Ascendancy Classes

Really appreciate how varied these bonuses are while remaining so widely-applicable at the same time. Looks like Ascendancy is going to bring me back for awhile at least! I remain wary about how GGG will balance these but am optimistic about the sheer number of different builds these will enable.

I heard you like power creep and then we doubled it.

I hope the regular skill tree won't get hit too hard to counterbalance those powerful subclass passives. Maybe we'll be getting higher lvl maps and map content will be harder to compensate?
I have mixed feelings about this, but i guess new toys to play with are always welcome.

"

Nick42 wrote:

So there are 3 Ascendancy Classes for each Character Class.

So far announced:

Duelist
Slayer - Stun, life leech, and splash damage
Gladiator - Shields, bleed, and frenzy/endurance charge generation
Champion - Armor/evasion, fortify buff, and taunt

Shadow
Assassin - Power charges, poison, bleed, chaos damage
Saboteur - Traps, mines, blinds, and smoke clouds
?

Marauder
?
?
?

Witch
Necromancer - Minion buffing, skill duration, auras, and chaos damage
?
?

Ranger
Deadeye - Crit, pierce, chain, and additional arrow added to bow skills.
Raider - Specializes in killings things quickly. Bonuses include "on-kill" effects and frenzy charge generation.
?

Templar
?
?
?

Scion
?


Seems odd the Scion only has one class to be announced. Perhaps this one class has more paths/branches than the others?

Would be totally op probably but if you think about what the scion as class should be it could be possible that you are able to mix those ascendency-trees in the scion ascendency.
Or perhaps get all those trees open for scion?

Or scions ascendancy is able to pick every ascendancy? So scion gets 18 ascendancys.
That would absoluty fit to the theme the scion got in the first place.
Would also help those people a bit who are concerned that customisation will be killed.

think just one subclass for scion is ok. Since scion can get a *hitton of Jewels for nearly free.

cant wait to see how this would be "balanced".

EDIT:

some thoughts later...

Why is this stuff class related and not built in the skill tree? Dosent this restict a lot of Players to one class? Dosent this work against what POE was? A game where you can choose one class as starting Point and travel and get nearly everything you want?

Better version of this would be when this things would be in the tree and we have to travel and use Special Points to get them.

This blocking Thing for example... Most Players will go duellist now if they decide to block. This Limit build diversity

Running an EE Dual Nova (shock and ice) templar, and damn, gameplay will become more optimal with blasphemy, and Inevitable Judgment pathing seems built for me.

Am very positive towards these changes, as long as there's no nerf to base tree there wont be a problem. I can still have my stupid builds, dont care about what other people will build. As long as GGG doesnt go stupid and "balance" the rest of the game to make up for ascendancy classes in a way that it wont be worth it to not go super optimal build, I dont care.

Oh, just afraid of all these physical damage traps, what about Eva-based characters?

I know that the design team may not notice this, but here are some of my thoughts on possible class developments, as well as possible cautions. Even if it's just cool for the community, I hope it's helpful!

First, it should be noted that skills basically can fall into two categories: skill sets that could benefit from a power boost, and skill sets that could be broken if given too much focus. Maybe the best place to start would be to look at the Passives Tree one more time, and review what skills are well-supported for builds currently, and then see which skills/abilities have maybe less support on the Passives Tree and maybe build on those skill-wise. That way, new play-styles can be developed and supported by Ascendancy classes and passive skill nodes. That isn't to say that say something such as Crit-related stuff, for example, couldn't get support, just that, say, heavy-Crit classes already on the Passives Tree that have strong Crit support nodes don't get 100% increase to Crit Multiplier, when a different class that does have a little bit of Crit potential doesn't get that boost.

In short, maybe diversify play-styles depending on which Ascendancy class is chosen, based on what the original Classes had support for on the Passives Tree, and maybe focusing on under-developed play-styles.

For example, going with the Templar class, its currently revealed Ascendancy class, the Inquisitor, is quite cool. How about a Sentinel class which focuses on the Shield and Crit potential of the Templar "base" class, and maybe a Paladin class that focuses on things that aren't so well-supported already, like maybe specializing in piercing Elemental Resistances and Auras?

"

Allnamestaken wrote:

My 2c, as someone who was thinking to come back for this expansion. Nope.

Wasn't POE about playing any build with any class (with some power a viability variation)?: Well not anymore, want bows? You have to go Ranger, want minions? - Witch it is then. Plus gating it behind some weird trial that only the ones with lockstep are going to be able to complete without pulling their hair out... no thank you, you lost me.

No, you don't HAVE to. Sure, it will be less efficient to use the wrong class, but then again, it always was. And there will probably still be at least a couple good choices of class for most builds. The only difference is now that class choice will actually MATTER. You'll be able to play that same build with two different classes, but in slightly different ways.

"

schlachtergeselle wrote:

some of the boni you can get are incredibly broken. free 100% of block applied to spells. extra arrow with more damage the further the projectile travels.

and then you have garbage like, guaranteed stun on full life targets, and stun duration, increased damage against rares uniques, and permanent fortify.

Permanent fortify is garbage? This opens up Fortify to casters who typically don't get close enough to get the buff.

For me the first thing I thought about is my incinerator who is usually a templar or marauder, I am seriously considering Duelist now, it will allow me to take Fortitude and Inspirational, because I don't really need more damage output for my incinerator, it is survivability that is the limiting factor.

24% reduced damage from anything that hits is pretty insane. Even for a caster, it will give you perma fortify, +45% armour, 13% movement speed and 30% increased damage, with that 30% increased damage and 5% movement speed also given to your allies.

The only benefit I see in some of the ascendancy sub-classes which increase damage output is giving you more freedom in the tree to focus on more survivability, you can already quite easily make builds which put out way more damage than you need.

I think Ascendancy is brilliant because you can pretty easy for a marauder or Duelist to get all the nodes in both areas, these sub-classes potentially give you many different character builds to play. Because PoE isn't a game about just making one character, variety is important.

While some of the abilities will seem like garbage to you, other people will see potential builds to make which focuses on these benefits.

Garbage is, that u have to play a certain class to get the bonus. We had not this mechanice since POE released.

You could play a witch and wear heavy armour, use any skill and travel through the skilltree. It is/ was nearly possible to get anywhere on the skill tree.

Now you have to choose a certain class. I still think this should be built in the skilltree. Have no Problem with using Special skill point but i dont wann be restricted to one class.

"

Austronaut wrote:

This blocking Thing for example... Most Players will go duellist now if they decide to block. This Limit build diversity

Oh yes? What about Summoner's passive that applies the bonus of your offerings to you? That's 35% block and spellblock chance off the bat.
And whats the thing about being locked to a specific class? You will still be able to play heavy armor 2H witch. But, just like right now, it will be less effective than a Marauder.
Everytime I see one of these assumptions and doomsday talk I assume that is because some people don't have the vision or creativity to see the big picture. It really pisses me off because GGG is doing an INCREDIBLE and great job pulling and amazing league (Talisman will have not just mods, but new areas, item types and such) and an seemingly superb new expansion right in sequence and we all should be PRAISING the team for their terrific job. Yet I see this copy-pasted short-minded shit talk everywhere I go.
"Oh, I wont be able to play SRS duelist any more"
You will, it just wont be as good as a witch, which is the stronger summoner class right NOW. If you want to handicapp yourself by playing a build in a wrong archetype go ahead, but dont expect it to be as strong as the flavoured archetype. Its like this right now. All that sub-classes do it's encourage players to plan their build ahead, without being confused their class choice right from the start; which is what's happening now: Classes now are just an excuse to pick better starting nodes and if your min/max to the extreme, your summoner witch will be 5% stronger than a summoner Templar. But don't expect to start from the opposite side of the Minion Nodes and be as good as an Int based class, for example.