-The new general talent 'Emergency Protocol' that reduces overflow damage when your shield/armor breaks has very good synergy with Qing Yan's character talent 'Emergency Defence' that provides 2s of normal damage immunity after his armor breaks. Both talents also recharge whenever you fill your armor to max.
-Leap and Cleave DMG builds got even less consistent at higher Reincarnation levels due to the increased enemy HP. Neither of these builds are recommended for higher Reincarnation levels.
-1 of Qing's Spirtual Blessings is strong though the other 2 are quite weak (see 'Spiritual Blessing' section for details).
-Gemini Inscriptions are now relatively accessible in Area 2 thanks to 'etching'. (see the 'etching' section in the guide for details).

Overall Qing Yan's excellent natural defences make him a solid choice for Reincarnation+7, though the lack of damage early on can be an issue.

+ Very high natural sustain and mobility, can recover armor in the middle of combat
+ Leap skill provides full damage immunity during the animation
+ Armor has -25% damage reduction for all elements except corrosive
+ Preference for the Shotgun weapon type, and close range playstyles

= Probably the easiest of the current 4 characters to do consistently well with

- Enemies with Corrosive attacks effectively deal double damage to armor relative to other elements
- Generally weak Spiritual Blessings
- Building Skill Damage builds is inconsistent
- Most Cleave ascensions are worthless outside of dedicated Cleave builds

*At high reincarnation levels, Cleave additionally requires the Spirtual Blessing that doubles secondary damage ('Skill Freak'), and Leap/Nova DMG builds are mostly unviable. Neither of these builds are recommended to use on Reincarnation+7, especially not Leap and Nova builds since they don't benefit from 'Skill Freak'.

Qing has 3 different paths that make heavy use of damage from non-weapon sources (Skill damage): Cleave builds, Leap DMG builds, and Nova builds (from the ascension 'Nova Release'). I'll only categorize them as Cleave and Leap builds since Leap and Nova builds have a lot of overlap.

Cleave
+Can be used as a primary damage source for room clearing
+Has the potential for higher stable damage output compared to Leap DMG builds
-Requires very heavy ascension commitment.
-Requires 'Easy Kill' being offered early (can sometimes work with lv3 'Fierce Wings' and no 'Easy Kill' but that is not consistent)
-Has to manage secondary ammo consumption (before getting a source of ammo recovery)
-Still reliant on weapons for Bosses/Elites and tougher targets.

In general, follow these rules to maximize consistency:
1. If you do not get the 'Easy Kill' Ascension early on (By the end of the first boss at the latest), do not invest in Cleave Ascensions for the rest of the run.
2. If you don't have 'Easy Kill' yet, try to avoid investing in Cleave ascensions if better options are available.
3. If you do get 'Easy Kill' early, always keep an eye out for weak enemy groups you can Cleave.

For Cleave to end up being worthwhile you need to fulfil the following criteria:
1. Enough base damage boosters (early 'Easy Kill', 'Fierce Wings', and the 'skill freak' blessing at minimum).
2. A way to manage secondary ammo, usually lv 1 or 2 'Max Cleave' (can occasionally be replaced with occult scrolls)
3. While not strictly necessary but having at least lv 1 'Defensive Cleave' is a massive help.

I'm not a big fan of Cleave builds personally, attempting to build for it can get quite annoying when you just don't get offered the ascensions you need and it being so demanding in investment means all your ascension decisions are very straightforward. It does have a pretty solid power level though when you get all the pieces together (though at that point the gameplay gets pretty mindless as you can just run forward and mash the Cleave button).

Leap
+Much less committal in terms of ascension investment (only 4 points needed to max all dedicated Leap DMG multipliers, and no need to farm kills for it)
+Potential to chain Leaps from one enemy to another, resulting in lots of armor recovery and invincibility frames (and fun)
=Supplements normal weapon damage rather than replacing it entirely
-Very reliant on being able to kill enemies with Leap.
-These builds can't scale damage as high as Cleave builds
-Doesn't really help against bosses
-'All or Nothing' reduces your defence a lot if taken early with no way to mitigate it.

When building for Leap, don't entirely neglect +Weapon DMG, you're still very reliant on that. As for Nova, it's a somewhat weaker version of Leap DMG without as much payoff (less range and no natural cooldown reduction bonuses), but it does work better with 'Fully Equipped' and 'Last Stand' since they only apply after a Leap. If choosing between 'To Last Breath' and 'Nova Release', I'd usually pick 'To Last Breath' though sometimes you can also take both of them together. Again, neither of these two builds scale to match higher Reincarnation levels, because they lack a spiritual blessing damage multiplier.

Unstoppable Momentum "Each enemy killed with Leap grants you a stack for 6s (up to 6 stacks) that give +100% Leap base DMG each (New stacks refresh all stacks duration)."
This suffers from Leap's inability to scale well at higher difficulties. Even the weaker enemies in act 3 can have upwards of 100,000 HP. Even with heavy investment in Leap DMG ascensions, killing enemies from full HP with Leap is typically impossible, and you'll have the whittle them down with your weapons first. Without a fair amount of Leap cooldown reduction, you don't have enough time to even be able to use Leap before the buff expires, making it completely useless. Way too much work for little payoff.

Oppressor "When your current HP% is equal to or greater than an enemy, +150% DMG is dealt to them; Otherwise, take -30% less damage from them."
The easy pick for Qing Yan blessings, Provides a massive damage bonus if you can maintain high HP, but you also get a pretty heavy defensive bonus if you can't. It's not great to rely entirely on this as a source of damage, as if you're not on full HP then the damage bonus won't activate against shielded or armored enemies (since it only factors the enemies HP and not shield or armor).

Bladed Cleave
"Cleave instantly kills normal/elite enemies under 25% HP, and bosses under 15% HP."
A rather ineffective blessing that is ironically even worse in Cleave builds that it is otherwise. Cleave builds have access to 'Easy Kill' which massively boosts damage to low HP enemies already, making this completely redundant. Outside of dedicated Cleave builds, this is quite clunky to use, requiring you to be within range and reduce enemies to low enough HP that they'd probably just die with a weapon shot anyways. Naturally, it's also far less effective against armored or shielded enemies (which is most of them) since you have to break through all their shield/armor before you can even start lowering their HP. There really isn't much payoff to this regardless of what build you're running.

This is the new core strategy for basically every character at higher reincarnation levels. It let's you setup endgame gemini weapons as early as area 2, before enemy HP starts to scale to a silly degree.

Gemini inscriptions can be etched onto any weapon for a fee at the craftsman if either one of two conditions is fulfilled:
1. The weapon already has 4 inscriptions before etching (every naturally dropped weapon starting in Area 2 qualifies for this).
2. The weapon is enhanced to +5 (This lets you bring a weapon from the first area, but is more expensive as you have to spend money to upgrade it first. Usually used for bringing a secondary weapon, though if sometimes you may have a good primary you want to bring instead).

As Qing Yan, the you have a choice between 3 of the geminis "damage share', 'critx share' and 'magazine share'. While the 'damage share' gemini is usually the most powerful one (as elemental fusions are all extremely strong), if you're not using an elemental weapon you can also use a sniper secondary weapon to share its high critx with your primary weapon. 'Magazine share' is the most niche of the 3 geminis, however it's especially good for the 'Wild Hunt' shotgun, as the increased magazine offers a massive damage increase when you rarely need to reload that weapon. The next paragraph will detail 'damage share' gemini as the other two are fairly self-explanatory.

If using 'damage share', the secondary weapon (the 'gemini fodder') should have an element your primary does not have, and will rarely be used in combat; the only stat that matters on it is 'elemental effect chance'. This stat is directly applied to the first weapon on top of its existing elemental effect chance. As such Melee weapons are very good candidates for fodder as they have very high elemental effect chances. (ex. Lightning Blast gemini'd with Fire Tower results in Lightning Blast having a 20% chance to inflict shock AND a 50% chance to inflict burning with every bullet). Which elemental combination you use depends on your preference, Miasma guarantees stable damage output, Manipulation offers great defence, and Explosion amplifies an already high damage output.

Most of your money should be reserved for etching and reforging the gemini's until they match. Do not waste money upgrading weapons you don't intend to use for gemini etching as the process can be expensive and the sooner you get it done the better off you will be.

This list covers Ascensions in a vacuum. Specific ratings will shift as your build progresses in a run. Use your own judgement. (ex. defensive Ascensions may have more value if you have only found offensive occult scrolls)

Some Ascensions are also rated differently depending on how many points you have in them already.
(ex. lv3 rating assumes you already have 2 points invested).

The Tiers are divided as follows:
S: Excellent Ascension. Almost always pick if it doesn't conflict with your build,
A: Great Ascension. Can't usually go wrong with these.
B: Good Ascension. Good to have, just not as high priority.
C: Mediocre Ascension. Not necessarily 'bad' but you probably shouldn't pick these over other ones.

Gigantic Explosion "Leap has +2m .. +4m .. +6m AoE and -20% .. -40% .. -60% cooldown. At lv3 It deals +20% Cleave DMG to all enemies within range"
The range extension is nice (especially for Leap DMG builds), but the cooldown reduction is the main reason to take this skill. Leap is your prime defensive cooldown, being able to use it more often is always good no matter what build you end up with. The bonus effect at level 3 is negligible so you don't need to factor it into your decisions.

Steel Armor "After hitting an enemy with Leap, -50% .. -100% DMG taken for 2s. At lv3 it converts DMG taken into Armor in this duration."
Great at promoting aggressive gameplay. This skill gives a buffer window to leap into a group and quickly pick off priority targets (or Cleave them all to death). Keep in mind that you are by default invincible for the leap duration, this skill applies after you land. Also has great synergy with the other ascension "Fully Equipped", letting you safely make use if your boosted damage (though if you have 'Fully Equipped', the lv3 ability of this ascension becomes somewhat redundant). However this has anti-synergy with 'All or Nothing'. 'All or Nothing' can break your armor and trigger Qing's passive 'Emergency Defence' talent that gives him 2s of normal damage immunity, which gets activated at the same time as 'Steel Armor'; 'Steel Armor' does protect you from elemental damage and doesn't require you to fully fill your armor before hand so it's not useless, it just becomes less of a priority.

Regen Hit "After a Leap, restore 40% .. 100% .. 100% Armor if it hits and 20% .. 25% .. 100% if it misses."
This is a great skill to help refill your armor quicker, but it does have diminishing returns. At level 1, you only need to hit two targets to restore 80% of your armor bar. Raising it past level 2 does not do anything unless you have the habit of intentionally missing the enemy with leap so that it acts as a full armor refill and applies the -50% cooldown reduction for missing your leap. That's pretty awkward in practice since often you'll just randomly hit a pot or enemy anyways, especially if you have increased Leap range from 'Gigantic Explosion'. This ascension is pretty important with 'All or Nothing', since it mitigates the armor consumption (the armor gain applies after the existing armor is consumed). Being able to refill your armor to full is important now as it reactivates both 'Emergency Protocol/Defense' talents to protect you from burst damage.

To Last Breath "Leap deals +200% .. +400% .. +600% base DMG. Leap's remaining cooldown -1s .. -2s .. resets for each enemy it kills."
As the Leap base damage booster this is mandatory if you want to make Leap damage worthwhile. Unfortunately, at higher difficulty levels it's rarely going to be worthwhile no matter how heavily you invest in it, so most of the detail here is only applicable at lower levels. Benefits heavily from the ascension 'All or Nothing'. The Leap cooldown reduction is a valuable ability especially at lv3, where you can chain Leaps together as long as you're getting Leap kills. If your Leap isn't strong enough to kill enemies in one hit, weaken an enemy with your guns before Leaping so you can trigger the cooldown reduction on kill. Compared to 'Nova Release' (an ascension similar in damage output and function) 'To Last Breath' has less ascensions that easily boost it but offers a much better secondary effect (Leap cooldown reduction vs bonus max armor), doesn't need armor to be fully restored first, and isn't completely reliant on 'All or Nothing'. Also, neither ascension will provide any real benefit against elites or bosses, so don't neglect general +DMG boosts entirely.

Armor Enhacement "At the start of a Leap gain +30 .. +60 .. +100 Max Armor and +10% .. +20% .. +30% Movement Speed for 7s. At lv3 it also gives 25% chance to be invincible for 0.5s after being hit while the effect is active."
As a standalone ascension, the bonus armor is decent and the movement speed bonus is ok, but it just isn't very impactful to put points into this; Offensive ascensions tend to be more worthwhile to begin with, and other defensive ascensions that provide you with damage reduction or reduce Leap cooldown are able to prevent much more damage than just a flat amount of max armor. There is some synergy with the ascensions 'All or Nothing' and 'Nova release' where the increased max armor will boost their power somewhat, but it's not significant enough to warrant taking it over most other ascensions (and it's difficult to have enough points to invest in both of those along with this while still having some +DMG boosts). Also note that increases to maximum armor maintain your current armor percentage, so you won't get the full benefit if you don't have enough armor recovery to fill your armor.

All or Nothing "Consume all armor when hitting an enemy with a Leap. Increase Leap DMG by 0.8% for every armor point consumed."
The Leap DMG increase is multiplicative, so it stacks well with other Leap DMG modifiers. Unfortunately, at higher difficulties this still won't raise Leap/Nova damage to a significant enough level to be worth the investment. By itself, this ascension is an active detriment and will basically reduce your amount of available armor (ex. hitting a single target with Leap will reduce your armor to 20% regardless of what amount you had beforehand). The ascensions 'Regen Hit' and 'Fully Equipped' become more useful to help restore your armor afterwards. However, being able to safely set your armor to 0 does have some specific applications. It can trigger the passive talent 'Emergency Defence' to provide 2s of non-elemental damage immunity after a Leap (though it requires you to fill your armor to max to recharge it). This is also an enabler for several other ascensions 'To Last Breath', 'Last Stand', 'Nova Release'. Those ascensions don't function very well without this, so it's a risk to invest in them and never got offered this later. While these synergies can be fun, most of the time it's not really worth handicapping yourself with the reduced armor gain from this. It's much safer just to stick the better stable ascensions. Also, this only drains your armor when you hit an enemy with it, you can still safely fill your armor by hitting pots and barrels.

Fully Equipped "After a Leap, deal +75% .. +100% .. +150% weapon and skill DMG, regain 20% .. 30% .. 50% Armor and -1s .. -1.5s .. -2s Leap cooldown for each kill. This lasts 2s .. 3s .. 3s."
Great damage boost and side benefits, held back by the very short duration. Getting this to level 2+ helps that a lot though. Make sure you're using a burst weapon like a launcher or a shotgun (or Cleave build) so you can output maximum damage in the 2 or 3 seconds you have. Good synergy with 'Steel Armor', 'Last Stand' and 'All or Nothing' to reduce incoming damage while you focus on getting kills quickly. Also good synergy with 'Nova Release', since all the bonuses from this ascension activate before the Nova is triggered. Note that since this skill applies after a Leap, it will not buff the Leap damage itself (unless you can reduce Leap's cooldown enough to use it again before the buff wears off).

Within Range "+40% .. +80% .. +120% DMG against enemies within 7 .. 7 .. 12 meters"
Universal damage boost, only condition is being near the enemy, something Qing is usually doing anyways. Since it also buffs skill damage, this is a great pick early if you don't want to commit to a specific build. While the upper potential isn't quite as high as some of the other damage boosters, it's pretty hard to go wrong with this.

Hail of Bullets "After a reload, the first 3 .. 4 .. 5 shots deal +30% .. +40% .. +90% weapon DMG, have +20% .. +30% .. +40% Lucky Shot chance and consume no ammo."
This is potentially very powerful, just not as universally applicable as Qing's other damage ascensions. You want to use this with a slower, high damage weapon to make use of the free shots. There are a lot of synerges (with inscriptions and scrolls) with this ascension that can make it strong, but there are some issues with it as well. There are multiple occult scrolls that can reduce the need to reload which are incompatible with this ascension. Many powerful elemental weapons also tend to have higher RoF or inability to trigger reloads at all which can't benefit from this either. Additionally, while this used to be the primary activator for powerful 'Wild Hunt' shotgun combos, the increased availability of gemini inscriptions means you can now also fulfill the same role with a 'magazine share' inscription. This is still a potentially powerful ascension, you just have a lot of other options that can obsolete it.

Last Stand "When Armor breaks, +30% .. +60% .. +100% weapon/skill DMG, and +20% .. +35% .. +50% RoF, and -20% .. -35% .. -50% reduced DMG taken for 6s .. 6s .. 10s."
Not nearly as good if you don't have 'All or Nothing' to reliably trigger it. While the raw DMG bonus is a little weaker than other options, the +RoF can be very useful for some weapons and the damage reduction is quite nice as well and helps compensate for the 'All or Nothing' penalty. At lower levels or without Leap cooldown reduction, it's hard to maintain full uptime on this and it requires you to waste your Leap instead of saving it for when you actually need it. While this can sometimes provide better results than the other damage boosting ascensions, there are a lot more conditions it has to fulfil compared to them. If you have both 'All or Nothing' and a stable source of armor regeneration (usually 'Regen Hit') then this ascension can end up quite good. Massive enemy damage at higher Reincarnation levels can break your armor quite easily, so this isn't entirely ineffective even if you don't have 'All of Nothing'.

Nova Release "After each kill, gain a stack giving +5 .. +10 .. +15 max Armor for 8s .. 9s .. 10s (stacks have independent timers). At lv3, when Armor breaks, cast a Nova that damages surrounding enemies (with Skill DMG bonus)."
Not worth taking at all if you don't have 'All or Nothing' (and at higher difficulties, not really worth taking at all). The armor gain from this skill is mostly negligible, so the only reason to take it is for the Nova. The Nova requires you to fully refill your armor before recharging, so you will likely also need the other ascensions 'Regen Hit' or 'Fully Equipped' to restore your armor (to compensate for the 'All or Nothing' penalty). It requires a lot of investment that isn't really justified by the short range and limited damage scaling it offers, and it doesn't help at all with bosses or elites. Though unlike 'To Last Breath' this does have additional synergy with 'Fully Equipped' and 'Last Stand', since those also apply after a Leap.

Victory Rush "After hitting an enemy at least 4 .. 3 .. 2 times in one shot, +50% .. +100% .. +150% weapon DMG for 5s .. 5s .. 10s."
Massive damage bonus and it's basically free, biggest reason for Qing to use a shotgun right here. The trigger for it is specifically "one shot causes 4 .. 3 .. 2 instances of direct damage" so a launcher hitting multiple enemies can also trigger it. Bonus projectiles from inscriptions will count towards triggering this, but burst-fire semi-automatics like Cavalry are technically 'multiple shots' and they will not trigger this naturally. Additionally you can trigger it with a weapon and switch to another weapon and keep the damage bonus (for 5-10s before you have to trigger it again).

Absolute Advantage "Cleave has +2m .. +3m .. +5m AoE and deals +20% .. +30% .. +40% DMG for every enemy within range."
Range extension is nice. Damage bonus is fine too, but Cleave is weakest is against strong single targets and this doesn't help much with that. Cleave is very demanding in terms of ascension investment required, this one isn't weak but it just tends to be not quite as much of a priority as the other options.

Death Mark "Cleave applies a Death Mark to enemies for 4s .. 5s .. 6s. Marked enemies take 20% .. 40% .. 60% DMG from you (this also applies to the initial Cleave hit). After killing a marked enemy, +20% .. +25% .. +30% Movement Speed for 6s .. 6s .. 10s."
This is a multiplicative increase, so it stacks well with normal +DMG modifiers. The movement is speed buff is also a nice bonus. Multiplicative DMG increases are very valuable, the only reason this isn't rated higher is that Cleave builds are so demanding for ascension points that they often don't have high enough generic +Skill DMG modifiers to take full advantage of this. This is also the best Cleave ascension for non-Cleave builds; you can throw in a quick Cleave while initiating fights or while reloading against bosses or tough enemies to take full advantage of the DMG multiplier.

Defensive Cleave "Cleave restores 10%/20% .. 20%/40% .. 30%/60% Armor per enemy hit/killed and decreases Leap's remaining cooldown by -1s .. -1.5s .. -2s per enemy killed."
The best survivability option for Cleave builds right here. Ridiculous armor gain for a Cleave spammer, and Leap cooldown reduction on top of that. Getting this at least to at least lv1 is something you will try to do if possible. It's also not useless outside of Cleave builds, but it can be a bit dangerous to try and use enemy groups to refill your armor when Cleave isn't doing any appreciable damage.

Fierce Wings "Cleave deals +100% .. +200% .. +300% Base DMG. After a Cleave, the next shot deals +50% .. +100% .. +150% weapon DMG."
More damage on Cleave, what more could you ask for. Being a base damage increase it's significantly better than standard +Skill damage, any good Cleave build will need at least 1 point in this and more if possible. The weapon synergy is too awkward to make good use of most of the time since it only works for one shot (as usual it's strongest with a shotgun or launcher).

Easy Kill "Cleave deals up to +100% DMG to enemies at low Health. After killing an enemy with Cleave, permanent +5 Cleave base DMG"
The main reason Cleave is viable. Get this as early as possible and start farming kills for it, or don't bother at all with Cleave. After you commit to a Cleave build, try to tailor your weapon set to be able to kill elites/bosses well, because Cleave will be killing most of the rest. (If your weapon damage is lacking, try making use of the Miasma fusion effect [Corrosive + Lightning fusion]).

Max Cleave "Cleave has +3 .. +6 .. +10 capacity and restores 1 .. 2 .. 3 charges for each kill."
After getting 'Easy Kill' and 'Fierce Wings', this is almost vital. Lets you relentlessly spam Cleave everywhere without concern for your ammo once it hits level 2. Level 3 tends to be overkill though, that's why the rating on it is significantly lower. Depending on what occult scrolls you have it can be left at level 1 or sometimes even skipped entirely (It can be replaced by a specific occult scroll "Capacity Overdraft" if you also have the ascension 'Defensive Cleave')

About Leap
-Leap is fully invincible for the duration, which does make it an excellent approach option.
-Leap is a "heavy" attack (like explosives and some specific projectile weapons). This means it has a chance to stagger enemies you hit with it. It's not guaranteed to work if the enemy is already in an attack animation, but it can really help relieve pressure on you when it does happen.
-Don't get too reckless with Leap. Make sure you can quickly eliminate any high priority threats near your Leap location or else you'll find yourself stuck in the middle of a group with little recourse. Sometime it's best just to approach normally.
-Environmental objects like boxes and pots count as targets for Leap, so you can recharge armor from Leaping onto them. This is a good thing to do if you're low on armor and have already cleared out the enemies in a room.
-Leap (and Cleave) doesn't cancel your reload if you've started it beforehand. If you need to, trigger your reload before using Leap (or Cleave).

About your Weapons
-Generally, Qing can't go wrong with shotguns. All his damage ascensions benefit them.
-The most valuable inscription on a heavy shotgun (Wild Hunt and Hell) is +accuracy. This will increase your range a lot and makes it much easier to get land criticals with most of the pellets.
-Always have a weapon with at least mid range capability on hand. Some enemy formations and bosses make it very dangerous or suicidal if you attempt to immediately enter close range. The Pupil and Porcupine are both Elemental shotguns with longer range than normal, so those are good candidates.
-If using a Skill Damage build, try using elemental fusions like Miasma to compensate for the lower damage output in boss fights.. The aforementioned Pupil and Porcupine are excellent candidates for this.

About Enemies
-Many normally long range enemies have a quick melee attack they can execute if you're right next to them for too long. Be wary to not to get hit by these because they do hurt quite a bit.
-Enemies with the 'Corrosive' prefix are your bane. Make sure to eliminate these quick or prevent their damage aura by destroying the poison ball above their head.
-To a lesser extent be very careful about enemy Octopus and Kappa in stage 3, as they can also hit you with the Corrosive status and remove most of your mobility (if you do not have a scroll to protect you from that).
-Arsonists in stage 2 have a flamethrower with seemingly unfair range, but the fire cannot actually hit you if you are directly next to them. Be careful of doing this if other enemies are nearby because you won't be able to move or see very much during this.

Check out my other guides here:
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2448428883
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2446881415
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2390092673

Credits to the Wiki contributors for providing the skill icons and descriptions.

If you have a different perspective on something in this guide, feel free to leave a comment.