So I am literally about to sit down and return to Diablo 3 to face the final boss...on normal! Call me a noob, call me a gutless turd, call me what you will, but I am seriously nervous! My question is, should I be? I am a level 32 witch doctor who favours zombie dogs, soul harvest, acid cloud, gargantuan, fireboms and firebats. I will update soon, or maybe not...

See you on nightmare... :) craigieh28#2876

You and me both. I got wrecked three times as Demon Hunter. Buying gear on Auction House now, and then I'll see how it will go. Maybe you shouldn't feel nervous, but I sure as hell did. Post results when you come back. Victorious or otherwise.

He's really easy on normal.

Use those healing wells!

I didn't like how they build up Diablo as this huge, heavens ruining threat, then he just turns out to be a cackling stereotypical villain. It's a bit of a let-down. And yeah, he's super easy on normal, just keep moving to avoid his traps and stay close to the health globes while spamming damage.

He's really easy on normal.

As a lighter class like the WD, keep moving. Once D gets all up in your grill, you're in for some hurt. Lay down the AOE skills and kite him around so he's constantly taking damage from them. Other than that, make use of the healing wells on either side of the arena and watch out for the classic lightening-hose attack in the last part of the fight.

Congrats your about to finish the tutorial.

Thanks for the tips folks! I beat him second time of asking. Was a tense battle though. Looking forward to nightmare now.

Yeah he gave my Barbarian all kinds of problems on normal. I think it was a lot me though w/a crap build and tactics.

My DH flew through big D first try on normal and nightmare both.

I soloed him on Nightmare with my barb. You should be fine.

For a prime evil, he sadly didn't use a combined skill-set of all the other evils. That would've been cool.

I died once on Normal with my Wizard, probably because I got too arrogant and stayed still for too long.

Ended up just running around, using diamond skin, potions, health wells and letting my hydra spell kill him.

@TooWalrus: Those shadow clones on Hell are a total bitch though, especially in co-op.

Well I did him on Inferno yesterday as solo Barb, and together with a slightly undergeared WD today - both times it was darn tough.. Especially in co-op, man that was so stressfull @..o

On the other difficulties though, I remember him being rather weak.

@Winter

Well you don't even wanna know about those clones in Inferno then...

In co-op we ended up saving 4!! ultimates up each time we were about to fight the clones, so that we were more or less guaranteed to kill them, cause my god do they have a lot HP and hit hard (with randomized abilities too!)

Funfact. When Diablo dies he just craps loot and gold from his course. Look at the stream its like diarrhea.

I don't usually replay games but I totally see that this is the entire point of Diablo! I see a whole world of opportunity open to me - I excuse the wide-eyed naively but this is my first experience of diablo and I am bowled over by it...

I played with 3 other people AMD we killed all the bosses in about 15 seconds on normal Diablo took probably a minute or so cause of the cutscenes, nightmare is where it starts to get challenging, but we still nuke enemies pretty quick, maybe its all a little underbalanced for 4.

normal we steamrolled him, a little slower in nightmare, wasnt until hell that he bothered our 4 man team, if i was playing hardcore though i think i would worry regardless, but our hardcore run is on hiatus while one of our party members waits for the cable guy to come and fix his router.

edited for grammar

Am I the only one who's really undergeared and playing alone?

Learn his pattern, the only time he will hit you is probably when he does a teleport next to you or some unlucky fireball, but that damage is healable with your spells or the wells.
 
Be afraid of your shadow clone, be very afraid...

Ditch the zombie dogs, they get killed pretty quickly against him. Drop the Soul Harvest, too - you don't want to be close to Diablo as a WD and the damage bonus won't be worth it. Give your Gargantuan the Restless Giant rune. Slot Fetish Army for a good bailout that doubles as good burst damage while it lasts.

You'll want Haunt with Consuming Spirit on it, since that's damage over time for 12 seconds with some health regen to boot, and you can just launch it in his general direction when he's near the edge of the screen while you're running. For primary, the spider pot with leaping spiders should also work well for the same reason. Spirit Walk would probably be a good idea to have, too. For the final skill, Locust Swarm should be good additional damage over time for those occasions that he does get near you (such as when he teleports), since you can immediately run after using it.

Passives are up to you, but I'd say the one that decreases the damage you and your pets take would be useful to have, since all of Diablo's attacks can dish out quite a bit of damage.

@valrog said:

Am I the only one who's really undergeared and playing alone?

Uh....no. Same here.

@buft: are != our

Diablo is one of the easiest bosses in the game. Just don't stand in one spot to long or he'll put a bit of a hurt on you. That's the only advice you'll need. The game starts to get more challenging in Hell when you get scary hard Champion and Rare mob packs. The act bosses in this game are to easy.

He's much easier than everything before him imo, should not be a problem if you soloed act 4.

I haven't gotten to him on Inferno yet, but if his attacks kill you in one hit, he's probably pretty difficult there. 

Diablo is vulnerable to stuns (at least on normal and nightmare), if you have a skill that has chance to stun (works best with the barbarian's bash skill with the clobber rune) and a decent attack speed you can interrupt all of his attacks and straight out "stun-lock" him. Other than that learning his attack patterns, utilising defensive skills that let you move faster or out of the way and using a strong single target skill is generally good advice.

@TMThomsen said:

@buft: are != our

you are correct, I was so tired yesterday

Well, after upgrading my weapons (Couldn't wait to full upgrade all of my items) I managed to defeat him. The only few times he got me cornered was when I couldn't run/vault past the claws he brings out. So I was just standing there, dying.

I just killed him about 2hrs ago on Normal...didn't use the heal wells once and it was like playing Easy mode...seriously! I found the Elite trash/mobs tougher to deal with then Diablo. Either Monks are OP or Diablo was a pansy ass...time for Nightmare!!

@Khadyn said:

I just killed him about 2hrs ago on Normal...didn't use the heal wells once and it was like playing Easy mode...seriously! I found the Elite trash/mobs tougher to deal with then Diablo. Either Monks are OP or Diablo was a pansy ass...time for Nightmare!!

Monks an be pretty OP at those early levels, I remember literally just holding down the attack button on him, only reclicking when he shifted out in nightmare form.

He's pretty easy since most of his moves are pretty predictable. Except for that move when he teleports right next to you and slaps your shit. You can't avoid that so that's a bit of a bitch. His lines are the most painful though. Such bad writing...

@Tennmuerti said:

@Khadyn said:

I just killed him about 2hrs ago on Normal...didn't use the heal wells once and it was like playing Easy mode...seriously! I found the Elite trash/mobs tougher to deal with then Diablo. Either Monks are OP or Diablo was a pansy ass...time for Nightmare!!

Monks an be pretty OP at those early levels, I remember literally just holding down the attack button on him, only reclicking when he shifted out in nightmare form.

Decided to finish up my Witch Doctor last night and I now agree the Monk makes Diablo easy mode. Died once due to rubberband lag but playing WD was challenging against Diablo but fun at the same time. Agree with a previous post, the pets are worthless and go for something more a damage over time ability and run around avoiding his attacks or just stay near the heal wells for the "oh shit" moments. Spirit Walk is a must for the times he ports right up on you...

@TooWalrus said:

@Jack268 said:

He's really easy on normal.

He's really easy on Nightmare and Hell, too. Most of his attacks are pretty easy to avoid, there's respawning healthwells, and as long as you keep your distance your clones are pretty easy to kill, too. I haven't gotten to him on Inferno yet, but if his attacks kill you in one hit, he's probably pretty difficult there.

He's pretty hard on Hell, unless you're pretty well geared for your level. He becomes easier if you fight him at lvl 60, which lets you wear much better stuff (resist all gear helps a ton if you're melee)

Specifically, it's the clones that can give you trouble. Diablo himself isn't difficult. And yeah, he's a joke on normal and nightmare difficulty. Just avoid his little thorn jails that come out of the ground, and you're set. And on the first two difficulties, you don't even really need to do that.

As a Barbarian, Hell mode Act 4 was the first time I hit bosses that I couldn't essentially just click on until they fell over.