Monsters (1.0.8)

Diablo 3 offers countless monsters for you to decimate. The toughest of these monsters are buffed with a variety of affixes. These affixes add special abilities, powers, and other buffs to the monsters in addition to their normal attacks. Understanding monster affixes is critical to gameplay at higher difficulty levels as a tough set of affixes will mean certain death without a proper strategy.

This guide offers information on all monster affixes in Diablo 3 as well as tips for defeating monsters with the affix.

Types of Monsters

Normal
Normal monster names appear in white text. These are your ‘trash mobs’ in lower difficulty levels and are almost no threat to you. However, at higher difficulty levels packs of normal monsters can be deadly. Normal monsters will never have affixes.

Champions
Champion monsters normally appear in groups of 3-4 with a blue glow. Their names also appear in blue. Champions can be quite deadly and may have multiple affixes. It is often best to focus on one champion quickly to reduce their numbers and balance the fight in your favor.

Rares
Rare monsters are easy to spot as they are quite large and have a yellow glow. These monsters also appear with a pack of minions. Both the rare monster and its minions will have affixes.

Affixes

There are 25 affixes in Diablo 3. Affixes are assigned randomly each time you enter the game. You can “reset” affixes by leaving and re-entering your game to try and get easier combinations. The number of affixes on monsters increases with the difficulty level with Normal mode monsters carrying 1 affix and Inferno monsters carrying 4 affixes.

Crowd Control Affixes

Monsters may only have 1 of the crowd control affixes at a time.

Name	Attack	Strategy
Knockback	Attacks knockback the player.	Kill as normal. Dangerous with Fast or Horde affixes due to stunlock.
Nightmarish	Fear the player on attacks.	Use escape ability to break fear. Deadly with affixes that deal AoE damage.
Vortex	Pulls players to the monster.	Use the environment to prevent pulls. Deadly with affixes that deal AoE damage.

Defensive Affixes

Monsters may only have 1 of the defensive affixes at a time.

Name	Attack	Strategy
Avenger	As each champion dies the others get stronger.	Spread damage out to all champions before killing them.
Extra Health	50% more health than normal.	Kill as normal. Just takes longer.
Health Link	Chains connect champions and equalize their health.	Kill as normal. Just takes longer.
Horde	Rare monster spawns with extra minions.	Depends on the minions. Can be deadly.
Illusionist	Monster creates copies of itself with less damage and health.	Kill as normal. Illusions die quickly.
Invulnerable Minions	Rare monsters with invulnerable minions.	Always dangerous.
Missile Dampening	Protected by a bubble that slows down projectiles.	Kill as normal.
Shielding	Gains a green shield that gives temporary invulnerability.	Always dangerous.
Vampiric	Heal when dealing damage.	Kill as normal. Mostly annoying. Deadly with Electrified due to high self-healing.

Aggressive Affixes

Monsters may have up to 4 aggressive affixes at a time.

Name	Attack	Strategy
Arcane Enchanted	Purple orb on the ground with a rotating laser beam.	Avoid the orb and beam at all costs. Extremely high damage.
Desecrator	Creates void zones under the player that deal damage.	Kite monsters around to avoid standing in the void zones.
Electrified	Shoot out lightning bolts when attacked.	Kill as normal. Lightning bolts do minimal damage.
Fast	Move and attack significantly faster.	Use chokepoints and crowd control. Very deadly affix.
Fire Chains	Chains of fire connect champions and deal damage.	Avoid the chains as much as possible. Moderate damage.
Frozen	Drop ice orbs that explode and freeze players.	Kite monsters around to avoid ice orbs. Dangerous with Jailer or Waller affixes.
Jailer	Randomly roots players in place.	Use escape ability to break the root. Deadly with affixes that deal AoE damage.
Molten	Leave a trail of fire and a fire orb that explodes shortly after death.	Avoid the fire and move away quickly when the monster dies. Leave lots of room to fight.
Mortar	Throws 3-4 high damage bombs at the player.	Low accuracy against melee players, deadly against ranged players. Move constantly.
Plagued	Create pools of poison on the ground.	Fight with lots of room. Poison pools disappear very slowly.
Reflects Damage	Reflect damage back to the player.	Kill as normal but with less burst damage.
Teleporter	Teleports around the player.	Kill as normal. Mostly annoying. Dangerous with Fire Chains.
Waller	Create indestructible walls around the player.	Kill as normal. Leave lots of room to fight. Deadly with affixes that deal AoE damage.