PoE 2 Ascendancy Overview

Answered Call

The Ancestral Spirits skill, granted by a notable, summons spirits that can attack enemies independently when you summon a Totem. While the exact scaling and mechanics of these spirits are still unknown, this new approach to character building offers exciting possibilities for players.

Jade Heritage

The Jade Heritage Ascendancy offers a unique defensive mechanic with the Encased in Jade skill. This skill grants temporary invulnerability, making it a powerful tool for surviving dangerous boss encounters.

Warcaller's Bellow

Warcaller's Bellow allows players to detonate the corpses of fallen enemies. While this mechanic shares similarities with Detonate Dead from Path of Exile 1, its full potential and synergy with other skills remains to be seen.

Earthbreaker

The Earthbreaker Ascendancy offers a powerful mechanic with its 20% chance to double the damage of slam abilities. This can lead to significant damage spikes, especially if triggered on powerful cooldown skills like Hammer of the Gods.

Crushing Impact

The Crushing Impact notable significantly increases the stagger damage dealt, allowing for more frequent heavy stuns on enemies.

Surprising Strength

The Surprising Strength combined with crushing Impact notables, create powerful damage windows. With increased damage to stunned targets and the potential for multiple ability procs within these windows, the Titan can unleash massive amounts of damage.

Tempest Caller

The Tempest Caller Ascendancy summons Elemental Storms on Critical Strikes. While the exact mechanics and impact of these storms remain unknown, they could provide additional damage and potential triggers for spirit gem-based abilities.

Strike Twice

The Strike Twice notable allows you to stack multiple instances of Shock on enemies, increasing their damage taken. While the exact mechanics of Shock stacking are still unclear, it's likely that multiple instances will combine to amplify damage output. For example, two stacks of 20% Shock would result in the enemy taking 40% increased damage.

Shaper of Storms

The Shaper of Storms notable allows all hit damage to apply Shock, regardless of the damage type. This mechanic encourages diverse builds that utilize multiple elemental damage types.

Ultimate Command

The Ultimate Command notable grants access to the Time Freeze skill, allowing players to pause time for a brief period. This powerful ability can be a game-changer in challenging boss fights and chaotic encounters, providing a tactical advantage and potentially saving lives.

Footprints in the Sand

The Footprints in the Sand notable grants access to the Temporal Rift skill. This powerful ability allows players to rewind time, restoring lost health and mana. This mechanic can be invaluable in challenging encounters, providing a safety net and strategic advantage.

Unbound Encore

The Unbound Encore notable grants access to the Time Snap skill, which resets all active cooldowns. This powerful ability, combined with Time Freeze, opens up new strategic possibilities for the Chronomancer. By carefully managing cooldowns, players control the flow of battle.

Obsessive Rituals

Obsessive Rituals grants the Sorcery Ward skill, a powerful defensive ability that absorbs elemental damage. In exchange for this protection, the Witchhunter sacrifices 50% of their Armor and Evasion ratings.

Zealour Inquisition

Zealous Inquisition grants a 10% chance for slain enemies to explode, dealing 100% of their maximum Life as Physical Damage. This chance is doubled against Undead and Demon enemies, making it particularly effective against common encounter types in endgame content like Breach, Delirium, and Beyond.

Judge, Jury, and Executioner

Judge, Jury, and Executioner grants Decimating Strike, which allows you to deal up to 30% of an enemy's maximum life as damage on the first hit. This mechanic could be a game-changer (if you're lucky).

Witchbane

Witchbane introduces a new mechanic that reduces enemy damage output. Enemies gain Concentration, a resource that replenishes over time. When Concentration is broken, enemies are unable to attack. This mechanic can significantly improve survivability and damage, especially in challenging encounters.

Integrated Efficiency

Integrated Efficiency grants three additional skill slots, allowing for greater skill diversity and customization.

Thaumaturgical infusion

Thaumaturgical Infusion grants increased elemental resistances based on the number of socketed support gems of specific colors.

Thaumaturgical infusion

Crystalline Potential grants a significant increase to the Quality of all equipped Skill Gems. This mechanic can dramatically enhance the power of builds.. The exact impact of increased gem quality in Path of Exile 2 remains to be seen, but this notable suggests that quality will play a crucial role in character power.

...and Scatter Them to the Winds

The ...and Scatter Them to the Winds notable triggers Elemental Expressions, powerful waves of elemental energy that are unleashed on critical strikes.

Faith is a choice

The Faith is a Choice notable grants the ability to meditate, doubling Energy Shield. However, this increased Energy Shield is likely temporary and will deplete as enemies chip away at it, requiring constant top ups.

I am the Blizzard... & I am the Thunder...

I am the Blizzard and I am the Thunder… notables allow you to specialize in either cold or lightning damage. These notables grant 10% of all damage as extra lightning or cold damage, respectively, increasing damage output and enhancing ailment application. Additionally, freezing or shocking enemies creates Chilled or Shocked Ground, respectively, offering guaranteed shocks and chills around the inflicted enemy.

...and I Shall Rage

…and I Shall Rage allows you to transform into an Unbound Avatar. By stacking ailments on enemies, you gain Unbound Fury, which, when full, triggers a powerful transformation. In this form, you deal increased damage and inflict additional ailments.

Embrace the Darkness

Embrace the Darkness removes all Spirit, replacing it with Darkness. This resource, which starts at 100 and increases by 5 per level, acts as a damage buffer. When taking damage, Darkness is reserved first, protecting your health pool. This reservation lasts for 10 seconds.

Grasp of the Void

Grasp of the Void allows you to convert unreserved Darkness into extra Chaos Damage. For every 20 points of unreserved Darkness, you gain 1% increased Chaos Damage. This mechanic offers a powerful way to scale damage output, rewarding careful positioning.

Chayula's Gift

Chayula's Gift increases your maximum Chaos Resistance beyond the normal cap of 75% and doubles your total Chaos Resistance. This powerful notable significantly improves survivability against Chaos damage and makes it significantly easier to cap your Chaos Resistance.

Ravenous Doubts

Ravenous Doubts grants instant Mana Leech, enabling rapid mana recovery.

Consuming Questions

Consuming Questions prevents Energy Shield recharge but allows Mana Leech to recover Energy Shield. This unique mechanic, combined with instant Mana Leech, creates a powerful recovery tool, allowing players to sustain their Energy Shield.

Waking Dream

Waking Dream allows players to see into the domain of the Breach Demons, granting access to Flames of Chayula. These flames, when collected, provide life, mana, and damage bonuses.

Endless Munitions

Endless Munitions grants skills an additional projectile. This can significantly increase damage output and clear speed, especially when combined with skills like Barrage.

Gathering Winds

Gathering Winds grants Tailwind on skill use, in PoE 1 it increases your action speed by up to 20%. This mechanic can significantly boost movement and attack speed, promoting a fast-paced playstyle. However, Tailwind is lost upon being hit, encouraging careful positioning.

Gathering Winds

Eagle Eyes eliminates the Accuracy penalty for ranged attacks, ensuring that projectiles always hit their target. This powerful passive allows Deadeye builds to focus on damage and critical strike, without worrying about Accuracy.

Bleeding & Fulminating Concoction

The Pathfinder Ascendancy allows players to convert flasks into throwable concoctions. By consuming flask charges, players can launch these explosive projectiles, dealing various damage types and effects.

While only Bleeding and Fulminating Concoctions have been officially confirmed, it's reasonable to expect the return of other familiar concoctions like Poison and Explosive.

Overwhelming Toxicity

Unlike Path of Exile 1, Path of Exile 2 has a base limit of one poison stack per enemy. However, various methods, including unique items and affixes, can increase this limit. The Contagious Contamination notable further amplifies this, effectively doubling the number of poison stacks an enemy can endure, doubling your Poison damage output..

Running assault

Running Assault reduces the movement speed penalty incurred while attacking while moving by 30%. When combined with Relentless Pursuit, which completely negates movement speed reduction effects, this allows for highly mobile and aggressive playstyles.

Sanguimancy

The Bloodmage Ascendancy requires players to spend both life and mana to cast spells. However, this high cost is offset by the ability to recover life from slain enemies, who drop life remnants upon death.

Crimson Power

The Crimson Power notable allows players to use Energy Shield body armor to gain significant bonus life. However, this comes at the cost of losing access to Evasion or Armor from that specific piece of armor, forcing players to rely more on Energy Shield and Life for mitigation. Hybrid body armors that combine Energy Shield with Evasion or Armor can help mitigate this limitation at the cost of Hitpoints.

Vitality Siphon

Vitality Siphon grants 10% of spell damage as life leech, providing a reliable source of life recovery for Bloodmage spellcasters.

Gore Spike

The Gorespike notable offers a significant boost to critical strike damage for characters with high life pools. By leveraging this mechanic, players can create powerful builds that scale damage through increased life.

Loyal Hellhound

The Loyal Hellhound notable grants the ability to summon an Infernal Hound, a loyal companion that takes 20% of the damage dealt to you. This mechanic significantly improves survivability, as the Hellhound acts as a damage sponge, protecting you from harm. Additionally, the Hellhound's fiery aura and attacks can deal substantial damage to enemies, especially when supported with relevant Supports and Passives.

Pyromantic pact

The Pyromantic Pact notable allows players to convert mana into Infernal Flame, fueling powerful spells and abilities. However, excessive use of abilities can lead to dangerous consequences if the flame overflows.

Bringer of Flame

The Bringer of Flame notable incentivizes maintaining a high level of Infernal Flame. While above 30%, both the player and their minions deal Ignite damage. This mechanic encourages careful spellcasting and resource management, rewarding players who can balance their Infernal Flame levels.

Demonic Possession

Demonic Possession transforms the player into a powerful demonic form, significantly increasing cast speed and damage. However, this transformation comes at a cost, as the player will suffer increasing damage over time. Once your life reaches 1, the transformation ends, and the skill goes on cooldown. Managing this trade-off between power and risk is crucial for successful Demon Possession builds.