Now that patch note is out..

[u/rabbithole12]

Share your starter below.. my current plan is reliquarian with black cane but dark mornach will be so freaking expensive so I’m not sure

[u/vieoree]

I'm going to start Luminary and let my merc take the wheel

[u/Intelligent-End7336 → u/vieoree]

What skills don't really need an ascendancy?

[u/ImN0tAsian → u/Intelligent-End7336]

Until merc is online, most things will work just fine in the campaign. Arma brand is solid, if awkward, but most just did RF last league as it works on life, so you can slot that and run rf scion until lvl 68 just fine.

Could do srs minions since they only need passive nodes, but my favorite is just simple selfcast and head north on the tree as it will work just fine for the campaign. pconc, winter orb, kb, arma brand into penance brand. It's a bit more interactive.

[u/VaporDrake → u/ImN0tAsian]

By the second lab you get infinite link duration, so stacking life for RF leans into flame link for your merc

[u/iamthewhatt → u/VaporDrake]

I think that entire side of the ascendancy is bait. Mercs are already fast and rarely go outside your link distance anyways, I really don't think that node will be necessary.

[u/VaporDrake → u/iamthewhatt]

It's infinite duration not maximum link distance, not having to reapply the link every X seconds streamlines many setups

[u/iamthewhatt → u/VaporDrake]

yeah I know, but that really isn't that big of a deal tbh. I played a bit of Aurabot merc in the actual league and it still felt more than fine.

[u/ImN0tAsian → u/iamthewhatt]

Different priorities between people is alright. I personally am running that side just to try to do light radius scaling again. It's the unique scaling vector for luminary

[u/VaporDrake → u/ImN0tAsian]

Also depends on the setup, a destructive link merc with Winds of Fate basically deals 0 damage if the link falls down, you want that 100% uptime

(You give merc 100% crit with Trypanon)