The Diablo 4 Elite Affix Danger Tier List

As players conquer the world of Sanctuary in Diablo 4 the difficulty presented by enemy mobs ramps up fast. Importantly players will quickly encounter elite enemy mobs. On their own elites deal more damage and have significantly more health. However, one additional way elite enemy mobs challenge the player is through elite affixes. These empowered elites can have a number of new abilities and effects depending on their affix and sometimes the affixes alone are enough to fully stun lock and one-shot players. This tier list, created by Ds_Lily, will provide a comprehensive overview of each elite affix and the level of danger associated with it.

Diablo 4 Elite Affixes Explained

In Diablo 4 enemy elites are tankier and deal significantly more damage than their lesser counterparts. However, while this alone is certainly something to be feared it is not the only reason players should be weary of Elite enemies. Diablo 4 Elites can spawn with affixes. These are modifiers that grant Elites new abilities that can apply potentially devastating effects. Add in the fact that at higher levels Elites can spawn with multiple Affixes and players are in for a recipe of destruction.

Luckily you need not jump into to high-level Dungeons and Nightmare Dungeons uninformed as Ds Lily has put together a tier list ranking all Elite Affixes from least to most dangerous!

Green Tier

Green Tier affixes are low danger. They are certainly worth player awareness as any Elite Affix can result in your character dying. However, you need not panic when you see Elite Mobs with these Affixes.

Chilling Wind - Danger 1/10

Spawns a wind wall that chills any player it touches as well as freezing them if they get repeatedly chilled. Projectiles are also slowed that travel through the wall.

Duration: 6 seconds, Cooldown: 9 seconds

How to outplay: Don't stand in the wind

Electric Obelisk - Danger 1/10

Summons totems that chain lightning between each other dealing lightning damage to the player on hit. Can be dangerous in tight areas if you get hit by all totems at once.

Duration: 6 seconds, Cooldown: 12 seconds

How to outplay: Don't stand in the middle of all the totems

Hellbound - Danger 1/10

Summons a statue that chains players to itself which stops the player from moving past a certain radius and slowing. Has very low hp and is never really dangerous.

How to outplay: Target the statue

Duration: 6 seconds, Cooldown: 15 seconds

Shadow Enchanted - Danger 1/10

Elite summons a clone that copies it’s attacks.

How to outplay: Don’t get hit. Not much to really do here.

Mortar - Danger 2/10

Fire 3 fireballs that land on the ground after 3 seconds dealing damage to the player. Can be dangerous if stacked with a lot of other ground effects.

Duration: 3 seconds, Cooldown: 3 seconds

How to outplay: Move before the fireballs hit the ground

Vampiric - Danger 2/10

Elite leeches life on hit. Only situation this is dangerous is when it makes a strong mob very tanky by healing a lot.

How to outplay: You don’t

Shock Lance - Danger 2/10

Summons a beam of lightning that slowly spins and deals damage on contact. Can be dangerous if multiple spawn on top of each other.

Duration: 15 seconds, Cooldown: 5 seconds

How to outplay: Stay away from lances that may stack on top of each other, just one alone shouldn’t do much damage to you

Terrifying - Danger 3/10

Summons two circles on the ground that detonate after 2 seconds, fearing the player for 2 seconds.

How to outplay: Don’t stand on the circles, if you are hit use an ability to gain unstoppable

Summoner - Danger 3/10

Elite summons 2 monsters as the same type as it aka a fallen monster will summon fallen familiars. Max of 6 monsters summoned at once. Can be dangerous if the monster summons exploding enemies.

Duration: Permanent, Cooldown: 20 seconds

How to outplay: Pay attention to if exploding monsters are summoned and target them if they are

Poison Enchanted - Danger 3/10

Upon getting hit by the elite, a pool of poison spawns under the player dealing damage over time while standing in it. Upon death the elite also leaves another poison pool.

Duration: 10 seconds

How to outplay: Move away after being hit and when you kill the elite

Frozen - Danger 3/10

Summons freeze bombs that chill players in the radius and explode after 3 seconds, freezing the player and dealing cold damage. These can become dangerous if there are a lot of other ground effects occurring.

Duration: 3 seconds, Cooldown: 8 seconds

How to outplay: Don't stand in the bombs

Lightning Enchanted - Danger 3/10

Upon hitting the elite 3 lightning orbs are released and the player is hit with an arc of lightning. Can be dangerous if standing close and you get shotgunned by all the orbs, but not that dangerous overall.

How to outplay: Avoid standing right in front of the elite and getting shotgunned

Yellow Tier

This is where things get interesting. Yellow Tier Affixes are no joke, and players should play a bit more cautiously when approaching these kinds of Elite Mobs.

Explosive - Danger 4/10

Summons 2 damageable fire orbs with a very large radius that deals fire damage on detonation. Can be dangerous if they are hidden and you cannot kill them in time or your build does not have great AoE to clear them easily.

Duration: 4 seconds, Cooldown: 15 seconds

How to outplay: Don’t stand in blast radius or kill the orbs

Cold Enchanted - Danger 4/10

Elite does cold damage and chills on hit. Can be dangerous if a pack has a lot of attack speed and is unavoidable.

How to outplay: Unstoppable for CC immunity or don't get hit

Damage resistance - Danger 4/10

Elite, well technically “champion” grants large damage resistance to all it’s nearby allies. They glow purple and do not have much HP. Dangerous if you don’t notice the monster or cannot reach it easily.

Duration: Permanent

How to outplay: Make sure to target this monster ASAP as it greatly reduces your damage

Tempest - Danger 4/10

Elite spawns ice pillars that will pull you towards them after 1 second. Can be dangerous if you get pulled into a giant group of monsters.

Cooldown: 13 seconds

How to outplay: Don’t stand in front of the ice pillars

Teleporter - Danger 4/10

Teleports on to the player dealing damage in an AoE. At low HP the elite may also teleport away from the player. Can be dangerous depending on the monster type.

Cooldown: 8 seconds

How to outplay: You don’t

Plaguebearer - Danger 5/10

Elite spawns a circle of poison on death that explodes after 3 seconds.

Duration: 3 seconds

How to outplay: Move away after killing the elite

Multishot - Danger 5/10

3 projectiles are shot instead of 1. May be very dangerous with certain mob types shotgunning you with all projectiles but I have not encountered that yet.

How to outplay: Avoid standing right in front of the elite and getting shotgunned

Red Tier

These Affixes are no joke. Players approaching Elites of with any of them should play very cautiously and plan out their approach and their defensive options if things go south.

Suppressor - Danger 7/10

Elite is immune to any damage outside of the circle that surrounds it. This affix is somewhat janky and sometimes they are still immune if you are in the circle. Very dangerous if multiple suppressors spawn around each other.

Duration: Permanent

How to outplay: Stay in the suppressor circle to be able to deal damage, if multiple suppressors in the area try to pull them next to each other.

Waller - Danger 7/10

Summons a wall around the player shaped like a U. Some parts of the wall may be able to be broken but do not rely on this, sometimes you can be completely stuck. Very dangerous if you are walled in a bad spot with a large monster pack.

Duration: 7 seconds, Cooldown: 12 seconds

How to outplay: Run out of the wall quickly either by getting through the open end or finding the destructible part of the wall.

Fire Enchanted - Danger 10/10

Fires 3 fireballs out of the elite every 3 seconds. On death fires 3 more sets of fireballs for 9 total and has a final explosion after 3 seconds as well. This will kill you.

How to outplay: Don’t be melee range and move away after killing the elite