Anyone looking to achieve their third character Ascension in Path of Exile 2 must first beat a powerful boss - Ashar The Sand Mother. This massive scorpion is a challenging opponent you face during the Trial of Sekhemas challenges, which test your character's might to see if they are worthy of Ascension. You'll need to overcome Ashar to unlock unique specializations for your character's class from a new Ascendancy.

The Trial of Sekhemas can only be found when you defeat the boss Balbala the Traitor during the game's main story quests. Once you beat this enemy, they will drop the Balbala's Barya item, which you can take to the Trial of Sekhemas node on your map. Placing the Balbala's Barya item into the altar at the Trial of Sekhemas location unlocks the area's challenges, including its Ascendancy bosses.

How To Start The Ashar The Sand Mother Boss Fight

Defeat Other Bosses And Face Higher Level Challenges

You have to defeat two other Ascendancy bosses in the Trial of Sekhemas before you have a chance to face Ashar. The Trial of Sekhemas in Path of Exile 2 demands that you accumulate a unique resource called Honour from defeated enemies in a specific Trial tier. You also need a Djinn Barya of at least Level 60 to access the arena in which Ashar spawns.

Honour acts as both a currency and a health resource in the Trial of Sekhemas floors. If you lose all your Honour, you will fail that Trial and be unable to face an Ascendancy boss.

Getting enough Honour on the third floor of the Trial chambers will allow you to open a path to Ashar's boss room. Before you take on Ashar the Sand Mother, you should make sure to accumulate more Honour than you need to unlock the stairs to the boss. Since Honour is tied to your overall health, the more you have before facing Ashar, the longer you will survive through the boss fight.

When you're ready, interact with the altar in the Trial of Sekhemas on its third floor once you have enough Honour. This will open up the door ahead of it, leading to stairs that ascend into Ashar's boss room. This large arena will rumble as Ashar bursts from the ground, ready to deny your character a chance at Ascendancy.

How To Defeat Ashar The Sand Mother

Avoid Pressure Plates And Melee Attacks

Ashar the Sand Mother is a deceptively quick boss, using melee attacks with its claws and stinger to strike at your character. A good strategy to approach this fight is to dodge forward close to Ashar to get behind it, giving you space to avoid the melee attacks it uses to strike in front of itself. Staying behind where the tail's barb can hit you will prevent you from taking damage from Ashar's highly damaging moves.

Depending on your Atlas tree in Path of Exile 2, you may have the ability to get around Ashar consistently. However, be careful not to move over the multiple pressure plates in the arena where you face this boss. Stepping on any plate can release huge AoE hazards you won't be able to avoid, such as insect swarms, poisonous gas, or collections of darts that deal fire and poison damage.

One of the best ways to handle Trial of Sekhemas bosses is to have gear with Honour Resistance to reduce damage dealt against your character. Picking good Boons without severe Afflictions can help your character have few weaknesses going into a Trial boss fight.

As you try to counter different attacks that Ashar the Sand Mother has, check out this table below outlining the boss' most threatening attacks and how to avoid them:

Whenever Ashar finishes the Desert Flip attack, the boss will dive and burrow underground, bursting out from the sands before tunneling again. While Ashar dives in and out of the ground, it will leave little AoE areas of Quicksand in the spots where it emerged. Your character receives a debuff for walking over Quicksand and can build multiple stacks of a harmful status effect in the process.

Using a lower-level Djinn Barya to access Ashar's boss fight will make the Sand Mother easier to fight. While you do need at least a Level 60 version of the Barya to access Ashar, the lower the key's level, the less damage and health the boss will have.

The Quicksand debuff reduces your character's mobility, making it much harder to dodge Ashar's other attacks. You'll never Ascend in Path of Exile 2 if you are made too weak to fight Ashar, so you need to avoid every Quicksand AoE as much as you can. Getting three or four Quicksand debuff stacks can be fatal, as it makes it nearly impossible to avoid Ashar's devastating melee moves.

Keep your speed normal, avoid stepping on pressure plates, and stick to Ashar like glue to make it easier to dodge the boss' melee attacks. Strike while it recovers from doing its attacks to drop its health to nothing over time. Those who beat Ashar the Sand Mother in Path of Exile 2 will gain their third set of Ascendancy Points, allowing them to make their character even stronger.