Difference between revisions of "Boss Modifiers"

Revision as of 21:40, 11 July 2012

Diablo III Boss Modifiers are special bonus properties that bosses and champions randomly spawn, or that they have preset by the developers. These grant the bosses elemental effects, shielding, extra speed, missile attacks, the ability to teleport or duplicate themselves, and many others.

• Random boss monsters (Champions with Blue names and random bosses with Yellow names) spawn with one property on Normal, and add one on each of the difficulty levels, up to four on Inferno.
• Elite monsters, Purple names, are special creatures with special preset modifiers and altered AI, and they do not gain random modifiers on higher difficulty levels, as most of them did in Diablo II. These Elites may gain additional modifiers on higher difficulty levels (for instance, The Warden gets Molten and Jailer past Normal difficulty), but not randomly; they are all preset by the game developers, and their added properties may differ slightly in function or lethality from what random bosses get.

This directory page gives brief descriptions of the properties; click to the individual articles for far more detail, including screenshots, movies, and strategy tips.

• See also the Diablo II Boss Modifiers.

Higher Level Modifiers

Boss modifiers are introduced gradually. The bosses found in the earliest portions of Act One/Normal can only spawn with one of the three least dangerous Modifiers: Nightmarish, Knockback, or Teleporter. This process evolved during the beta test, as nasty boss modifiers such as Arcane Enchanted, Molten, and Frozen were gradually removed/moved to higher monster levels.

As players progress through the game and meet higher level monsters, more of the modifiers become available for selection, and bosses get more and more dangerous.

Most of the other known boss modifiers appear throughout Normal difficulty, but a fair number of the most difficult boss properties can only be encountered on Nightmare or Hell. There are no properties that are Inferno-only, though the fact that random bosses get 4 modifiers on that difficulty level is dangerous enough.

Difficulty Level Progression

Inferno boss.

Regular random bosses spawn with one modifier on normal, and gain another on each higher difficulty level.

• Normal difficulty random bosses and champions: 1 boss modifier.
• Nightmare difficulty random bosses and champions: 2 boss modifiers.
• Hell difficulty random bosses and champions: 3 boss modifiers.
• Inferno difficulty random bosses and champions: 4 boss modifiers.

Superunique bosses have static modifiers and spawn locations, and generally do not come with minions (outside of some quest bosses).

Bosses vs. Champions

Some modifiers can only be found on Champions (never on bosses) and some can only be found on Bosses (never on Champions).

• Champion only:
  • Avenger
  • Fire Chains
  • Health Link

• Boss only:
  • Horde
  • Invulnerable Minions
  • Missile Dampening

A few modifiers differ when encountered on Bosses vs. Champions, and these are noted in the articles below. For instance, the Waller Affix creates three sided boxes when used by a Boss, but only short, straight walls (which may overlap in dangerous T or + shapes) when cast by Champions.

Boss and Champion Modifiers

This page is the master list of boss modifiers, arranged alphabetically. Each entry has a brief listing here; click to the individual pages for a fully detailed listing with screenshots and gameplay reports.

Arcane Enchanted

The original, highly-dangerous, Hydra style of this modifier.

Arcane Enchanted bosses are "enchanted" with Arcane energy. Rather than adding Arcane damage to their attacks, they cast Arcane objects that look like second hands off of a clock and rotate around, damaging any players or minions in their slowly-moving path.

This boss modifier was first seen at the start of the Diablo 3 Beta test, where it was instantly the most dangerous property in the game. That initial version, which let the bosses and their minions, as well as Champions, summon Arcane damage Hydras which spit purple Arcane damage projectiles at a high rate.

This effect was nerfed in the v5 Beta patch, and changed to the current "spinning second hand" style, which is much less dangerous. This was an unpopular change with fans, and it's often hoped the first Hydra head version will return in the full game, if only on higher difficulty levels.

• Monster Level Minimum: 15
• Available to: All
• Damage Type: Arcane
• Additional Resistances: Arcane

Avenger

Avenger is a Champion-only modifier that links the champions, granting a temporary bonus in size, strength, and speed to the surviving champions whenever one is slain. The bonuses are most visible in the increased size of the enemy, and the Avengers damage and speed increase can be large enough that it's worth using strategy against these enemies.

Players may benefit from trying to damage them all equally, so that when one dies the others are nearly dead as well. This is preferable to killing one or two champions and leaving the remaining ones powered up with full hit points.

• Monster Level Minimum: 51 (Hell and Inferno only).
• Available to: Champions only.
• Damage Type: Standard.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Desecrator

An Unburied spawns a mass of Desecrator pits.

Desecrators create an orange-colored "glowing void zone" beneath the feet of a character. These function like small Firewalls, dealing damage to any character who stands in them. The void zones take a second or so to come into effect, giving a visual warning so players have time to move, assuming they are not blocked in by modifiers like Waller or Jailer.

The Desecrated pools remain for a considerably time, and during long battles with a boss and minions all casting Desecration, entire screens can be come virtually impassable due to the pits of damage.

• Monster Level Minimum: 22
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions.
• Damage Type: Physical
• Additional Resistances: None

Electrified

Electrified boss putting out massive sparks.

Electrified bosses emit a steady stream of sparks (plus more when they are hit) that skitter along the ground and deal lightning damage to anything they encounter, much like the Wizard's Shock Pulse skill. They also have higher resistance to lightning damage, which in many instances (such as to a Demon Hunter using Lightning Ball or a Monk using Fists of Thunder) is more noticeable than their electrified spark attacks.

Their sparking properties were first observed with awe in the Blizzcon 2009 and 2010 PvM demos, where the sheer amount of blueish sparks they spit out (whether being hit or not) made them seem like miniature arc reactors. This effect was toned down considerably during development and upon release these bosses were not dangerous in the "hit them and they make sparks" way that their Diablo 2 versions were. Since there is no MultiShot modifier in Diablo III, that intriguing combo from Diablo 2 does not recur.

Note that the sparks count as hits and can trigger other Boss Modifiers, healing the boss if it is Vampirific.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: Champions and Bosses, but not boss minions.
• Damage Type: Lightning.
• Additional Resistances: Lightning.

Extra Health

Extra Health grants a 50% hit point bonus to bosses and their minions. It also occurs on Champions. Note that all such monsters already have considerably increased hit points compared to normal monsters of their type, and this 150% is an increase on that existing bonus. This mod provides no other changes, but can pair with defensive mods such as Invulnerable Minions or Shielding to make for a very long fight. This is especially a problem in Inferno, as it increases the odds of hitting the Enrage timer.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31 (Nightmare and above.)
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions receive the benefit.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Fast

Fast is increases the speed of everything for champions, bosses, and their minions, and is one of the most dangerous modifiers, especially for kiting classes. Fast monsters get a 40% bonus to their movement speed, as well as a 20% bonus to attack speed and a 10% bonus to casting speed. The modifier isn't so bad on its own, but when it spawns on any dangerous monster type in Hell or Inferno, and stacks with other nasty modifiers, it can be extremely dangerous.

The problem isn't so much the faster attack, but the foot speed bonus, since most character strategies involve staying just out of reach of enemies, or getting room to run and regenerate life or resource during combat. Fast bosses are too quick for this to work, often moving faster than characters and hitting constantly during efforts to escape.

Rooting and slowing CC effects are essential against Fast enemies, as are movement skills.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None

Fire Chains

Fire Chains triangle between 3 desert wasp Champions.

Fire Chains are glowing, fiery chains that link champions in groups of 2 or 3, and deal heavy fire damage to any character that is touched by the chains. Four champions will not link into a square or trapezoid; instead there are a pair of chains linking two enemies, which will switch back to the triangle shape when one of the four is killed.

The chains do not radiate or reach out, so it isn't that hard to avoid in most situations, but the monsters with this property seem to have their AI tweaked to do a bit more circling and moving around. Thus a melee character can take on one Champion, and it will either keep moving and get behind to stretch the chains over the player, or the other champions will move past and around, stretching the chains that way.

Fire Chained enemies are best fought in a steady retreat or by circling around the perimeter, as it's very dangerous to be within the midst of them. The chains have a maximum range of about a visible screen (perhaps 60 or 80 yards), and will disappear if the monsters get further apart than that, though they will reform instantly and without warning if the distance closes.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31 (Nightmare and later)
• Available to: Champions only.
• Damage Type: Fire.
• Additional Resistances: None

Frozen

Frozen is an upgrade over Diablo 2's Cold Enchanted. These monsters hit with added cold damage that can chill the target with a 50% movement debuff, but their most dangerous effect is the casting of little ice bombs. These appear scattered randomly around the area of the battle and rapidly expand in size. After a second or two they grow to their full size and explode in multiple short-radius Frost Novas which will freeze and render characters motionless for a short time. Being hit by several of these at once seems to stack the frozen time, and can be very deadly.

While this property is not encountered until some distance through Normal difficulty, players get an early preview of it when they first encounter Captain Daltyn below Adria's Shack. Izual is another Elite with Frozen as an inherent property, and he creates a larger number of orbs spread over a larger area during his battle.

During development Frozen left behind a core of ice at the monster's death, which exploded a moment later, much as Molten does. This property was removed during development and replaced by the much more dangerous spread of ice cores that we see in the released game.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: All
• Damage Type: Cold
• Additional Resistances: Cold.

Health Link

Health Linked champions essentially share a single health pool, so that when one is damaged, all take damage. This ability is shown visually by splashes of blood that flash between the Champions as one takes damage and the others lose health to compensate.

The total hit points of the Health Linked group is the same as if each monster had their own hit points, so this means that 3 or 4x the usual damage must be dealt out to kill anything... but that when one monster dies, the others will go almost at once. It's not uncommon for a player to single out one of them, keep beating on it, and see the other 2 or 3 die before the one they are targeting finally falls.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: Champions only.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None

During development this modifier was called Life Link and could be encountered on bosses and their minions, as well as champions.

Horde

Horde is a boss-only property that causes more minions to spawn at the start of the battle. The number of additional enemies seems to be semi-random, with up to 3 more appearing. This property does not alter the boss' stats or behavior, and the minions aren't any different either; there are just more of them.

Horde is most dangerous when the monster type is dangerous, or when the other Boss Modifiers are nasty ones. Modifiers that minions can cast along with the boss, such as Frozen and Arcane Enchanted, become very numerous when paired with Horde.

Horde can be confused with Illusionist, but Horde just creates more minions at the start of the fight. It does not allow the boss to make more during the battle, and all the Horde minions are full power and hit points, and their damage is very real.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Bosses only.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: N/A.

Illusionist

A few zombies can result.

Illusionist Bosses and Champions are able to create duplicates of themselves during the battle, adding 4-6 more enemies in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, these duplicates are harmless; unable to deal any damage with their attacks and blessed with very few hit points. They are largely an illusion and a distraction, since they are indistinguishable from the other monsters. This property is akin to the Wizard's Mirror Image skill, in that both create a lot of visual flash and action, but no real damage.

The easiest way to tell the Illusions from the real monsters is to kill them quickly; any sort of AoE attack will vanish them in very short order. Players can also discern the difference if monster health bars are displayed in game, since Illusions have only a tiny percent of the hit points of the real things.

The biggest danger is when Illusionists are ranged attackers, since there's no way to discern their harmless attacks from the real fireballs or green wasps from the real monsters. They can also be tough by physically blocking a character's path, and by making it hard to tell which is the real monster, and thus which attack needs to be dodged.

• Monster Level Minimum: 15
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Invulnerable Minions

Invulnerable Minion pack.

A boss with the Invulnerable Minions trait can be exceedingly dangerous and downright annoying, as the minions are completely invulnerable to all forms of attack. They never drop their shields (unlike Shielding bosses) and can not be damaged by any attack, though they are susceptible to various CC attacks and can be slowed, chained, frightened, frozen, etc. They only way to kill them is to kill the boss (who is not invulnerable), at which point all of the minions die at once.

Invulnerable Minions are dangerous as they can hit and damage without being killed, and are very hard for melee characters who are built around dealing damage and healing. Since the minions take no damage, the usual tactics do not work. They are also vexing to characters with ranged attacks, as the minions can soak up all of their projectiles, making it hard to get hits on the boss.

• Monster Level Minimum: 51 (Hell and Inferno only).
• Available to: Rare
• Damage Type: n/a
• Additional Resistances: n/a

Jailer

Jailer. This modifier grants the boss or champion the ability to briefly cage players and their minions. A reddish-orange circle appears around the targets, locking them into place for a short duration during which characters can fight and fire spells or projectiles, but can not move from their location. A few player skills allow them to break out of the Jailer's circle, such as Leap, Furious Charge, Teleport, Seven Sided Strike, Spirit Walk, etc.

This property is also possessed by a good number of Elites, most notably The Warden.

• Monster Level Minimum: 10
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Knockback

Knockback. This modifier grants the boss or champion a knockback attack which will send a character or minion flying away from the monster that hits them. This is not a slight stumbling bump backwards, as many normal monsters can land; it's a special hit and knocks the target back a considerable distance, often half the screen or further (40+ yards). This can be quite funny early in the game, when a Witch Doctor watches his Mongrels get repeatedly launched across the entire screen by some tiny boss with this property. It can also be somewhat helpful to ranged attackers, as the boss will knock them so far back that it's almost as if they used some sort of movement skill themselves.

It's more dangerous in dungeons and tight areas where the knockback doesn't actually create a safe space between the character and monsters. Knocked back characters and pets are debuffed with a slowing effect for a moment after the impact.

• Monster Level Minimum: 1
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and boss minions.
• Damage Type: Standard.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Missile Dampening

Missile Dampening.

Missile Dampening is a seldom-seen modifier that looks like a Slow Time bubble around the boss (and only the boss). The bubble moves as the boss does, and functions much the same as the Slow Time Wizard skill. It reduces the speed of all incoming projectiles to a crawl, though it does not affect the movement speed of characters within the bubble.

The bubble protects the boss from projectile attacks, but not forever, as projectiles continue to move, albeit very slowly. This can set up some very cool visuals, as dozens of missiles can stack up at the edge of the bubble, seeming to float there, and then delivering tremendous damage when they finally move into range, or another monster walks into them. This is most impressive with projectiles that hit multiple times to anything in the vicinity (such as Lightning Ball) since they move so slowly while "dampened" that they can deal dozens of hits, rather than just two or three as normal.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Bosses only.
• Damage Type: n/a
• Additional Resistances: n/a

Molten

Molten works much like the Sorceress' Blaze skill in Diablo 2. It creates a trail of fire below the feet of the boss, champion, or boss' minion which deals considerable damage to any character who steps into the flames. The flames do not project out from the boss, so it is safe to melee combat one, but monsters with this property tend to mill around and move past players, thus covering large areas with the flaming effect. It's very dangerous when paired with Vortex, as players will be yanked right into the midst of the flame.

• Monster Level Minimum: 12
• Available to: Champions, Bosses and their Minions.
• Damage Type: Fire.
• Additional Resistances: Fire.

Mortar

Mortar display bug during the Beta test.

Mortar is a property that causes a constant stream of fiery projectiles to shoot out from the boss or champions, in all directions. These missiles are meant to only land at least 10 yards from the boss, thus making the property irrelevant to melee attackers. The accuracy of the projectiles isn't always very good[1], and especially when this appears on 3 or 4 champions, the field of fire can easily fill the entire screen.

Mortar is most dangerous to ranged attackers, and on higher difficulty levels players must learn to move after literally every single shot. Since the Mortars target the location your character was standing when they were fired, and have very small splash damage, and the Mortars have some flight time, it's not impossible to shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot, move, etc, thus forever remaining a step ahead of the pursuing shower of explosions.

Due to the visuals of the 3D engine, it's much easier to see and react to Mortars when they are fired from the sides or the top of the screen. Battling a Mortar that's below your character is a much greater challenge and should be repositioned if possible.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Bosses and Champions.
• Damage Type: Fire.
• Additional Resistances: N/A.

Nightmarish

When Nightmarish bosses hit a target with a melee or ranged attack, they have a chance to inflict an effect similar to that of the the Witch Doctor's Horrify skill. Characters or minions so affected will run for a second in a straight line (if possible) directly away from the champion, boss, or boss' minion that caused the effect. While running players are helpless and can not cast any spells or control their movements at all. If their running direction is blocked by a wall or other monsters, they may simply stand still, a complete sitting duck to all enemy attacks.

Though this modifier is merely annoying in the early going, it can be one of the most dangerous on higher levels, since characters need to hit, move, cast spells, heal, etc, constantly. Not doing those for a second can be deadly, even aside from the problems with potentially running right into a stream of missiles or a hotspot from Molten, Plagued, Desecrator or others.

Ranged attackers with Nightmarish inflict the effect much more often due to the higher volume of their projectiles and the lower damage they inflict (which means players don't try as hard to avoid them).

• Monster Level Minimum: 2
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and Boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Plagued

Plagued, Fire Chains zombies.

Plagued bosses create green pools of damage beneath their feet and in the immediate vicinity. These pools are not targeted at the player the way Desecrater is, but the Plague pools can stack up for extra damage, they appear frequently, and last for a considerable duration. During a long battle the entire screen can be covered in green pits, and this is very dangerous in enclosed areas where players can entirely run out of safe places to stand. Jailer,Waller and other movement impairing effects are very dangerous when combined with Plagued.

As well as dealing damage, the Plague pool inflicts a short term debuff that reduces the armor of Barbarians and Monks by 50%, and cause the Witch Doctor, Wizard, and Demon Hunter to take reflected damage.

• Monster Level Minimum: 20
• Available to: All
• Damage Type: Poison.
• Additional Resistances: Poison.

Reflects Damage

Reflects Damage, is a higher level boss and champion modifier that causes players to take some damage for every point of damage they deal to enemies. Unlike Thorns, this damage hurts ranged attackers and even spell users. For instance, Wizards will drop hit points steadily as their Hydra pelts monsters with projectile attacks, even if the monster is so far away the Wizard can't even see it.

This effect is most dangerous to glass cannon type characters who do not have high regeneration or healing or life leech, as they will take steady damage even if they're not being hit by the enemy. It's less troublesome to most melee attackers, as they're built to absorb and leech and heal during combat, and the slight added damage from Reflects Damage isn't generally large enough to impact their play style.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions and bosses.
• Damage Type: Physical.
• Additional Resistances: N/A.

Shielding

Shielding is a modifier that creates a transparent bubble around a boss or champion, rendering them temporarily immune to all forms of damage. Shielded monsters can still be affected by some debuffs to their movement speed, but while shielded they are immune to most CC effects. The shields seem to appear and disappear at regular intervals, without a precisely set duration of on/off.

Shielding is identical in appearance to the protective bubble granted by Invulnerable Minions, but unlike that effect, the Shield comes and goes, and only protects Champions or the Boss. Only one commonly-encountered Elite has shielding; Magda, though the timer on hers seems to be based on the damage she takes, rather than a semi-random timer, as with regular monsters.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions and bosses, and their minions.
• Damage Type: n/a
• Additional Resistances: n/a

Teleporter

A Skeletal Summoner teleports into range.

Teleporter allows bosses, or individual champions, to teleport directly on top of their target. This makes the ability especially dangerous to ranged attackers, who wish to maintain a distance from the enemy. It can also create amusing situations where monsters who prefer to attack from a distance teleport in close, then immediately walk back to get away, giving the hero free hits as they flee.

Teleporter is similar to Vortex in effect, but is less dangerous since with Teleporter the monsters come to the hero, rather than dragging the hero into their midst, where Molten or Fire Chains or Arcane Enchanted or other such mods might be busy creating a killing ground.

• Monster Level Minimum: 3
• Available to: All
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Vampiric

Vampiric is life leech in Diablo III, though the effect seems to boost damage as well, in addition to granting the monster some healing as it deals damage. This modifier provided a huge amount of healing during development, but was toned down in the release game to the point that it's not a big deal in most battles, and only really comes into effect when the monsters can hit something repeatedly, such as while beating on a minion or pet or follower.

• Monster Level Minimum: 31
• Available to: Champions, Bosses, and Boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Vortex

Vortex is basically reverse Teleporter, as it causes players to warp in and appear directly beside the boss or champion with the property. This modifier is very dangerous to ranged attackers, especially glass cannon type builds, and when combined with AoE damage such as Molten or Fire Chains or Plagued, it can be instantly deadly.

The Vortex triggers periodically, and is not based on a % chance from the monster landing hits. There seems to be a maximum distance outside of which it will not work; character who remain off the screen are very seldom Vortexed in, and it's a pull, not a warp, so geographical features such as walls and other obstacles might stop the pull before a character is yanked right next to the enemy.

As with Teleporter, this is not a mod that melee characters find very dangerous, and it can actually work against the AI of some ranged attacker bosses, who will stop attacking and attempt to retreat when the Vortex triggers and they suddenly find a character in close proximity.

• Monster Level Minimum: 15
• Available to: Champions and Bosses, but not boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Waller

Waller affix on a Goatman in zoomed view.

Waller grants monsters the ability to raise stone walls that block player movement for a second or two, before crumbling back into nothing. Walls block player movement (though some skills such as Leap and Teleport can move over them), as well as blocking most player projectiles. Monsters are generally blocked from moving or firing over the walls as well, and wallers in levels with narrow corridors can create amusing sequences of perpetually blocked access, where neither the monsters or the characters can get to each other to fight.

Champions can only create short, straight walls, while Bosses create larger, three-sided rectangles that box fleeing players in, forcing them to run back past the boss and other monsters to escape. Note that all of the Champions can cast walls though, and they are always cast at a horizontal angle from the monster, which can make for a bewildering array of overlapping walls, even in T or + shapes, as Champions circle around their target.

Wallers can be very dangerous when paired with blast effects such as Molten, Frozen, Arcane Enchanted, Plagued, Desecrator, and others. Those effect can appear past walls, or hit right over them, nailing characters who are trapped by the walls.

• Monster Level Minimum: 10
• Available to: Champions and Bosses, but not boss minions.
• Damage Type: N/A.
• Additional Resistances: None.

Possible Modifier Combinations

The odds for different possible modifier combinations, courtesy of some unofficial fan calculations. Bear in mind that some modifiers are Boss or Champion only, and that the same modifier can not spawn twice on the same monster.

Champion packs can have:

• 23 different combinations of affixes in Normal
• 253 different combinations of affixes in Nightmare
• 1771 different combinations of affixes in Hell
• 8855 different combinations of affixes in Inferno

Rare packs can have:

• 22 different combinations of affixes in Normal
• 231 different combinations of affixes in Nightmare
• 1540 different combinations of affixes in Hell
• 7315 different combinations of affixes in Inferno

That is, if there are no restrictions in place.

Removed Boss Properties

This section lists modifiers that were seen during development or testing, but that are not included in the final game. Many other properties changed greatly during development; see the individual modifier articles for more details on those.

Ballista

Ballista was a new property seen in the Blizzcon 2010 demo on some ranged attackers such as Skeletal Archers. This modifier appeared to increase the size and damage of their projectiles, but the damage wasn't noticeably bigger, and the shots didn't explode upon impact, as Warcraft 2 fans might have expected, given the utility of the human catapult, the Ballista, in that title.

Cold Aura

Cold Aura reported by a fan from the Blizzcon 2009 demo. It has not been seen since, and is considered unconfirmed. It reputedly worked just as it did in Diablo 2, chilling and slowing players within the radius of effect. Interestingly, it was not until after that year's Blizzcon that Jay Wilson let it be known that Auras would return to the game, most likely as Monk skills.

• Monster Level Minimum: ?
• Available to: Bosses only.
• Damage Type: Cold
• Additional Resistances: Cold

Die Together

Die Together was a Champion-only modifier removed from the game during development. Its removal was announced in the Beta v6 patch notes in November 2011, and further explained by Blizzard afterwards. See the Die Together article for more details, but briefly stated: The modifier grouped the full pack of Champions, enabling each one to resurrect approximately 10 seconds after death so long as any of the pack remained alive.

The theory was to force players to manage the battle, and to whittle all of the Champions down to nearly dead, before trying to kill them all in rapid succession. In practice it was just annoying -- characters with AoE attacks had a considerable advantage over melee attackers and furthermore, some monsters (such as Skeletal Summoners) tended to move apart, making it nearly impossible to kill all of them in the allotted time.

Doppelganger

Doppleganger was the original name of the modifier now called Illusionist. See that entry for full details.

Magical

Magical. This modifier was seen several times during Blizzcon 2009 play testing, but its effect wasn't apparent to any of the players.

Multishot

Multishot was seen in Blizzcon demos, and referred to by Bashiok in 2010[2], but it was never seen in the Beta and is not present in the final game. There are fairly few ranged attackers in Diablo III, and this might explain why Ballista and Multishot were both removed during development.

Multishot was watched with much more anticipation than other mods due to its legendary status in Diablo II, where prior to v1.10 fixing the bug that caused numerous extra bolts to be released, MSLE (Multi-Shot Lightning-Enchanted) bosses were virtually instant death to any character without huge hit points, lightning resistance, and lightning absorption.

Given that history, fans were curious how MS might interact with mods like Mortar or Electrified in Diablo III.

Mythical

Mythical was seen several times during Blizzcon 2009 play testing, but its effect wasn't apparent to any of the players, and they are not seen in the final game.

Powerful

Powerful was seen in the Blizzcon 2010 demo, but not understood completely. It sounded akin to the "Extra Strong" mod from Diablo 2, which granted bonus damage to monsters, but that wasn't clear from the play testing.

Stoneskin

Stoneskin, which granted a considerable boost to physical resistance in Diablo II, was present during Diablo 3's development and was seen in demos, but it is not present in the final game. Likely this was removed when elemental damage types were flattened, and having a specific resistance to one type of damage seemed pointless with fire, cold, lightning, poison, and physical all working exactly the same. (Only cold varies slightly in the final game, trading a bit less damage for an added chill/slow effect.)