Ascendancies and Minions in PoE 2

Okay, now we have the trees for the EA Ascendancies, and it seems like minions are currently not mentioned in the Ascendancies directly anymore.

As I just skimmed over the nodes, all I see is "YOU" and not "and your Minions".
Is there any hidden inheritance with Minions? Like, do they automatically inherit certain increases to player stats now?

The thing I found most useful for Minions at a glance was the Gemling Legionnaire with the +1 level to skill gems and the quality, which is okay, I guess, but I had hoped for more minion synergies than that.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought we’d at least get some sort of mechanics with them or with spirits. However, it seems like it’s either going to be the direct Necromancer again or no minion build synergies with Ascendancies anymore?


If I dare to throw my hat in the ring, I would really like to see a Necromancer again, even if it means having the "go-to class for Minions."

Some sort of special minion interactions, like merging minions akin to Last Epoch, or a trade-off node to increase spirit while sacrificing something else, would be great.

Alternatively, there could be a system where you can decide to switch nodes from "You" to "Your Minions" for all classes, like a weapon-swap but permanent (until respecced).
Or it could even be an Ascendancy node for a Necromancer.

P.S. I expected to see some nodes in the Witch trees to be more minion related. Not only the one with the Hell Hound.

Yeah, I guess no minion build synergies with Ascendancies anymore. Hard to say if that is good or bad, maybe even without minion related Ascendancies, your minion build can be as strong as non-minion builds purely due to the gear and other things (Gems, etc.)

Based on the interview, I would not expect Necromancer Ascendancy

im getting the vibe they simply dont want something as obvious and restrictive in the ascendancies as "pick this minion class" with "minions go boom I" "minions go boom II" "more minions, more boom" and "minion more stronk" nodes

might eat my words in the future but we'll see when we actually get to play

and if you really look at a bunch of the nodes merc, witch and sorc have you can already see how that potentially would make minions pretty spicy

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Drukaris#2806 wrote:

im getting the vibe they simply dont want something as obvious and restrictive in the ascendancies as "pick this minion class" with "minions go boom I" "minions go boom II" "more minions, more boom" and "minion more stronk" nodes

might eat my words in the future but we'll see when we actually get to play

and if you really look at a bunch of the nodes merc, witch and sorc have you can already see how that potentially would make minions pretty spicy

Yes, this is exactly what Jonathan said in the Gazzy interview.

But I hope they reconsider, as I really enjoyed the "minion go Boom II" nodes in the Necromancer class, and I had hoped for an even more in-depth system. I mean, we have A-classes that directly say "Skill Class X goes even more BOOM" nodes, so why castrate minions this way? It's not coherent and seems unnecessary from my point of view.

I really hope for a Necromancer return but with more universal skills and some drawback decisions to embrace the playstyle and fantasy even more.

Infernalist has 2 nodes that give bonuses to nearby allies which I assume affects minions.

I would prefer to be able to freely choose my ascendency for a minion build over being forced to play the minion ascendency.

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Imp0815#7644 wrote:

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i think its too early to make that call, since we dont know how mechanics really work/interact

if you look at something like "blood barbs" for the bloodmage and have it apply to minions that'd be pretty much "minion go boom" in a pretty interesting way

or if you look at the legionnaire
"3 more skills" & "use support gems twice" - thats kinda "more minions, more stronk" but it still leaves room for other shenanigans

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LaraDorren#2828 wrote:

I would prefer to be able to freely choose my ascendency for a minion build over being forced to play the minion ascendency.

I understand the incentive, and I would also prefer this, but as of now, we mostly get nothing tangible for minions (at first glance), which is rather disappointing.

We still have a ton more classes to come, so I hope we’ll see more/better stuff.

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Drukaris#2806 wrote:

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Imp0815#7644 wrote:

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or if you look at the legionnaire
"3 more skills" & "use support gems twice" - thats kinda "more minions, more stronk" but it still leaves room for other shenanigans

Yes, I saw that, but it could be applied to everything, and it seems like it makes the class really good for high-tier endgame builds, but somewhat boring/generic in contrast to literally turning into a demon or getting special timestop skills in an Ascendancy.

From another standpoint, though, it provides interactions for everybody's taste, except people that like the Necromancer fantasy(currently).

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Drukaris#2806 wrote:

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Imp0815#7644 wrote:

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i think its too early to make that call, since we dont know how mechanics really work/interact

if you look at something like "blood barbs" for the bloodmage and have it apply to minions that'd be pretty much "minion go boom" in a pretty interesting way

or if you look at the legionnaire
"3 more skills" & "use support gems twice" - thats kinda "more minions, more stronk" but it still leaves room for other shenanigans

legionnaire's starting point is too far away from the minion nodes on the passive tree...so it will probably not be worth going legionnaire for minions unless you want to waste a lot of points travelling.

infernalist looks like the best option but it still looks kinda meh. i also wanted to see a pure minion ascendancy like necro.