Is Ascension really the answer?

Is Ascension really the answer? Someone please explain why Ascension is really needed?

The million dollar question. It can't be because they are "fun", so it must be for the $$$. But seriously, I don't believe the devs every really gave their reasoning for their addition. No Dev blog/insight that I'm aware of.

So everyone can be a mage.

No!

Because DB is a business and Ascension is a cash cow.

Maybe... It would take years to get all of your ascension spells leveled up if you just relied on the in-game researching

Even if you crafted the upgrades, the drops are so rare and so expensive that 99% of players couldn't do it in any quick amount of time, not to mention needing all previous versions to use an upgrade.

I think the ascensions are fun. When I first came back after a 6 year break I hated them. Now that I have been playing for a bit I find they are an indispensable part of the way I play my character.

If the question is "How can I introduce a new revenue stream that's p2w and fleece the client base out of more cash?" then ascension is the answer.

I was away for about 4 years and yeah they drove me nuts trying to figure out what dungeon I had to do to get the most likely chance to get one page I needed just to upgrade to journeyman, then hope you can find an adept version.

Now I really like Etheralist on my SK and Geomancer sometimes with my wizard is fun since it gives a lot more crowd controls in those dungeons that just have chain aggro. But now that I'm starting to group and do PQ's I switch over to a spec with either Etherialist or Elemental. Now I also have let go of the delusion that I'll ever have them all even grandmastered. I pay for random things in this game but leveling stuff up for cash is not one of them.

tl;rd I have mixed feelings and messages on how much I do or don't like Ascension.

One last thing...knowing I can mage it up makes me actually want to try playing a Guardian for the first time ever in this game. Just to solo around and and shoot fireballs.

The secret to getting cheap ascensions is to level up your own sage and craft them yourself. Harvest your own rares and sell any extras. I have several ascensions at grandmaster on both my main and my alts and it didn't cost me a dime in cash. This was accomplished in just two months of effort. Leveling ascensions is not that bad as far as grinds go. Just don't expect have grandmasters in two or three days. Give it two or three months of harvesting and running zones and you will get there.

The sad thing is the fact that a conjurer (or some other classes too) only can do dps with ascension spells.
About 30% of my direct dps comes from 2 ascension spells. Would love to get working ans scaling summoner swarmpets again
ASC lv 10 celestrial buff with the 10,2 ABDC is one of the very very big boosters in this game

Make summoners great again (without ascensions)

No, ascensions are quite possibly one of the worst content additions to the game ever. But it's pretty obvious ascensions weren't meant to make the game better, they were meant to make money and I guess they accomplished that.

Personally, I love Ascensions. Then again, back in the days of real D&D, I usually rolled a dual class of Mage/ Fighter. With my choice of Ascension class, I can do the same

I really hate the ascension direction in the game. There must be another way for the dev's to have gone. I hope they find a more interesting way for character development in the future.

As some have said, yes - it is their way to milk to customer base for more money and the cost to put them in is low. Instead of making all the class spells worthwhile - they just have to "upgrade" 4 classes - and they are not even that imaginative.

Personally I am really opposed to them, they make a mockery of learning your class etc, my usual toon was Troub... them and daggerstorm was my dps.. too dull really, They are one of the bigger reasons why I no longer play.

A lot of people, not just the person I'm quoting here, are under a LOT of misconceptions.

How Many Ascensions? You do not have to level anything other than one Ascension. IF you choose to level all 4 Ascensions to level 10, there's an achievement for that (Achievement: The Ascending, grants Tome of the Ascended), but you don't have to. And there's \no reward for leveling all four Ascensions above that point.

Cash Grab? People apparently are unaware that all the Ascensions can be CRAFTED by a scholar. Sages make Elementalist and Etherealist spells. Jewelers make Geomancer spells. Alchemists make Thaumaturgist spells.

• Apprentice level Ascension spell -- automatically given to you when you achieve the appropriate level
• Journeyman level Ascension spell -- crafted from fairly common materials, plus a Planar Energy
• Adept level Ascension spell -- needs an Illegible Page to craft, plus a Planar Energy
• Expert level Ascension spell -- crafted from fairly common materials, plus a Planar Energy
• Master level Ascension spell -- needs an Illegible Page to craft, plus a Planar Energy
• Grandmaster level Ascension spell -- needs either Celestial Foundation or Celestial Spellshard, plus a Planar Energy
• Ancient level Ascension spell -- needs an Illegible Page to craft, plus 2 Planar Energy
• Celestial level Ascension spell -- needs an Illegible Page to craft, plus 4 Planar Energy

You can usually buy your Illegible Pages on the broker. The higher-level pages only drop in raids, but do appear on the broker sometimes.
How Many Spells in a Single Ascension? All four Ascensions have a fervor buff that you get at level 1, level 5, and level 10. You don't upgrade the level 1 or 5 versions:

• Elemental Conduit/Elemental Personification/Elemental Avatar
• Facet of the Etherlord/Aspect of the Etherlord/Etherlord
• Binding of Stone/Accord of Stone/Union of Stone
• Sanguine Encasement/Sanguine Shelter/Sanguine Embrace

Now that there are level II versions of some Ascension spells, there's no need to upgrade the lower-level versions of three of your spells:

• Wildfire/Wildfire II, Brittle Armor/Brittle Armor II, Frozen Heavens/Frozen Heavens II
• Levinbolt/Levinbolt II, Ethereal Conduit/Ethereal Conduit II, Ethermancy/Ethermancy II
• Stone Hammer/Stone Hammer II, Obsidian Mind/Obsidian Mind II, Erosion/Erosion II
• Septic Strike/Septic Strike II, Virulent Outbreak/Virulent Outbreak II, Blood Contract/Blood Contract II

All the Ascensions have some garbage spells that you won't use and therefore need not upgrade.This is an individual determination. Calculate the efficiency of the spells, see what you use and do not use, and you will find that there are several you don't need to upgrade.

Ascensions let them kind of do a level increase, you would gain levels, you would gain new abilities, you had to log in each day to keep advancing with the scroll system, except without having to go through each and every class (what is it? 26 classes?) and adding new abilities. It's a lot easier to add abilities for 4 things, than it is for 26, and it gives players a close feeling to a level increase in their character's primary class. I think they hoped we'd become more switchers in regard to it too - eg switching from one ascension to another as the situation warrants, but in reality players find the one perceived to be 'the best' and stick with it (especially when you have to put so much into it to get the abilities to ancient/celestial).

That's pretty hilarious. Everyone's aware that they can be crafted. Everyone's also aware that the drop rate on the materials needed to craft the ascension upgrades is so terrible, that new players that want to catch up and become even remotely competitive / useful (with dps) are left with with the little choice:
A. Pay for research via DBC
B. Buy a krono and convert it into plat to buy things off the broker.

Planar energy drops were so abysmal that it took years of requesting the drop rate be changed that it FINALLY was looked into and changed (2019 recent patch). Illegible scroll pages (master etc), celestial teaching recipes and illegible scrolls - all have supremely terribly weighted RNG - and are on loot tables that are out of reach of most players.

I mean, if its on a loot table with .000000000001 percent chance of dropping, we can still say its "in the game and available" right?

Then again, if they're so plentiful and easy to craft - I could certainly use a full set of Celestial Etherialist spells if you have extra laying around collecting dust.