Clarifying the Ascendancy Changes

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MackBesmirch wrote:

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Magn3th3ad wrote:

I'm not sold on the idea that it's mostly numerical changes. The majority seem to be alonge the lines of added 2 things, removed 3. Gladiator for example has 9 removed and 6 added; Champion added 9, removed 13.

Some of those might cancel each other out for sure, but at first glance it looks like they've removed a lot of speed, damage and mitigation, and given back one or two of those at reduced amounts.

It's all speculation until we get patch notes I suppose.

you gotta read every detail. some of the removed/added -- like the block chance specifics -- are mini-buffs. Not just cuz they are simpler, but you can now stack blocking w Staves and are not restricted to shield or dual wield. Seems insignificant if you're already a shield Gladiator, but the removal in those cases actually means "removal of restrictions."

And you gotta look at the relationship of the nodes. Gratuitous Violence lost 25% chance to bleed, but Blood in the Eyes before it GAINED that 25% chance to bleed, so it's still a total of 50%, but all in one node. The loss of 5% Bleed dmg seems in line with the 5% reductions to other DoT dmgs across all ascendancies. And they gave us a defensive tradeoff in the removal of the 30% dmg w hits and ailments to already bleeding enemies with +15% chance to blind bleeding enemies.

Now think about that playstyle -- it actually services fast-paced strikes and movement and the mechanic of bleed in the first place -- monsters take more damage moving while bleeding. whomp them and keep moving; save yourself the extra hits. the 30% dmg was nice for bosses that stood still, but for regular mobs and bosses that move around, it was kind of redundant. The defense buff of blind will be more universally useful for all gladiator builds. Not to mention it is accessible after 1 Labyrinth, combined with 50% chance to bleed that early... leveling will be a breeze.