Best 1st Ascension Perk?

[Zardnaar]

As the title says what do you think is the best perk?

For me it varies what I take but most of the time its Executive Vigour. The econoomy techs are a bit to good but the chokepoint is influence. If I am something like a hivemind or robot I will pick the +2 leader skill one and the few builds I'll pick technological ascendancy.

 

[Mavkiel]

I always hate the first pick. For awhile I have been going mastery of nature. The extra districts can be nice. Especially with megacorps going over the admin cap. It's sort of a yawn choice, but it saves a fair bit of grief.

 

[KingAlamar]

In my SP games Executive Vigor (sp?) is an early pick but I don't usually pick it first. By the time the first pick shows up I often don't have much influence [or other resources] to use on a lot of edicts. EV is often a 2nd or 3rd pick for me.

Tech Ascendancy is boring but the early +10% isn't so bad so that's my default pick although I should go back and look at the APs again.

Edit: I wouldn't argue with Interstellar Dominion or Mastery of Nature. ID is esp. nice early and reduced claims cost is nothing to sneeze at if you do traditional stellaris warfare.

 

[Mastikator]

Interstellar Dominion is usually the one I go for.

 

[wingren013]

Interstellar Dominion, Nihilistic Acquisition, or Executive Vigor. Those are my first or second picks.

 

[Azhcristokos]

I almost always choose Interstellar Dominion because I like to go really wide, so -30% to outpost costs (when combined with the -10% from Expansion traditions) is amazing. Sometimes I'll choose Executive Vigor (edicts are very useful), but that's it more or less. I feel that Mastery of Nature is actually useful but not in the early game when I'm nowhere close to hitting my district caps on any of my planets.

 

[KingAlamar]

I almost always choose Interstellar Dominion because I like to go really wide, so -30% to outpost costs (when combined with the -10% from Expansion traditions) is amazing. Sometimes I'll choose Executive Vigor (edicts are very useful), but that's it more or less. I feel that Mastery of Nature is actually useful but not in the early game when I'm nowhere close to hitting my district caps on any of my planets.

Good point concerning Mastery of Nature. I don't even generally clear blockers early anymore like I used to so it's usefulness as a first pick is questionable.

 

[Masoz]

If I'm not going super-wide (most likely because I'm playing a Megacorp), then I usually just go Discovery finisher into Technological Ascension. Boring, but practical... which kind of fits for my interstellar bureaucracy.

 

[Azhcristokos]

Good point concerning Mastery of Nature. I don't even generally clear blockers early anymore like I used to so it's usefulness as a first pick is questionable.

Were you playing Stellaris when ascension perks first got added in and Mastery of Nature was everyone's go-to first pick? Good times.

 

[FleetingRain]

Interstellar Dominion because CHINA HAS TO GROW LARGER

Wait wrong game

 

[Less2]

Interstellar Dominion/Executive Vigor: Amazing all-rounders, really.
Shared Destiny: Assuming you have the fleet for it this is what you use if you want to speed run conquering the galaxy.
Nihilistic Acquisition: Honestly haven't really used it myself, but I know it's powerful.

 

[wingren013]

Were you playing Stellaris when ascension perks first got added in and Mastery of Nature was everyone's go-to first pick? Good times.

yeah thousands of free energy and research points just for selecting an ascension perk was amazingly broken.

 

[ImaTomato]

The extra districts can be nice. Especially with megacorps going over the admin cap. It's sort of a yawn choice, but it saves a fair bit of grief.

You don't need an extra district at the start of the game since your planets won't be full at that point ,taking it first gives you no benefit.Nor do you need to remove all blockers early it even less urgent in 2,2 than it was in 1.9 and 2.0.

yea thousands of free energy and research points just fo selecting an ascension perk was amazingly broken.

Not really you didn't need to clear blockers until you actually needed that tile.A tile was only usefull if you had a pop to work on it .There was no point in clearing them all at the start and blocker techs are some of the cheapest in the game.Energy at the beginning was so plentifull that there was no reason to not spend it and after a certain point of the game the perk had no use to due the massive income and the abitly to teraform.

Imperial Prerogative or Technological Ascendancy would actually give you a real benefit since the tech research speed allowed you to get every tech faster while IP would allow you to keep more planets outside of sectors which pre 2.2 gave you more minerals and energy from your planets.You actually gained mienrals and energy that way.

Both are still my two first picks in 2.2.

 

[Robotkiller]

When playing as a gestalt consciousness, I usually go with Technological Ascendancy first.

 

[Archon87]

You don't need an extra district at the start of the game since your planets won't be full at that point ,taking it first gives you no benefit.Nor do you need to remove all blockers early it even less urgent in 2,2 than it was in 1.9 and 2.0.




Not really you didn't need to clear blockers until you actually needed that tile.A tile was only usefull if you had a pop to work on it .There was no point in clearing them all at the start and blocker techs are some of the cheapest in the game.Energy at the beginning was so plentifull that there was no reason to not spend it and after a certain point of the game the perk had no use to due the massive income and the abitly to teraform.

Imperial Prerogative or Technological Ascendancy would actually give you a real benefit since the tech research speed allowed you to get every tech faster while IP would allow you to keep more planets outside of sectors which pre 2.2 gave you more minerals and energy from your planets.You actually gained mienrals and energy that way.

Both are still my two first picks in 2.2.

Well Mastery of Nature when it was first introduced gave you all the clear blocker techs, and made clearing blockers free. Which was simply amazing. Then they tweaked it to just reduce the cost by 50%, but you still got the techs. Then they added Land Clearance back in 2.0 but no longer gave the techs, and now they made land clearance give more districts, but reduce the discount on blocker clearing to 33%. MoN has gotten the most tweaks out of any of the ascension perks. It is still useful, but the days of superpowered utility are gone. *sigh*

On topic, Tech Acsendency is a solid pick, as is Interstellar Dominion. I wouldn't bother with Executive Vigor as your first, or Nihilistic Acquisition, mainly because you probably won't get any real use out of it until you get to picking your second perk anyway. Pick something that is both immediately useful, and remains so for the rest of the game.

 

[Bouchart]

I usually go with Mastery of Nature. It can be a good influence dump in the early game if expansion is hard or impractical.

Also, Mastery of Nature + Dominion Opener + Volatile Land Clearance + Governor with Ecological Engineering trait will reduce the cost of clearing tile blockers to zero. You can even reassign the governor after you've queued the tile blocker removal project. It's great for cleaning up a certain ecumenopolis.

 

[b5fan]

Voidbourne. I always beline to star fortress for trade infrastructure. The other choices are nice to have but not game changing.

 

[nuyu]

I used to hate "Mastery of Nature" before. But now most planet I acquired are kinda small sized and that AP helped me a lot. I'm not really warring person at early game. I'd like to turtle at early and consume later.

 

[fodazd]

Technological Ascendancy. +10% Research is not amazing, but unless you want to go really wide and need influence, it's the best early game perk there is.

 

[Pigeoncount]

Interstellar Dominion, for the Imperium needs large walls.