Abyssal Lich ascendency is so late and so out of reach

To put things in perspective, I will say first that I have a very strong infernalist and I can do all Kulemak fights and kill him in seconds. So I know full well that, with a strong character, you can kill him and it is not necessarily "hard".

But the thing is, that is true with a completed endgame character. I wanted to try an abyssal lich and so I raised a lich. Things we going pretty well actually, until I started trying to get my abyssal ascendency.

My questions are:

- Why on earth does this ascendency have to be "reachable" when you are almost done with the game ? Why can't this be part of the levelling process, so to speak. I have no interest in investing heavily in a build, only to throw it away and re-invest in a new build when my character is near level 100. And all of that not even knowing if I will like it or not; in the worst case I won't and my endgame character will be ruined. That just makes no sense to me, I just want to try the ascendency.

- On a similar note, why on Earth does it need to be available AFTER beating Kulemak on "maximum strength" ? I just can't do it, and it pisses me off so much. I wasted 2 weeks of my life, investing heavily to try that new ascendency that feels completely out of reach. I can do all content fine in T15 maps, and I was able to kill Kulemak fine in the first 4-5 fights. But I am nowhere the level of DPS I need for this boss at maximum strength. I probably would be able to get there... but that is, if/when I can finally complete my build with my new ascendency. I just don't feel like investing more time and currency in waste to get an ascendency when the game is basically done. This is so absolutely frustrating.

If I had known that it would be so hard to actually get the ascendency and complete my build, I would have never wasted my time trying my new build (despair + doedre's undoing).

On the contrary, they executed it perfectly; nothing should come easy, and this class feels earned after overcoming a content wall.
However, this class seems a bit odd. If you play as a lich without any minions, offering nothing particularly new. It feels like it’s missing something unique—more like a skin for a few skills beyond a regular lich that only focuses on minions.

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Nefi#0590 wrote:

However, this class seems a bit odd. If you play as a lich without any minions, offering nothing particularly new. It feels like it’s missing something unique—more like a skin for a few skills beyond a regular lich that only focuses on minions.

This. I don't mind it being gated behind beating Vessel of Kulemak, but I was pretty bummed out to find that none of the new ascendancies are of use to my ED/C build.

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C4Guy#0918 wrote:

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Nefi#0590 wrote:

However, this class seems a bit odd. If you play as a lich without any minions, offering nothing particularly new. It feels like it’s missing something unique—more like a skin for a few skills beyond a regular lich that only focuses on minions.

This. I don't mind it being gated behind beating Vessel of Kulemak, but I was pretty bummed out to find that none of the new ascendancies are of use to my ED/C build.

I haven't tried it, but from reading the nodes, it looked as though you'd need to do a mass respec into physical damage. Like a Bonestorm main or something.

How challenging the task to access it is is irrelevant.
All that matters is how late it becomes accessible.

We should get to play the game using our builds.
Not have to finish the game to be allowed to make our builds.

If I want to play a build that is meant to be an Abyssal Lich, then I should already be an Abyssal Lich near the beginning of the campaign, so that I actually get to play the dang build.

If i have to get so far into the game that by the time I can access the ascension I'll be done with the character, or the league will even be over, there was no point in putting the ascension in the game in the first place.

EVERYTHING that defines a build should be obtainable early in the game so people actually get to play using the build.

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C4Guy#0918 wrote:

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Nefi#0590 wrote:

However, this class seems a bit odd. If you play as a lich without any minions, offering nothing particularly new. It feels like it’s missing something unique—more like a skin for a few skills beyond a regular lich that only focuses on minions.

This. I don't mind it being gated behind beating Vessel of Kulemak, but I was pretty bummed out to find that none of the new ascendancies are of use to my ED/C build.

They've lumped the chaos witch and the minion witch together, even moreso than they already were in PoE1.

The de facto character for EDC is still Witch, because the de facto ascension for it is Lich, because the de facto node for it, across all characters, is Necromantic Conduit.

Remember, as EDC either you are ultimately spamming enough ED for the hit damage to matter, or the build is not Essence Drain and Contagion, but rather Drain, Contagion, and the third spell you spam after applying ED & C. Not the mention curse and totem.
Then you add can some minions to gain more benefit from Conduit.
The build is either EDC with Conduit just for you, or EDC with Minions.
When I was leveling my Witch, I took Blackflame for a while, so it was about applying ED & C then casting fireballs, but then I removed BF and put on minions.

That said, if I'm feeling intent on specifically doing a chaos spellcaster without minions, I'd be liable to deviate from what is clearly the "intended" ascension choices for doing it, and make a Sorceress instead, to take Shaper of Storms and freely get shock from all the chaos damage I'd be doing with Chaos spells and Blackflame fire spells.