Game Difficulty
Contents
General Changes
In general, monsters in higher difficulties (Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno) move faster than the monsters in previous difficulty levels; their projectiles also move faster. It’s not all bad news, though — higher–level items, unique crafting components, and new armor appearances are present in each subsequent difficulty, too. Here are a few specific changes:
Nightmare difficulty
- New affixes appear on monsters: Arcane Enchanted, Extra Health, Fast, Horde, Fire Chains, and Vampiric.
- Champion and rare monsters can have up to 2 affixes.
- Pages of Training, which are required to train artisans and craft several potent recipes, now drop.
Hell difficulty
- New affixes appear on monsters: Avenger and Health Link.
- Champion and rare monsters can have up to 3 affixes.
- Tomes of Training, which are required to train artisans and craft several potent recipes, now drop.
Inferno difficulty
- Champion and rare monsters can have up to 4 affixes.
- Tomes of Secrets, which are required to train artisans and craft several potent recipes, now drop.
- Demonic Essence, a crafting material which is required to craft mighty recipes, including Marquise gems, drops from packs of elite monsters (and some events with 5 stacks of the Nephalem Valor buff).
Life Steal
The effectiveness of the Life Steal affix – which restores your Life by a percentage of the damage you deal – is reduced in advanced difficulties, as shown:
- Normal: 100%
- Nightmare: 70%
- Hell: 40%
- Inferno: 20%
Monster Resistances
Powerful creatures are resistant to control–impairing effects like stun and slow (also referred to as “crowd control” abilities), and their resolve only grows stronger in higher difficulty levels.
Resistances are generally straightforward – they reduce the effectiveness of the skill used by the percentage given. For example, a skill that would normally stun a creature for 5 seconds will only stun a champion monster on Nightmare difficulty (50% stun resistance) for 2.5 seconds.
Creatures with resistances to certain ability types also have minimum thresholds that have to be met before the abilities have any effect. For example, if a boss on Hell difficulty (70% stun resistance) is subject to a 1.5 second stun, it would be reduced to 0.45 seconds – which is below the boss’s minimum stun threshold of 0.5 seconds – and thus be completely ignored. If you attempt to knockback that same boss and can't hit it over 21 yards, it won't budge an inch.
Movement and attack speed reductions (also referred to as “ER” or “effectiveness reduction”) modify the magnitude of the effect, not its duration. For example, a 60% movement speed slow used against a champion in Inferno will be reduced by 40%, for a 36% movement speed slow effect. Consult the chart below for details.
Difficulty Scaling
| Name | Stun Resist | Stun Minimum | Root Resist | Root Minimum | Move Slow Resist | Attack Speed ER | Knockback Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Champion | 35% | 0.5 | 30% | 0.5 | 0% | 35% | 10 |
| Normal Minion | 35% | 0.5 | 30% | 0.5 | 0% | 35% | 10 |
| Normal Rare | 35% | 0.5 | 30% | 0.5 | 0% | 35% | 10 |
| Normal Boss | 35% | 0.5 | 30% | 0.5 | 0% | 35% | 10 |
| Nightmare Champion | 50% | 0.5 | 40% | 0.5 | 15% | 50% | 10 |
| Nightmare Minion | 50% | 0.5 | 40% | 0.5 | 15% | 50% | 10 |
| Nightmare Rare | 50% | 0.5 | 40% | 0.5 | 15% | 50% | 10 |
| Nightmare Boss | 50% | 0.5 | 40% | 0.5 | 15% | 50% | 10 |
| Hell Champion | 65% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 10 |
| Hell Minion | 65% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 10 |
| Hell Rare | 65% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 21 |
| Hell Boss | 70% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 21 |
| Inferno Champion | 65% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 10 |
| Inferno Minion | 65% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 10 |
| Inferno Rare | 65% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 21 |
| Inferno Boss | 70% | 0.5 | 50% | 0.5 | 25% | 65% | 21 |
Nephalem Valor
Once you've reached level 60, defeating certain enemies grants you a temporary boost to your abilities called Nephalem Valor. This lasts 30 minutes, persists through death, and stacks with other Nephalem Valor buffs up to five times. Each Nephalem Valor buff provides a 15% increase to the Magic and Gold Find statistics, as well as experience gained towards Paragon levels. Characters who’ve reached the maximum of 300% Magic and Gold Find can add another 75% with five stacks of Nephalem Valor, for a total of 375%.
In addition to bonuses to magic and gold find, an active Nephalem Valor buff grants one extra drop (one additional piece of random loot) from certain bosses for each stack of the buff that you have.
WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD!
The bosses who provide bonus Nephalem Valor rewards are:
- Act I: Skeleton King, Queen Aranaea, The Warden, The Butcher
- Act II: Maghda, Zoltun Kulle, Belial
- Act III: Ghom, Siegebreaker Assault Beast, Cydaea, Azmodan
- Act IV: Izual, Rakanoth, Diablo
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