I just realized.
When ascending an item, you get either an:
Offensive Attribute
Defensive Attribute
Mastery A
Mastery B
Could you potentially eliminate one of the Mastery options if you did the Ascensions on a mono-class character? Or was this avenue covered in some way, like replacing Mastery B with a random one if the 2nd is unpicked?
Because if not, it might actually be worthwhile to make single class “Ascension mules” for every Mastery and then whenever you want a desired Ascension Affix from the Masteries pool, do it on the mono-class mule to maximize the chances.
Would make hunting those Physical Resist rolls a LOT easier. And it could also give me an actually valid reason to try the HC Ultimate class-less challenge thing.
Would be hilarious if they didn’t think of it, but also if the coding expects there to be a second mastery and if not, it just gets an ascendant affix with “error message” stat on it
Z says mastery affix is penalized if you mono class, likely not making it an actual benefit trying for mastery affixes? - unless you want the generic stat affixes
Interesting. But yeah what does “heavily penalized” mean exactly?
If you get a smaller chance of mastery affixes on a solo-mastery char, then that’s actually a benefit for people looking for the regular stat affixes. No need to get to Kurnhold with a zero-mastery char.
no clue, assumptions is drastic reduced % roll chance, but as with anything we don’t know the base values or “modifier” impact in this case either
only if you’d want peak chance for regular stat ones/preventing all mastery affix influence in the pool i guess
But i also wonder about level etc, seems like would be an easy thing to get to get there on Normal with a merit on a classless char and exploit hp/phys res rolls then
Just made it to Kurnhold, classless, level 39. Rushed somewhat, but definitely not a speedrun. Greater Fireblast spam + 2-Hander and Kraken for the win.
I forgot you don’t even need level 50 to ascend items, it’s just for the altar use.
Although, one minor question remains - if I ascend the item on the classless mule, do I also have to reroll it on the mule? E.g., if I took an item ascended from the mule, passed it on to a normal character and re-rolled there, would it be possible to roll Mastery bonuses again? Or does the item get “locked” at the time of ascension?
Might have to push onwards a little bit and rescue the reroll NPC, if the former is the case.
And I have a decent starting point should I decide to try the HC classless ultimate challenge in the future.
The point is to make rerolling ascension bonuses easier if you want one of the non-mastery ascended affixes. Classless means none of the mastery bonuses can roll. Like physical resistance on non-armor items.
And the question was not about soul binding but:
Ascend item on classless mule
It can only roll offensive/deffensive bonuses
Pass item onto a normal character with 2 masteries
Will rerolling the item on this character still keep the item locked to offensive/defensive rolls, or will it start rolling mastery bonuses again?
The bonuses from regular affixes are too small. But if you don’t need anything else, you can just leave it as is. I think if you transfer this item to another character, the stats will still change as usual when rerolling.
You can’t roll Physical resistance or 400 HP on anything from the Mastery pool. The closest you can get is some % Damage Absorption on auras.
Which is good if you already have some to stack it more, but on my current character (Elementalist), scrounging up like 10% seems meh, compared to 15 or more % of physical resist.
several strong builds are using the regular affixes, either because decent stats, or cherrypicked optimal stats. Not all the modifier affixes are that spectacular, and less so on some combos.
Max speed, OA/crit, phys res ofc and HP especially, or even lifesteal seems like they can be neat and shore up just enough stuff
Only the amulet, rings, belt, and medal can get the +3 physical resistance bonus, adding up to 15% total. Not a bad idea if you really need it. For my current, work-in-progress build, this is the setup I chose: Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator "
I can’t help but feel a bit dissapointed about the current implementation of ascended item bonuses.
For common item bonuses, i think the weapon/shield/offhand bonuses are more or less irrelevant. Skimming multiple times through the affixes, i could not find usage cases were the ascended common, even a double rare one, would provide a better overall bonus than a proper MI/legendary. Maybe a new player below 84 would try to experiment, but that item whould still have a short expiration date.
Regarding the MI/legendary ascension bonuses, my initial impression was the bonuses would provide some unique transmutations and mechanics for a random skill (e.g. for weapons, random xx% damage conversion from x to y, or -0.x sec skill reduction with limit per item equipped or large drawbacks for balance) that would truly allow creation of unique builds (and possibly a very few imba/crap ones) or even player trade.
Instead, we got a fixed transmutations and left to grind for the FOTM cumulative +20% WPS or the typical stat bonuses.
Overall, i like FoA a lot and the ascension/altar mechanics have huge potential, but currently the bonuses are a bit held back. Or maybe the devs have already tried the chaotic route and found that balancing was too much to handle.
Yeah, one can never really have “enough” physical resistance, unless you are a class including Occultist. Ever since they made it so it scales 1% per point up to 22/12, it feels quite off, especially compared to most other sources of physical resistance. A random 25% on a single overcapped node seems BRUTALLY overloaded.
Also, Occultist has Possession. So stacking extra % absorption on it is definitely the way to go.
I have a strong impression that a recent pre-Foa update, mentioned that damage type transmute was included in ascension bonuses (cant find source though).
Regardless, my impression was that item ascension would create something new, like a new weapon case with a wacky mechanic for any skill at random (transmute, fixed cdr, w/e), that was going to be one of a kind. You tinker with the item, create your build and then go to the next one. Which is the essence of GD.
Instead we got either fixed bonuses, that indeed elevate performance (but not to a completely different level), or a bonus from a fixed skill modifier pool, for which we need to grind and stack to have any noticable effect in gameplay (e.g WPS %).
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