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"We are bound by the Chain of Ascension. But through Rak'shir we find ascension."

- Ascendant(src)

Ascendant SC2-LotV Portrait

An ascendant

An ascendant is a high-ranking Tal'darim on the Chain of Ascension, in contrast with a low ranking Tal'darim such as a votary. They are a high templar variant available in the campaign of Legacy of the Void.

Overview[]

"Alarak has brought his ascendants into our fold. They are fierce, but strong."

- Grand Preserver Rohana(src)

Ascendants climb the Chain of Ascension by killing, directly or otherwise, their superiors in Rak'Shir duels. Ascendants are only second to the highlord in the Chain. The lower an ascendant's title, the higher their rank (e.g. First Ascendant is of higher rank than Second Ascendant).[1] After years of absorbing terrazine and having the advantage of using their supplicants' essence, they become very powerful.[2]

Ascendants often dare one another to disable and commandeer an active colossus. If one succeeds, the Tal'darim gain a powerful war machine. If not, a rival ascendant has been eliminated. The most cunning ascendants utilize observers to spy on one another, in addition to the Tal'darim's enemies.[3]

Game Unit[]

Legacy of the Void[]

Ascendants appear in Legacy of the Void as a variant of the high templar. They are the Tal'darim faction option in the "psionic warrior" category, alongside the high templar and the dark archon. The ascendant's offensive abilities are Psionic Orb and Mind Blast, which do heavy damage to enemies, and it has the support ability Sacrifice, which allows it to drain life from an ally to restores its own energy.

The ascendant's primary advantage over the high templar is Sacrifice, which it can use to quickly restore its energy. This lets the ascendant be ready for combat right after warping in without needing to wait to store up energy. This also makes the ascendant powerful for prolonged conflicts, able to keep its energy reserves high to use its abilities liberally. Otherwise, Psionic Orb's potency versus Psionic Storm is circumstantial, and Mind Blast is a powerful single-target ability, both of which make the ascendant more offensive than the high templar, while the latter has Plasma Surge to support allies in combat.

If the player uses ascendants, the Spear of Adun's Reconstruction Beam ability is useful, as the ascendant can use Sacrifice on mechanical units and then Reconstruction Beam will heal them. Otherwise, sentinels and avengers are good targets for Sacrifice, since they can use their abilities to rejuvenate.

Abilities[]

PsionicOrb SC2-LotV Icon1
Psionic Orb

Fires an orb of psionic energy forward, dealing 10 damage per second to all enemies in its path.

Usage
Hotkey T
Cost 50 Energy
Range 16
Duration 4 seconds
Cooldown 2 seconds
ve

Deals 200 damage to target enemy unit.

Usage
Hotkey F
Cost 100 Energy
Cooldown 8 seconds
ve

Drains target friendly unit to 1 HP and restores user's energy by 2 points for each point of damage done. Does not affect shields.

Usage
Hotkey R
Cooldown 10 seconds
ve

Co-op Missions[]

Ascendants can be built by Alarak in Co-op Missions. They are unlocked at Level 8 and further upgrades are unlocked for them at Level 12. Unlike the campaign, they start out with a full energy bar. Their Psionic Orb ability also has sightly different visual effect.

Ascendants are a uniquely powerful spellcaster unit thanks to their Power Overwhelming upgrade. They can rapidly become sturdier than even archons and their damage output skyrockets, a fully stacked Ascendant can oneshot Hybrid Destroyers with Mind Blast. Even key objectives like the Void Trashers can be bursted down in a second by a barrage of Mind Blasts.

Builds focusing on Ascendants should have roughly a dozen of them supported by a large mass of Supplicants and a few Havocs, as well as utilizing Alarak to keep focus off them as possible. Note that Psionic Orb damage stacks on itself, so a group of Ascendants unloading several can decimate attack waves with ease, while sniping down the tougher units like Hybrids or Ultralisks with Mind Blast. Train objectives featured on Oblivion Express and Part and Parcel are especially vulnerable to Psionic Orb as their segmented parts will be hit several times by every single cast.

At least 5 Warp Gates are recommended on Ascendant builds to keep a steady flow of Supplicants, and on longer maps over 8 are ideal.

After the desired group of Ascendants is on field, the player will start to pool large amounts to vespene gas, which can be spend on some Wrathwalkers or Destroyers. Minerals should be steadily spend on Supplicants, as Ascendants are dependant on them for their power upgrades. Running out of Supplicants in the middle of a push can be catastrophic, as Alarak might attempt to consume an Ascendant to sustain himself. Because Ascendants slowly ramp up by sacrificing Supplicants, even loosing a single one can be severe.

Having at least one War Prism available for pushes is ideal to quickly warp in emergency Supplicants.

Alarak's Shadow of Death prestige is recommended for Ascendant focused builds, as the Mothership can keep focus off the Ascendants with its immense durability and its teleport ability helps alleviate the Ascendants poor map mobility. It can also be used in a pinch to escape if Supplicants have ran out.

Mind Blast cannot target structures so Ascendant builds are not ideal for cleaning up bases, and their effectivity against structure objetives, like in Dead of Night or Scythe of Amon is rather low.

Abilities[]

PsionicOrb SC2-LotV Icon1
Psionic Orb

Fires an orb of psionic energy forward, dealing 10 damage per second to all enemies in its path.

Power Overwhelming: +2.5 damage per second per Sacrifice. Up to a maximum 35

Usage
Hotkey T
Cost 100 Energy
Range 16
20 (with Chaotic Atunement)
Duration 4 seconds
Cooldown 2 seconds
ve
MindBlast SC2-LotV Icon1
Mind Blast

Deals 200 damage to target enemy unit.

Power Overwhelming: +50 damage per Sacrifice. Up to a maximum 700

Usage
Hotkey F
Cost 100 Energy
Range 13
Cooldown 8 seconds
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Alarak Level 8
Acquisition
Purchased from Ascendant archives
Hotkey D
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
ve

Sacrifices a nearby supplicant and fully restores the user's energy. Can be set to autocast.

Usage
Hotkey C
Cooldown 60 seconds
ve

Upgrades[]

SC2 Alarak AC - PowerOverwhelming
Power Overwhelming

The ascendant permanently gains +100 max shields and +25% ability damage each time it uses Sacrifice. Stacks up to ten times.

The ascendant's appearance changes slightly each time, but an icon appears when the ascendant is selected.

Usage
Passive
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Alarak Level 12
Acquisition
Purchased from Ascendant archives
Hotkey H
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
ve
SC2 Alarak AC - ChaoticAtunement
Chaotic Atunement

Increases range of Psionic Orb by 25%

Usage
Passive
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Reach Alarak Level 12
Acquisition
Purchased from Ascendant archives
Hotkey K
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 60seconds
ve
SC2 ProGrndWeap
Protoss Weapons

Increases the attack damage of all protoss units.

Usage
Passive
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Forge
Hotkey G
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 160seconds
Effect Damage: 10
Level 2
Cost 150 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 190seconds
Required Death council
Effect Damage: 11
Level 3
Cost 200 Minerals 200 Vespene gas 220seconds
Required Death council
Effect Damage: 12
ve
SC2 ProGrndArm
Protoss Armor

Increases the armor of all protoss units.

Usage
Passive
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Forge
Hotkey A
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 160seconds
Effect Armor: 1
Level 2
Cost 150 Minerals 150 Vespene gas 190seconds
Required Death council
Effect Armor: 2
Level 3
Cost 200 Minerals 200 Vespene gas 220seconds
Required Death council
Effect Armor: 3
ve
SC2 ProShields
Protoss Plasma Shields

Increases the shield armor of all protoss units and structures.

Usage
Passive
Campaign Acquisition
Unlock Initially available.
Acquisition
Purchased from Forge
Hotkey A
Level 1
Cost 100 Minerals 100 Vespene gas 160seconds
Effect Shield armor: 1
Level 2
Cost 175 Minerals 175 Vespene gas 190seconds
Required Death council
Effect Shield armor: 2
Level 3
Cost 250 Minerals 250 Vespene gas 220seconds
Required Death council
Effect Shield armor: 3
ve

Quotations[]

See: StarCraft II Ascendant Quotations

Known Ascendants[]

The following is a list of ascendants, grouped by their most recent rank:

References[]

  1. Brooks, Robert. "Ascension." (Oct. 01, 2015). Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft Lore: Ascension Accessed 2015-10-01.
  2. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. (Activision Blizzard). PC. War Council interface (in English). 2015-11-10.
  3. Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. Collections Tab: Skins. July 19, 2017
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