The PoE 2 Early Access is coming! Today, MmoGah will show you the Ascension Classes Guide.
Starting in Act Two, you will come across Ascension Trials. You must complete the test to unlock your Ascension class. We'll explain these trials soon, but first, let's look at what ascending can do for your character.
Each class has access to three ascendancy classes, but at the start of Early Access, only two per class will be available. Ascendancy classes are unique to each character class, so choose wisely. They can drastically affect how you build your character.
Sorceress
As a sorceress, you could become a Stormweaver, a master of the elements. Tempest Caller causes elemental storms to be summoned each time you do a critical hit with a spell. With Strike Twice, you can stack two copies of shock for more damage, and going deeper into the tree, you can make all your damage types apply shock. Make a shock build from any skill.
Alternatively, you could become a Chronomancer and command time itself. She can stop time with a time freeze. Not only that, but she has many other time-manipulation abilities. Using Temporal Rift, she can teleport back to a previous location, resetting her life and mana to what it was, or with time snap, she can reset all her cooldowns and cast all her spells again.
Warrior
On the warrior, you can choose between the Warbringer or the Titan. The Warbringer channels the might of his ancestors to gain tremendous power. Using Answered Call, you can summon ancestral spirits linked to each of your totems. With Jade Heritage, you can encase your body in a protective layer that absorbs all damage until it breaks. Warcaller's Bellow allows you to explode the corpses of your enemies, and with GreatWolf's Howl, you can ignore the cooldowns of your warcries.
The Titan class is all about hitting big. With Earthbreaker, every slam has the chance to create an aftershock. With Crushing Impacts, every hit becomes a crushing blow, allowing you to stun your enemies easily. With Surprising Strength, you can take advantage of stunned enemies to deal 40% more damage.
Ranger
As a Ranger, you might choose to be a Deadeye, an expert markswoman who can take down foes with style. With Endless Munitions, every attack gains an extra projectile. With Gathering Winds, she gains a small increase in movement speed with every attack, but be careful. She loses them when getting hit. With Eagle Eyes, she will never miss allowing you to stop wasting all those passive points on accuracy.
Alternatively, you could become a Pathfinder, the master of flasks and poison. She can choose from one of several throwable concoctions, allowing her to spend her flask charges to throw explosive bottles that deal various types of damage. A Bleeding Concoction will make your enemies bleed, while a Fulminating one can shock your enemies, allowing you to do extra damage. Contagious Contamination allows her to spread poisons between her foes, while Overwhelming Toxicity doubles the number of stacks they can be infected by. Running Assault allows her to move much more quickly while firing, while Relentless pursuit makes her immune to being slowed by enemies.
Witch
The Witch can ascend into the Infernalist or the Blood Mage. As an Infernalist, she can summon a Loyal Hellhound companion. The Hellhound sets enemies on fire and takes a percentage of the damage if the Infernalist gets hit. With Pyromantic Pact, you turn your mana into an Infernal Flame. As you cast more spells, the flame builds up, and if it overflows, you'll take damage. Using Bringer of Flame, you will want to keep the flames topped up. While your infernal flame is above 30%, all damage from you and your minions will ignite enemies.
She can also transform into a literal demon. While in demon form, she takes an increasing amount of damage, but her cast speed and damage increase rapidly. So, if you're planning on transforming into a demon, make sure you stack a lot of life recovery.
She can also become a Blood Mage, a master of life and energy. All blood mages must pay the price of making skills cost life and mana. But in exchange, every monster they kill will drop life remnants, allowing them to regain that life quickly. With Crimson Power, she can gain large amounts of extra life; with Vitality Siphon, she can use her spells to bring Leech's life back as well. Once you've got a significant amount of life, you could use Gore Spike to make your critical hits deal incredible amounts of damage.
Monk
A Monk who is in tune with the elements might become an Invoker. With Elemental Expression, the Invoker will create waves of elemental power each time he makes a critical strike. With Faith is a Choice, you gain the ability to meditate, which allows you to double your energy shield. Choose between "I am the Blizzard" or "I am the Thunder" to specialize in Cold or Lightning Damage. "and I Shall Rage" will allow you to turn into an Unbound Avatar. Each time you apply a status ailment to an enemy, you gain Unbound Fury. When you have enough, Transform into the Avatar to deal more damage and inflict more elemental ailments.
Some Monks choose to reach into the darkness instead. The Acolyte of Chayula can exchange their mastery of Spirit for Darkness, a resource that can be utilized to both absorb and deal damage. The Shroud of Darkness will protect you from all incoming damage, but if you take Grasp of the Void, you will deal extra Chaos damage for all the darkness you have. Their Dark Pact offers greatly increased resistance to chaos damage and can allow their mana leech to happen instantly and apply to their Energy Shield. Another node you can take is Waking Dream, which allows you to see into the domain of the breach demons. There, you will see the flames of Chayula that can be taken to gain Life, Mana, and damage.
Mercenary
The Mercenary has a job to do, but which job suits you? You might choose to become a Witchhunter. Obsessive Rituals will give you a Sorcery Ward, allowing you to defend yourself against elemental hits in exchange for less defence against attacks. With Zealous Inquisition, your enemies have a 10% chance to explode to death. The chance is doubled against Demons and Undead. With Judge, Jury, and Executioner, your initial hit against enemies can deal up to 30% of their life in damage if you are lucky. This is great for hunting powerful bosses. And with Witchbane, you can break your enemies' concentration, preventing them from casting spells as often as they would usually do.
You could also choose to become a Gemling Legionnaire, enhancing your abilities by embedding Gems directly into your flesh. Integrated Efficiency will give you extra skill slots. Thaumaturgical Infusion gives you extra maximum resistance as you socket more support gems.
Adaptive Capability allows you to use any colour of gem without worrying about attributes, while Crystalline Potential adds extra quality bonuses to every gem socketed into your character.
Those are the Ascendancy classes for the start of Early Access, but one thing that we haven't talked about yet is how you Ascend in the first place.
Ascension Trials
Trial of the Sekhemas
Ascension in Path of Exile 2 requires completion of the great Trials, which you'll find as you progress through the campaign. Each one is associated with one of the major cultures of Wraeclast. Located in the Vastiri Plains are the Maraketh - a culture of rich tales and brutal traditions who must do whatever it takes to survive the desert. The highest position in Maraketh culture is a Sekhema, and it is not a title given freely. All aspirants must complete the Trial of the Sekhemas, a grueling gauntlet that will test their Strength, Will, Cunning, and Patience. To enter, a warrior of the Maraketh must prove their worth by trapping the soul of a Djinn in a coin, and you are no different.
Once you have earned your coin, it may be placed in the Relic Altar to begin the Trial. In the Trial of the Sekhemas, each room has its own challenges to overcome. In this room, each rare monster you kill will send its blood to the chalice in the centre of the room. Once the chalice is filled, you will be able to proceed.
While fighting monsters in the Trial, you will need to be very careful. Each hit will not only hurt you but will damage your honour. The monsters are well-telegraphed, so you can avoid their attacks, but if you run out of honour, you will fail the Trial and need to find another coin to try again. It is a good idea to make sure that you are well-prepared before challenging the Trial of the Sekhemas.
After each room, you will be rewarded. In this case, you have been given a key that can be used to unlock chests later in the Trial. Once you have claimed your reward, you'll be shown a map of the rest of the floor and may choose how you wish to proceed. Which challenges would you like to face, and which rewards do you want to claim? Some rooms are more dangerous, afflicting you with debuffs that will persist for the entire Trial. For example, entering this room will afflict you with Spiked Shell and will cause all monsters in the rest of the Trial to have a 50% increased life. You will want to take care of it if you choose such a path.
There are many different challenges and rewards as you journey through the Trial. Deadly traps, waves of monsters, and strange artifacts will test your honour. As you progress, you'll also be able to gain Boons from the Djinn, which will help you on your journey. For example, the Sekhema's Cloak will revive you once if you die, giving you a second shot at a run. One of the rewards you may find is Sacred Water, an extremely valuable and treasured resource to the Djinn and the Marrakech. Trading it with the Djinn will allow you to receive many benefits. You can recover Honour, gain additional Boons, or remove Afflictions.
At the end of the floor, you'll find a powerful boss which will truly test your limitations.
In order to Ascend, you'll need to defeat him. Having defeated the boss, you have earned the right to Ascend. But first, the loot.
The keys you have found may be used to open the various treasures in the vault at the end of the floor. We only have a single bronze key, so we will have to open one of these small chests. If you want to open the better ones, you will need Silver or Gold keys. Let's use the Altar of Ascendancy. Your first Ascension will allow you to pick your class and grant you two points to use in the tree. Now, there are more floors and many more rewards that can be found within the Trial of the Sekhemas, but we will save that for the section at the endgame.
Trial of Chaos
Let's talk about the second Ascendancy Trial—the Trial of Chaos. In Path of Exile 2, you can choose whichever Trial you would like to earn your Ascension. Each culture on Wraeclast had its own methods to Ascend. If the Trial of the Sekhemas is not your kind of playstyle or you're finding it too difficult, you can try another. You can gain all your Ascension points from just one or mix and match them. It's up to you! We will have two trials as options for early access, with a third trial coming later for the full release.
While exploring the Vaal Jungle, you'll discover the Temple of Chaos. Before the Vaal embraced the science of corruption, their civilization workshipped Chaos. This ancient Trial was once used by the Vaal to test their High Priests. A high priest of the Vaal must show a willingness to risk everything to gain power. Entry to the Trial requires a token from a strange entity known only as The Trialmaster. For those in which he sees potential, he shall inscribe an Ultimatum. Many have attempted these trials in search of greatness. Most have perished. Will you be able to defy the odds? Before you begin each chamber, the Trialmaster will offer you a reward and a choice. Choose one of three tribulations to affect you through the rest of the Trial. These modifiers might beef up the monsters, curse the player, or add environmental hazards like turrets or trap runes. In this case, we will pick Shocking Turrets.
As you enter the room, the Trialmaster will fill it with hazards to test your commitment. In this case, you must destroy all the monsters that fill the room while dealing with the lightning projectiles from the shocking turrets.
After each room, you will need to make a choice. Take the rewards you have earned so far, or go double or nothing, increase your rewards, but take on more risk. Each Tribulation you add is minor, but they quickly stack on top of each other and can become overwhelming. There are many types of chambers in the Trial. Each will test your resolve in different ways. This one requires you to survive for a certain amount of time. Another requires you to escort this stone Idol through the level as elevators full of monsters descend to attack you. If you can get through the first 3 chambers, you will face your first boss. The order of the bosses is random, and combined with the Tribulations you have selected, the fight will never feel the same.
After defeating the boss, you may claim your rewards. Of course, there are the items, but you also gain the right to ascend. If you have already done the Trial of the Sekhemas, then you can claim two more points to add to your ascendancy class.
Conclusion
These new gameplay features have pumped me up, and I can't wait to try them! Will you fight for your life or let the Executioner take you?
Related Article:
https://www.mmogah.com/news/path-of-exile-2/path-of-exile-2-early-access-class-beginners-guide
