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Diablo 4's experimentation has allowed the development team to play with MMO mechanics such as Raiding. Large enemies, called World Bosses, spawn on a semi-regular schedule and are meant to be fought by a small army of players.
There are three total World Bosses, each dropping rare end-game loot. To conquer The Wandering Death, you'll need elixirs, awesome gear, a winning strategy, and a lot of friends.
Preparing For The Wandering Death
Fighting the Wandering Death shouldn't be taken lightly; if you plan to fight him, consider taking a portal back to town for a quick elixir and examination of your gear. When looking over your layout, consider how well-suited it is to deal with The Wandering Death's attacks.
Damage Type
The first step in taking on a World Boss is knowing what their primary damage type is. In the case of Wandering Death, this will be Shadow damage and physical damage. Additionally, most of the boss' attacks are AoE based and can be dodged.
This means that a good way to prepare has Elixirs and gear with the following:
- Shadow resistance
- Movement speed
- Armor
Obviously, you won't want to change out gear that gives you levels in your main skill or provides key aspects of your build, but Elixirs are dirt cheap and easy to throw on before the fight. Remember, you can only have one active at a time.
How To Tell When The Wandering Death Is Spawning
The Wandering Death is thought to spawn every 4–6 hours. You will see an icon over the boss arena on your map shortly before Wandering Death spawns if you are:
- Playing a character who has beaten the main campaign
- Are in at least World Tier 3
Once you see that icon, gather your stuff and book it to the location, as the arena will lock out late arrivals shortly after the battle begins.
Number Of Players Required
World Bosses are meant to be big, multiplayer experiences. While it's impossible to rule out that someone will eventually solo the Wandering Death, this is ridiculously difficult. Instead, plan on having at least 15 - 20 players for a successful takedown.
How To Fight The Wandering Death
Once you have everything you need, your next task will be finding and fighting the boss. The
Spawn Locations
The Wandering Death can spawn in any of the five World Boss Arenas currently included in Diablo 4. For best results, keep an eye on your map page and explore each region, so you can get there fast after the marker pops up.
Health Bar
World Bosses have a much larger version of a standard Health bar. It will be broken up into three sections to signify the boss' phases, as well as dropping potions at each marker. It is unknown exactly what the health pool looks like on World Bosses, but it usually takes almost the entire 15-minute timer to defeat them.
Stagger Bar
World Bosses cannot be affected by regular crowd control abilities, unlike regular enemies. Instead, The Wandering Death has a stagger bar. When players use crowd control abilities, this stagger bar will slowly fill. When the bar is full, the boss will pause its onslaught and take additional damage.
In addition, the Wandering Death has a unique mechanic tied to the stagger bar. When staggered, the boss spawns two soul cages, which he will consume after the stagger is over. The boss heals a small amount and becomes enraged when consuming trapped souls, but players can destroy the cages to deal massive damage to The Wandering Death and prevent this healing.
Abilities of The Wandering Death
In addition to the more generic mechanics of the fight, The Wandering Death has several powerful attacks. Keep reading to learn the effects of each and how to avoid them, starting with the most dangerous.
Beam
The boss' Laser Beams are the biggest threat in this fight. These do massive damage and will slowly rotate while being channeled. During the different stages of the boss fight, the number of beams starts at two and will gradually increase to four beams. During the final stages of the fight, the boss may also pair its beam attack with a grasping attack.
To avoid damage from this ability, move in the same direction at the same speed as the beams. Resist the temptation to use dash abilities during this period, as you are more likely to kill yourself than accomplish anything useful. If you need to move out of the grasp, move diagonally backward.
Crater
The next most dangerous attack when fighting The Wandering Death is its Crater of Bones. This ability will have a five-second windup followed by a large AoE attack. Initially, there will be only one crater spawning at a time, but this number will go up.
During this phase, use your Evade or Dash to exit the AoE before detonation. The crater has a clear indicator with plenty of time, which is lucky since this ability can easily one-shot squishier characters.
Grasp
This attack uses multiple hooked claws to drag the player toward The Wandering Death. The ability packs a punch, and there will be more and more hooks spawning as the boss' health gets lower. To dodge this attack, watch for comb marks to appear on the ground -- this will tell you where the claws will travel.
Pound
The final high-damage ability in this boss' kit is a Pound attack. The boss will slam his hands down on the ground, causing initial damage as well as a secondary wave of spikes to pass over the area. At the beginning of the fight, most of the damage is backloaded into the spikes, while in later stages, the pound portion of the attack is more devastating.
When dealing with this attack, watch the position of the Wandering Death's arms (the first phase has two while the later phases have four). This will tell you where the pound is likely to hit. Additionally, keep in might which portion of the attack deals the most damage, and prioritize dodging that half.
Shout
This ability is a knockback doing moderate damage. While annoying for melee characters, this ability is unlikely to kill you if you're dodging everything else. The distance you are thrown will increase as the boss' health depletes, and its radial nature means it is almost impossible to dodge.
Tornadoes
Finally, the boss will occasionally spawn three tornados. A number of bosses have a similar mechanic, such as the druid Airidah in Act 2. The tornados will follow the player and deal great damage, but they move very slowly and will dissipate after a set amount of time.
Trigger these tornadoes to explode by moving through them while invulnerable (such as with the Necromancer's Blood Mist) or run from them until they despawn to avoid damage and crowd control.
Rewards For Beating The Wandering Death
World Bosses drop a host of valuable loot, including:
- Level-synced experience points and gold
- Scattered Prisms
- A guaranteed Legendary Item
- A Legendary Grand Cache
If you experience connection problems during the fight and are not able to receive your loot for participating, don't worry. The game places it automatically in your stash to be claimed later.