Which Ascendency Is Best For Minions From Someone Who Played A Lot Of Minions In PoE 1

[@johnieboy82]

AFAIK we only get 8 Ascendency points = 4 of the big nodes.

[@lordofchaosinc.261]

Yeah should the dog at 10 and nodes at 1, 3, 4.

[@vincentFGC]

yeah that feels like a fairly big oversight 😂

[@vamperic]

Should have been at least 10 points imo

[@joshrobinson506]

Monk with "lead me through grace". Allows you to use a weapon other than scepter and still have a large spirit pool for minions. I could be wrong but monk also seems to be able to generate power charges with relative ease. Making him a go to empowered zombie summoner. Throw in some extra cold damage for cc to help keep them minions alive seems like a winning combo to me.

[@ijustwannabeanonymous7618]

I was thinking this too. Entirely possible there are OP 2hand staves or shields that make you want to drop the scepter, monk will enable that. I heard amulets can give spirit too (not sure on that) but theres likely amulets that give incredible minon power with Necromantic Talisman, it could be less painful to lose the amulet slot on Invoker. '...and Protect Me From Harm' sound like fantastic tank node, 'I am the Blizzard..'/'I am the Thunder../' give you a role creating shock/chill ground which lets you offload utility from your minions, or 'The Soul Springs Eternal' might make trigger skills more viable. I wish Infernalist had like 1 more node applicable for minion builds so it had more choice in that build but its cool that multiple ascendencies look appealing for the archetype. For power charge generation I was looking at if spell echo and/or unleash on Profane Ritual or Power Offering would let you get multiple power charges per cast... Lingering Illusion also could be a semi-passive way to get power charge on dodge if you're in the front lines a lot but it takes reservation. I'm definitely going to take like 20 hours to do campaign because I'll be messing around trying different skill set ups.

[@pepeadamczyk2163]

@@ijustwannabeanonymous7618 the node giving spirit from es on body forbids any spirit gain from equipment (no scepter/amulet or anything)

[@ijustwannabeanonymous7618]

@@pepeadamczyk2163 Yes exactly. I mean that on say witch Infernalist you would be dependent on the spirit from equipment since you can't get a lot of it anywhere else (as far as I know) so Infernalist builds can't choose non-spirit-providing items in those slots without hurting themselves. The monk Invoker node lets you get extra spirit from ascendancy so its not a massive cost to grab say a 2H staff that gives your allies +100% more damage (this is made up, no idea what uniques we will have) instead of having a scepter offhand. Similarly, if there is an amulet that say converts all damage to chaos damage or gives massive defensive benefit to the wearer, Necromantic Talisman keystone makes it so your minions are using it instead of you, but it means you basically give up your amulet slot. So it might enable a chaos minion build (or something) with that amulet + keystone but a witch Infernalist would be hurting a lot from the loss of spirit from giving up their amulet slot while for the monk Invoker its a less painful downside. Basically I'm trying to say that there might be minion builds only viable on monk Invoker because theres a lot more flexibility in those gear slots when all your extra spirit comes from your ascendancy.

[@dustinwagner5902]

Gemling is nuts! Starting Titan-Minion

[@vincentFGC]

man I wanna start titan minion too but I also wanna know how many minion nodes are on the tree

[@igalsfy]

I'm gonna try to go Bloodmage and be a support/curser for my minions. Worst case scenario I switch to full chaos dot and use my minions as my supports. I might switch to infernalist at the last moment depending on the small nodes in the ascendancy tree.

[@Zassasaurus]

this is pretty much my plan. That and hoping there are some more bone (or blood) spells that I could use as main damaging abilities if minions dont work out

[@igalsfy]

@Zassasaurus well I've realized that life remnants only drop when YOU kill enemies. So Bloodmage and minions looks like it sucks unfortunately...

[@andrewnguyen3312]

Very cool

[@kinchenhines6824]

Only needs 23 passives to get to witch area and there are minion nodes In merc area

[@Koombs]

You have to take the rucksack to get hulking form..... This is a buff.

[@pupkevicius1]

tempted to do the gemling skillgramige (lol) 1st time even if it's rough, because of the upside. Infernalist is what I wanted to do, but other than the hound, not too excited about the other nodes for minion

[@ThanhLai5]

Go for it!

[@mutantemolina3708]

I'll try gemling as well and see what happens, seems good to try different minion approaches for sure.

[@dtrix2678]

just keep the spirit in mind too! Will be way bigger than people realize i think

[@Fabregas200788]

lmao, spirit pump is not the upside, okay I heard you

[@xxVANDEL]

There’s two minion clusters on the merc side of the tree!

[@retnuHDJ]

Yes but you'd still have to travel all the way to the other side to get the rest

[@AlucardNoir]

Were's our Templar when we need him?

[@2fat4airborne44]

looking for his pants

[@Moogle]

s00n

[@AklyonX]

He has to fight off new, hd pants. Give him a bit.

[@Ashtarte3D]

We'll at least get Druid pretty early in according to the various streams, along with Huntress, as they were the 2 that were almost ready but just missed the cutoff.

[@mas0ny149]

He went back 50 years, grew hair again, went to the mountains and became a monk

[@Antiquated-Ether]

Cast on minion death is a support i could consider building around if you chose fire/minion route

[@souls6151]

Warbringer negative armour could be huge for lots of small phys hits from minions.

[@LordVis]

Am I missing something or did you list 5 nodes to take on the infernalist? Hound, dmg as other, spirit, ES, and Mana from reserved life We still only get 4 in POE2 right?

[@minhocho5487]

YES you only get 8 points or 4 acendency notables.

[@Balormage]

​@minhocho5487 so I wasn't sure what ones to take. Still not sure tbh. I was listing all the nodes relevant to us that have use. Infernalist is just the only one with more than 4 options.

[@2fat4airborne44]

@@Balormage do you think the node Bringer of Flame is Bait and its follow up? Regarding ignite. Feels a bit meh but hard to say from my perspective

[@retnuHDJ]

@@2fat4airborne44 This is what I'm struggling to figure out. Are the flame nodes worth taking over the extra spirit node, since you can't have both if you also take hellhound. I like the idea of the flame nodes but in all honesty I get the feeling trying to stay at high infernal flame or even just not on low flame might be pretty annoying

[@cyruslupercal9493]

If Gemling's cost reduction includes spirit it is the best ascendency for minions hands down.

[@crazy-tommy]

There is a big minion damage cluster in the skill tree below Mercenary and you need 12 passive points to get there from the Mercenary start.

[@retnuHDJ]

and then 20+ nodes to get to any of the others :(

[@leSmokySmoke]

small passive SKILLS does not refer to the traveling nodes, which are all ATTRIBUTE nodes. so the only ones that are increased is stuff like the 2-3 10% minion damage nodes before a notable. that beeing said it is still a pretty nice buff. and something from 10 to 15 extra skillpoints basically

[@mattm8870]

The thing is the stat nodes are called travel nodes in PoE1 by the Devs which means travel nodes are subset of small passive. Also I remember seeing a small passive jewel effecting the travel nodes in one of the videos.

[@brandonsturdevant5415]

@@mattm8870 it specifically says small passive skills, not small passives. Its not the same i don't think.

[@diaboliquedia4300]

As an infernalist, reducing your hp pool to a half might open you up to random chaos damage one shots? Plus taking 20% phys as chaos. And capping chaos isn't really easy and especially early. This might lead to many atlas nodes lost. It feels like a very risky strategy to me.

[@evovolvo]

Chaos damage doesn't go through energy shield in PoE2, it does 200% damage to it. Only bleed and poison ignores energy shield.

[@rileystrom8530]

You only have to get non-negative chaos res (as in 0%) for the damage you take to be equal to if it was physical (not counting armor, which you wouldn't have much of anyways, especially against big oneshots)

[@fortigan2174]

@@evovolvo Pretty sure Bleed and Poison don't ignore shield. Otherwise the CI keystone would be an automatic death sentence, as it reduces your max life to 1.

[@brandonrudloff3221]

​@fortigan2174 bleed does not damage energy shield but if there is no es and a bleed is applied then the bleed affects life directly even if u regain es. CI makes you chaos immune so it makes you poison immune. Poison is the only chaos damage that bypass es.

[@Zourath]

@@fortigan2174 Bleed and Poison damage both ignore ES, CI is immune to both though. Poison since it deals chaos damage, Bleed because bleed now needs to deal damage to life specifically in order to have a chance to proc. So if you are bleeding already and recover ES, the bleed will still deal damage to life, but otherwise you're bleed immune if you only take ES or mana damage with MoM.

[@InfoRanker]

Going Infernalist for the Hellhound, I don't even care about any of the other nodes

[@ThersNoFudgeHere]

I think Hulking Form gives the 50% increase to small passives but removes the effect of travel/stat nodes.

[@dylogysminter]

I think one could also consider invoker, spamming minions from metagems could be very much worth it and the spirit you gain for free could also be nice.

[@johnwickfromfortnite5744]

Ill be going infernalist. If minions don't work out well in the beginning, the obvious pivot is ignite, which is a win-win for me :D

[@kylersaunders5707]

I have a theory since we don’t have a skill tree yet the extra 20inv slots maybe there’s a node for encumberment like if you have more on your person you get a buff just seems odd to have it in the asce tree

[@Zenbubbles]

I'm prob going Gemling with minions. I like the challenge, and will clear most zones anyway, no speedrunning, so will be stronger naturally anyway. Also, there is a superimportant node for minion defense close to the gemling start, and minions in PoE2 need lots of recovery to stay alive. Finally, the double life gain from strength node in the gemling tree seems very strong, which is probably better than extra skill slots. As for the first ascendency node, I think I will take the quality node.

[@IAGan12345]

Starting titan minions, hoping that small passive effect won't get nerfed. I don't like Infernalist nodes. If there is resistance penalty, converting into chaos may lead to more damage taken, not so easy to get chaos res early. Reservation nodes don't give much, they give something but also take away life. And I don't want to constantly keep track of infernal flame to maintain buff uptime. Gemling is too far from minion nodes, but seems am interesting choice, a bit hard to judge without all info. Sorceress is ok. Recoup doesn't look strong, 30% recoup for 4 seconds was a just few passive points in poe1. Bloodmage is also ok, progenesis and a bunch of life, but nothing to take for 4th ascendancy, maybe small nodes if they give 3% increased hp.

[@stormblind1654]

Based on the study ive done/read: Good Options: Titan: 50% more effect of small nodes + extra inventory alone are good enough to justify them. Then go defensively past that. (Though, as I understand, stat nodes are not small passives). Gemling: Almost every part of this has potential to be great for a summoner. Infernalist: Extra spirit, solid defensive options, extra free minion, damage from the ignite/20% damage as extra fire are all solid in different ways. Viable, bit less synergistic: Blood Mage: Perma Curses, Healing, Built in Progenesis. Chronomancer: See what Balor said above. Warbringer: It gets unique "Totem" Minions and some good defensive options. Depending on minion AI and mechanics, it could be good actually! This is a good time to be alive, though, if you go Titan, be ready for a severe nerf to the small passive point skill at some point as it makes it BIS for a lot of builds it seems.

[@cespinar]

Warbringer is good for a different reason. You have a support that makes your minion count as a corpse. If you stack minion life you should be able to explode them with war cries

[@Zuyha_]

@@cespinar spirits are not " undead " so the support gem you talking about would not work.

[@cespinar]

@Zuyha_ you wouldn't use it on totems, you would use it on minions that self summon. With that build the warbringer part is the warcries, not the totems

[@souls6151]

@@cespinar was support are you talking about?

[@CerberusMalt]

Hulking Form is good but it requires a large investment to get it with 4 ascendency points and I think we only get 8 total so half. That and I'm 99% sure it won't affect the traveling attribute nodes and only work on the small nodes next to notables in the clusters. Still strong but not giga broken.

[@Vantuk]

I was going to go BM with a phys/bleed minions that did some armour breaking. But now I might take that idea over to titan provided that breaking of armour passives will apply to minions as well too. That and, as mentioned in other comments, the buffed small passives stay that way.

[@bonevgm]

The only other option I see as having any positives for minions is the Invoker. It can get a lot of Spirit from ES and Evasion on Body Armour. Sadly that is the only really strong node. We surely grab the Evasion grants physical reduction node, but all the other options are bad. I don't think we can fit any meta skills in the build as they use spirit, so the 35% more energy for them is useless. Meditate is meh, but can be used. A better option might be Unbound Avatar, but we love 2 points, that I cannot find any use for anyway.

[@minhocho5487]

Not really a minion build. But i am trying for COC corpse explosion Warbringer. I saw there was a support gem that makes minions count as corpses and using warcry node to explode minions for some cool explosion build. I am currently thinking of using crossbow since they have 550% attackspeed skill.

[@KrisHammes]

I don't think it will work , I've considered it. But the node is a passive and the warcry doesn't target the corpse. The wording says it makes the minions usable by skills that's target a corpse , not a passive.

[@minhocho5487]

@KrisHammes maybe dd then?

[@KrisHammes]

@@minhocho5487 yeah for sure, but it also says undead auto revive minions so it won't work on the ancestral spirits I don't think. Plus sacrifice costs 60 spirit. I think it might be possible to have minions with infernal legion / cast on minion death - totem

[@Ashtarte3D]

Hulking Form is so nuts that I feel like it's not going to work on travel nodes as they'll be labeled as attribute nodes or something instead of Small, as that would just be too insane.

[@minimoifou3844]

I was ready to try the gemlink minion, but somehow now I am considering the titan, thank you mister Mage, I have to figure it out now :D

[@ThanhLai5]

I wanna start my minion build with Chronomancer and try to include poison Hammer of the God into the build. My minions will ignite rare and unique while I'll try to bring down the Hammer as many times as possible.

[@TheRewyn]

Infernalist I think is the play. Gemling is interesting but it will need to waste quite a few nodes to get up to the Witch nodes for minions. Could be better later.

[@IanWolfard-ph7vd]

I have crazy thoughts about doing a minion / totem hybrid build with the warbringer. Bring out totems, summon monkeys, feed them popcorn, have them explode for fun and profit.

[@KodaVoss]

I was thinking infernalist for my minion build... but PoE2 sounds like defenses are king. So, looking at bloodmage, that seems very tanky 25% damage taken over time ... and overcapping your life and boosting life and 10% life leech, and probably extra life from body armor ES mod... I feel like this might be better for killing map bosses and trial bosses and endgame (league mechanic) bosses. Infernalist seems like it will be a good map clear ascendancy. [I am going to see how everything feels in the campaign before deciding...] I want the lava doggo too... I just keep thinking about minion builds at endgame in PoE1 and the minions were fine, it was the witch that needed to stay alive. (yes, these minions will die but auto-respawn so maybe if that is the case, I will want to turn into demon form when my minions get stomped then do a bunch of damage while the minions are respawning... then demon form drops and the minions are back up ... and that is the game play loop... idk ugh)

[@darksteelcat8165]

Infernalist for me, after years of long neck templair in poe, its time to go back to the witch

[@floptimus-prime]

hadn't considered titan we will be starting that for minions

[@diablomix]

Blood Mage is a sleeper ascendancy. Tanky AF and accessible to all the good minion tree points.

[@ThanhLai5]

I personally wanna go for cold spell with Bloodmage. Biting Frost allow you to have guarantee crit on frozen enemies and Comet is a huge cold spell.

[@ronhughes5894]

Yeah that's what I'm going to do. I think it will work amazingly well with my hybrid Minion/Caster build utilizing Flameblast. Was already going to be dropping huge ignites in a massive aoe around me, now they get huge bleeds as well lol.

[@vamperic]

Just sad you only get 8 points so lose out on some really good blood mage points, infinite duration for curses is a must have

[@fortigan2174]

Also worth notinig that it's confirmed that minions can proc the life essence drops. This will make it much easier to overflow your life to 200%, vastly increasing your crit damage.

[@daniellolp]

don't witch and Sorc start on the same place on the tree? wdym they won't have the nodes? I thought it was 6 starting points, same tree for all. sorc and witch both full int, both at the same place, right?

[@MineYour_Craft]

They start from the middle.by all have their own pathing , Just Check Out Skill treee plannera

[@newbasick]

Jonathan has said in one of his interviews (I think with Ghazzy and DM) that the starting nodes for sorc/witch are in the same location but different depending on which you choose. If you choose witch you get some minion nodes, if you choose sorc probably cast speed or something like that. I think he said they are also different if you start as a completely different class like mercenary. So there are 3 versions of the starting nodes in each area.

[@yamashgm]

If demon form still removes your weapons while active, then it's going to suck. In general, not just for minions. Gemling is probably going to be the best for now.

[@Sylvine]

Im gonna go gem borg. I think having + 1 skills and +10 qual is good for early/mid game, can probably just pick up any skill that I like and do reasonably well until I either find so the skill I wanna push or a build-defining unique. Then I'll see if I want to go minions or attribute stacking. Dex stacking assault crossbow sounds fun.

[@pikip1ki]

Going for infernalist minion also. Ignites and explosions

[@JoshTaylorRMT]

You should still have some minions in Demon form, you just lose the spirit from your scepter because weapons aren't equipped in shapeshift form. Jonathon covers it in the DM + Ghazzy interview here, start around 1:35:40 (although he adds that they should probably address it) - kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppubd6uNgstnjJYsi=vhuV1DW4yXBvnxQF&t=5742 Seems like a bit of power loss to drop both your weapons/shield if that's their plan, you'd lose the +levels you'd have from them at least

[@fortigan2174]

It's important to note that the Demon Form also increases your spell skills by 4 levels, which will reduce the spirit cost of your minions. So, it's not as bad as it sounds.

[@mallgoran]

@@fortigan2174 doesn't Demonform only buffs cast speed, Spell skill damage and spell skill +4 so that minions gems aren't affected ? Minions gems are persistent skill, not spells. So only zombies and construct (temporary minions) will be affected because these ones are indeed spells ?

[@fortigan2174]

@@mallgoran Specter is also listed as a spell. I guess we'll find out.

[@KodaVoss]

Is infernalist in demon form a thing with SRS? isn't SRS cast when you do fire damage? Seems like you would constantly be popping SRS? I wonder if you could run spectres and SRS and keep you up time on demon form and then somehow trigger detonate dead (is DD in PoE2 yet?)

[@LupusImmortalis]

After having a bit of a think about it... I'm really tempted to start Titan, just to be different lol. But I will probably play it safe and also go Infernalist.

[@orbitutmost]

Anyone else looking at the totem spirits + armor break? I'm intrigued

[@vanikkan872]

Yeah. It is one of the things i am looking at. Totem - Warbringer Slam - Titan Bloodmage - Spellcrit Infernalist - Spelldemon Thats my ideas for the start on Saturday( if the servers are running by then) cause i dont believe we will play to much on friday^^

[@DesertWooder]

Starting Infernalist! I'll just take the altered flesh node, the dog and flame + 20% extra fire ally damage. Seems like a good balance between tankiness and minion stuff.

[@Venice90]

Same here, but I'm not sold on the extra 20% fire dmg node. It is only when you are above High threshold someone said 65%+, so you would have to juggle a lot or have a large enough manapool to have room to comfortably stay in that range.

[@jaredmontgomery305]

Titan start for me so we'll see how interesting it is. If it fails I still get slam and shield charge my way to faceroll.

[@kallistax]

I'm going bloodmage and going to try for the minions to set up critical weakness and armour break and power charges and use the critical dmg and physical dmg boost for bone spear dmg

[@duobizarrobizarro]

I was thinking about playing Blood Mage... But I need to know if Dark Pact is still a thing. Will probably also start Infernal for basically the same reasons, an extra summon that tanks some of the damage for you is insane. Also, hoping they fix Lilith so we can actually use it before we hit the 2nd ascend.

[@schapel]

Random question, can we respec ascendancy points?

[@KodaVoss]

I am wondering this too... because Jonathan (game director) said we can't change ascendancy and I am assuming that means switch from infernalist to bloodmage... but he didn't say we can't switch ascendancy (or did he? idk I should look) I am hoping we can change ascendancy points because like passive skill points it would just be done with gold... but maybe we can't and that would be crazy

[@mikes2106]

Gemling 100% starter for me, I was saying this before any vids came out about it the + skills and % quality are too good to pass up alone for minions. Probably have to start as non-minion but might make it work who knows haha

[@hopevalintine4454]

Hey, can I ask a question ? If I start as witch, can I still pick gemling legionnaire, or am I stuck with the 2 witch ones?

[@maXXXthesilent]

@@hopevalintine4454 you are limited to class specific ascendencies so... stuck

[@PotusTrump47]

@@hopevalintine4454 You can try witch and if you dont like you create a new character as gemling.

[@mikes2106]

@@hopevalintine4454 You would be stuck choosing between the 2 witch ascendancies. Might be easier to start witch for minions anyways as its supposedly closer to more minion nodes on the tree so you can reach them earlier. Then later you can always roll a mercenary with some starter gear to help make the trip to some of the nodes :)

[@KrisHammes]

Ok.. hear me out.. warbringer, with lots of suicidal minions (infernal legion/ reavers) using cast on minion death - totem - ancestral spirit. Normally cast on minion death doesnt allow skills that create minions, but totem isnt minion tagged but get around it with the trigger. Might work :P

[@jmdixon1]

@@KrisHammes that sounds pretty cool! I wonder if the limit of 1 totem would apply here, too?

[@KrisHammes]

@@jmdixon1 I wonder if the ancestral spirit would have a defensive stat and count towards the cast on minion death and loop. Thinking on it more though I reckon I'd would be best to have permanent minions and self cast the totems along side some self cast proliferating aoe dot and then warcry to pop the corpses. Will feel satisfying and maybe make an ok mapper. On the websites there a chaos damage totem but it might be old data and not in EA , you could just have shockwave with effects like culling strike / jagged ground / blind (so support) that is triggering the minions (the real focus) with some spectres as permanent minions.

[@jdhi5279]

I heard the totems are labeled as minions.

[@KrisHammes]

@@jdhi5279 ah not right now on poe2db. But it's probably old data. I think just having spectre .. and self casted totems will be best with either fire or the chaos totem and contagion / ed... But it won't start too nicely and I've no idea how good the ascendancy minion is. If it's great it could be fun

[@Tentacl]

Interesting concept if it actually works

[@oleg.helgwar]

Have you thought about Warbringer scaling Ancestral Spirits, with offensive minions and totems as a part of defensive layer?

[@skofiannan]

the monk had a evasion from body armour as spirit node

[@Xanthuss325]

But also a line saying "no spirit from gear" basically disabling scepters main appeal. That node is for an additional reservation skill on self not for minions tbqh

[@Gilvad0]

I do think hulking form is going to be insane, but it's not accurate to say it's the same as getting 40 more passive points. It's the same as getting 40 more small passive nodes. It would be much, much better to get 40 more passive points than hulking form.

[@rumbleshakes]

I think the small passives is from Ascendency, not passive tree.

[@fortigan2174]

No, they are from the passive tree. You have to take a noncombat node to even get to it and no one in their right mind would waste 4 ascendancy points if it only affected up to 4 minor ascendancy nodes. Asside from that, it specifically says PASSIVE, not Ascendancy, meaning it refers to the passive tree.

[@gangstersnow]

I think the starter is going to be infernalist, then gemling is going to be better as a second character. I think without enough spirit on gear, or gems, gemling is going to feel awful, BUT those extra skill slots, and being able to use supports twice, and the extra quality and levels, is going to far surpass infernalist in the end.

[@SukoSeiti]

My guess is that gemling is gonna make thresholds for minions easier to accomplish.

[@Micromation]

It should also make leveling with any skill a breeze. We all saw that +1 staff sorc demolishing the campaign 😂 also the fact that ascendancy can run just about any spec due to how versatile the bonuses are, makes for an easy respec (assuming gold won't be drip fed like regrets were...)

[@renaparker8323]

I've seen some theorizing that the 30% less cost node on Gemling might affect minion spirit costs. Could be huge if so

[@jordi6153]

Ghazzy confirmed with a dev it does not

[@renaparker8323]

damn, understandable tho, that would be crazy strong

[@heqitao]

Hulking Form is definitely one of the most powerful Ascendancy Points in the whole game but, "Small Passive SKILLS" does not mean travel nodes as they are not Skills. At least not how I understand terminology in PoE. I will also be starting minions, but not with any of these Classes. So many choices, it's wild! GL at launch BM, thx for all the work.

[@EzhChannel]

Please tell me which class you decided to play through minions

[@heqitao]

@@EzhChannel Bloodmage. Close to Minion, ES, Recoup, Curse, Block and Armour nodes. A permanent Progenesis with two Ascendancy points. Won't be the highest damage, but should be reasonably tanky and a decent starter. But honestly, follow someone else's ideas, I am just a scrub. glhf man.

[@garf412]

Im going Monk cos Monk..

[@Antiquated-Ether]

Elon monk

[@nonelikezav]

I kinda wonder if hulking form is meant for the small nodes on ascendency tree only? Maybe it's just not worded well enough. But bonkers if it is how we understand it.

[@Micromation]

@@nonelikezav it most likely affects small nodes in notable clusters and not attribute travel nodes.

[@royalecrafts6252]

Of course witch, minions nodes are on the upper part of the tree

[@Ontaro]

I was thinking Infernalist or GL, but since I saw the Titan tech, really tempted to start Titan Minion, if minions are shite I can go Melee instead... 🤔

[@shinryusaiha]

There's a 25% minion DMG node at the bottom of the tree to help u early before skillgrimage.

[@stormblind1654]

Theres actually also a second one as well on the bottom. Two notables on the bottom. 4 small passives. :)

[@shanepurcell8116]

Are you sure the lil hellhound doesn't reserve spirit? Just finished watching a video by Kripp, who was also looking at options for minions, and he seemed to think it would reserve spirit.

[@PotusTrump47]

Ascendancy skills have no spirit cost. There is also video footage of Empyrian showing the hound and there is no spirit cost. Here, timestamped: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3XYf6Gtr72Lm9E

[@torbenelsenaar8361]

Couled you show a gemlin legion passive tree? I am relative new and i woulednt even know where to skill from his position 😅😊

[@mas0ny149]

is seething body not worth it even though it basically gives u 20% more dmg when its active? which should be pretty easy to sustain if u self cast something every now and then and let you minions do most the work

[@Xomage999]

I've been leaning Gemling Legionnaire for a good while now, but Titan is calling to me hard with that 50% node. No way they don't eventually change that.

[@evovolvo]

Will prob be good endgame, but as a league start it's going to be rough with all the travel nodes to get to the minion part of the tree.

[@Xomage999]

@@evovolvo There are some minion nodes in the merc area, and a really solid ally regen node on the trek to the top. It might lean a bit gear heavy or need to start as something else first, but only one way to know for sure.

[@CerberusMalt]

I'm fairly certain Titan won't buff the travel attribute nodes and will only buff the nodes leading to a notable, still strong but not quite as strong as I was hoping.

[@chrbr5768]

Why are getting 10 ascendency points suggested? Isn’t it just 8 in total? I’m confused

[@carlucioleite]

Wait, even your dog dies when you to demon form? What about srs? does it still procs?

[@dtfree4962]

We know already if chaos inoculation still exist in POE 2 ?

[@TheNagey]

Not sure how much people have heard about this, but Jonathan already said there is a weird interaction with demon form where it just doesnt use your weapon stats at all, so going into demon form might straight up make your minions be less powerful, not only because most of them dissappear, but because you'll lose your scepters in demon form. I think they want to fix this soon though.

[@fortigan2174]

It does not say it on that screen, but Demon Form increases your spell levels by 4, reducing the spirit cost of your minions. It's not as bad as it seems.

[@TheNagey]

@fortigan2174 that's fair, just depends on if you have some crazy spectres or something that out paces the demon form, which defeats the purpose for minions. Obviously, we will see what happens though, just some food for thought.

[@Zenbubbles]

​@@fortigan2174So every time you swap to demon form you have excess spirit, and need to spend that on extra minions in the skill tree. That doesnt seem convenient to me. And when you swap back, then minions disappear again.

[@fortigan2174]

@@Zenbubbles These demon form complications are why I'm changing over to Bloodmage. I'll still make an Infernalist character, but it's moved down on the list till this gets ironed out more.

[@Murmur95]

Do the small ascendency nodes count as small passive skills?

[@SirDubington]

lol skillgrimage. yeah im torn between gemling and infernalist

[@hopevalintine4454]

I realy love summons, so I am thinking of going as witch. But if I start as the witch can I pick the gemling legionnaire ascendancy?

[@Ekaznae]

To ascend into a Gemling Legionnaire you must first create a Mercenary.

[@EzhChannel]

Sorry, but Witch class can be only Infern or BloodMage

[@swampalite8425]

Think im going to start gemling, it might be rough but we'll see how it goes.

[@Micromation]

Best part about Gemling is that it will universally work with pretty much anything so if minions turn out to be a flop, you can always respec tree into range, melee or spellcasting thanks to massive bonuses to skills from ascendancy.

[@eco999]

Can someone please explain what reserved life means? We instantly reduce are max life by 25% but the bonus counts before that? We lose the bonus once we get damaged for more than 25% of our max life? How does it work?

[@blackomega34]

Your life cannot go above [reserved percentage] but your stats that care about maximum life or maximum mana don't go down, such as your regeneration stats (eg. 5% life regen pre second) still count off your max not your unreserved life/mana.

[@xe3014]

Is it confirmed that the Hound does not reserve Spirit? I mean its a permanent minion.

[@Fabregas200788]

I will save you 13 minutes: just take Infernalist with Spirit + ES pump and ele as fire/phys as chaos period

[@zerucos]

I just watched the Kripparian video on this, and he thinks the Infernalist will be quite bad because he thinks the Hellhound will reserve spirit because all other permanent minions does, and if it is as aquishy as other minions, then it will be quite bad.

[@Balormage]

Every screenshot we have seen has it without a listed spirit cost. So I'm assuming it's free.

[@zerucos]

@@Balormage I hope that is the case!

[@benpasc]

Could someone please explain how you would control minions to go to a certain area or open a door/chest on console ? I don't know how you would command them like that without a mouse, thanks

[@2fat4airborne44]

i also wanne go for Minions. But there are some hard choices. Without any infos Infernalist looks nice but the Titan seems also interesting. Not sure if the Warbringer would be valid, cause he brings Totem Minions. Sometimes to many choices is mean ^^.

[@rob2435]

Can you make a video or respond to this comment with details on how you make a minion build out of another build ? Is it the weapon you use or am I missing something ? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[@MrDarkBM]

Hulking form can’t work that way. If it does that has to be day one nerfed.

[@LordVis]

@MrDarkBM while i agree it'll be nerfed, what other way could it function as written? (Before aforementioned nerf)

[@CerberusMalt]

@@LordVis To not include travel nodes like the +10 int/str/etc Which I don't think it will. I think it'll only affect the small nodes leading to notables in clusters and not the travel nodes anyway since I think they're labelled "Attribute Nodes"

[@KantemirkO]

nice harem of gods video LUL

[@MyssingInAction]

I saw this! *algorithm interaction

[@vamperic]

Only 8 points for ascendency is rough :P

[@user-cz1ex7kf2g]

I hope the third witch ascendancy is pure minion necro

[@ROQuietStorm]

It is not though, ggg confirmed no specific minion ascendancy

[@off-meta-michael]

@@user-cz1ex7kf2g doing that makes you have less options. If there are several adcendancies that could all work but no specific one then that's a win for minion builds. This is kinda the theme across all the ascendancies so far for any build actually. This will be good. You'll feel locked into the same option every time if there's a very clear powerful minion ascendancy.

[@borbo2020]

Yo? You didn't even mention our ancestral homies from Warbringer?

[@JohnWick-df7wc]

Don't forget bleeds and poison damage bypass energy shield so at 50% HP you'd be one shot with that damage mod

[@TenaciousDealer]

Bleed can only be applied if it deals damage to life so if you have enough energy shield when tanking the hit which has bleed you won't be bled. Poison goes through but there's already confirmed charms that can grant you immunity to that so shouldn't really be an issue.

[@Balormage]

Chaos damage does not bypass ES. It simply deals double damage to ES. In poe2.

[@davep5788]

Did I miss something? You picked 5 nodes for the witch? This may be answered later, I'm early in the video.

[@MineYour_Craft]

@@davep5788 yeah He probably forgot about that so Just ignore the Last recomanded Point. Take hellhound , dmg coversation and the Spirit and ES conversaton

[@rulercamelot3687]

Don't we only get 4 points? My understanding is those little nodes in between also cost a point, is that wrong?

[@LordVis]

@rulercamelot3687 4 notables is the common reference. Still get 8 total points.

[@rulercamelot3687]

@@LordVis Oh Awesome! that makes my building much easier lol, I was halving what I wanted. Thx!

[@arturorecio7437]

Harem of gods?

[@evilme73]

Hey guys titan is gonna be good because of the one passive that is as good as any 4 other ascendancy notables in the entire game!. That 50% small passive skills is going to last less than a week. Zero chance it lasts. It'll be balanced behind rucksack at 20%

[@lordofchaosinc.261]

Wonder if gemling legionaire will be the jack of all trades when you just want generic boosts for the skill. A bit boring but reliable should work with anything. Chronomancer is the least attractive ascendancy in my book unless someone makes an endless timestop build. Should rather call it cooldown manager.

[@andrewnguyen3312]

I’m starting gemling

[@moiseskilp]

warbringer minion is my choice

[@evovolvo]

You put 10 points in infernalist, lol

[@hige1234]

100 minions possible?

[@xYalahx]

Solid video. I'm super happy with how GGG did the ascendencies in regards to making sure that no single one stand out as, "the clear best for x."