SUGGESTION: Inherent bonuses per Ascendancy.

So I was listening to Pohx's review of the Blood Mage ascendancy, and I was trying to think of a clever way of fixing the problem where the spell leech node feels almost mandatory just to counteract the first mandatory ascendancy a little.

This got me thinking, what if each ascendancy had a unique passive QoL trait associated with their class fantasy or mechanics, valued at roughly a skill tree notable or implicit weapon modifier, that you automatically get just for being that ascendancy?

With this system, Blood Mage could have an inherent 10% spell leech by default, making the first node feel less bad. You could also do things like give Invoker increased chance to inflict elemental ailments, give Pathfinder flask charges passively, give Deadeye some increased accuracy, give Gemling a bonus skill slot, etc etc etc.

On top of contributing something to the class fantasy regardless of how people spec from there, it can also give newer players an idea of which ascendancy jives with how they ended up playing by that point. For instance if a new player thought freezing the enemy and blowing them up with Herald of Ice was really cool on Monk, and they see right up front that Invoker gives passive elemental ailment chance, they'll probably gravitate toward looking further into what else it can do.