The Butcher (Diablo III)

"The truth about the Butcher demon was more startling than I ever anticipated. Evidently, there are many of them within the Burning Hells, though they used to be solely under Diablo's command. The butchers are stitched together from the parts of other demons to combine their strengths, then given life through wicked magic."

- Deckard Cain

The Butcher is the first act boss of Diablo III, a mighty demon in service of Maghda and her coven.

In-game
The Butcher, Flesh Carver serves as an Act Boss in the first Act of Diablo III. Much like its Diablo I counterpart, the Butcher opens the fight with the famous line "Fresh meat!". He features very aggressive behavior during the fight, combining rage timers, charges, and dragging players out of reach back to him. He will stomp the ground and charge at the walls, regardless of the flaming tiles.

The Butcher appears in the Chamber of Suffering in Quest 9 of Act I. Upon defeating him, the player gains access to the room where the Stranger is kept imprisoned by more zealots. Being an act boss, slaughter of the Butcher is necessary for continuation of the storyline.

The combat starts immediately as the player enters the Chamber of Suffering. After a short cutscene, the Butcher is unleashed. The layout of the room is an octangular arena with two Health Pools (upper left and upper right corners). The room is divided into seven segments, each of them counting as a separate Fire Grate (see below).

Attacks
Enrage Timer: On Torment difficulty, the Butcher has a hard enrage timer of 3 minutes. After that time, all fire grates will activate at once and stay that way until the end of the combat.
 * Quick Smash: The Butcher will swing his weaponry at a nearby hero, dealing low damage on a successful hit.
 * Heavy Smash: The Butcher impatiently jumps two times (to allow visually predicting this move and give the player time to retreat) and slams his axe into the ground, dealing heavy damage to everything in a short cone before him. Running away to his side (not directly away from him!) is advised.
 * Ancient Spear: This functions much like the skill of the same name accessible to the did prior to the pre-expansion patch, with the only difference being that the Butcher will always use a multitude of them instead of just one, effectively hitting a broad cone in front of him.
 * Charge: The Butcher will highlight a straight line, and then charge in that direction. While highlighting, a repulsion occurs. Should either of these hit a hero, they will suffer Knockback, and the charge itself (not the repulsion) also causes heavy damage. In addition, should the charge kill someone, all that will remain is a bloodied skeleton of themselves. However, at the end of his charge, the Butcher headbutts into the wall and is stunned for 1 second.
 * Sickle Grab: The Butcher will use his sickle to grab a distant hero and pull them into melee range. This momentarily stuns the hero grabbed. While the victim is stunned, the Butcher will ready his axe to use the Heavy Smash attack, delivering the blow unless interrupted. Before using the sickle, the Butcher aims for the moment, so run to either the left or right (not away!) from the estimated sickle trajectory.
 * Fire Grates: While fighting the Butcher, the fire grates will begin activating, causing average Fire damage over time to those foolish enough to stand still over them. After burning for several seconds, the grate extinguishes, but another one will ignite immediately. As the fight drags on, more and more of these grates will activate at once, leaving little breathing room. Before activation, each grate is highlighted, showing the player that it is the moment to move aside. Remember that sections with Health Pools can ignite too.

Man Carver is the Rift Guardian variant of The Butcher.

The Butcher may also drop Flail of Carnage.

Anniversary Dungeon
An alternate (Diablo I-styled) version of the Butcher appears in the Anniversary Dungeon, on the second level of the labyrinth, as in the original game.

His skillset only consists of two attacks, unlike his Act Boss fight appearance, but in return, both deal much higher damage; the Heavy Smash, in particular, can easily one-hit kill even fully-equipped tanks with hundreds of millions of Toughness on the higher difficulty settings.

Quotes

 * "Fresh meat!"
 * "Zombie flesh, good, human flesh, better!"
 * "Vegetable, bad. Meat, good"
 * "Run, coward!"

Trivia

 * His primary weapons, the Butcher's Carver and The Butcher's Sickle, are obtainable as legendary two-handed and one-handed axes respectively.