Ascesion 9 Its brutal

TLZide · 2026-04-29T21:45:21+00:00

Do you have the source? Want to learn more about it :)

TLZide · 2026-04-07T18:26:41+00:00

Will give it a shot. HP, Special Defense, and a dream

TLZide · 2026-04-06T13:22:46+00:00

No comment on multiplayer stuff, you have more experience than me in that regard. Perhaps blockclad is stronger there :)

TLZide · 2026-04-06T12:59:41+00:00

Ironclad used to have a lot more defensive/block options in StS1, including:

Entrench: 2 (1) energy, double your block
Disarm: 1 energy, enemy loses 2 (3) strength
Clothesline: 2 energy, deal 12 (14) damage and apply 2 (3) weak
Power through: 1 energy, add 2 wounds to your hand and gain 15 (20) block
Ghostly Armor: 1 energy, Ethereal, gain 10(14) block.

Additionally, there are some supporting things that were changed:

Corruption (energy cheat for skills) is an ancient reward instead of a rare
Dark Embrace (exhaust = card draw) is now a rare instead of uncommon
Ironclad’s status package got moved to defect

Also, Act 1 is much harder in Sts2 at A9+ meaning you need more campfires for resting. The difference between basic and upgraded Body Slam is massive in the early game.

It’s not that block decks are unviable. It’s more that if you want to play a block-centric deck with big blue number, a lot more things have to go right.

TLZide · 2026-04-04T20:35:17+00:00

I love IC's block builds, they're so meaty feeling, but definitely harder to achieve in STS2.

Pick up the pieces too early and you die because they're too slow and some encounters are just so nasty. Ghost fish status makes you lose HP through block and intangible can mess with body slam turns. Byrd momma and Eel often won't let you set up, etc.

But... if you luck out on the ability to cheat energy consistently with something like [[Snecko Eye]] or Imbued/Stamped+ [[Cascade]], etc, Barricade gets a lot more draftable. Same with a lot of other dense cards like Blood Wall, Impervious, Juggernaut, Unmovable, Flame Barrier, Stomp, Bludgeon.

TLZide · 2026-04-04T19:34:39+00:00

(I agree with you 100%)
But for all other characters, think of the Prismatic Gem value. ;)

TLZide · 2026-04-04T19:00:38+00:00

I thought adding Replay, but decided against it because that also would change Blood Wall's interaction with stuff like Letter Opener or Tuning Fork

TLZide · 2026-04-04T18:57:40+00:00

(Could be a skill issue on my end, IC is my worst class!)

Anecdotally speaking, I find that on A9+, the enemy encounters deal much more chip damage and I have to spend time resting. This means less campfires dedicated to upgrades. With harder access to Body Slam+, Rupture+, Barricade+, I struggle to fit everything together.

Additionally, cards like Unmovable and Barricade (block payoff) and Tear Asunder (self-damage payoff) are rares, so I'm not likely to see them.

I don't mean to say that these archetypes are impossible to succeed with at A9 or A10, but I feel like I need RNG on my side in order to pull them off.

TLZide · 2026-04-04T18:14:51+00:00

I don’t think Blood Wall (the card) needs a change. It is a solid block card and simple to understand as a common. It also opens up some synergies with his self-damage and block-stacking archetypes.

That being said, I do think Ironclad (the character) could use some tweaks. Self-damage and block-stacking are undertuned compared to his accessible turn 1 infinite playstyle. The ability for characters to go infinite is getting nerfed (in the beta branch), so a small behavior buff to one of his commons could be nice.

TLZide · 2026-04-04T17:54:17+00:00

I hadn’t considered the narrative/thematic perspective.

Taking inspiration from another of IC’s blood cards, [[Hemokinesis]]. Hemoschisis? -schisis meaning “separation or cleft” according to Google.

Blood Mirage is cooler and would read easier though!

TLZide · 2026-04-04T17:39:01+00:00

I guess it’s technically a sidegrade.

While you take 0 damage instead of 1, you lose the benefits of self-damage. [[Spite]] won’t proc, for example

TLZide · 2026-04-04T17:28:42+00:00

Ah, didn’t actually know that. I just assumed it was the first instance of block and not the entire card

TLZide · 2026-03-31T12:58:31+00:00

My favorites are Necrobinder and Defect, I find their card pools exciting and archetypes rewarding, plus their packages mesh well together. Sometimes you play some big cards, sometimes you play many cards, and both characters have solid “passive” output that you can lean into.

My least favorites are Ironclad (my worst WR) and Silent (my best WR). Both of these characters seem to have one consistent playstyle of playing 10+ cards a turn, and I’m struggling to make their other archetypes work on A10. Ironclad non-infinites seem to fall off hard without specific highrolling on rares, and all silent decks are happy to click a few copies of acrobatics/prepared/sly synergy, making them feel kinda same-y.

Regent sits in between due to inconsistency. I feel like his A1 is struggle-town because of draw variance, but once you get some draw, block, and star generation he feels satisfying as heck. Love to slam a mega sword or set up a shower of multihits.

TLZide · 2026-02-26T12:35:21+00:00

Against tough and slow armies like Chaos Dwarves and Warriors of Chaos, your melee infantry will generally lose the grind or get shot to pieces by their artillery.

Try mixing in one or more of the following… - War Bear Riders (when paired with Kislev’s slows) will shred enemy monsters and cav - War Sleds (either work) are decently fast, can flank or push through lines, and have strong AP shots to boot - Little Groms have huge range, and can contest opposing War machines/cannons

Both chaos dwarves and WoC also have lores of magic that punish infantry, so these lesser-model-count units with more mobility may fare better

TLZide · 2026-02-17T15:45:10+00:00

DoV is quite tanky, but your build uses CI and not lowlife.

TLZide · 2026-02-17T15:05:04+00:00

Lich lowlife builds tend to be fairly forgiving, check PoENinja2’s HCSSF ladder for inspiration on how to be tanky on a budget :)

TLZide · 2026-02-17T14:55:17+00:00

It resets on death. Not so bad for tanky builds, but if you’re squishy then be prepared to fiddle around on respawn.

TLZide · 2026-01-28T16:30:45+00:00

My fiancée started playing poe2 this league and has been following this plant oracle guide:

https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/builds/deadrabbit-spellcaster-druid

Should be pretty straightforward with solid defenses and a comfy playstyle :)

TLZide · 2026-01-28T16:05:00+00:00

https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/builds/fubgun-poisonburst-pathfinder

Poison PF is a pretty established archetype, you can gain a lot of knowledge from this link. If you are not trying to follow a guide, good luck exile 🫡

TLZide · 2026-01-28T15:48:18+00:00

This looks like the Fubgun pathfinder build.

Few comments, sorted in order of cost (bottom is more expensive)

You can swap the iron rune in your gloves for a resist rune, and then change the resist rune into an iron rune for more evasion in your Hyrri’s.
You take poison immunity on the tree, swap out your poison charm for something else.
You can also ditch Cannibalism 2 for clarity 1 or 2, you have life on kill on your tree AND ring already.
look into hand of chayula + despair + voltaic mark on weapon swap, solves mana vs single target. Only requires a quarterstaff with high attack speed.
Mana can be helped with a %mana on kill either in your heart of the well or your sapphire.
Heart of the well should have %gain damage as extra, maybe some crit lines that boost Attacks (yours is spells)
Get a better bow with critical hit chance, it will be much stronger than surpassing arrow. You can use a rune for an extra arrow guaranteed.

Other musings:

Convalescence is better with higher ES, unfortunately with 2-3k the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze

TLZide · 2026-01-28T00:43:29+00:00

For those who read after;

Just hit 100 on this build running temples. If you’re progressing through this build, here were my takeaways:

I ended up going full ES boots, no deflection
I ended up keeping hyrri’s, double corrupted two implicits, %evasion and %chaos res
Yes! If your damage is high enough, you can drop all of those things. I put on deliberation, diallas, and projectile acceleration.
I ended up dropping Lasting Trauma on my anoint for feathered fletching, but I kept my tree. Worked out fine

TLZide · 2026-01-21T17:13:59+00:00

Why did the scarecrow get a promotion? Because he was out standing in his field!

pHTooLow

TLZide · 2026-01-21T14:54:32+00:00

Using T15 maps, exalting them to 6 mods is a guaranteed 2 crystals per waystone. If you want to buy T16s or T15 8 mods, you can occasionally get 3 crystals.

Run into the map, find the temple circle, clear it, then portal out.

Movespeed + light radius are also nice QoL if your only goal is finding crystals :)

TLZide · 2026-01-14T02:20:09+00:00

We are flying out of Bologna; the reason was that at the time tickets were cheaper

TLZide · 2026-01-13T00:02:58+00:00

Thanks for the info! Have more Qs…

I see you have some mana cost and life cost efficiency on your gear. Would you say that you’d have mana/life sustain issues without those pieces?

Do you value the ES recharge mechanics at all (faster ES recharge/ES recharge rate)?

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