Due to her starting point in the Passives Skill Tree, the Scion class tends to be the jack of all trade type of class or what most believe. It might happen to noobs unfamiliar with the advanced mechanics of the skill tree and what true potential it has to offer. They might spend points on a little bit in every direction, which causes it to end up not building correctly or spread too thin.
That’s not the case with what the pros of the game believe. The class can be built as the DD from single target spells; it can become invincible and become the tank of dreams. This DD tank is what makes the Scion class Scary and achievable with just the right amount of premium currency.
Before passing judgment on the class, read the best tips to make this class a powerhouse and then decide.
1. End Game Success Building
Scion class was never meant to be a killing machine from the get-go; it takes time and effort to unlock her true potential. The issue with her build tree is that she doesn’t start with a class specialty early on. When you are halfway through the game, her true specialty starts and can be unlocked.
Once you can get the Specialty, the proper supportive skill, and support gems, you don't have to worry about the game. Pros in the game believe Scion will become a complete powerhouse by that time, so unrealistically that it is hysterically fun to play.
2. Limited Ascendancy Tree but Powerful Options
This is where most new players make a mistake that may cost them so much time and effort. She is allowed only the Ascendant ascendancy, unlike others who have 2-3 options on their table. The Ascendant tree offers power boosting to specific parts of the skill tree and ignores others outright, so if you have spent most of the time in the early to mid-game stages spending Passive points on what you thought best, be ready for a rude awakening.
We have mentioned time and time again in our articles that map out a build when you start the game and follow it religiously. It is not to say that you can't experiment but with so many options and iterations, you can easily find something that fits your play style. You must do the same with the Ascendant ascendancy for the Scion class. You have many tools available online to fully realize your build before even finishing the game's first area.
3. Focus on Burst Damage
The harder you hit, the faster the fight and the sooner mobs and bosses can go down. But the quick and higher burst damage you do, the lower your chances of surviving a prolonged battle, as you will be sacrificing hp and armor for full-frontal burst damage.
Scion, as a class, is built for burst damage with massive numbers and is a Glass Cannon due to her High DPS, Low Survivability. Go in, deal tons of burst damage and get out. Invest in skill gems that help you do that.
4. Don’t Forget AoE Damage if Taking Sing Target DPS and Vice Versa
Typically, most builds focus on building around a single skill gem and all the supporting gems. Either the build focuses on single target DPS or focuses on only AoE DD skills.
The pros don't do that; they will always have AoE skills to kill the mobs for faster map clears while a single target DPS skill to whittle down bosses. No matter what they focus on, they'll invest sufficiently in one or the other to be able to target both.
The true pros build another character or class for specific content to farm faster in the long run. You can focus and add new corrupted gear in your build to focus on further enhancing certain attributes in the game. If you have the time or patience to do that, go ahead, it's your choice in the end.
5. Add Leaching Abilities to Your Builds
We have mentioned above that while the Scion class thrives in specific aspects of the Passives skill tree, it lacks in another department. In that case, life and mana leeching is what you should look into.
So, if you have built her as the full-on damage-dealing beast, as her focus Passive Tree nodes denote, you are sacrificing her protection and health pool. So learn to invest in skills that help her leach more life and mana the higher she deals damage.
6. Fringes of the Passives Tree
Use the bypass nodes to move towards the Passives you want to focus on as Specialty for your builds; as we already said, the Scion doesn't start with a good Specialty early on. Don't succumb to temptation; invest in many attribute nodes early on.
7. Focus on Damage Type Early On
Now, this has two facets depending on the playstyle you choose.
The 1st is choosing one of Physical or Spell DMG DD. You have to choose one exclusively that has physical damage, as melee weapons don't multiplicate magic damage and vice versa, so focus and choose that first.
The 2nd facet is a bit on the advanced side and not recommended for relatively new players. The best part of Path of Exile, or most ARPGs, is that your swords can be flaming hot and start dealing only fire damage, or the arrows you shoot are lit with lightning. In both these cases, the physical damage is negligible and ignored altogether.
Search online for more clues on what Scion build is perfect for you.
8. Adding Sacrificial Gems to the Build
Exsanguinate-like gems sacrifice your health to use skills instead of mana. Thus you are dealing more damage by sacrificing hp and keeping the mana pool for DEF shields. You have already invested in the leaching skills above, so go one step further and instead focus on purely life-steal gems and attributes. There are around eight such sacrificial gems in the game that your Scion class can leverage into her build to deal tons of damage and remain immortal.
9. Never Underestimate Power of 2H Weapons
When you primarily focus on building a burst damage DPS builds for the Scion class, the higher damage numbers you get from different sources, the higher your overall damage is scaling. You are not playing the Scion class for survivability, damage negation, or avoiding enemies. You are playing for tons of burst damage and melting enemies on the battlefields of Wraeclast.
Therefore, we recommend equipping a 2H as soon as possible, as they do the most damage in the game. We know the speed may be slow, but the overall DPS will be much, much higher, and many Scion skills and passives thrive on using a 2H weapon.
10. Connecting East and West of Passives Tree
There is a reason many OP synergies in the game are available on the extremes of the Passives Tree. You sacrifice a lot by going to the extreme opposite of where you started as a character. But that doesn't hold for Scion.
This is because Scion already starts at the center, so She has to choose one of the extreme points to find powerful specialty passives. If you are bypassing most skills already to get to the fun part, why not go to the following most powerful skills in the game? No wonder Elemental Archer and Aura Buffed Slayer built for the Scion is one of the greatest in the game.
11. Some Investment in DEF
We have touched on burst-damage skill gems viability for the Scion, and then we discussed the leaching ability to heal back. We then talked about sacrificial gems to support the leaching and dealing damage. What we didn't talk about is the defensive stat that much.
If you are somewhat of a new experienced player, you should invest in some defensive skill gems or auras to give some tankiness to you when you are melting everything like butter. You don't want to be yourself melted like that if you are new.
12. Socketing Jewel Slots is the New Gold
As the Scion is already skipping a lot of node paths and making a bypass, she comes across many node points where she can invest in extra jewel slots that no other class has the luxury of adopting. So in the early game, you now have access to invest in multiple jewel slots near the mid-game.
13. Supported By Support Gems
Don't forget to invest in pertinent support gems that can amplify your single primary skill throughout most of the leveling-up process or if you are building for specific content. This will make the Scion the hardest hitter.
Conclusion
This article has enough information to guide you toward building your best Scion class, and you will now understand what you have been missing. Path of Exile is a complex game, sometimes with too much information, but asking for help and reading how to beat the game better isn't bad, but we highly recommend this game.
