Diablo 4's bosses make up a large portion of the endgame content, with players generally focusing their builds around efficiently farming the game's hardest foes. Between Diablo 4's Lair Boss ladder, Escalating Nightmares featuring Astaroth as the pinnacle boss, and Uber Lilith, players have their work cut out for them if they hope to defeat every major boss Diablo 4 has to offer. However, this is easier said than done, largely because several of the game's toughest bosses have an annoying design quirk.
Since Diablo 4's launch over two years ago, bosses like Uber Lilith and Andariel have been the bane of many players' existence because of one particular mechanic. Bosses like these include multiple phases to their fights, including phases of invulnerability, where players have to avoid attacks until the phase ends. This design makes farming bosses a headache, since it forces players to wait and artificially extends the length of the fight regardless of the damage they can deal. Thankfully, Diablo 4's new Bartuc boss takes steps towards fixing this design, with other bosses hopefully following suit.
Diablo 4 Season 10's Bartuc Boss Lets Players Skip Phases With Enough Damage
As part of Diablo 4 Season 10's overhaul of Infernal Hordes, players will be able to face off against Bartuc, known as Bartuc the Bloody in Diablo 2. This returning boss follows Diablo 4's recent trend of bringing bosses back as endgame foes governing reworked activities like Belial in Season 8 and Astaroth in Season 9. Bartuc is poised to be the best boss addition yet, thanks to a change in mechanics that have plagued Diablo 4's bosses for too long.
Players who face Bartuc after clearing the Infernal Hordes will be able to skip certain phases of the fight if they can deal enough damage to the boss quickly enough. Other bosses, like Uber Lilith and Andariel, feature phases of invulnerability that are unavoidable, even if the player can melt the boss's health bar. While Bartuc typically has multiple phases, including periods of invulnerability, they can be skipped if players can maximize their DPS to the point that they can reduce Bartuc's health before the boss has time to initiate these phases.
Players can choose to face Bartuc instead of the Fell Council after clearing Infernal Hordes, at the cost of 666 Burning Aether.
Infernal Hordes Will Reward Players for Optimized Builds
With the ability to completely skip Bartuc's phases simply by dealing enough damage to the boss, Infernal Hordes is set to become the ultimate test for players' builds. Other bosses that feature unskippable invulnerability phases largely ignore the player's build, unless they have specifically invested in movement skills to avoid the barrage of attacks some bosses let loose during their invulnerability phase. Infernal Hordes has already acted as a great skill and DPS check, since it forces players to deal with waves of consecutive enemy groups, and now Bartuc will cap off this onslaught with a similar test of the player's build.
Other Diablo 4 Bosses Should Take Note of Bartuc
The addition of Bartuc in Diablo 4 Season 10 is a great sign for players who are tired of dealing with Andariel's invulnerability phase or avoiding Uber Lilith's barrage of attacks. With the recent controversy stemming from unavoidable boss phases, Bartuc makes it clear that Diablo 4 is taking steps to change the game's boss mechanics to make them more favorable to players who have invested in DPS optimization rather than relying on artificial difficulty for a challenge. While it's not clear if and when other Diablo 4 bosses will see a rework, Season 10 players can at least enjoy testing their builds against Bartuc and the updated Infernal Hordes.
Diablo 4
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash
