Simple solution to scion acendancy

I had this idea when they first released ascendancies because i found the exact layout of the scion ascendancy weird. But now that i have returned to the game and i see you can now get 8 ascendancy points the idea makes everything even better.

SO what i suggest to fix the scion ascendancy is to simply remove the second passive point in each line. (the one in between the mini ascendancy and the new starting position) and i don't mean to replace it with anything else. Simply remove it.

Now what effect will this have. Well with the 6 point ascendancy there is almost no difference.
-Most ppl go for 2 mini ascendancies so there is literally no change.
-If you were to take the now 4 point extra starting point you would be able to put the final 2 points to get the passive point you would be missing or get 3 stat increases instead of 2.

Now this has a much greater effect on the 8 point ascendancy, which in my opinion needs a bit of a buff.
-The new standard will become to get 2 different mini ascendancies AND 2 new starting locations.
-The other option (which would be kinda silly) would be to get 2 mini ascendancies and a passive point or 2 extra stat increases.

These changes would not only change actual build paths but allow for taking a new starting point in Cruel difficulty instead of having to wait till merciless when you should basically already have a complete build. Making this option make more sense in the leveling of a character instead of rebuilding your entire tree after you have already completed half of the game.

This would also solve the issue of making starting at a new place worth it, because scion is already in the center of the tree you would save on average like 8 passive points that would be spent traveling to the starting point of another class. With being able to start at 2 different starting points you not only save a lot of travel points but you would also have much more efficient pathing.

For example if you wanted to be a melee crit character but you still wanted to have some tank stats you could go for the starting locations of Marauder and Shadow. Giving you access to the crit nodes on the right side as well as the crit nodes by resolute technique, and you would probably still path out of scion from the bottom to grab the 18% all resistance, Sentinal, and the life nodes. So its not like you would stop caring about your original starting location.

Honestly i feel this would allow scion to be even more unique by having the strength of the ascendancy be how it effects your passive tree more than how many stats it increases.

Im curious to know what everyone else thinks about all this and other ideas ppl have come up with so pls keep the discussion going and maybe we can give GGG a few new things to think about in the next bout of ascendancy balance changes.

To be honest I have trouble seeing a use for the starting location that isn't niche. Having it occur in cruel labyrinth would only be useful in saving a few respec points. So it is a bit cheaper, but doesn't really contend with most peoples complaints about the scion ascendancy. Which is that every ascendancy does a better job than the scion, which makes it hard to appreciate anything that the scion does. While I can somewhat agree with this design decision, unless a player gets something unique and interesting out of the ascendancy they find it underwhelming.

I'd rather see the inner circle of +20-40 attribute boosts removed from the Scion Ascendancy tree. They are absolutely the weakest nodes of the entire range of Ascendancy trees. They serve as nothing but obstacles to the rest of the Scion Ascendancy tree.

After removing the attribute nodes, add class buffs to the central node of each of the six 3-way hub nodes. Then require an additional point to activate one of the three choices. Keep the restriction of selecting only one of the three choices.

Suggested class ascendancy node buffs:

Duelist Ascendancy: +life, +life regen, +physical damage
Marauder Ascendancy: +life, +armour, +melee damage
Templar Ascendancy: +life, +mana, +elemental damage
Witch Ascendancy: +energy shield, +mana regen, +spell damage
Shadow Ascendancy: +energy shield, +cast speed, +crit multiplier
Ranger Ascendancy: +evasion, +attack speed, +projectile damage

scion main problem is that most of the mini ascendancy give the worst parts of other ascendancy trees.

someone once said that unlocking a mini ascendancy should aloud us to pick 1 keystone from any of the 3 ascendancys of the class, it will solve the above problem and will give scion a use.


personaly i think scion needs its own skill tree

1 branch with jewel related keystones with things like a socket that has no quantity limit or gaining special buffs per type of jewel equiped (veridian, crimson, etc..)

1 branch mostly related to atributes and pasive points, i know this one sounds lame but +20 to all atributes -> + 1 skill point --> +20 to all atributes -> + 3 skill points as stupid as it may sound its usefull for all those playing builds that dont realy see a big benefit from current ascendancy.

1 branch related to self buffs, stuff like increased effects of buffs on you or +"x" per buff and the likes.

I'm fine with how the Scion's set up. I've really enjoyed the various mini-classes I've used on a few different characters now. The problem is that a lot of the mini-classes are just awful. They're not remotely worth taking, so you'll either use a different mini-class or another character's Ascendancy class entirely. Anyone using the Ascendant's Champion or Chieftain mini-classes has most likely made a mistake.

If they rebalance or rework the mini-classes so that they're all worth using, this problem will disappear. Also, don't underestimate the power of starting from another class's start area. Even if you're just taking the life and regen nodes from marauder or the life and flask nodes from Ranger, that's pretty strong.

The problem i see with just rebalancing the mini ascendancies is that because all of the mini ascendancies are based off of things that exist already, the mini ascendancies will never be unique. If the mini ascendancies give more stats than the regular ascendacies then scion will be the only thing ppl use and vise versa. Thats why i originally liked the idea of the scion doing something different but its just not worth it and as i said in the original post you can't even start useing it until you should have an already functioning build.

As for starting locations being a niche use. I could think of a few scenarios that i would use two different starting locations especially because the starting nodes are usually really strong. Which is more than i can say for the current scion ascendancy which basically made me just abandon all the scions i had made and reroll the builds into better classes.

Honestly the attribute nodes aren't bad the main problem with them is that they require you to go certain ways to get certain stats. Like a phys build is never gonna go up to the witch mini ascendancies but they may need 40 int.

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After removing the attribute nodes, add class buffs to the central node of each of the six 3-way hub nodes. Then require an additional point to activate one of the three choices. Keep the restriction of selecting only one of the three choices.

Suggested class ascendancy node buffs:

Duelist Ascendancy: +life, +life regen, +physical damage
Marauder Ascendancy: +life, +armour, +melee damage
Templar Ascendancy: +life, +mana, +elemental damage
Witch Ascendancy: +energy shield, +mana regen, +spell damage
Shadow Ascendancy: +energy shield, +cast speed, +crit multiplier
Ranger Ascendancy: +evasion, +attack speed, +projectile damage

Also if people actually used the new starting locations then you wouldn't have to add stats to the central node because the starting locations have high efficiency nodes with all of those stats at their starting locations.

bring the unconditional leech back
gg scion is back in glory again

Not everyone used that.

Honestly after the buff to the berserker leech node i can't think of a reason why they shouldn't turn the 1% leech back to unconditional. The fact that it got a nerf to the percent and made conditional then berserker got the stuff they just removed from scion is actually baffling.