Diablo II Remastered: An Introduction to Enhanced Monster Abilities–Which Ones Do You Fear Most?

Jan-23-2024

 

In Diablo II Remastered, players often encounter boss-level monsters and unique (set) monsters (bosses) with significantly stronger abilities than regular monsters. These include increased health, attack power, resistances, and additional skills (auras). Are you familiar with these enhanced attributes?

 

Many players are no strangers to unique (set) monsters (bosses), which typically possess fixed attributes. For example, the "Countess" in Act I (on Hell difficulty, she has cold immunity, fire immunity, and very high speed), or the "Impale" in Act V (on Hell difficulty, he has fire enhancement and poison immunity), among others.

 

 

 

These bosses, unique (set) monsters, and their minions can have special enhanced attributes that randomly appear under certain rules. The enhanced attributes of boss monsters (with blue health bars) can be distinguished by their names, such as "Boss", "Ghostly", "Fanatic", "Berserk," "Mad," mainly affecting only aspects like health, attack power, attack frequency, hit rate, movement speed, and physical resistance. They do not have additional elemental immunities or aura granting abilities, and they do not pose much more difficulty to kill compared to regular monsters. However, the "Ignore Target Defense" attribute is ineffective against boss and unique monsters. Players focusing on physical gameplay, especially in areas with large numbers of minions, may need to appropriately increase their physical attack hit attributes.

 

 

 

Unique monsters can have a wider variety of specific random attributes, which are briefly introduced below (on Hell difficulty):

 

Aura Enhancements: Fanatic Aura (Monster level/8), Concentration Aura (Monster level/8), Blessed Aim Aura (Monster level/5), Might Aura (Monster level/6), Judgment Aura (Faith Aura, Monster level/8), Holy Freeze Aura (Monster level/7), Holy Fire Aura (Monster level/6), Holy Thunder Aura (Holy Shock Aura, Monster level/8 and unavailable if monster level is below 20)

 

Additional Curses: Monsters have a chance to cast the "Damage Increase" curse when attacking.

 

Additional Speed: Increases attack frequency, attack speed, and movement speed by 100%.

 

Additional Strength: Increases physical attack and physical attack hit rate for self and minions.

 

Cold Enhancement: Increases cold resistance by 75%, while self and minions deal additional cold damage. Upon death, releases a Frost Nova equal to Monster level/2.

 

Fire Enhancement: Increases fire resistance by 75%, while self and minions deal additional fire damage. Upon death, causes a Corpse Explosion, dealing physical and fire damage to nearby enemies proportional to the monster's health.

 

Lightning Enhancement: Increases lightning resistance by 75%, while self and minions deal additional lightning damage. When hit, also releases Charged Bolts (Charged Missiles).

 

 

 

Poison Strikes: Increases poison resistance by 75%, while self and minions deal additional poison damage, causing nearby enemies to become poisoned.

 

Magic Resistance: Increases resistance to cold, fire, and lightning by 40% each.

 

Spectral Hits (Ghostly Strikes): Increases resistance to cold, fire, and lightning by 20% each, while self and minions' attacks randomly add cold, fire, lightning, and poison damage, significantly increasing hit rate.

 

Mana Burn: Increases magic resistance and drains mana from enemies when attacking. Ranged monsters with this attribute do not drain too much mana from characters upon each attack. However, due to a game bug, melee monsters with this attribute drain 256 times the mana, instantly depleting the character's mana pool.

 

Skin of Stone: Increases physical resistance by 50% (physical immunity attribute), also increasing defense by 100%. Pure physical output characters may find it challenging to deal with monsters enhanced with this attribute.

 

Multishot: Ranged attacking monsters (physical or magical) fire three simultaneous attacks of the same type.

 

Teleportation: When nearby monsters die or when their own health drops below 33%, they will teleport. If health is below 33%, they will also regain a small amount of health after teleporting.

 

 

 

On Hell difficulty, it is common to encounter multiple enhanced attributes at once (up to three). For example, characters teleporting into a group with Fanatic (Might) Aura + Extra Strength (Speed) combinations can be easily killed. Physical output characters facing melee monsters with Skin of Stone + Mana Burn find it quite painful, and some spellcasting characters struggle against monsters with (Cold, Fire, Lightning) Enhancement + Magic Resistance before achieving "Infinity."