Ascension Skill System

The Ascension Skill System allows you to divert experience into an Ascension Training Point (ATP) pool, which can then be spent on Ascension Skills to further define your character.

Note: The initial release was limited to the Common tier. The Elite/Legendary tier will be released at a later date.

Ascension Tiers

Once earned, Ascension Training Points (ATPs) are spent to unlock a number of passive and active abilities. On the back end, spending ATPs is managed through the Player System Manager which means that it works very similarly to Combat Maneuvers, Armor Specializations, and Shield Specializations.

There are 3 tiers of abilities: Common, Elite, and Legendary.

• Common abilities are intended to be very generic and apply to things that most characters might be interested in. It includes things like boosts to stats, skills, and resistances. Just those 3 different areas represent 71 different abilities, since each stat/skill/damage type is a separate ability.
• Elite abilities are designed to enhance build or character archetypes (such as squares, semis, pures, archers, locksmiths). It may include things like rapid health/mana/stamina/spirit regeneration, elemental arrows for archers, or locksmiths detecting traps when being handed a box. Requires 150 points spent in the common tier to unlock training in elite tier skills.
• Legendary abilities are designed for specific abilities/spells and usually tailored to a specific profession. It may include things like rangers being able to tame one of each animal companion type (and separate ability to temporarily summon them all in combat), warriors being able to manually stop a Berserk, bards being able to create higher enchant sonic armaments, double attacks/spells, etc.

Characters will be required to invest a certain amount of points into the Common tier before they can access the Elite tier. They will then also be required to invest a certain amount of points into the Elite tier before they can access the Legendary tier. The abilities in each tier will get more expensive to unlock as the perceived power that those abilities represent grows. In addition, the development team intends to have a lot of chained abilities to promote certain builds. Some abilities may be exclusive of each other (so if you learn X, you can't learn Y).

Earning ATPs

To earn ATP, characters designate a specific experience percentage split to absorb from their field experience pool into their standard experience pool and their ascension experience pool. Any experience going into the ascension experience pool is experience that is not going into the standard experience pool and cannot be used for training in skills. A character who would normally absorb 30 experience per pulse who has set 50% field experience going into their ascension experience pool would gain 15 standard experience and 15 ascension experience per pulse.

Every 50,000 AEXP earned yields 1 ATP, which may then be spent on Common, Elite, or Legendary skills.

Ascension was designed to enhance character post-cap development and ensure character longevity, but is not restricted to level 100 characters. Starting at level 20, characters can select up to their level as a percentage of their experience gain towards Ascension Experience (AEXP). This means at level 20, a character can select up to 20% of their field experience going into their ascension experience pool with the remainder going into their standard experience pool. The development goal is that the average character will easily earn 10 ATPs by level 100, with an additional 5 or so ATPs being possible for more dedicated characters. This is enhanced by characters' ability to earn milestone ATP (see below).

Milestones

Characters earn milestone Ascension Training Points (ATPs) for completing certain activities.

Number	Name	Details
1	A Noble Effort	Reach level 20
2	Great Expectations	Reach level 40
3	Master of My Fate	Reach level 60
4	High and Mighty	Reach level 80
5	A Grand Triumph	Reach level 100
6	Up to the Task	1,000,000 Bounty Points
7	Class-specific	Differs by Class
8	Master of your Craft	Master an Artisan Skill
9	All the World's a Stage...	Acquire 10 Full RPAs (multipliers, orbs do not count)
10	Big Game Hunter	Kill a Challenging Creature (Currently not available)

Class-specific

• Cleric, Empath, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warrior, Wizard: Daily Grind -- Master a Guild Skill
• Bard: Virtuoso -- Master an Instrument
• Monk: The Art of War -- Tattoo 500,000 Motes
• Paladin: A Sacred Bond -- Fully Bond with Holy Weapon
• Ranger: Kindred Spirit -- Fully Bond with Companion

Note for F2P: While you cannot turn on conversion from Experience to Ascension Experience at level 20 as Free to Play, you do obtain Ascension Training Points(ATPs) from the Milestones. Some milestones, like mastering a guild skill, will remain impossible since you cannot join a guild as F2P.

Spending ATPs

The development goal is that no character should ever maximize every ability, or even more than a handful of them. With this goal in mind, some abilities can be unlocked multiple times with an increasing skill cost for each unlock and abilities may have different set costs depending upon their perceived power. The Elite and Legendary will potentially be significantly more expensive than the Common tier, but also more impactful and character defining.

Common Tier

Common abilities include +statistic, +skill, and +resistance. Statistic and skill abilities act as enhancives and stack with enhancive items, but are not subject to the enhancive limit and require no recharging. Each rank of +statistic ability is +1 stat, not bonus. Each +skill rank is +1 skill bonus. Each +resistance is +1% resist, but resist items and abilities do not stack and only use the largest bonus from all categories.

The first 5 ranks of each +stat/skill/resist Common ability cost 1 ATP each. Every 5 ranks after that, the cost increases by +1 ATP. As such, it will require 9 million Ascension experience just to reach rank 40 in any one individual Common ability, and there are over 70 of them.

Ascension Hunting Grounds

Post-capped hunting grounds that are significantly more difficult, but offer greater rewards for the effort compared to existing capped hunting areas. This includes better quality loot, LTE bonus experience per kill while mind is not full, and additional bonuses as Ascension is further developed.

Area Name	Level Start	Level End
Hinterwilds	96	114
Moonsedge	101	110
The Hive	102	112

ASCENSION (verb)

USAGE: ASCENSION [option] {args} or
USAGE: ASCENSION {ability} {target} or
       ASCENSION [option] {args}

Options:
  EXP                       - View your Ascension experience and ATP
  SET #                     - Set the percent of experience to absorb as Ascension experience
  MILESTONES                - View your Ascension Milestone progress
  LEARN {ability}           - Spend Ascension Ability Training Points for abilities
  UNLEARN {ability}         - Unlearn abilities known to you for Ascension Ability Training Points
  LIST {type} [extra]       - List abilities by type
                            - {type} can be ALL, 
                            - Any profession (or PROFESSION itself) may be included at the end
  INFO                      - Displays your current ability training info
  HELP {ability}            - List information about the selected ability
  WIKI {ability}            - Show Wiki output for the selected ability
  WIKILIST                  - Show Wiki list output for abilities

Note: {ability} references above require use of the ability mnemonic.

Resources

• Skill tier lists
• Saved posts
• Ascension Skill System Official Forums - Official forums to discuss and brainstorm.
• Leafiara's Ascension Considerations
• GS4 Ascension Ideas - Player document to add ideas for ascension into a sortable list.