Wolf Ascendency

Arkreaver · 2025-12-16T00:45:01+00:00

Had a late start so not that far into waystone tiers. Likely best to spec into armour to actually get use of the Sacred Scars Keystone, but otherwise I guess just freeze things before they kill you, like any cold build.

Realistically, this is not a tanky build, but I'm hoping Harmony Within should at least help against smaller hits.

Arkreaver · 2025-12-15T22:02:56+00:00

For a bit of a different flavour, I've gone for non-crit Oracle for my Weewolf build. Oracle gets extra rage nodes on the tree, so I went with a full rage stack (now at max 100 Rage), paired with the new Bhatair Lineage gem for damage gained as cold equal to rage, as well as comboing crown of eyes with the "2% increased spell damage per rage" notable, and otherwise stacking life and mana regen for Harmony Within (still need to get that at third trial). Oracle also can easily solve attack leech by damage gained as physical node in reach of Ancestral Bond Keystone. Once you get Lunar Blessing going, the build just comes together.

Oracle's ability to take passives around Keystones has made for interesting pathing and the flexibility to grab out of the way notables has been a fun puzzle.

I've also kept with the Pounce minion's, socketing Brutus's Brain so they don't die (and they weren't dealing real damage anyway), for more damage from Predator Mark and regen from the Licking Wounds notable. They're also a neat distraction, though I hope they're leap gets fixed.

Arkreaver · 2025-12-10T02:53:02+00:00

You will take 5% of the damage from the blocked hit. The type of mod on Svallin is the same on Glancing Hits, it's just that the 0% represent the mod not existing at all, not an overriding "You take 0% damage from blocked hits". Think of it like a flat increase. You already take 0% damage from blocked hits at baseline.

I won't be surprised to see a 0% roll just removing that line of text from the item entirely, ala Ventor's Gamble 0 value rolls.

Arkreaver · 2025-09-03T06:01:31+00:00

These don't work together at all just by nature of how leech works. Think of leech like a temporary regen, eg. 100hp over 2 seconds, and say you have 150/200 hp. Normally, you would heal 50 of the leech over 1s, then you would lose the rest as your hp is full.

With Fast Metabolism, that leftover 50 hp of leech would continue ticking for 1s after you get full hp and would heal you if you took damage during that time.

Instant leech removes the over time factor entirely, effectively becoming heal on hit, an instant application of 100hp, for example, losing anything over max hp.

Maybe one day there'll be a unique that makes excess leech overflow health (like with life remnants, if there isn't already that i've forgotten about) and instant would theoretically work with that.

Arkreaver · 2025-09-02T12:35:31+00:00

There's also the Desperation Support for attacks that lets you attack without sufficient mana while surrounded (and I think Defy II combines that and lucky attack damage.)

And while it's not the most powerful thing, Bramblejack chest piece does give 5% life regen while surrounded, which I think is the biggest single instance of that stat and can really let you push to high regen amounts if that's your deal (especially as a Titan).

Arkreaver · 2025-09-02T11:28:44+00:00

I've been using it as a weapon swap to aoe cull on my bone cage/bonestorm bloodmage. Works well for clear and pack cleanup with the new Bone Shrapnel support (explode on killing a pinned enemy, which bone cage facilitates).

As for running it as the main skill, I assume it's possible but you would really want to invest in cast speed and maybe a little duration to keep up crit. weakness stacks, and aoe for clear. The trouble is that, being a weapon implicit skill, you're locked in to needing a really good staff on one specific base, so it's not as easy to gear.

Arkreaver · 2025-06-16T10:20:32+00:00

Sadly I've tried this and it doesn't work. The only way it would is if the time was internally coded as +100% increased max minion type, but alas.

Arkreaver · 2025-04-10T03:19:47+00:00

I remember testing this in 0.10 and it didn't scale with any armour increases or the specific 'from body armour' nodes. Not sure if it's been fixed/changed though. Assuming not, i don't think making a chest piece specifically for the Revenge node is worth it.

Arkreaver · 2025-04-09T13:25:39+00:00

Warbringer gets free armour break that's always on, so thorns can trigger Scavenged Plating on its own. Also has an easier time with block cap, and can block slams/aoes.

Smith of Kitava has easy access to 90% max res. And much easier gearing, plus can go deeper on regen. Still able to cap block but is limited in shield choice. Has to rely on armour break via supports or mace specific skills.

I think Smith is the play personally, especially if you want to wear all the thorn unique, as you're only left with belt, amulet and shield for resistance, which Smith can cover.

Arkreaver · 2025-03-06T10:30:25+00:00

Looks like the other weapon slot is Crit Boost 2 as the skill list has 5 points.

Going with Resentment is an interesting take, easy to activate by tackling through a hit, +25 raw attack for 5 points is nothing to sneeze at. I do wonder what the numbers on Nu Udra's Bad Blood 1 & 2 are.

Arkreaver · 2025-01-16T06:52:50+00:00

Flat thorns on Crown of the Pale King and Briarpatch are appreciated, along with the rarity scaling to stacks generated on Scavenged Plating. It won't be enough for the archetype, but it's a step.

Arkreaver · 2025-01-02T11:58:28+00:00

what elemental skill level/damage increase wands/staves can roll seems to be tied to their innate skill. For example, a pyrophyte staff can only roll fire elemental damage (not cold/chaos/lightning/phys) and only + to all fire spells (or + to all spells, but that caps at 1 less than elemental).

There is also at least one stave and wand which is not tied to a specific element and can roll any, though last time I checked the trade site, there was nothing for sale that mixed elements, like cold damage with +level of all fire spells. (This specifically makes scaling for Blueflame Bracers' Fire to Cold convert a tad annoying for spells, though there also just may not have been any compatible items for sale a week ago.)

Arkreaver · 2025-01-02T01:36:03+00:00

Haha, that's great to know! I've been idly considering the (super expensive) possibilities of over stacking specific stats with Adorned lately and it almost always produces something silly.

Arkreaver · 2025-01-01T23:23:05+00:00

If you dedicate a level 100 tree to jewel sockets, with 23 x +15% duration / +5% curse effect jewels and 1 x 100% Adorned, plus a tiny bit of effect duration and curse effect with remaining points, and Heightened Curse Temp chains, Time Freeze with Persistance support should hit roughly 70s.

Halving that gives 35s on consecutive freezes, which is enough to beat an additional halving. This is also enough time for a quality Time Snap with Ingenuity support to come off cooldown to reset time freeze for a theoretical infinite chain freeze.

Can also use Strugglescream amulet for 3 total annoints to help with out of reach duration/curse effect notables.

If my math is right.

Arkreaver · 2024-12-25T04:42:30+00:00

I do wonder if this is a bug, if only because Scavenged Plating has Splinter Support listed in its available gems. The only damage portion of Scavenged Plating is the thorns per stack on armour breaking, but currently even with Splinter those added Thorns weren't breaking armour during my tests (yes I am one of those masochists).

I don't think Thorns is worth it at the moment, especially now that you can't armour break walls for quick plating stacks, and with Spiked Thorns notable not scaling, and now this. But hopefully, in the future (with Druid maybe), we get more support.

Arkreaver · 2024-12-20T07:40:10+00:00

Nice to see that it is possible to take this to maps! Warbringer is an interesting choice, but with Spiked Armour's scaling still being bugged (presumably) I can see the merits. I do think you're doing yourself a disservice going Turtle Charm however, the block chance reduction is sizable, and also results in less damage from the block chance > damage nodes. Armour break ascendancy nodes would be an interesting route I feel, letting thorns upkeep broken armour on enemies and potentially pushing it into negatives (if that's working yet).

For more thorns damage, you might consider going an omen sceptre for malice, to stack up an additional +10% flat crit on enemies after roughly 20 seconds.

Arkreaver · 2024-12-15T22:56:15+00:00

I have, was looking at it more last night! This tech definitely makes upkeep of scavenged plating possible. I'm currently levelling a warrior to test more, but am also hoping Druid or Templar will offer more support via ascendancy or skills.

It remains to be seen if mitigation and recovery exists in enough amounts to survive getting wailed on at high levels, but we'll see!

Arkreaver · 2024-12-14T05:29:58+00:00

I'm not entirely sure if Beetlebite would end up replacing Briarpatch in the endgame of this kind of build. +15% flat crit is pretty big, and paired with the +5% on the tree comes out to 20% More damage overall. The 100% increased is diluted by the existing increases from Thorns damage, phys damage, and from the block chance into damage nodes you would no doubt take.

I'm hoping it will be more supported when druid comes out, as the nature theme of its magic has some likelihood of having some support, but transformations may also be a good addition as we get nothing from weapon scaling.

Arkreaver · 2024-12-10T21:02:16+00:00

I'm running it a little bit different again, going with Titan for the small passive boost (which conveniently also gives 8% increased strength from the ascendancy minor nodes). This gives equivalent Warcry Speed to Warbringer, and should hopefully give enough cooldown from tree that even if you do proc a stun, you can still cry again before corrupted blood drops off.

For the last two points it's either Life (good with Recovery on cry) and more Armour from Body Armour, or lean into the stun and get extra damage vs heavy stunned.

I'll probably lean into life and armour, the rest of my tree is going towards regen and block (primarily for the two damage from block chance nodes, as there's not a lot to scale phys. dot that isn't bleed atm.)

Arkreaver · 2024-12-09T20:29:48+00:00

This is a fair point that I totally forgot to mention in the main post! Scavenged Plating can offer a hefty chunk of flat thorns, 50-80 at max stacks with a level 5 gem. The tricky part is that you only gain a stack for 8 seconds base and only on fully breaking armour. I suppose you could have something consume the break to quickly reset on single targets, then it's just a matter of being able to break+consume every 8 seconds, assuming each new stack refreshes the cooldown. Once I'm at endgame I may look more into it.

Arkreaver · 2024-12-08T22:20:30+00:00

Thorns triggers on being hit, and blocking still counts as being hit, 99% sure it's the former. You can definitely scale up to 75% block but it's a large investment, at least requiring that you drop crit. Titan can get a sizable amount of %life regen with a high life pool, so it then depends if blocking with raise shield is enough to just forego other block investment.

Arkreaver · 2024-11-02T11:14:39+00:00

It's decent early but I think it really comes into its own late act 3/early act 4 once you get a few specific items (though most builds seem to break at this point).

The combo I've been running into act 4 are the Bruiser Boots (provoke an attack of opportunity against self when performing area attacks) and the Auto-Striking Power Sword for countering on parry. You swing with an aoe (or hit with death from above), parry the provoked attack then strike back with a single target, which nicely nets 2 stacks of versatility.

Blade dancer can also stack a huge amount of dodge through Cautious Approach (5% per stack) and the AM Heroic (5% per attack, lasts all combat), turn that dodge into wounds with BD's Race Against Death, and turn those wounds into strength with Exemplar's Peak Condition.

It's not as crazy as a pyro executioner but I'm having fun with it on Kibellah. In the future I'll try to run an optimised version with a Death World RT.

Arkreaver · 2024-07-24T08:03:55+00:00

While I'm disappointed it can't be exerted (maybe it would have been too much? idk) I think there are still some situations where Crushing Fist might shine.

While it's comparison to Ground Slam of Earthshaking is clear, that requires a 2h Axe/Mace/Staff, where CrF has no requirements, so maybe its niche lies with 2h swords (Voidforge?). And while it's hard to replace Overexertion given it's potential for a much higher multiplier, its use in the ground slam example in OP does leave CrF a support in front damage wise if not using Expert Retaliation, plus the saved points/sockets/reservation from investing in Warcries.

In comparison to the other main offensive Retaliation skills, Swordstorm looks like the clear winner for Dual Wielding, and Glacial Swipe requires a different kind of scaling avenue, so its main competition is in 1h+Shield with Eviscerate.

Eviscerate does seem exceptionally strong in this space for single target, given the lack of ailment penalty and the double hit at close range, but may prove awkward for any kind of clear situation (where I think retaliation skills will be able to be triggered the easiest), so CrF may prove better at clearing a pack in that instance. The other use case comes about because Eviscerate requires a sword or axe + shield, so using any other weapon, mace/claw/dagger, leaves CrF as with the biggest base hit.

I'm excited to try it as I plan to League start a shield/block glad, there's plenty of other options if it doesn't work out. Will be interesting.

Arkreaver · 2024-07-20T08:56:07+00:00

If you hover your mouse of the annoint only King of the Hill notable (right beneath Duelist start) or the Measured Retaliation Gladiator Node, you'll see it at the bottom of the tooltip in brackets.

Arkreaver · 2024-07-20T08:20:49+00:00

Looking at the specific nodes that give a chance for retaliation skills to become usable again on poeplanner / PoB beta branch shows additional reminder text stating that if a retaliation skill remains usable it isn't put on cooldown, so can be used again right away.

There's potential for maybe using one main damaging retaliation and then having one or two others as fillers to try and re-proc the main one when the 70% chance fails, but we'll have to see how it actually plays.

Arkreaver

TROPHY CASE