This weekend the Diablo 4 servers will be tested one last time with the Server Slam event. Everyone can enter the world of Sanctuary from May 12th through the 14th. During that time you can obtain the rewards from the Open Beta in March as well as a new cosmetic, the Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy. This trophy is the reward for defeating the World Boss Ashava with a Level 20 character! This is no easy task, so the following Ashava builds and tips will give you a much greater chance in achieving it!
Server Slam Info
The Server Slam event takes place from May 12, 12 p.m. PDT to May 14, 12 p.m. PDT. During that time you can play Diablo 4 on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 - including couch co-op for consoles and cross-play and cross-progression for all platforms.
- Characters from the Open Beta do NOT transfer over to the Server Slam. It is a fresh start!
- The maximum Level is 20. YOU HAVE TO BE Level 20 when killing Ashava to receive the Cry of Ashava Mount Trophy!
- Legendary Item drop rates reflect what you can expect for the launch version of Diablo 4.
- All five classes can be played.
- You are limited to the boarders of Fractured Peaks. This includes the main story of Act 1.
- Ashava spawns every 3 hours, starting on May 13 at 9 a.m. PDT. You can face her 8 times!
Combat Tips
Wudijo did a great job showing how to fight Ashava in his video. Make sure to check it out!
Level 20 Ashava Builds
Legendary Aspects will be very hard to come by, and you are limited to 21 Skill Points. We expect the following builds to do just fine without any Aspects. Your chances of success go up when grouped with other players in which you all work together to maximize the party's damage, defense, and buffs!
Skill Point Allocation
Offensive
- Flay (1 point)
- Enhanced Flay
- Upheaval (5 points)
- Enhanced Upheaval
- Furious Upheaval
- War Cry (1 point)
- Enhanced War Cry
Defensive
- Rallying Cry (1 point)
- Enhanced Rallying Cry
- Tactical Rallying Cry
- Challenging Shout (1 point)
- Enhanced Challenging Shout
- Tactical Challenging Shout
- Leap (1 point)
- Enhanced Leap
- Power Leap
- Booming Voice (1 point)
- Raid Leader (1 point)
Playstyle
To generate Fury, get into melee range and attack Ashava with Flay. Use this 8 times to stack up Furious Upheaval and make her Vulnerable. Make sure to keep the damage reduction buff up at all times.
Upheaval is a great ranged damage ability if you have enough Fury to use it. Use Flay, Leap and Rallying Cry on cooldown to generate enough resources at this low level. Note: If you get any Legendary Aspects for Hammer of the Ancients or Rend, those abilities can be used in place of Upheaval.
War Cry gives you some extra offense and the incredible berserking buff.
Gear
These are your priority stats on gear:
- Helmet: Life > Strength > Socket > Poison Resistance
- Chest Armor: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Poison Resistance > Strength
- Gloves: Upheaval Ranks > Critical Strike Chance > Attack Speed > Strength
- Pants: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Life Regeneration while Not Damaged > Strength
- Boots: Movement Speed > Fury Cost Reduction > Strength > Poison Resistance
- Amulet: % Damage > Resource Cost Reduction > % Life > Movement Speed
- Rings: Critical Strike Chance > Critical Strike Damage > Vulnerable Damage > Life
- Weapons: Core Skill Damage > Critical Strike Damage > Vulnerable Damage > Strength
- Gems
- Weapon - Emeralds
- Armor pieces - Rubies, Amethysts or Sapphires
- Jewelry - Emeralds or Skulls
Helpful Legendary Aspects
- Offensive Aspect of Ancestral Echoes - Summons Ancients that also cast Upheaval.
- Offensive Aspect of Ancestral Force - Hammer of the Ancients quakes outward. (Respec to HOTA if you get this)
- Resource Aspect of Echoing Fury - Generates extra Fury from Shouts.
- Offensive Aspect of Limitless Rage- Increases Core Skill damage.
Skill Point Allocation
Offensive
- Storm Strike (1 point)
- Enhanced Storm Strike
- Fierce Storm Strike
- Landslide (5 points)
- Enhanced Landslide
- Primal Landslide
- Ravens (1 point)
- Enhanced Ravens
- Ferocious Ravens
- Nature's Reach (3 points)
Defensive
- Earthen Bulwark (1 point)
- Enhanced Earthen Bulwark
- Preserving Earthen Bulwark
- Cyclone Armor (1 point)
- Blood Howl (1 point)
Playstyle
To generate Spirit, get into melee range and attack Ashava with Storm Strike. As a side effect, you gain 25% damage reduction and have a 50% to make her Vulnerable. Make sure to keep the damage reduction buff up at all times.
Landslide is by far the best damage dealing ability on the Druid. After generating Spirit, ideally to the maximum, move away from Ashava, and unleash nature's power on her. Cast the active ability of Ravens on top of her, then spam Landslide as much as possible.
Earthen Bulwark is your "getting out of jail free card". It instantly removes the powerful Poison Damage Ashava dishes out. Alternatively, you can use it to increase your chance of surviving her physical attacks.
Blood Howl is basically a small Healing vial every 15 seconds. Prioritize this Skill over the use of your actual Healing Potion, so it is available when you need it!
Cyclone Armor passively grants Resistances against heavy Poison Damage. Put it on your Skill bar and forget about it.
Gear
These are your priority stats on gear:
- Helmet: Life > Willpower > Socket > Poison Resistance
- Chest Armor: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Poison Resistance > Willpower
- Gloves: Ranks to Landslide > Critical Strike Chance > Attack Speed > Willpower
- Pants: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Life Regeneration while Not Damaged > Willpower
- Boots: Movement Speed > Spirit Cost Reduction > Willpower > Poison Resistance
- Amulet: % Damage > Resource Cost Reduction > % Life > Movement Speed
- Rings: Critical Strike Chance > Critical Strike Damage > Vulnerable Damage > Life
- Two-Handed Staff: Core Skill Damage > Critical Strike Damage > Vulnerable Damage > Willpower
- Gems
- Weapon - Emeralds
- Armor pieces - Rubies, Amethysts or Sapphires
- Jewelry - Emeralds or Skulls
Helpful Legendary Aspects
- Accelerating Offensive Aspect - Increases Attack Speed drastically when a Core Skill Critical Strikes.
- Conceited Offensive Aspect - Increased Damage while Barrier is active.
- Defensive Aspect of Cyclonic Force - Cyclone Armor also grants Physical Damage Reduction.
- Edgemaster’s Offensive Aspect - Increased Damage based on available Resource.
- Defensive Aspect of Mending Stone - Increase Earthen Bulwark uptime to over 50%
- Offensive Aspect of Natural Balance - Earth Skills deal increased Critical Strike Damage for 4 seconds after casting a Storm Skill.
- Nighthowler's Offensive Aspect - Increased Critical Strike Chance for a few seconds.
- Offensive Aspect of The Aftershock - Increased damage for Landslide.
Skill Point Allocation
Offensive
- Decompose (1 point)
- Enhanced Decompose
- Acolyte's Decompose
- Bone Spear (5 points)
- Enhanced Bone Spear
- Supernatural Bone Spear
- Skeletal Warrior Mastery (3 points)
- Skeletal Mage Mastery (3 points)
Defensive
- Blood Mist (1 point)
- Death's Embrace (3 points)
- Decrepify (1 point)
Book of the Dead
- Skeletal Warrior: Skirmishers with Upgrade 1
- Skeletal Mage: Shadow with Upgrade 2
Playstyle
Get directly underneath Ashava and use Decompose to generate Essence and increase your Minion's damage while you wait to unload a ton of Bone Spears. Staying underneath also helps your Minions to stay roughly within the safest zone of this fight.
Bone Spear can hit Ashava 4 times on each cast and always applies Vulnerable which increases your Minions damage significantly while also increasing other's damage as well. Make sure to have a good amount of Essence before the 1st cast of Bone Spear, so you can get as many empowered hits on her as possible during the duration.
Blood Mist is your "getting out of jail free card". It instantly removes the powerful Poison Damage Ashava dishes out. Try to time your use when you really need it to never get caught in a bad scenario.
Decrepify is our Stagger-stacking option, while also decreasing Ashava's damage output against everyone. There's a chance this debuff keeps someone alive that otherwise would be 1-shot. People alive for longer means better damage output across the board!
Make sure to use any Corpses that spawn far away from Ashava for Healing and Empowering your Minions. Don't let any good Corpses go to waste, and try to keep their health totals topped off as often as possible.
Gear
These are your priority stats on gear:
- Helmet: Life > Intellect > Socket > Poison Resistance
- Chest Armor: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Poison Resistance > Intelligence
- Gloves: Bone Spear Ranks > Attack Speed > Intelligence
- Pants: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Intelligence
- Boots: Movement Speed > Essence Cost Reduction > Intelligence > Poison Resistance
- Amulet: % Damage > Resource Cost Reduction > % Life > Movement Speed
- Rings: Shadow Damage % > Vulnerable Damage > Life
- Two-Handed Sword: Core Skill Damage > Vulnerable Damage > Intelligence
- Gems
- Weapon - Emeralds
- Armor pieces - Rubies, Amethysts or Sapphires
- Jewelry - Emeralds or Skulls
Helpful Legendary Aspects
- Defensive Aspect of the Protector - Gain a Barrier whenever you damage an Elite.
- Conceited Offensive Aspect - Increased Damage while Barrier is active.
- Exploiter's Utility Aspect - Gain additional damage against a target that is Unstoppable.
- Edgemaster’s Offensive Aspect - Increased Damage based on available Resource.
- Offensive Aspect of Explosive Mist - Makes Blood Mist trigger Corpse Explosion and reduce its cooldown.
Skill Point Allocation
Offensive
- Heartseeker (1 point)
- Enhanced Heartseeker
- Fundamental Heartseeker
- Rapid Fire (5 points)
- Enhanced Rapid Fire
- Advanced Rapid Fire
- Poison Imbuement (1 point)
- Enhanced Poison Imbuement
Defensive
- Shadow Step (1 point)
- Dash (1 point)
- Enhanced Dash
- Dark Shroud (1 point)
- Enhanced Dark Shroud
- Countering Dark Shroud
- Deadly Venom (1 point)
- Debilitating Toxins (2 points)
Specialization: Combo Points
Playstyle
With Combo Points, make sure to always use Rapid Fire when you have exactly 3 CPs. This 3:1 cycle guarantees that you don't have any resource issues and great damage output. For extra damage, activate Poison Imbuement on cooldown but avoid wasting its charges on Shadow Step or Dash.
Stay at a safe distance from Ashava and use Shadow Step + Dash (and Evade) to close gaps or dodge incoming attacks. Make sure to keep up Dark Shroud stacks by reactivating the ability after you took damage for better protection.
Note: If you found the Bladedancer's Offensive Aspect for Twisting Blades, you can also play a similar setup with that skill and the Inner Sight Specialization, focusing more on spamming your Core Skill. If no one else in the party brings the Vulnerable debuff, you can switch your Basic Skill to Forceful Arrow or Puncture to help out the team.
Gear
These are your priority stats on gear:
- Helmet: Ranks to Poison Imbuement > Life > Socket > Poison Resistance
- Chest Armor: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets > Poison Resistance
- Gloves: Rapid Fire Ranks > Critical Strike Chance > Attack Speed
- Pants: Life > % Damage Reduction > Sockets
- Boots: Movement Speed > Energy Cost Reduction > Poison Resistance
- Amulet: Damage > Energy Cost Reduction > % Life > Movement Speed
- Rings: Critical Strike Chance > Critical Strike Damage > Vulnerable Damage > Life
- Weapons: Core Skill Damage > Critical Strike Damage > Vulnerable Damage
- Gems
- Weapon - Emeralds
- Armor pieces - Rubies
- Jewelry - Emeralds or Skulls
Helpful Legendary Aspects
- Defensive Aspect of the Protector - Gives you a Barrier when hitting Elites. (Codex Power)
- Energizing Resource Aspect - Restores Energy when hitting Elites with a Basic Skill. (Codex Power)
- Offensive Aspect of the Expectant - Provides extra damage after using a Basic Skill, great with Combo Points.
- Edgemaster’s Offensive Aspect - Increases damage done based on available Resource.
- Accelerating Offensive Aspect - Increases Attack Speed after critically striking.
- Defensive Aspect of Might - Increases damage reduction after using a Basic Skill.
Skill Point Allocation
Offensive
- Fire Bolt (5 points)
- Enhanced Fire Bolt
- Glinting Fire Bolt
- Hydra (2 points)
- Enhanced Hydra
- Summoned Hydra
- Firewall (3 points)
- Enhanced Firewall
- Mage's Firewall
Defensive
- Ice Armor (1 point)
- Enhanced Ice Armor
- Flame Shield (1 point)
- Teleport (1 point)
- Align the Elements (1 point)
Enchantment Slot
Firewall
Playstyle
Dealing damage with this build is very straightforward. You have 3 damage skills and you use them in following situations:
- Hydra - when your old Hydra expires or when Ashava jumps away.
- Firewall - when you have 30 or more Mana
- Fire Bolt - when you have less than 30 Mana
For defense you also have 3 skills. Both Ice Armor and Flame Shield allow you to facetank one attack from the boss but they have rather long cooldown. Teleport lets you get out of the way when your shields are down. Finally, you have Align the Elements passive which lets you survive a hit even if you don't have any shields up. Remember that it takes 40 seconds to stack up so you can't be getting hit too often.
All your skills can be used at range but being far away from Ashava doesn't really make it much safer to fight. It's best to stay midrange so that you are outside of the boss' melee moves but can easily Teleport in to avoid the 360 sweep.
Gear
These are your priority stats on gear:
- Helmet: Cooldown Reduction > Ranks to Hydra
- Chest Armor: Armor > % Damage Reduction > Sockets
- Gloves: Attack Speed > Fire Damage Over Time > Critical Strike Chance
- Pants: Ranks to Firewall > Armor > % Damage Reduction
- Boots: Ranks to Defensive Skills > Mana Cost Reduction > Movement Speed
- Amulet: Ranks to Defensive Skills > Mana Cost Reduction > % Damage > Cooldown Reduction
- Rings: Distant Damage > Fire Damage > Vulnerable Damage
- Weapon: Distant Damage > Damage Over Time > Vulnerable Damage
- Focus: Mana Cost Reduction > Cooldown Reduction > Critical Strike Chance
- Gems
- Weapon - Amethysts
- Armor pieces - Rubies
- Jewelry - Skulls
If one of your items has +1 Rank to All Defensive Skills, you can free up 3 Skill Points and invest them into Firewall and Inner Flames.
Helpful Legendary Aspects
- Prodigy’s Resource Aspect - Regenerates Mana when you use a Cooldown.
- Incendiary Resource Aspect - Burning damage has a chance to restore Mana.
- Conceited Offensive Aspect - Increased Damage while Barrier is active.
- Storm Swell Offensive Aspect - Increased Vulnerable Damage while Barrier is active.
- Edgemaster’s Offensive Aspect - Increased Damage based on available Resource. If you have this, wait for your Mana to regen to full before casting Firewall.
Diablo 4 is Almost Here!
The Maxroll Diablo 4 Team wishes you luck on killing Ashava this weekend and defeating the demon hordes when Diablo 4 launches in June! We hope to see you in Sanctuary, fighting along with us. To never miss when new guides release, join our Discord and select the D4 role in #roles channel. Lilith, your time has come!
The Maxroll Diablo 4 Team