Mercenary ascension class?

[Gabriel_PL]

So, I'm having a blast playing mercenary so far, going full armor because why the hell not, and reached the part where the game offers you to choose an ascension class.
I've looked up the two there are and I remain unconvinced.

A lot of people like witchhunter because of bonus versus endgame-tier enemies (demons, undead, etc) but I thoroughly dislike the ability that reduces your armor and dodge to instead give a shield(I dont like shields at all)
The gemling seems quite straightforward but also a little... odd? I mean more skill gems is good but what does it mean I can have more than anyone? More keys for skills to use? I already rarely use half of the slots, got me anti-single target ones and the crowd control ones thats it.
Maybe I'm talking out of my ass from how early I am in the game yet to take conclussions but that's why I'm asking for oppinions.
Anyone with experience with the merc ascensions?

[Havok]

I am not the most versed merc, but I play a galvanic shards/shockburst witchhunter, and I have sorcery ward with zealous inquisition, and I run an Evasion/ES merc with nearly 200 points in str, dex and int.

It plays well for what it is, great at mobbing, okay for bossing. Don't really play it too much because im building other classes, but it zoomed through campaign and early endgame pretty easily.

I have a nice little dopamine hit of explosions of herald of ash and thunder, with the zealous popping. Its pretty solid at what it does, but can be optimized a lot.

Sorcery ward is.. okay.. its not great, its not bad. It basically halves your combined armor and/or evasion giving you an elemental barrier of 30% of your armor and evasion rating. Now, in theory, that is wonderful, as elemental attacks hit that barrier first, and then you realize the sheer amount of phys attacks that come at you and a lot of the time it remains full, unless the map mods have enemy does ele attacks. Its not great, but it does help when it works.

I don't know alot about gemling, but I do know stat stacker gemling is a monstrosity of a class at the moment. Whether or not it gets nerfed remains to be seen. However, in hindsight, gemling seems the more logical approach for how I personally play, simply because the buffs that you get from it are way too good to pass up, and I wish I had taken gemling. So.. yea...

Witchhunter is.. okay, but even still, sorcery ward, which is the huge draw is just.. meh. I would personally spec gemling, though im sure someone that plays witchhunter as main could convince you otherwise. Havent messed around with concentration spec, as most builds I looked at all take sorcery ward, zealous and pitless, so.. yea.

[Dr. Rockso]

If you are new I would just pretend there is only one Merc Asc. for now and just go with Witchunter.

Nothing bad against Gemling, it's just not "beginner friendly".

[robruckus65]

I have a a gemling he uses pillar of the caged god staff he is pretty absurd but its incredibly expensive to build.

[Neithan]

Playing a lvl78 physical ailment gunner (with a touch of frost), and do like the Gemmling.

First of all, the Gemmling allows you to be more "creative" with your build, as the option to meet all skill requirements with your highest stat means, that you can easily use any skill available, from any class. Makes building in regards of your ability stats quite easy, just stack strength for more life and pay all skill requirements with it. Now you only need dex and int high enough for the gear you use (I go armor/eva). Then, doubling your base ability boni gives you another good chunk of health, but also some mana and accuracy.

Having 10% quality on all skills is nice to have for some skills, my main attack (Frag rounds) gets 1% dmg per quality.

The clou about the 3 additional skill slots is less about being able to use all those skills (although when you can pay all skills with str then you might find some additional options to integrate), but it rather enables you to get more max resistance (with the next node) as you can slot more support gems.

And don't underestimate the power of using the same support skills on 2 different skills. Don't use it myself but I can see it coming in handy.

[Pat]

Mercenary is like dota 2 vs cs2
U no need brain to play cs but u cant play dota 2 without it

[Eudicots]

The best way I can summarize mercenary ascendancies is Gemling is for people that want to build a character that doesn't use a crossbow and witchhunter is for those that want to use a crossbow.

[cAipi_rInHa]

Originally posted by robruckus65:

I have a a gemling he uses pillar of the caged god staff he is pretty absurd but its incredibly expensive to build.

Yea its like one of the strongest builds possible.

Witchhunter is kind of dog*** tbh.
IF Witchhunter: go for lightning crossbow build, otherwise there seems no decent way no clear everything in endgame and have a bit of fun :]

I stopped playing witchhunter with lev 90 because the switch to lightning crossbow was too expensive for me at the time.
Playing Bloodwitch and Pathfinder showed me how bad witchhunter really is.

Better do gremling and pick some kind of stat-stack build.

[HunApo]

Originally posted by Eudicots:

The best way I can summarize mercenary ascendancies is Gemling is for people that want to build a character that doesn't use a crossbow and witchhunter is for those that want to use a crossbow.

Wrong
Gemling is for people who want to build stat stacker and witchhunter is for nothing.
Right now witchunter is absolutely useless cause with any weapon you can make a build that deletes content and bosses, including crossbow.
But because there is no real difficulty in any content (or more precisely, no real boss fighting other than deleting them in seconds) there is literally no reason to pick witchhunter due to absolutely lacking ascendancy nodes.

If you want to play crossbow, deadeye is 100 times better.