THOR'S RAINBOWNUKE: off to the Marauder forum
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Here's a complete analysis of the Witch Ascendancy Classes. I will give an individual breakdown of the viability of the classes and how you should use them. All my data is derived from testing the sub-classes through T13-T15 maps, normal Atziri and Merciless Labyrinth runs.
1) Elementalist
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Apart from its badass portrait art, this sub-class is largely a disappointment. Why? It offers conditional damage and defense augmentation that is largely sub-par when compared to its counterparts. Defensively speaking, PARAGON OF CALAMITY is undependable and largely situational. You will almost never feels its effect unless you run something like a Taste of Hate. LIEGE OF THE PRIMORDIAL is mostly useless until the Lightning Golem gets released. The Elemental Conflux gained from SHAPER OF DESOLUTION is an exceedingly strong effect that is rendered almost useless, as this build already kills mobs fast enough. You will rarely see the shock, burn or chill play any part in improving your clear speed, as mobs die too fast to be affected by these supplementary status ailments. The only time you need Elemental Conflux is when facing tougher bosses like Atziri, but alas, there arent any mobs to trigger your Elemental Conflux. If you cant really maximize the use of Elemental Conflux, then BEACON OF RUIN is practically useless as well. PENDULUM OF DESTRUCTION is a surprising powerful boost of damage. The 100% increased Elemental Damage is great for clearing tougher foes. When it is active, it gives me similar DPS to a Crit Mjolner build. All it takes is a little bit of practice and timing and you can abuse its effect when needed. This is perhaps the best node is the Elementalist's arsenal. MASTERMIND OF DISCORD will only get triggered by your Molten Strike and Lightning Strike, as Discharge being cast through Mjolner does not count as "using the skill". As such, you get 20% Cold Pen with MS, which is utter garbage for this build, and 10% Fire Pen with LS, which is similarly weak. To make Mastermind of Discord work, you will have to utilize the largely unused Wild Strike as your main attack. Surprising, Wild strike acts like an intermediary between MS and LS. Its Ice Waves and Arc can hit further than MS, but not to the extent of LS. Its Explosions makes it better for 1 on 1 than LS, but nowhere near as good as MS. However, using Wild Strike will enable you to always have 20% Elemental Pen with MASTERMIND OF DISCORD, which is a huge damage boost. Whilst Wild Strike can be strong and effective to use, it still cannot match the clear speed of LS or the single target of MS, making it sub-par, especially since it also has a level of RNG built into it. Overall, this is definitely the weakest of the Witch Ascendancy Classes. However, it can provide a fun and effective Niche through its enabling of Wild Strike. 2) Occultist
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The Occulist is a very strong ascendancy and in my opinion, it is the best ascendancy for doing labyrinth runs and map clearing, due to its unique bonuses to clear speed and its ES recovery capabilities.
WICKED WARD is an insanely power defensive boost. The flat +100 ES on its own (whilst not as good as the Trickster's +250 ES), is a healthy boost to your ES supply, which is invaluable to any low-life build. However, the true strength of this node lies in its ES recharge is not interrupted by damage mechanic. That means, as long as your ES is recharging, you are more or less safe from dying. This is invaluable in the labyrinth, where traps and mobs can prevent you from recharging your ES, leading to potential RIPs. VILE BASTION is just ridiculously powerful. Thanks to this node, my mapping confidence has shot through the roof. That 0.5% ES regen per enemy killed recently is seriously powerful. In most maps, I can easily see myself having above 30 stacks of that ES regen (for 15% ES REGEN+++ OMG!!!!) all the time. Things like degen, thorns and reflect are less of a worry thanks to that insane ES regen. Even in the labyrinth, as long as I kill a pack, I will quick run and jump through all the traps as my ES regen can help me to survive. Seriously speaking, you will feeling insanely un-killable in generic mapping. However, even with the Stun Immunity on full ES, i'd recommend using Unwavering Stance as it is more reliable. PROFANE BLOOM is basically a free clear speed boost. Cursed Enemies taking 10% increased damage is basically a 10% more damage multiplier (that stacks additively with shock). Due to Blasphemy+Warlords Mark, this effect has constant up time, meaning that you will shred through mobs even faster than before. As this is a pure damage boost, it will actually help to increase clear speed as mobs will die faster. The bonus effect of mobs having a 20% chance to explode on death is also a minor boost to clear speed as it can occasionally help to finish off weakened nearby foes. MALEDICTION provides a free curse and a small damage boost when killing a cursed mob. This node is not very useful unless you can constantly apply 2 curses at the same time. If you have any corrupted gloves that curses your enemy with Temporal Chains or Elemental Weakness on hit, then you can maximize the effect of this node. The bonus damage can somewhat augment clear speed, but its not very reliable. Unless you can effectively double curse, I would avoid this node. FORBIDDEN POWER is a good node for Crit Variations of the build. +1 to Max Power Charges means your can invest passive points elsewhere. The 10% to gain a Power Charge on Crit means that you have a chance to gain a power charge after romira's banquet procs its "lose all power charges on crit" effect, thereby helping to improve the consistency of your discharge damage. VOID BEACON is largely useless for this build and should be avoided. Overall, the balance of survival bonuses and damage increases makes the Occultist very powerful and hard to kill in normal mapping. It wont be able to effectively tackle larger bosses like Core Malachai as well as other ascendancy classes, but it will be able to clear maps faster with fewer problems. If you go Occultist, there is honestly very few problems you have to worry about, making it suitable for "more reckless or more carefree" play styles. As such, it is a draw for the best Witch Ascendancy. A Draw? But didnt you say the Elementalist was poop? Does that mean that the Necromancer is........ 3) Necromancer
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It may not seem like a good ascendancy for non-summoners at first glance, but as the community has noted, it is currently a stupidly powerful ascendancy with access to some of the best defensive buffs at almost no cost. Lets break her down.
MISTRESS OF SACRIFICE. This node alone is why the necromancer is strong for non-summoner classes. It makes it so that Offering Skills also affect the player. Flesh Offering grants an insane amount of move speed and attack speed, and is basically a free self-cast Haste. The real game breaking offering is Bone Offering. A level 21 Bone Offering alone, give 35% Block, 35% Spell Block and a strong amount of health recovered on block (that is largely useless for low life ES). With a normal shield, thats an insane 60% chance to block attacks and 35% chance to block spells for no investment into actual block nodes. If you then pop a rumi's concoction, you will max out your chance to block attacks at 75% and you will have up to 50% spell block. This is a ridiculous defensive bonus that compliments both the low life and life based variations of the build. You can even use tempest shield for some effective lightning chaining with your shield. SPIRIT EATER is picked up as it has good synergy with MISTRESS OF SACRIFICE as consuming corpses with your offerings will help to extend the duration of the offering's effect. SPIRIT EATER gives you a nice 40% increased damage every time a corpse is consumed recently. This is just a small damage boost that mixes well with MISTRESS OF SACRIFICE. COMMANDER OF DARKNESS gives a solid 6% increased damage per aura and 2% move speed per aura to the player. With 7 auras as a low-life ES build, you have a strong 42% increased damage and 14% increased move speed all the time. This is an exceptionally powerful node that greatly helps to boost clear speed by raising both your damage and move speed permanently. The rest of the nodes for the necromancer are largely useless to this build as we do not typically run any minions. Overall, due to the sheer power of the offerings and the nice bonuses for having so many auras, the Necromancer excels defensively and offensively and is great for both map clearing and 1v1 boss fights. Its just that some of the bonus like increased minion health are wasted on this build. Hence, I value the Necromancer on the same tier and Occultist. 4) Conclusions
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Whilst many people, myself included, where greatly disappointed by the initial reveal of the Witch Sub-Classes. I can safely say that the sheer power of the Occultist (despite its nerfs) and the Necromancer make it suitable for use with this build. Although these classes lack certain effects like global leech (from the ascendant) that drastically improve single target encounters, the balance of power and protection offered by these classes help to raise clear speed significantly.
If you are looking for a safe and strong ascendancy with phenomenal clear speed, you should definitely consider rolling a Witch. She has an ample balance of power and survival mechanisms that, in my opinion, make her the top-tier map clearer for this build. Last edited by iSo1iD#4681 on Mar 5, 2016, 3:25:34 AM
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Well now that my Witch Testing is finished, I guess I will move on to the Marauder tomorrow. I am expecting the Berserker to dishy out some serious damage, although it might not be enough to outweigh the increased damage taken. The Juggernaut on the other hand might just prove to be exceedingly strong as that ability to resist Freezing is extremely strong.
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So I see there is a new topic for this build!
tackle70 I want to thank you for the effort you put into this guide and for helping people that need help with gearing up or making their passive skill tree fit with their chatacter. I am one of the people that needs help all the time when a patch hits PoE simply because I am too afraid to make crucial mistakes, wich I have done in the past making my main character useless. Anyway patch hit and I would like some information/help regarding my passive skill tree and possibly some gear upgrades or things I'll need to buy for my character. I am extremely low on currency so I won't be able to purchase anything yet but then I'll know what to work on. A friend of my "borrowed" my maps and currency haha.
CURRENT_EQUIPED_ITEMS
I sometimes replace my faster attacks with lightning strike for faster clearing. I understand if I need to wait a bit considering that the patch just hit so I'll play some lower maps now to get some higher tier maps and do them when my build is better. Thanks in advance! Greetings SWAGUAR Last edited by TJEmvp#2833 on Mar 5, 2016, 9:14:53 AM
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" Looks fairly good to me. The only glaring omission I see on your passive tree is that you did not take Arcane Focus (the 20% ES notable by Witch). I suggest dropping the two unnecessary attack speed nodes you took in Scion start which aren't needed for the jewel there, and also speccing out of a strength node if you can (my math tells me you have 459 strength, meaning you can lose 47 strength and be fine), in order to spend those 3 points on ES getting Arcane Focus. What jewels do you have? Jewels can be a make-or-break thing for this build; if you can get jewels with Life Gain on Hit, Attack Speed, and Dexterity/Strength, that's probably ideal for you. As for gear, I'd suggest getting a pair of Repentance gloves if you can afford them (they're like an exalt or two I think). I'd also suggest seeing if you can get a better shield and/or boots where you can pick up some more Energy Shield and either Strength or Dexterity. The TL;DR is get Arcane Focus and then work on getting more strength/dexterity on good ES gear so you can spec into more ES instead of so many STR/DEX notables. The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard Last edited by tackle70#1293 on Mar 5, 2016, 10:36:39 AM
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" Thanks for this. Added Occultist and Necromancer to the OP. The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard |
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Screenshots updated for 2.2. Fun fact: this build does approximately 2.5 times the damage that it did in 2.0 AND it has the vastly increased survivability granted by Vinktar.
Power creep is real. The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard |
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Ok, now that stuff is more stable I will be trying to get my last two Ascendancy points for the Duelist - Champion. Initial thoughts right now are that it's looking good, and can rock close to 23,000 Armour as it is right now with the Grace aura. I THINK...I THINK that I can even work in the Chaos Golem for my particular variant with a CWDT setup and use it in a 4L while still maintaining the auras I have now. It will require dropping Blasphemy - WLM, but that can be put onto a CoH setup with either MS or LS, so we/you can still curse while using this variant. Biggest issue, however, is that I will need 3 level 4 Enlightens for maximum optimization so to say, but I think I can make something else work without it for the time being.
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Deathless Core Malachai Video added. Had one close call @ ~9:45 where I was very slow to realize Piety was immune and I needed to stop attacking but that was it.
Took me about 5 tries to get one deathless... I kept having one-death runs due to random misplays (like that one) on my part. Facetanking Core Malachai with decent map mods requires essentially perfect play and/or some luck to do without dying. For what it's worth, the second half of the fight is 10000x easier than the first half. In the first half, you have to avoid slam and switch targets very quickly when piety/malachai become immune. Piety can also be very dangerous with certain map mods (e.g. extra projectiles) and has to be dealt with immediately. Overall, pretty happy with it though... I think this build is in the best place it's ever been as far as power level. I'll get a few more videos up too... that section has needed some major work for a while. The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard |
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Twinned Core Malachai down. Not deathless, of course. Video added.
Surprisingly, though, I think that the fight *would* be doable deathless with some practice; I don't think the fight is actually more difficult than single boss in terms of how hard it is for the build to do, but there is a lot more difficulty for the player since you have to keep track of two copies of Malachai. In particular, I found it difficult in the second form to keep track of when one of them was going to slam vs when he just teleported. The 352nd character to hit Level 100 in Standard
The 82nd character to hit Delve 1000 in Standard |
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Ok, not 100% fleshed out, but I am done with initial testing on my Duelist - Champion LL variant for this build. I know that might seem a little odd for some, but thusfar, he's proven to be extremely good. So, let me get down to the nitty-gritty of everything and start listing out some stuff:
Level 91 Duelist - CHampion The Gear
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Nothing had really changed in my gear setup, though Headhunter is once again not 100% required. I just love it for stealing mods off rares all the time. A rare Heavy Belt with Strength, resists and ES and even Armour will suffice. Flask mods work as well, or you can always go with the tried and true Dori's Belt (Lightning Variant) for a simple alternative. The Vertex is still really great, and even better for this build for the +1 to all gems, and the huge amount of Evasion on it will go towards your Armour total since we pick up Iron Reflexes in this build. Nothing else is really new here, and again, don't use my gear setup as gospel truth, this is just what I have on hand and use...use whatever will work for you. The Passive Tree
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https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQDAAHnDXwOPBEPFHEUdRSwFSAXLxjbGYoZtBqPHRQdqiFgJbwnCymlLYMvbzboOlI7DUCgRnFJUUmxTC1VtVXWWfNbr1xrXIpeE185Xz9fal-wYVJk52ZUZp5oZWvUb55wu3IPcql08XvUe9d82X_GgKSCHoMJg7aESISUhMWGYIbRiEKJcYx2j0aP-pMnlG-bLZuhm7WezZ_LoS-nMKrNrJisqrCrtAy-ir6nwQTBxcHzwzrDbcpKytPQ0NfP2RPbT90N3ePfv-DD4YjqGOq67BjsXO9O74jv6_DV89305vba9zL31_jr-Tf60vsJ_kk=?accountName=Tanakeah&characterName=Xenolugia
This is still going to require some tweaking, but as you can see, I get pretty much all of the aura nodes for this setup and it does help out a lot. In total I get 60% increased Aura Effectiveness as well as 38% reduced Mana Reserved, and this is a very specific total. It's because I run EIGHT, yes, EIGHT auras, that include: Grace, Anger, Wrath, Haste, Discipline, PoF, PoI, and PoL To run all of them, refer to the gem setups I have down below, but here is the aura calculator link for what I did to get them running. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE use this tool to help with planning out your auras depending on what you have available and what you can afford to run with available gems, sockets, and colors. Here ya go: https://poe.mikelat.com/#dJWN9ag/T-Z_=Bo/gnQYsmd/RHym6 Everything else should pretty much make sense, though I am sure the pathing isn't the most optimal it can be, and I do take the Mara life regen notable since I prefer that to refill my life instead of LGoH for consistency. I will be picking up the additional PC and ED where Intuitive Leap is at the Templar zone as I level up. I will likely be able to pick up another jewel socket as well on the way to level 95, and I could even go after Cloth and Chain in the Duelist area to gab more All Resist and Armour/Evasion, too. Again, the tree is still a WIP but this should give most of you a good idea on where to start and tweak it to what you want. As far as jewels, we pretty much want to use: Intuitive Leap, Energy From Within, and Clear Mind since this build takes advantage of all of them quite well. The rest of the jewel sockets should be ES%, Spell Damage, Strength/Resists if needed, and then IAS if you want that. Increased Lighting/Fire Damage is also fine. The Ascendancy Points
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1. First to Strike, Last to Fall - The increased damage doesn't really matter, but what matters is that WHOPPING 200% Increased Armour and Evasion. Yes, you read that right, it's not a mistake, and given that this build is always on LL, you'll always have that up. Plus, the node right before it grants 5%IAS/15% Ar/Eva, so not only a little more attack speed, but another 15% to tack onto the 200%, which is great. Plus, as you can tell from the gems I have slotted (I'll detail them later) I am running Grace, and using Iron Reflexes. Combine all that with my gear choices and the other two smaller nodes that tack on another 30% Ar/Eva, and I am sitting at about 22,250 Armour. Yeah, that's with a pure ES chest and Shield...pretty insane.
2. Unstoppable Hero - Since this build always has Fortify up, you're gaining the 10% IAS/8%MS at all times and the extra 10% Fortify boost helps. Also, since you're going to pick up the other two nodes that have 5% Fortify Effect boosts on them, you'll have a total of 20% Increased Fortify Effect, so you're getting 24% damage reduction instead of 20%...pretty nice. Nothing much else to say here. 3. Fortitude - Not only do you have permanent Fortify, it means that this build no longer need the Fortify gem. This actually has a lot of advantages to it, one of which being that if you go Vaal Pact and don't use life regen, you can then link a LGoH gem to your main attack. VIOLA! No need for LGoH jewels, no need to reforge colors, and you can now do 'No Life Regen' maps without having to make special workarounds for it, or skipping it entirely. Quite a nice currency saver in that regard. Of course, you can always change the color if you wanted something else, though there isn't much else to choose from, but can certainly have at it. The Gem Setups
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Helm = Lvl. 4 Enlighten > Grace > Discipline > Wrath
Shield = Purity of Ice > Purity of Lightning > Purity of Fire Boots = Lvl. 4 Enlighten > Haste > Anger > Herald of Thunder (spare socket here) Gloves = CWDT > Summon Chaos Golem > Immortal Call > Leap Slam (SCG will get changed to Increased Duration) Chest = Lightning Strike > Curse on Hit > Added Chaos Damage > Multistrike > Faster Attacks > Warlord's Mark These should be pretty self-explanatory and give you a rough idea for what to go after. Again, will be changing the glove setup a bit, and because of my chest's colors, I can switch out LS and ACD for GMP+Mol.Strike when I encounter bosses. If my boots weren't mirrored, I'd have a little more flexibility with colors and could optimally slot Anger in the helm instead of Wrath, but again, working with what I have. Now, I could make a separate section for auras, but I'll discuss that here since they're part of the gem setup. Most should be pretty easy to understand, but the notable ones are Grace and Anger. Grace is where most of our Armour will come from and remember that with the 60% Aura increase, that is a 1.6 multiplier to Grace's base Evasion value, and then the other Armour/Evasion increases use that value. That's why I can get my Armour total as high as I can, and it will go a bit higher once I get more passive points fixed up. Anger is nice because it adds flat fire damage to our spells Arc and Discharge, and is a solid boost to their damage, especially Discharge since we're always generating Endurance Charges that deal Fire Damage. The Flasks
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Pretty much nothing too new that I can think of here. Definitely want VoV and a shock removal flask for that, and then you'll want Bleed Removal, Curse Removal, and Frozen/Chill Removal for everything else. Definitely will want to pack a Granite Flask for this build since when I pop mine I get around an additional 11,000 Armour, which puts me around 33,000 total Armour and that combined with Fortify and Endurance Charges...physical mitigation is really strong.
Some final thoughts on the build as I continue to test it out are that it is VERY tanky and we no longer have to fear packs of exploding 'porcupines' any longer. I did do some higher end maps like Academy with Vulnerability and Wastelands with extra boss damage (Both had Onsalught as well) and I had little issue surviving. Even when my VoV went down on Academy, I had more than a few seconds to stand in the book tornadoes and get out without coming close to dying. That was also when my Granite went down as well, so take that for what it's worth. I am unsure if Wasteland Voll hit me with his slam or not, but there I had no help from shock (status immunity map) and extra boss damage, so...yeah. Starting off as the Duelist you also get A LOT of IAS and Art of Gladiator removes all MS penalties from gear, and I am getting well over 5 attacks per second with LS, which is nice. I'll have to do more testing, but I think that right now the Duelist - Champion sacrifices some damage, but he offers A LOT more physical survivability even with VoV up and flexibility to get away from needing LGoH jewels, too. All in all, I'd say he's a very solid choice...also, for those wondering, I am close to 6,800 ES at this point in time, lower than some others for sure, but the huge amount of Armour and other things he offers definitely makes up for it. |
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