[3.23] [Leaguestarter] Exsanguinate Ascendant - a great all-rounder

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znslash wrote:
Hi mate, very nice guide, are you going to update to 3.23?


Hi there!

Yes, I plan to update this guide. Based on the patch notes, we've got a spicy buff on our hands. I will add some notes to the main post in a few hours.
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CostanzaK wrote:
Had lots of fun with this build for the league, thanks for making it. I ended up with 2000+ health per second and was able to accidentally face tank a lot of boss hits since I still didn't know their mechanics when I faced them. Died VERY little. I didn't hit level 100, but that's down to me not understanding how to Atlas correctly, and I went off and did content that turned out to be lack of fun and lack of rewarding.

If Exsanguinate Ascendant is still viable after the changes (looking over the patch notes, I'm feeling pretty hopeful) I'd love to play it again. It's a great build for Delve, I found, since it can constantly clear a screen and has the regen to stand in the darkness and not suffer for it. Though it would probably be tough to specialize in Delve.

There are a few things in the patch notes that have me in wonder though. First the Lifetap changes, where instead of flat damage it has an effect that I'm not familiar with. Then there is the brutalization of RF, but I didn't really use it much in the first place. Perhaps a cast on hit gem would be able to take it's place and free up a keybind spot?

I think we're all gonna have to wait for the list of new Gems to really see what we're going to be doing. Hopefully there is a new Exansuinate that rocks the house, because it's going to be a completely different build with all the Alternates removed from the game and folded into new variants.


Hi there, glad you liked the build!

I'm pleased to hear you felt durable with this build. It's not meant to facetank boss's mechanics, but it can endure quite a bit.

Don't stress yourself about the lvl 100 tbh. The XP curve becomes so steep after lvl 96/97 that it's rarely worth it.

As for 3.23 updates, the build looks a bit buffed, so we're happy folks here. Let me address the changes to Lifetap and RF real quick:

1) Lifetap Support now has longer Lifetap buff duration instead of dealing damage. Thing is - we don't care for either of these, we only care about changing the Mana cost to Life cost. No changes there.

2) Righteous Fire got a pretty massive change in terms of RF's damage scaling. Thing is, we didn't take RF for damage. We took it for the "more spell damage" modifier, which appears to be unchanged. So, we chilling.
Nice! Glad to know we're still cooing with gas. Or blood letting, I suppose. Ahem.

Anyway, I just remembered this one gem when I heard a Youtuber talking about some gloves from Blight that act as a Poor Man's headhunter and it being good for Ulimatum because there are so many Rares that spawn in it in a small area. And I recalled this Unique Gem named Inspired Learning Crimson Jewel. With 4 Notables in Radius, when you kill a rare monster, you gain 1 of it's modifiers for 20 seconds. Seems like it could be a big Go button for Ultimatum. However, the Tree for us is pretty spread out. But does this thing work with Notables in Cluster Gems?

If it did, would we be better served with the regular Gems we've been using, or could we use Cluster Gems to fabricate a knot of Notables and get a Headhunter effect without having to earn 200 Divs?
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CostanzaK wrote:
Nice! Glad to know we're still cooing with gas. Or blood letting, I suppose. Ahem.

Anyway, I just remembered this one gem when I heard a Youtuber talking about some gloves from Blight that act as a Poor Man's headhunter and it being good for Ulimatum because there are so many Rares that spawn in it in a small area. And I recalled this Unique Gem named Inspired Learning Crimson Jewel. With 4 Notables in Radius, when you kill a rare monster, you gain 1 of it's modifiers for 20 seconds. Seems like it could be a big Go button for Ultimatum. However, the Tree for us is pretty spread out. But does this thing work with Notables in Cluster Gems?

If it did, would we be better served with the regular Gems we've been using, or could we use Cluster Gems to fabricate a knot of Notables and get a Headhunter effect without having to earn 200 Divs?


Okay, there's a lot of stuff here, so let's unpack it one by one.

In general - you'd want to go with the build that scales in multiple ways when you're going with stuff that steals enemy buffs (e.g. Breathstealer gloves (because that's the name of mentioned Blight gloves), Inspired Learning, Headhunter). The reason is - you can get a lot of stuff like "gain x% of your physical as extra fire damage" or similar buffs. Thing is - our build won't benefit very well with this, since we're scaling mostly physical DoTs and link Brutality Support, which cuts off all the Elemental and Chaos damage.

Now, you can still get a lot of strong defensive buffs, but in that case I wouldn't go for Headhunter, especially for this price. I'd go with Inspired Learning if I'd go with any. In that case, I think the only place where it could go is the Marauder socket, and you would have to allocate Cannibalistic Rite, Juggernaut (both already taken in my trees), Stamina and Barbarism notables (these are not taken, and Stamina doesn't give us much).

Also, PSA: anything regarding radius on the tree doesn't work on Cluster Jewels and in sockets of the Cluster Jewels.
I don't know if you noticed it, but I think it is a buff:

Exsanguinate

Removed
20% increased Skill Effect Duration

Modified
New: Base duration is 2.50 seconds
Old: Base duration is 1.00 seconds
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Fenris1970 wrote:
I don't know if you noticed it, but I think it is a buff:

Exsanguinate

Removed
20% increased Skill Effect Duration

Modified
New: Base duration is 2.50 seconds
Old: Base duration is 1.00 seconds


this is only a buff for build which couldn't max stack exsanguinate. It may open up some points on the skill tree, but with hardcoded max stacks i would call this a buff
Current Build: Penance Brand
God build?! https://pobb.in/bO32dZtLjji5
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Fenris1970 wrote:
I don't know if you noticed it, but I think it is a buff:

Exsanguinate

Removed
20% increased Skill Effect Duration

Modified
New: Base duration is 2.50 seconds
Old: Base duration is 1.00 seconds


Yes, I've noticed it, and commented on it in the 1st post, in the 3.23 Notes. I think this won't matter when mapping, but will make bossing easier, as it decreases the amount of times you need to apply the debuff on the enemy.
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tsunamikun wrote:
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Fenris1970 wrote:
I don't know if you noticed it, but I think it is a buff:

Exsanguinate

Removed
20% increased Skill Effect Duration

Modified
New: Base duration is 2.50 seconds
Old: Base duration is 1.00 seconds


this is only a buff for build which couldn't max stack exsanguinate. It may open up some points on the skill tree, but with hardcoded max stacks i would call this a buff


I'd say it is a buff to your bossing convenience, a quality of life buff, if you will. You can make it "a damage buff" by speccing out of increased Skill Duration nodes on the tree and picking damage instead. Either way, I find this a welcome change. Also, we still don't have any info on Transfigured gems, maybe there will be one for Exsanguinate (because it is not explicitly stated that every single Skill Gem will get one) that will be worth cooking - we'll see.
We do not have a transfigured Exsanguinate but we have a Transfigured Flame dash of retun.
Sucks Ex ain't gonna Get'cha alternate form. I dunno if I want the Flame Dash of Return though. It just becomes an attack instead of a dodge. I've been using the whirling blade for movement, and Flame Dash for true evasion, so using the Flame Dash for Elemental Fire damage seems useless for a build seeking to do Pure Phys.

Well, let's see what other Gems we get. More are coming tomorrow after all.

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