Elban

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 Elban is the final boss of Act III, Nirgal. He can be encountered at the southern end of Level 40 - The Crucible of Mawrth. Elban is one of the strongest bosses in the game, and is considered by many to be the deadliest. He is known for his high attack speed and overwhelming offensive abilities.

## Chronology

* Previous boss: Gorlak
* Succeeding boss: Garm
	+ Title/Rank: The Highest Disciple (also referred to as The Demiurge)

## Overview

Elban is a tough boss, with his Aztrak armor, reptilian skin and tail all contributing to his toughness and haste. The Demiurge relies on fast-paced, hard-hitting attacks to incapacitate the player early on in the fight. Players will have to be wary of his abilities while remaining constantly on the move to secure victory.

## Abilities

Elban's basic attacks deal greatly reduced damage in comparison to other bosses, though he compensates for this by being mobile and having a higher attack speed.

Elban utilises 5 abilities:

1. **Charge**: An arrow appears on screen, protruding from Elban. After a short cast time, he rushes to the end of the arrow, stunning the player. This ability does minor damage, and can easily be avoided.
2. **Life Drain/Blood Leech**: This ability works quite similarly to that of the Channeling and Draining Ghosts, creating a life-draining red link between himself and his target. It deals increasingly higher damage the longer the link stays activated, and the closer Elban is to his target. Additionally, it heals Elban for the duration of the connection, and the target is slowed as long as Elban is channeling the spell. When the distance between Elban and the target is too great, the link breaks. Life Drain does not heal Elban during the first 1.5 seconds of channeling.
3. **Devastating Assault**: Elban leaps into the air and then targets the player’s position, highlighted by a red circle when his targeting is complete. Elban then unleashes a Devastating Assault, which deals 10000% weapon damage upon landing.
4. **Impale/Assassinate**: Elban teleports next to the player and channels frontal attacks for 3 seconds, attempting to Impale the Hero with great force. Impale deals 150% weapon damage instantly, and causes the Hero to bleed for 25% weapon damage and deal 5% increased damage every second for the remainder of the fight. The Impale bleed effect stacks multiple times.
5. **Break Free**: Elban removes existing Crowd Control Effects (if any), and becomes immune to further Crowd Control for 4 seconds.

*Note: Elban is immune to crowd control effects once he starts channeling any ability.*

## Tips

* Having high movement speed can and will help when dodging an ability such as Devastating Assault (a guaranteed one-hit killer), regardless of your class. It is imperative to have enough recovery from Life on Hit and/or Life Regeneration to mitigate his DPS and Impale's Damage over time.

* When fighting with a Warrior it is important to have Life on Hit and two Weapons, so you are healed faster by executing your attacks more often. (Consider, as well, that having a shield allows you to have a higher amount of damage reduction if you are getting killed too quickly regardless of your recovery.)
* Drawing out the fight is not ideal as successive casts of Impale will make defeating Elban more difficult.

* To avoid a speedy death, attempt to stun or silence Elban once he casts Life Drain, or create distance to break the link as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, use a slowing ability on Elban if you have one, stun him often, and keep those attacks coming!

## Strategy

### Normal Difficulty - Warrior

Elban is a level 40 enemy in Normal difficulty with an unadjusted difficulty level.  I was able to easily defeat him with my test warrior at level 40.

The strategy is similar to the one for Gorlak.  Open the battle with Cleave and a Vortex to group his healers together. Cleave until all the healers die and then switch to Frenzy for its higher single-target DPS and healing effect.  Be sure to hit him occasionally with a single Cleave to apply the -30% attack speed debuff to him so that his damage output is more manageable.  He does not summon further additional enemies, so no worries there.  Use your Charge, Marcus' Charge, and Maggie's Vortex only when necessary to stay alive or to stop Elban from using Charge or Life Drain.  Potions or Apples are necessary, but I didn't have to use any for this fight.
### Heroic Difficulty - Mage

It is recommended to have a damage rating of at least 45,000 so that your time against Elban will be shorter. A shorter fight means less chances to make deadly mistakes.

Pay close attention to his 3 skills. Devise a way to counter or block each of these skills. Here is one way to do it.

1. **Maggie Spell: Silence**

This will prevent all 3 of Elban's spells.

1. **Mage** **Spell: Time Warp**

This will make both Leap and his Charged shot dodgeable.

1. **Mage Spell: Frost Nova**

This will prevent him from casting all 3 of his spells and interrupt both Charged Shot and Life Drain.

1. **Attacks: Arcane Missiles and Frost Bolts**

You can use the Frost Bolt to slow him when he is chasing you and hopefully freeze him. But all other times you should use Arcane Missiles since they deal the most damage for a single-target attack. Having Arcane Missiles at lvl 10 with 4 pieces of Arcanist gear will result in massive amounts of damage.
By cycling through these three spells and dodging when Elban casts Leap or Charge during Time Warp is a solid strategy for beating him.

Start by casting Silence. When it is about to wear off, cast Time Warp. While Elban is slowed you can dodge his Leap and Charge. If he starts Life Drain, cast Frost Nova to interrupt it. When his speed returns to normal, begin the cycle again.

Additionally, you may want to improve your Ability Rate in order to get your spells to be ready faster when facing the Demiurge.

## Trivia

* Later in the game, he took a seat in the old crucible of Mawrth right beneath Malador on planet Nirgal in order to save time for his evil lord and master Ragadam, giving him a chance to channel his power into the whole Eternium universe.
* Elban is the author of the journal entry *(see: Books (story) for more details) Project Desparia* known to be located on Elderath's moon: Levania.