Last Stand of the Ancients
Event Location Guide

Finding Last Stand of the Ancients in the Festering Woods

The Last Stand of the Ancients event in Diablo 3 spawns in the Festering Woods, which are traveled through during the quest The Broken Blade. You can also easily reach this area via its waypoint later in Act I. The event itself seems to always spawn in a given area to the south of the map, right next to where it joins with the Drowned Temple area.

Look around for a large hill with two paths leading up it, an altar at it’s peak and a slew of searchable skeleton corpses (Crumbling Bones) laying around. You will also find that the altar at the top, which must be activated to start the event, will be marked with a yellow dot on your map when you get near it.

There is an achievement for completing this event and another specifically for doing so in co-op.

Last Stand of the Ancients – Event Overview

Before starting this event, consider the difficulty you are playing on and how easily you will be able to survive the following. The top of the hill is not necessarily the best defensive position for all character types or builds. It may be worth running off the hill upon starting the event to avoid being surrounded.

Defeat the Invaders

Upon activating the altar, this objective will immediately show. Within seconds, you will be set upon by a wave of Ghouls and Enraged Phantoms. The Ghouls are forced to head up the paths up the hill, however, the phantoms can go up the sides where you cannot walk, thus easily surrounding and ganking a potentially squishy hero. If this is a problem for you, cut a path through one side immediately and move to level, open ground. You do not need to remain near the altar for the event.

“Take the hill, brothers! Don’t let these dogs have it!” – Siuzogg of the Darkness

After the first group of enemies, more Ghouls and Enraged Phantoms spawn, but will be soon followed by a rare champion Skeleton and his minions. The name changes every time, and so do the affixes, (but not the bit of speech upon it’s entrance) being essentially the same as a rare you may find in the wild. You can lead him back up the hill to lay some smack by using the paths as choke points, but make sure there are no more phantoms first that may foil this plan. This is the final spawn, and once you’ve downed all the enemies, you’ll receive your gold and experience event reward.

*Note: It doesn’t seem that the rare spawn glows yellow, but you’ll know by the name, not to mention being the only Skeletons spawned. Counts towards valor of the nephalem stacks.

Video Guide