Ancient Arena Zone Event Guide

The Ancient Arena zone event takes place in the Bilefen. This is a time-sensitive PvP event that happens in the Bilefen zone and rewards its winners with guaranteed Legendary loot. The breakdown of the event is:

• When: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 PM server time.
• Where: The northeastern corner of the Bilefen zone. The shortest path is actually through the Library of Zoltun Kulle zone, by taking the Writhing Ingress Waypoint and exiting through the Bilefen portal. It takes you to the Putrid Marsh just outside the Ancient Arena.
• Why: Winner gets a guaranteed Legendary gear drop, Enchanted Dust, as well as additional loot of varying quality.

When the countdown to the match ends, the Arena locks down and no additional players are able to enter. Players already present within the Ancient Arena Proving Grounds immediately turn hostile, and the free-for-all PvP match is on! Note however that you can — and should, if you want to have any hopes of winning! — group up with other players. This vastly improves your chances to be the "last one standing".

Along with players turning hostile, you get an additional adversary. An Ancient Guardian spawns next to the Nephalem Cache in the center of the Arena! As long as the Ancient Guardian lives, the chest will remain locked; once he is down, you get the opportunity to open the cache.

Opening the unlocked cache is a 10-second long interaction, interruptible by your own or other players' actions. It is not necessary to kill all players present in the fight to open the cache, so if your teammates manage to keep them busy, you can sneak in a victory if uninterrupted.

Characters slain in the Arena drop Ancient Energy Globes; picking one up increases the damage you deal, Highlander-style. Players defeated in the Proving Grounds respawn outside and cannot return to the Arena until the fight is over.

As previously mentioned, the Ancient Arena is a free-for-all slaughterfest. Smart play will be rewarded however; in order to improve your chances of winning, you can:

• Group up: This is your first and foremost priority. Solo players are easy pickings for an organized group. The more coordination you can get with your team, the better; even a random group is already a step up, but being on voice comms and synergizing builds will vastly improve your chances.
• Be a team player: If your sacrifice can mean the difference between winning and losing for your entire team, don't hesitate. The rewards are distributed to the entire winning team, so even if you die — you'll get the loot mailed to you automatically.
• Don't stand in the middle: The Nephalem Cache spawns in the middle of the arena, taunting players to get closer. Do the opposite of the herd and start the fight in the outskirts. The middle of the arena is a noob trap of imminent crowd control and heavy AoE.
• Arrive early to abuse mechanics: Before locking down for PvP purposes, the Proving Grounds are littered with trash mobs — 3-4 packs of Skull Cleavers, Returned Mages, and Skeletal Marauders. Get to the Arena a little earlier (~5-10 minutes) and farm up some trash. Their deaths have a chance to spawn the usual Health, Energy, Conduit, and Quickening Orbs — which wouldn't have despawned by the time the match starts. Save them up! A well-calculated pickup can give you the upper hand in the ensuing chaos. Another nice bonus is that these trash mobs can drop Monstrous Essences for your daily Bestiary completion.

The winner(s) of the Ancient Arena receive a guaranteed Legendary item, 6 Enchanted Dust, as well as additional items of varying quality (Common, Magic, and Rare). It is important to note that unlike other Zone Events, the Ancient Arena does not reward you for simply participating — making it hard to recommend for inexperienced players, low-geared characters, or participants without a coordinated party.

You can check out the guides for the other Zone Events by following the link below: