Quote from Zhuge
The favor of Khorne blesses everyone who chooses to be a Barbarian for they rely in pride, anger, rage and violence
The favor of Tzeentch blesses everyone who chooses to be a Wizard for they rely in sorcery, magic, and complicated schemeing
The favor of Nurgle blesses everyone who chooses to be a Witch Doctor for they rely in decay, morbidity, and disease.
The favor of Slaanesh blesses everyone who chooses to be a Monk for they rely in perfection, and pleasure.
The favor of Malal blesses everyone who chooses to be a Demonhunter for they rely in the destruction of demonkind.
A little off-topic, but i know who the first 4 deamons are, but the last? Who's Malal and when did they add him into the 40k universe?
Anyways, back on topic - Like most other people have said, i've been lurking here for a while, but this contest has given me a reason to post and it's been really good fun. Will be great when the game's live and we can share more tips/info
0
Will include full list of skills, runestones and passives, along with my personal ratings on what i think about each skill, how it works with the runestones and the passives.
Will not be anything to do with certain builds, just a repoistory for Barbarian skills, runes and passives. Yes you can find this info out by using a skill calc, but some people enjoy having a printable or more comparable version.
I will allow full sharing too, just so long as i'm credited for typing it all out.
Barbarian Skill, Runestone and Passive Skill Guide
Contents
I. Intro
II. Skills and Runestones
III. Passive Skills
IIII. Outro and Thanks
I. Intro
Hopefully this should prove as a simple guild to anything Barbarian! You'll be able to find out information about all the skilles, runestones that transform those skills and passive skills in this guide. I'll give a brief rundown of how good I feel the skill or passive is, along with any tips on how to combo certain skills or passives together. Each skill and passive will also be given a rating, but since i've not yet played the beta yet, it's all pretty subjective.
The guide however, is not one for telling you HOW to create a characters moveset, but HELPING you in deciding what skills, runestones and passives you'd like to choose. All of this information is found in game, but it's nice to be able to compare skills directly and get feedback from others on how usefull they are.
At any point in the guide, just press CTRL+F to open up the search box, then either type in the name of the skill, runestone, passive or section you want to search for. All skills, runestones and passives are listed in order that they unlock.
II. ACTIVE SKILLS
Any time you have to press a button to do something, this is counted as an active skill. Here they're all listed in the order that you get them as they level, along with runestone also in level order.
- Bash (unlocked at level 1)
Generate: 6 Fury per attack
Brutally smash an enemy for 150% weapon damage with a 20% chance for Knockback.
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
Generate 6 additional Fury per attack.
- Runestone: Onslaught (unlocked at level 13)
Add 2 reverberations that cause 22% weapon damage per strike. Removes the chance for Knockback.
- Runestone: Clobber (unlocked at level 20)
Instead of Knockback, each hit has a 20% chance to Stun the target for 3 seconds.
- Runestone: Punish (unlocked at level 26)
Each attack increases the damage of all of your skills by 6% for 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
- Runestone: Pulverize (unlocked at level 35)
Cause a shockwave that inflicts 38% weapon damage to enemies in a 26 yard line behind the targeted enemy.
A pretty solid skill. I like that you can remove the knockback chance and even change it to become a stun. For a fairly basic Rage generator, it's got a nice amount of possibilities. The Punish Runestone in particular is very nice, epically when coupled with other skills and passives that boost skill damage % - 4/5 rating
- Hammer of the Ancients (unlocked at level 2)
Cost: 20 Fury
Call forth a massive hammer to smash enemies directly in front of you for 200% weapon damage. Hammer of the Ancients has a 15% increased chance to Critical Hit.
- Runestone: Rolling Thunder (unlocked at level 7)
Create a shockwave that deals 155% weapon damage to all enemies within 22 yards in front of you.
- Runestone: Smash (unlocked at level 15)
Strike a smaller area for 270% weapon damage.
- Runestone: The Devil's Anvil (unlocked at level 21)
Create a tremor at the point of impact for 2 seconds that slows the movement speed of enemies by 60%.
- Runestone: Thunderstrike (unlocked at level 28)
Whenever you kill an enemy with Hammer of the Ancients every other nearby enemy is stunned for 3 seconds.
- Runestone: Birthright(unlocked at level 36)
Critical Hits have a 10% chance to cause enemies to drop treasure or health globes.
- Cleave (unlocked at level 3)
Generate: 5 Fury per attack
Swing your weapon in a wide arc to deal 120% weapon damage to all enemies caught in the swing.
- Runestone: Rupture (unlocked at level 8)
Enemies slain by Cleave explode, causing 110% weapon damage to all other enemies within 8 yards.
- Runestone: Reaping Swing (unlocked at level 17)
Generate 3 Fury per enemy hit.
- Runestone: Scattering Blast (unlocked at level 29)
On Critical Hits, knock enemies back 14 yards and inflict 60% weapon damage to enemies where they land.
- Runestone: Broad Sweep (unlocked at level 38)
Increase damage to 156% weapon damage to enemies caught in the swing.
- Runestone: Gathering Storm (unlocked at level 48)
Enemies cleaved have their movement speed reduced by 80% for 1 seconds.
- Threatening Shout (unlocked at level 4)
Cost: 20 Fury
Shout with great ferocity, reducing damage done by enemies within 25 yards by 25% for 15 seconds.
- Runestone: Grim Harvest (unlocked at level 11)
Enemies are badly shaken and have a 5% chance to drop additional treasure.
- Runestone: Falter (unlocked at level 21)
Affected enemies also have their attack speed reduced by 15% for 5 seconds.
- Runestone: Intimidate (unlocked at level 29)
Affected enemies also have their movement speed reduced by 30%.
- Runestone: Demoralize (unlocked at level 35)
Affected enemies are also taunted to attack you for 3 seconds.
- Runestone: Terrify (unlocked at level 42)
Enemies are severely demoralized. Each enemy has a 20% chance to flee for 2 seconds.
- Rend(unlocked at level 5)
Cost: 20 Fury
A sweeping strike causes all nearby enemies to bleed for 210% weapon damage as Physical over 3 seconds.
- Runestone: Ravage (unlocked at level 14)
Increase the range of Rend to hit all enemies within 14 yards.
- Runestone: Blood Lust (unlocked at level 24)
Gain 6% of the damage done by Rend as Life.
- Runestone: Lacerate (unlocked at level 33)
Increase damage to 90% weapon damage as Physical every second for 3 seconds.
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Ground Stomp (unlocked at level 8)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Leap Attack (unlocked at level 9)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Frenzy (unlocked at level 11)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Battle Rage (unlocked at level 14)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Weapon Throw (unlocked at level 15)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Sprint (unlocked at level 16)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Overpower (unlocked at level 18)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Earthquake (unlocked at level 19)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Seismic Slam (unlocked at level 20)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Furious Charge (unlocked at level 21)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- War Cry (unlocked at level 21)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Ignore Pain (unlocked at level 22)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Revenge (unlocked at level 22)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Call of the Ancients (unlocked at level 25)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Whirlwind (unlocked at level 26)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Ancient Spear (unlocked at level 28)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Wrath of the Berserker (unlocked at level 20)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
- Runestone: Instigation (unlocked at level 6)
III. PASSIVE SKILLS
Unlocked starting at level 10 and stopping at level 30, passive skills are ones that are active all the time, without input. Here they are all listed by level that they unlock.
Pound of Flesh (unlocked at level 10)
Increases the chance of finding a health globe by 25% and you gain 100% additional Life from health globes.
A really cool idea, but ultimately feels a little bit lacking. It's got benefits for higher difficulty settings but it almost feels like it should have been a Monk passive. They're able to play as a "healer" of sorts and since a health globe heals everyone in the party, it'd be good if you were playing support. Since this passive dosn't really link into any other Barbarian skills or passive, it dosn't really stand out - 2/5 Rating
Ruthless (unlocked at level 10)
Critical hit chance increased by 5%. Critical hit damage increased by 50%.
Probably one of the best offensive passives there is. Alot of the Barbarian skills and runestones work by critically hitting, so increasing your chance to crit and at the same time making them deal more damage is amazing. Perfect for an offensive playstyle and almost mandatory i'd say, it even helps defensive builds that triger health orbs or healing based on critical hits - 5/5 Rating
Nerves Of Steel (unlocked at level 12)
Your Armor is increased by 25% of your Vitality.
Depending on if Armor has a cap or not, this is pretty good for a more defensive playstyle. Sadly, it's pretty limited on what you want it to do. Other passives help you in almost any playstyle, but since this is only going to prolong your death rather than change how you play, or augment a playstyle, I think it's usefullness is a little low - 3/5 Rating
Weapons Master (unlocked at level 13)
Gain a bonus based on the weapon type of your main hand weapon:
Swords/Daggers: 15% increased damage
Maces/Axes: 10% chance to critical hit
Polearms/Spears: 10% attack speed
Mighty Weapons: 3 Fury per hit
One of my more favourite "themes" that Blizzard uses for it's Warrior based characters and i'm glad it's back. Depending on your weapon of choice it changes how you play, giving you different bonuses. Sadly, if you want to go with a critical heavy build, you're locked into using maces or axes. Want more damage? You're locked into swords or daggers. It's a shame that shields arn't included in this, but there are already quite a few defensive only passives. If you could choose the bonus you wanted, rather than have it weapon locked i'd rate it higher - 3/5 Rating
Inspiring Presence (unlocked at level 15)
The duration of your shouts is doubled. While benefiting from your War Cry or Battle Rage you regenerate 2% of your maximum Life per second.
Almost all builds benefit from any of the Barbarin shouts, defensive and offensive alike. Doubling their duration and including life gain is just the icing on the cake - 5/5 Rating
Berserker Rage (unlocked at level 17)
You inflict an additional 25% damage while at maximum Fury.
A good idea, almost stemming off of the "melle" Wizard idea. You don't use any Fury spending attacks, only generators. Coupled with Unforgiving and Brawler, you're going to be a +% damage powerhouse! - 4/5 Rating
Bloodthirst (unlocked at level 18)
Gain 3% of all damage done as Life.
Pretty bland and fairly boring. A higher life gain %, or maybe a more unique way to gain the life would give it a higher rating - 2/5 Rating
Animosity (unlocked at level 19)
Increases Fury generation by 10% and maximum Fury is increased by 20.
Not bad, but is it really needed? Unless you're using only Fury generators, you'd be better off using other passives. If Berserker Rage gave a % damage bonus based on your current % of Fury, this skill would work really well with it, giving possibly an extra 5-10% more damage. It dosn't though - 1/5 Rating
Superstition (unlocked at level 20)
Reduces all non-physical damage by 20%. Whenever you take damage from a ranged or elemental attack you have a chance to gain 3 Fury.
Another defensive passive, but with abit of a twist. Could be usefull in PvP, versus a Wizard or Witch Doctor, but maybe less so against PvE demons. The fury generation is nice, but isn't really needed. I'd prefer something more like damage reflect - 3/5 Rating
Tough as Nails (unlocked at level 22)
Increases Armor by 50%.
Thorns damage dealt increased by 50%.
Another situational passive. Saying that, they nearly all are, but this one requires you to have certain gear to even get a benefit from it. Depending on how high you can push Thorn damage, this could be really nice, using your large health and armor pools to effectively kill demons by having them hit you - 3/5 Rating
No Escape (unlocked at level 23)
Increases the damage of Ancient Spear and Weapon Throw by 10%. In addition, a critical hit with Ancient Spear automatically resets the cooldown and critical hits with Weapon Throw have a chance to return 14 Fury.
As much as I love runing Ancient Spear to draw enemies back towards you, the bonus damage and effect for it seem a little lackluster. You'd really have to be incredibly mobile to get No Escpae to work and while skills like Sprint, Leap and Charge can be usefull, it seems like too much effort for too little reward. A chance to only refund 50% of Fury spent on Weapon Throw feels abit lacking too - 2/5 Rating
Relentless (unlocked at level 24)
While below 20% Life, all skills cost no Fury and all damage taken is reduced by 50%.
I'm really torn on this. With other skills and passives you could almost get yourself down to about 75 or maybe 80% damage reduction, but at the same time you've got to put yourself in a really dangerous position. As a continued playstyle, hanging below 20% or less life all the time it could give a certain buzz, but as an oops moment passive to help you when you're going to die, I'm not sure it's quite that usefull 2/5 Rating
Brawler (unlocked at level 25)
As long as there are 3 enemies within 8 yards, all of your damage is increased by 30%.
Another of my favourite passives. Agressively, this is fantastic as more enemies means more damage means more demons being slain, while defensively it's also really nice. Even playing as sword and board, you're going to get swarmed and being able to dispatch of the little minions faster, allowing you to remove their damage from the table and focus on the big bad demon is equally good - 5/5 Rating
Juggernaut (unlocked at level 28)
The duration of control impairing effects on you are reduced by 20%. In addition, whenever you become stunned, feared or charmed you have a chance to recover 15% of your maximum Life.
Not bad, but not that great either. You can see Blizzard has been using analogys from it's World of Warcraft Warrior here with this passive. If the chance to gain life was 100%, it'd help, but with such a small reduction and only a chance to gain life I don't think it's very usefull - 2/5 Rating
Unforgiving (unlocked at level 29)
You no longer degenerate Fury. Instead, you gain 1 Fury every 2 seconds.
Really nice when coupled with other passives, but possibly a little weak on it's own. Not losing out on Fury while "out of combat" sounds nice, from the play vidoes i've seen there seems so many ways to get back into combat and generating it dosn't seem too hard. Bumping up the Fury gain would help give it a better rating - 3/5 Rating
Boon of Bul-Kathos (unlocked at level 30)
The cooldown on your Earthquake, Call of the Ancients and Wrath of the Berserker skills is reduced by 30 seconds.
This is a tough one, since it's reliant on the Barbarian's 2 minute cooldowns. Runing some of those, you can get the timers down to almost a minute, which would be nice for farming, but this is a little too situational for my liking 2/5 Rating
IIII. Outro and Thanks
Special Thanks - Othra, for the formating ideas.
If anyone wants to use the information in this guide, including layout, feel free to. All data of course belongs to Activision Blizzard. All I ask is that you credit me somewhere, for having gathered all the information together and having typed it all out.
0
My Barbarian Blender build!
Everything runs off of getting a high critical chance, along with pulling more enemies on into the blender. Keeping enemies close, increases your damage done, along with a chance to trigger revenge which heals and boosts your critical strike chance.
0
Act 2, just drags forever. I normally love desert settings, but it does a really bad job of making you feel like you're in one. The outside zones are big, but not sparce enough, there's far too many corridors. The bug tunnels are a nightmare, with loads of dead ends and those stupid lightning attuned insects. I do like the Sanctuary though, with the stars in the background, but i nearly always choose the correct path last >_<
Act 3 suffers from the same faults as Act 2, it's just not open enough. You're meant to be in some hugely dense jungle, but everything feels far too constricted. Sometimes this can be a good thing, but i think in this setting, it dosn't work too well. The temple at the end, feels massive in comparison to the jungle too, which is probably done to show how big it is, but makes the jungle feel like a tiny copse.
Act 4 is pretty good, it definately looks like hell, but is really short. I love the entrance area, with the floating stairs, but over all it's kind of bland.
Act 5 picks it back up though, with the stunning top of the mountain where you fight the three warriors. Even though it's just two images layered together, the depth is great and really does make you think you're up high. Sadly, those bloody seige engines ruin it for me, since they seem to be able to snipe you from a mile away.
Over all, i think Act 1 is designed the best. It's a great tutorial zone and just the right length. By the end of it, you've figured out how to play, what's going on with the story and you've normally got some good loot and your first set of skills.
0
Yes, they could change them to be some super-awesome thing where everyone who every plays Diablo 3 is happy about the layout, but why bother? You can chat to people in them, there's multiple conversation tabs (monk, barb, trade etc), you can talk to people playing other Blizzard games and more importantly, THEY LET YOU CHAT!
Does it really matter how they look? Or what rooms they have in them? I'm going to be too busy smashing in demon skulls to worry about if the chat is 190 pixels wide, rather than 185. Yes, it's the little things and Blizzard is renowned for it "it's done when it's done" attitude, but the function of the chat works great. Maybe they'll change the looks via a patch, or in an exspansion, but i'd sooner have a game that WORKS than one still in design that you can't even play.
0
If you take a look at my build in my sig, it's based around drawing oponents in towards you, then slicing them up without them getting away. You'd alternate between each barb pulling them in with Ancient Spear, then smashing them up. The other barb would have another shout and maybe Whirlwind instead of Hammer of the Ancients.
I'd probably change out the rune on cleave to be the one that slows enemies too, but you get the idea. As soon as anyone trys to run away, you're pulled back into a giant blender of pain.
0
Only problem i had, was the volume of the music, vs your voice. Would have been nice to hear you louder than the music in the background, but that might just be my speakers.
Still, nice way to help people test the crafting during the beta though.
0
Wow, no, i didn't! It wasn't untill i was watching someone's Let's Play!, that i found out you could even shift+click potions onto your belt. I'd always drag and drop and it'd take ages. Thanks for that, should help alot.
0
Ugh, i knew talking about wow would take this thread off-topic, but i thought it'd help as an example. Yes, some of the fights in Dragon Soul are pretty crappy. But looked how far wow has come! You were stuck inside a cave, where everything was shades of red...to flying on the back of a dragon! Maybe not the mechanical, but the technical stuff that makes raids work have come on a long way, just as boss design should have from Diablo 2 to Diablo 3.
Back on topic - Snaks42 made some really cool predictions of how to conquer bosses and what they'd throw at the players. Like i said earlier, here's hoping to less move out the green goo and more "Ah, green goo! What can i do to remove it, or hurt the boss with it?" style decisions than running about like a headless chicken.
0
A little off-topic, but i know who the first 4 deamons are, but the last? Who's Malal and when did they add him into the 40k universe?
Anyways, back on topic - Like most other people have said, i've been lurking here for a while, but this contest has given me a reason to post and it's been really good fun. Will be great when the game's live and we can share more tips/info
0
There is some annotation and scriblings from Cain, but not alot from the images i've seen.
What i'd like, is the page FULL of content. Words over words, small notes and extra images or text tacked onto the pages. I'd like to have to turn the book upside down, or on it's side in order to read everything inside, since it's so full of information and partly written in the heat of battle, or by a mad man.
0
The force move dosn't sound too bad, but that's what always irked me about Diablo 2. You'd left click to attack a monster and accidently run through it. With seperate move controls to your attacks, if you left clicked you'd just attack, nothing else.
I guess with the way the cameras set up, it'd not really work very well too, but ah well
0
I'm glad they've added in an action bar now letting you use 1-5 for skills, but can you re-bind movement to say WASD? I doubt you can, but it'd be good to know.
0
God, i'm just the same! After the disaster that was me tottally over-hyping Fable 2 with my nephew, I pretty much swear off watching any videos of games before they come out. The most i've found out about Mass Effect 3 was from playing the demo the other day, beyond that i know nothing and it's out in a couple of months.
I tryed to do that with Diablo 3, but with all the beta contests and just how damn GOOD it's looking, I can't help but check out something new about it every day. Here's hoping it'll be ready soon!
0
Sadly, after reading some reviews of it from here and from other sites, i think i'm going to pass on it. What i'd hoped it'd be, was more like a diary, or at least a little more hand written. From the screen caps i've seen, quite alot of the page space is either blank, or has massive pictures taking up a whole page. While that's cool, i'd love some more annotation and more insane ramblings.
A beastiry would have been cool, with listings for what certain monsters are weak against, what their social habits are like. If anyone's played the latest Castlevania game on the PS3/360, i'd have liked it more if the lore entries had been done more like that. Small bios of the monsters, along with weaknesses and various images.
0
Take a look at how far Blizzard has come from Molten Core in World of Warcraft, to Dragon Soul. Molten Core has fairly simple bosses, most of them being tank and spank. Dragon Soul has a boss where you fly on the back of a dragon! Fair enough, the mechanics of that fight arn't that dificult to understand (nuke mob, use the blood it drops to douse another mob, blow that up to slowly attack the boss), it's alot more complex than stand still and just DPS.
Like others have said, the Skeleton King is just a mini boss, but he's miles ahead of even Andariel of Diablo 2. You pull her out of her room, then stand still while chugging health pots and attacking her. At least with the Skeleton King there's the added danger of constantly streaming adds and two ways to combat them! Do you use the boss to help kill the skellies to give you health orbs, or kill them yourself? Do you move out of the way to advoid his teleport attack, or just soak it?
Even if the main act bosses are like this, that's still miles ahead of how the previous two games have handled bosses.