Blaze

Blazes are mobs with a yellow skin and brown eyes found in The Nether. They primarily spawn from Monster Spawners found mostly inside Nether Fortresses. Their bodies are made up of a head atop a central column of smoke, and three rotating sections. Each rotating section contains four floating yellow rods. Blazes can fly and shoot Fire Charges. They make a metallic breathing sound.

Spawning
Blaze spawners can be found only in Nether Fortresses, and will start spawning Blazes once the player gets within 16 blocks. The spawners have a chance of spawning 1-4 Blazes at once. Blazes can only spawn in light level 11 or lower (at the lower half of their body). Blazes can also spawn naturally elsewhere in Nether Fortresses.

Behavior
Although Blazes are able to fly, they will stay on the ground or sink down slowly in the air when not attacking. Blazes will attempt to swim upwards in lava much like regular mobs behave in water. When they see a player, they will start flying and shooting. They will catch fire briefly before shooting a three round burst of Fire Charges. A short cool down period occurs between attacks.

In addition to normal weapons, Blazes can be hurt by water and snowballs, as well as rain, if they are forced to spawn in the overworld. They are not damaged by fire or lava. When defeated, they drop Blaze Rods, but only if defeated by a player.

Strategy
Blazes are considerably difficult mobs to fight, due to their ranged, unblockable attacks and rapid rate of fire. Their ability to fly usually leaves the player's sword useless, while a player's bow's charging time and move speed leaves the player highly vulnerable to attack. On the other hand, Blazes have a much shorter attack range than the player, which makes it more feasible to snipe them from afar.

Much like Ghasts, the Blaze's ability to fly can make it difficult to recover their loot after killing them. However, a viable tactic of combat is to fight them at close range by reeling them in with a fishing rod first. The use of a potion of fire resistance is extremely helpful when fighting Blazes.
 * Using a Splash potion on you AND an Iron Golem can nearly double the blaze rod count.

'Camping' at a Blaze spawner is an effective way to gather Blaze Rods, as they will always appear close enough to attack with a sword, and there is a delay in their attack after they spawn because they have to charge first. This is best done in combination with the fire resistance potion in effect, which makes the player immune to the Blaze's attacks and can be brewed by adding Magma Cream to awkward potions. You can also build a doorway, 2 blocks tall and 1 block wide, where you can camp and kill the blazes as they come down. This strategy is extremely effective if you cover up the roof of the spawner room and camp in the doorway with a diamond sword. However, make sure that the "Blaze box" is larger than the spawn zone, otherwise the Blaze may spawn outside the box and catch you unaware, giving you little time to react and defend yourself. Again, stay within 16 blocks of the spawner to keep it going. You can also make a blaze trap by making a shelter and make it two blocks deep then mine at the top of the wall until you have a part that opens to the nether and is three blocks wide.

Blazes are also an efficient way to farm experience. They drop 10 experience points when killed by the player, as opposed to only 5 dropped by most other hostile mobs. The above camping method, combined with potions of fire resistance, can generate an average of about 65 experience per minute.

History
Blazes were introduced in Beta 1.9 Pre-release 1.

Starting from Beta 1.9 Pre-release 4 they only dropped items when they aren't on fire (about to attack); This has since been fixed, and they will now have a chance to drop Blaze Rods any time they are killed.

As of Beta 1.9 Pre-release 5, Blazes only drop a Blaze Rod when killed by the player. This makes Blaze farms ineffective

Sounds specific to Blazes were introduced in version 1.0.0RC2. They make "breath" sounds and make metallic clunks when hurt.

Trivia

 * Blazes will not shoot if trapped in a Cobweb, since they do not have a clear line of sight.
 * Unlike Ghasts, projectiles fired by a Blaze cannot be deflected.
 * Fire Charges will set whatever they hit on fire, including solid blocks, mobs, and the player.
 * With a 'fire resistance potion' in effect, the blaze is the only mob whose attacks are capable of being completely neutralized, including their knockback effect. However, they are able to hit players when up close with a melee attack.
 * The player and Snow Golems can kill a blaze with snowballs, although Snow Golems will be killed quickly by the Blazes' attacks.
 * Each snowball deals damage, so it takes 7 snowballs to kill one Blaze.
 * Also, the snow golems will melt before they can do any real damage.
 * Blazes will take damage from rain and snowy weather if spawned into The Overworld.
 * Blazes, despite their almost alien morphology, share a recolored face with The Player and other humanoid mobs.
 * When this mob is not in pursuit of the player, they are bound to the ground. One can observe this as they may jump to get onto higher blocks and drop when going off an edge.
 * One may also observe that when they make contact with a block below they make footstepping noises appropriate to the block, as any earth-bound mob with feet would make, despite being a floating mob.
 * Blazes drop the most experience second to the Ender Dragon.
 * Blazes, when not in pursuit of the player, are affected by gravity, but like a chicken, take no fall damage.
 * If a blaze is struck by lightning it will disappear inside the lightning, then reappear as soon as the lightning finishes.
 * Their texture is called "fire.png." This likely refers to their ability to shoot fireballs or that they light on fire when ready to attack.

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