Belial (Diablo III)

Belial in the Imperial Palace D3 — Belial in the Imperial Palace

Belial is a boss in Diablo III. He appears during the final quest of Act II. It is divided into three phases. The battle starts immediately after entering the Imperial Palace, after a short cutscene. The Fighting arena is moon crest-shaped.

Combat[]

Phase 1: "Azmodan already knows about the stone. Even if you defeat me, he will exterminate you and every last one of your misbegotten kind."

Belial does not take part in phase 1, opting instead to call in the troops. He'll summon a large, yet, a limited amount of Veiled Sentinels and Veiled Evokers to challenge the player. Both types retain the snakeman ability to vanish and then re-appear. Snakemen spawn timely, not upon the death of their comrades.

Phase 2: "I will not be undone! This world is mine!"

After the snakemen prove to be fairly ineffectual, Belial himself drops down into the throne room to battle the player. In this phase, he has relatively little health (for a boss), and snakemen are still spawned during this phase (but not for the first 30 seconds, so it is possible to finish Phase 2 without them even appearing), dropping a good amount of health globes. Belial himself has a few abilities in phase 2:

Fly Swarms: Belial launches three fast-moving swarms of insects along the ground at medium range, which pierce through enemies and deal average damage.
Melee Attack: He has a basic melee attack in this phase that hits for low Physical damage.
Reinforcements: As the battle rages on, Belial will call in more snakemen to aid in defeating the hero(es), but at much slower rate than he did in Phase 1. They drop health globes. Any remaining snakemen will all die when Phase 3 is initiated, so it is advised to focus on Belial himself.

Phase 3: "Behold, the true vision of the Lord of Hell!"

Belial-large — Belial's true form in-game

When Belial is whittled down to below 25% of his total HP in Phase 2, the final phase begins after a brief delay. In this phase, Belial gains full (and greatly increased) life, becoming immobile, incredibly large (the entire inner edge of the platform counts as part of his body for targeting purposes), and will drop Health Globes every time he suffers 10% damage, not every 25%. He replaces his normal abilities with new ones:

Fist Slam: A green ring appears on the ground where Belial is about to strike, giving glass cannon heroes a brief moment to run out of the area (be careful as the exact area being hit is slightly larger than its visual). There are some variations of this; he can slam once with either limb or three times in a row, with each subsequent hit having a larger area of effect. After the 3-strike combo, he drops a Health Globe.
Eruption: If Belial survives in a battle against the Nephalem for 50 seconds, he will smash both of his limbs into the ground of the throne room for roughly 15 seconds. During this, small green rings will show up chaotically all over the arena. After two seconds, each ring explodes for high damage. This is by far the most dangerous of his attacks, as two consecutive hits can easily kill an average hero on adequate difficulty. Quick movement and/or high Resistance coupled with high Vitality is the key to surviving this attack, so one should focus on survival rather than on damage while this attack lasts. Only a fully equipped tank could hope to survive a full onslaught.
Breath: Belial will use a breathe attack from one end of the arena to the other, hitting for average damage. It can be avoided by standing very close to either the left or right end of the platform.

In this phase, the Lord of Lies is immune to nearly all forms of control impairment. As such, only directly damaging him will suffice. This hampers the capabilities of heroes who make use of items such as the Haunt of Vaxo. As such, it is recommended to build characters with this in mind.

A hero with a Xephirian Amulet may have quite the laugh watching as Belial tries to harm them; with that equipped, Belial is little more than a hardy obstacle, perhaps more so than even Ghom, even after the enrage. The only real damage that remains is his Fist Slam, which will only prove to be enough to kill a hero who has, to put it bluntly, pathetic degrees of Toughness and healing compared to the difficulty.

On Torment Difficulty, Belial has a hard enrage timer of 3 minutes, at which point he will continuously use his Meteor Strike, covering the entire platform at once (impossible to dodge) until combat ends. It is still possible to kill him past this enrage timer (especially with Xephirian Amulet), however, it is very difficult.

Quotes[]

My exemplary servants, Keep the witch alive until she talks. Pain will loose her tongue, but only to a point. Remember what happened to the vizier's assistant? It was a pleasurable time, I admit, but the man had only incoherent babble and bloody strands of pus spilling from his lips by the end.
"Overwhelm the enemy and seize his/her companions. There's a witch among and.. another - a girl. Bring them to me along with the Black Soulstone. They'll be searching for the head of Zoltun Kulle. Scour the oasis for it. Some old sorcery lingers on the skull, and it must be mine!"
"Miserable wretches, I have no time for your excuses. Caldeum is on the brink of rebellion, and the enemy is closing in on the archives of Zoltun Kulle. Slaughter him/her and bring me the mad wizard's head and the Black Soulstone, or I shall inflict incomprehensible agony upon the lot of you!"
"Maghda, This "hero" means to attack you in Alcarnus. If I were you, I'd set a trap at the Khasim Outpost... but I'm not you. For all I know, you wish to fail me again and force me to kill you. That would grieve me, but somehow.. I think I could manage it."
"Maghda, Such sad, sad tales have reached me of your truly abysmal failure at the Khasim Outpost.. but at least the enemy's spy has been found. Once we eliminate her and her allies, this obnoxious little world will fall to me and... perhaps you - if you survive."
"Clever. But know this, nephalem: Azmodan knows of the stone and the power it contains. Even if you defeat me, he will exterminate you and every last one of your misbegotten kind."
"I will not be undone! This world is mine!"
"I cast off these petty illusions! Behold, the true vision of the Lord of Hell!"

Trivia[]

Despite Belial's spells having green color iconic to poison, they actually deal lightning damage, and players need to stack up on Lightning Resistance before confronting Belial.