Acolyte of Chayula
" Yeah, but then why does Matra of Destruction give Flames per kill? The way that skill is designed encourages you to kill as many things as possible with it. But if you do kill 10 enemies with it, you now have nothing left alive, and the buff is going to wear off before you get to the next pack and can hit anything with it. Designing it the way I'm suggesting actually makes mantra of destruction a better ability for someone who went Chayula and took the Flames node because of the synergy of trying to maximize keeping uptime on your buff. Right now Mantra is ok at best and I'll still use it if I'm using a Thunder Falls build, even if I'm going Invoker. But if I go invoker, I convert more damage to chaos and get to generate power charges easier with siphoning strike. |
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Overall this ascendancy is in a pretty bad spot. I was hopeful pre launch that we would have some skills that synergies well with it but it’s not the case.
- The buffs expire 90% of the time before hitting another group of mobs. Maybe you’ll have 3 stacks at most. - Mana leech doesn’t work and so the energy shield synergy doesn’t pay dividends - darkness is not good enough for end game You might as well not even pick up an ascendency and just play a weaker version of invoker |
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" I wholeheartedly disagree. Individual timers for PFoC is terrible design. Reaching max stacks is untenable for the current 5s window. After investing half your ascendancy into a 10s window, you'll only ever see max stacks when fighting in a hallway. It needs to be changed. |
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The whole ascendancy feels like you do not even have an ascendancy.
That is my take after mapping for 3 days now. On average you probably dont even have 1 purple stack as a caster acolyte. In boss fights the screen is cluttered with spell effects it is hard to even see the flames that spawn all over the arenas and out of vision. In maps most of the flames do not even spawn in your path but somewhere behind you or to your sides so you barely even get any in an open map. - flames must refresh - flames have to spawn in an area infront of your character on in a narrower circle around you - the skill needs to scale with duration, area and cooldown. - duration of flames is too low.. by the time I can cast two curses, orb of storms, flame wall... the buff is basically expired And Darkness is so bad since it takes away Spirit. Instant Mana Leech is also a weak node unless it gives you some % of mana leech as well. Last edited by Quizzlemanizzle#2632 on Dec 11, 2024, 3:48:41 PM
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Totally agree with the Quizzle, ive tested around and spent way to much gold trying to optimize these ascendacy nodes, but so far the only thing that seems to work and is mildly usable are the Breach nodes and Reality rending (which im not 100% sure if it works properly or not) Im testing it atm with Event Horizon + Spaggettification to see how it scales in end game, but so far with good results.
Using Ice Strike with double herald, charged staff, tempest bell, hand of chayula to apply Sniper's and curses, Resonance node + combat frenzy to have power charges 90% uptime. - The breach flames spawn so far out when your in the thick of it and really need that mana/life flame, the only good thing i see about it is the chaos damage buff. - Ravenous doubts and consuming questions were the nodes i was most excited by and yet they don't even work such a shame and hopefully GGG fixes this soon. - The darkness nodes are pointless imho you get hit by a normal mob and puff there's no actual benefit of using this... |
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Have to agree, the darkness nodes are all major letdowns. The extra chaos damage doesn't feel worth 4 ascendancy points, and the 600 (at level 100!) absorption is meaningless against late game mobs. Most of the time you will have some mixture of the two.
Leech isn't in a good state. The only way to get it to my knowledge is on your weapon, and it's only for physical damage, but nearly every quarterstaff skill converts to frost/lightning. At least, all the ones people use for main skills do. Mind over matter isn't particularly close to any other good monk passives either. The Chayula flames can be fun, but leave a lot to be desired. It isn't very common I want 14% life/mana leech. Either I need a big heal because I got smacked, or I need consistent recovery to survive a lot of small hits or some dot/degen. Having to go out of my way during a dangerous situation to grab 14% resource? Feels pretty bad. The main value seems to be in the purple flames, but those feel lacking as well. I was very disappointed skill effect did not increase their duration. Especially given a chaos dmg/skill duration wheel is right next to the monk start... The flames you get from Mantra of Destruction ARE effected by duration, why is it that the skill all monks have access to works more intuitively? I don't think flames should spawn outside the radius you can view them, they should probably spawn more often and closer, and more duration/being affected by skill effect duration would help massively. I think the red/blue flames would be a lot better too if they restored less, but lasted longer. That way if you grab some before encountering mobs, you have meaningful regen going into the fight. Ultimately, it feels undertuned, and in particular, lacking flavor. Without the breach circle/flames, there is nothing that makes you feel like an acolyte of chayula. Maybe the purple flames/Grasp of the Void/Reality Rending should provide some purple visuals when they trigger, anything to actually make the ascendancy feels like it "reaches into the darkness" like Johnathan described it during the reveal. |
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" Acolyte feels like a character from the future, in 5 years if this game still exists, he, on paper, is the best ascendancy, the problem is like you stated, itemization, the best parts of this guy require the most obnoxious tree points and insane crafted rares, and we need to be able to scale intelligence better , turn it into dmg or something like shapers touch gloves etc. I love the acolyte concept, a shadow priest monk basically.. but it doesnt deliver , and with leech being bugged/never working/effective... it feels horrible. Last edited by Virginiaponics#3966 on Dec 12, 2024, 1:29:09 AM
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All node are pretty much underwhelming, and most skills in game now don't go well with those node especially monk skill, which kinda weird and counter intuitive, imo
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My build is popping off now and I cleared the atlas.
The chaos node turned out to be really strong with how overtuned chaos damage is in maps. But the Flames still need a major mechanical rework - should refresh - should scale with cooldown/skill effect duration - shouldnt spawn behind your character / in vision and I dont see what the point of the instant mana leech node is. It is way too weak by itself. Maybe it is ok for characters that have a lot of mana leech from phys but for the blue flames I think it does almost nothing to make the mana leech instant. I am playing manastacking with Archmage/Spark and Into the Breach Lucid Dreaming Chayula's Gift Reality Rending. Trialmaster couldnt do anything against me. Last edited by Quizzlemanizzle#2632 on Dec 14, 2024, 2:28:42 PM
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