THOR'S RAINBOWNUKE: off to the Marauder forum

The Scion Ascendant is a trash tier class right now. Marauder Berserker is by far the ideal choice for this build.

Accordingly, the guide is now in the Marauder forum, here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1723053

I will not be posting in this thread unless Scion returns to being ideal for the build.

reserved

Nice to see a new, updated thread on this build. :) I'm gonna have to go through the old thread and dig up my life variant on this build that uses Kingsguard and the like and post it for those who might be interested in it. I know it's not LL per se, but it's still something that fits well into it and don't think a whole separate thread is needed.

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Tanakeah escribió:

Nice to see a new, updated thread on this build. :) I'm gonna have to go through the old thread and dig up my life variant on this build that uses Kingsguard and the like and post it for those who might be interested in it. I know it's not LL per se, but it's still something that fits well into it and don't think a whole separate thread is needed.

I don't have a problem putting an "alternate build variants" section in one of the reserved posts

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r1c4rd01991 escribió:

Witch elementalist class revealed!

Spoiler

Pendulum of Destruction - Gain 100% elemental damage for 4 seconds every 10 seconds.

Mastermind of Discord - Gain 20% Cold/Lightning/Fire penetration if you've used a Fire/Cold/Lightning skill in the past 4 seconds.

Paragon of Calamity - When hit by elemental damage, gain 40% increased damage dealt & 8% reduced damage taken for that type for 4 seconds.

Shaper of Desolation - 20% chance to gain Arcane Conflux for 4 seconds on kill. Arcane Conflux - All damage chills, ignites, and shocks.

Beacon of Ruin - Elemental Status effects caused by your abilities spread to nearby enemies, Radius 9.

Liege of the Primordial - 10% chance to summon a Lesser Elemental Golem when killing an enemy with elemental damage.

what are your thoughts?

To be honest, I think this looks fairly uninteresting. It will give a damage boost, but I'm not sure this build really needs more damage at this point (pending any rebalancing in Ascendency). The only things that don't die super fast already are the crazy HP bosses like Uber Atziri/etc and Core Malachai... and these damage boosts aren't sufficient to change that. It may be the best of the Witch Ascendency classes, though.

The two classes that look most promising to me personally at this point are the Pathfinder for the Ranger, since this build relies heavily on flasks for survivability, and the just announced Trickster for Shadow... a zero cost leap slam combined with 20% Increased Attack Speed after Leap Slamming has very interesting mechanical possibilities, and 250 bonus energy shield.

Have to agree here with Tackle. This build can pump out plenty of damage just fine, though I think there is one more Witch Ascendancy to reveal, so we'll see what that one is. However, from what I have seen thusfar, and bearing in mind that NONE OF THIS IS SET IN STONE, I think the top contenders for this build may be (not in any order):

1. Champion - This is a personal choice of mine, but from the theorycrafting I've done, the Champion Ascendancy will offer something this build lacks in...physical defense. With permanent Fortify, HUGE buffs to Armour/Eva% when on Low Life, and a few other things, this class looks to be really powerful. More so because it's within easy reach of 'Iron Reflexes', and since we're already taking 'Unwavering Stance', it is not a big deal. This also allows us to solve our Dexterity problems more easily for certain auras, and more specifically, we can run 'Grace' and get a MASSIVE, MASSIVE boost to Armour values from it and some of the gear we wear. We're already fine on elemental resists, so with us being able to get around 15,000 or so ARmour from the rough calculations I did, we can cover our only real weakness with this class, and even dropping a little ES will be more than made up for by the Armour we can finally get.

2. Inquisitor - This Templar Ascendancy is also interesting because his 'Instruments of Virtue' notable offer both spell damage and attack speed increased for attacking and casting spells. Since we're doing that constantly, that's basically 'free' IAS and Spell Damage, and then of course there's the whole 'Inevitable Judgement' one that in the end gives us 10% elemental penetration not just for lightning, but for our fire damage as well. Granted, we lose out on the critical strike stuff, but that might get tweaked around a bit, though even if not, the penetration is nothing to sneeze at. The 'Consecrated Ground' notables are also interesting as they do offer elemental damage increases while standing on it, and also the whole ignoring all elemental status ailments as well, which isn't bad for some bosses, especially heavy cold damage ones.

3. Pathfinder - Now this one I am sorta on the fence about. I can see the more obvious choices to make with the pathing in the Ascendancy tree, but I dunno about the Ranger starting area and the nodes we'd have to sorta waste to get the build going. The flask stuff is potent, but I am really not sure if it's worth losing all the points...I mean, it's not a huge amount since we'd likely head north out of the tree towards the aura reduction cluster and go from there. But still...ehhhhhh...this one I am not sure about.

4. Trickster - Obvious choices here are the paths to 'Walk the Aether' and 'Shade Form', although I dunno about having to Leap Slam every few seconds to keep an attack speed buff up. :p Now, that's just me in this regard, and the SF notable is HUGE just for the 250 ES alone. Plus, if you need to run out from a boss for a few seconds and let your ES start recharging, then you could Leap Slam back into the fray and now you have 40% increased attack speed total for 4 seconds...that's not bad at all. And of course 'Ghost Dance' is a very easy 10% Movement Speed buff, which is not too shabby either. Although we are losing out on most of the other bonuses, but I guess that's not a huge price to pay, especially again for just the big flat ES boost.

Its good to see a thread for the build that is being kept up to date. It makes information on this build more accurate. As someone who mains the witch variation of the build, I can offer some advice for those interested in alternative build setups too. ^_^

Here is my thoughts on the best ascendancy classes revealed so far. As mentioned before, this is just my opinion and analysis.


1) INQUISITOR (Templar) - Currently this sub-class is the undisputed best class for the low-life + life regen variation of the build that I am running. The Sanctify and Pious Path nodes grant strong bonuses in the form of Status Effect Immunity, Increased Damage and 50% less Mana Cost. The caveat is that you must be on consecrated ground (which also gives 5% life regen). However, with sanctify you will be generating consecrated grounds very often, also with the new Sulphur Flask base type, you can create consecrated grounds anytime and anywhere you want. At the same time, the two nodes preceding Sanctify and Pious Path grant a total of 20% increased elemental damage and 1.0% life regen. These bonuses can also good for the vaal pact variation of the build. For example if you have your main 4-link setup linked to a reduced mana gem or put in a "The Vertex" unique helm, whenever you are on consecrated grounds, your attacks cost no mana/life at all. Then there is Instruments of Virtue, which is basically free attack speed and spell damage almost all the time. Personally, I would not spend 4 nodes to get Inevitable Judgement, as all the crit multi and the Righteous Providence nodes are essential wasted and all you get is 10% elemental penetration.

2) ELEMENTALIST (Witch) - Whilst I was initially rather disappointed in this sub-class, the more I thought about it, the more I began to like it. (plus I have a personal bias for Witch classes heehehe) First let me explain, the Mastermind of Discord node is basically a free 20% elemental penetration, which is double that of the Inquisitor's Inevitable Judgement. How is that achieved? Well, its because discharge counts as triggering a Lightning Skill, a Fire Skill and a Cold Skill (even if no cold damage is done). Hence, as long as discharge activates once, you get to penetrate 20% of all elemental resistances. At the same time, Pendulum of Destruction gives a momentary boost of 100% increased elemental damage, which assists in taking down tankier foes. Paragon of Calamity is basically a small bonus against reflect. Liege of the Primordial and Shaper of Desolation are basically small bonuses to clear speed as well. Whilst the consensus is that this build does not need more damage for general mapping, to which I agree with completely, I still aspire to push this build to be able to take down Uber Atziri and Core Malachai, which means that every bit of damage will count.

3) CHAMPION (Duelist) - Just as Tanakeah mentioned, permanent fortify is huge defensive boost to the build whilst also freeing up an additional gem slot. The Inspirational node also gives a small but nice damage and move speed bonus permanently. So even for non Kingsguard variations of the build, there is definitely great benefit to going duelist if you choose.

4) TRICKSTER (Shadow) - Both Tanakeah and Tackle sum up the strength of that sub-class. Free leap slam, free 40% attack speed and a huge +250 to ES. Plus a bunch of other small but nice benefits. Overall not bad.

The reality is that I expect there won't be any Ascendency class that is a "must have" for this build - I expect that one of the continued strengths of the build will be that you can play ANY class and that each class will have a useful Ascendency available which you can use. While GGG could surprise me, the only thing I can think of that would be an absolute "must have" for the build would be something which would convert physical damage taken to chaos or elemental damage taken.

This is honestly kind of ideal - it allows players with existing characters to not be left out, and it allows people making new characters for the build the freedom to specialize how they see fit.

I will do my best to test the best ascendency for each class and comment on the general feel for each, though this will take some time following ascendency launch... working on getting all my characters to 70+ and I despise midgame leveling

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tackle70 escribió:

The reality is that I expect there won't be any Ascendency class that is a "must have" for this build - I expect that one of the continued strengths of the build will be that you can play ANY class and that each class will have a useful Ascendency available which you can use. While GGG could surprise me, the only thing I can think of that would be an absolute "must have" for the build would be something which would convert physical damage taken to chaos or elemental damage taken.

This is honestly kind of ideal - it allows players with existing characters to not be left out, and it allows people making new characters for the build the freedom to specialize how they see fit.

I will do my best to test the best ascendency for each class and comment on the general feel for each, though this will take some time following ascendency launch... working on getting all my characters to 70+ and I despise midgame leveling

Well said, not forcing players into a particular sub-class is much more enjoyable for players, as they can have the freedom to roll different characters and experience different results. I will probably go and test marauder and witch variations for this build once ascendancy drops.