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Yes, he can do it! A comprehensive guide to the Ice and Blood Pure Caster Inquisitor


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Foreword:

 

Lately, on the FDM forums some people started talking about the S2FA pure caster Inquisitor again.

Recently I made a Play-for-fun hybrid Inquisitor, who is partially caster.

Those two things made a very interesting equation, namely – it got me thinking is there really no hope for the pure caster Inquisitor in Ice and Blood.

 

Since I am out of character slots for closed net, I decided to make a quick, but precise LAN test. I made an accelerated run till level 35 (so that I can get and use all set items I feel that will be appropriate for this build), then did some shopping and switched to the equipment I thought it would be most appropriate for silver - and reverted to 1x server values (official values). With 1 buff, +75% XP per kill, +20 all skills, the Inquisitor’s levels were flying by almost as quickly as guardians runs, but much safer and much more fun thanks to the constant mass killing. I was pleased, so I accelerated the build to level 60 and entered gold at closed net XP ratings (1x), with similar equip, but with more XP per kill and more all skills stuff. Once again, he could rule pretty much every area, and he was doing relatively well with the bosses. This got me confident and I accelerated him to Platinum with more XP per kill (over +160%), more all skills, and some +all combat arts. He was ruling almost any enemy once again, but the bosses were starting to get quite a pain, since it took some time to drop them down. This is where I decided to give up on additional protection provided by +all skills (I had over +80 at this point), kicked the all skills down to +60 and replaced them with + xp per kill (over +200%). Up until niobium, everything was going relatively well, and the level-ups were almost as fast as the boss killer seraphim. The key to fast leveling was a lot of opened portals in all areas which allowed for quick area jumps and thus no waiting time for re-spawning and no server resets. I can imagine that in a niobium server with 3+ people he may level even faster than most boss killers, as long he can switch areas efficiently.

 

This little experience I got over 4 uninterrupted play hours had clearly shown me that a Pure Caster Inquisitor is still very much viable – albeit with a different premise for the game.

 

Due to the changes in Ice and Blood, I had to think of a complete overhaul of this character, which made him quite different than the S2FA Pure Caster I wrote a guide about quite some time ago. This one is also quite different from the old one in terms of gameplay, skill setup and fighting preferences. For this reason I will give a quick pros and cons of the new pure caster.

 

Pros of the new Pure Caster Inquisitor:

1. One of the fastest levelers in Sacred 2 Ice and Blood if you can play and outfit him properly.

2. One of the fastest killers in Sacred 2 Ice and Blood when you learn to use him properly.

3. No area is too tough for him: he can level almost everywhere without area preference.

 

Cons of the Pure Caster Inquisitor:

1. He cannot kill bosses efficiently from Platinum difficulty onward (roughly from level 100 up).

2. Extra summoned units interfere with his fast killing.

3. Areas, populated with bugged life leech monsters may still take him down easily.

 

The Build:

And let’s take a look at skills comprising the build now:

1. Astute Supremacy Lore.pngAstute Supremacy Lore - our main offensive aspect

2. Armor Lore.pngArmor Lore - better armor and better regen time is always nice

3. Astute Supremacy Focus.pngAstute Supremacy Focus - the focus of our main offensive aspect

4. Constitution.pngConstitution - more hp, better survivability.

5. Toughness.pngToughness - additional damage mitigation, which means less damage taken.

6. Combat Discipline.pngCombat Discipline - helps reduce the regeneration times and add more combat arts in a combo.

7. Ancient Magic.pngAncient Magic - we want to strike hard, and ancient magic will improve the spell damage substantially.

8. Nefarious Netherworld Focus.pngNefarious Netherworld Focus - taking on our secondary aspect.

9. Nefarious Netherworld Lore.pngNefarious Netherworld Lore .

10. Dual Wield.pngDual Wield will remain at 1 point throughout the game. Since the Inquisitor can't carry a shield, an off-hand weapon will serve him nicely.

 

After you manage to master everything, the remaining points must be dedicated to improving defense, regeneration time, damage and damage mitigation. This means boosting armor lore (it will also boost the damage mitigation found on rare armors), astute lore and focus, constitution and toughness. Keep in mind that you will suffer from vast diminishing returns, so improving a few skills at once over 75 hard points is preferable, as you will at least slightly avoid jumping into even bigger diminishing returns.

 

Attributes:

 

Attribute points will be a matter of personal preference. There are 3 attributes that are worth putting points into: Vitality, Stamina (to improve the regeneration times a little) and Intelligence (for spell intensity mainly). In my test I went for a balance between vitality, stamina and intelligence. This means 1 point in vitality per level, the other one goes in stamina or intelligence (alternating between the two).

 

Combat arts:

 

We are going to use a number of combat arts, which will be packed into devastating combos.

 

Astute aspect:

1. Clustering Maelstrom.pngClustering Maelstrom

Chaos - Opponents tumbling into other opponents will inflict more damage. (49.5% + 0.5% per CA level increase) – since we’ll be killing en masse, this mod will be very, very important.

Vortex - Increases the range of Clustering Maelstrom. (18.75% increased area of effect from base value)

Vortex - Increases the range of Clustering Maelstrom. (18.75% increased area of effect from base value)

The two range increase mods are really good. This will widen the area from which you can get the mobs to crush into one another. Since we’ll be killing en masse, we will need to encompass as many enemies as possible.

 

2. Levin Array.pngLevin Array

Our single or several target spell. I personally always mod it for:

Disperse - Increases the angle of effectiveness. (45° increase / 50% increase from base value)

Hesitation - Briefly reduces the opponent's attack speed. (19.8% + 0.2% per CA level decrease)

Dynamic - Increases the chance for critical hits. (19.8% + 0.2% per CA level chance)

Since I use this CA for several targets or a mop-up CA after Clustering, I usually mod it like this. I am also very interested is whether steal life will work well enough. Wiki says it’s boosted by Astute Lore and since we’re going to master it early on, the increase should be rather good – and let’s not forget that life leech can’t be mitigated by any means by the enemies.

 

3. Raving Thrust.pngRaving Thrust

This CA is rarely used alone, but in combo with Clustering Maelstrom it shines. I usually mod it like this:

Lash Out - Increases the range of Raving Thrust. (50% increase)

Vehemence - Increases damage caused. (33.3% increase)

Lesion - A successful hit greatly reduces the target's base hitpoints for a brief period. (19.9% + 0.1% per CA level chance of deep wound)

I always mod this CA for maximum power. When put in a combo after clustering, it actually hits before clustering forces the opponents to tumble into one another, thus dealing double tumbling damage (because the enemies are already closing on one another thanks to the previously cast clustering). As a single CA it’s not that useful, unless you want to feel like a Sith Lord.

 

4. Zealous Doppelganger.pngZealous Doppelganger

We are going to use this combat art IF and WHEN it is necessary. A doppelganger might cause more havoc than actually be of any use.

Incentive - Increases the doppelganger's attack and defense values. (25% + 5% per CA level increase)

Equal - The doppelganger receives the aspect Gruesome Inquisition.

Determination - The doppelganger's lifespan increases by 30%. (33.3% increase)

This is how we are going to mod this CA. This way we can summon him if and when we need him. Keep in mind that a doppelganger may interfere with your hunting because he will take some heat out of your tail, which is not so good when you’re rounding up a nice batch of enemies for a nice big kill.

 

5. Reverse Polarity.pngReverse Polarity

Our one and only buff. We will mod it for as much protection as possible.

Rebound - Adds a chance to reflect magic damage. (20% + 2% per CA level chance)

Counterblow - Adds a chance to reflect close combat damage. (20% + 2% per CA level chance)

Exploit - Each party member receives 5% of the damage intended for the Inquisitor. (4.9% + 0.1% per CA level)

In the end, we must go with Exploit - Evade - Increases the defense value. (10 + 5 per CA level increase) is not so good. Even with 200 runes read in the buff, you will have it around CA level 100-120 around char level 160. 10 + 100*5= 510 – that’s a mere pittance for niobium.

 

Nefarious Netherworld aspect:

1. Inexorable Subjugation.pngInexorable Subjugation

Our minion-spawning combat art. Mod it quickly and have it at the ready around level 52-53. Mods:

Brunt - Inflicts more magic damage per time unit. (33.3% increase)

Menace - The spectral companion poses a significantly higher threat to opponents. (100% increase)

Probation - Increases the spectral companion's lifespan. (33.3% increase)

The last mod will be obtained at level 65, but it’s actually the first 2 that matter the most. Menace will keep ordinary enemies away from you, which can help your clustering combo – just cast it around your companion(s) and that should be all.

 

2. Eruptive Desecration.pngEruptive Desecration

Our combo CA or a magic find option. Here’s how I usually mod it:

Greed - Adds a chance to receive additional items from the corpse. (19.8% + 0.2% per CA level chance)

Violence - Increases the damage dealt by explosions. (50% increased physical damage)

Apocalypse - Increases the explosion's range. (60% increase from base value)

Nothing strange here. Greed is better than healing, since you have healing pots and constitution mastery to take care of any damage you will take. The it’s more power and more range. Poisoning isn’t really a good option as the enemies will be greatly weakened anyway.

Another interesting use of this CA is to make it spam-able and play the same way as some of you possibly did with a Barbarian in Diablo 2 – kill and pop up corpses for extra stuff.

 

That’s all you really need from this tree. Dislodged Spirit is ok versus bosses, but since the boss killing will be cut short after a while, it’s not really worth it. Paralyzing Dread is ok, but if you’re going to debilitate nearby enemies, you’re better off with the clustering combo or Levin Array.

 

Equipment:

 

The equipment will also play a very important part in the game. We are going to utilize as much sockets as possible, but we will also be on the lookout for torso armor and shoulders with as much sockets as possible and decent damage mitigation.

 

This means:

Anything from the Drapes of catharsis set: http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacre...es_of_Catharsis

Anything from Kuan’s Verdict set: http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacre...uan%27s_Verdict

Deylen’s set or Saraki’s set Belt for extra physical damage mitigation

Any set gloves or Gloves of the Executor (unique Inquisitor gloves)

Any set cuffs or Runic Robe unique item (preferable, adds Intelligence +% and all combat arts)

Any set boots or the Wayfarer (unique Inquisitor boots)

Insignia of deference helm (extra physical damage mitigation), kuan’s helm, catharsis helm, or uurshu’s command unique helm

Torso and Shoulders with as much all-channel (all type) damage mitigation and as much sockets as possible – that combined with toughness may well push your basic damage mitigation over 50% and your physical damage mitigation over 100% at higher levels.

 

Socket items should include jewelry with: + all skills, +all combat arts, +aspect, - regeneration time, +spell intensity, + damage %, +experience per kill. You don’t need anything else really. The more XP per kill you have without burdening the regeneration times though, the faster you will level up, so try to find combinations of those modifiers on rings and amulets. You should also keep some unique Tanit’s Collar and Darwagon’s Circlet amulets for their damage mitigation and add some if necessary. At higher levels they provide over 3% damage mitigation base (which will be improved by the socket they’re in), which is an awesome addition to your defenses.

 

Gameplay:

 

Level 1-45 – try to do quests, open up the map and collect the set pieces so that you can make a decent set with a lot of customization options. Opening up the map is important, because this will boost your chance to find valuables. Since the Inquisitor has no access to enhanced perception (which is really weird in my opinion, since he always looks for stuff that will help him get more powerful, he is also always craving for gold and items), we’ll have to do it the hard way. Clustering maelstrom and Levin array are your best friends here.

 

Level 46-60 – up until gold you must hunt and work on getting decent jewelry to put in the sockets. If you have a shopper/smith to help you, that will be great.

 

Level 60+ - open up as many portals as possible in every difficulty and work on becoming an efficient hunter. Designate areas with a lot of monsters nearby and utilize them all the time by making a hunting route and killing them en masse. That is all you need to level up fast. Just keep on improving the XP per kill and you’ll be hitting the higher levels in no time.

 

Combos:

 

We are going to utilize one main combo, which will be broken down to bits depending on the level of Combat Discipline skill:

 

Before taking Combat Discipline:

Clustering Maelstrom.pngClustering Maelstrom + Raving Thrust.pngRaving Thrust for larger groups

Clustering Maelstrom.pngClustering Maelstrom + Levin Array.pngLevin Array for smaller groups

 

Before Combat Discipline Mastery:

Clustering Maelstrom.pngClustering Maelstrom + Raving Thrust.pngRaving Thrust + p><p>.pngLevin Array

After Combat Discipline Mastery:

Clustering Maelstrom.pngClustering Maelstrom + Raving Thrust.pngRaving Thrust + Levin Array.pngLevin Array + p><p>.pngEruptive Desecration

That’s all you need to kill en masse. Just gather the mob, initiate the combo and give out a nasty laugh as lots of enemies are crushed to death all at once.

 

Conclusion:

 

This makes for a fun, mass killing build. Make one, ensure a good supply of portals to jump through populated areas quickly, set winamp to play “weapons of mass distortion” by the crystal method (as it perfectly fits the theme) and have some fun with the baddies!

Edited by Dobri
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Hey great guide Dobri, I was reading today also the Gasconron guide of Corpse Explosion, and I've read the part where he explains about the mechanics of Dislodged Spirit and his choice of mods on it, have you tried it to see if it helps taking down the bosses more quickly ?

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Dislodged helps to kill bosses quickly in silver and the most part of gold. For late gold, platinum and niobium, I wouldn't even try, because killing a boss will take over 5 minutes (and much, much more time in niobium thanks to the millions of hit points) - for that time, I can do at least 5 mass kills in a freshly started area which will provide a lot more XP than the single boss. Yes, the bosses have a higher chance to drop a set/unique item, but since the inquisitor is very low on chance to find valuables (no enhanced perception whatsoever), I'd rather take my time and hunt in every area of the game.

 

If I want a build that can kill bosses, I will make one. The Ice and Blood pure caster inquisitor is simply unfit to do this for the better part of the game. However, he compensates with great adaptability and very fast leveling, provided you can make him like this.

 

Quite honestly, in my opinion this is a build for players who already know what Sacred 2 is all about and know how to manipulate the game through skill choices, equipment modifiers, and so on. this is why I would say that a person, playing the pure caster should stick to killing normal enemies. Boss killing will come on its own - when boss hunting parties are made, the caster inquisitor is one of the most valuable and sought after chars because he is the only one that can completely and utterly debilitate and disable a boss, allowing everyone to whack him at will without any danger to the party whatsoever.

Edited by Dobri
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Beautiful!

Again...beautiful! Another one of your delicious reads... and this one with a nice twist... one of our most advanced players advocating only ONE buff...and coming up with some pretty compelling reasons to stick to the build.

 

Nicely thought out, I have liked the little meta going onsite lately with the corpse explosion, and was wondering if someone was going to put together something nice for me to follow on a new undertaking.

 

You're back in swing, full force with Ice and Blood mate. A purely Magical as well.

 

Very impressive with almost no lores... a smidgeon of a point to get the duel.

 

Good job

 

:D

 

gogo

 

p.s. YOu forgot one thing Dobri... MOVIE! lol with all the talk lately going on about corpses exploding...surely someone can give us a bit of Fangoria action on the site? :)

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I will make you a movie in due time :) I have deleted the play for fun inquisitor and I'm doing the pure caster one. It will take a while before he can produce a decent movie, but I will make you one as soon as he gets to a respectable level and as soon as I can make some decent equip for him, since I have absolutely nothing decent for an Inquisitor and the holos mule has mostly high-level...

 

So I will do my best to make you a nice little movie when I gain a bunch of levels (he's still a teenager) and when I have something to show for :D

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lol...bugger...I was gonna make a build for my inquis...but I guess you beat me to it. There are a few differences...but meh. They are similar enough although I have a few extra things to add that you might consider. Since I'm not using the NN aspect for damage I dropped the lore and used concentration. The soul reaver buff is really handy in my opinion. When you're getting mobbed you are going to take damage, however, with the healing mod chosen when everyone drops dead your all healed up. Also, his attack and defense sky rocket, both reaching over 20k with ease and im only in silver. Buff suit does help, but I regularly have a 1% chance to be hit, and I've even seen stuff have a 0% chance! I havent modded Raving thrust yet, Im sticking with CM+LA combo until I get it modded but even those two alone is enough to slaughter everything... when Im not lagging with the server so much that CM doesnt move anything that is. At the moment I still tossing up between toughness and spell resistance...the anti dot will be handy in the swamps and blood forest where ive been levelling most. Also in response to you saying that enemies summoning stuff being a hindrance to his killing I say nay! Just let them summon and then kill them all, more monsters, CM works better and more experience!

 

Anyway, thats all for now, gotta go to work :bye:

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I am aware how soul reaver works, and this is exactly why I left it out. It's very easy to get used to it and start pumping up the combat arts without much consideration. Problem is, when you have 4s CM with Soul Reaver and 11s without it, you're in deep... um... trouble, because if you can't collect enough souls to get the CM back to 4s, you're going to suffer a lot of damage.

So a question: It's all too well and good to see 0% chance to be hit, but what will you do in niobium when you're not accompanied by souls (just logged in or no enemies around) and you can't spam 2 combos in quick succession to replenish your soul reserve?

 

My idea is to hunt from silver to niobium without taking much damage. This is easily helped by high-level, buff-suit boosted Reverse Polarity, spammable combat arts and at least 40% all channel damage mitigation (if possible, over 70% physical damage mitigation). If a caster starts taking a lot of damage, this probably means that the build or the char is messed up somewhere, and healing will not help that much. I'd say that taking a lot of damage as a caster is a sure sign that your toon is going to end up dead sometime soon unless you fix things quickly.

 

What a caster thrives on is fast killing, few hits taken. His offense is his best defense. In niobium everything hits really, really hard - I'm sure you've taken a look at chattius' formulas - you need 8 times the damage in resistance value in order to successfully reduce it ( http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?s=...t&p=6900522 )! Well, healing is not going to cut it against that. What should cut it is high reflect chance and good damage mitigation. I can't even begin to stress how important those 2 things are for the caster Inquisitor, and for pretty much every caster char. Personally, I'd go for high reflect + mitigation over the "overpowered" soul reaver's bonus any day.

 

As for the summonings killing everything - I will have to disagree. In platinum and especially niobium your summonings' damage is almost as worthless as the damage dealt by the skeletons of nether allegiance - unless you equip a few life leech weapons and have your doppelganger do something productive for a change. What they are good at is to provide simple tanking while you manage to deal enough damage to drop everything dead.

 

This is the premise I actually made this build on. Hunt alone, use minions only when necessary, deal enough damage to offset the relatively poor defense (well, not so poor really if you get to build him well), be constantly on the move to avoid getting cornered or surrounded, use buff suit and a single buff that will not overburden your combo's or single-target Combat Arts regeneration time.

 

I strongly suggest that you write a guide on your take of the caster inquisitor as well. It will be very useful, and people will be able to see a different point of view as well. Write it, explain everything as hard as you can, show your point of view. I'm sure the members here will appreciate it :bye: besides, it will be a drastically different build than this one in terms of gameplay, equipment, preferences, mindset and so on.

Edited by Dobri
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I think I misunderstood a thing or two that you said in your previous posts so this might clarify things.

 

I am aware how soul reaver works, and this is exactly why I left it out. It's very easy to get used to it and start pumping up the combat arts without much consideration. Problem is, when you have 4s CM with Soul Reaver and 11s without it, you're in deep... um... trouble, because if you can't collect enough souls to get the CM back to 4s, you're going to suffer a lot of damage.

So a question: It's all too well and good to see 0% chance to be hit, but what will you do in niobium when you're not accompanied by souls (just logged in or no enemies around) and you can't spam 2 combos in quick succession to replenish your soul reserve?

equipment, preferences, mindset and so on.

I actually didnt pick the CA regen mod for soul reaver. Regen isnt that hard to come by, and with the amount of lag I have to deal with I prefer the extra HP regen over faster CA regen. This doesnt quite answer you're fresh start ideology, but the only difference between me and you is going to be gear, we will both start of the same way when we join a server (gear dependant of course), only difference is that I get boosted from each soul providing kill. As it is Im sitting on 2.4s regen and could comfortably go higher but dont need to as at the moment my damage is fine...so its no regen burden...its just one extra line of defense. (PS...one that increases my attack to a max of 35k and defense 45k (so far) if I keep pushing it, it normally sits on ~15k each.)

 

My idea is to hunt from silver to niobium without taking much damage. This is easily helped by high-level, buff-suit boosted Reverse Polarity, spammable combat arts and at least 40% all channel damage mitigation (if possible, over 70% physical damage mitigation). If a caster starts taking a lot of damage, this probably means that the build or the char is messed up somewhere, and healing will not help that much. I'd say that taking a lot of damage as a caster is a sure sign that your toon is going to end up dead sometime soon unless you fix things quickly.

Well, I have Reverse polarity boosted with just buff weapons (I'll add a suit when I need to) at the moment since that already raises it above the penalty level. And I'm not taking alot of damage, its just any damage I do take is healed by reaver.

 

What a caster thrives on is fast killing, few hits taken. His offense is his best defense. In niobium everything hits really, really hard - I'm sure you've taken a look at chattius' formulas - you need 8 times the damage in resistance value in order to successfully reduce it ( http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?s=...t&p=6900522 )! Well, healing is not going to cut it against that. What should cut it is high reflect chance and good damage mitigation. I can't even begin to stress how important those 2 things are for the caster Inquisitor, and for pretty much every caster char. Personally, I'd go for high reflect + mitigation over the "overpowered" soul reaver's bonus any day.

I completely agree wth you here, Ive read the thread and its very enlightening.

 

As for the summonings killing everything - I will have to disagree. In platinum and especially niobium your summonings' damage is almost as worthless as the damage dealt by the skeletons of nether allegiance - unless you equip a few life leech weapons and have your doppelganger do something productive for a change. What they are good at is to provide simple tanking while you manage to deal enough damage to drop everything dead.

By summoning I meant things that monsters summon eg. in the blood forest, summoned orange demon creatures, are awesome with CM as it just increases your damage, I thought you meant the were annoying to kill but I see now that you meant hirelings get in the way. Which is true. Because of this I also didnt take the exploit mod on polarity, I went for the extra defense, even though it wasnt large, it will get multiplied immensely by reaver since it adds to base value.

 

Most of what else youve said I agree on though, defense will definitely need to be watched, either through mitigation, reflect or armour at the least. I might write up my build, but I'll wait to see how it goes first for a bit longer and not just jump straight in with it.

 

It will be interesting to see how the two different styles compare though at similar higher levels. Of course you may be waiting for me to catch up...Im kept insanely busy at the moment with uni...so im havign trouble finding the time to get online...so lucky this toon is so much fun :bye:

Edited by Dragon Brother
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Oh, don't worry about the catching up :bye: I play the caster for fun, and from time to time. Right now I'm working more extensively on the bosskiller seraphim, trying to push her into the highest levels... So it will take a while :D No rush here. University is important and education is important. When I was in the university a few years back, I was leaving behind the gaming on a regular basis in order to get the degree with decent marks and with decent merits. For that reason I totally understand and support your decision.

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  • 4 months later...

Great guide!

 

I've been wanting to play a caster inquisitor for quite a while... my first toon was an inquisitor that I messed up horribly by eating tons of runes and pumping varios skills aimlessly.

 

However I have a few ideas and some questions about some modifications to this build.. mainly to roleplay him as a cruel necromancer. (Not trying to hijack your thread Dobri =)

 

exploit mod for reverse polarity: Does it work exactly as damage mitigation?

(To clarify, has anyone tried to use it to mitigate life leech attacks... I know they "cant" be mitigated but there is always a first for everything)

 

 

Also.. I would like to squeeze in GI Focus and concentration somehow.

Because I really cant see myself playing an inquisitor without a mystic-eradicate-hallow modded purifying chastisement. (Unless I was playing a melee build in which case I would have purge as the bronzemod to help the lavastone socketed weapons out, or to kick up the damage from smolder mod on RM)

 

The obvious choice would be to leave out toughness even though that can really come back to bite me in the hindquarter (I play softcore singleplayer btw).

To stay in theme I was thinking I would also replace ethier dual wield or AS Lore (yes, it sounds crazy.)

Since I have no kaldur's in my stash I might as well go for cool looks with a nasty looking spear.. (I do have a few gronkor's downfall with those nice big att/def bonuses and huge RPH in case I get the chance to throw a ruthless mutilation in the mix after the foes are nearly dead)

 

So in conclusion what I would play would probably look like this:

1 NN Lore (Master 1st)

2 Armor lore (Master 4th)

3 AS Focus (Master 3rd, but 9 points first for fully modded CM)

4 Concentration

5 NN Focus

6 Constitution (Master 2nd)

7 GI Focus (9 points mod PC, then leave it for 5th mastery and mod FF and possibly MP or RM)

8 Combat Discipline

9 Ancient Magic (6th mastery)

10 Either AS Lore or Dual Wield (If AS Lore is taken, I leave AS Focus behind and pump lore for more damage instead)

 

The fairly early mastery of the defensive skills is due to only having 2 of them.

I left out when I plan to master concentration because I'm not sure if I do.. I plan on running PC+RP buffs but may tack on SR later if needed.

Main reason for running purifying chastisement is to see how strong I can make inexorable subjugations magic damage.. since ca level 91 pc will give +400% magic damage and 200% to everything else (this will of course appear a lot less if I already have a lot of niobsmithed damagemods)

This focus on magic damage will probably make me pick as lore instead of dualwield so I can make nice use of levin array too.

Edited by Phlaago
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OK, lets start one by one :)

 

-> exploit mod for reverse polarity: Does it work exactly as damage mitigation?

 

Yes, it reduces the damage you take as long as there are companions nearby. Nothing can mitigate life leech - the exploit mod won't help you either :)

 

Keep in mind that lore without focus means you'll be using low-level combat arts. Using focus without lore means you'll be using high-level combat arts inflicting less damage than usual. I would certainly keep both AS lore and AS focus in this build, as the Astute aspect is the Inquisitor caster's best friend and main source of damage.

 

The build you're proposing certainly deviates from the basic caster status and looks much more like a pure offensive build with minimal caster support. Adding Concentration + GI focus to this build and using the PC buff automatically turns this inquisitor into a Dual-Wield melee one with 3-aspect buff support. In the end, it will be entirely up to you to decide what do you want from him, but in general, spreading yourself between many aspects and different play styles is not a good idea because in the end, you'll have to choose a main play style and stick with it.

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Oh I agree wholeheartedly that Astute Supremacy is what truly sets the inquisitor apart from all others but I'm wondering if clustering maelstrom might actually be powerful enough even without AS Lore.. especially with a goldmodded PC buff running which will buff fully even at full hp. (as will either of the bronze mods to their specific damagetype).. if the comparison is made without gear then damage boost from just the hallow mod would equal or even surpass that of a high lore skill.. but it would lack execution speed bonus and probably have less crit bonus... if your gear already have +200% or more damage bonus then a pc buff running will probably be a pale comparison to a mastered lore skill, regardless of CA level and modding of PC.

 

I can live with leveling a bit slower if it turns out the character becomes more in line with what I want (I dont think it will be slow anyway).. and since I play through the campaign each difficulty instead of mob hunting I'm looking for ways to improve where the caster inquisitor is weak even if it means lowering his peak performance.

 

The changes I suggested would mean he would use nefarious netherworld as his main aspect for actually getting through the campaign with support from his lightly modded GI aspect (but no weapon skill unless dualwield is chosen) and Astute supremacy for fire support, and his playstyle would change completely when doing mob hunting for xp.

 

It becomes more of a roleplaying build instead of a power build, I even plan to have Ker as his deity.

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Well, there is no harm in trying that :) I personally am a bit uneasy playing a build that requires me to take damage, because I only play hardcore, and taking a lot of damage may easily have your toon end up on the wrong side of Mother Ancaria's surface... However, your analysis is quite good. This may actually work, if you manage to keep this guy alive, because your entire writeup is based on actually taking quite a lot of damage in order to boost the effectiveness of your combat arts and their damage.

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Well thats my point with the mods for purifying chastisement... their damagebonus is a regular 18+2%/CA level regardless of your hitpoint %.. their damage bonus is separate from the 'damage of enraged player' bonus provided by the PC buff also.

you wouldnt need to take damage at all to have those mods kick in.

 

its easiest to see the effect of this on a low level toon with mystic bronzemod and hallow gold mod.. ca level 1 will give +20% magic and +20% all damage at 100% hp.

even easier if you dont have lore for AS yet as you can plainly see levin array damage jump up 40%.

Edited by Phlaago
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  • 4 months later...

I think Clustering Maelstrom - Levin Array - Raving Thrust might work out better than CM - Thrust - Array. that's because Maelstrom + Array kill mobs extremely quickly, with elites having a chance to survive, so you knock them back and possibly finish them off before they can actually pose a threat to your HP. at least that's what I've found during my playtime with a similar build.

Edited by schniepel!
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