Blaze

Blaze (a.k.a. Nether Guard, Guardian) is a type of mob found in The Nether. In their searching state they are confined to the ground and do not blow smoke. They will not start flying unless they spot the player. When pursuing, they catch fire for a short while before making their attack in the form of a three round burst of fireballs. After the attack they have a short cool down and then they will catch fire and attack again. 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. They drop Blaze Rods, and can only spawn in Nether fortresses, often from Mob Spawners. The triple fireballs they shoot set players and mobs alike on fire. Despite appearing exactly like a Ghast fireball, Blaze Fireballs are not explosive, and cannot be deflected.

Combat
Blazes are one of the most difficult mobs to fight, due to their ranged, unblockable attacks and rapid rate of fire. Their ability to fly usually leaves the player's melee weapons useless, while a player's bow's charging time and move speed leaves the player highly vulnerable to attack. On the other hand, Blaze have a much shorter attack range, which makes it more feasible to snipe them from afar. Blaze can only spawn in light level 12 or lower. 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 rendering the player virtually invulnerable to their attacks.

Blaze spawners occur in Nether fortresses, and will start spawning Blazes once the player gets within 16 blocks. The spawners have a chance of spawning 1-3 Blazes at once. '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. A Blaze suffers damage upon contact with water or from snowballs.

History
Blazes were introduced in Beta 1.9 Pre-release 1. Starting from Beta 1.9 Pre-release 4 they only drop items when they aren't on fire (about to attack).

Trivia

 * The light level of an area to disable a spawnable area has to be 13 or higher. That means you have to place torches everywhere in the spawner's spawn radius to prevent them from spawning. As torches only have one light level more, this makes it very difficult but still possible to disable a spawner.
 * This mob takes damage over time from standing in water similar to the Enderman; by placing ice obtained with the "Silk Touch" enchantment and a roof over the spawning room it may be possible to create a blaze grinder.
 * Blaze cannot shoot if trapped in a Cobweb.
 * Blaze do not have a body, unlike other mobs. They are simply floating heads over a cloud of smoke surrounded by spinning rods.
 * Unlike Ghasts, projectiles fired by a Blaze cannot be deflected, so hitting the projectiles would be pointless.
 * Blaze projectiles will set whatever they hit on fire, which includes 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 neutralized, including their knockback effect. However, they are able to hit players when up close. Whether this is only when about to shoot fireballs at point-blank range, or akin to a zombie attack, it is not yet clear.
 * The player and Snow Golems can kill a blaze with snowballs, although Snow Golems will be killed quickly by the Blazes' attacks.
 * It takes 7 snowballs to kill one Blaze.
 * As of 1.9_6, Blazes no longer drop anything if they are killed by water, rending Blaze grinders useless.

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