Diablo
From Diablo Wiki
This is about the Prime Evil. For the game, see Diablo (game)
Diablo, the Lord of Terror, is the youngest of the three Prime Evils and the most powerful in terms of absolute physical and magical strength, as well as the main antagonist of the Diablo game series, being its namesake.
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[edit] Etymology
Diablo is the Spanish word for Devil.
[edit] Background
Diablo spent two centuries slowly corrupting the Soulstone that imprisoned him. In time, he was able to extend his influence into the surrounding area and possess both King Leoric and his archbishop, Lazarus. The King proved too strong to fully possess, so the Demon took his son, Prince Albrecht. Diablo then began to shape an outpost of Hell within the catacombs that ran beneath the town of Tristram. By spreading terror into the surrounding countryside, the Demon was able to attract many heroes who came to cleanse the land of evil. By the time the strongest of these heroes reached this goal, though, he had become fully influenced by the power of Diablo. In his twisted state, this adventurer believed that the only way to fully control the Demon was to plunge Diablo's Soulstone into his own head. This, of course, was exactly what Diablo had planned, as the Demon now had an even stronger body to use to find his brothers and complete his ultimate plan...
Diablo eventually possessed the adventurer and went to free his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal. Eventually, a second party of adventurers confronted Diablo and killed him. This time however, his Soulstone was destroyed in the Hellforge, apparently putting an end to his evil permanently.
[edit] Further Information and Tips
[edit] Diablo I
Diablo's lair can be entered by passing through the opening in the pentagram on level 15. A special loading screen will appear and you'll find yourself on the lowest level of Hell. This final level is filled with vicious hellspawn, so be prepared to cut your way through many monsters. In each corner of the room is an area with a special "Skull Lever" which you have to activate. At first only one room is accessible, but as you activate the lever the next room opens up. The third room contains two levers; after activating both the fourth and last room opens...and Diablo awaits.
There is a relative easy way to defeat Diablo. Although it works best for the Sorcerer, other classes can try it too. You only need a fairly large manapool, loads of Mana Potions and the Mana Shield and Fire Wall spells (higher levels work better). After Diablo has been released, lure him to a relative safe area where you can fight him alone without additional monsters. Make sure you have Mana Shield up, allow Diablo to walk towards you and cast Firewall on him. Diablo will frantically cast Apocalypse on you, but due to mana shield you will only loose mana instead of life (Sorcerers are most likely to have a huge mana pool. Warriors can try to soak up the damage with regular health potions; in that case they don't need mana shield). Make sure a Fire Wall is up at all times, refill your manapool with potions in order to prevent losing health. After some time Diablo will start casting Apocalypse even faster in a desperate attempt to save himself, just keep drinking mana pots. After some more seconds of roasting over the fire, Diablo will fall.
[edit] The Dark Lord's Statistics
When a character defeats Diablo, they gain 37,999 experience points. Diablo is resistant to Fire and Lightning, and immune to Magic (some spells can still hurt him). He has 1,666 hit points on the default difficulty.
[edit] Diablo II
Diablo appears in his Chaos Sanctuary after all five seals have been opened. Note that three of those seals contain a Unique boss with a pack of minions; those have to be defeated as well. In one of the left-hand seals the Unique boss Grand Vizier of Chaos (Finger Mage) is hidden, in the upper seal lurks Lord De Seis (Oblivion Knight) and on the right-hand side awaits the Infector of Souls (Megademon). When all seals have been opened and all bosses and minions defeated (note that if the last seal you open is a seal containing a miniboss, killing the 'leader of the pack' will also destroy his minions) the Chaos Sanctuary should suddenly start 'brightening up'. After that, a violent tremor quakes through the Sanctuary, killing any monsters left in the Sanctuary, and a demonic voice can be heard saying: "Not even Death can save you from me!". Diablo awaits near the inner seal...
Diablo has a range of powerful spells and abilities; of which, many are Fire based, such as Fire Nova, Fire Wall and Firestorm, so having full Fire Resistance and some Fire Absorb will help greatly. Diablo also has a nasty Cold Touch ability (as can be seen in the animation above) that slows players down. The real killer Diablo uses against you, however, is his Red Lightning Hose attack, which does massive damage. The damage done by this attack is partly Lightning based; the other part is Physical Damage. Maximum Lightning Resistance and Damage Reduction (for players using shields: a high Blockrate helps) might allow you to survive this attack, still its wise just to run away when you see Diablo preparing to cast it. Diablo also charges at players who are out of his melee range. His melee damage is also considerable; yet another reason to bring some Damage reduction with you.
It is recommended to at least max out Fire Resistance, if possible Lightning Resistance as well. That is, achieve 75% resistance in either field (or up to 95% in each, with the appropriate gear). Ranged attackers have less problems evading the Fire and Lightning Hose spells, but have to make sure they don't get charged by Diablo. Melee attackers will just have to endure Diablo's melee hits: this is a Healing Potion-intensive fight. Keep hitting the Lord of Terror as much as possible; if you have full Fire Resistance and/or some Fire Absorption, you should be able to survive the Firestorm spell with relative ease. Only run away from the Red Lightning Hose spell; it deals horrible damage and will kill you if you don't move out in time. It's also important to fight Diablo at a place where you have enough space to run away. When dodging the Lightning Hose attack, its best to run around Diablo in circles so you don't get hit. Just before Diablo starts casting his Lightning Hose attack, he raises his hands into the air, which is different from any of his other skills: this gives you a split second chance to react before it hits you. A combination of his Cold Touch followed up with the Lightning Hose is very deadly and, sadly, there's little to counter it.
You most likely have to retreat to the Pandemonium Fortress a few times in order to refill your supply of Healing Potions. When you open a Town Portal be sure to do it somewhere out of sight where Diablo can't reach you, as he tends to cast Bone Prison around Town Portals. When you return to the Chaos Sanctuary and find you're trapped within a prison, Diablo has several seconds to kill you while you're defenseless. Interestingly, Diablo's AI does not allow him to leave the large central area of the Chaos Sanctuary, and thus he will not follow you if you go down any of its four halls. This makes the seal areas and the entrance fully safe for town portals.
Keep battering the Lord of Terror until he finally falls. Watch a spectacular death animation, grab the loot and head back to the Pandemonium Fortress before you either continue to Harrogath or sit back to enjoy the Epilogue.
[edit] Über Diablo
In the Lord of Destruction expansion, there exists a more powerful version of Diablo called Uber Diablo. He is most likely added to the game since, despite his name being the title, he isn't the final boss of the expansion. There is no plot explanation for his existence. He serves as a super boss enemy, in the sense that fighting him is optional, and he is stronger than Baal.
Über Diablo can only be fought on Hell difficulty, and only on the Battle.Net Realms (not the Open Realms). You get to choose the place to battle him, as when he is able to spawn, he replaces the first super-unique monster you face. For example: When you summon him (although that is a bad way to describe how he spawns), you can go to The Den of Evil to fight Corpsefire, but instead you will battle Über Diablo.
As stated before, Über Diablo is a much stronger version of Diablo. He possesses all of Diablo's attacks, and can also cast Armageddon as well. Although he's the strongest enemy in the game, because he has all of the same attacks, the preparations for fighting him are overall the same as Diablo, requiring a high amount of fire and lighting protection.
[edit] Appearance in Diablo III
Diablo has been officially confirmed as appearing in Diablo III.
The Demon roaring at the end of the cinematic trailer (see right) was widely speculated as being Belial or Azmodan, the two Lesser Evils that were unseen till now, or an amalgamation of the three Prime Evils. The idea that it would be Diablo was suppressed by the fact that he was permanently killed in Diablo II. However, an official statuette commissioned by Blizzard has revealed that the Demon is, in fact, Diablo himself. The statue depicts the Barbarian standing atop a defeated Demon that bears a striking resemblance to the Demon in the cinematic trailer. The caption on the statuette reading "Victorious Barbarian standing atop a defeated Diablo shouting towards the High Heavens" finally confirmed the Demon being Diablo.
This appearance has raised even more questions regarding his look. With overlapping skin and moving appendages, he actually looks somewhat insectoid, though the overall appearance suggests reptilian design, reminiscent of his previous forms. He has a gash on his forehead, reminiscent of the Soulstone that was present there. Also, an appendage that seems to be either a tail or a tentacle is seen at the last moment, towards the upper-right side of the screen.
The idea of the Demon being Diablo is still backed up by the lore, where the destruction of the Worldstone could have resulted in a change that allowed any being from an another dimension to enter the world of Sanctuary, including Diablo, in its true and powerful form. This speculation then leads to the suggestion that the Demon in the cinematic is the true form of Diablo. Since in his previous debuts in Diablo series he had possessed a human and transformed, leading to a quite humanoid appearance, the true form could be vastly different. Another possible explanation from the lore stems from the Sin War novels, where Diablo is said to take the form of his viewer's greatest fear (that he once terrified himself by his own reflection). This Demon may in fact be how Blizzard Entertainment thinks the modern gamer would visualize the Lord of Terror as the worst fear imaginable, while maintaining the overall dinosaur-like reptilian design of Diablo. It is also worth noting that when the horns from the sides are ignored, the face closely resembles Diablo's face in Diablo II (see above), with pointed chin, protruding teeth from bony gums, one horn emerging from each side of the face and curving upward. This further supports the theory of the Demon in the trailer being the Lord of Terror himself.
Tyrael tells the Hero who defeated the Prime Evils at the end of Act IV of Diablo II that Diablo and Mephisto had been "Banished back to the Black Abyss that spawned them." Demons are spawned from and can be summoned from the Black Abyss, leading to speculations that the Prime Evils may be influencing mortals to summon them back into being from the Abyss, leading to the recent rise in Demonic Cults. As Hell and its forces are currently split in civil war by Belial and Azmodan, neither of whom would have any interest in summoning the Prime Evils back from the Abyss, it seems likely that Mortals will have a hand in their return.
Many features of the Demon's face were expressed in great detail, including how one of the curved horns emerge from the face and curve downward towards the front. However, this feature was not present in the description of Diablo's true form in the novels, leading some fans to believe that Blizzard is simply attempting to lead the fans to wrongly believe the Demon to be Diablo, then deny this afterward while giving no actual wrong information, but only misdirected suggestions.
The theory that the Demon is the combination of the three Prime Evils is supported by the Demon's overall appearance: Firstly, as mentioned above, the Demon bears a very close resemblance to Diablo. Then, the Demon has a very bone-like skin, reminding the body of Mephisto. It also possesses some insect-like properties, shown with overlapping skin, and if the aforementioned appendage is indeed a tentacle, it would be a reference to Baal. This expression, along with the Demon having three mouths, has led fans to suppose the Demon as being a manifestation of all three Prime Evils combined together. Also, if Diablo were the central head, the dominant Evil of the three (being the obvious most powerful in terms of absolute power), this combination could still be referred to as Diablo, explaining the designation as Diablo in the statuette, as well as the Demon's appearance resembling Diablo the most.
With all sources somewhat clashing against each other, it is premature to suppose the Demon being Diablo. However, the evidences favor this theory till now, and it would be safe to assume, for the time being at least, that this is Diablo himself and trust the confirmation, even if it is what Blizzard Entertainment wants their fans to believe.
[edit] Quotes
[edit] Diablo II
- "Not even death can save you from me!"
- "Ugh...the smell of life surrounds me!" (removed)
[edit] In other games
[edit] Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
A reference to the Lord of Terror is made in the final annoy-speech of Illidan Stormrage, the Night Elven Demon Hunter who compares his transformation into an almost demon-like form with the visage of Diablo.
- "Wings, horns, hooves ... What are we saying, is this Diablo?"" - Illidan Stormrage
This speech fragment is slightly inaccurate considering that Diablo has neither wings or hoofs, but it could be a reference to the World of Diablo and not the Prime Evil himself.
Diablo also appears as a playable character in the Azeroth Grand Prix optional scenario which is included in the patch, v1.22a. He represents the realm of the Diablo universe in this map.
- Moderate Acceleration, Good Top Speed, Moderate HP
- Diablo, Lord of Terror was excited upon hearing about the Azeroth Grand Prix and wanted something fast and durable. Void dragons were too annoying to deal with, so he turned his attention to the sentinel infernal contraptions
As mentioned in the description, Diablo rides on an Infernal Contraption, a type of demonic siege weapon from the Warcraft universe. He possesses 600 HP and his honk sounds like a tractor trailer's.
During his transformation in the Diablo II Act IV cinematic Diablo lets loose a roar that is heard from the Frost Wyrm (undead dragon unit in Warcraft III).
[edit] World of Warcraft
Diablo makes a small appearance in World of Warcraft as a pet. Mini Diablo is chosen among three small pets as the reward for a special level 1 quest: Welcome!. This quest is only available with the World of Warcraft Collector's Edition. This edition is no longer sold in stores, making this an ultra-rare pet. Other choices include the Panda Cub and Zergling. Diablo is not the only character from the Diablo Universe to be made a pet in WoW, Tyrael appearing also in WoW, again as a special prize, can be collected by entering a code to an NPC in either Orgrimmar or Stormwind.
[edit] Video
[edit] Act IV cinematic from Diablo II
[edit] Gallery
 Diablo's insignia from the Diablo I manual |
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 Diablo's death animation in Diablo I |
 Diablo III concept artwork showing Diablo's head |
 Version of the previous image that has been edited to better show the details |
 Artwork for the cover of the Diablo Archive |
[edit] Trivia
In PC World, Diablo was voted as #14 of the top 47 "most diabolical videogame villains of all time."[1]
[edit] References
| Great Evils |
|---|
| Prime Evils — Diablo • Mephisto • Baal Lesser Evils — Duriel • Andariel • Azmodan • Belial Other Evils — Lilith • Lucion • Kabraxis • Xazax • Astrogha • Assur • Gulag |
