The Butcher has three skills that probably have proper names but because I can't find them anywhere I'll name them myself.
Meat Hook
Throws out a grappling hook (about 20 yard range) that grabs you and pulls you towards him, dealing 10k~ (?) damage, follows up with a big smash 1s later that may one shot so get out quick!
Multi-Hooks
Shoots out his hooks (about 20 yard range) in a frontal 45-degree cone that deals about ~32k damage. (Targets a player when he does this)
Charge
He turns slightly red and a faint orange cone can be seen in front of him and then 3 seconds later he charges towards the wall in the direction he's facing, stunning himself for 2-3 seconds.
Fire Grates(there is a proper name for this I can't remember offhand. You see it when you die)
Periodically sets a portion of the ground on fire. After a certain time the entire ground of the room is set on fire, indicating the enrage timer.
Thoughts,
I've only done this once in a group of 3, and we wiped for a good half hour before killing him once I stopped dying.
My main problem was with MultiHooks - I find it virtually unavoidable? There is no real cast animation, I've tried staying at his sides/back but that doesn't seem to work because he seems to target a player to cast this and doesn't just aim this in front of him (I've had him turn around to Multihooks me MANY times) .
Plus, it's a guaranteed one shot if it hits (the other players with me were a Wizard and WD - the WD had 33k HP so it only took him down to 1k HP, and Wizards don't get one-shot thanks to Force Armor)
So the only times I DON'T die is when I dodge Multihooks, or he targets someone else far from me.
I noticed something as well, that he doesn't cast two skills back to back, so there's some sort of 'rotation'. Thus after Multihooks, and 1-2 other spells, I'll be trying to perma-Smoke screen just so to dodge the next Multihooks.
I was wondering how did the rest of you find this fight? And what strategy did you use to take him down? Is there a way to avoid Multihooks without relying entirely on RNG to dodge?
UPDATE: I've done some brief research online and it seems that Multihooks is unavoidable damage - there's no way to avoid it besides praying for RNG dodge or hope it doesn't one shot you.
Whirlwind
After a 2-3 second animation, he does a mini whirl-wind like ability that will probably kill you if you stand in it.
Blink Strike
After a short 1 second animation, he vanishes and appears next to you and swings at you.
Raise Zombies
Raises 2 groups of 4 zombies at your location. Many of these drop Health Globes when they die.
Ominous Laughter
Cackles evilly to try to scare you because he's too easy to kill and needs scare tactics.
Thoughts
I'm not sure how melee classes kill him, but as a Demon Hunter the only ability I really watch out for is Blink Strike, and I time my Smoke Screen for when he begins his Blink Strike animation. Even if it hits it's not a one shot, so it's not that bad.
Zombies are great for health globes so kill them fast. Stay out of whirlwind. Kite around in a circle and you should kill him without much difficulty.
Phase 1 - Adds phase
3 (4?) waves of four adds spawn, based on a fixed timer (e.g. Every 20 seconds). This means if you don't get a wave of adds down, you may get overrun as the next wave spawns.
The aim of this phase is simple: burn down the adds as quickly as possible.
On the last set of adds you may want to leave one add up as you let your cooldowns reset, etc, then kill it to enter phase 2
Phase 2- Belial + Adds
Belial joins in the fight at this point.
This phase lasts till Belial reaches about 20% HP. It is thus essentially a burn phase + adds management phase.
You want to get in as much damage as you can on Belial, but also nuke down adds when they spawn to avoid getting overrun. Would be good to have a tank to gather the adds to Belial and you can get them down with splash damage.
Belial has 2 abilities in this phase, not including periodically spawning adds.
His first is his Trio Bombs (self-named) which is essentially 3 slow moving, small green blobs which travel across the platform.
These are completely avoidable, so don't get hit!
The second ability is a Dash in which he moves quickly to a target location. This is not necessarily targeted at a player, and he seems to do it randomly, but more often than not it IS aimed at a player.
You can avoid the melee swing that follows Dash by using escape skills like SS, teleport, etc as well as any immobilize abilities like Frost Nova and Caltrops (with 2 seconds stun) (Thanks Dox!)
To sum up this phase - clear up adds fast, dodge Trio bombs, burn Belial. Note: Any adds that are still up when the next phase begins will automatically disappear.
Phase 3 : Belial
Belial becomes immobile but his abilities reach the entire platform.
Belial has 3 abilities in this phase, Triple Smash, Rotating Fire Breath, Explosionz. All are avoidable to some extent.
Triple Smash - A big swirly green circle appears at the target location, and 2 seconds later he smashes the area with his arms.
It is IMPORTANT to note that the green circle is NOT the hitbox - I.e. you can be well clear of the green circle but still get hit when he smashes. You need to move at least 10 yards away from the green circle to be safe.
Just to point out for Belial. His first smash is usually his fist piercing the ground, that has the smallest hit box.
As far as I can tell, the hit box is literally what you see on screen, wherever his fists up to his elbow hits, is not safe.
1. Pierce the ground
2. 1 handed smash
3. both hands, don't stand in between if you don't have any immunity spell.
Rotating Fire Breath - Belial lets loose a flamethrower-like fire breath attack from right to left of the platform. (sometimes left to right)
Explosions - Belial rains down multiple explosions all over the platforms.
The first big tip I can give you is this - this is an endurance phase. It's meant to last long. Focus more on avoiding his abilities than dealing damage, and Belial will fall eventually.
With that mindset, let's discuss one viable strategy of this fight.
The range classes can stand at the extreme bottom right of the platform while still able to shoot Belial (let's call this the sweet spot. If you move further up into the corner you won't be able to shoot Belial, let's call that the dead zone), while the melee stands in the middle/left.
If you don't have any melee, it may be worth splitting up into 2 groups with one group at the extreme left and extreme right, though I'm not sure how well the extreme left position works.
The reason for this positioning is that the ranged will be able to avoid Rotating Fire Breath without moving 4 out of 5 times, when it's right to left. (When it's right to left, if you're in the sweet spot, it won't hit you)
However, once in a while Belial casts this from left to right, during which you can pop your damage mitigation skills just before the flame reaches the right (e.g. SS, Diamond skin, Spirit Walk(?) ) to avoid moving and losing DPS.
An alternative way to dodge the left-to-right fire breath is to move further up right into the dead zone from which you're unable to shoot Belial. (I'm not 100% sure you are safe here though)
For his Triple Smash, do note that you're not necessarily safe even in that ranged sweet spot.
It's best to save your damage mitigation skill when he casts a Smash within 5-10 yards of the ranged location. Remember - outside of the green target circle is NOT a safe zone; you need to be a further 10 yards away.
Melee classes with sufficient mitigation should not be one-shot by a single Smash or Fire Breath. If you do, you need more damage mitigation/HP.
For Explosionz, it is mostly avoidable. Don't bother about DPS in this phase and just concentrate on dodging the green bombs. If you have spells that have DoTs (e.g. Chemical Burn Impale) you can cast them occasionally but I don't advise this. Just survive.
I am quite sure that 90% of the time, the bombs are avoidable, because the bombings are almost always staggered. Thus it's not uncommon to run backwards into a spot that just got bombed to avoid a bomb in your original path. There is a learning curve to this, so don't worry if you die the first few times.
Don't panic, and learn how to time your positioning, and you should breeze through this phase eventually.
Rinse and repeat.
To sum up : Stay clear of Smash zones, hug the corners to get out of Breath, and focus on avoiding bombs without DPSing during Explosionz.
Remember, focus on surviving in this phase. It's a long, repetitive phase, which tests your patience and endurance. Keep your cool and Belial will fall in no time.
Do note that all of these strategies are written with a group fight (2-4 players) in mind, and on Inferno difficulty. Despite this, the fundamentals should still apply to all earlier difficulties (I don't see why not). I don't find it feasible to talk about solo attempts, because every class will have their own nuances, so I will have to write one strategy for every class.
Last edited by crAzerk; Tue, 29th-May-2012 at 5:50 PM.
Let me elaborate -- for a demon hunter, stay at max range. His hooks do have a limited range, and the way my friend explained it to me was that he was standing off-screen and shooting towards where he knew the Butcher was.
We cleared it first shot, no problems. =p
Last edited by iM tgun; Wed, 23rd-May-2012 at 1:05 PM.
As a monk I found the butcher relatively easy on solo inferno, my only issue was the DPS timer at the start but then I just went back to DW and smashed it.
My strat was to stand inbetween too plates so that I cold move depending on the fire location with him facing the wall so he didnt charge across the map and out of melee range. When he does a little skip it means hes going to do his big stun attack so just move around him to avoid it. When he does his big roar thingy he will charge immediately after so either hit an immunity or try and move out of it.
Multihooks and hooking in general is purely based on range, if you move out of his melee range he will use it on you randomly. When he does his big hook he will point at his location for a bit before then doing his big hookshot that pulls you in.
With regards to the multi-hook, if this is seriously an issue, you could have the other 3 party members stand relatively close together in an arc, whilst you stand at the inverse, allowing them to bait the majority of the hooks and absorb the damage, rather than you being 1 shot. By spacing the other 3 out adequately, you also reduce the chance of all 3 of them being hit at once - unless he targets the person in the middle.
Another thing to consider (I'm just speculating here) is that one of the common boss mechanics in WoW was that ranged targets would always be prioritised over melee for special abilities. (ie. Vezax Shadow Crash) This essentially meant that as long as you met the ranged criteria, bosses would exempt melee targets, making the encounter a little more forgiving. I don't know if there are any bosses in Diablo that use this mechanic, but it wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard extended the concept to Diablo 3.
Here's an example I scribbled in MS Paint.
Anyway, it's extremely unlikely that they'd adapt this mechanic, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. In the circumstance above, your ranged classes would be stacking vitality, allowing the melee guys to focus on more DPS oriented gear. Useless food for thought.
EDIT: Whoah, I just unintentionally drew a diagram for Brutallus lol.
The only part I miss about WoW is problem solving bosses with 24 others. That was so enjoyable.. at least up to mid WotLK.. although tbh I wasn't impressed after Nax WotLK.
Seeing that sketch made me miss WoW.. but then I remembered those kind of days of significant planning are over.
Haha yea the range prioritizing would be a cool mechanic.
@Baldie Yea, always missed strategizing about bossfights. But Diablo is not meant to be that kind of game but a dungeon crawler so.
@Dox's picture That is the ideal situation, but 90% of the time you won't be able to adopt such a position due to the fires going on in the room. We did plan to spread out and not stick together at all (3 of us ranged), but inevitably during the fight you're going to bunch up as you're running away from fire/other abilities and find yourself cornered, etc.
@Baiting shots by stacking positions
yea I suppose this theoretically will work too, but somehow during the attempts it seems that Butcher is extremely sadistic and knows of my predicament and deliberately keeps targeting me with his MultiHooks
Serious? Ulduar was my favourite instance of all time. That place was crisp and tuned wonderfully. Hard mode Mimiron, Freya, 0 Light Yogg and Algalon were probably the best encounters they ever designed I reckon. TOGC Immortal was pretty freaking cool too - Anub'arak 25 HM required so much precision from every single person in the raid - it's a shame most attempts were ruined by the stupid "PvP" encounter. The only other fight that ever compared before that was Illidan in TBC, and nothing afterwards came close - although Atramedes (sp?) was a very clever design.
Serious? Ulduar was my favourite instance of all time. That place was crisp and tuned wonderfully. Hard mode Mimiron, Freya, 0 Light Yogg and Algalon were probably the best encounters they ever designed I reckon. TOGC Immortal was pretty freaking cool too - Anub'arak 25 HM required so much precision from every single person in the raid - it's a shame most attempts were ruined by the stupid "PvP" encounter. The only other fight that ever compared before that was Illidan in TBC, and nothing afterwards came close - although Atramedes (sp?) was a very clever design.
I like Ulduar. But I love Icecrown Citadel. Maybe because I was late to the party for Ulduar when everyone was starting to outgear it. ICC was quite a blast for me because I finally got to play Boomkin full time instead of Resto. Hated Naxx though, except for 4HM, that was pretty fun.
Does anyone want to do some write ups for the normal mode for some of the bosses? I know we all love the challenge of the hard stuff, but for the novices out there it might also be nice to have some tips for the normal mode. I know I struggled through Belial with a Templar. I didnt get through that until I had a friend of mine help me (similar level as me).
Added a strategy/guide for Belial in the OP after getting him down this morning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ToRFutureBoy
Does anyone want to do some write ups for the normal mode for some of the bosses? I know we all love the challenge of the hard stuff, but for the novices out there it might also be nice to have some tips for the normal mode. I know I struggled through Belial with a Templar. I didnt get through that until I had a friend of mine help me (similar level as me).
Make a request, and I'll write it up. Do note this clause that I added to the OP:
"I don't find it feasible to talk about solo attempts, because every class will have their own nuances, so I will have to write one strategy for every class if I talk about solo."
If you are struggling on solo, perhaps you can post in here for help and what specifically you are struggling with, and I'm sure many of us will respond to help you.
Abilities like Frost Nova or the DH Caltrops rune which triggers a 2 second Immobilise can be used to stop him in his tracks and avoid being hit.
Thanks, reworded to:
"You can avoid the melee swing that follows Dash by using escape skills like SS, teleport, etc as well as any immobilize abilities like Frost Nova and Caltrops (with 2 seconds stun)"
Just to point out for Belial. His first smash is usually his fist piercing the ground, that has the smallest hit box.
As far as I can tell, the hit box is literally what you see on screen, wherever his fists up to his elbow hits, is not safe.
1. Pierce the ground
2. 1 handed smash
3. both hands, don't stand in between if you don't have any immunity spell.
Another tip to avoid the smashes would be to constantly moving to juke it. It usually targets the closest person if i'm not wrong. I noticed when I use 7-sided strike, I am essentially "out of the game", and he switches target immediately to crazerk, lol. Think i killed him a few times because of that. :P
Serious? Ulduar was my favourite instance of all time. That place was crisp and tuned wonderfully. Hard mode Mimiron, Freya, 0 Light Yogg and Algalon were probably the best encounters they ever designed I reckon. TOGC Immortal was pretty freaking cool too - Anub'arak 25 HM required so much precision from every single person in the raid - it's a shame most attempts were ruined by the stupid "PvP" encounter. The only other fight that ever compared before that was Illidan in TBC, and nothing afterwards came close - although Atramedes (sp?) was a very clever design.
Well Hard Mode different story. Like I agree Hard Mode of Ulduar and Anub were a lot more enjoyable. I kind of forgot to consider that - the normal mode mechanics of a lot of the fights I was meh about because they were so easy. I might be biased towards nax because it was my first proper raiding zone.
I will say Anub 25 HM was exceptionally enjoyable but at the same time so stupidly frustrating when people are so retarded and die to spikes etc.
I also was a really big fan of HM PP because that had similar mechanics to Anub in having to avoid shit and then the end when it becomes a DPS race with the slime expanding oh the memories!!!
I guess my argument is I liked Nax as a whole - raids after that had glimpses of enjoyment for me but only a select few bosses.
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