Enrage timers - What are they and how do they work?

[ElSmisko]

Enrage timers - What are they and how do they work?

I keep reading that this is a part of the game that is a problem so big that it is getting removed.
Yet I don't really know how they appear in-game. I have yet to see any timers (at least as in actual count-downs).

[Dreamcrusha]

An enrage timer is a mechanism in place to force you to kill a boss within a certain amount of time. Generally, it indicates that you need to exceed the minimum level of dps during the boss encounter. An example would be facing belial, if you don't kill him within a certain time, then the exploding green mines will keep on going which causes a group wipe. They are removing it to allow people to kill bosses more easily.

[skysbob]

Enrage Timers can only be experienced in Inferno difficulty. No other difficulty has them. If you don't kill Champion packs, or Elite packs, or bosses within several minutes (often 3 minutes) they will become much more powerful and/or hurt your character more; making it increasingly difficult to beat these monsters.

[krischan]

Enrage Timers can only be experienced in Inferno difficulty.

That might explain how the Inferno Butcher killed my wizard 2 or 3 times in a row - he put all of the grill on fire at once.

[Doctor Clock]

Blue and yellow boss packs in Inerno, when enraged, will start doing unavoidable damage to your character within a certain range. A skull and crossbone will appear over the boss packs' heads and your characters' head as well. These enrage timers being removed in the upcoming patch.

Many of the quest bosses (The Butcher, Zoltun Kuule, etc) have enrage timers as well. Most of the enrage timers are unique to that boss, for instance, Belial when enraged repeats his ground explosion phase continuously. These are not being changed as of yet.

[ElSmisko]

Thanks for the clarification guys!

Will try to keep a pack alive for 3 minutes tonight just to experience what happens before they remove it.

I did experience the Butcher's fire though a few times, that annoyed the crap out of me, it just seemed so silly that a seemingly random fire is more dangerous than the actual boss.
(annoying in the kind of way Wood Wraiths and Scavengers are more deadly once they are dead)

[skysbob]

That might explain how the Inferno Butcher killed my wizard 2 or 3 times in a row - he put all of the grill on fire at once.

Exactly. That is his unique enrage timer.

[Valeli]

They are removing it to allow people to kill bosses more easily.

I'd suggest they're also removing it to make more playstyles viable.

I personally think enrage timers are an awful awful mechanic in any game, unless you have multiple groups of players competing for a single rare spawn and you don't want it to be held for hours by a small group (and even there, I'm personally against enrage timers, but I can see the logic behind it at least).

In a single or lowkey one party vs. world pve game, I think the need for enrage timers is a pointless and arbitrary limitation. There's no need for dps checks - if you can kill X you can kill him, and more power to you. If you want to make a build that's super defensive and stacks a ton of HP, you should be allowed to. The fact that you're killing X slowly with this build will let X hit you more, which will put /your/ HP build to the test. If your HP build can stand up to the extra rounds of attacks, I don't see why it should be forced to fail. If it can't manage it, then it's no different than having failed a DPS check really.

[SnickerSnack]

Enrage Timers can only be experienced in Inferno difficulty. No other difficulty has them.

I had this happen in Hell.

[krischan]

I keep reading that this is a part of the game that is a problem so big that it is getting removed.

It's still there. Two days ago, my DH took too much time to kill the Butcher, so she died in the same manner as my wizard (see posting #4).