This page will relay information about Diablo, the Act 4 Boss of Diablo 2, especially concerning information about farming him for unique and set items.

Diablo, the eponymous villain of the game, is the boss of Act 4. All things considered, he’s one of the easiest bosses to reach - travel to the River of Flame Waypoint, and head northeast across some rectangular platforms to reach the Chaos Sanctuary. No searching for stairs down like with almost every other boss in the game, if you’re a Sorceress, you can just teleport right to your destination.

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(1 of 3) Inside the Chaos Sanctuary, you must defeat the Grand Vizier of Chaos,

The Chaos Sanctuary is a cross-shaped structure, with five seals hidden at the end of its three arms. To summon Diablo you must make your way through the Chaos Sanctuary and open all five seals and defeat the guardians contained within:

• Grand Vizier of Chaos, a Storm Caster with the “Extra Strong” and “Fire Enchanted” properties, always dwells in the northwestern arm of the Chaos Sanctuary. It spawns with a host of minion Storm Casters.

• Lord de Seis, an Oblivion Knight with the “Extra Fast” and “Aura Enchanted” (Fanaticism) properties, always dwells in the northeastern arm of the Chaos Sanctuary. He is accompanied by a retinue of Doom Knight minions.

• Infector of Souls, a Venom Lord with the “Extra Fast” and “Spectral Hit” properties, can be found lurking in the southeastern corner of the Chaos Sanctuary. He commands a gang of Venom Lord minions.

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Oblivion Knights are a constant menace with their curses.

You must kill all three of these Super Uniques to provoke Diablo, which is a fairly lucrative task in Hell difficulty. In addition, the Chaos Sanctuary houses Doom Knights (melee enemies, immune to fire), Oblivion Knights (casters, immune to cold), Storm Casters (can dain mana with homing missiles, immune to lightning) and Venom Lords (breath fire, melee, immune to fire). The worst of these foes are Oblivion Knights, who can use curses like Amplify Damage, Decrepify and Lower Resist to make you more vulnerable to other foes, as well as tossing bolts of elemental energy at you. Aside from the seals and the Super Uniques they spawn, no other enemies technically need to be killed en route to Diablo - all will despawn when Diablo appears.

Diablo will, of course, spawn in the pentagram-shaped center of the Chaos Sanctuary, which isn’t exactly an ideal place to fight him…

Below you’ll find a table of Diablo’s stats by difficulty:

Diablo isn’t a terribly difficult boss, depending, of course, on your resistances and your class. If you’re a caster, lure Diablo off his pentagram so you can freely circle him, allowing you to avoid most of his attacks. If you’re a melee fighter, things are trickier - you have to be very wary of Diablo’s movements, as he’s got two attacks that will inflict intolerable punishment on stationary foes. Fire resistance is your top defensive priority when facing Diablo, as it’ll mitigate his most common damage type, including his most difficult to dodge (but by no means most dangerous) attack. Lightning resistance is secondary, but welcome - ideally you should dodge Diablo’s Lightning Inferno attack, but resistance will keep brief exposures from being fatal. Finally, immunity to freezing is a welcome boon, especially for melee attackers.

Diablo’s attacks include:

• Flame Nova: An AoE burst with an incredible radius and fast cast time - you’ll probably get hit by this, and while it’s not too damaging, it can chip away your Life.

• Fire Wall: Much like the Sorceress spell of the same name. In Diablo’s case, it isn’t too impressive in either terms of damage or radius - it’s just there to keep you moving, which you should be inclined to do anyways.

• Flame Torrent: Expels a wide swath of flame starting at Diablo and snaking its way forward in a line. This does massive damage-over-time, and should not be tanked.

• Lightning Inferno: Diablo’s most damaging attack is arguably his aforementioned Lightning Inferno, which casts a gout of red lightning, dishing out immense damage. It’s a continuous-fire attack, and Diablo will rotate as he casts it. You’ve little other choice but to run when he does this, and if you’re a melee character, you’ll need to watch closely to see him rear back for this attack. Do not let your guard down once you see him cast it, as he’s quite happy to launch several of these in succession.

• Freezing Touch: Diablo will imbue his hand with ice and touch a nearby foe. A surprisingly lengthy animation, it deals little damage, but does slow down affected enemies, which can leave them poorly situated to deal with followup attacks.

• Charge: Kitty Diablo will get down on all fours and rush at you, appending his gallop with a claw swipe. Not hugely damaging, but it’s one way for him to punish ranged characters. His tracking and speed aren’t great, however, and you can usually just run from this.

• Bone Prison: Diablo will use this to chastise characters of dubious valor - if you create a Town Portal too close to Diablo or run away frequently, you may find yourself uncomfortably trapped, helpless to deal with any of Diablo’s high-impact attacks. A Sorceress, of course, is only a Teleport away from safety.

Diablo is 33% resistant to most elements in Normal mode, and 50% resistant in Nightmare and Hell, with 100% drain immunity in the latter difficulty. Fortunately his mobility is limited, his attacks are mostly easy to avoid and he’s got no minions to distract you with, making him easy fodder for many characters, especially the Sorceress.

As far as farming goes, Diablo is rarely farmed by himself… the Chaos Sanctuary as a whole is an aLv85 area, wherein nearly every item in the game can drop. With three Super Uniques (and a varying number of Champion/Unique mobs), it’s a lucrative area to farm, with Diablo merely being the demonic cherry on top. It is possible, however, to teleport past most of the mobs, kill Diablo’s three seal guardians, then go straight to big red himself. Diablo can drop most items in the game, and is much quicker to kill than Baal. The only downside is that the Chaos Sanctuary isn’t as easy as other aLv85 areas to run - you’ll need good resistances to survive, especially due to the curses of Oblivion Knights. By comparison, Diablo himself is easy prey.