Zoltun Kulle is a really fun fight and can be quite challenging, especially for squishier classes. Here’s my video guide to beating Zoltun Kulle if you would prefer to watch rather than read.
Key abilities that Kulle uses:
Fireball
- He shoots a big fireball that hurts a LOT. I have 62% resist all and 73% armor mitigation in this video and it still takes away between 1/4 and 1/2 of my life. There’s a very distinctive sound when he shoots the fireball and if you just move in ANY direction when you hear that sound you should avoid the fireball.
Time slow bubble
- Zoltun will occasionally drop a time slow bubble that works much like the Wizard’s time slow bubble. You want to avoid standing in there, as it makes your attacks slower and also you won’t be able to move out of the way of fireballs in time to avoid them. These bubbles are very easy to avoid. Popping serenity also makes you invulnerable to the time-slow effects(at least the part that slows your movement speed, I’m not sure if your attacks are still slowed).
Tornados
- Zoltun will spawn tornadoes around him. These move around the map randomly and hurt a LOT if you get hit. Rule of thumb, if you THINK a tornado is coming at you, just move out of the way. It may decide to veer off course but it’s worth losing a few seconds of DPS time in order to avoid a tornado, even if you’re not sure whether it’ll actually come at you or not. Overall these are very easy to avoid provided that you’re alert.
Invisibility
- From time to time Zoltun will disappear and laugh. I’m not sure what the point of this mechanic is. But it’s a great time to collect health orbs if you’re low on health and rez dead friends if you’re playing co-op.
Dropping the ceiling
- Kulle will cast an animation and make another distinctive sound when he casts this ability. It makes rubble fall from the ceiling onto your head and can be very painful if you get caught in the middle. The best strategy to avoid dying to this ability is to run 180 degrees away from whichever direction you were heading whenever you hear him cast this.
Zoltun Kulle phase one:
You start off by fighting Kulle and his two giant minions. The minions don’t have very much HP but do hit like a truck so you want to dart in and out of combat. Attack for .5-1 seconds, then run away, repeat. Pop your serenity proactively to stay in there and do sustained damage. The same goes for your blind. Make sure the 15% increased damage buff from breath of heaven is up at all times. Don’t be afraid to blow your cooldowns, they’re there to be used! I try to keep my CDs always on refresh, because that means I’ve got to use them more in a fight, and that equals out to more dps/more healing/more time invulnerable.
Zoltun Kulle phase two:
Phase two is really simple. It’s just Kulle. He’ll sometimes disappear and teleport around the map. All you have to do is keep chasing him down, avoid his fireballs/tornadoes/avalanches. Again use your cooldowns!
It’s not a difficult encounter once you get the hang of it. After dying to fireballs and tornadoes a few times you’ll be a pro at recognizing when they’re being cast and dodging them.
The build I used for this Kulle fight(I also got 4 stacks of Nephalem valor killing elite packs in the beginning of Act 1 before this fight using this same build).
Check out my different Diablo 3 Monk build guides here.