When, Where And How To Beat World Boss Ashava During The Beta

The Diablo 4 beta is here, though for many it continues to be an exercise in patience as the game buckles under the weight of overwhelmed servers, myriad bugs and crashes and various other problems. Players who are lucky enough to get some quality game-time in have a pretty great game on their hands—or at least one with the potential to be great.

One fun thing about Diablo IV is the advent of special world bosses. These bosses can be defeated once per week once the game releases on June 6th, and during special times during this weekend’s open beta. The first of those times is almost upon us.

Ashava the Pestilent (pictured above) is the beta’s only world boss and can be challenged by groups of up to 12 players. The fight is extremely challenging, but defeating her gives you some high-level legendary loot. Here’s everything you need to know.

Where Is Ashava Located?

Ashava can be found in the Level 25 zone called The Crucible—the orange icon on the map below:

As you can see, you’ll find Ashava at the far eastern side of the map, well to the east of Kyovashad and north-east of Yelesna.

What Times Can You Fight Ashava?

The Ashava world boss fight will take place across four waves today and tomorrow. You have 15 minutes to defeat Ashava once they arrive in the Crucible. You’ll still get some rewards for not defeating the world boss, but much better rewards if you do.

• March 25 at 11 a.m. PDT / 2 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. CET / 6 p.m. GMT
• March 25 at 1 p.m. PDT / 4 p.m. EDT / 9 p.m. CET / 8 p.m. GMT
• March 25 at 11 p.m. PDT / March 26 at 2 a.m. EDT / 8 a.m. CET / 7 a.m. GMT
• March 26 at 1 a.m. PDT / 4 a.m. EDT / 10 a.m. CET / 9 a.m. GMT

How To Beat Ashava

Ashava has a number of moves you’ll need to be aware of, making her a more complicated and fun boss than most Diablo bosses of the past. Note that all of these attacks include persistent poison damage. She is Ashava the Pestilent, after all.

Another important note: Ashava scales based on the number of players fighting her, meaning she’ll be at her most powerful if a full cadre of 12 players is trying to take her down. You might have better luck with higher-skilled players at a lower player count.

Ashava’s move-set includes:

• Ground Pound. Ashava will do a quick backstep and then wind up and pound the spot she was just at.
• Lunging Chomp. Ashava dips her head low and and snaps her neck toward her target. Her bite is often a one-shot kill.
• Pounce Stomp. Ashava crouches back on her hindlegs and then leaps forward, knocking down targets.
• Area of Attack Sweep: Ashava sweeps around in a 360 spin with one of her forearm blades, followed by a half-spin with the other blade in the same direction. You’ll see her telegraph the attack when she raises her arm almost all the way back to her shoulder. Can knockdown or insta-kill players.
• Poison Clouds. Ashava breathes / vomits up clouds of poisonous gas that turn to poison pools on the ground dealing ongoing damage. You’ll see this coming when she stands up and green drool starts coming out of her mouth.
• Plow Back. Ahsava raises upright with both blades before striking the ground rapidly and plowing it up back toward her hindlegs. Can insta-kill or drag players.

Strategy:

• Avoid and evade Ashava’s attacks by staying behind her whenever you can. If you’re a melee player this is especially true.
• Utilize any gear or skills that create barriers / shields / domes / etc to counter her physical attacks.
• Any poison resistant gear you have, equip. You’ll take constant poison damage so this is crucial.
• Remember: If you die and use a checkpoint, you’ll lose 10% durability on gear so try to revive allies (and hopefully they’ll return the favor).

Staggering is key. The gold bar under Ashava’s health bar indicates when she’ll stagger, flopping to the ground and opening herself up to attacks. To achieve this you must deal what Blizzard calls Crowd Control damage. The following effects cause Crowd Control damage:

• Chill
• Daze
• Fear
• Freeze
• Immobilize
• Knockdown
• Knockback
• Slow
• Stun
• Taunt
• Tether

Loot Exploit

Currently you can exploit Ashava’s loot drops. When Ashava goes live in the Crucible, everyone playing the game has exactly 15 minutes to defeat her and loot up. If you can defeat her faster, simply loot and teleport back to town and then re-enter the Crucible. You’ll enter another instance of the fight and have another chance to take down the world boss and get more loot before the 15 minutes is up. If you’re in a party everyone has to leave the current instance to make this work.

Of course, the main struggle may not be Ashava at all but merely staying connected to the game long enough to beat her—if you make it past the login queue! Good luck!