Quick Guide for Ascended affixes

[gargabolo]

Since there seems to be some confusion about ascended items (and effect on powercreep)

I gathered this info from GT to make it more clear:

Ascended affixes come in 2 types:

(I) Regular (can role on anything and just rolls an extra stat)
(II) Mastery (adds skill modifier, but has 2 very different ‘tiers’ of strength

Examples of regular affixes:

+40 DA (armor)
+25 OA, +25 DA (accessory)
+5% crit dmg (one handed weapon)
+10% crit dmg (two handed weapon)
…

Ascended Mastery affixes

To explain the two ‘tiers’ of ascended mastery affixes, compare all ascended Mastery affixes for UPHEAVAL:

Tier 1 (rolls on MIs, epic and legendary items)

1. 5% chance to be used (armor)
2. 5% chance to be used (accessory)
3. 10% chance to be used (two-handed weapon)

Tier 2 (rolls only on magic items, like ‘Redeemer’ or ‘Preserver’ in late game)

4. +3 skillpoints, 5% chance to be used, 10% WD (armor)
5. +3 skillpoints, 5% chance to be used, 20% WD (accessory)
6. +4 skillpoints, 20% chance to be used, 60% WD (two-handed weapon)

(There doesn’t exist an ascended upheaval affix for one handed weapons)

As you can see you can only roll much weaker affixes on epic and legendary items

For most ascended mastery affixes there is a MUTUAL EXCLUSIVITY in the system, meaning that for most skills if an ascended affix exist in the Tier 2 category,
it doesn’t exist in tier 1 (upheaval is one of the exceptions).

These hellhound bonuses can only be gained in Tier 2 (so only on magic items):

+50 Fire dmg to Hellhound (armor)
+100 Fire dmg to Hellhound (accessory)
+200 Fire dmg to hellhound (weapon)

On the other hand a bonus to Mogdrogen’s Pact can only be gained in Tier 1. Tier 1 seems to have more bonuses to support skills, Tier 2 more to main attack/main pet skills.
…

How to obtain Ascended Items?

Unlike what was presented in the development blog, Ascended affixes do not drop randomly in the Ascendant campaign. The way to obtain them was changed during development of FOA because it proved too much hassle for the player to filter out all the additional interesting loot.

To obtain Ascended affixes on an item you have to upgrade them at Jornn the Runekeeper:

Grim Dawn World Map

The initial ascension of the item requires multiple components.

The droprate of the ingredients needed will be better in the Ascendent campaign mode. The pool of Ascended mastery affixes you can roll on the item is dependant on your class. Rare and Epic items will be cheaper to ascend than Legendary items.

After the item is ascended, the ascended affix can be rerolled at any inventor NPC.
Rerolling is cheaper than the initial ascension (or at least for the first few rerolls) and requires ‘Soul echo’s’ which can be crafted into ‘Soul fragments’ at a special blacksmith called the ‘runed orb’

Spoiler about location of runed orb

The orb is in the secret area Elderveil, which can be found to the west of the Guardian’s Sorrow portal.

[Toxophilix]

@gargabolo

There doesn’t exist an ascended upheaval affix for one handed weapons

From what I can see, this is a widespread pattern. When it comes to attack skills, there are many more Ascended affixes for ranged, 2-hand melee and shields than for 1-hand melee. I assume this is deliberate for the purpose of rebalancing.

[Sir_Mac]

When the FoA DLC is out and everything is going to be “checked” in game, do you think it will be possible to make some easy to understand and easy to navigate spreadsheet? So everyone knows, which affixes they are likely or unlikely going to get and for which they need to farm “extra Legendaries” first?

[Toxophilix]

No doubt. And also, we will in time get a feel for what is realistic and what isn’t, just when thinking about a build.

[BPFrosty]

For the higher tier affixes, does just the base item have to be lower than rare? Or can it also not have a single rare affix on it too?

[gargabolo]

@BPFrosty

does just the base item have to be lower than rare?

The base item must be ‘common’, so not MI, not epic and not legendary.
The quality of the (green or yellow) affixes on it doesn’t matter.

[BPFrosty]

Thanks! I don’t understand why it says “Magic” then. I don’t think there exists a single Magic base item in the game.

[gargabolo]

Whenever a common (white) item has any affix on it (at least 1x yellow), people refer to them as ‘magic’ items. Also sometimes GT uses the word magic in yellow text.

[Veno]

And does someone know what is the chance to get ascended affixes?

[GIJW]

I thought they were craft only

[gargabolo]

I have added new info from the podcast about how the items are obtained.

[GIJW]

@gargabolo

The pool of Ascended mastery affixes you can roll on the item is dependant on your class.

Will the item become soulbound?

[gargabolo]

I don’t know, the podcast didn’t go into the fine details.

[gargabolo]

Alright updated again with screenshot, name and location of NPC and info on rerolling

[Zeyos]

I dont know how to unlock the runed orb. I have no quest. Nothing. Can you help me?

[gargabolo]

Sorry I don’t know the exact quest that needs to be completed, haven’t reached the area myself.

[Mindcrack]

@gargabolo

runed

the orb is now in the secret area Elderveil, which can be found to the west of the Guardian’s Sorrow portal.

There you can also find the NPC for one of the new reps, which will give you different bounty quests. The rewards seem to be worth it.

[gargabolo]

Thanks, guide updated

[Atonlord]

The description says it can roll Soldier Skill Modifier, Oathkeeper Skill Modifier, or Offensive Attributes.

I applied it to my Mace, but it rolled a defensive attribute instead. Now I can’t remove or replace it with another attribute through Ascension. Is this intended, or is it a bug?

[anachoret]

@Atonlord

The description says it can roll Soldier Skill Modifier, Oathkeeper Skill Modifier, or Offensive Attributes.

You got an Oathkeeper Skill Modifier, to the Oathkeeper skill Presence of Virtue. It just happens to be a defensive one (10% reduced duration on all* crowd control effects). If you want a different one, you can reroll the Ascended Affix at the Inventor.