An Explanation of the Staggering System in Diablo 4 and How to Stagger Bosses
The term "Stagger" refers to a specific type of attack that can only be used against larger foes in Diablo 4, such as World Bosses and story bosses. It is important to distinguish between the Stagger skill found in the Lightning tree of the Sorcerer class and the ability to stun a World Boss like Ashava, which can be performed by any class in the Diablo 4 Open Beta and at launch.
- There is a Stagger Bar present below the health bar of big bosses in this cave, including the World Boss Ashava the Pestilent, as can be seen in the image that is located above this one
- This bar is depicted as a thin gold line
- Because abilities like freezing or slowing down enemies would make the fights against World Bosses too easy, Diablo 4 does not have the ability to use crowd control on enemies that make up World Bosses
- However, Blizzard did want to give CC some functionality against the major bosses in Diablo 4, which is why they implemented the Stagger combat system
- When players use their crowd-control abilities against the boss, they can fill up the Stagger bar, which moves from left to right
- When it reaches its maximum capacity, the boss will enter a Staggered state
- The following part of this guide will provide a detailed explanation of exactly what it means, complete with specific examples of effect
Staggering Effects Have Been Added to Bosses in Diablo 4As a result of being knocked down, Ashava is forced to fight the rest of the battle without the blade she had been wearing on her arm.(Picture: Blizzard / GameInformer)The state that Ashava is in when it is shown above is called "Staggered."The effect of being staggered lasts for a minute and a half, during which time the boss is defenseless and vulnerable to being assaulted by a large number of players with powerful attacks. Think of it as a shock to the system. The preceding image provides a visual representation of this 12-second period in the form of a green bar, as can be seen in the image. In addition, each of Diablo 4's major bosses has their own one-of-a-kind staggering effects. If we use Ashava as an example, when they are Staggered, one of the blades on the front arm breaks. It impairs her strength for the duration of the conflict, right up until she passes away. Check out this awesome video from Game Informer from 2019, in which they take on Ashava, while you patiently wait for your turn to play Diablo 4.