Hillock

Hillock
Hillock
Location(s)	Twilight Strand
Quest(s)	Enemy at the Gate

Hillock is a unique monster in the Twilight Strand in Act 1.

Defeating him is the objective of the quest Enemy at the Gate.

Lore

They called him "Hillock". He was born huge: so large that he nearly split his mother in two. Growing up, he was kept from other children, for worries that his freakish size would lead to injury whenever play turned rough. As he grew into a man, his growth continued unabated, and people came from far away to behold him. Fittingly, Hillock found work as a Blacksmith, his massive arms capable of swinging a hammer faster and harder than three men. Hillock was a man of tremendous appetites, the greatest of which was drink. After a day of work, he could often be found surrounded by stacks of mugs, building a stupor to match his strength. He was giant, but mostly harmless, and things might have stayed that way if only that drifter had kept his mouth shut. It was probably an innocent comment, perhaps made in jest. Whatever the case, Hillock was deep in his cups, and the drifter's words sent the giant man into a drunken rage. His first blow killed the offender, nearly tearing his head from his shoulders, and when his friends rushed to help, they were met with snarling fury. By the end of the melee, the ground was drenched in blood, the floor strewn with mangled, trampled bodies. Hillock staggered back to the smithy to nurse his wounds. No one dared enter to make him answer for his crime, and in the days that followed, people were made uneasy by a ceaseless clanging and scraping that drifted out of the building.

When Hillock finally emerged, he was a changed man. He was silent and humorless, and now he carried with him a gigantic blade, fashioned from his long, frenzied labors in the aftermath of the slaughter. Having tasted murder, Hillock had an appetite for that as well, and he would hack off a man's limbs or head at the slightest ill glance or provocation. Finally, a group of his victims gathered their courage, and in the dead of night, they crept into the smithy, where four of the strongest among them plunged the great sword into Hillock's chest while he slept. Then they carried him far away, and hurled his body down the cliffs into the ocean.

That should have been the end of him, but it wasn't. Some months later, a breathless fisherman returned from seas off the coast of nearby Wraeclast, and reported that he'd seen a hulking, staggering apparition in the surf. Following that sighting, the bodies began to pile up, butchered like cattle, hacked to bloody pieces. In death, Hillock is a far greater terror than he ever was in life. He walks the shores of Wraeclast now, his animated corpse still pierced by the great sword that slew him. He does not feel the icy ocean spray, nor the numerous arrows that now riddle his body. His cold heart is filled with a terrible malice. Any brave enough to put him down for good would surely be met with great reward.

Strategy

Hillock is easy on normal difficulty. Simply attacking him repeatedly will do. At around 50% of his life Hillock pulls the sword out of his chest which will increase his attack speed while also restoring a portion of his life

In Cruel and Merciless difficulty, when Hillock is at 50% of his life, he starts to use Leap Slam which spawns Unstable Aberrations from the ground where he lands. Unstable Aberrations leave a poison cloud on death dealing chaos damage over time.

Map variants

Stronger versions of Hillock serve as map bosses:

Map	Level	Name	Notes
Dunes MapDunes MapMap Level: 69 Map Tier: 2 Guild Character: AShifting, morphing, expanding. A reminder of the virtues of an agile mind.Travel to this Map by using it in a personal Map Device. Maps can only be used once.	66	The Blacksmith	Leap Slam Spawns Unstable Aberrations
Spider Forest MapSpider Forest MapMap Level: 74 Map Tier: 7 Guild Character: ÃEach branch, each leaf, an extension of a web that spans sanity.Travel to this Map by using it in a personal Map Device. Maps can only be used once.	69	The Blacksmith	Leap Slam Spawns Unstable Aberrations

Version History

Version	Changes
1.3.0c	Fixed a bug where there could be a short clientside freeze when Hillock was killed.
1.1.3	Removed the invulnerability period from Hillock when he is drawing his sword in all difficulties.
1.0.6	Hillock now uses the same triggered effect that the Blacksmith does, in Cruel and Merciless difficulties. The damage of the poison cloud produced by his zombies has been reduced in all instances (including Maps).