Rakanoth

(v2.04)

Rakanoth is the "Lord of Despair". His design was originally used by the Blizzard North development team for Azmodan, but was changed at some unknown point in time by the current Diablo III development team into his current model. Little is known of Rakanoth. He was once a lieutenant of Andariel, granted the title of Lord of Despair. He presided over the Realm of Despair, serving as a warden and keeper of prisoners. After Andariel's death, Rakanoth's actions are undocumented, but would eventually shift his allegiance to Diablo when he assaulted the High Heavens. During Diablo's assault, Rakanoth was summoned to imprison Auriel, the Archangel of Hope. He was defeated by the Nephalem.

Rakanoth, like Izual, is a heavy melee fighter. However, he doesn't move as much as the fallen angel, but he is no less dangerous. Rakanoth will utilize ranged AoE attacks, summons, and can also teleport. His instant hitting teleport attack is by far his most dangerous ability, and it can instantly one-hit kill most players on Inferno, or even on Hell. Players without top quality gear and high hit points must learn the timing to avoid it with some sort of evasion skill, or suffer.

Below are a list of his abilities:

• Cleave - Cleave, like that of the Barbarian, is Rakanoth's standard melee attack. He will attack with either one or both of his arm blades, hitting anything in range. This attack is capable of hitting multiple players or minions.

• Teleport - Rakanoth is able to teleport to the player, but usually only does this when they are out of range of his attacks. He also has a "teleport away" ability where he will teleport across the arena in order to begin his summoning ability.

• Blade Strike - Rakanoth will teleport to the player and, turning a bright blue, will lunge his arm blades into the hero. This attack does very high damage.

• Volley - The Lord of Anguish will rise into the air, spread his arms outwards, and fire off a volley of blue spinning blades. The blades will not penetrate the pillars that are around the arena, so the player can take shelter behind them during this attack.

• Summon Minion - Rakanoth will appear as if he is going to fire a volley, rising into the air, but instead he'll spin around slowly in a circle, lobbing volley blades around the arena. After the attack is finished, two to three Soul Devourers will spawn near the hero, in full tongue-lashing glory. The minions drop health globes.

• Inferno Difficulty - As of Patch 1.0.3, Rakanoth has an enrage timer where after three minutes, he becomes much more aggressive, attacking the player and using abilities more often.

Associated Achievements

Rakanoth is in some way involved in the following achievement(s).

Name	Points	Description	Banner

<achievement type="single">Death From Afar</achievement>

Post Release Changes

Rakanoth was modified slightly in the v1.0.4 patch.[1]

Rakanoth Bug Fixes

• Rakanoth is now properly immune to crowd control effects when enraged in Inferno difficulty

Gallery

Images of Rakanoth in game and in concept art.

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  Rakanoth in-game.

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  Volley.

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  Summon Minion.

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  Blade Strike.

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  Cleave.

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  Rakanoth's boss arena.

Media

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  Rakanoth's boss portrait.