Not all monsters are created equal, and once you reach World Tier 3 (Nightmare difficulty) you’ll start encountering a new class of foe - Champions. This page will cover Champion enemies in Diablo 4, providing details including what makes Champion enemies different from normal and elites foes.
(1 of 2) Champions are easily distinguished by their purple aura.
Champions are easily distinguished by their purple aura. (left), Target Champions first, as they’ll grant a damage reduction aura to all enemies nearby until defeated. (right)
What Are Champion Enemies in Diablo 4?¶
Stronger than normal enemies, but weaker than Elites, Champions are a middling tier of enemy that will start to appear in World Tier 3 (Nightmare difficulty). As long as the game is set to World Tier 3, Champion enemies will spawn anywhere, at any time, during pretty much any event or activity - not just World Tier 3 specific events like [Nightmare Dungeons] and Helltide events.
Unlike Elites, Champion enemies do not possess random modifiers that grant them special abilities, but they’re not completely bereft of tricks like normal enemies. Instead, Champion monsters possess a damage-reducing aura that makes them significantly harder to kill than normal enemies. Worse still, this aura also affects nearby monsters, potentially making entire mobs incredibly resilient to damage, and with the increased damage output of some enemies in World Tier 3, this can make some Champions and their attendant mobs even more powerful than some elites! Worse yet, Elites can benefit from the damage reducing auras that Champions bestow, and in World Tier 3 you’re bound to encounter mixed groups of Champions and Elites, especially near Dungeon objectives and during Events.
Champions are easily identified by the purplish glowing aura they emit, and given how much more dangerous they make every other enemy around them, you should prioritize their destruction as much as possible, lest you be overwhelmed. Once Champions are defeated, the aura they grant will shortly vanish. Other than the inherent risk Champions pose, they’re not terribly remarkable in terms of loot or stats.
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In Diablo 2, Champion enemies functioned somewhat differently, coming in small groups (usually three or four enemies), they generally just had boosted stats, were a higher level, and dropped better loot than mundane enemies. Later patches further diversified Champions into Ghostly, Fanatic, Berserker and Possessed variants, which each had different effects.
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