| S TIER |
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Deadeye probably deserves its own Tier. It's very popular due to the Tailwind's mobility. It will now automatically inflict Marks, and consuming them will apply 5 stacks of Critical Weakness debuff. This evasion-focused class will also benefit from the new Deflection stat that reduces damage taken. Keep in mind, achieving high and reliable survivability will require some proper and expensive Gear, but even at lower investment levels, it will be quite effective for regular Mapping, which is where you spend the majority of your time.
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Lich remains very powerful and versatile. Your Curses can now last forever, but realistically, you would never pick that Notable anyway. The defensive capabilities remain one of the best in the game, although it's a bit reliant on your Items. The Eldritch Empowerment now drains more Energy Shield as you cast your Spells, but if you don't overinvest in Cast Speed, it is not that noticeable. |
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Invoker is only slightly adjusted. Elemental Expression has higher damage, and Meditate has lower Cooldown and higher ES Recharge Rate, but the Overflow grants 50% less effect than before. Monk can also benefit from Deflection, Infusion, and passives on a skill tree, so it's a rather safe choice. The biggest impact here is the Hollow Palm Technique Keystone, which allows for a new, unarmed approach. It is very effective for levelling and the early game, but will eventually be outscaled by expensive Quarterstaffs.
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Blood Mage is a huge winner this patch. Sanguimany is now free, which saves you an ascension (the first one at that!). Sunder the Flesh and Gore Spike are swapped, which is great for most Builds since Critical Strike Chance is more valuable to them, but Spells like Bonestorm have no benefit from it at all. You can now charge your Life Flask up by spending Life, and when it's full, 40% of its charges are consumed to grant you extra damage as Physical Damage for 3 seconds. Open Sores also got a makeover - now, enemies affected by your Cueses have 15% of their Life Reserved. It's very good for all kinds of Spells on a character with high Maximum Life and Critical Damage, but it's also the best option for a Bleed Build due to automatic Aggravation and Elemental Damage scaling. |
| A TIER |
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Tactician is very good now. Major buffs all across the board, especially for the Ballista-type builds that he is known for. Banner skills have been altered; they require more effort to place, but the effect they grant is much improved, making the Tactician's ability to place all three at the same time stand out. This Ascendency is surprisingly durable thanks to fast Pin buildup, and the hybrid Armour and Evasion playstyle. It is most known for the Siege Cascade Build - it received a major nerf to its potential Boss Damage, but it will be more consistent.
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Amazon's Crit Chance has been nerfed, but now requires fewer Accuracy investments to be worth it. The Amazons can still benefit from Weapons with a high Accuracy modifier, granting extra Physical Damage as well, which is usually much cheaper than their regular counterparts. The Elemental Infusion has been slightly changed and renamed; it now grants 3 Surges instead of 2 Infusions, but it's still only useful if your Build consumes a lot of Charges. The Elemental Life Leech is also great for Recovery, but you will lack actual Damage mitigation.
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The supposedly iconic Ritualist feature, the Ritual Sacrifice, has been compressed to one passive only, saving you one ascension, but it still requires a long animation to complete, and the Buff duration is quite low. At some point, the extra Ring and its effects can be worth more than the entire proper Ascendency, but it requires very high levels of investment, definitely not suitable for the start of a new League. |
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Infernalist is still the go-to class for Minion builds due to the high Spirit, especially now as most Minions received a major Buffs to their performance. The Spellcaster variants also got some changes. You can wield a weapon while in Demon Form, the Infernal Flame pool is doubled, and you lose it twice as slow. The Demon Form in the basic approach grants 30% More Spell Damage, but it is possible to achieve much higher with specialised Setups that allow for much higher Damage potential. The Ignite is still the weakest of all Damaging Ailments, although the new Blackflame Covenant Keystone may unlock its true potential. |
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Pathfinder has their Concoctions reworked, although most of them are still bad. The most notable is the Acidic Concoction, which consumes Poison to instantly deal Physical Damage based on 150% of the Poison consumed, but it requires a specific Setup to work. The class is still an excellent choice for Poison builds, even more so now that you can use multiple copies of the same Support Gem, and due to a new Skill, Toxic Domain. We're excited about the possibilities it introduces. |
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Witchhunter's passive for additional swap point has been buffed. It went from 20 Weapon Set Skill Points to a hundred. Remember, Weapon Swapping is now instant, and you can use the same Weapon for both Sets, which makes this Ascendency much more promising. The Concentration break offers solid amp to your Damage that suits any Setup, and the additional Explosions can greatly boost your Clear Speed. Even if you don't have proper use for the Weapon Sets, it is a solid and simple choice. |
| B TIER |
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Stormweaver had to adjust to the new triple-elemental environment. The Elemental Storm has a lower Cooldown, and you can raise its limit to 2 at once, but its Damage is still not that impressive. Force of Will has changed. It now shifts 20% of incoming damage to be taken from Mana First, and increases the magnitude of Arcane Surge on you by 20% per 10% missing Mana, funnelling you into a Mana playstyle. It is the best Ascendency for Elemental Infusions, as Heart of the Storm now provides a 50% chance when collecting an Elemental Infusion to gain a different Elemental Infusion, and the Storm's Recollection respawns your Remnants after 3 seconds, allowing you to Infuse Spells once again. This playstyle is still highly experimental, and probably won't be enjoyable at lower levels if all your Damage is locked behind picking up Ramnents. |
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Chronomancer lost Unleash and gained Inevitable Agony. It's supposed to help you fight tough enemies by storing the damage they take in a Curse form, and then damage them again as one instance of damage once the Curse expires. It can enhance your burst quite substantially, but it also makes your gameplay more complex. Quicksand Hourglass's Cast Speed bonus is now less volatile and abrupt. It grants a gradually decreasing Cast Speed and a gradually increasing Area of Effect, making your Spells slower and larger over 10-second cycles. It definitely looks more appealing, but this Ascendency still requires a lot more work to get similar results as other, simpler options. |
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Titan is also affected by Giant's Blood and Block changes, but still remains the top pick for Mace Skills so far. This Ascendency is heavily carried by the Hulking Form, which increases the effect of Small Passive Skills. It is especially noticeable after the massive influx of new options on the Passive Tree. Many of the Melee Skills received some buffs, especially Fire-themed ones. They might not be the best at everything, but you won't regret it if you simply enjoy this playstyle. |
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Acolyte of Chayula has been completely reworked. You can now generate 1 Volatility per Elemental Ailment Infliction. Volatility grants 1% of damage as extra Chaos Damage, and you take no damage from it. You can also apply all 3 Elemental Ailments with your Chaos Damage, but only if you get the relevant, cycling Buff, so it is not that great. The Leech can now be based on the Chaos Damage, but you no longer have the possibility to recover Energy Shield. The Breach branch now increases the effect of Flames of Chayula, and the next passive lets you narrow the choice of all spawned Flames to only one. The Darkness branch is still weak. You can also pick the Void Illusion Skill, which creates a short-lived copy of yourself upon Dodge-rolling. It explodes when killed by Enemies, dealing heavy Damage around it. It may be Build-enabling, but such Build would definitely suffer from the 4-second Cooldown and rather clunky playstyle. |
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Gemling Legionnaire's The Advanced Thaumaturgy is reworked, and now it generates a Charge every 8 seconds. You can skew the chances of getting the Charge you want by equipping Skill Gems of a specific colour, but the long wait time makes it not desirable as your main Charge generation. Since every character can use as many of the same Support Gems as they please, the Gem Studded had to go. It now causes you to get useful bonuses depending on your Gem Colours, and you can balance it out to gain all three bonuses at once. It can be a very good Ascedency, but it's tied to very specific Setups, and you will need a lot of Perfect Jeweller's Orbs to unlock the full potential here. |
| C TIER |
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Smith of Kitava did lose a lot of power. Flowing Metal causes 50% of Armour to also apply to all Elemental Hit Damage instead of +5% max Fire Resistance now. It can be good in some specific scenarios, but insignificant to most. Regeneration from Leather Binding has been reduced by 40%. The changes around the ascendancy are much more impactful (like the one to Gaint's Blood, Block, or heavility restricting the access to Max Fire Res). This patch doesn't look good for the Warriors, especially Smith of Kitava. |
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Warbringer has received some changes, but the most impactful are the general Block changes. You can now always Block all Hits, which previously required the Turtle Charm Notable, but your maximum Block Chance is significantly lower, sitting at 50%, or roughly 60% with some investments on the Passive Tree. As Warbringer, you can bring it back to 75%, but you would take 20% Damage from the Blocked Hits, which is usually not worth the tradeoff. All Ancestral Spirits are now stronger and more responsive, and you can Summon one additional Totem. His no-cooldown-for-warcries passive has been merged with the one that explodes corpses, which saves you one ascension if you're planning to use them. You also no longer lose Jade when hit, which works very well with a Block-based playstyle. |
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