The Ascendant Class Changes

Pretty bad changes guys... Assuming they'll be under observation during beta ? Can't be bothered going into too much detail as usually my complaints go unheard - Hire a balance team of players who are GOOD and knowledgeable to help out.

It's still not worth it.

That is still not good guys.

doesnt seem worth it to take scion still. Proper ascendancies give too good bonuses to make scion a viable pick, also tree where she starts at causes her to waste skill points on weak talents until she reaches a class starting area. It's funny that they did not revert the berserker change, that was the one thing that made this class somewhat unique. Giving casters leech without being in lower left side of the tree.

If something is already underpowered, it's okay to strictly buff it without nerfing it in other ways. Scion went from shit to slightly different but still shit.

I usually like all balance changes GGG makes... but this "Buff" is like a drop of water in a lake :(

These isn't the <buffs> we were looking for.

I have to agree, the changes seem... underwhelming. I really wish they went with the route of "scion ascendancies follow the theme of the ascendancy" instead of "scion ascendancies are watered down versions of the existing ascendancies". I mean sure, there's the combination potential theoretically, but I don't see any new combinations that really make me think scion would be a better choice than a pure ascendancy.

Who knows, maybe there's some sort of secret combination to be found that works, but I don't really see anything. Sure, you can force combinations, or see combinations that can work for "a" build, but all those I saw, and have seen in this thread so far I haven't been able to justify over taking one of the other classes instead.

Specifically:

"

tacotiklah wrote:

Mmm...Occultist/Deadeye Scion Voltaxic Spark is looking REALLY appealing here. It won't be as broken as it was in perandus, but it should still be fun to play. :D

Not really, at all. There was a few reasons voltaxic spark was a big thing:

• Spark's hit count used to reset on bounce, meaning you could stack proj speed to get lots of bounces and repeated hits
• Spark used to shotgun on bounce (once a spark hit a wall, it forgot what cast it was a part of so after a bounce each spark could start hitting the target, not just one per cast)
• Voltaxic used to offer 100% lightning to chaos conversion, making it super efficient for poison stacking with the above mechanics

The -15% resistance isn't that huge, and is easily overtaken by pure lightning pen you can stack, and only applies to the max chaos conversion rate of 60%, the other 40% you would either need to stack lightning pen for anyways, or have it resisted. This is only great for pure chaos builds as a.) a way to "penetrate" chaos resists where there is no other choice, or b.) a way to penetrate converted builds to allow for power from other options instead of stacking penetration (eg. chaos incinerate no longer needing to stack fire pen). It's also "nearby" which is a 40 unit radius, where spark's effective kill distance is 150 units. About half the enemies you would engage with a spark build would be in range (if even half). For reference, depending on terrain, 40 units is about 1/2 the screen to 3/4 the screen.

Up to 50% increased damage is decent, but it's only an increase, it's not like an inverse point blank which would really be an enticing option (more so as a keystone than as part of an ascendancy, or maybe something like that as an ascendancy notable by itself).

20% inc energy shield, and 1% ES regen, with the nerfs incoming to ES and changes to ghost reaver? haha, that's pretty weaksauce. The only reason to ever take scion occultist is for the chaos pen.

It's also still a pain to get projectile pierce with scion. gem (or pierce tree wheel) + ascendancy node gives you 80%, then jewel for 15%, then you're just sitting around at 95% pen which is annoying AF. From there you can only have too much pen (quiver to 105%) or not enough (no jewel and quiver for 90%). It's an annoying number that other sources of pierce can't cap properly without silly tree investment + gem + jewel/quiver.

End result, no. Scion voltaxic spark certainly will not be a thing again. The mechanics that made it a thing were removed in 2.3, and no part of that is coming back.

Well, nevermind several months old plans - I guess I'm playing scion in 3.0.

She still doesn't compare with other ascendancies. Her ascendancies are just increases in her ability or utility. They don't define a build. They're not powerful enough like other ascendancies. The only nice perk is being able to start at a 2nd tree location.