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Discover everything you need to know about Tactician ascendancy in Path of Exile 2 and what makes this ascendancy powerful.
Ascendancy is a specialized subclass chosen for your character, granting stronger passive skills and unique mechanics. They allow you to refine and focus your character’s build through the customization of the gameplay. Tactician is the new Ascendancy for the Mercenary Class that excels in providing greater defense options and support for allies. The nodes available in Tactician Ascendancy help him increase the defensive stats and provide persistent buffs to allies or party members. You can offer a ton of support for the allies, including minions and totems, through War Banners and Crowd Control. Moreover, Tactician has an exclusive minion that scales with his Strength and Dexterity attributes. In this guide, we will discuss the Tactician Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2, including its pros and cons.
Everything About Tactician Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2
Tactician is a brand new Ascendancy for the Mercenary Class, added with the Dawn of the Hunt (Patch 0.2.0) update. It mainly focuses on providing support for the allies and other players for a cooperative play style. Moreover, the nodes of this Ascendancy also provide various bonuses to increase the overall defense for high survivability. Due to its versatility, players can use Tactician as both a defensive or a supporting Ascendancy.
Tactician is one of the strong contenders for making a Minion Build, especially with a lot of supporting buffs. The Unleash Hell node is a must one to have if you are going for the Minion build. It grants the Supporting Fire skill, which summons an artillery squad that can fire volleys of arrows at your command. Moreover, this squad scales up with your Strength and Dexterity attributes. Having more Strength will increase the overall damage by the squad, and with more Dexterity, the squad’s accuracy will increase.
In addition to this, Tacticians are the only ones capable of putting multiple Banners on the field, thanks to the Whoever Pays Best node. These banners will help you significantly in providing more damage, utility, and defense for yourself and your allies. Placing banners like War Banner and Defiance Banner will help you greatly in defense, damage, accuracy, and more movement speed.
Furthermore, a Tactician is also sufficient in Crowd Control. Right Where We Want Them is one of the strongest nodes for crowd control as it stops pinned enemies from performing any action. If you build up the Pin effect on enemies, you will be able to eliminate them easily. It is super efficient against Elite mobs and bosses.
Pros and Cons of Tactician in Path of Exile 2
| Tactician Pros | Tactician Cons |
|---|---|
| Great for both Defense and Support | Not great for Solo Play Style |
| Versatile | A Bit Complex |
| High Survivability | Overall Low Damage Output |
| A viable option for Minion Builds | |
| Great for Endgame Content |
Tactician Ascendancy Nodes in Path of Exile 2
Here are all the Tactician Ascendancy nodes available in Path of Exile 2.
- Pin Buildup: 20% increased Pin Buildup.
- Presence Area: 20% increased Presence Area of Effect.
- Banner Area: Banner Skills have a 20% increased Area of Effect.
- Spirit: 8% increased Spirit.
- Minion Damage: Minions deal 20% increased Damage.
- Totem Damage: 20% increased Totem Damage.
- Armour and Evasion: 15% increased Armour and Evasion Rating.
- Right Where We Want Them: Pinned enemies cannot perform actions.
- Whoever Pays Best: Can place multiple Banners.
- Watch How I Do It: Allies in your Presence gain added Attack Damage equal to a 25% of your main hand Weapon’s Damage.
- A Solid Plan: Persistent Buffs have 50% less Reservation.
- Suppressing Fire: Projectile Damage builds Pin.
- Cannons, Ready!: Totems have 30% more Skill Speed. Totems only use skills when you fire an Attack Projectile.
- Unleash Hell!: Grants Skill: Supporting Fire. Summon a hidden artillery squad trailing you that can fire volleys of arrows on command. The artillery squad counts as your Minions.
- Polish That Gear: Gain 100% of Armour as extra Stun Threshold. Gain 100% of Evasion Rating as extra Ailment Threshold.
- Stay Light, Use Cover: Defend with 200% of Armour. Enemies have an Accuracy Penalty against you based on Distance. Maximum Evade Chance is 50%. Maximum Physical Damage Reduction is 50%.
Right Where We Want Them
The Right Where We Want Them node prevents the pinned enemies from performing any action. It means they cannot attack or move at all. It makes the Pin effect more like a Stun and Freeze. If you are going for a Pin build with the Tactician, it is a must-grab as it will allow you to Crowd Control enemies easily. Moreover, this bonus is sufficient against tougher enemies like Elite mobs and bosses. So, if you want more control of the battlefield or want to have a bit more safety for your build, this node is pretty strong.
Whoever Pays Best
Whoever Pays Best node allows you to place multiple Banners into the field. This is a strong node to have, especially for providing additional buffs to yourself and your allies. Normally, you can only place one Banner, but a Tactician can place multiple. Some of the Banners you can try and place are War Banner and Defiance Banner. This will allow you and your allies to have more damage, accuracy, defense, and movement speed.
Moreover, placing multiple Banners can empty the Spirit quickly. It is best to get the A Solid Plan node as well. This will let you reserve 50% less Spirit. This will allow you to keep placing the banners for persistent buffs and not worry about the Spirit. Furthermore, getting the Banner Area passive will increase the overall Area of Effect of the Banner Skills.
Watch How I Do It
Watch How I Do It is another strong node for the minion and cooperative play style builds. This node adds damage (25%) of your main hand weapon damage to your allies in your presence. Now, there are several Ranged and Melee weapons with very high damage potential. This node helps you significantly increase the overall damage of your allies. The allies include both other players and minions/totems.
A Solid Plan
A Solid Plan is a strong node to get as it makes the Persistent Buff Skills reserve 50% less Spirit. It is crucial to sustain Spirit for the minion build in Path of Exile 2, and A Solid Plan sufficiently helps you in that process. Whether you have to place multiple banners or use other sources to boost the minions, it will still let you have some Spirit left to consume. So, overall, it will be effective for any type of build you want to pursue as the Tactician.
Suppressing Fire
Suppressing Fire node allows all projectile damage to build the Pin effect on targets. As you hit targets with any projectile damage, it will build the Pin effect. It greatly helps you strengthen a Crowd Control build. You can pair it with the Right Where We Want Them to make the pinned targets stop and prevent them from doing any action. You can strengthen the Pin buildup by the Pin Buildup passive from the Ascendancy Skill Tree.
Cannons, Ready!
Canons, Ready! node is the only skill that increases the skill speed of Totems by 30%. However, the Totems only attack when you fire an Attack projectile. So, to make your Totems more effective on the field, always start off by attacking any projectile, like firing a grenade. This will activate the Totems to start the attack with more skill speed. Moreover, you can combine this with various other nodes like A Solid Plan to reduce the overall Spirit cost. To further strengthen the damage of the totems, you can place down Banners and can take the Totem Damage passive from the ascendancy skill tree.
Unleash Hell
Unleash Hell is a must-grab for a strong minion build as the Tactician. This node grants the Supporting Fire skill, which summons a squad, counting as your minions. The squad is exclusive to the Tactician, and they fire volleys of arrows on command. This will give you more control over your minions and let you strategize efficiently to take control of the battle. To further strengthen the damage of the minions, you can place down Banners and can take the Minion Damage passive from the ascendancy skill tree.
Polish That Gear
Polish That Gear is a great node to activate to increase overall survivability. It increases the Armour’s Stun and Evasion Rating by 100%, meaning you will have a higher chance of evading status ailments. If you are someone who doesn’t want to get Chill, Freeze, Ignite, or Shock ailments on you from the enemies, then you better take this node.
Stay Light, Use Cover
Stay Light, Use Cover is another defense-focused node that allows you to defend with 200% of Armour. Moreover, the enemies will have an accuracy penalty on distance. However, your maximum evade chance and physical damage reduction are capped at 50%. The overall Armour bonus is great, but the cap at evasion and physical damage reduction would feel greater in the endgame content. It will make it harder for you to pursue a Melee build. You would have to specialize in ranged build to have a chance of evading attacks from enemies.
Tactician Base Class
Tactician is an Ascendancy Class of the Mercenary in Path of Exile 2. The Mercenary Class in Path of Exile 2 offers ranged battles while focusing on crossbows, ammo, and attachments. It is a Strength/Dexterity hybrid Class that is centered around crossbows. This Class offers an experience that feels more than any other RPG. This Class doesn’t depend on skills or passive nodes. You can customize your playstyle by choosing different crossbows, ammo, and attachments. Each one of them influences how to tackle enemies.
Witchhunter is the best Ascendency to choose because it is dedicated to eliminating occult threats like witches, demons, and the undead. Complete specific trials tied to lore and mechanics to unlock the Witchhunter. Focus on defeating magical or difficult enemies and precision and agility. If you want to combine offensive power and defensive utility but can trade tankiness for better survivability, then this is your ascendancy.
This Strength/Dexterity hybrid Class is centered around crossbows. It wields crossbows with different firing nodes, and each one grants a different playstyle. Crossbows allow the players to fire weapons that act like guns. The crossbows grant a specific firing skill to your character that they can utilize in intense battles.
FAQs about Tactician in Path of Exile 2 (POE2)?
How to unlock Tactician Ascendancy in POE2?
Complete Ascension Trials (Special Dungeons) specifically made to unlock the Tactician Ascendancy class.
What makes Ascendancies different from base classes?
Ascendancy passive skills are significantly more powerful than regular passive skills, granting more unique roles and customizing your gameplay.
How customizable are Ascendancies?
Ascendancies allow you to specialize your character’s abilities with unique passive nodes. They can change your build to specific playstyles. Merge Ascendancy bonuses with an ample passive tree.
Looking for More Path of Exile 2 (POE2)?
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