The Reign of the Warlock expansion introduced a new pinnacle encounter to Diablo 2 Resurrected - the Colossal Ancients. This endgame fight reimagines the classic Arreat Summit trial as a brutal, multi-phase boss battle with powerful exclusive rewards. If you're chasing Colossal Jewels, you'll need to know what drops from whom, how to gather the summoning materials, and how to survive the fight itself. Here's everything you need to know.

D2R Uber Ancients Guide - Rewards, Summon, Builds & Fighting Tips

The Colossal Ancients are an upgraded, endgame version of the original Ancients fight from Act 5. They function similarly to Uber Tristram, you collect specific items in D2R RotW, open a red portal, and face down supercharged bosses for unique loot.

Each of the three Ancients: Talic the Defender, Korlic the Protector, and Madawc the Guardian, is tied to a specific element. They are immune to their corresponding element, deal heavy damage of that type, and each carry a unique Conviction Aura that reduces player resistances by 100% in their element. They also summon barbarian minions, enrage as the fight progresses, and require careful target prioritization depending on which jewel you want.

The sections below cover the rewards you can earn, how to gather the summoning materials, and how to approach the fight with the right build and strategy.

D2R Uber Ancients Rewards (Jewels & Drops)

Defeating the Colossal Ancients awards one of six unique Colossal Jewels. These are upgraded versions of Rainbow Facets, offering elemental damage bonuses, enemy resistance reduction, skill damage increases, bonus experience, extra gold, and better magic find — all on a single jewel.

Which Ancient Drops Which Jewel?

The jewel you receive depends on which Ancient you kill last. This means target farming a specific jewel requires planning your kill order.

Talic the Defender (killed last) drops:

• Defender's Fire - Adds fire damage, reduces enemy fire resistance by 5–10%, boosts fire skill damage by 5–10%, grants 3–5% experience, 25–50% extra gold, and 15–35% magic find. Triggers Level 25 Blaze when struck.

• Defender's Bile - Adds poison damage, reduces enemy poison resistance by 5–10%, boosts poison skill damage by 5–10%, with the same experience, gold, and magic find bonuses. Triggers Level 25 Bone Armor when struck.

Korlic the Protector (killed last) drops:

• Protector's Frost - Adds cold damage, reduces enemy cold resistance by 5–10%, boosts cold skill damage by 5–10%. Triggers Level 25 Frozen Armor when struck.

• Protector's Stone - Adds 30–50% enhanced damage and flat physical damage, reduces enemy physical damage resistance by 5–10%. Triggers Level 15 Fade when struck.

Madawc the Guardian (killed last) drops:

• Guardian's Thunder - Adds lightning damage, reduces enemy lightning resistance by 5–10%, boosts lightning skill damage by 5–10%. Triggers Level 25 Cyclone Armor when struck.

• Guardian's Light - Adds magic damage, reduces enemy magic resistance by 5–10%, boosts magic skill damage by 5–10%. Triggers Level 25 Psychic Ward when struck.

All six jewels share the same bonus ranges for experience gained (3–5%), extra gold (25–50%), and magic find (15–35%).

One Jewel Per Character Limit

You can only socket one Colossal Jewel per character. Trying to equip a second one in a different gear slot will not work. Plan accordingly based on your build's needs.

Known Drop Bug

As of early patches, there is a known bug where the Colossal Ancients may occasionally fail to drop a jewel. This seems to be tied to issues with enrage state triggers, leaving and re-entering the area, or fighting near the edges of the map. This may be addressed in a future patch.

How To Summon Uber Ancients in D2R RotW?

To open the portal to the Colossal Summit, you need all five Colossal Ancient Statues. Each one drops from a specific Act Boss while their zone is Terrorized.

Statue-to-Boss Correspondence

Higher-act bosses can sometimes drop statues from lower acts as well, so farming Baal or Diablo first may yield bonus statues along the way.

Cube Them Together and Open the Portal

Once you have one of each statue, place all five into the Horadric Cube and transmute them. You must be in Act 5 Hell difficulty to do this. A red portal to the Colossal Summit will appear, and the fight begins once you activate the altar inside.

How To Farm Uber Ancients Materials in D2R RotW?

The statues only drop from Act Bosses when their zones are terrorized. This means you need to either wait for the right terror zone rotation or force it using Worldstone Shards.

1. Terror Zone Rotation and Timing

Terror zones now rotate every 30 minutes rather than every hour. You can check the current active terror zone using tracker websites like d2emu.com. The site shows the current terror zone based on your browser's local time and the upcoming one. If the zone you need is not active, you can take a break and wait for the next rotation.

For single player specifically, some players adjust their system clock to match the terror zone they want according to the tracker. This avoids being dependent on random timing to catch the right zone. The reasoning is straightforward, farming Baal for Worusk's End at 3:00 AM on a Tuesday is simply not feasible for most people, and each terror zone boss can take over a half hour of farming before the statue drops.

2. Use Worldstone Shards to Force a Terror Zone

Enemies in Terror Zones now occasionally drop Worldstone Shards - consumable items that Terrorize an entire Act for the duration of your game. Each shard corresponds to a specific act:

Using these shards removes the need to wait for a specific Terror Zone to rotate in naturally.

3. Which Bosses To Farm First

On average, you can expect about a half hour per terror zone boss before the statue drops. The suggested approach is to farm Andy until you get Talic's Anguish, farm Duriel until you get Korlic's Pain, farm Mephisto until you get Madawc's Ire, farm Diablo until you get Bul-Kathos' Nightmare, and farm Baal until you get Worusk's End.

Alternatively, consider starting with Baal and working backwards. Since higher act bosses can drop multiple statues, you may end up with several before you even have to farm all five bosses individually. Bul-Kathos' Nightmare from Diablo and Worusk's End from Baal are generally the hardest two to obtain, so it may be worth prioritizing those.

4. Player Count and Statue Drop Rates

It is not entirely clear if player count affects statue drop rates. Testing across Players 1, Players 3, Players 5, and Players 8 showed no obvious difference, and the higher player settings make the bosses take much longer to kill. Staying on Players 1 or Players 3 is likely faster overall since the boss kill speed is substantially better.

5. Single Player Tip - Terror Zone Trackers

For offline players, external Terror Zone trackers (such as d2emu.com) can help you identify when specific zones will be active. Some single-player users also adjust their system clock to align with a desired Terror Zone rotation, which saves time compared to waiting for the right zone to appear naturally.

How To Fight & Beat Uber Ancients - Best Builds & Fight Strategies

Many builds can handle the Colossal Summit, similarly to regular Ubers, but resistances are extremely important here. You can pretty much gear yourself for them the same way that you would for regular Ubers.

1. Ancients' Elements and Auras

Each Ancient is built around a single element. Their immunity, their attacks, and their Conviction Aura all align with it:

• Talic the Defender - Fire immune, deals fire damage, applies -100% fire resistance via Conviction.

• Korlic the Protector - Cold immune, deals cold damage, applies -100% cold resistance via Conviction.

• Madawc the Guardian - Lightning immune, deals lightning damage, applies -100% lightning resistance via Conviction.

Capping your resistances is a top priority. The -100% Conviction Auras mean your resistances will be heavily reduced, so gear and charms with high all-res are extremely valuable.

2. The Minions - 15 Total, No Respawns

Each Ancient summons up to 5 Protector Spirit barbarian minions, for a maximum of 15 total. These minions are Extra Fast and share their parent Ancient's elemental immunity.

• Talic's minions use Whirlwind.

• Korlic's minions use Bash and Frenzy.

• Madawc's minions use Double Throw.

Unlike Uber Tristram, the minion count is capped. If you kill an Ancient quickly, all of that Ancient's remaining minions spawn at once. This is a finite problem, once they're dead, no more appear.

3. Enrage Mechanics - The Fight Escalates in Stages

The Ancients have two enrage thresholds: 50% HP and 25% HP. These triggers also activate when you kill one or two of the Ancients.

• Killing the first Ancient triggers the second-stage abilities on the surviving two.

• Killing the second Ancient triggers the final-stage abilities on the last one standing.

4. Second-Stage Abilities (After First Ancient Dies)

Talic adds a wall of fiery Dust Devils to his Whirlwind. These deal noticeable damage but are generally easy to dodge if you keep moving.

Korlic begins casting Cold Fissure at the end of each Leap Attack. This creates dangerous ground zones that can stack up quickly.

Madawc's ranged attacks now release Charged Bolts from the target on impact. This is more dangerous in multiplayer or for builds with many summons, as the bolts ricochet toward nearby allies.

5. Final-Stage Abilities (After Second Ancient Dies)

Talic summons a Colossal Volcano at his Whirlwind's origin, dealing massive fire and physical damage in an area. This ability still is not too hard to avoid with good positioning.

Korlic casts Blizzard with each of his Leap Attacks. When combined with Cold Fissure, this can create devastating overlapping damage zones. Blizzard is arguably the most deadly out of all the enrage abilities. It will hit very often and do lots of damage, especially if you are moving or have lots of summons or players stacked underneath it. Consider overcapping your cold resistance and consuming Thawing Potions to combat his Conviction aura and reach 85% cold resistance.

Madawc begins to evoke Colossal Thunder Storm, which does pretty hefty damage if your resistances are barely positive. This can be very punishing if you have no summons to help soak the strikes.

6. Kill Order Strategy

Since the jewel that drops depends on which Ancient you defeat last, your kill order should be planned around which jewel you want. Kill the two Ancients whose jewels you do not need first, then finish off the one whose jewel you are targeting.

Beyond jewel targeting, consider the difficulty of each Ancient's enrage abilities when choosing your order. Korlic's Blizzard combined with Cold Fissure is widely considered the most dangerous final-phase mechanic. Leaving Korlic for last means dealing with his full suite of cold abilities in a one-on-one scenario, which can be brutal. Many players prefer to kill Korlic first or second to avoid this situation.

7. Recommended Builds - Gear Like You Would for Regular Ubers

The Colossal Ancients have roughly the same HP values as Uber Tristram bosses but slightly less life regeneration. You can gear for this fight much the same way you would for standard Ubers.

• Warlock - Warlocks are very capable. The Echoing Strikes and Sigil build can tear through the Ancients quickly. One player reported clearing the encounter using roughly eight rejuvenation potions with semi-budget gear (Enigma, Insight Colossus Voulge, Spirit Shield, Arachnid's Mesh, Raven Frost, Anni, and Paladin Torch). The Warlock also excels at farming the summoning materials, particularly in Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Keep.

• Smiter (Paladin) - A traditional choice carried over from Uber Tristram farming. Smiters deal consistent single-target damage and can stack resistances effectively. Many players default to the Smiter for this content.

• Hammerdin (Paladin) - Blessed Hammer deals magic damage that bypasses most immunities, making the Hammerdin a solid option both for farming materials and for the fight itself.

• Other builds -  Others can handle the fight as well, similar to regular Ubers. The key requirements are high resistances (especially overcapped cold res), enough damage to kill Ancients before the enrage phases overwhelm you, and good sustain through potions or life tap.

Generally speaking, any build that can handle regular Ubers can handle the Colossal Ancients. The primary concern is having your resistances properly sorted, since each Ancient's Conviction aura will shred 100% of its corresponding element from your total.

8. Gear and Preparation Tips

• Max your resistances before entering the portal. Having them overcapped is even better, since the Conviction auras will strip 100% from fire, cold, and lightning respectively.
  

• Drink Thawing Potions before and during the fight. The cold resistance bonus stacks and lasts through the encounter, which is vital against Korlic's Blizzard and Cold Fissure.

• Avoid fighting near the edges of the map. This has been linked to bugs with enrage triggers and jewel drops.
  

• Don't leave and rejoin the area mid-fight. This can cause issues with the Ancients' enrage states and may prevent the jewel from dropping.

• Bring full rejuvenation potions. The damage spikes in the later phases can be sudden, especially from Korlic's Blizzard or Madawc's Thunder Storm.

• If you have summons, be cautious during Korlic's and Madawc's enrage phases. Blizzard hits more often with more targets stacked together, and Charged Bolts ricochet toward nearby allies.
  

• These guys are extra fast and also have slightly less life regeneration compared to the Ubers from Uber Tristram, but around about the same HP values. Builds with consistent damage output tend to perform better than those relying on burst.

• For the mercenary, expect them to die fairly quickly. The combined Conviction auras and enrage abilities make it very hard for mercenaries to survive, especially in later phases. Do not rely on your mercenary as a core part of your strategy.

• A sample budget-friendly Warlock setup that successfully completed the fight included Enigma for teleport, an Insight Colossus Voulge on the main character, Spirit Shield (35% FCR), Arachnid's Mesh belt, Raven Frost for cannot-be-frozen, Natalya's boots for lightning resistance, Trang-Oul's gloves for bonus cold resist, an Annihilus charm, and various resistance and life small charms. The goal was simply to hit max resistances across the board, nothing more complicated than that.