[crAzerk]

The Butcher

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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.

Skeleton King

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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.

Belial

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Belial is a three-phase fight.

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.

+ [More info from Cyanide] +

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.

Quick Comments

	cruxSpoon:	You ass! iwas tyring to get that bug off my computer screen for ages
	TAavanar:	wtf is that bug thing? lol everytime i see it i think a bug is on my screen