[1.3.0.8-1.3.1.1] Fangs of Asterkarn: In-Depth Mechanics & Testing

mi023 · September 5, 2026, 9:16am

This guide is translated by AI, and I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all translated content.

Recommendation for Daily Farming

Legendary items and non-specific MIs: SR 32-33, SR 34-35 or Crucible 180-190 (Ex has little value).
Epic items: Normal SR 28-29, 32-33 or Challenger Crucible 150-160 (Ex is needed).
Ashes of Awakening: Ascendant Roguelike Dungeons with 5 Frozen Asters. Change 1 or 2 into Ashes is ok. Multiplayer mode is better.
Soul Fragments and Echoes: Ascendant Tomb of Archon Barthollem, Forlorn Cellar, Maw of Enaht, Arkovian Docks+Arkovian Coliseum and The Steps of Torment with 5 Soul Echoes. Must be 5. Do not mix in any other materials. Multiplayer mode is better. Other Roguelike Dungeons are ok, but inferior to The Steps of Torment. Note: increase DA to aviod critical hit, at least 3600+, ideally 3800+.
AFK farming: AFK pet Ritualist Crucible 190 ex, AFK pet Conjurer Crucible 190 ex, AFK pet Cabalist Crucible 190 ex. Note: with all 4 blessings.

Farming Roguelike Dungeon in Ascendant Difficulty

Nemesis Stat Comparison

Note: Full Altar is set with 5 Ashes of Awakening and without changing Affinity. Spirit, Cunning, Shattered Realm Total Damage Modifiers, and other relevant factors are already included in the damage calculations.

Conclusions

Enemies in Roguelike Dungeons have lower health and damage than those in SR 37. Considering the lower monster density, normal survivability pressure is probably closer to SR 35. However, enemies in Roguelike Dungeons have significantly higher OA, Critical Damage, and Sunder Intensity than those in the SR, so bosses have higher burst damage. Be especially careful to evade their dangerous skills.
Reflect Intensity differs enormously between the main campaign world and SR. Reflective heroes can be extremely deadly.

Recommendations

Compared with SR, you should add roughly 300 DA and keep at least 50% Reflect Resist when farming Roguelike Dungeons with full Altar. The higher the build’s burst damage, the more Reflect Resist it needs.

Base Probabilities for Ascendant Mechanics

Note: On non-Ascendant difficulties, some mechanics require sacrificing at least one material to activate. All values in the table are base values and do not include the effects of the Ascension Altar.

Affinity adjustment mainly has two effects:

For Common items and Monster Infrequents (MIs), it forcibly changes their affix bias. For example, if Cold Affinity is selected, all Common items and MIs are forced to cold damage bias and their original bias no longer applies.
For Rare and Legendary/Epic items, it increases the drop weight of items matching the selected Affinity by roughly 4 times.

Special Items

Apoclypton Set is the Legendary set associated with Tempest Totems. My preliminary conclusion is that it can only drop from Tempest Totems (and requires the player to be at least level 94). On Ascendant difficulty, its drop chance is 29.4%, and it cannot be obtained from other sources. The new mini-pet, the Roc Chick, also drops from Tempest Totems, with a 0.6% drop chance on Ascendant difficulty.
The other two mini-pets are obtained as follows: the Dire Runt drops from Garmir the Lost, Bonegrinder, and Rimehorn; the Kastorran Pup drops by breaking roadside urns (Kurn Urns and Kurn Urn Piles).
My preliminary conclusion is that Ascendant’s Portent only drops from certain chests and only on Ascendant difficulty. Some chests in Roguelike Dungeons have a relatively higher chance to drop it (0.72% solo, 1.17% multiplayer), including boss-room chests and some trap chests (trap chest locations: Steps of Torment, Port Valbury, Bastion of Chaos). Many other chest in main campaign and dungeons can also drop it, but at much lower rates (no more than 0.15% solo and 0.27% multiplayer). For comparison, the boss-room chest in Roguelike Dungeons has a 10% chance to drop a piece of Vanquisher set.
Shadowheart and the secret quest, see Ceno’s guide.
Since v1.3.0.7, the SR loot table can drop the MI items from every Nemesis boss. However, the new Nemesis items have much lower drop rates than the older Nemesis items (about 1/5 weight). Kaisan’s Eye can also drop, but at low rate either.
As of v1.3.0.8, the developers have confirmed that the Wake of the Crimson Moon set (Armor of the Crimson Moon, Furs of the Crimson Moon, Claws of the Crimson Moon, and The Crimson Moon amulet) cannot be obtained through normal gameplay. These items are also absent in Grimtools.
As of v1.3.0.8, Legendary amulet Firestorm Pendant and Legendary ring Veilweave Band cannot be obtained through normal gameplay. This has been fixed since v1.3.1.0.
As of v1.3.0.6, MI Avinnia’s Mantle likewise could not drop in main campaign. This has been fixed since v1.3.0.7.
According to Grimtools, Corpsebreaker’s Casque and Corpsebreaker’s Shoulderguard can only be obtained from the quest Trial of Blood. This trial can be challenged again. Both items can also be obtained from SR at low probability.
According to Grimtools, Midwinter Memento can only be obtained from the quest Buried in Snow. It cannot be obtained from SR.
Above 6 tips also apply to Crucible.
New MIs added in FoA have about double chance to be double rares than old MIs, except Nemesis MIs.
In v1.3.1.0, some new items have been added, including Obsidian Swordmaster set (dropped by side quest boss Obsidian Swordman), Igirron’s Arsenal set (obtained from Resplendent Treasure Troves) and Gut series gears (dropped by side quest boss Rinn’Valgoth and Grul’Thunn)

Shattered Realm Reward Table

SR is still an acceptable choice for farming gears, but only gears. It is the worst choice for farming Echoes or Ashes.
The rewards of SR 30-31 are completely garbage for only 1 Soul Echo and only 1.5 Ashes of Awakening on average. It’s no longer the best farming choice. SR 32-33 takes about 10% more time, but gives almost double Echoes and Ashes. SR 34-35 gives additional 50% more Echoes. Recommend to farm 32-33 or 34-35.
It is worth noting that SR rewards are decent at Elite Difficulty.
If you need some epic items, Normal Difficulty SR is the best choice.

Crucible Reward Table

Crucible is still an acceptable choice for farming gears, but only gears. It is the second worst choice for farming Echoes or Ashes.
As 1 Soul Fragment equals to 6 Soul Echoes, Crucible 180-200 offers 8 times more Echoes than SR 30-31. But if you kill enemies too slow and cannot reach 12.9 million score, you lose the Soul Fragment. In this case, Crucible is garbage, either.
If you don’t care about the Soul Fragment and just want to obtain equipments more efficiently, you should stop at 10th waves (110, 160 or 190) rather than 20th waves (120, 170 or 200). Doubling the time does not bring twice the loots.

Onslaught

Things about Generating Stacks
Internal cooldown: There is an internal cooldown.

For melee AAs/DARs, no meaningful practical impact. It can be approximated as one stack per basic attack or WPS. Avalance can sometimes generate 2 stacks if its wave hit distant enemies.
Ranged attacks with pass through can sometimes generate multiple stacks (slow three-shot/four-shot attacks such as Marauder’s Talisman, Shadowflame and Chilling Rounds can easily gain 2 or 3 charges in one attack).
For channeled skills, the base internal cooldown is about 0.3 seconds, or roughly 3 stacks per second. However, the internal cooldown is affected by Attack Speed, not Cast Speed. The higher the Attack Speed, the shorter the internal cooldown. Using AAR as an example:
① At 100% Attack Speed and 200% Cast Speed, AAR generate one stack every 3 damage ticks.
② At 200% Attack Speed and 200% Cast Speed, AAR generate one stack every 2 damage ticks.
③ At 200% Attack Speed and 185% Cast Speed, AAR generate one stack per damage tick.

Multiple stack-generating skills: only the stack cap of the skill currently being used is checked. For example, if Onslaught has a maximum of 8 stacks and AAR has a maximum of 3, then at 5 current stacks, AAR cannot generate more stacks, while Onslaught still can.

Duration: stacks last for 5 seconds, normally. All stacks are lost when the duration expires. Except for the Berserker’s native Onslaught skill, if another skill receives maximum Onslaught stacks from two different modifiers (for example, Awakened Dreadwalker gives DE maximum Onslaught stacks from both the off-hand and the set bonus), the duration can be extended to 10 seconds. Three different modifiers extend it to 15 seconds, and so on. The Berserker’s own Onslaught generally cannot have its duration extended this way. Berserker’s own Onslaught stacks last for fixed 5 seconds.

Cadence: When using Awakened Chillgore, the first two basic attacks of Cadence can generate stacks.

Stacks can still be gained even when an attack misses because of low OA.

Things about consuming stacks

If a skill with a cooldown is reduced to 0 cooldown, it does not consume stacks.
If a 0-cooldown skill is changed into a cooldown skill, it consumes stacks.
Debuff skills do not consume charges, regardless of whether they deal damage. For example, Siphon Souls and Storm Box of Elgoloth do not cumsume stacks.
War Cry and Flashbang do not consume stacks.
Devastation consumes charges, and enhance all projectiles.
Wendigo Totem does not consume stacks, while Rune of Hagarrad does. The reason may be that Runes have a 1-second cooldown (not sure), or it may be specially designed. By this logic, most player-scaling pets other than Runes probably do not consume stacks.
Consumption is checked on hit. For example, if you throw Grenado and then use Horn of Gandarr while the grenade is still in flight, and Horn of Gandarr hits a distant enemy first, Horn of Gandarr consumes the stacks and Grenado receives no bonus. Runes work the same way, whichever Rune detonates first consumes the stacks.
A miss caused by low OA still consumes stacks.

Which Damage Is Increased

% Weapon damage: Yes
Flat damage: Yes
DoT: Yes
Retaliation Damage Added to Attack (RATA): Yes
Additional effects (e.g. reduced target’s damage/resistances): No
Independent secondary modifiers (e.g. Volcanic Stride): No

Refresh Mechanics

Refreshing / Extending Duration
Significant adjustments were made in v1.3.1.0, as well as bugs.

The duration cannot be extended beyond its initial value, if there are no bugs. But there are.
When multiple refreshing modifiers are used together, their interaction is quite strange. But I cannot find enough gears for further testing. One test result is that Deadly Aim can be refreshed by only 6 seconds when dual wield Arctis and Arcanum Infinitum and reach 100% chance Zolhan’s Technique, not 6 + 6 = 12 seconds. If the chance of Zolhan’s Technique is less than 100%, then, Deadly Aim can be refreshed by more than 6 seconds (see Special Note 2 for the reason).
Special note 1: all refreshing modifiers on passive skills and buff skills can refresh indefinitely. The stated caps take no effect. On the contrary, most refreshing modifiers on active skills are limited by their caps. If both passive and active skills have refreshing modifiers and you use the active skill, then, the cap on active skill works. If you use other skills, then, indefinitely.
Special note 2: if a modifier allows Cadence to refresh duration, the first 2 hits can refresh the duration indefinitely. However, the 3rd hit is limited by its cap. There is one exception. If first 2 hits active WPS and the WPS has a cap, then the cap works.

Version History

V1.3.0.0-1.3.0.8

The duration can be extended beyond its initial value.
Each refresh effect rolls independently according to its own proc chance.
The maximum total extension is the sum of the extension caps provided by all relevant modifiers.
Special note 1: a modifier with no stated cap counts as 0 when calculating the sum of caps. Example: Discordant Gem by itself can let Cadence refresh Arcane Will indefinitely, but if it is used together with Veilkeeper, which has a 9-second refresh cap, the total cap becomes 0 + 9 = 9 seconds. (The developers have confirmed this is not a bug.)
Special note 2: in v1.3.0.8 and earlier, the refresh-duration cap provided by an item modifier is active even if you do not have the relevant skill, or even the relevant mastery. For example, one Arctis provides Deadly Aim with a 12-second refresh cap; that 12 seconds is included in the sum of caps even if the character has neither Soldier nor Necromancer. This has been reported on the forum and may be fixed later.
Special note 3: in v1.3.0.8 and earlier, regardless of the refresh method, the maximum total extension equals the sum of the caps from all refresh methods. For example, Sunherald’s Claymore allows Blast Shield to be refreshed by attacks for up to 9 seconds, while four Ascendant affixes on armor each allow it to be refreshed when hit for up to 4 seconds. The total cap is therefore 9 + 4 × 4 = 25 seconds, and attack-based and on-hit refreshes share this 25-second cap.

Refreshing Cooldowns

If the refreshed skill has multiple cooldown charges, only the cooldown of the currently recharging charge is reduced. Once it reaches 0, any excess cooldown reduction from that refresh does not carry over to the next charge. However, if several different refresh effects trigger simultaneously, or refreshes trigger repeatedly in succession, subsequent refreshes can apply to the next charge.
Aeon’s Hourglass works the same way: it only reduces the cooldown of the currently recharging charge, and any excess after reaching 0 does not carry over to the next charge.

Attack-/Crit-Based Refresh Checks

The refresh check occurs on hit.
Independent secondary effects can trigger a refresh.
For projectiles with passthrough, every hit can trigger a refresh check.
If the relevant modifier is attached to an active skill, that active skill must be used to trigger the refresh. If the modifier is attached to a passive skill, any attack by playself can trigger it. The exact scope of “any” is not entirely clear, but all attacks from pets and player-scaling pets cannot trigger refresh, including devotion skills bound to pets.
When multiple enemies are hit at the same instant, each enemy can independently roll the proc chance, but each refresh modifier can trigger at most once.
For skills with multiple projectiles hitting enemies at the same instant, each projectile can independently roll the proc chance, but each refresh modifier can trigger at most once.
Special note about Vire’s Might/Volcanic Stride: the damage timing of each individual flames differs slightly, so separate flames are not regarded as hitting enemies “at the same instant”. Each flame can therefore trigger refreshing once per second.

New Weapon Pool Skills
(Frame-rate reference: 30 frames = 1 second. Most skills are designed at 19 frames. The fastest WPS attacks take 18 frames. The slowest melee, i.e. two-handed Upheaval, takes 25 frames. Inquisitor’s Chilling Rounds and Storm Spread also take 25 frames.)

Mastery WPS

Berserker - Bloodfangs

A very normal/standard WPS, with no special mechanics. One-handed and two-handed Bolldfangs attack twice, dual-wielding attacks four times (each hand twice). None of these use the shield. All melee versions take 22 frames. All ranged versions take 23 frames.

Berserker - Avalanche

One-handed melee: 1 single-target hit with white damage + 1 AoE wave with full damage.
Two-handed melee: 1 single-target hit with white damage + 1 AoE wave with full damage.
Dual-wield melee: 2 single-target hits with white damage + 2 AoE wave with full damage.
One-handed ranged: unusual. 1 bullet with white damage (main hand) + 2 AoE waves with full damage (off-hand/shield).
Two-handed ranged: 1 bullet with white damage + 1 AoE waves with full damage.
Dual-wield ranged: unusual. 2 AoE wave with full damage. Only very close enemy will take 1 or 2 extra bullets with white damage.

Two-handed ranged takes 23 frames. All other versions take 22 frames.

Note 1: “white damage” means DAR damage, “full damage” means DAR x WPS damage.
Note 2: “+X targets” modifier only affects “single-target hit(s) with DAR damage” part. Number of waves remains unchanged.

Nightblade - Belgothian Shears

Normal dual-wield: 2 hits, 19 frames.
Two-handed melee: 1 hit, 21 frames.
One-handed ranged: 1 bullet, 23 frames.
Two-handed ranged: 2 bullets, 25.5 frames.
Dual-wield ranged: 2 bullets, 23 frames.

Nightblade - Whirling Death

Normal dual-wield: 2 hits, 21 frames.
Two-handed melee: 1 hit, 23 frames.

Shaman - Upheaval

Normal two-handed melee: 1 single-target hit with white damage + 1 AoE wave with full damage, 25 frames.
Normal two-handed ragned: 1 bullet with white damage. When the bullet hits enemies, it creates an AoE wave with full damage. 21 frames.
One-handed melee: 1 single-target hit with white damage + 1 AoE wave with full damage, 22 frames.
One-handed ranged: 1 bullet with white damage. When the bullet hits enemies, it creates an AoE wave with full damage. 22 frames.

Note 1: “white damage” means DAR damage, “full damage” means DAR x WPS damage.
Note 2: “+X targets” modifier only affects “single-target hit(s) with DAR damage” part. Number of waves remains unchanged.
Note 3: if the bullet has “pass through enemies” modifier, each hit can create a wave.

Shaman - Feral Hunger

Normal two-handed melee: 1 hit, 21 frames.
Normal two-handed ragned: 1 bullet, 21 frames.
One-handed melee: 2 hits (weapon + shield), 19 frames.
One-handed ranged: 1 bullet, 21 frames.

Oathkeeper - Shattering Smash

Normal one-handed melee: 1 single-target hit with white damage (shield) + 1 AoE wave with full damage (shield), 22 frames.
Two-handed melee: 1 single-target hit with white damage + 1 AoE wave with full damage, 22 frames.

Note 1: “white damage” means DAR damage, “full damage” means DAR x WPS damage.
Note 2: “+X targets” modifier only affects “single-target hit(s) with 100% WD” part. Number of waves remains unchanged.

Item-Granted WPS (v1.3.1.0 fixed)

Veilripper: one-handed is 2 hits, 22 frames. Dual-wield is 4 hits (each weapon twice), 22 frames.
Notched Bone of a Thousand Deaths: one-handed is 1 hit, 19 frames. Dual-wield is 2 hits, 18 frames.
Scion of Ruinous Crags: 2 hits (main hand + shield), 23 frames.
Soulthief: one-handed is 1 hit, 23 frames. Dual-wield is 2 hits, 23 frames. Only the Awakened version can double-hit while dual-wielding. The Epic version cannot.
Rimethorn Shield: one-handed melee is 1 single-target hit with wihte damage (shield) + 1 AoE wave with full damage (shield), 22 frames. One-handed ranged fires 1 bullet with white damage (main hand), when the bullet hits enemies, it creates an AoE wave with full damage (main hand), 26 frames.
Ironlord Demolisher: 1 single-target hit with wihte damage + 1 AoE wave with full damage, 25 frames.
Sigil of the Infinites: two-handed melee is 2 hits, 22 frames. Two-handed ranged fires 2 bullets, 23 frames.
Brand of the Crimson Company: one-handed melee is 2 hits (weapon + shield), 23 frames. One-handed ranged fires 1 bullet, 23 frames.
Huge Wood: 1 hit, 18 frames.
Awakened Slithbane: 1 hit, 21 frames.
Awakened Wrathbringer: 1 bullet with white damage + 1 AoE waves with full damage.

Note: “white damage” means DAR damage, “full damage” means DAR x WPS damage.

Wereforms

Wereraven

Basic attack: 19 frames. When modifiers give % weapon damage (Soulflayer or Ascended affix), 70% chance to use main-hand weapon damage, 30% chance to use off-hand weapon damage.
Frostburst deals 30% less damage at close range/point-blank range. It can hit large enemies multiple times.
The conversion on Claw of Ch’thon is both global conversion and skill-specific conversion (for the Wereraven’s two skills).

Werewolf

The basic attack is a double hit: 1 main-hand hit + 1 off-hand hit, taking 27 frames total. With a two-handed weapon or caster off-hand, the off-hand hit only uses global flat damage.
Rip and Tear is essentially Vire’s Might. It is a single hit, but shield base damage is included.
The conversion on Blight of Ch’thon is global conversion only, not skill-specific conversion.

General Notes on Wereforms

Wereforms use an independent animation set. Skill attack animations and hit calculations are not affected by weapon type (one-handed, two-handed, or dual-wield). Each skill is hard-coded to attack with the main hand or off hand and calculates damage from the weapon in that hand. See this topic for details.
Wereforms do not use ranged attacks. Even with a ranged weapon equipped, skills such as Primal Strike and Amarasta’s Blade Burst operate in melee mode while transformed.
For skills that attack with the off hand, dual-wield and shield setups calculate off-hand weapon damage normally weapon damage = off-hand weapon/shield base damage + global flat damage. With a two-handed weapon or caster off-hand, the off-hand attack only receives global flat damage weapon damage = global flat damage only. The same rule applies to off-hand hits from skills that randomly choose main/off hand and to the off-hand portion of double-hit skills.
Some skill frames/speeds are different from human form. For example, Bone Harvest (with Harvester of Death) and Aegis of Menhir are faster, while the Werewolf’s Primal Strike (one-handed or dual-wield) is much slower.
In wereform, the Berserker’s Leap can double-hit with all weapon types (1-hand, 2-hand and dual-wield, no matter melee or ranged). However, with a two-handed weapon or caster off-hand, the off-hand hit only uses global flat damage. Medal-augment leap skills do not gain this behavior, they always hit only once.
After transforming, most Total Damage Modified effects, damage conversion, and damage bonuses are global. The Wereraven’s Claw of Ch’thon is an exception.

Berserker - Leap

The Berserker’s Leap differs slightly from standard medal-augment leap skills: melee dual-wield can double-hit in human form.
In Werewolf and Wereraven form, Berserker Leap can double-hit regardless of melee/ranged weapon type and regardless of one-handed, two-handed, or dual-wield setup (this applies only to the Berserker’s Leap). Its animation is also slightly faster than in human form. With a two-handed weapon or caster off-hand, the second hit only uses global flat damage.

Pets

Scorv’s Glyphs can transform Briarthorn and Hellhound into Wendigos. Ignoring Total Damage Modified and considering only model/animation changes, this increases Briarthorn damage by roughly 30%. Counting Total Damage Modified in, the total increase is about 70%. For Hellhound, however, the model and animation changes provide almost no damage increase.
Gryphon Eye can transform Guardians of Empyrion into wolves. Their Attack Speed appears to become slightly slower.
If any two of the following are equipped simultaneously - Harbinger’s Dominator Blade (forces to summon Skeleton Mage), Wight Frost Channeller (forces to summon Skeleton Crossbowman), and Spiritmonger’s Gavel (forces to summon Skeleton Knight) - the summoned Skeleton type is determined by the off-hand item.
When Reap Spirit is converted into play-scakling pets by Aeon’s Eye, its basic attack is set to 0% Weapon Damage, but both of its skills retain their original Weapon Damage. Shadow Strike uses the player’s main-hand Weapon Damage, while its AoE attack uses the player’s off-hand Weapon Damage (with a two-handed weapon or caster off-hand, only global flat damage applies). Aeon’s Eye’s damage-conversion modifier applies both to direct attacks and to spirits’ attacks. Aeon’s Eye is currently the only item that can modify the spirits’ damage.
When Raven is converted into a pseudo-pet by Eldrun’s Ruminations set, both its basic attack and its Lightning Strike skill retain their original % Weapon Damage. Raven always uses the player’s main-hand Weapon Damage. All Raven-related modifiers apply normally to the player-scaling Raven.
Primordial Stone’s Wind Devil conversion applies only to the aura / Howling Wind and does not affect the last node, Maelstrom (Zantai have confirmed this). Awakened Inscribed Bracers has a blank modifier for Wind Devil. This modifier has no stats and causes no actual change, but it makes the item appear when searching Wind Devil modifiers on Grimtools.
Several Cold-focused Demolitionist set amulets can turn Thermite Mine blue even though no corresponding modifier is listed. These include Harra’s Ward, Rimetongue Pendant, Dreamwalker’s Ward. This is intentionally designed and causing these item appear when searching Thermite Mine modifiers on Grimtools.

Miscellaneous

Dual-wield ranged Primal Strike (enabled through Ascendant affixes on Common items) is a double hit: main hand + off hand.
Rimeblessed Spear modifies Shadow Strike to +2 target maximum. It means 0 + 2 = 2. The result is 2 target maximum, not 3. And Nightfall triggers only once.
Contagion immunity mechanic has been removed. Previously, when a Contagion-type debuff expired on an enemy, that enemy would briefly become immune to being infected again through the debuff’s spreading effect. This immunity only applied to the spreading effect; casting the skill directly on the enemy would still work. This mechanic has now been removed, allowing enemies to be infected repeatedly and continuously. This is a huge buff to Contagion-type RR skills, including Solael’s Witchfire, Rumor and some item granted skill

Toxophilix · September 5, 2026, 9:37am

Great work and a great resource. Thank you!

marfig · September 5, 2026, 10:23am

Assuming the values are actually accurate (would require review), the tables are great on their own.

But…

Many mobs in SR have their baseline changed and are scaled differently from normal gameplay. In addition, SR is designed to be an arena combat format, while roguelike dungeons are not. I’m not sure how the comparisons between SR and GC in this section are useful…

mi023 · September 5, 2026, 2:40pm

If you think it is useless, then it is useless for you.

But for other players, I just tell them take care of Sunder and Reflect which are much more dangerous in Ascendant Difficulty than those in SR. You can easily die from Sunder and Reflect if you’re not prepared.

And DA standard for SR is not applicable for Ascendant Difficulty. When you are knocked down by an enemy’s critical strike because of low DA, don’t complain about the enemy’s damage being too high. Many builds are designed for SR 30-31, e.g. most of the top 20/21/30 builds, and their DA is too low for Ascendant Difficulty.

anachoret · September 5, 2026, 3:02pm

Aww, we had hoped the chance and type would be normalized like in damage conversion or WPS so you could handcraft a bespoke blend of artisanal skeletons.

marfig · September 5, 2026, 3:06pm

My bad. I misread the below quote as a recommendation to devs, not to players. Apologies.

CallinOutNeckBeards · September 5, 2026, 5:00pm

Amazing
How long did this take

Noksion · September 6, 2026, 11:10pm

Thanks for this work, extremely appreciated.

Regarding the altar affinity bonus: most items boost two damage types.
For example, if I’m looking for Clairvoyant shoulders - they have bonus to Aether and Vitality damage, but the altar only has one slot for the affinity.

Does it mean I’m safe using either bias, and will still get x4 chance to get this item (compared to it’s base drop rate)?

mi023 · September 7, 2026, 2:57am

Some do, but not all. It depends on which damage type the devs think the item should belong to. Your example, Clairvoyant set, does belongs to both aether and vitality. Light’s Guardian set is a counter-example, it belongs to only lightning even though it has % aether damage.

Udgard1 · September 7, 2026, 10:50am

Insane work, thanks for sharing this!

bdurruti · September 7, 2026, 11:01am

excellent stuff.

that fight can be repeated (per session).

vlan · September 9, 2026, 3:16am

Thank you and the chinese community for your work. This is wonderful.

Gnomish_Inquisition · September 15, 2026, 2:20am

mi0 how does bloodfangs and avalanche interact with Cadence fast charging? and more specifically, are their frame timings so that either can be used to fast charge 2h melee Cadence perhaps?

was doing a doodle when i thought of applying the OS charging exploit to Cadence, but didnt’ actually consider if it’s even mechanically viable/“transfer” in terms of icd etc hitframes
Should i just stop doodling bloodfangs/avalanche cadence for 2h melee, or altogether (or is there potential there as dw melee/dw+2h ranged? even if not 2h melee)

.edit, extra question/noticed it with wolf form.
Does player model spin animation speed affect EoR dmg, or is that separate from actual spin fx vs dmg application?
When EoR in wolf form, char model spin speed speeding up when moving the mouse in circles became very noticeable, and looks like it happens in human form too but it’s just less pronounced.

_maverick · September 15, 2026, 10:27am

SR 30-31 speedrunning is outdated and should die… Also allows for too much offensive builds that the game should not be balanced around.

WTF? Why Does AAR depend on AS?

_maverick · September 15, 2026, 10:31am

I made recently cold EoR Zealot Raven with 650k base DPS without any buffs… And the damage was mid at best… Do not get why…

mi023 · September 15, 2026, 10:47am

Ah, the damn Cadence. This skill is very difficult to test and I don’t really want to test it in depth now. I can only tell you some theoretical information based on my previous testing experience.

Bloodfangs and Cadence, these two skills do not have any special interaction. I mean in most cases.

Avalanche is different. Its wave is somewhat similar to ranged wps with 100% pass through. When wave hits a distant enemy, you will have a certain chance to get an additional charge. No matter dual-wield or 2-hand, fast charge can happen. By the way, it also happens to Onslaught, Savagery and Righteous Fervor charges.

This.

Gnomish_Inquisition · September 15, 2026, 10:54am

phew, this is very comforting, was worried my 550k dps was bad because model kept being “slow” from not moving my mouse around to make guy spin faster
Thanks as always being a trove of knowledge mi0 and for confirmation

i don’t know why EoR dmg “feels” bad, i know that EoR sheet dps lies massively, but i swear it didnt’ use to feel as bad despite numbers being misleading(“it’s not phys vs armour eor” after all) .
Time To Kill outright feels different on some EoRs i’ve noticed, where LCS 400-500k dps felt fine before it seems bad now, and i’m not sure what the big difference in. Now increased/“even more lying character screen”/sheet dmg?

Kesta_Twala · September 15, 2026, 10:54am

Does it means that all ascended affixes add up, or are they a special case of “all ascended affixes are treated as a single big one” ?
Taking the Fighting Spirit refresh as an example: Ascended Affixes - Grim Dawn Item Database
If one was to roll it on every single item, he could extend the duration to a whole minute ?

Gnomish_Inquisition · September 15, 2026, 10:58am

yes

yes - i did this with Arcane Will so far being like 30secs duration on my warlock

*keep in mind it can differ between items tho, and some items might break an unlimited duration into a smaller limit, so extended duration “type” matching might be important, hence ascended affixes being good at stacking additively

mi023 · September 15, 2026, 11:01am

A little difference. The time cap can be treated as a single big one, but the chance not.
For example, you have 2 items allows 20% chance to extension 1 second. Then, you will have 4% chance to extend 2 seconds and 32% chance to extend 1 second in a single hit.