Note this is a community written guide by DiabloHub member Methrin. If you want your own guide or article spotlighted simply post it on the forums or send me a message directly. However not every community written piece will be accepted.

This guide is mostly intended for hardcore players but it can also be used in softcore to save you some repair bills or make fights easier. If you develop your spatial awareness in softcore, the leap to hardcore will be much simpler!

What is spatial awareness? It is the art of knowing where you are, and where things are next to you. Spatial awareness refers to one’s ability to locate himself in a given area, locate other beings and objects and in general, being able to use that information advantageously.

In Diablo 3, spatial awareness can best be described as the ability to know where to put your character to maximize efficiency in both damage output and damage received in your current, and sometimes previous, surroundings.

Let’s go over some examples.

For example; by leaping a corner, you are taking a massive shortcut, even the fastest monsters will have a tough time catching up to you because of the huge detour they have to take to follow you. Hell, some of them might even get lost on the way. This trick obviously only works with the Barbarian (Leap) and Wizard (Teleport) but either one can also use this trick to get a few ranged hits on monsters from a safe distance!

Thank god I remembered that cellar

This is another example of using your surroundings to survive, 2 rare monsters with their minions and a bunch of other buddies ready to corner you and make you squeal? Yeah, you better run to that cellar to hide. You’ll be safe in there and you can even make a town portal and use a waypoint to go back to the zone in safety (that is, if you remember to stay the hell away from that cellar!

[b]I ain’t scared of that molten pack.[/b]

Of course, spatial awareness isn’t just about running away like a sissy, it’s also about making sure you kick ass efficiently and this is a prime example. I love those doorframes with sand because they block projectiles. Because of this, the molten affix is much less dangerous if you keep some of the monsters on the other side of the wall!

Another example, those dark berserkers hurt and those cultist champions also pack quite a punch, by using the doorframe, I’m only fighting 2 at a time, tops, which is awesome because none of these guys have a chance one-on-one. If they could surround me, it’d be a different story.

As you can see, there is no specific rule for spatial awareness, just look at where you are fighting & what you are fighting against and try to use the terrain to your advantage.