Ascendant Cipher viability

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

So my PoE1 MC was a Cipher and I want to keep that going since I really liked the class.

Starting out on my first PoE2 run-through, I'd like to stick to single class, and the Ascendant Cipher seems like a big powerhouse.  I haven't played the beta at all, so I'm curious if it's as good as it looks.

 

Also, wondering if I could get some PoE2 tips in general since I haven't seen any of the new combat changes yet.  What's considered the best weapon for Cipher now?  Looking at the Ascendant, it seems like I want to build as much attack speed as I can so I can get to max Focus as quickly as possible, and then be able to cast as many spells as possible while Ascended.  Does that mean dual wielding?  Probably a ranged weapon of some kind to take advantage of the large Cipher AoE/range talents?

 

Thanks

[Voss]

I'm not really sold on the ascendant. Yeah, those 20+ seconds are great...but what about the downtime leading up to it and the long slog to the next one? Is the combat going to turn against you while waiting for the power up?

 

I suspect its largely a playstyle thing, but an essentially unskilled archer waiting around to nova-nuke after X seconds doesn't appeal to me.

[Stern Ted]

A closely related question:

The subclass description for Ascendant mentions that Soul Whip provides more bonus damage during Ascended, but I haven't been able to figure out how much bonus damage. My idea for an Ascendant / Shattered Pillar multiclass was to get to Ascended as quickly as possible to take advantage of the extra melee damage rather than focusing exclusively on spellcasting during that time. 

Does anyone know how much bonus damage Soul Whip provides during Ascended?

[Arctic]

Normally , soul whip is disables at full focus, so if for example you got +40% soul whip damage and are full focus you lose it.

 

Ascendant soul whip works while at full focus, so you can still use your weapons if you want, and you even got extra damage +20% i think it was on the beta, so a +60% total with biting whip.

 

I feal it like a way of saying, hey you have free casting for x seconds, but if you want to keep with autos or other class skills go for it.

[Revanroi]

My doubts with Ascendant is if we can build focus fast enought with singleclass or is worth to multi with paladin or rogue (and pay with slower progression in spells and no-access to high level powers)

[dunehunter]

In beta, normal cipher got 20% soul whip, +20=40% biting whip.

 

Ascendant get 10% soul whip, +20=30% biting whip, +20=50% when max focus.

[Vengeful_Divine]

I'm not sure if it's up to date but since Ascendant adjusts Soul Whip, the last numbers I saw for non-Ascended Draining Whip gave +150% Focus

 

I'd say if you really want to gear toward being Ascended as much as possible, it sounds pretty feasible to me

 

*Disclaimer- haven't played beta so really can't speak to how it feels myself

[jones092201@gmail.com]

My doubts with Ascendant is if we can build focus fast enought with singleclass or is worth to multi with paladin or rogue (and pay with slower progression in spells and no-access to high level powers)

 

multi with black jacket, spam blunderbuss shots with the disciplined strikes to convert to hits, you have a bump to switch time,  so you should be able to hit your focus within the first few seconds of a fight.

 

watch the scott Lufkin black jacket preview on YouTube, just imagine going to cipher skills after first volley.

 

caveat being that early on you may have trouble getting pistols or blunderbusses to dual wield.

[Boeroer]

With Ascendant you want to take Draining Whip, not Biting Whip. It's very powerful with an Ascendant so that he can fill his focus incredibly fast.

 

I can imagine that Ascendant/Barbarian could be really good. You want to cast as fast as possible when ascended - and nobody can reduce casting time and recovery better than a barb (Frenzy, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst).

[malchiorita]

And then chain detonate like there's no tomorrow! Mwhahahah

[snphillips0@gmail.com]

In the beta my SC ascendant, with draining whip and two weapon style using wands (just for fun, idk what's actually the best weapon for this), consistently hit max focus extremely quickly. The amount of time you spend ascended is also super generous, it feels a lot longer than it looks on paper.

 

So, I'd definitely say they're viable! Certainly I'll be playing one in my first playthrough.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

So my PoE1 MC was a Cipher and I want to keep that going since I really liked the class.

Starting out on my first PoE2 run-through, I'd like to stick to single class, and the Ascendant Cipher seems like a big powerhouse.  I haven't played the beta at all, so I'm curious if it's as good as it looks.

 

Also, wondering if I could get some PoE2 tips in general since I haven't seen any of the new combat changes yet.  What's considered the best weapon for Cipher now?  Looking at the Ascendant, it seems like I want to build as much attack speed as I can so I can get to max Focus as quickly as possible, and then be able to cast as many spells as possible while Ascended.  Does that mean dual wielding?  Probably a ranged weapon of some kind to take advantage of the large Cipher AoE/range talents?

 

Thanks

 

 

You've got the gist of it yeah. In the beta at least dual blunderbussi worked dandy. You could probably make a lot of other combos work well also. The main thing to think about is alpha strike damage curve; a high Might will get you far but as your focus pool rises it takes proportionally more and more damage to fill it, and thus it gets harder and harder to fill it ASAP.

[Revanroi]

Then which class combination (or single) and weapons do you think is the better (at least in paper)

 

 

Psyblade, Inquisitor, Witch, Blunderblusses, scepters, arquebuss...   

[Etherealizer]

Debating on going Ascendant myself. I've been torn between singleclass and multiclass (either Psyblade or Mindstalker) but going into Ascended mode sounds pretty interesting. Used a Gun Cipher in the first game. Not sure whether single or multi will make that work in Deadfire yet.

[KaiG]

Ascendent seems like it'd be best in a multiclass build twinned with some kind of DPS class. That way you can ignore your cipher abilities and focus on your other class while you let your Focus tick up, then spam a bunch of powerful cipher abilities in bursts.

[jones092201@gmail.com]

I ran this build last night with a black jacket/ascendant.

 

arquebus/dual blunderbusses/dual pistols/dual sabers-- in 4 weapons slots.

 

I almost never had any trouble building to ascendant state by the time I reached the pistols, even after I started opening with mental binding, then running through the guns--

 

only fight I had trouble getting to max focus was the titan.

 

what I did have problems with early on was finding a good spell to utilize ascendant state. early on, you don't have enough damage spells to really use ascendant. At least I didn't.