Disciple of Varashta feels absolutely terrible
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Ok so let me post my take I've played it as pure minion build since the beginning of the league (with exception of Frost Bomb / Ice Nova for the Shattering).
My overall feelings are mixed towards this ascendency requires a lot of work. As a league starter it probably feels really good since Djinn don't need that much to actually come online and deal with what's thrown at them but after league start as the mobs get more and more dense this ascendency just feels bad. There are three main problems: 1. Minions don't have any kind of AoE clear mechanic on their own - You do not have Lich rupture the soul and overall minion battle AI is just garbage. They do not pick the targets as fast as they should, they lag behind you all the time it's just bad. Now I know that this is something that in theory applies to all minion builds but compared to Lich with Rupture the Soul Djinn Build Feels bad. 2. Djinn abilities have insane set up conditions and cooldowns. Navira Fracturing requires you to a) have infusion b) cast frost nova for chilled ground c) cast actual djinn spell if it's of cooldown Sand Djinn is kind of ok but his main use is to set up Critical Weakness. I've not used Fire Djinn that much but the general problem is that entire build is extremely situational and based on very defensive gameplay style. Because minions lag behind you in reality you are the one who takes first blunt of oponent dmg, if you have infusion and Navira off cooldown you are fine but if for some reason new wave of opponents shows up and you don't have infusion or Navira is on cooldown you are in trouble cuz your minions with their over 9000 IQ won't move a finger to protect you most of the time (or just lack power to do so). High Pack Size Maps, Delirium in maps or god archenemy of this build - Breach just feel extremely bad cuz if your setup aren't ready there is nothing to save up your ass. (Simulacrum is fine but it's not due to the build but due to the fact that Minions tend to behave a lot better there cuz you can hold position in the middle of the screen which let's your minions SURROUND YOU and actually do their job). Anything which is capable of throwing on you repeatably waves of enemies just straight out feels bad - you are literally "One Punch Man" but in reverse context. The biggest problem of a build as a minion build is kind of the same as with Amazon payoff skills except you have no tools do deal with situation where you can't set up/have access to your payoff skill. It's extremely clunky to set up, slow to play and overall on any type of content which requires you to move feels bad. I'm not against pay off skills but having to set up pay off skill for mapping while things like Cast on / Heralds exist is a really bad joke. What needs imo to be changed: Djinn abilities supports gems should not count towards stat requirements. That's potential 75 attribute points you have to pull out of your ass and as a minion build you are going to use all your skills anyway Cooldowns of skills requiring setup should be either massively decreased or straight out removed. Like what's the point of Navira cooldown => Chilled ground is not something you can just create on a whim infinitely. This actually applies to all minion commands. Tree should include some massive Increase Command Cast Speed and Reductions of mana Command Cost. (Alternative to reductions is introduction of Keystone which would make Minion Kills count as your own so you can use Mana on Kill sources). Minion build already require to many stats to stack on suffixes adding cast speed as one more is just to much. Mana cost reduction is a specially important once you ramp up minions to high levels This is again minion generic thing but for the love of god please make minions move in formation around player. You can compensate this by altering enemy AI to prioritize summoner if player is using minions but the worst thing about minions is them not engaging enemy in time. |
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" I came to the conclusion after trying a few different setups with the different minions that the Ice Nova + Frost Bomb + Navira's fracture was the best way to go with the ascendancy. The fire and physical minion just didn't seem good enough to be use as main skills. With Navira's Fracture you handle the AOE and then you get spectres to handle single target. Powered Zealot spectres are insane for single target right now. Even if they get nerfed in 0.5, we can just move onto the next best spectre. I almost got to lvl98 without a single death. Eventually died to detonate dead in the temple after scaling HP values too high (oneshot with 23k ES). This was the most tanky class I've played so far. 0.73s recharge delay with 23k ES and also the 60% of ES = armour node. I stopped played on 31/12/2025 since that was always the plan. This was the build: https://poe.ninja/poe2/builds/vaal/character/SaiyanZ-3112/Saiyan_FR Navira's Fracture may seem clunky but at least the damage is worth it. You do full screen damage that's even high than Comet damage (every 3 seconds though). I'm pretty much going to league start with this in 0.5 unless they nerf several aspects of the build. It's better than ED+Contagion because the Powered Zealots do insane single target. The build sort of double dips on damage because of the minion scaling. You can go full glass cannon spectres since you also have your own damage from Navira's Fracture. Typical minion builds can't do this because if their minions die, they die. eg. If you play a Lich for minions, you need to invest in minion survivability and you also don't have your own full screen attack. Dernière édition par SaiyanZ#3112, le 6 janv. 2026 à 03:01:47
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https://poe.ninja/poe2/profile/tdonov5-2743/character/FateVaal
my current fracture build wish i could make fracturing slightly faster, but i have big damage so I'm not bothered. i run full tablets w/just exalt slams for rarity/rare monsters with no boss passives (bosses still dont drop anything lol). running t16 when i hit nice +1 cleansed ofc p.s. my sceptre is bad but they're expensive/don't exist Dernière édition par tdonov5#2743, le 6 janv. 2026 à 05:43:17
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+1
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" Played sand djinn, absolutely destroyed everything in the game (including uber) with little effort. Finished all current content before temples were solved. As a solo player, did not require insane gear to clear almost everything. Uber took a little more effort, but still not that hard. |
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Also, fix not being able to use weapon sets on djinns. very frustrating, wtf...
The whole ascendancy feels a bit rushed, as if they were afraid it would be too op because it was not tested yet, so they added all of these dumb restrictions. I played naviras fracturing. you have to cast 3 abilities just to do ok damage, does not even 1 shot rares. Why do that when you can zoom around with spark, coc, with no down side. People have 1 button builds with no cooldown teleports, while we're stuck here casting 10 abilities, lol. Not even playing the same game. So you have to get cast speed for the setup skills, which does not synergise with the djinns. and your regular spells do 0 damage, cant even use them to chill or anything. Make them scale on spell damage too. Varashta is forced to take energy shield on the passive tree, there is no other option. how come? am playing the ascendancy as it was intended, and still i dont get a damage option... come on man |
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I came to the conclusion after trying a few different setups with the different minions that the Ice Nova + Frost Bomb + Navira's fracture was the best way to go with the ascendancy. The fire and physical minion just didn't seem good enough to be use as main skills.
I agree that's the best way to play it but still what you are essentially doing is on cooldown, with huge set up requirements larger Herald of Ice. Also there is one more problem with it. If you play minions it literally requires you to lead and get close to the enemies (with bow or spark you would shoot in the direction you are moving) here you are supposed to engage enemy first than do the combo. |
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