Cipher Ascnedant best spells to cast while ascended?

[Teclis23]

Ive never played an ascendant what would be the best spells to cast while ascended?

 

also is ascendant better then soulblade?

[Manveru123]

Better at what?

[Dorftek]

It all depends on the situation and the targets defenses.

 

Vs 2 targets mindblades is king, with high PL it bounces between them like crazy and it's really quick casting so u can cast another before the previous has even stopped bouncing. Also if I am not mistaken it targets deflection wich is great.

 

Vs singletarget obviously Disintegrate, but since it targets fortitude it's harder to land on anything that matters.

 

MindLance can look weak in comparison to a lot of other things, but it's a fast cast and it targets will wich ciphers have boosted acc against.

 

When the place is crowding with enemies Amplified wave is amazing on an ascendant.

 

I have way too little experience in soulblades to comment on them. But they couldn't possibly dish out the same kind of dps as an ascendant except Vs singletargets on a strong martial character. Boeroer has mentioned that soul annihilation can be made into an AoE with spirit Lance, that is probably very strong

[Teclis23]

The problem i see with soulblades at the moment is that soul annihilation is primary attack not a full attack

 

That is a big problem becasue two handed weapons are a waste of time and it would be very slow to switch over to one every time you want to use it

[gkathellar]

Generally, ascendant vs. soul blade is a choice of what you want to do, not which is strictly better (good job, Obsidian! :D). An ascendant's is to hit mass focus and then rapidly toss out their very strongest powers before Ascended goes down. Most Soul Blades want to attack-attack-attack, using a couple of significant buffs and strong cipher passives but otherwise focusing on killing things with swords.

 

The problem i see with soulblades at the moment is that soul annihilation is primary attack not a full attack

 

That is a big problem becasue two handed weapons are a waste of time and it would be very slow to switch over to one every time you want to use it

 

It's not as much of an issue as you'd think, since primary attacks still benefit from offhand recovery times. Something slow and hard-hitting in your main hand and something fast with lots of cool passives in your off-hand will still work very nicely.

 

That said, "two-handed weapons are a waste of time" is an overstatement. It depends on the build and the weapon in question. Dual Wield is generally better, but there's wiggle room.

[MaxQuest]

also is ascendant better then soulblade?

It is. After the nerf, Soul Annihilation is dealing damage equal to: current_focus / 4 + 10.

And as reported by Cawyn from reddit, the focus generated during SA swing itself doesn't matter now.

 

So, basically using SA increases your DPS by 30-45% on average.

 

 

> if you hit for 25 dmg, and use the following pattern: hit,SA,hit,SA (i.e. SA every 2nd swing)

- you deal 22.50 raw SA damage

- that's x1.45 dmg increase. [(25 + 25 + 22.50) / (25 + 25)]

> if you hit for 25 dmg, and use the following pattern: hit,hit,hit,sa,hit,hit,hit,sa (i.e. SA every 4th swing)

- you deal 35 raw SA damage

- that's x1.35 dmg increase. [(25x4 + 35) / (25x4)]

 

> if you hit for 50 dmg, and use the following pattern: hit,SA,hit,SA (i.e. SA every 2nd swing)

- you deal 35 raw SA damage

- that's x1.35 dmg increase. [(50x2 + 35) / (50x2)]

> if you hit for 50 dmg, and use the following pattern: hit,hit,hit,sa,hit,hit,hit,sa (i.e. SA every 4th swing)

- you deal 60 raw SA damage

- that's x1.30 dmg increase. [(50x4 + 60) / (50x4)]

 

 

Now, let's take a look at ascendant. A decent one can max focus in 3-8s. And after that spam powers for 15s. For example Amplified Wave, where 1 hit deals more damage than cipher's auto-attack. And you often hit 4+ enemies with it...

 

Ive never played an ascendant what would be the best spells to cast while ascended?

For spell-damage oriented cipher:

Bread and butter: (from top to bottom)

- Amplified Wave

- Mind Blades

- Soul Shock

 

Situational:

- Silent Scream (for example you want to stun that fampyr asap; and deal some ~aoe damage in meantime)

- Disintegration (vs bosses and high hp enemies)

- Body Attunement / Phantom Foes (to lower AR of bosses and Iron Constructs)

- Dominate/Ringleader/Stasis Shell (helpful to separate the enemies in two groups, deal with one now, and with those cc'ed later; but increases time-in-combat)

- Secret Horrors (if you have no other Frightening/Terrifying spells; but want to disable enemy abilities)

- Borrowed Instinct (if you need extra accuracy) (especially nice on an ascendant/streetfighter, since the cast time is 0.5s short, and recovery can be halved by the passive)

- Recall Agony (if your party lacks consistent dps, and you need to kill that 1 target with available but limited nukes)

 

Other rank 1-7 powers are too situational and most of the time you either won't need them, or have other party member that can do same stuff but better.

Edited August 14, 2018 by MaxQuest

[jww]

The problem i see with soulblades at the moment is that soul annihilation is primary attack not a full attack

 

That is a big problem becasue two handed weapons are a waste of time and it would be very slow to switch over to one every time you want to use it

 

Why would you need to switch to a two-handed weapon for Soul Annihilation? Its damage isn't based on your weapon's base damage, and you'll build focus faster (and recover faster) by sticking to your dual-wield weapons (if that is what you are using).

 

You could alternate full-attack to build focus then Soul Annihilation to spend it.