It's one thing to beat Diablo III's Skeleton King boss. It's quite another thing to beat Diablo III's Skeleton King boss on Inferno, the game's highest difficulty setting. And it's quite another thing to defeat Diablo III's Skeleton King boss on Inferno… in less than a frickin' second.
Behold, the greatest hits of Athene, a power gamer who makes it a habit of increasing his damage per second until he can cut through Diablo III's most difficult bosses in a matter of seconds.
Since watching this video, I've taken to watching Athene's livestream, and have been transfixed. I'd heard of him before, related to his shenanigans in World of Warcraft. He's a cocky dude, and something of a controversial figure, since he's built a network of gamers who help him farm the best gear to arm his superpowered characters. (Though it must be said, he also raises huge amounts of money for charity.)
Like Jason and I discussed yesterday, watching Diablo III is quite a bit different than watching StarCraft II—but it's hypnotic in its way, particularly with someone whose goals are as narrow and clinical as Athene's.
Basically, he'll find a boss, pick a strategy, and try to kill it. Due to the extreme difficulty level, each attempt lasts but a few seconds. Last night, I watched him go up against a third-act sub-boss many, many times—each time, he got closer to taking the boss down, and each time he died. Win or lose, the whole thing is over in the blink of an eye—either Athene's DPS is high enough to win quickly, or he gets stomped. (He did prevail, eventually.)
It's so calculated and clinical, each boss like another round of man vs. machine. Fascinating.
If you want to watch the Diablo III bosses get the sweet, hilariously quick justice they all so richly deserve, watch this video. I mean… The Butcher goes down in three hits! Three!
(Thanks, Ingmar)