Gamers don't need to be told to "remember" Diablo 2. The game played a pivotal role in gaming history, revolutionizing how genres of dark role-player games, dungeon crawlers, and looters would be played going forward. Gamers who aren't historians and simply love a good game will have played the game. Judging by popular demand, it appears that many fans never put down the game at all, even after Diablo 3 and other modernized competitors tried their hands at surpassing this standard.
Yet even the most hardcore of these fans will tell the amateurs that it isn't the boss fights that are the deadliest; it's the unique monsters. For years, it's these creatures with certain randomized specializations that often spell the end of the journey for players trying to conquer the game on Hell mode. It's certainly worth learning about them before attempting to take down the Lord of Terror himself all over again.
10 Super Unique And Regular Unique Differences
Super unique enemies are often called sub-bosses within the community. These are unique monsters with special modifiers on them that are placed at specific locations throughout the map. Unlike their regular variants, they have proper names and retain the same buffs.
This is one reason that druids are a particularly attractive class to play because players can't be certain what they'll run into. The regular uniques have more variety but the crafted sub-bosses are designed to be tricky.
9 The Meaning Behind The Colors
As gamers have been playing classic RPGs while waiting for Diablo 2: Resurrected, they've unquestionably found certain similarities between them all. Basic themes like red meaning fire and blue meaning ice seem to be a common thread.
This is not at all the case with the unique monsters in Diablo 2. The color does not designate a power, but rather how many minions accompany the mob they are attached to. Red will have 8-9 minions, orange will have 10-13, green with have 14-20, and everything above 20 will be colored blue.
8 Formation
An individual player's zodiac sign can correspond nicely to certain classes. Each class will tackle these super unique villains differently. But regardless of which way the moon is waxing, the general enemy setup will be the same.
There will always be one unique monster and they will have a random number of minions. Sometimes it's smart to go straight for the big guy and at other times it's best to pick off the cohorts first. It's all a matter of tactics that players will want to change, but the uniques are extremely consistent about their army composition.
7 Extra Life
There are some nifty mods out there for Diablo 2, including some that aim to temper some of the unique monsters with higher health points. There is a good reason for that as these mobs are given bonus health when compared to normal monsters.
The unique gets a boost of up to 400% to its health pool and the bonus doesn't end there. The accompanying minions get an additional boost to life as well, up to 200% on Hell difficulty. These fights are not designed to be over quickly, so prepare for the long haul.
6 Incentive To Defeat Them
Seeing as how these mobs can be avoided by crafty gamers, Blizzard had to invent some kind of reward for defeating these clusters of beasts. Some content for the game was cut before the final release, but thankfully the reward system passed through the chopping block unscathed.
The obvious rewards are the possibility of loot and gold that drops off of these monsters. But that's actually not the most substantial perk for going through these beasts instead of around them; each kill, minion or unique, gives an extra 500% in experience.
5 The Player Plus Three
A common piece of advice that works for most games is to level up on lower creatures so that by the time the higher creatures come along, the player will be equal to or greater than their strength level. Unfortunately, that's doesn't work out against unique monsters in Diablo 2.
The levels of these mobs are coded so that players will always be fighting for their lives. Each one is given the base level of the player's level plus three. This rule does not fluctuate based on difficulty. Unless something about the newest edition changes this, Diablo 2 will never become too easy to beat.
4 Slowed But Never Frozen
All classes in the game are not created to be equal. It can feel unfair to beat the game by using every skill in the toolbox required for a Barbarian to defeat the game while a Paladin can turn on Thorns Aura and watch enemies kill themselves against his plate armor.
However, balance is very much present in unique monster fights. A sorceress might be able to freeze most everything, but she can't freeze the unique in place, she can only slow it down. The minions are vulnerable to a complete freeze, but the unique monster itself will keep moving around.
3 Fully Defended
For those who have put all of their stock into lowering target defenses, it's time for some bad news. This strategy will work against the minions, but the unique monster itself will always retain full defensive capabilities, regardless of what items, armor, or spells say they will do.
This seems very cruel depending on the build, but lowering defenses is very powerful for everything else, to the point where minions can die in a single hit even on Hell mode. So don't despair, take out the adds before going for the big guy to make this build work.
2 One-Tenth Of The Stunning Power
It's easy to be upset by the fact that these unique monsters take only 10% of the duration that a stun promises. It feels like even 50% would have been plenty enough of a reduction and a tenth of a second worth of stun effect might as well be zero.
There is a small bit of sunshine despite this dreary news; the stun, however little as it may be, will still ruin a channeling spell. And for those warriors that have the stun attached to a weapon, a high attack speed will still lock the unique down so that it can't move.
1 Open Wounds Resistance
As their last line of defense, these unique monsters (but not their minions) take only half damage from the open wounds status effect. Damage over time effects are strong against uniques as their one weakness tends to be those who put in a few hits and then scurry off and let those hits manifest.
This limitation was likely expected to dissuade players from jumping in and running away, but the damage is still significant and those who use open wounds or any other damage over time affect for their builds. These characters will have a huge advantage when compared to classes that rely on burst damage.