World Bosses in Diablo 4 are quickly becoming one of the most important and fun activities available in the end-game. These bosses periodically spawn for large groups of players to take down, dropping extremely rare loot when defeated.
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If you have your sights set on beating Avarice the Gold Cursed, you'll need to know about this juggernaut's mechanics and attacks. Keep reading for tips on preparing for the fight, where to find Avarice and his unique stumble mechanic.
Preparing for a World Boss is a delicate balancing act - you don't want to go in unprepared, but you also don't want to miss the start of the event (as you can't join late). The best way to ensure you're there on time and ready is to know in advance exactly what you need.
Knowing the damage type of a World Boss allows you to drink the appropriate Elixir and wear the best gear to sustain through this fight. Unfortunately, however, Avarice doesn't have a readily apparent damage theme like other World Bosses. He places mines that explode for fire damage, does physical damage with his mace, and lays down poisonous pools of gold.
One of the best pieces of gear to wear into this fight, therefore, is a ring with a high amount of resistance to All Element Types. You can also chug an Elixir of Acrobatics to make dodging his attacks easier.
Avarice can spawn in any of the several Boss Arenas in Sanctuary. This happens on a hidden World Boss schedule and appears on the map for players to see only if they have completed the main campaign. This map icon appears 30 minutes before the boss spawns.
Once you have determined that a World Boss is spawning, you can tell which one it is by hovering over the map icon or viewing the animation in the boss arena. Avarice emits golden lightning from his portal while forming.
While the event will begin regardless of how many players are in the Arena, it is nigh impossible to complete this fight solo. This is because Avarice has a minimum health value that is too high for a single player to deal sufficient damage before the timer runs out.
Fighting Avarice is meant to be done in a large group, ideally between 10 and 15 players. There is no benefit from doing a World Boss Event in a smaller group, as each person receives unique loot. However, the event can get too difficult to complete in groups larger than 20, as the boss' health and damage increase with the number of players.
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There are several mechanics to keep in mind while fighting Avarice the Gold Cursed. Like all World Bosses, he has a multiphase health bar, a stagger bar, and a unique stagger mechanic. Additionally, the World Boss events are timed. You will only have 15 minutes to beat Avarice before he despawns, resulting in an event failure.
Avarice has a large hit point pool broken up into three sections. Each section denotes a new phase that will cause Avarice to become more aggressive (by speeding up his attack rotation).
World Bosses are immune to regular Crowd Control Effects. Instead, they have a stagger bar that slowly fills when CC is applied. Once the Stagger bar is full, they will pause their attack pattern for 12 seconds to recover, giving players a chance to deal maximum damage.
Each World Boss also has a unique effect when staggered. Avarice spawns two extra tanky Treasure Goblins when staggered. True to the boss' name, there is no effect of these Treasure Goblins on the fight other than the resulting temptation. Players must fight their greed to decide whether to chase after the goblins while the boss is staggered or deal damage to increase their odds of successfully completing the event.
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Avarice, the Gold Cursed, has a number of attacks that he cycles through. Most of them involve his mace and a giant treasure chest on a chain, although some spawn environmental hazards. Here are tips on what each attack does and how to avoid it ranked from the most dangerous attack to the least.
This is the most basic ability of Avarice, but it is no less deadly for it. He will wind up before spinning the Treasure Chest he carries around 360 degrees. Anyone in the path of the chest is liable to get one shot - making this ability your number one concern.
To dodge the attack, you can go inwards to where the chain is or outward past its range. Either location will result in no damage taken.
In addition to the spin attack, Avarice will also regularly teleport through golden portals. When a portal spawns, he will charge toward it, dealing moderate damage. Then, he will charge out of a second portal. The second charge is where his damage is, and getting hit by this ability is an instant death.
To avoid this ability, watch where the second portal spawns. Avarice will always charge in a straight line from where the portal is pointing, showing you where to dodge.
Beginning in the second phase of the fight, Avarice can summon pillars of gold on the ground. These pillars do very little damage when they appear, however, they are obstacles that cannot be run through. It's very easy to get stuck and then knocked out by his mace during this time. Additionally, he will pulverize the pillars, resulting in an explosion of molten gold which does quite a lot of damage. The detonation of the pillars occurs about five seconds after the markers appear on the ground. To avoid this, leave the area of the pillars as soon as they spawn, only returning once they've exploded.
Avarice will occasionally lash out with his mallet, dealing great damage in a cone. This attack is fast but has a wind-up period during which you can move behind him to avoid it.
As the boss enters the third phase, he will begin to vomit pools of gold onto the ground. These do damage over time and can easily kill you if you stand in them. This, combined with the pillars, quickly turns the arena into a game of Minesweeper. However, these puddles are static and not instantly deadly. Simply move out of them as soon as you can.
This attack does minimal damage but pulls you in toward him. It is often used just before the summon pillars or golden vomit actions. It is not easy to avoid being hit by this; luckily, most properly leveled characters will be able to tank the damage and move away again fairly quickly.
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As is fitting, Avarice the Gold Cursed has by far the most loot of any World Boss. Not only will he himself drop loot upon death, but you can attack his giant Treasure Chest he carries for additional rewards. This doesn't even count any Treasure Goblins you might have killed while fighting him. Types of loot you can expect include:
If your group chose to kill all the Treasure Goblins that spawned (on average, four - two per stagger) and then had reasonably good luck with drops, you can walk away with 5-6 Legendary Items from this fight.
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