Kill Rat
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Ranged poison attack. Spike Nova on death.
Comment: Back some time ago, these rats used to be the ones to blame when it came to plagues and diseases that crippled whole towns.
Now that they’ve been possesed by evil, they’ve learnt to concentrate their poison in their fur, now spiky and pointy and, what’s worse, they’ve learnt to shoot it at their foe.
Also they’ve been at the “Telekinesis for dummies” course organized by Bishibosh this summer and have learnt to use their minds to direct the “spines” in flight. That is bad.
Strategy: ?? Don’t tell me you need an strategy for Kill Rats or I will be forced to suicide you.
Spike Fiend
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Ranged poison attack, spike nova on death.
Comment: Kill Rats go blue sometimes... cuz, they have feelings ‘n stuff, you know.
Strategy: Needing an strategy for them will still get you shot, do not mention it, period.
Quill Bear ELITE
Immune to: Magic.
Skills: Shoot giant targeting physical spines, scare off newcomers in the Den of Evil, cast a spike version of Barrage on death, followed by a short ranged Spike Nova.
Comment: The ones that decided that taking drugs would pay off better than working and training hard... Sadly for all those hard working Kill Rats, they were right.
Strategy: They’re not as tough as they look, smack them as you would smack anything else and move when they die to avoid the short ranged missiles.
Fallen One
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: None, just walk and hit. Physical damage only.
Comment: Red and little, these demons come straight from hell! And will go back straight to hell if you look at them angrily!
Strategy: Bah.
Fallen Shaman
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Vampire Firewall, resurrect Fallen Ones.
Comment: Basically a taller version of the common Fallen One, many believe them to be wiser and actually own some mystic powers. Wrong.
A closer look at their staff shows the “Cast wall of fire” and “Resurrect lololol” buttons on it, which they randomly hit whenever they engage battle.
Strategy: Hell, just kill them! Before the regular Fallen Ones, preferably.
Invader
Immune to: Magic
Skills: Typical physical attack.
Comment: Wrongly these mobs are considered a different kind than Fallen Ones. In fact they’re the same, but these ones wear too tight belts, hence the blue color.
Strategy:...Sure.
Invader Shaman
Immune to: Magic.
Skills: Vampire Firewall, Resurrect Invader.
Comment: Same ol’ Fallen Shaman after a prank from his mobs. Yeah, you guessed right, it was a blue paint bucket hanging on the door.
Strategy: Kill him, then kill the lil’ ones.
Defiler
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Almost ignorable physical melee attack.
Comment: They STILL are simple Fallen Ones. But of course I had to note them as different monsters because ZOMG tey r yallow! :D
Strategy: *silence*... *metallic sound of a sword getting out of it’s sheath* Outta here. Now.
Defiler Shaman
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Super-resurrection-of-Defilers + Vampire Firewall for double whammy.
Comment: In his memory the words Diablo himself spoke directly to him burn and empower him (Note that D. was just asking for a towel to clean his throne of brains and random fluids, but however).
Strategy: Basic whack and smack tactics beg to be used here.
Scourge
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: But... did anyone actually expect them to learn to do something? Lol. Physical melee attack ftw.
Comment: Fallen Ones 4eva! These ones are the black sheeps of the family and... wait... that’s about it.
Strategy: They do a laughable amount of damage, more or less 30% more that they did when they were red, like... 20 levels ago?
Scourge Shaman
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Resurrect and... yeah! How did you know it was Vampire Firewall? O.o’?
Comment: Classics are never out of style.
Strategy: As always, the largest blade of grass is the first one to be cut by the lawn mower.
Cog ELITE
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Quite powerful physical/lightning melee hit.
Comment: Howl, howl, howl! Santa Claws was around and let a few zomgbuffs under the tree for these little demons.
Strategy: Haha! They’re fast and fairly strong by the time you meet them, so this time instead of ignoring them and killing their shaman, I’d reccomend luring them away from him and killing them there, if you’re about to be melee locked by them (= bad) rush to a nearby corner, so that not all of them can hit you at the same time.
(Thanks to Sing_In_Silence for the lightning component on attack)
Warforged Shaman ELITE
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Death Shards (explodes a corpse unleashing a flurry of weapon damage spikes) and Maelstrom as regular attack. Both are physical.
Comment: A shaman whose Super Staff of Resurrection/Casting broke in battle and had to think about some other way of surviving... realizing, to his amazement, that being a weapon user is friggin’ insanely great.
Strategy: The only thing that remains more or less the same is his moving speed, so pick his mobs up, lure them away so that he won’t Death Shard you with the corpses and then come back to finish the job. Defense helps, since he uses weapon based attacks.
Zombie
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Super slow, 18+ fpa, Zomgbie strike! Deals lousy damage and poisons for a little time.
Comment: Hmm... well, these undead are certainly the least impressive creation of Hell’s necromantic powers... guess everyone was a noob once.
Strategy: ...please.
Hungry Dead
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Biting your ear. Beware, it physically hurts.
Comment: When they were dead they didn’t care about being hungry, but recent change to undeath has shown them that eating heroes is the best way of... well... eating heroes.
Strategy: They move a little faster than othe zombie type monsters, but they suck big time anyway.
Bonegrinder ELITE
Immune to: Poison
Skills: Noticeable poison damage attack, casts Spike Novas on attack.
Comment: The zombified body of an steroids-abuser athlete.
Strategy: Getting melee locked with these guys is BAD, so be careful because they move pretty fast.
The spike novas are tricky due to ND, though, if the missiles come from a little away (say five yards), the three/five missiles that will hit you will deal their full damage, on the other hand, getting hit by a full blast at close range will simply count as a single hit.
That said, range them or take them one by one unless you’re Superman (I’m exaggerating, you can suck and tank them in melee anyway, but in order to avoid mid/end game cripples, you shouldn’t get used to do that)
(Spike Nova note about ND slightly changed thanks to Sing_In_Silence)
Skeleton
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: None, just physical attack.
Comment: How can you make a Zombie faster? Just take the flesh outta him! They’ve lost the immunity lightning their rubber like skin granted them, but gained fire instead for some obscure reason. Also an AI improve allows them to wield clubs now.
Strategy: No excuses, if you need an strategy for them, you fail :P
Returned
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Melee phys. attack.
Comment: Don’t ask him where he comes from, wherever it was he seems to have forgotten his brain there.
Strategy: WARNING! These terribly strong mobs pose a major threat and will absolutely annihilate you if you let them hit you even once!
Corruptor ELITE
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Poison attack, casts Cloudkill on striking.
Comment: Well, with a name like “Corruptor” you can’t expect it to bring you cookies.
Strategy: Don’t let them melee lock you, really. It’s easy to avoid them but if they get lucky and lock you, their poisoning procs will cripple you in a quite short time.
Skeleton Archer
Immune to: Cold.
Skills: Physical arrows.
Comment: Sacrificing almost all of their mobility, these stationary Skeletons have been prepared for ranged combat and can shoot up to one freaking arrow per minute!
Strategy: Worship the Bonebreakers.
Returned Archer
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Simple physical ranged attack.
Comment: Haha! He has returned! And, despite his mobility still is close to zero, his arrows are sharper now.
Strategy: Basically, they suck. ‘N suckahs die ez.
Corruptor Archer ELITE
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Lightning/poisoned ranged attack and casts Cloudkill on striking.
Comment: You see those shiny white bones? Are you wondering where all the rotten meat is? Think about it for a while, the arrows are poisoned now...
Strategy: Be careful when sending your summoned mobs to fight them, due to their possible low def they will get hit a lot of times, meaning the poison clouds will appear more often. There’s no real problem with them for non summoners.
Fiend
Immune to: Magic. Yu-Gi-Oh still hurts them, though..
Skills: Unless you consider coward fleeing a skill, none, just lightning based attack.
Comment: These mobs show an AI increase already, they do still attack, but if their HP drops lower than 1/3 of maximum, they will flee from you to a safe spot.
Strategy: Hit until they flee, then pursue or range them.
Blink
Immune to: Magic
Skills: Teleport when struck, lightning attack.
Comment: The mutations on these monsters have gone too far to know what the hell they were before (NOT bats :P). Not like anybody cares, though.
Strategy: Considered the most annoying mobs in whole Act I. These guys suck, yeah, but the fact that you have to pursue them all across the map to kill them is actually another of their tactics, several heroes have been slain by random mobs when trying to maniacally finish an already half dead Blink.
Frost Raptor ELITE
Immune to: Cold.
Skills: Lightning melee attack, casts Lemures on attack.
Comment: These guys are giving you the cold shoulder.
Strategy: Their real damage comes from Lemures, and if you don’t pay some attention you’ll get surrounded by 4-5 of them, which will cast a lot of lemures... which will turn you into a frozen dead potato. Focus on one at a time, so that it flees after a few hits and stays a distance, allowing you to deal with the remaining ones.
Protector
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Physical melee attack.
Comment: Big and furry, these humanoid beings used to be friendly before the Three’s taint; the fact that hundreds of towns were mysteriously ravaged on full moon nights, when herds of Protectors were spotted close, is just coincidence.
Strategy: They have slightly higher HP than other mobs on the zone, they’re still laughable however.
Sasquatch Warning: Do Not Feed.
Immune to: Cold.
Skills: Same ol’ melee physical onslaugth.
Comment: These overgrown forest squirrels like smashing into the ground anything that gets in their sight.
Strategy: Use the widely known tactic beta 47 against them and everything will go alright.
Steelfur Titan ELITE Carebear.
Immune to: Magic.
Skills: Thumb of the Giant Bezerk Rampage Beast melee phys attack. Also they have a Might aura that raises the damage of the affected monsters.
Comment: Because nothing says “I love you” better than cuddly stuffed bear... or a giant, maniacally yelling living one!
It needs not to be fed, by the way, just let it take a walk next to kindergartens twice a week...
Strategy: These guys hit very hard and also buff other mobs, meaning you have to take them outta the way asap. Lure them away from other monsters, then if you’re a melee character corner yourself so that not all of them can hit you, then do your melee stuff. For ranged characters the solution is obvious, run around shotting every now and then until they drop.
Summoners have to rely on their mobs... or actually hope that the active skill they got “just in case” is useful, but don’t worry, Laz made a bunch of them important synergies for summoneds, so you’re likely to have them even if you’re a “purist”.
Ent
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Nothing but rooting you with phys. damage.
Comment: Heh, you never thought that gladiolus you never watered would take revenge, did you?
Strategy: Chop’em down.
Dark Rogue
Immune to: Lightning
Skills: Nothing but stabbing you with phys. damage. No, this is not copy + paste. Note that they might melee stab you or range stab you.
Comment: Well, finally some opponent that manages to walk slightly fast and attack you as well, also, they do wield more than a type of weapon :O. Too bad they tend to AI lock when they get to you :lol:
Strategy: me says: “Put those demonically possesed baeches on teh ground where they belong!”
If you don’t know who “me” is you’re going to hell. Put in a good word.
Dark Huntress
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Ranged/melee physical attack.
Comment: Skilled on bow attacks, these maniacs like laughing and killing stuff from a distance. Unless they decide that burying a random sharp object in your eye is funnier.
Strategy: Simple, click on them and hold until they die.
Assasin
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Regular physical melee attack, invisibility.
Comment: Genuine fake sins, buy now!11!
Strategy: As with all invisible enemies, AoE attacks and DoT are almost always the easiest option. Any other way will do against these wannabe Assasins, though.
Dark Stalker
Immune to: NOTHING! LOL.
Skills: Run to you and getting AI locked most of times, also melee phys attack.
Comment: “From now I gunna stalk u! IN UR HOUZ!!”
Strategy: Ye good ole “fork in the eye” method works, as usual.
Flesh Huntress
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Physical attack...Whaaa, I’m sick of saying that already! T_T.
Comment: These ones have a pretty clear name, they hunt for flesh, YOUR flesh.
Strategy: It would require a few maps and three or four generals with their respective batallions to plan a truly working strategy to kill these monsters, they’re just too strong, fleeing is very reccomended. No, of course they didn’t bribe me!
Blood Rogue
Immune to: Cold.
Skills: Physical attack, casts Celerity on striking (“Blitzkrieg!” is a flavour text string that leads to Celerity :P).
Comment: Like cutting things into pieces, mostly you.
Strategy: This is the “typical melee monster” and therefore you shall apply the beta 47 technique. Note that this kind’s AI locks when it reaches you TOO.
Bloodfire Rogue ELITE
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Blindside. Yeah, that arrow that stuns you and kills you and stuff (monster version doesn’t pierce, btw).
Comment: There are simply no hotter Rogues than these ones.
Strategy: They come in packs, just like any elite does, so before attempting to kill them, it’d be a good idea to move around a while and separate them. If you don’t, the chance they stunlock you to death is pretty high.
Some decent defense and placing a lolminion so that it absorbs a hit or two when separating them might be enough for melee characters, casters might prefer to use either dumb firepower or high DoT. Just find a way of dealing damage while you keep moving that matches your gamestyle.
Bloodfire Rogue ELITE Spear Edition
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Stunning physical attack, uses Lightswarm too.
Comment: The same maniacs who stabbed you with arrows can now stab you with spears!
Strategy: Beware of their speed and try to not get stunlocked (hint= move), as always, I suggest actually looking at the screen in order to know how things are going. If they’re too much for you, flee. Really, just TP home, heal fully and come back to kill one of them.
(Thanks to Sing_In_Silence for proving my former strategy utterly useless :P)
Tarantula
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Poison hit, nothing else.
Comment: Big spiders, I told you that you should clean house more often.
Strategy: Maybe... plain sticking them with some random pointy object?
Death Gnat
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Hits with physical damage, also casts Poison Flash on attack, as well as it opens wounds.
Comment: Ever wondered what happens to the Venomous Spirits sorceresses cast? After a while they start taking physical form, getting then possesed by evil and morphed into these wicked giant mosquitos.
Strategy: Whack and smack. Be careful with P. Flash, though, it can be dangerous with some lack of resistances.
Shock Stinger ELITE
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Casts Flash on attack, Casts Venomous Spirit on striking, opens wounds, drains resistance, physical damage attack.
Comment: He will, he will, shock you!
Strategy: You don’t want these guys too close, Flash hits 4 times and actually deals some decent damage, mostly because of the lack of resistances you have in early game. Range/Damage over Time is reccomended. Note that they also cast VS...but since it’s on attack and you already have to keep distances because of Flash, you should’ve have too much problem.
(Thanks to Tealpug for the reminder about the VS proc)
Glowing Fungus
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Poison based attack, also casts Omni Lightning skill on attack.
Comment: No, he’s not a blue guy with an umbrella sticked in his head.
Strategy: Avoid melee contact if you cannot stand large numbers of other mobs, or they might lock you, killing you then with the lightning procs.
(Thanks to Sin_In_Silence for reminding me about the “Unnamed Lightning AoE skill”’s name :P)
Dancing Light
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Lightning melee attack and Lightning Cascade as ranged attack.
Comment: Hates power outages.
Strategy: Man, these are teh sucks!
Hidden One
Immune to: Magic.
Skills: Badass invisible melee physical attack.
Comment: Ghostly creature that lurks in darkness... and in your restroom, too.
Strategy: Invisible or not, they have to get close to hit you, simply use shift to attack and hit them without targeting. Not rocket science.
Lament ELITE
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Static Lance, a fast dicharge of lightning that explodes on electric bolts when it hits something. Invisiblity.
Comment: 666 watts are indeed cool, but bills were killing the Three, therefore these mobs have been placed in dark places such as caves for the obvious reason of saving some candles.
Strategy: Interesting low game enemies, what makes them dangerous isn’t the Static Lance itself, but the fact that you won’t see them unless they’re casting it and, therefore, killing them will take some time.
Also there’s the fact that they come in pretty large numbers and don’t stand still in a place. AoE attacks and Damage over Time deals with them pretty well, though. Bring decent lightning resistances.
Crystal Witch
Immune to: Magic.
Skills: None, but they slow you when they hit.
Comment: Hmm... they walk to you half naked and then slap you? O.o’?
Strategy: Well... I would make a suggestion or two, but nah, think on your own :P
Cultist
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Throw at you some physical piercing skulls (ND is there to save you) from distance.
Comment: Said to sing “Dust in the wind” when dying.
Strategy: The damage they deal is decent, but if you aren’t trying to tank melee mobs at the same time, you shouldn’t have any problem. Also they have a kinda higher HP than other monsters around them.
(Reminder of piercing missiles by Sing_In_Silence)
Gargoyle Trap
Immune to: NOTHING. MORE LOL.
Skills: Shoots a single target, fire damage Bloodstar to foes within range.
Comment: A cursed statue that has neither will nor humor sense.
Strategy: Your range-fu is longer than it’s range-fu. And if you have no range-fu nor fire resistances to stand the hits, dive in, hit a few times, dodge the BS, dive in again...
Abomination
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Casts single target Frozen Soul.
Comment: “Abomination” doesn’t actually refer to his form (which is disgusting) but at his AI, also known as the nev-r-lock.
Strategy: They will only attack you from distance, so if you actually walk to them and force them to get close to a wall where they can’t get away from you, they will just sit there looking silly. Be how it be, they’d suck even without the AI locks.
However, don’t let a pack of them range you without cold resistance. Just in case ;).
Bone Mage
Immune to: Cold.
Skills: Casts single target Frozen Soul (cold damage :P)
Comment: Members of the Grrrr-in-pieces batallion of Hell, these mages will fight global warming to their last (un)breath.
Strategy: Nothing to worry about, they’ll flee from you if you get too close, but they’re not fast enough anyway. Basic smackage is adviced.
Horror Mage
Immune to: Lightning.
Skills: Cast superdestructive single target, 30 damage, sparkles of Doom!
Comment: Let’s face it, while the destructive power of Lightning can make the strongest tremble in fear, this is not the case.
Strategy: These ones, as most casters, will flee from melee combat, exploit their lack of speed and wipe the floor with their bony asses.
Burning Dead Mage
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: That simple and pathethic single target fire ball that the whole magic community considers an amazing power... heh.
Comment: Is kept away from cows due to the obvious reaction of metane with fire.
Strategy: +1 to whoever doesn’t ask for this, +2 to whoever brings me the head of whoever did ask for it. (Yo dawg, we heard you like whoever, so now we...)
Stone Clan
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Melee angry goatman physical strike, also casts a speed buff on attack.
Comment: They’re just like, so totally nuts, yo. (Stolen from alpha clog :P)
Strategy: Actually, there’s no real problem even if the max amount of them is attacking you at a time unless you utterly and absolutely suck, so then... next!
Stone Clan Caster edition.
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Casts Pain Spirit, which inflicts magic damage, also damage increases as he loses life ( think of it as some kind of monster Bacchanalia) AND they make their underlings’ corpses explode (fire damage).
Comment: The humblest of all demonic commanders, of course they still send their underlings to death and just stay back casting, but hey, they hid their titles of superiority to not make their minions feel unimportant.
Strategy: While they do have a quite good passive skill and a really good element (magic resist isn’t a common modifier) as main attack, they manage to suck veeeery badly. Noobs.
Black Priest
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Casts Gamma Field and Cold Beam, also melee physical attack.
Comment: Preaches dual element devotion and cookies worship whenever he has the chance to.
Strategy: His low leveled Gamma Field damage can be easily tanked with some poison resistances, Cold Beam is ignorable with -100% cold resits. As you can possibly guess, this won’t be a hard fight.
Black Knight
Immune to: Fire.
Skills: Physical attack, casts Death Blossom on attack.
Comment: Straight from Ogre Battle 64, these mighty champions are full of win!
Strategy: Despite they do look great and Death Blosson is pretty cool by itself, their damage output isn’t that good, in fact, they’re pretty much laughable unless you are playing a summonsorc. And even if you are, you can pwn them anyway.
Acid Beast
Immune to: Poison.
Skills: Ranged poison sputter.
Comment: The mix of a rat, a frog and a lizard, possesed by some kind of spitting-obsessed spirit from hell.
Strategy: Despite of their mid-high mobility, they have average damage. You can stand it, can’t you?
^^