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Diablo 3 Beating Rakanoth

Diablo 3 Guide

The first boss in Act 4 of Diablo 3 is Rakanoth. You have to bring him down in order to save on of the key Arch angels. This boss guide will help you burn him without any issues. So let’s get started.

I did this in a group. This is for normal.

First off for the Diablo 3 Rakanoth boss guide is his moves. He has two sword arms which means he can do a double swing normal attack on you so watch for that. He will also just cleave at you with his arms.

He has a summon move where he goes up into the air and shoots out some green stuff. It will hurt you if you get hit and it also summons ghouls. Use the ghouls for hp if you need the boost.

He can also shoot the green blades out at range. He will normally go into the air and shoot them at you. You can see him charging up so dodge it.

When he is see through he is immune to CC.

He moves fast.

People seem to also be having an issue to when he teleports right on top of you. When he does that CC him or use a dodge move(Monk roll Demon Hunter dive etc). Going full offensive on a squishy will get you killed very easily. You can see the move coming as well. His arms will go back and the blades will shine. As he swings at what looks like nothing he will actually teleport to you and skewer you. Right before it hits the ground try to dodge or trap him. It is very difficult to time but this will end you if it hits you on the harder difficulties.

You should bring some sort of dodge move simply to avoid his constant teleports. I would also bring something to heal yourself other then potions. If you don’t do good auto attacks you should bring some sort of bigger hitter move or rapid small rapid move to keep the damage up. Lastly of course you should bring something that is CC. I like the stun on this guy but anything that cancels his attacks would be good.

If you are not in a group bring a follower.

Tips from Splanders Mcbuffinstick –

copied my forum post i just made because this guy was making me rage before i killed him and i’d like for others to avoid that problem. it applies to ranged classes, primarily the witch doctor-

Just beat him in hell as a witch doctor after wiping couple of times. My knowledge of the other classes is rather limited as I only have experience as a witch doctor but these tips might apply for the other ranged classes as well:

First off, he can be snared – use death’s grasp and/or a gargantuan or templar merc to keep him from melee distance

The main key is to keep an eye on him. He has 3 attacks (range missile, summons, charge) with 2 casting animations. He will hover in the air before casting his missiles or summons. He WILL NOT HOVER IN THE AIR BEFORE HE CHARGES, he stays on the ground, stands still, and sort of holds up his arm blades. You MUST SAVE SPIRIT WALK and use it as soon as you see this animation. The window of time to avoid the charge is very small but as soon as you get the hang of it, you’ve got the fight.

Always run directly away from rakanoth when he starts to hover to avoid the missiles, they travel a small distance but the spread is really wide, and kill the summons ASAP (i used zombie bears for burst) because he generally likes to charge after the summoning spell and it can be a little hard to catch it if your still dealing with the adds.

Just dps him in between casts with any ranged attack (i used plain old splinter darts) and you’ll eventually get him. It’s all about surviving the charge.

Now for the actual fight part of the Diablo 3 Rakanoth boss guide. To be honest this guy isn’t that bad. Once the fight starts he will close the gap in between you and him quickly and start attacking. If you are a melee take it and fight back. If you are ranged you don’t really want to be in his face is you can avoid it so run. Melee should run if they get low though obviously.

Both of these moves are charge up moves. When you see him charging use some CC on him to cancel if you can.

After some damage has been done you should see him charging something up. The first thing he did when I fought him was summon his ghouls. Use the ghouls to heal up then return to facing him. Be sure to stay out from under him when he is using this move. If you don’t want the ghouls to be summoned just use some CC on him.

He will also charge up for his ranged attack. This will be shot at the ranged mostly and consists multiple green rings being shot. You can sit in the gaps to avoid it or run from them completely. They don’t hurt to bad but it’s best to avoid them if you can. If you are a melee and have a move to go through him to the opposite side you can use that instead. Once you do that you might as well get some hits in as well. This can be canceled if you are close to him when he does it.

If he teleports to you run if you have to. Typically when he did it to me I’d dash through him to avoid any extra damage. If you are low and he does it the only thing you can really do is CC him when he pops out(need to be quick) or use the dodge ability right when he comes out. If you are okay hp wise and can take some hits you might as well deals some damage at this point as well.

As he gets lower in Hp he will teleport more often and use his moves more often. Use some CC on him to keep the damage down. Remember if he is stunned, blinded, etc you should be hitting him or running if you need to wait for a cooldown.

Just keep damaging him and avoiding his attacks. Use the ghouls to heal up and cancel his attacks when you can. Melee should keep on him unless he is charging up and ranged should stay out of his way.

Bet him down and get some loot.

That will end the Diablo 3 Rakanoth boss guide. Check out our Diablo 3 Walkthrough Guide Collection for tons of other useful guides and information.

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Johnny Hurricane

Johnny Hurricane is the resident hardcore gamer here at Gamers Heroes. You'll usually find him diving deep into the latest releases as he attempts to conquer each and every game that crosses his path. Mostly known for his ability to create detailed and comprehensive guides on even the most complex of game mechanics, you'll sometimes see the odd review and editorial topic but his true abilities lie in competitive gaming. Johnny Hurricane's Gamer Biography

15 Comments

  1. That’s your boss guide for this guy? Basically you say this, in essence, “avoid getting hit from him and then just keep doing damage to him”…

    WoW….brilliant….never would have guessed that one in a million years.

    Seriously…the problem I’m having with my DH is the boss just teleports on top of me and is one-shotting me. THAT’s why I’m going WTF? with this guy…its not as simple as just stay moving, I’ve tried that he just teleports to me no matter where or how i move.

    1. Well the guide is given, don’t git hit and you’ll be fine, pretty basic advice 😉 lol

      In all seriousness though, I’m not sure what class Johnny Hurricane has been using for his guides so maybe we’ll be able to offer more class-specific information once we’ve approached the boss with another class.

    2. Well when he teleports to you simply CC him or use your escape move… I don’t know what class you are playing but with both my Monk and Witch doctor this guy was pretty simple. Group up if you are having trouble or craft some better gear.

      1. There is no time to do an escape move. He instantly teleports and 1 shots you. Cant do anything against it. As a demon hunter, this boss is impossible.

        1. If you are dying in one hit then no guide is going to help you because he will teleport there is nothing you can do about it(unless you keep him locked down with CC) Have you tried using the traps to snare him? I know you have to be quick about it but it should slow him down enough for you to escape. I was about lvl 27 when I did this the first time what lvl are you?

          1. Okay I went through the fight again. Right before he is going to teleport his blade arms are going to shine then he will teleport and swing them at you right when they almost hit the floor. Lay a trap then and let me know if that helps

  2. As a Demon Hunter, the traps didn’t seem to help lock him down as he teleported to one shot me.. The best thing you can do for that fight is to use Shadow Power with the Gloom rune. When you see him charging, pop Shadow Power and take the damage.

  3. copied my forum post i just made because this guy was making me rage before i killed him and i’d like for others to avoid that problem. it applies to ranged classes, primarily the witch doctor-

    Just beat him in hell as a witch doctor after wiping couple of times. My knowledge of the other classes is rather limited as I only have experience as a witch doctor but these tips might apply for the other ranged classes as well:

    First off, he can be snared – use death’s grasp and/or a gargantuan or templar merc to keep him from melee distance

    The main key is to keep an eye on him. He has 3 attacks (range missile, summons, charge) with 2 casting animations. He will hover in the air before casting his missiles or summons. He WILL NOT HOVER IN THE AIR BEFORE HE CHARGES, he stays on the ground, stands still, and sort of holds up his arm blades. You MUST SAVE SPIRIT WALK and use it as soon as you see this animation. The window of time to avoid the charge is very small but as soon as you get the hang of it, you’ve got the fight.

    Always run directly away from rakanoth when he starts to hover to avoid the missiles, they travel a small distance but the spread is really wide, and kill the summons ASAP (i used zombie bears for burst) because he generally likes to charge after the summoning spell and it can be a little hard to catch it if your still dealing with the adds.

    Just dps him in between casts with any ranged attack (i used plain old splinter darts) and you’ll eventually get him. It’s all about surviving the charge.

    1. I tried this battle in Nightmare mode. I found out that the bad medicine rune for a witch doctor locks Rakanoth down. I used poison darts with it and only had to dodge one ranged blast. He did not charge at all.

  4. Gonna sound like a real noob here, because I kinda am, but wth is CC?
    I figured it was crowd control but that doesnt make sense in context.

    FWIW Im doing my first run thru D3 solo so I can take my time and soak it in, and I didn’t have any issues at all with Rakanoth. I dispatched him pretty easily actually.
    The guy before him, Iskatul actually gave me far more problems.

  5. As a DH I used smoke bomb (invisible) or whatever it’s called and didn’t take damage from his teleport.

  6. FOR ALL THE DH’s HAVING TROUBLE WITH HIM

    I just beat him in nightmare by constantly using impale with the impact rune and bola shot with the electrify/stun rune.
    He didn’t really have any time to do anything. If you have a good attack speed, you can keep bola-ing him and he’ll just keep getting stunned.

    If he does charge you though, use smokescreen with the lingering fog rune when you see him getting ready. you won’t take any damage

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