose you to other attacks. Just avoid walking in

the bubbles and you won’t have to worry about being stuck when an additional

attack is falling down toward you.

Belial

The lord of lies isn’t a pushover to say the least. He relies on a variety of special

moves to keep you running around and working pretty hard to stay alive. Learn

how to react to his abilities and you should be able to overcome him with a little

practice and make it through Act II.

Phase 1

Quickly drop all of the adds that spawn around the level. There will be around 15

adds that you have to kill, it is very important that you run around to keep them

separated from each other. If a decent sized group is hitting you at the same time

you will die fast.

Save any of the health globes that you don’t need from them because you can

use them in the next phase.

Phase 2

Now it’s time to fight Belial himself. This phase is pretty simple, ranged classes

stay away from him as much as you can, melee classes stay on top of him and

burn him down.

As soon as he rushes away you need to put some distance between him and you

because he will start throwing out green energy balls that will do a massive

amount of damage to you. There is three in a bunch and you can dodge them all

if you are far enough away.

You may have to do this phase a few times if you don’t get many health globe

drops, try to save as many of your survival cooldowns for the next phase as you

can.

Phase 3

Now it’s time to face the full grown Belial and he’s not a pretty sight. This is the

final phase of the fight and it is by far the most difficult, you will have to be very

mobile or you won’t make it long.

Green Mines – When you see the small green circles on the floor get away from

them, they aren’t dots, but they will burst and do a massive amount of damage to

you if you are nearby.

Stabs Hands into Ground – When he stabs the ground you will have to deal

with a very large number of those mines and the best bet is to run around the

edge of the screen hoping to avoid a cluster of them. You may need to use a

mobility or protection ability to survive this.

Melee Attacks – Green splotches will form on the ground where he is going to

stab down. If one of those clusters forms on you get out of the way or use a

shield immediately because he hits very hard. Sometime he will only hit once and

other times he does a series of three attacks next to one another.

Green Breathe – After the melee attack he will tip back and launch a damaging

breathe attack around the level. Stay off to the right side of the screen and you

should avoid it.

Azmodan

Compared to Belial, Azmodan is actually a pretty straightforward fight. You will

have to look out for a few special moves, and the puddles on the floor can be

pretty challenging, but you should be able to beat him after a few attempts as

long as you shape your build around his different abilities.

Fireball – When you see the meteor in the air, run straight away from him until it

explodes on the ground.

Puddles – Get out of the puddles as soon as they spawn or you will die very

quickly. You may need mobility skills to get away from the puddles because they

can box you in pretty easily.

Pillars – Kill the Pillars as soon as they spawn to prevent extra enemies from

getting into the fight. Get away from the pillar as you kill it if you don’t want to

waste the health globe that spawns right away.

Auto Attack – As a melee character if you are right in front of Azmodan he will

do a powerful auto attack that you will have to jump out of the way to avoid. Save

mobility skills such as leap for this. You will be able to tell when it is coming

because he raises a couple of his arms up into the air beforehand.

Corpse Rain – When an orange ring blinks on the floor you are about to get

rained on. High defense classes will be able to handle the attack without a

problem. Low defense ranged characters need to get out of the area right away if

they want to live.

Molten Stream – When he is trying to hit you with the molten stream simply run

around and dodge it until he stops, it only lasts a few seconds.

Enrage Timer – If you take too long to kill him the entire floor is going to fill with

puddles and you will have to hurry to finish the fight before they finish you off.

Diablo

You finally made it to the last boss in Inferno and he’s going to do his best to

make your life a misery for the next couple days. Throughout the three phases

you will be dodging a large number of special attacks that become pretty

overwhelming near the end of the fight. Expect to have to try this fight several

times. It is the last fight of the game after all.

Phase 1

The first phase is in the standard world and you will be running around avoiding

his mechanics while taking advantage of the two health pools.

Bone Cages – Black smudges will form on the floor and a second later bone

cages spring out of them. Avoid these at all costs or you will be dropped down to

one health and killed right after most of the time. If you do get caught have a

defensive ability ready for right after you get away to give yourself a chance of

surviving.

Health Pools – Use the life pools at either side of the map as much as you can.

While you are fighting with Diablo work your way back and forth between the two

to try and keep your healing potions from being on cool down.

Fire Ring – When he starts charging up back away from him a little bit because

he is about to unleash a ring of fireballs that you can dodge if you get in between

them as they spread apart.

Phase 2 (The Realm of Terror)

When he switches to the next phase let the cut scene play all the way out. This

will take some time off your cooldowns and start you in a better position.

Shadow Clones – The Shadow Clones are a good tool for healing your

character back up if you are low on health because they always drop a health

globe. The clones are pretty difficult to kill and they will do a few basic special

attacks for burst damage to try to avoid letting your health drop too low while

fighting them.

Fireball – Ranged classes will have more trouble with the fireballs than melee.

He launches fireballs that go straight out, make sure you stay far away from them

because they will explode on the ground creating a fire field that stays there.

If you get hit by one of the fire fields from the fireball you will have a DOT that will

kill you slowly if you don’t heal through it.

Phase 3

The only new mechanic in the last phase is the energy breathe that many Diablo

2 players will recognize. When he gets ready to unleash the stream of energy

you need to run around behind him to avoid getting hit.

You have to deal with all of the special attacks from the first two phases as well

as the energy beam, but you have access to the two health pools again so make

sure to use them often.

If you run out of cool down abilities you can simply run around the screen to get

away from Diablo for a little bit while you wait to get those abilities back again.

Simple avoid everything and attack when you can and Diablo will be dead in no

time at all.

Do you want even more advanced strategies? Check out Diablo 3 Hero.

The Diablo 3 Hero guide is a complete leveling guide for Diablo 3 - we are the only

guide to feature leveling guides, a full strategy guide and also HD videos to go along with

the guide.