THOR'S RAINBOWNUKE: off to the Marauder forum

I'd assume Rite of ruin instead of cloaked in savagery as 7th and 8th ascendancy point... that would be a 25% atk speed without a recent kill, good for some bosses
In my Opinion, the two strongest Ascendancy Classes are going to be Berserker and Elementalist.

As shown through my previous testing (on page 15 of this post), Berseker has the highest possible damage output of all the Ascendancy Classes due to Aspect of Carnage. With the buff to Pain Reaver and the nerf to the Scion Berserker node, this will push Berserker to have the most consistent Leech, especially against bosses. With the extra 2 points, you can pick up Rite of Ruin for that small damage reduction/attack speed. Overall, Berserker should become the *best* Ascendancy Choice this update, as I had previously predicted.

*A Fun Observation, for those -8 Elreon ring users, you can pick up a level 1 rallying cry (that will now cost 0) and choose the War Bringer node instead. Through doing this, you can sustain your life pool without needing any LGoH.

A largely unnoticed underdog is the Elementalist. With the 8 points and the huge buffs to the nodes, it is a definitely a viable option. Ideally, you would pick Pendulum of Destruction (100% increased Ele Dmg and 25% inc Aoe every once in a while), Liege of the Primordial (for some insanely tanky double golem power and 80% increased damage for discharge if you run a lightning and fire golem) and Paragon of Calamity (for that insane reflect protection). With the bonus 2 points, you can opt for Shaper of Desolation (for a little bonus in map clearing) or youc an go for the newly buffed <Mastermind of Discord (with its 25% penetration). All you need to proc Mastermind of Discord, is to use any cold skill once every 10s (triggering does not count as using though).
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tackle70 wrote:
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T_Speed wrote:
Strong nerf for scion - ber. Do we have to go back with life leech gem ?


Definitely for the difficult bosses.

I plan on just going Marauder Berserker, I think.

I expected the value nerf on scion's berserker node down to 1% since 1.5% seemed quite strong, but they gave this the ol' Blizzard nerf and made it completely useless.


I think there is a distinct difference in standard vs new league with this build now. for standard I still think scion is quite powerful. You can compensate for the missing life leech by using warlords mark and legacy Vinkters. You will have a lot more stats and passives with scion vs beserker.

But for level 100 and new leagues the extra damage and leech from going marauder will be quite significant.
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iSo1iD wrote:
In my Opinion, the two strongest Ascendancy Classes are going to be Berserker and Elementalist.

As shown through my previous testing (on page 15 of this post), Berseker has the highest possible damage output of all the Ascendancy Classes due to Aspect of Carnage. With the buff to Pain Reaver and the nerf to the Scion Berserker node, this will push Berserker to have the most consistent Leech, especially against bosses. With the extra 2 points, you can pick up Rite of Ruin for that small damage reduction/attack speed. Overall, Berserker should become the *best* Ascendancy Choice this update, as I had previously predicted.

*A Fun Observation, for those -8 Elreon ring users, you can pick up a level 1 rallying cry (that will now cost 0) and choose the War Bringer node instead. Through doing this, you can sustain your life pool without needing any LGoH.

A largely unnoticed underdog is the Elementalist. With the 8 points and the huge buffs to the nodes, it is a definitely a viable option. Ideally, you would pick Pendulum of Destruction (100% increased Ele Dmg and 25% inc Aoe every once in a while), Liege of the Primordial (for some insanely tanky double golem power and 80% increased damage for discharge if you run a lightning and fire golem) and Paragon of Calamity (for that insane reflect protection). With the bonus 2 points, you can opt for Shaper of Desolation (for a little bonus in map clearing) or youc an go for the newly buffed <Mastermind of Discord (with its 25% penetration). All you need to proc Mastermind of Discord, is to use any cold skill once every 10s (triggering does not count as using though).


This is my take on things also... for non-block variants of this build, it's likely to be Berserker #1 and Elementalist #2.

I don't think Scion will be good for this build at all except for people who don't have enough stats on their gear. Heck it's possible that the best option for Scion would be to just take 4 stat nodes and 4 passive points... all the actual class nodes she has now are garbage tier in my opinion.
The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard
Anyone crunched some numbers about the juggernaut? Doesn't have the 40 more damage multiplier like the berserker, but the node that gives full endu charges could be worth it.
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tackle70 wrote:
"
T_Speed wrote:
Strong nerf for scion - ber. Do we have to go back with life leech gem ?


Definitely for the difficult bosses.

I plan on just going Marauder Berserker, I think.

I expected the value nerf on scion's berserker node down to 1% since 1.5% seemed quite strong, but they gave this the ol' Blizzard nerf and made it completely useless.


I think there is a distinct difference in standard vs new league with this build now. for standard I still think scion is quite powerful. You can compensate for the missing life leech by using warlords mark and legacy Vinkters. You will have a lot more stats and passives with scion vs beserker.

But for level 100 and new leagues the extra damage and leech from going marauder will be quite significant.


I sort of disagree with this. Without any leech from your Ascendancy class, you are left with three options:
1) Use the life leech gem in Mjolner
2) Invest heavily in block/spell block
3) Die to reflect & hard bosses as soon as you run out of Vinktar charges

Option 3 is obviously no fun, and options 1 & 2 require large sacrifices in your damage output.

Maybe you could get away with no additional leech if you run two legacy Vinktar flasks and are super careful with your flask management so that you can keep permanent uptime on Vinktar, but that's a pain in the ass even if it's possible, and in that scenario you still aren't really benefitting from the Ascendant class other than the extra stats.
The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard
Last edited by tackle70 on May 26, 2016, 9:43:29 AM
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tackle70 wrote:

I sort of disagree with this. Without any leech from your Ascendancy class, you are left with three options:
1) Use the life leech gem in Mjolner
2) Invest heavily in block/spell block
3) Die to reflect & hard bosses as soon as you run out of Vinktar charges

Option 3 is obviously no fun, and options 1 & 2 require large sacrifices in your damage output.

Maybe you could get away with no additional leech if you run two legacy Vinktar flasks and are super careful with your flask management so that you can keep permanent uptime on Vinktar, but that's a pain in the ass even if it's possible, and in that scenario you still aren't really benefitting from the Ascendant class other than the extra stats.


You forgot about warlords mark in either CWDT or blasphemy setup.
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tackle70 wrote:

I sort of disagree with this. Without any leech from your Ascendancy class, you are left with three options:
1) Use the life leech gem in Mjolner
2) Invest heavily in block/spell block
3) Die to reflect & hard bosses as soon as you run out of Vinktar charges

Option 3 is obviously no fun, and options 1 & 2 require large sacrifices in your damage output.

Maybe you could get away with no additional leech if you run two legacy Vinktar flasks and are super careful with your flask management so that you can keep permanent uptime on Vinktar, but that's a pain in the ass even if it's possible, and in that scenario you still aren't really benefitting from the Ascendant class other than the extra stats.


You forgot about warlords mark in either CWDT or blasphemy setup.


No, I didn't. Warlord's Mark doesn't save you in hexproof maps or from difficult bosses due to the curse effectiveness penalty on bosses. If you intend to do all maps & all map mods except no leech, you need an additional source of survivability than Vinktar + Warlord's Mark - either additional leech or high block/spell block is necessary.
The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard
Last edited by tackle70 on May 26, 2016, 9:59:11 AM
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tackle70 wrote:


I sort of disagree with this. Without any leech from your Ascendancy class, you are left with three options:
1) Use the life leech gem in Mjolner
2) Invest heavily in block/spell block
3) Die to reflect & hard bosses as soon as you run out of Vinktar charges

Option 3 is obviously no fun, and options 1 & 2 require large sacrifices in your damage output.

Maybe you could get away with no additional leech if you run two legacy Vinktar flasks and are super careful with your flask management so that you can keep permanent uptime on Vinktar, but that's a pain in the ass even if it's possible, and in that scenario you still aren't really benefitting from the Ascendant class other than the extra stats.


^Agreed

Its also worth taking into consideration, what tangible benefit do you get from the extra passives and stats as a Scion?

More damage? Berseker's Aspect of Carnage causes it to outclass the damage output of the Scion by a large margin. That is not even factoring in the small attack speed bonuses you get here and there as a Berserker. On paper, it seems the only other class which will have a similar level of power is the post-2.30 Elementalist, Scion wont be able to compete with these classes.

More Tankiness? I suppose that as a Scion you can pick up a little more ES, which might let you soak a bit more damage here and there, but generally speaking, there isnt really many situations where that small bit more of ES would have saved you. If anything, the lack of consistent leech will probably cause you to RIP to harder to content, as Warlord's Mark really drops in usefulness against bosses and reflect maps (where you can die to hitting mobs outside the range of your curse).

Ease of Gearing? Honestly, this is probably the only debatable reason to pick up a Scion. The mini-ascendancy nodes dont really offer too much of a benefit. The bonus stats and passives are nice as they make gearing less rigid and offer more flexibility in allocating jewels. However, at same time, you will probably be locked into needing items like legacy vinktars and the life leech gem, so the overall versatility of a Scion is still questionable.
Last edited by iSo1iD on May 26, 2016, 10:19:08 AM
Well, these changes sure throw a wrench in my plans.

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