Massively Overpowered reveals the Marauder Ascendancy Class: The Chieftain

so one of the solutions to the problem of melee being inferior to elemental builds who clean whole screens by pressing just one button is to make melee also using elemental skills. totems even?
not a real solution imho.

pure melee is where i started the game and loved it. i was one of the few players still using cleave with pure physical damage out of principle when elemental cleave already scaled the damage to the triple value.

why is there no "can't deal elemental damage but deal more physical dmg", there is only resolute technique which kind makes speccing into elemental damage non sensical but also handicapps physical.

RF does not Ignite you so we do not have use from "RaMako, Sun’s Light: makes player immune to ignite, grants regeneration, and offers a chance to gain endurance charges."

What I'm reading is: "Boohoo, my berserker only gets 40% more damage and free life and mana leech".... Are you mental?? Thats bloody insane...

Where is scion class? :)

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WhiteMagick wrote:

Alot of negative comments on Marauder classes. Not sure if anyone looked again at the nodes for Berserker. Went from 100% increased damage to 40% more damage. That changes a lot for me.

It changes a whole lot yes you are right. Giving any class a blunt generic 40% damage multiplier to all damage typs is insanity.
Why would ANYONE out there ever consider taking Cloaked in Savagery now over this absurd notable if they ever choose to play this class?

Option 1:
get 40% more damage all the time without any conditions in every situation

Option 2:
get some damage (much less damage than option 1) and leech capped instantly on hit only on a very harsh condition for 4 seconds - if the condition isn't met you get nothing.


Hmmm.... which option might 99% of the players choose? So dumb - i don't now what GGG are thinking when they create such stuff.


One positive aspect i can think of: I guess caster berserker is a thing now (Iron Will caster Marauder which isn't using fire spells only, maybe with RF while unsing Whirling blades/Leap Slam for movement)

Honestly i was expecting scion today. Not sure if i can make it another week without knowing

I'm honestly not too sure how I feel about the Chieftain subclass. It is the most appealing to my marauder, as I am a fire caster but lets talk about the major nodes:

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Arohongui, Moon’s Presence: reduces the damage the enemies near your totems do to players while also increasing the physical and fire damage done to them by the player.

If I was playing with totems defensively this might be interesting, but normally I want the totems away from me, not next to me. This seems counter intuitive. It may work however with the new melee totem, if I'm in the middle of the melee with him.

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Tukohama, War’s Herald: makes totems tougher with armor as well as an immunity to fire damage. Totems can also taunt and then deal damage to nearby enemies when hit.

This I actually think is much more useful and allows for some janky builds, like using a decoy totem to kill things. I'm not saying it would be good, but it is possible.

This particular branch is inferior to anything that is offered by hierophant. But it might have an interesting place if you're interested in using RF totems or doing something janky like the decoy totem.

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Tawhoa, Forest’s Strength: is focused more on defensive benefits, increasing the players armor, elemental resistances, and strength. Mana costs are also reduced. (A favorite skill for those using Iron Will to change strength to spell power.)

This on the surface appears to be the iron will nodes. In a 1000 strength build this might actually be useful. At 1000 strength, it turns into 100 strength, which would be the equivalent of 20% spell damage with iron will. A casual build will find the strength bonus only a little bit of hp. On the whole this is just a defensive build option. To claim that it supports iron will builds after the change to berserker that grants a 40% more multiplier and currently not explicitly stated as attack damage overshadows this as the better option even with the extra damage.

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Ngamahu, Flame’s Advance: gives players the chance to ignite foes and then increases damage dealt to all enemies that are engulfed in flames.

This is the entry point to the branch that I find the most appealing, and required that I path through it whether I want it or not. The bonus is reminiscent of the celestial punishment notable. I found that too unreliable to want it, although with the extra chance to ignite, might actually work okay. At only two nodes if it is effective it is a worthwhile investment at 17.5% increased damage per node (not counting whatever the travel node offers). But if it weren't part of the pathing I might have skipped it.

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Hinekora, Death’s Fury: penetrates a percentage of fire resistance, adds fire damage when enemies are killed, and allows fire damage to leech life from enemies.

Now this is the one that makes me want to pick this ascendancy. The fire penetration is great for any fire build attack or spell, and does a very good job of adding a lot of extra damage. To stack it on top it offers fire leech in a significant enough value that it might be worthwhile dropping the life leech gem on fire spell casters. If I can make due without the life leech gem that will be a significant increase in my dps, just with the leech.

I'm not sold entirely on its on kill effect though, it is much less generalized and far too specific. It's basically an added fire damage and just as restricted, and a temporary buff which I generally don't enjoy.

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RaMako, Sun’s Light: makes player immune to ignite, grants regeneration, and offers a chance to gain endurance charges.

This one is rather awkward. I'm not sure where to place it. Being immune to ignite is a nice defensive bonus, but doesn't protect you from burning damage. Because it does not protect you from burning damage it's more of a flavorful decision than an impactful one. The life regeneration for maintaining endurance charges is quite powerful and possibly the most useful feature of this node. The temporary nature of this buff also leaves something to be desired from me. The endurance charge for killing a burning enemy will help you maintain this buff, and take away some of the need to spawn enduring cry though. So it could be good, but I'm not sure it's what I'd want in comparison to Tawhoa, Forest's Strength -- and I don't really want that one that much but I'm not a totem user.

So when I piece it all together here is what I get:
Fire based characters might find this ascendancy interesting, more for the fire leech than anything else. Berserkers might be more lucrative for the higher leech percent even if it is an on kill effect (which isn't reliable).

The totem nodes allow for some janky builds but on the whole are worse than the hierophant if only because it isn't very restrictive. My opinion of this might change IF the new totem skill is exceptional and meshes well with a fire based theme.

Here is what I was hoping to get from this ascendancy:
-Iron will love: I think this ascendancy failed to meet this qualification, as it only has rather weak notable for iron will characters. It might work if the character is fire based otherwise I would just pass on it.
-Blood magic love: Being the only caster available from the marauder ascendancy I would have liked to see something that would have made auras more accesible to blood magic characters. Like a free aura, or something I call "ghost mana" -- a separate pool just for auras that allows no reservation on mana or life (not original I know, but still something I would have liked to see). Or even just a specific buff for blood magic characters (like increased damage when skills are used with blood magic) -- so it isn't even necessarily keystone specific.
-Righteous fire love: With the extra damage against burning enemies, and the generic fire feel to it, I think this one was met very well. Especially with the extra regeneration from endurance charges. I'm not entirely sure though that I would substitute that regeneration from the tree though as this is a temporary buff and I like playing it safe. But it still does offer quite a bit of regeneration to a high life character which is exceptionally strong.

What I was not hoping to get from this ascendancy:
-Another melee build: This can be used with melee but it isn't even close to melee specific. So I think I can say I was satisfied here.
-Another totem build: After the release of hierophant I was hoping not to double dip into the same territory, especially because hierophant is so dreadfully powerful for *all* totems. So I think this was a clear miss, even though everyone said it likely had something to do with totems. To it's merit, it is a unique twist on totems, where hierophant is just exceptionally powerful which makes it far more interesting.

Looks like RF marauders will be a thing next update. Just skip the Ramako notable and you're good to go: Moar life, moarrr fire dmg, moar safety through decoys.
Nice to see the marauder get some love...

I dont play totems so I guess I dont have a frame of reference, struggling to see whats super good about this subclass but others seem impressed so I guess its for them.


Totems and Fire Damage are both Strength aligned mechanics, not sure why people are surprised to see the Str class get a totem/fire damage tree.

Imo Juggernaut is the best 2H subclass weve seen. I think the Duelist is the one getting shafted. He gets spell block... thats it, its the only node in the entire Duelist subclass selections that I give even the first shit about using, everything else is meh for anything but niche builds imo. Everyone seems to be raving about Duelist though so whatever I guess, I hope we see a big spike in people using the class. I wont be thats for sure.

So, with Ramako Sun's Light you can't use RF yourself?