Identity
Blood Mage is Witch's Life-as-a-resource Ascendancy: skills that would normally only cost Mana also cost Life, in exchange for strong spell leech, on-kill Life recovery, and a keystone that turns your Energy Shield into an offensive tool rather than a pure damage buffer. It's the most aggressively self-damaging of Witch's three Ascendancies, betting that your own Life pool is more useful spent than hoarded.
Notables
Small passives
- 3% increased maximum Life (this passive appears twice on the tree — confirmed via this site's own datamined tree data; taking both stacks the bonus)
- 6% increased Curse Magnitudes
- 12% increased Critical Hit Chance for Spells (this passive appears twice on the tree — confirmed via this site's own datamined tree data; taking both stacks the bonus)
- 15% increased Life Flask Charges gained
- 12% increased amount of Life Leeched
- 15% chance to inflict Bleeding on Critical Hit
Keystone
Blood Mage has no separate keystone-tier node — Sanguimancy functions as the Ascendancy's defining mechanic but is categorized as a notable, same as everywhere else on this tree.
Practical notes
- Sanguimancy plus Sanguine Tides is the core loop of this Ascendancy: spending Life on skills builds Flask charges, and cashing those charges in on a full-charge Hit gives a temporary damage buff — the Ascendancy wants you actively spending Life, not just tanking the cost passively.
- Vitality Siphon at its current (verified) 20% figure is meaningfully stronger sustain than the 10% you'll see quoted on most other sites right now — worth double-checking your source if you're comparing this Ascendancy's leech against another build's sustain numbers from an outside guide.
- Crimson Power rewards stacking item Energy Shield on your Body Armour specifically, even in an otherwise Life-focused build — it's one of the few places in this Ascendancy where ES investment pays off directly as more Life.
