Today, we're continuing our look at gameplay statistics from the Harbinger league -- specifically, which Ascendancies, keystone passive skills, and notable passive skills are most popular among high level players.

First, the Ascendancies:


Patch 3.0.0 contained some of the broadest balance changes we've ever made. Even small balance changes can at times produce results that were hard to predict, but due to the combination of the broad balance changes and the new content and skills, this league has created a perfect storm for the Berserker to rise to the top.

Berserker is far and away the most popular class pick among characters above level 65, with nearly twice as many Berserkers as any other class. There are a few factors contributing to Berserker's popularity. Primarily, Vaal Pact with high damage and a little leech is a very effective way to stay alive in most situations. On top of that, Dark Pact was a popular early pick for many players, and was very effective as a life-based Berserker.

It's interesting to see that 3.5% of players above level 65 did not choose an Ascendancy. That number changes to less than 0.02% when we look at characters over level 90:


At these very high levels it is clear to see the absolute dominance of the Berserker Ascendancy. However, if we look strictly at the Hardcore Harbinger leagues we see an interesting shift:


Necromancer is, surprisingly, the number one pick for hardcore players. The Berserker lives (and dies) based purely on how well it can leech from monsters, making them vulnerable primarily as they approach and move between these packs. Hardcore players require more proactive forms of defense, which is where the Necromancer's Mistress of Sacrifice really shines.

Let's take a look at the SSF league data. This is from both Standard and Hardcore SSF Harbinger leagues:


The SSF meta is virtually a split between the combined and Hardcore league metas, even though the Hardcore SSF population is comparatively very small. Gladiator and Necromancer point to a strong preference for using Block as a primary defense on SSF leagues.

Let's look at which Keystones are most popular in the Harbinger leagues:

Top Keystones in Harbinger Leagues

Vaal Pact is the most popular keystone overall, but is only 6th in SSF leagues, and 7th in the Hardcore leagues. In both of those variants, Mind over Matter reigns supreme. Notably, Resolute Technique is the second most popular keystone across the board, with Acrobatics not far behind overall. This is actually pretty healthy, and shows a pretty good split between the left and right sides of the passive tree (though the keystones at the southern end of the passive tree are comparatively not very popular).

Next, notables:

Top Notables in Harbinger Leagues

"Discipline and Training" and "Retribution" are two of the top three Notables across the board, and they're both located near the Templar's starting area. "Discipline and Training" is one of the best sources of Life in the tree, and is close to several other clusters that are suitable for a wide range of builds.

Several notables from the Marauder and Duelist starts are also prominent picks. Finally, let's take a look at each Ascendancy's favourite keystone and notable:


There are not many surprises here -- most classes have either Resolute Technique, Mind over Matter or Acrobatics as their primary keystone. These are solid picks that provide a heap of survivability or solve a problem with little extra investment.

There are a few notable things, however. All of the Ranger's Ascendancies prefer the same keystone and notable, and the Necromancer's most popular keystone is… Elemental Equilibrium! A solid damage pump for Raging Spirits summoners who can smack enemies with an element different to their minions.

That's it for this stats roundup. We hope you found them as enlightening as we did.