The Guardian is a quest in Act 3. ou must complete this quest to move on to Act IV.
| Given: | Given by Ormus after smashing the Compelling Orb. |
|---|---|
| Triggered By: | Smashing the Compelling Orb or entering the Durance of Hate |
| Location: | Mephisto is on level three of the Durance of Hate, entered from the large temple in Travincal |
| Tips: | Search the Durance of Hate in Travincal. |
| Description: | Ormus tells you that Diablo and Baal have surely found the Temple City by now. They seek to free their brother, Mephisto, who was imprisoned by the Horadrim in the Temple’s Guardian Tower. You must reach him before his brothers do and prevent them from releasing Hatred upon the world. |
| Rewards: | None from NPCs, but you will find a portal to take you to Act Four. |
Now it’s time to fight Mephisto, the boss of Act III. When you enter the Durance of Hate, it’s best to stick to the left-hand wall as you make your way down to Level 3. Make sure to grab the Waypoint on Level 2 though to save you time if you do meet your untimely death.
Within the Durance, expect to meet up with even tougher versions of the Vampires you fought in Travincal. You’ll also run into large enemies called Maulers, which are more powerful Blunderbores who can stun you. This can become a problem if you run into a large group of them. Finally, you’ll likely fight both Cadavers and Stygian Dolls. These powered-up versions of monsters you fought earlier either explode or drop a Poison Nova upon death. Be sure to watch out for those attacks.
Once you hit level three, you’ll run into even more Vampires and Stygian Dolls. There are also a few Council Members and, of course, Mephisto himself. At this point, you’ll likely make quick work of all of Mephisto’s minions, though you should be on the lookout for the three mini-boss versions of the Council Members. We usually approach Mephisto from the right and fight Maffer Dragonhand because he doesn’t teleport. That said, he does pack a punch so feel free to try both directions if you’re having trouble.
As for Mephisto himself, our best advice is to let him target your Hireling or summons and then get up close and deal damage. At melee range, he doesn’t use his skull orb attack as often, which is quite helpful. Don’t be afraid to port back to town if you need to. Another potential tactic is to use the moat trick. Basically, you want to lure him toward the moat of blood in the area and then run around so that he’s stuck on that side by himself. Then, you can use ranged attacks to take him down from relative safety. This works very well for classes like the Sorceress who can use Teleport to quickly lock him into place.
After Mephisto is dealt with, pick up your loot and his Soulstone and then head through the red portal that opens up to move to Act IV.
You can kill Mephisto from a distance if you have a ranged attack and can’t go toe to toe. Get him to come over near the Blood moat and run around to the other side. If you keep him just on the edge of the screen, you can shoot him with impunity.
Bremm Sparkfist is always in the middle of the room, but the other two High Council members are in the side rooms, so you can fight one or the other of them going around, but you won’t have to do both unless you go looking for them.
If Bremm Sparkfist or one of the other High Council bosses are too hard to kill, and too fast to ditch, you can lead them into a side room and take a town portal out, then take another character’s portal or the waypoint back down and go through Level three without having to deal with them, as long as you leave them in whatever side room you ditched them in by your portal. This works in reverse also; cast a portal near Mephisto, lead the High Council to the stairs up, run to the waypoint, and go down your portal.