Ascension 50 Breakdown: Dominating Hell Clock with a Marksman Explosive Build
Ascending through the Hell Clock in Ascension 50 isn't just a test of your build—it’s a test of adaptability, precision, and strategy. As players push into the late stages of the game, maximizing your build's synergy becomes absolutely essential. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the Marksman/Repeater Chain Explosion Build, showing you the key skills, relics, gear, and passive choices that helped me conquer Hell Clock at high Ascension levels.
The Marksman/Repeater Chain Explosion Concept
Before diving deep into the details of this build, let’s first understand the core mechanics. Unlike traditional skill-based builds, the Marksman/Repeater Chain Explosion setup revolves around clever relic choices and skill synergies. This build combines Silver Bullets and Powder Bag, both of which unlock powerful explosions when paired with specific Marksman skills like Split Shot and Repeater.
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Silver Bullets: This relic converts your physical damage from Marksman skills into both physical and fire damage. The dual damage types are key for triggering explosions with Powder Bag.
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Powder Bag: A relic that sets off chain explosions when you hit enemies that are ignited with physical damage from your Marksman skill. This triggers a cascading effect of explosions, massively increasing your clear speed and damage output.
The reason I prefer this approach is simple: while Holy Rosary or other builds can feel slow at the start, this one allows you to ramp up quickly, especially in Act One, where most builds struggle to gain traction.
Key Skills for the Build
Repeater
The Repeater skill is your main source of damage. By stacking projectile skill damage and critical strike chance, you can achieve a high volume of hits per second, which is essential for triggering the chain explosions from Powder Bag.
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Molten Relic: This relic is essential for converting all Repeater damage to fire, ensuring the synergy with Silver Bullets and Powder Bag works effectively.
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Damage Scaling: Maxing out Repeater increases your overall damage output, making it ideal for both clearing waves and dealing with bosses. By Ascension 3 and beyond, you’ll have enough mana sustain to keep this skill active, which turns Repeater into a relentless damage machine.
Split Shot
For an alternative playstyle or added flexibility, you can also use Split Shot as your main attack. Split Shot by default deals fire damage, which works wonderfully with Silver Bullets and Powder Bag.
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Minions and Split Shot: One of the quirks of this build is that you can even give Split Shot to your minions. It’s not the most practical setup, but watching your minions fire off explosive projectiles is pretty entertaining. That said, Repeater tends to be more consistent in the long run, especially in later stages.
Silver Bullets and Powder Bag
Now, the real magic happens when you combine Silver Bullets and Powder Bag with either Repeater or Split Shot. Silver Bullets adds physical damage to your Marksman skills, which lets you ignite enemies and trigger the chain explosions from Powder Bag.
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Important Note: If you’re using Blunderbuss or similar relics that convert fire damage to physical, you’ll break the synergy of this build. The whole point is to mix both fire and physical damage, which is what leads to the explosions.
Gear and Relics: Building for Explosive Damage
Your gear and relic choices will play a massive role in pushing through the Ascension levels. Here’s what I recommend to maximize your damage and sustainability.
Relics
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Molten Relic: This relic is non-negotiable for the Repeater version of the build. It turns all damage into fire, synergizing with Silver Bullets and Powder Bag.
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Silver Bullets: For the synergy with Powder Bag to work, you need this relic. It turns your Marksman physical damage into both fire and physical damage.
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Powder Bag: Don’t forget this one! Without it, the chain explosions won’t trigger, and your damage output will drop significantly.
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Garrison Supplies: This relic boosts your projectiles during Prayer of Vengeance, which is critical for increasing your damage output. More projectiles mean more opportunities to trigger chain explosions and ignite enemies.
Gear
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Weapon: High base damage is always important, but Skill Projectile Amount is arguably the most crucial stat for Repeater. Each additional projectile means more chances for chain explosions, which increases your damage exponentially.
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Rings: Go for Ailment Chance on your left ring and something like Base Damage or Crit Damage on your right ring. Early on, the Base Damage will help you get through tougher Act One encounters before you stack your critical hits.
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Keepsake: Focus on relics that reduce Skill Mana Cost or give you Max Mana. These will help you maintain Repeater uptime, especially in Acts One and Two, where mana sustain can be tricky.
Passives: Scaling Damage and Survivability
When it comes to passives, the choices you make will determine how effectively you can scale both your damage and survivability. Given how squishy this build can feel at first, focusing on your defense early on is crucial.
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Second Wind: This passive is vital for surviving when enemies hit too hard or when you get one-shot by an unexpected attack. It gives you a brief window to heal up and reposition.
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Resistances: As you increase your Ascension level, the difficulty ramps up significantly, and you'll need to prioritize all resistance and fizz resistance to mitigate the damage from powerful bosses.
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Conviction Decay Resistance: At high Ascension levels, enemies will start applying Conviction more frequently, making it harder to trigger Powder Bag. Increasing your resistance to Conviction decay will help you maintain your explosive damage output.
Ascension Tree and Relic Modifiers
As you progress through the Ascension Tree, you’ll have to pick and choose your nodes carefully to maximize your build’s potential.
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Dangerous Foes: This Ascension node gives Elites an additional Aix, but it also makes them more susceptible to damage from your chain explosions. As a Marksman, this node can be incredibly effective for speeding up your Ascension grind.
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Boss Enrage Timer: Bosses will become much harder as you climb the Ascension ladder. Picking up nodes that reduce the Enrage Timer can give you the edge you need to melt down these bosses before they ramp up their damage.
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Oppression: This one’s tough, as it will cause your enemies to gain extra mechanics. I recommend taking it with caution, especially if you’re still learning the ins and outs of the build.
Constellations: Boosting Your Damage
Finally, let’s talk about Constellations. For this build, focusing on Marksman and Agility Orbs is key.
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Discipline Path: Start by filling out the Discipline Path to generate Agility Orbs. These will scale your damage through the Marksman tree, which boosts your projectile damage and overall effectiveness.
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Marksman Tree: Maxing out the Marksman tree provides huge damage bonuses, such as +100 Base Damage, which is especially impactful in the early game when your scaling is lower.
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Dawnlight: This is one of the most powerful constellation bonuses in the game. When you apply Ignite, you gain a stack of Dawnlight, which increases your fire damage by 40% and boosts Ignite damage by 20%. This can significantly ramp up your damage as you progress through high Ascension levels.
Tips for Managing Playstyle and Blessings
Playing this build requires some finesse, especially as you ascend to the higher levels.
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Mana Sustain: In the early stages of the game, mana can be a bit tricky to manage. Make sure to use your movement skill wisely and keep Shadow Dash on cooldown to reduce mana costs.
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Movement Skills: Use your movement skill, Shadow Dash, to dodge dangerous enemy attacks and reposition quickly when necessary.
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Prayer of Vengeance: This ability works wonders on bosses. If you have Garrison Supplies, you should use this skill on cooldown to double your projectiles and push your damage even further.
Prioritize Crit Damage
While Crit Chance is important early on, Crit Damage will be the real star of your build once you have enough crit chance from Prayer of Vengeance and your skill ranks. This will cause your Repeater to melt through enemies at an alarming rate.
Conclusion: A Powerful and Flexible Build
The Marksman/Repeater Chain Explosion Build is a powerhouse at high Ascension levels. By combining Silver Bullets, Powder Bag, and the incredible damage scaling of Repeater or Split Shot, this build offers both flexibility and raw power. While it can feel squishy early on, with the right gear, passives, and relics, you can turn it into an unstoppable force that clears Ascension 50 with relative ease.
If you’ve enjoyed this guide, be sure to experiment with different variations to suit your playstyle. It’s not just about raw numbers; the joy of Hell Clock comes from fine-tuning every aspect of your build to perfection. Good luck, and may your explosions be many!
FAQ
1. What is the Marksman/Repeater Chain Explosion Build?
The Marksman/Repeater Chain Explosion Build focuses on creating explosions with Silver Bullets and Powder Bag, using skills like Repeater and Split Shot.
2. What relics are essential for this build?
Key relics include Silver Bullets, Powder Bag, and Molten Relic to convert physical damage into fire damage for chain explosions.
3. Which skills should I focus on for this build?
Repeater and Split Shot are your primary skills. Repeater generates high projectile damage, while Split Shot adds flexibility with explosive effects.
4. What gear should I prioritize?
Focus on increasing Projectile Amount, Crit Damage, and Mana Sustain. Gear that boosts Fire and Physical Damage is essential for synergy.
5. How can I sustain mana in high Ascension levels?
Use Mana Cost Reduction relics and Shadow Dash to help sustain your abilities. Consider Garrison Supplies to improve your projectiles and sustain.
6. How can I improve my damage output?
Maximize Crit Damage, and focus on Marksman and Agility Orbs in the Constellation Tree. Dawnlight stacks will significantly increase your damage.
7. What passives are recommended for this build?
Prioritize Second Wind for survivability, Resistances for defense, and Conviction Decay Resistance to maintain explosion uptime.
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