10 Best Scion Builds in Path of Exile Necropolis League

The Scion is an interesting class in Path of Exile primarily because its ascendancy passive tree is quite different from the rest of the classes in the game.

You see, unlike the other classes where you have a few ascendancies to choose from, the Scion only has one: the Ascendant. But, even if this is the case, the Ascendant has access to many different nodes that are not found in others.

A typical Ascendant build requires a ton of investment; so much more than your average ascendancy class. So, unless you have a bit of PoE currency saved up, we recommend that you only go for the Scion (and ultimately the Ascendant) if you are willing to invest in it.

Are you still here? Good! If you are adamant about creating an Ascendant for your next character, then read further. For today, we are going to talk about the 10 best builds for the Scion in the 3.24 Necropolis League!

Why Scion?

Before anything, you might ask yourself: “Why choose Scion?” With the wealth of classes in Path of Exile, the Scion is certainly not something that is for everyone. It is a rather complex class that requires careful planning and investment, so really, why choose this over, say, the Deadeye?

Well, the Scion’s ascendancy, the Ascendant, is the only class in the game that can have access to certain nodes on the passive tree depending on which notable ascendancy passive skills you take. For example, if you take the Path of the Ranger node, you can allocate passive skills from the Ranger’s starting point. 

Another reason why you should go for the Scion is that this class enables you to allocate a total of 128 passive skill points as opposed to the 123 points in other classes. This is why you see a lot of attribute-stacking builds that use the Scion because those five additional points really come in handy.

If you look at the ascendancy nodes available to the Scion, you will find that most of them are labeled with the names of the other ascendancy classes. The thing is, each of these notable passive skills provides you with different effects that allow you to come up with interesting build combinations.

Best Builds for Scion

Now that you know the reasons why the Scion (Ascendant) is great, you might wonder what build you should choose to get the most out of the class. Well, we have scoured the internet to see which builds are popular in the current league so you do not have to! So, without further ado, here are the best Scion Builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League:

10. Reap Ascendant

The first on the list is the Reap Ascendant. This is a build that is quite popular for several leagues now and for good reason. It is capable of unleashing huge amounts of pain via physical damage over time.

Reap is a physical spell skill gem in Path of Exile where you hit enemies with a bloody scythe in each use. Enemies that are hit with the initial swipe will be affected by a debuff that deals physical DoT. If the affected monsters do not die shortly after, you will gain a Blood Charge (max: 5) that increases the damage of Reap by 15% per charge (for a total of 75%).

Aside from the skill’s intrinsic Blood Charges, you scale the damage of Reap by adding as many spell damage modifiers wherever possible. 

There are two variations of this build; one that uses a two-handed weapon and the other that dual-wields a couple of one-handed weapons. The latter deals considerably more damage, though it requires a higher investment, while the former is a great way to start if you do not have a ton of currency to work with.

The two-handed version makes use of a self-crafted spear with minion damage, +3 to socketed support gems, and physical damage over time multiplier. If you are wondering why there’s a minion damage mod included, that is mainly for Herald of Purity.

If you opt for the dual-wield version, it utilizes a unique dagger called The Hidden Blade. When equipped, you will fire a projectile at the nearest enemy so long as you have Phasing. This requirement is not a problem since you will be taking the “Raider” node from the Ascendant’s notable passive skills, which gives you permanent Phasing, as well as a sizable amount of spell suppression for defense.

Apart from that, you are going to allocate points to take the “Berserker” node for that sweet 15% “more” damage multiplier and the ability to gain Rage on hit. Rage is an incredible resource that gives you a damage boost, so make it a point to gain the maximum amount of Rage by continuously putting pressure on the enemy.

Once you have saved up some PoE Currency, you can purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Gladiator” as the matching modifier. This node not only grants you some additional block chance, but it provides you with 20% more physical damage over time multiplier, making your Reap’s debuff even more painful to those at the receiving end.

In addition, the Reap Ascendant utilizes a gem setup that utilizes Enduring Cry and Corrupting Cry Support. These gems are linked to Call to Arms – a new support gem introduced in Patch 3.24 that automatically casts the warcry skill whenever it is off cooldown.

The way the warcry setup works is every time Enduring Cry is cast, nearby monsters will be afflicted by Corrupted Blood for some additional physical damage over time. Corrupted Blood is a stackable debuff, so the more stacks the enemy has, the more painful their experience will be.

Among the Scion builds, the Reap Ascendant is one of the more inexpensive ones. But make no mistake, this build can bring a world of hurt, especially when you have equipped better gear.

9. Arc Ascendant

If you fancy using a lightning spell skill gem, then the Arc Ascendant should be on your radar. This build is capable of dealing insane amounts of damage via Arc. However, the thing that’s great about this build is what works under the hood.

You see, this build relies on several keystone passives that make it pretty interesting. Blood Magic virtually removes all of your mana and makes your skills cost life instead. This lets you take advantage of Eternal Blessing Support to have one more permanent aura active. Having said that, the auras that you will use for this build are Wrath, Discipline, Zealotry, and Haste (with the last one being linked to the aforementioned support gem).

Eternal Youth and Zealot’s Oath have a nice synergy with each other. The former halves your life regeneration rate and total recovery from life leech, but you still get life recovery based on your energy shield recharge. The latter, on the other hand, makes life regeneration apply to energy shield regeneration. 

Now, you might think that the tech is counterintuitive, right? But, that’s where the magic comes in. You see, the Eternal Youth’s downside of less life recovery does not apply to Zealot’s Oath’s effect simply because you are not regenerating life anymore. However, what you are left with is a huge amount of energy shield regen, which is your main defensive layer anyway.

Speaking of defenses, The Ivory Tower provides you with a ton of energy shield depending on the amount of life you have reserved for your skills. With all of the auras activated, you have essentially reserved 95% of your life, making great use of the body armor’s unique effect.

The Rathpith Globe is another thing that makes you incredibly tanky. This shield grants you a significant boost to your energy shield. What’s more, you gain increased crit chance and spell damage based on your maximum life (not reserved life, mind you). Do not be worried about the 10% HP sacrifice when casting any of your skills because it is circumvented by Blood Magic and the fact that you only have 5% of your life left as previously mentioned.

Next, you have Glimpse of Chaos. This unique helmet gives you a whopping increase to your maximum life, mana, and energy shield at the cost of having no chaos resistance. It can be corrupted by using Vaal Orbs too, enabling you to get some useful implicit modifiers, such as “% Increased Effect of Your Curses” and “Socketed Skill Gems Get an 80% Cost & Reservation Multiplier,” among others.

The defenses are good and all, but how about the offensive side of things? Arc is a lightning spell skill gem, so it is only fitting that you boost its damage by utilizing the combination of Energy Blade and Spellblade Support.

For the uninitiated, Energy Blade lets you turn your melee weapon into a sword infused with lightning. The damage of this weapon scales with your energy shield, which is why boosting this defensive layer is great for increasing your overall damage as well. 

Additionally, Spellblade Support gives you added spell damage equal to 135% of the damage of your equipped one-handed melee weapon. With all of these things combined, you have a build that is not only tanky but also capable of dispatching enemies quite easily due to its immense lightning damage.

Of course, you have to make a considerable investment because this build is not cheap. But, if you are able to pull things off, the Arc Ascendant is one of the most powerful lightning-based spell builds in Path of Exile!

8. Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Ascendant

Path of Exile has seen a resurgence of minion builds in the past several expansions now and the 3.24 Necropolis League is no different. If anything, minion builds have gotten a lot better now thanks to the introduction of T17 maps.

Anyway, if you are looking for a competent minion build that uses the Scion as the base class, then look no further than the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Ascendant.

Unlike the base version, the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction allows you to call two minions as opposed to just one. Another difference between the Transfigured Gem and the original is that the Holy Relic’s nova spell is cast around the nearest enemy; not on the minion itself. This helps with your clear speed since monsters in PoE are typically bunched up together.

This build utilizes a couple of unique items to great effect. The first is Geofri’s Crest, which is a helmet that enables you to summon an additional Holy Relic for a maximum of three. The second is the Leash of Oblation – a unique belt that grants you the ability to have an Offering of each type. 

For this build, you are going to use Bone Offering for that increased attack and spell block and Spirit Offering for a boost to your minions’ crit chance and critical strike multiplier. These are automatically activated by using Cyclone and Descerate linked to Cast While Channeling Support.

Normally, Offering skills only affects minions in PoE. However, the Ascendant’s “Necromancer” node makes it so that you gain the effects of the Offering skills too! Besides that, the “Pathfinder” node provides an increase in your movement speed and attack speed whenever you activate any of your flasks.

The main weapon for the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Ascendant is a self-crafted two-handed warstaff using the Judgement Staff as the crafting base. The reason why you are using this particular warstaff is mainly for its implicit modifier, where you get a 20% chance to block spell damage. 

That said, grab an ilvl 85+ Redeemer-influenced Judgement Staff and spam it with Deafening Essence of Fear (Minion Damage) until you get “+1 to Level of Socketed Gems” and “+14% Chance to block Attack Damage if You Were Damage by a Hit Recently.” 

To further improve the build’s damage output, you can add the Aspect of the Spider skill via beastcrafting. When it is active, you can apply several webs on the enemy, causing them to take up to 20% increased damage as a result.

That’s not all! Assassin’s Mark (linked with Mark on Hit Support) increases your minions’ crit chance and critical strike multiplier against monsters affected by this Mark skill.

If you can purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Champion” as the matching modifier, you also gain the ability to permanently Intimidate nearby monsters. Intimidate is a debuff in Path of Exile that causes enemies to take 10% increased attack damage (from all sources).

On top of that, you can either summon a golem or raise a spectre – both of which are valid options. It all boils down to whichever you prefer between the two. If you are going to use Raise Spectre, you can run the “Beyond” option from your Map Device for a chance to raise either the Demon Harpy or the Pale Seraphim. This is a great path to take if you want to go on the offensive.

If you want to be safe, you can utilize golems for defenses. The Summon Chaos Golem is great for that physical damage reduction, though the Summon Stone Golem is not bad at all since it provides you with a considerable amount of life regen.

Minion builds are in a pretty awesome state right now. So, if you are looking to create one anytime soon, be sure to give the Summon Holy Relic of Conviction Ascendant a try and let us know what you think!

7. Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Ascendant

Ever since GGG added Transfigured Gems to Path of Exile in the previous league, it opened up a lot of build opportunities. Having said that, the next build on our list is the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Ascendant.

Unlike the base version of Poisonous Concoction, this Transfigured Gem only lets you throw one projectile. However, that is more than enough because it bounces around, chaining to multiple targets. Part of the damage of this skill comes from the amount of life recovery provided by your Life Flask. This is the reason why you use a Divine Life Flask with the “Saturated” prefix for that “% Increased Amount Recovered” effect.

Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing is not the only thing that’s dealing damage here because it is complemented by Bane and Plague Bearer as well.

Bane is an awesome skill gem that applies chaos damage over time to enemies over an area. This gets even more damaging if you link some hex curses to it. That said, the hex curses that you are going to link with Bane are Despair and Temporal Chains. Despair makes affected enemies take more chaos damage, while Temporal Chains slow cursed enemies down by a considerable degree.

As you can see, there are two curse spells linked to Bane, which means that your amulet has to be a corrupted one with the implicit mod: “You Can Apply an Additional Curse.” Whispers of Doom is a no-go on this build because you will anoint your amulet with a different notable passive skill.

Plague Bearer is another skill that deals chaos damage over time. If you are not familiar with it, Plague Bearer has two different stages that you can switch to at any time. The Incubating Stage lets you add to the Plague Value by attacking enemies and inflicting poisons. 

Once you have reached the maximum amount, you can activate the skill to turn on its Infecting Stage. During this time, nearby enemies take chaos damage per second equal to a percentage of the Plague Value. Only enable the Infecting Phase if you are at maximum Plague Value for best results.

On the surface, you might think that this build is cumbersome to play, but that really is not the case. All you have to do is use Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing once, then follow that up by spamming Bane until nearby monsters are all affected by the said skill. Keep an eye out on your Plague Value and then activate Plague Bearer once you have reached the maximum amount.

While there are multiple ways to inflict pain on this build, how about its defenses? The good news is that the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Ascendant is no slouch in this department. There are a couple of unique items that sort your defenses out – Doppelgänger Guise and Mahuxotl’s Machination.

Mahuxotl’s Machination is a complicated unique shield that grants you the effects of six keystone passives, namely Corrupted Soul, Divine Flesh, Everlasting Youth, Vaal Pact, Immortal Ambition, and Everlasting Sacrifice. However, you only need to concern yourself with Divine Flesh. Why? When you couple that with the Tempered by War keystone passive, which is accessible via a Lethal Pride (Rakiata), you essentially receive no cold damage and lightning damage. Thus, you only need to focus on your fire resistance and chaos resistance when it comes to damage mitigation.

Mitigating the damage you receive does not end there because it is supplemented by another unique item called Doppelgänger Guise. This body armor has a unique effect, where you take 30-40% less physical and chaos damage while Sane. So long as you are not utilizing the Unhinge buff (an instant skill granted to you by the Doppelgänger Guise), your character will always be in a Sane state.

Despite not having any weapon on this build, the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Ascendant is still capable of dealing a ton of damage via poisons and chaos DoT. If you want a good mix of offense and defense, this build does not disappoint!

6. Rage Vortex of Berserking Ascendant

Do you just want to run around the map and see enemies die in an instant? Well, the Rage Vortex of Berserking Ascendant is capable of doing that and then some.

Thanks to the Transfigured Gem, you can have a permanent uptime of the ragestorm from Rage Vortex of Berserking by putting a Lethal Pride (Akoya) on your passive skill tree. This particular Lethal Pride turns the nearest keystone passive into Chainbreaker, which allows you to generate Rage consistently based on your mana regen.

The main sources of mana regeneration for this build come from the Manastorm unique shield, Atziri’s Foible, Cloak of Defiance, and Arcane Surge. You can allocate certain notable passive skills as well, such as Dreamer and Shaper.

With the Rage sorted out, how do you scale damage? The Rage Vortex of Berserking Ascendant is a mana-stacking build that relies on Arcane Cloak. When activated, Arcane Cloak uses 64% of your current mana; 14% of that is granted to you as added lightning damage.

To complement that, you are going to wear the Mind of the Council. This unique helmet not only increases your maximum mana by a sizable amount, but you gain added lightning damage equal to 6% of that as well.

Berserk also gives you a significant boost to your damage for a limited duration. Both Arcane Cloak and Berserk are cast without user intervention thanks to the new Automation support gem.

Being a melee build, how does the Rage Vortex of Berserking Ascendant fair against the other builds mentioned thus far in terms of defense? Well, this build can take a beating without any problem.

The aforementioned Cloak of Defiance grants you the effect of Mind Over Matter. Thanks to this keystone passive, whenever you are hit by the enemy, 40% of the damage is taken from mana before life. Since you have plenty of mana in the tank, the incoming damage is not a big deal at all.

Aside from that, the Celestial Brace – one of the new unique items that were introduced in Patch 3.24, gives you heaps of armor and physical damage mitigation by way of Fortification stacks. You can corrupt these gloves with a Vaal Orb for a chance to obtain additional crit chance to amplify your damage.

Even though the gem setups for this build look complicated at first glance, it is incredibly fun and easy to play. When you enter a map, activate Blood Rage for that attack speed boost, and then just run around the map in search of huge packs of monsters.

Whenever you encounter tougher enemies, drop your Ancestral Warchief and Ancestral Protector totems to gain an increase in damage and attack speed, respectively. 

Furthermore, this build uses Blood and Sand to give you a bit of flexibility depending on the situation. For mapping, use Sand Stance for that increased area of effect, which allows you to hit more enemies as you traverse the map. Conversely, the Blood Stance is perfect for dealing with lone targets, such as map or pinnacle bosses.

All in all, the Rage Vortex of Berserking Ascendant takes a melee attack skill gem and turns it into a lightning damage powerhouse by stacking mana as high as possible.

5. Kinetic Blast Ascendant

By now, you have probably seen the trend of many Scion builds in Path of Exile. This next one is another attribute-stacking build; only this time, you will increase your Intelligence in any way you can.

The Kinetic Blast Ascendant is billed as a fantastic mapper designed to decimate enemies like they are nothing. For the most part, you will use Kinetic Blast to, well, blast your way to the map’s boss. When you encounter the head honcho, you slay it with Barrage. That’s right, you have two primary skills at your disposal that you can use depending on your current situation.

A huge chunk of your damage comes from a self-crafted, double-influenced wand that has two INT-based modifiers. They are:

• Adds 1 to 6 Lightning Damage to Attacks with This Weapon per 10 Intelligence

• 1% Increased Spell Damage per 16 Intelligence

Now, to reiterate, that is spell damage. You’re probably baffled by that, considering that both Barrage and Kinetic Blast are attack skill gems. Well, the self-crafted wand is only part of the equation; you also need the Crown of Eyes for everything to make sense.

You see, the Crown of Eyes has a line that says: “Increases and Reductions to Spell Damage Also Apply to Attacks at 150% of Their Value.” As long as you have this unique helmet equipped, any spell damage modifier from your gear and passive skills contribute to the damage enhancement of Kinetic Blast and Barrage.

The added lightning damage provided by the weapon and your INT stat is amplified even further by Sigil of Power. When you place the sigil on the ground, you should continuously put pressure on enemies by attacking. This is because the more mana you spend while in the sigil’s area of effect, the more added lightning damage you receive as a result. If placing the Sigil of Power is too cumbersome for you, then you can just use it on bosses to give a bit more oomph to each of your attacks.

To get the most out of Kinetic Blast, you will put this attack skill gem along with its support gems in the 8-mod gloves similar to what Spark Inquisitors wear. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide to learn how to craft this beauty.

While this build’s main focus is on efficient mapping, its defense is actually not bad. One of the things that will ensure your survival is Atziri’s Reflection. This unique shield gives you all of the good stuff that can benefit the build, including INT, evasion, energy shield, and elemental resistances. Besides that, the increased effect of curses granted to you by Atziri’s Reflection makes Conductivity more terrifying. That is because monsters affected by the said curse will have their lightning resistance reduced considerably.

This build is also capable of achieving full elemental ailment immunity via Stormshroud. But, this jewel requires you to have “% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” modifiers, so how can you incorporate that into your character? Well, you can address that by crafting your own pair of boots using the Deafening Essence of Torment (60%) and the remaining 40% from Grand Eldritch Embers (40%, implicit modifier).

For the rest of your gear, aim to roll INT on each one to maximize your damage and survivability. Take note that the Kinetic Blast Ascendant is not cheap, but if you manage to put the necessary pieces together, it is an incredible build that is definitely worth your investment.

4. Armor-stacking Smite Ascendant

As you can probably tell by the name, the Smite Ascendant is a very tanky build due to its vast amounts of armor. This build utilizes many defensive layers, which allows it to take on whatever content is available in Path of Exile. It can tank and spank pinnacle bosses like their attacks do not mean anything. Seriously, this build is great! But, how does it work? 

Let’s talk about its defenses first. The Grasping Mail is an integral part of the build. This armor can come with some pretty awesome Breach-only modifiers, but the one you want contains the following:

• Armour is Increased by Overcapped Fire Resistance

• Evasion Rating is Increased by Overcapped Cold Resistance

You will actually scale both armor and evasion. Why? Because the evasion rating can be converted to armor anyway simply by taking the Iron Reflexes keystone on the passive tree. With the modifiers highlighted above, using Purity of Fire and Purity of Ice enables you to overcap your fire resistance and cold resistance so easily.

Now, armor typically mitigates the physical damage you receive, right? But the Smite Ascendant utilizes the Militant Faith (High Templar Maxarius) to gain access to Transcendence.

For the uninitiated, Transcendence is a keystone passive that makes it so that your armor reduces the elemental damage you take from enemy hits instead of physical damage. If that is the case, how do you address physical damage mitigation then?

Fortunately, there are things in PoE that can help you resolve that. The Dawnbreaker is an inexpensive shield that allows you to take up to 20% physical damage as fire damage. Taste of Hate is another item that makes 15% of the physical damage you receive and converts that to cold damage.  There is also the Armour and Energy Shield Mastery, which makes 10% of physical damage from hits taken as chaos damage. Since you are going to allocate Chaos Inoculation on this build, you are actually immune to chaos damage because of it.

You probably have qualms about Transcendence for defense. We understand that; you are worried about the hefty “-15% to All Maximum Resistances.” On the surface, that is indeed a heavy price to pay for the immense elemental damage mitigation it gives. However, you can address that downside by putting as many “Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras” via your passive skills and jewels as possible.

In terms of pathing on the passive tree, you can get some amazing notable passive skills, such as Influence, Sovereignty, and Leadership. You can also anoint Charisma (Opalescent Oil, 2x Golden Oils) on your amulet for an additional 6%.

For the jewels, you can obtain plenty of Small Cluster Jewels (Mana Reservation) and roll them using Chaos Orbs until you get these mods:

• + to All Elemental Resistances

• +% to Fire/Cold Resistance

• 35% Increased Effect

• Introspection

• Auras from Your Skills Have a 10% Increased Effect on You

The “35% Increased Effect” mod is only accessible on an item level 84+ Small Cluster Jewel. Each piece can be quite expensive to acquire, so be sure to have some PoE Currency on hand before making the purchase.

Having a number of Small Cluster Jewels is good, but how exactly can you fit them all on your passive tree? The solution to this problem is none other than Voices. This is a unique jewel that enables you to insert up to three Small/Medium Cluster Jewels in one.

Now, it can roll with several nodes that grant nothing, so you want to invest on at least three “1-Passive” Voices. This is so that you only waste one skill point when taking the nodes on the Small Cluster Jewels.

Why is the “Increased Effect of Non-curse Auras” mod vital to the success of this build? If you recall, Transcendence reduces your maximum resistances. Without anything to hedge it, your max elemental resistances will only be set at 60%, which is quite unacceptable, especially in the endgame.

If you have a lot of the said modifiers, you effectively gain even more maximum elemental resistances. This is because the modifier amplifies the effects of your elemental resistance auras, such as Purity of Fire, Purity of Ice, and Purity of Elements. Of course, this boosts Determination and Grace as well.

Okay, now that the defenses are out of the way, let’s talk about the damage this build is capable of. Smite is an attack skill that converts half of your physical damage to lightning damage. Every time you use the skill, you call down a lightning bolt from the heavens, smiting monsters in the area, and dealing an insane amount of damage in the process.

There is a reason why you are stacking all of that armor to begin with. That is because it will factor into your damage output thanks to Replica Dreamfeather. This unique sword grants you 1% attack damage for every 450 points of armor. With the gems, auras, and items mentioned before, you can achieve upwards of three million armor without a hitch!

Pinnacle bosses like the Maven and Sirus are child’s play. How about “The Feared?” Nope, no problem at all! Even if the bosses spawned all at once, you can just stand there and laugh as the damage they deal to you is infinitesimal. 

Whew, what a doozy! Despite the various mechanics at play, the armor-stacking Smite Ascendant is an incredibly fun, easy, and tanky build that is definitely worth every PoE Currency you invest into it.

3. Lightning Strike Ascendant

The core premise of this next build is almost the same as the armor-stacking variant Smite Ascendant mentioned above. The Lightning Strike Ascendant makes use of an attack skill gem that has been around for so many years. It did receive some adjustments but it still remains as one of the best “hybrid” skill gems in Path of Exile.

So, why is it called a “hybrid” attack skill gem? Well, that is because Lightning Strike has two components. The first attack is done in melee range. However, the bulk of the damage actually comes from the projectiles that spew right after the initial strike.

It is important to note that even though Lightning Strike has a “melee” tag on it, the resulting projectiles do not count as a melee strike. Therefore, to increase the projectile damage, you must focus on modifiers that affect projectile damage and not melee damage.

With that out of the way, the core principles of the Lightning Strike Ascendant are similar to the armor-stacking Smite build. You will still wear the Grasping Mail with the armor and evasion Breach-only mods. Then, you have a few Voices placed strategically on your passive tree along with as many Small Cluster Jewels (Mana Reservation) that have Introspection as the notable passive skill.

Then, you have Transcendence to help mitigate a huge amount of elemental damage. The same rules apply when it comes to addressing physical damage as well.

In addition, March of the Legion is helpful here as you will socket not only the Grace aura, but a Smite skill as well. Why do you think Smite is included in the setup?

If you recall, Smite grants you a buff shortly after use that gives added lightning damage. March of the Legion has a unique effect that raises the level of socketed aura gems by five. If you put two and two together, Smite gains a huge level boost when socketed into the said pair of boots.

While a non-corrupted March of the Legion will suffice, you should invest in these boots with the following corrupted implicits:

• +1 to Level of Socketed Gems

• +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems

• +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems

The last two corrupted implicit mods are ideal, but they cost an exorbitant amount of PoE Currency to obtain. Just throwing it out there to give you some options if you want to upgrade later down the line.

For the amulets, you have a few viable options for the Lightning Strike Ascendant. The Utmost is a new unique amulet introduced in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. It not only grants you up to 30% spell suppression, but it raises your maximum elemental resistances by five as well. You can enhance the latter mod by using Prismatic Catalysts to raise that number to six!

Another viable amulet is The Eternal Struggle, specifically one that has the implicit modifier: “% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills.” To reiterate, this mod amplifies the effects of your aura skills, including Purity of Fire, Purity of Elements, Determination, and Grace.

If you want to go all in and currency is not an issue, then buy a synthesized amulet with “Grace Has 20% Increased Aura Effect” and “Determination Has 20% Increased Aura Effect” as implicit modifiers.

Now, how is this build played, exactly? Use your preferred movement skill and scour the map for monsters. When you encounter a tough cookie, drop your Ancestral Protector totem, cast Conductivity, and then use Smite once. When you have everything set up, simply spam Lightning Strike until the enemy dies. Rinse and repeat!

If you want a build that uses a pretty reliable attack skill gem in PoE, then we can wholeheartedly recommend the Lightning Strike Ascendant for sure!

2. Molten Strike Ascendant

If we were to describe the penultimate build on this list of the Best Scion Builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League with just one word, it would be “interesting.” The Molten Strike Ascendant is another armor-stacking build. But, before you click away, this has some very cool mechanics that we’re sure you are going to love.

We are not going to expound on the armor-stacking side of things because it has been explained in greater detail before (see Smite Ascendant for information about the core principles of such builds). Instead, we are going to talk about Molten Strike and the unique accessories that make this build special.

Molten Strike is another attack skill that is similar to Lightning Strike in terms of being a hybrid skill gem. It consists of a melee attack (initial damage) followed by the projectiles (resulting magma projectiles). The latter part of the attack does the bulk of the damage of this build.

What makes Molten Strike more damaging than Lightning Strike, in our opinion, is the way the projectiles move. If the lightning projectiles move in a straight line, the magma projectiles bunch up together, causing enemies in an area to receive even more damage as a result.

Now you are probably thinking: what’s so special about that? Well, it is not the projectiles that make the Molten Strike Ascendant special; it’s actually the rings that you are going to wear for the build. The rings in question are the Nimis and Original Sin.

Nimis is a staple among many projectile-based skills primarily because of the returning projectile mechanic. Essentially, the magma projectiles return to you after they have traveled their maximum distance, thus inflicting damage twice. The “Projectiles Are Fired in Random Directions” is not a problem here since the magma projectiles do not veer too far anyway.

If you are asking what makes this build interesting, it is the next ring, which is the Original Sin. The Original Sin is a unique ring that can drop from the Forbidden Sanctum when you complete a “no-hit” run. 

Anyway, the said ring has a unique effect where all elemental damage is converted to chaos damage. As if that is not damaging enough, enemies within close proximity have their chaos resistance reduced to zero!

To boost your damage even further, you have Smite socketed into the March of the Legion boots. The added lightning damage is a great way to obliterate any monster you come across. Remember the Original Sin? Yes, that’s right! The lightning damage will be converted to chaos damage as well!

As is the case with armor-stacking builds, the defenses are not going to be an issue. It uses the same Transcendence tech as the Lightning Strike Ascendant and you have loads of armor to ensure your survival in the harsh world of Wraeclast.

You also need to convert physical damage from hits to be taken as elemental or chaos damage. This is to address the change in damage mitigation brought about by the Transcendence keystone passive.

Plugging your character into the POB does not do it justice because although you are seeing considerably lower damage numbers compared to the previous build, the Molten Strike Ascendant is definitely a tier higher in terms of clear speed and boss-killing potential.

You can try both out for yourself and see which works better for you. A simple gem swap would suffice!

1. Wardloop Ice Spear Ascendant

After all of the builds mentioned in this article, you have finally come to the best of the best! And the winner is, drum roll please: the Wardloop Ice Spear Ascendant! If you have played Path of Exile for quite some time, you are probably already familiar with this one. But if you are relatively new, strap yourself in. The things that make this build work require explanation to fully understand.

Before anything, have you ever wondered why this build is called “Wardloop” Ice Spear Ascendant? There is a reason for that; the damage part of this build is played in a loop and that is all possible thanks to Cast When Damage Taken Support.

You see, Cast When Damage Support (aka CWDT) triggers any socketed attack or spell skill gem automatically whenever you receive enough damage. Obviously, having enemies attack you is quite cumbersome and clunky, so you have to receive damage in a more consistent and deliberate way. That is where the Heartbound Loop and Summon Skeletons come into play.

The Heartbound Loop is a unique ring in Path of Exile that causes you to take physical damage upon minion death. On the other hand, Summon Skeletons is a skill that enables you to call forth minions that have a set duration.

By using several To Dust unique jewels to achieve a 74% reduced duration, your summoned skeletons will only last 0.2 seconds, thereby causing you to take damage via the Heartbound Loop. Now, to ensure that you receive enough damage to trigger CWDT, you supplement that with a level 3 Forbidden Rite as well.

With that out of the way, how do you actually start the loop? For that, you will use two different weapons on this build: The Annihilating Light being the main one, and the other is a self-crafted dagger using Essence of Insanity.

The Essence of Insanity, when used on a weapon, guarantees that the weapon will have the mod: “Triggers Level 20 Spectral Spirits When Equipped.” The reason why you will swap to this (and then back to The Annihilating Light) is so that you “kill” the spectral spirits, thus causing the loop to begin.

The Heartbound Loop does not discriminate. You will take damage whether the minion that has died is a skeleton, a spectral spirit, or a zombie. That is why the weapon swapping part of the build is necessary for the damage loop to commence.

Okay, so we have discussed the damage portion of the Wardloop Ice Spear Ascendant, but how about its defenses? Can this build take a punch or is it a glass cannon? Of course, it can take a beating! However, the defense does not come from stacking absurd amounts of armor. Your survivability hinges on, you’ve guessed it, the Ward!

Ward is a defensive layer in PoE that can be obtained by wearing the “Runic” gears from Expedition. The specific equipment you are going to wear are the Runic Crown, Runic Gauntlets, and Runic Sabatons. You can craft them using Deft Fossils until you get a flat amount of Ward and the “% Increased Ward” prefix.

How the Ward works as a defensive layer is akin to energy shield, where it absorbs a set amount of damage before going on cooldown. But, unlike energy shield, Ward recovers to the maximum and will not be interrupted by taking damage. Moreover, Ward ensures that your HP will not be reduced so long as you have at least some Ward left.

Now, pay attention to this part: you actually have permanent uptime of Ward thanks to a unique flask called Olroth’s Resolve. So long as the flask’s effect is active, you do not have to worry about receiving damage at all!

So, you are probably wondering how you can keep Olroth’s Resolve active. There are a couple of easy things that you can do. First, you will take the “Pathfinder” notable ascendancy passive skill, which enables you to gain three flask charges every few seconds. On top of that, you have a 25% chance to not consume any flask charges when using Olroth’s Resolve.

Second, you are going to use a Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel, specifically one that has the line: “Denoted Service of # Dekhara in the Akhara of Balbala.” When placed on the passive tree, it will transform the nearest keystone into “The Traitor.” This lets you gain four charges per empty flask slot every five seconds.

When looking at similar Wardloop Scion builds out there, you will find that most of them do not have a fifth flask, and the Brutal Restraint (Balbala) is the reason why. You can even take things a step further by only using three flasks, but that is not needed.

With everything set, all you have to do is enter a map, and then quickly press “X” twice to switch between weapons, and the loop should begin shortly. After that, simply walk around and see enemies die on a screen that is riddled with icy projectiles!

Although the mechanics of the build are a bit complex, the Wardloop Icespear Ascendant is a very popular Scion Build in Path of Exile primarily because of its “autobomber” nature. Activate the loop, run around, and kill enemies quickly and easily!

Tips

The Ascendant is the definition of “Jack of All Trades, Master of None.” This is the only ascendancy class that has access to nodes that are similar to the ones found in other classes in the game.

That being said, if you wish to create a Scion (and ultimately an Ascendant) very soon, then do put these things into mind before anything else:

Be Prepared to Invest

As you may have seen in our recommendations for the best Scion builds in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, each build requires a ton of investment, even more so than other ascendancy classes.

About a huge percentage of Ascendant builds use some sort of “stacking” mechanic, like STR/INT-stacking and the ever-popular armor-stacker. The items that are required for these builds to work cost a lot of PoE Currency.

Therefore, only think about creating an Ascendant if you are willing (and able) to invest in it for the long term.

Study the Passive Tree Carefully

When you take a look at Path of Exile’s passive tree, it is pretty daunting, isn’t it? But, what makes the Scion special is that it is the only ascendancy class that can traverse the tree pretty well, provided that you take the appropriate nodes.

Study the passive tree carefully so that you can plot a course on where you should spend your skill points next. That or just follow a dedicated build guide to hold your hand during the entire process.

Use Other Classes First

There is a reason why the Scion cannot be selected the first time you play PoE. You actually have to go to the Upper Sceptre of God in Act 3, where you will find her locked inside a cage. 

You see, the Scion is a complex class that requires a bit of knowledge before you can really enjoy it. That is why it is best that you start with the other classes so that you will have a feel for how the game is played. 

Moreover, you will have a firm understanding of certain mechanics, which can be helpful when you are putting up the pieces of an Ascendant build together.

Get Acquainted with Conversion Mechanics

If you have read any of the armor-stacking builds mentioned in this article, you will find that they use the “Transcendence” keystone passive for survivability. While it is good that armor mitigates elemental damage to a significant degree, it no longer reduces the physical damage you take because of the keystone.

So, in order to take a beating, you have to convert physical damage to any other damage type (these being fire, cold, lightning, and chaos damage). To do that, you have to be acquainted with the conversion mechanics in Path of Exile.

Damage conversion can be found in many items and passive skills in the game. For instance, The Dawnbreaker unique shield can convert 20% of physical damage to fire damage. Additionally, the Armour and Shield Mastery allows you to convert 10% of the physical damage you receive and take that as chaos damage.

The mechanic does not only revolve around defenses because some attack or spell skill gems in the game also have some form of conversion baked in. Some of the examples include Lightning Strike, Molten Strike, and Smite.

Don’t Be Afraid to Craft

Aside from the passive tree, crafting is another daunting aspect of Path of Exile that you have to come to terms with. Unless you have some uniques with sick corrupted implicit modifiers, crafting is the only way for you to get god-tier items.

Having said that, there are multiple ways to craft an item. You can either spam any Essence of your choosing or indulge in Fossil crafting and utilize a special combination of fossils until you achieve the desired outcome.

Fortunately for you, we have a dedicated crafting guide here at RPGStash, which provides you with all of the information you need about the ins and outs of crafting equipment in the game. Be sure to bookmark this for future reference!

Download POB

Path of Building, more popularly known as POB, is an important software that you must download and install right away. The reason why is that the program gives you more accurate information compared to the item and gear tooltips in the game.

It also gives you a full-fledged passive tree, which you can use to your heart’s content. Utilize it to plot a course for your next build, including any of the Scion builds mentioned above.

We have included some PoB links for each build. Just click on the link and it should lead you to a website, where you can copy a special code. This code can be pasted in Path of Building by clicking on New -> Import/Export Build -> and then right-clicking on the blank field under the text: “To import a build…”

Conclusion

So there you have it! You will never go wrong with any of the 10 best builds for Scion in Path of Exile mentioned here. The good news is that there is only one ascendancy class you have to worry about. The not-so-good news is that you will need to have boatloads of PoE Currency to acquire the items necessary for some of the builds to work.

Be that as it may, the Scion is a very interesting class and is certainly one that you can use whenever you are acquainted with the various mechanics in Path of Exile.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!