Eye of the Storm: a Hybrid Inquisitor Build

[MTCityHunter 0]

This is a 3 tree build, designed to utilize as many CAs as possible (everything but Eruptive Desecration anyways). I wanted to boost defense to stay alive reliably, but didn't want to go overboard so that I could flesh out the "hybrid-ness" of the build. I'm a PS3 user, and played this build as "console hardcore" all the way through Platinum by level 96. After that, I messed around a bit in platinum some more, and I dabbled a bit in Niob, but only faced the Kobold Boss there (went fine BTW) before I had a very unfortunate save game corruption. Needless to say, that will prevent me from finalizing any testing and/or fine tuning with regards to Niob, but the build performed very well up to that point. I finished Silver by the mid-40s, and gold by 75, just to give you an idea of how I progressed. I found that as difficulty level increased, the build actually became more effective and easier to play. Level 75 was a huge jump in performance (as with all builds) that made platinum very easy in comparison to gold. Silver was by far the toughest stage of development, although I believe choosing a weapon skill earlier than I did (50) would have helped that some.

 

I had zero deaths up until the point where my save data had to be deleted, but I won't sit here and tell you the build is indestructible. I had a few close calls, mainly in Silver and during the Nameless Guardian fight in gold when 2 of them woke up simultaneously, but Kral almost 1-shot me in platinum even (I shouldn't have been unmounted, as I'm aware he has a track record for 1-shotting HC characters, but I did make it after all; still it was a rather close call). Just be aware of your HP, and be ready to drink potions at the right times to save yourself. Besides, it was never my goal to make an un-killable character; I've played a high level Shadow Warrior and Dryad who were both pretty invulnerable (although my Dryad was vulnerable to reflect and debuffing), and this was WAY more fun. I like the threat of dying if I stop paying attention, but don't actually want to die, if you get my drift. It's like riding on a razor's edge: sure its possible to fall off, but ride it just right and man does it cut DEEP!

 

 

Skills

 

Bargaining - 75 - better quest rewards and vendor loot. Obviously you can leave it out if ya have another character to shop, my 1st replacement choice would be toughness. My second choice would be GI Focus to get more out of PC and the other CAs.

 

Concentration - 75 - need 3 buffs, and better regen always helps

 

Constitution - 75+ - in combat HP regen and bigger HP pool to better survive big crits and make a bit more use of PC damage boost

 

Dual Wield - 1 - Mainly for extra socketing goodness. Passive skill points from +all skills is enough to boost hit chance and attack speed is easily maxed later on, even without FF.

 

Nefarious Netherworld Focus - 55 -For mod points to boost SR, DS, and PD; you could use Lore here as well, but I don't really use NU for damage and keeping focus for SR is nice.

 

This is the order I picked them in, but there's no reason that couldn't be manipulated a bit. I will say that the late 40s was probably the toughest stage of this character so far as it was before I got a weapon skill, and also well before I got my 3rd buff (SR), so my GI CAs missed quite a lot at that stage with no source of "to hit" other than gear. Bosses still weren't a problem because I could always lock them down with IS if I needed to once I disposed of any minions they had, but they took longer to kill back then. Nonetheless, bumping whichever weapon skill you prefer up a notch or 2 would have eased that transition immeasurably, as would have modding CE earlier than I got around to it.

 

Mods

 

Callous Execution – bleed, stun, crits (1 rune). The other mods would likely be fine as well.

 

Ruthless Mutilation - damage, stun, frenzy (1 rune). This can be left unmodded for a very long time (or forever if you prefer).

 

Mortifying Pillory - armor reduction (moderate runes). Only bronze modded; note that there is currently some uncertainty over whether this mod and others like it work at all. If not, it can be left unmodded; the damage conversion is still very effective.

 

Frenetic Fervor– cast speed, attack value (huge numbers of runes). Attack speed is easy to max even without the other bronze mod; its not difficult to max attack speed without FF up at all if you use gear that boosts it.

 

Purifying Chastisement - magic dam, threshold, mitigation (runes added as needed to keep maxed without penalty). Perhaps eradicate may have been a better choice than merciless, since I prefer to stay at high HP, but the difference is not very large.

 

Levin Array – range, movement speed, crits (1 rune). I went with -movement speed, but if you want to add boss functionality, -attack speed wouldn't be a bad choice. Similarly, the crit mod may help LA's damage, but the %LL mod could theoretically keep you topped off just like the heal mod for SR, which would allow for the 2nd duration mod on SR, so preference prevails here I think. You may be able to use it as a replacement for the SR heal if you really want the duration, but I'm not gonna bother. Again, crit it is.

 

Clustering Maelstrom – tumble damage, range, range (1 rune). Maximizing its pull radius and damage to groups is important.

 

Raving Thrust – stun, relay, lesion (1 rune). Great as 1st combo CA to apply lesion prior to other damaging CAs.

 

Zealous Doppelganger- atk/dam, GI aspect, duration (Lots of runes). I only use him on bosses, and he last way longer than he's needed for every boss fight except the Nameless Guardians. For them, he can be up for 2-3 of the 4, so it's still fine. You could make him a buff if you prefer though to replace SR as the 3rd buff on boss fights.

 

Reverse Polarity – magic reflect, melee reflect, +defense (runes added as needed to keep at max level w/o penalty). If you prefer ZD as a buff, and also like to use IS to raise mini armies, the exploit gold mod would provide up to 25% mitigation and would likely be a better choice for that playstyle.

 

Dislodged Spirit – duration, further reduce attributes, regen time (1 rune). VERY nice debuff, especially when modded. The -regen mod is also no joke; it can make a big difference in fights you keep this up for.

 

Inexorable Subjugation – unmodded (no need, it locks down single targets just fine already, and I don't need it for damage; 1 rune).

 

Eruptive Desecration - unmodded (and unused). This Combat Arts damage scales very poorly in this build, and its targeting makes it too unreliable for me to bother with.

 

Paralyzing Dread – reduce attack value, reduce attack speed even more (huge numbers of runes). Another nice debuff.

 

Soul Reaver – duration, regen time, heal (runes added as needed to keep at focus level). I tested the heal mod a good deal prior to making these choices, and it would still nice to have, but I've backed off of calling it essential, especially if you choose to mod LA for LL. I think one or the other remains desirable, if not fully essential, but it sure would be nice to further boost the duration of SR despite not needing or wanting to rely on it for hit/defense. You could do without the either the heal from SR or from LA, but I'd rather have one of them for an added safety net in Area of Effect situations. I think the 10% per soul sounds a lot better than +X for LA, plus I know this one works, so I'm sticking with the heal mod here, and not on LA. More LA damage is never bad, and I've never relied on the SR bonuses for hit/defense anyway, so duration isn't as important as it could be to me. I might leave the gold mod empty here until niob though to see if I can get away without using either heal though.

 

I've highlighted the modifications I consider vital in red

 

All I mean by "1 rune", is you need to keep regens low and under control for this CA and leaving it at 1 rune for a while is advisable (see thread replies below). You can read more runes than indicated if you prefer, but in early levels, keeping regen times under control can be difficult if you do that. Later on, +all CA and +aspect items will give you the kick you need from the attack CAs. Once you've gotten regens solidly under control later on, there's nothing wrong with reading more runes as the impact on regen will be minimal. Also, if you use some CAs exclusively in the same combo (I.e. - RT, LA, and CM always in the same combo, and you don't cast those CAs outside of that combo) its a good idea to equalize the regen times of the CAs in question to one another by reading runes or equipping items that boost that particular CA.

 

 

Combos:

 

Primary Area of Effect: Raving Thrust --> Clustering Maelstrom --> Levin Array

The AS spider is fantastic for this; this combo will not work properly at early levels and before you get the following mods: LA range, RT relay, CM rangex2, but when it does begin working well, look out. It's a ton of fun! Its main advantage is that you control what RT targets. Go for champions to make sure they get the lesion debuff which will make them much more likely to die in the CM/LA bomb. It also looks really cool. (See r00ster's really awesome video for shots of this combo in action. His boss combo is slightly different from mine, but I believe the differences are mainly technical/cosmetic.) The disadvantage vs. combo 2 below, is that there will probably be a few more stragglers that don't get caught in the maelstrom when you gather large numbers, especially in the early levels)

Alternative / Low level Area of Effect: Clustering Maelstrom --> Levin Array --> Raving Thrust

I sometimes change the other one to this when I go underground or for a different feel; it allows more specific targeting of the CM and ensures LA hits everything pulled in, so its better to use at lower levels before combo 1 really takes off. The tradeoff is less control over what RT targets, although you can think of it as "smart targeting" champions because they're much more likely to survive the 1st 2 CAs. Still, sometimes it'll fire off in some random direction. If you don't mind the targeting mechanism its still good, but these days I don't need this one anymore since the pull radius of CM, even un-mounted, has improved to the point where it grabs everything pretty much regardless of where you target, so combo 1 is back in my favor, mainly because I like the lesion debuff from RT applied 1st and because it looks cooler)

Single Target DPS: Ruthless Mutilation --> Callous Execution

I removed RT from the end to keep it on a separate timer from the real Area of Effect combo, and because I use it on bosses as well; stun-locking is quite easy, albeit rather superfluous, with low regen and/or "+X.Xs regen on hit" gear. I especially like to have at least some regen on hit gear, like Ilgard's gloves, so that this can be used to very quickly/instantaneously recharge the other combos, especially if you hit a group with RM, If you do include RT at the end, I do like that all 3 of these CAs have the capacity to stun, and its a nice setup for the single target combo that follows. You get a fun "yo-yo effect" by following RT with IS

Single target Debuff: Inexorable Subjugation --> Dislodged Spirit --> Mortifying Pillory

Paralyzes the target, even from range, then debuffs, then finishes; I replaced CE with MP at the end to make a nice 1 button debuff chain, which will still 1-shot champs unless they're highly resistant to poison damage, in which case you can still switch it back to CE. Put a decent number of runes in each of these to maximize their effects, but keep the regen somewhat under control. You don't need to spam it, but you'll probably want it available more than every 20 seconds. Regardless, casting this once on bosses, then spamming the RM-CE combo is extremely effective. You won't likely need to use this more than once before the boss dies.

(De)Buff: Paralyzing Dread --> Frenetic Fervor

A nice, quick way to buff yourself and simultaneously debuff your enemies.

 

Note for PC users: I play on PS3, where PD is functioning rather well; I understand that its still a "suicide spell" on PC, applying any debuffs from your gear to you instead of your target. I'd avoid using PD at all if you play on PC until that issue is resolved (or at least be careful about your gear; absolutely avoid "chance for serious open wounds" if you want to utilize PD).

 

 

Equipment

Try to get about 50% deathblow collectively from gear

Get as many +All CAs or +Aspect items as you feel comfortable with, and supplement with eating runes later on.

Socket as many +All Skills as you can, but be sure they have a good secondary effect (really, treat the +All Skills like it's the secondary)

+chance that enemies cannot evade (I like ~20-25% or so, but more is never bad)

-regen penalty from buffs can be very useful

+attack/defense never hurt anyone, good to have a chunk of (gotta have something for all those +% bonuses to modify, don't worry about gunning for this though; you won't likely be able to avoid these mods on your gear)

I've become a fan of having at least some -detrimental magic effects gear as well. 15-30% seems fine to me.

I don't need to mention the +damage gold mod do I? Everyone likes that one.

I also forgot to mention it initially, but +max HP gear is great too, if its combined with something else useful.

All Bronze sockets are defensive BS arts, as are “extra” silver/gold ones (I like to live)

 

Stats

There's a lot of flexibility here; boost whichever stat you like to fine tune what you perceive as lacking. Personally, I've gone 100% Vitality, because surviving is priority number 1 for me. I'm not certain, but that's probably saved my life once or twice; it definitely makes me feel safer. More HP also provides a bit of a buffer to make use of PC's damage boost, but I don't go too crazy with that. Still, you could choose to boost Str or Dex (depending on weapon) for more melee damage (and doppelganger damage), or Int for more AS/NN damage, or Sta for better regen (and indirectly more damage due to the higher CA levels you'll be able to use), or Will for better SR. The build ultimately doesn't revolve around stat allocation choices, and I've not tested the specific impacts of going in other directions, but I think its feasible to do whatever you choose.

 

Hope some folks find this useful, and I'll be glad to answer any questions! Peace.

Edited July 31, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[gogoblender 3,326]

Sweet!

MTCityHunter, I was hoping you'd post a build! I am a huge fan of your articles on the SIF. I've only now just gotten into the Inquisitor after our community just ran a all-evil Event on the EU HardCore servers. Needless to say, I've fallen in love with the class's mechanics, and only then noticed that the reference section here was skimpy on the Inquisitor guides. Steph, moderator from SIF has also promised to put up a few of his builds, and I'm looking forward to the dialogue.

 

Welcome to Darkmatters!

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. I've moved your guide to our Inquisitor guide section for reference:)

[StiCk_eM 1]

Lengthy? Try looking at my TG guide if you wanna see lengthy

 

This is a nice Inquisitor guide and I am currently working on my own Inquisitor. It seems the community has been struck with the evil bug, probably inspired by the DARK event.

 

Thanks for the guide,

 

StiCk_eM

[MTCityHunter 0]

Heh, thanks. I completely fell in love with the inquisitor the first time I set off the CM+LA bomb, and haven't looked back. It's definitely become my new main

 

I like the look of some of those pure caster builds that are up as well; glad to add a hybrid to the mix!

[MTCityHunter 0]

Lol, StiCk_eM, I suppose it turned out shorter than I thought it would. I have a tendency to be very wordy, but I tried to keep it under control . Anyways, just to add a little bit (edit: okay...a lotta bit) in terms of detail, I'd like to touch on the really nice synergy between the 3 buffs in terms of defense / survivability, as well as damage. This would clearly be the case for any build that ran PC, RP, and SR simultaneously and modded them similarly.

 

First off, the Inure mod on PC is no joke. It noticeably reduces damage intake and considering I'm running a HC build with 2 defensive skills, I've gotta get defense from somewhere. Hallow provides pretty amazing damage boosts from what I understand, but I haven't found I'm at a lack for damage and one can never have enough mitigation, so I wouldn't trade Inure for anything. Speaking of mitigation, if you play in a party all the time, or use companion/escort exploits of any kind, the Exploit (appropriately named, eh?) gold mod on RP may be more to your liking although it will diminish some synergy with SR. I party sometimes, but never with more than 1 other person, so I chose the +defense gold RP mod. At high CA levels, this adds quite a lot of defense, which in turn, is modified by any armor/defense BS runes you have, and by SR. Ah SR...level 75 sees this character really come into his own as you finally get to keep this buff on full time with concentration mastery.

 

I think the easiest way for me to explain the synergy I'm talking about would be to go through the sequence of events for a normal mob pull. Normally, I'd be mounted on my AS Spider. First, I'll run around grabbing as many mobs as I feel comfortable grabbing (note: this number varies depending on what you're fighting and on the difficulty you're playing in...mobs in plat and niob hit hard, so you'll need to tone this down accordingly, but it should still be plenty effective). I usually run in outward spirals to gather more enemies, but to also prevent as much damage as I can by staying out of range of most enemies. Inure helps with this a lot. RP also helps this with its reflect and defense, plus many of the mobs are busy injuring themselves instead of me (which is great...even more so because as soon as they drop below half health I do double damage due to deathblow gear). If I start taking more damage than I feel comfortable with, there's nothing wrong with popping a potion, but if I can I avoid that to make use of the massive damage boost provided by PC, I certainly will.

 

It's important to develop a feel for your hit points and to feel comfortable at about 50-60% health to take advantage of that bonus (I'm a chicken and don't tempt fate by hanging around 35%). Just to add an update/clarifier, this is more relevant at lower levels if your damage needs help (probably because you've been focusing more on defensive skills). Its by no means necessary to do good damage though. At later levels and difficulties though, not only will you not want to stay below 80-90% health for long, but Constitution mastery will give you enough regen that staying low isn't even that easy, especially once SR gets rolling. Anyways, Constitution (and pumping Vitality, as I have) helps provide the buffer you need for this, and Armor Lore, Inure, and RP help to keep the damage at a reasonable rate so you can use it to your advantage. Now for the payoff. Find a good place to attack (somewhere near the front-center of the horde you've now gathered) and unleash the RT-CM-LA bomb .

 

Hit a group of enemies, possibly stunning them and knocking off 20% of their HP (RT, lesion; it's best to target champions if you can to make use of this debuff), they are also knocked back into the rest of the group just behind them, where CM grabs a hold of basically everyone due to its double range modifications, doing massive damage in and of itself (tumble damage mod helps here...the bigger the group the better), then LA finishes the mob off (the range mod is important to ensure you don't knock them out of range with RT). If anyone's still alive, they've also got the LA DoT on them, which helps with mop up. CM-LA-RT works as well if you prefer that one, or if you're underground (being mounted helps the range of the 1st combo).

 

Oh, but it doesn't stop there! Since you just wiped out a bunch of guys, the heal mod on SR (or LA) puts you back to 100% health, and the defense boost SR provides should be high enough to all but ensure you stop taking appreciable damage from stragglers and champions who survived the initial assault. The attack bonus SR provides should be enough to ensure you hit every time with the small group combo, so you can wipe up at your leisure! Now you can either keep pushing on to take advantage of the SR buffs (especially if there's a boss nearby), or simply allow it to reset as you take your time repeating the cycle.

 

I've seen several builds that use both the sphere mod from RP, and the deathmagic mod from SR to boost close combat damage. I'm not saying my way is better or worse, but for my goals/needs, and playstyle, I saw the extra damage from those mods as extraneous. Both of those mods benefit from the mystic bronze PC mod (and the +damage from enraged players it provides), and from other +damage gear though, so it is an attractive synergy as well; at any rate, its certainly a viable alternative, and can be pretty effective, but I tend to move around a whole lot when I fight mobs setting up huge nova attacks. You need lots of mobs in close proximity to you to really optimize the damage from these. I don't really need the damage boost vs. single targets and bosses, as my CE hits pretty hard as is and regardless I simply stun them and/or paralyze them with IS, so they're not really very threatening anyway. My logic for going in the other direction on RP was that it provides another layer of defense vs. magic based damage (It's not just magic type damage it reflects, its any magical attack, be it fire, ice, or magic btw). For SR, the boosts to attack and defense provided when I wipe out a group of enemies is pretty huge, so I figured I may as well extend the duration of that boost; plus I'd already gone in the other direction for RP. At any rate, it wouldn't be a deal breaker I don't think to go with sphere and/or deathmagic, just explaining why I chose not to.

 

How's that for wordy?

Edited July 16, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[StiCk_eM 1]

Its deff getting there And sounds pretty solid and there are many variations on the Hybird Inquisitor which makes it fun so many diff ways to mod things for different play styles.

 

Solid work,

 

StiCk_eM

[alithearab 0]

Curious, how are the attribute points distributed for this build?

[MTCityHunter 0]

Curious, how are the attribute points distributed for this build?

 

Bottom line is its up to you. Being a hybrid build, you can really tweak it to your liking and still retain its functionality.

 

I've gone 100% vitality. I'll probably continue to do so all the way because survival is very important to me, and I had to sacrifice toughness to flesh out the "hybrid-ness" when I chose NU focus. I still think that was the best decision for me (and NUF provides survivability boosts in its own right via mod points) but I wanted to hedge my bets. Even though I like to stay close to max health, boosting Vit (and Constitution) provides a little extra buffer to make use of PC's damage boost. I'm never going to hang out at 35% to get the full damage bonus, but at high CA levels for PC, you'll get a substantial bonus to damage at even 95% health and it scales rather quickly when you do get hurt (and make no mistake, I still take damage, so PC damage still comes into play regularly). So the way I see it, Vitality provides a bit of offense as well, and just seems like the most attractive stat in my eyes.

 

Still, I think it'd be perfectly reasonable to raise any attributes you wanted depending on how you want to tweak your focus for the build though. Int would be great for boosting the already formidable AS damage. Str or Dex (depending on weapon) would be good for boosting melee power. I don't have a problem with regen times, but Sta would allow you to raise CA levels some for better effects/damage. I suppose you could even boost willpower for magic resistance, but I've yet to find much magic in this game that is truly life-threatening, so that would be my last choice (the most threatening magic attacks IMO are probably TG fire traps, and those hurt a LOT, but you can also see them coming a mile away and simply move away...this is another reason I chose not to use 4-CA combos, instead limiting myself to 3 and 2 CAs per combo: getting stuck in one spot executing a long combo could potentially get you killed).

 

Cheers!

Edited July 16, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[MTCityHunter 0]

Just adding an update of recent progress, as well as a few tweaks. I'm currently perhaps 1/3 through platinum (en route to Seraphim Isle) and everything is clicking nicely. I haven't really noticed any drastic change in difficulty from gold to platinum. Still no deaths, which is good. Honestly, there were moments in silver that were way more threatening than anything I've seen since. To me, that's the sign of a good build: one that improves as you go, so as far as that goes, I'm pleased. I'd just like to add a few minor changes I've made:

 

1) The combos remain basically the same, with minor changes. I still use both the outdoor (RT-CM-LA) and dungeon (CM-LA-RT) Area of Effect combos interchangeably. They both rock, but I've been going more and more back to the CM-LA-RT combo (I did for a while, but the "mounted" combo started performing so well, I no longer need this one, even un-mounted). Still, I like that most of the time, RT will hit significantly more targets (if they're still alive) than the other one because they're still clustered and slowed from CM/LA. Plus if you're quick, you can immediately follow it with the RM-CE combo to finish and/or stun, thus still taking advantage of the lesion debuff from RT. Because mobs will be closer to you when you fire off LA than in the RT-CM-LA combo, it looks nowhere near as cool as that one, and lets face it, that matters.

 

Some people may not like the targeting mechanism when you lead with CM, but on console, I feel like it gives me better overall control over what's going on (but later on, the targeting is a non issue as the range of CM gets so large). I've gone ahead and removed RT from the small group melee combo (RM-CE) full time, to keep it as a totally separate cooldown. As I started socketing and equipping more and more +CA gear, the regen on RT started to hinder the melee combo, plus I wanted to go ahead and read some runes for LA and RT to equalize their regens to CM, thus gaining more free damage. This RM-CE combo is pretty much all I need for bosses, still mixing in the IS-DS-MP/CE combo for debuffing. Plus, who doesn't have fun putting a leash on bosses?

 

It's not a big deal, but I wanted to start using FF+PD more, mostly for the attack/casting speed, so I removed ZD from that combo and bound him separately. I suppose that saves more buttons anyway if you otherwise wanted to keep both FF and PD bound independently.

 

2) I've pretty much given up on Eruptive Desecration. The targeting is too broken, IMO. Plus as I level, it's damage gets worse and worse (no NU Lore). I don't need the heal it could provide with a mod point, so I'll leave it unmodded, leaving NU focus at 55 instead of 70 in the long term. I've also decided I'll likely shave points off the top from AS Focus to get Combat Discipline to 75. I don't plan to use 4 CA combos, but I've decided the -10% regen and damage boosts are more valuable than the same points spent in focus. I'll lose the ability to boost ZD and RP quite as high, but achieving anything approaching 100% reflect was never a goal for this build (how fun would that be? Not very, IMO) for effectively more damage with all CAs, and better regen within combos than maxing focus. With all that said, my adjusted max level skill point allocations will look like this:

 

Bargaining: 75 hard points for better quest rewards and vendor loot.

AS Lore: up to 200 hard points. If you prefer, add more to Tactics Lore and subtract from here and/or AS focus. I still may decide to do that later on.

Combat Discipline: 75 hard points for extra damage and combo regen.

Concentration: 75 hard points for 3 buffs.

AS Focus: up to 154 hard points. Simply the leftover; more could come off to boost other skills as you choose. I probably will shave more to boost Tactics Lore, Constitution, and/or Armor Lore since I don't really need absurdly high CA levels.

Tactics Lore: 126+ hard points for CA mods and melee damage/crit.

Armor Lore: 75+ hard points to unlock mitigation mastery armor.

Constitution: 75+ hard points for in combat regen.

Dual Wield: 1 hard point for sockets. Soft bonuses from +skills provide all the +hit and attack speed I'll need.

NU Focus: 55 hard points for CA mods and CA level boost for Soul Reaver.

 

Keep on rockin'!

Edited July 16, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[Kingy 0]

Should've read your guide before I started my Inquisitor,

 

My Inquisitor has the most random of stats..

But I still love him...lol

 

Yea, thats right

 

LOVE HIM

[MTCityHunter 0]

Should've read your guide before I started my Inquisitor,

 

My Inquisitor has the most random of stats..

But I still love him...lol

 

Yea, thats right

 

LOVE HIM

 

 

Hehe, they're easy to love.

 

Welcome to the dark side.

[MTCityHunter 0]

Mucho thanks to Zinsho and Zonc1 for testing the life leech mods and determining that they are in fact, not %based. Changes are reflected above (really nothing's changed, we're back to the original plan )

 

edit: Hopefully, I'll get more time to play soon; I've been swamped lately. *shakes fist at real life*

Edited July 17, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[kevin.ryan00 0]

Hey im interested in what attributes to get.. I like the build and im goin to try it out so let me know

[MTCityHunter 0]

Hey im interested in what attributes to get.. I like the build and im goin to try it out so let me know

 

 

Its really up to you, depending on what you wanna fine tune.

 

I've gone with Vitality all the way so far.

 

See post #8 above for a more detailed explanation on pros and cons for each.

 

Cheers!

[blanggsta 0]

I am wondering when you say (1 rune) next to the skills does that mean you only eat one rune and wait to level it up through lore. I'm confused sorry just bought the game and like this build I've done two and realized this and restarted. On my first one I just ate runes as I got them now I only have 1 rune learned for all the ones you listed. Please let me know whats up with this.

Edited July 26, 2009 by blanggsta

[MTCityHunter 0]

I am wondering when you say (1 rune) next to the skills does that mean you only eat one rune and wait to level it up through lore. I'm confused sorry just bought the game and like this build I've done two and realized this and restarted. On my first one I just ate runes as I got them now I only have 1 rune learned for all the ones you listed. Please let me know whats up with this.

 

Sorry for the confusion . Also, sorry for the incoming wave of text, but I'll see if I can clear up what I mean and offer some general guidelines for regens to shoot for. All I meant by that was that because these are CAs I use a lot, I wanted to keep regens very much under control. For simplicity's sake, you could leave the ones I listed like that at a single rune indefinitely as long as damage output was okay (I didn't read runes for attack CAs until around level 60-70 IIRC). So all the ones I listed "1 rune" for, I did in fact leave at just a single rune read for quite a long time. If I needed more "punch", +Aspect or +All CA items filled the gaps for a while. As you level though, there's nothing wrong with eating more runes as you feel comfortable with the regens. Its just that early on in a character's life, there's always a battle with regens and keeping the ones you use at 1 rune for a while is a decent way to fight that battle.

 

Because the build doesn't include GI focus, the GI attack CAs (CE and RM) are going to be left at fewer runes (or a single rune) for much much longer than the other CAs, where focus can compensate. Even so, I don't shy away from boosting those CA levels via gear (I.e. - the Ilgard's set which focuses on the GI aspect boosts those CA levels by quite a lot). IMO, it is way more important to keep regens down for the GI CAs than for the AS or NN CAs for 2 reasons: (1) they're simply better suited to being an attack you'll want to spam rather than a big bomb you unleash every few seconds, and (2) "regen on hit" gear makes recharging the other CAs (like the RT-CM-LA combo) a breeze, but you'll want the GI CAs to have low regens so you can use those to recharge the others.

 

For best results, I like to use a single piece of regen on hit gear (generally the Ilgard's gloves), and I prefer to keep the GI combo (RM-CE) at around a 1.0-1.8s regen. In more general terms, I keep that combo's regen at a level equal to or a bit higher than my "regen on hit" total from gear. That way, the combo refreshes itself if even one of the 3 possible hits lands (and with -enemy evade and +chance enemy cannot evade gear, at least one will). Along the same lines, I tend to keep my AS combo at around a 4.0-5.0s regen, in order to maximize its damage. I can get away with this high regen time because all that's needed to instantly recharge it is a single GI combo fired off at a couple mobs (and mixing up my combos like this only reinfoces the "hybrid" feel). Honestly, you could likely pump the AS combo even higher and get away with it, but I haven't felt the need to. The NN CAs I use, DS and IS, I honestly don't use all that much. Mostly just for a change of pace during normal grinding or on very tough champions. I always use it in boss fights, but generally just once at the start. As such, I don't mind the IS-DS-MP combo having a bit higher regen either...say about 4.5-7.0s, depending how you want to use it. Clearly if you want to spam IS for lockdown, keep it much lower than that, but for normal use, the RM-CE combo will do nicely to recharge this as well. Also, once you get the regen mods on SR and DS, they can help tremendously at keeping regens in general much faster than they'd otherwise be.

 

If you accidentally eat some extra runes early on its okay as you'll eat more eventually and it'll get back under control as you level; it'll just make the early levels slightly more of a hassle. Hope all this is helpful. Good luck and Goodnight, hehe.

Edited July 26, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[MTCityHunter 0]

Well...unfortunately, I've just experienced a worst case scenario (in terms of Sacred 2, not real life, lol). My character didn't die, but I suppose he never will now, because somehow my save file got corrupted.

 

The power went out while I was just doing some normal grinding, and when I tried to load back up after it turned on again my PS3 firmly rejected me. I was forced to delete the save file to play again, so bye bye Inquisitor (and all my other characters, and my shared stash, and lord knows how many hours of playtime...) Obviously, I'm not the first to be affected by something like this happening, and realistically, it'll probably happen again since the power in my neighborhood goes out fairly regularly (well, at least I assume that had something to do with it), but well, it still sucks.

 

I find it strange that it doesn't really make me mad, just really bummed out. Gotta love games that are released with the number and severity of bugs like this one was. Of course, it must be a very good game to keep others and myself coming back despite all of that.

 

At any rate, the bottom line is that I won't be continuing to develop this build. I don't think I've got it in me to get back to where I was to perfect it, not that I've got time enough to do it in any reasonable amount of time anyhow. I will say that the build performed admirably until level 75, after which it performed exceedingly well. I made it all the way through the main campaign in platinum by about level 95, and dabbled a bit in niob and platinum both after that. The only 'boss' I got to in Niob was the Kobold, and he was no problem; maybe slightly slower to kill than platinum, but no problem at all. Normal niob mobs didn't seem to be any problem, but I didn't leave elf lands either. Everything in platinum was pretty much a breeze. A few bosses hit me hard enough to make me nervous, but in the end they never got me

 

Anyhow, I'll still check the thread, and offer advice/answer questions folks may have, but I'll probably relegate my playing time to dabbling with new lower level characters these days. Peace.

Edited July 29, 2009 by MTCityHunter

[Synyster616 0]

hey I was just wondering what unique mount you would advise to take with this build....

thanks for your time and thanks for a great build!

[gogoblender 3,326]

MT, I'm so sorry about the loss It is a bummer losing a build, especially one that you've put so much time into. If it's any consolation, take some joy in the fact that you have sired many children of the inquisition all over the net running around and doing some joyous work for the cause in Ancaria.

 

Come back stronger! And if you're in EU servers, I can help with new items, gold and online spirit

 

Synyster616, as this is Inquisitor build, the only unique mount available would be the Shroud Spider...nice little beastie, and sure can get around awfully fast.

 

 

gogo

[Synyster616 0]

MT, I'm so sorry about the loss It is a bummer losing a build, especially one that you've put so much time into. If it's any consolation, take some joy in the fact that you have sired many children of the inquisition all over the net running around and doing some joyous work for the cause in Ancaria.

 

Come back stronger! And if you're in EU servers, I can help with new items, gold and online spirit

 

Synyster616, as this is Inquisitor build, the only unique mount available would be the Shroud Spider...nice little beastie, and sure can get around awfully fast.

 

 

gogo

 

lol no sorry I think ive confused you and myself....isnt there four types of the spider, what I was asking was which one of those

[gogoblender 3,326]

ahh, lol

 

Good question.

 

We await the return of the master ^^

 

 

gogo

[MTCityHunter 0]

MT, I'm so sorry about the loss It is a bummer losing a build, especially one that you've put so much time into. If it's any consolation, take some joy in the fact that you have sired many children of the inquisition all over the net running around and doing some joyous work for the cause in Ancaria.

 

Come back stronger! And if you're in EU servers, I can help with new items, gold and online spirit

 

Synyster616, as this is Inquisitor build, the only unique mount available would be the Shroud Spider...nice little beastie, and sure can get around awfully fast.

 

 

gogo

 

lol no sorry I think ive confused you and myself....isnt there four types of the spider, what I was asking was which one of those

 

 

Sorry for the wait, my awesome luck continues, lol. Went on vacation last weekend and got in an accident on the way home (everyone's okay) so I've been dealing with tow companies, insurance, and body shops for about 3 days straight. Oh, and upon my return, my computer will no longer turn on. /sigh

 

Anyhow, to the question at hand. I prefer the Astute Supremacy Spider simply because when I play mounted I'm predominately grinding and doing a ton of Area of Effect. Speeding up the recharge times on our main Area of Effect CAs seems like the logical choice to me, plus you can give them a little extra "oomph" by consuming extra runes if you find the AS CAs aren't hitting quite hard enough, and still keep decent regen while mounted.

 

If you like to fight more small groups or even above ground bosses mounted, it may benefit you to use the GI spider to make that single target regen time a bit more reasonable. I don't think using the NN spider would be of as much use unless you were trying to raise those CA levels higher and wanted to equalize the regen times of your 3 trees.

 

Its not a deal breaker either way though; its basically going to come down to preference/playstyle. Remember, that if you choose a spider other than the AS one, your AS regens will certainly be a bit higher, but that's not a huge loss so long as you use at least 1 piece of regen on hit gear. Using that in conjunction with RM can allow you to wade into a big group and instantaneously recharge your combos, even if they have high regen times. If you do choose the AS spider, you can (and should, IMO) still use that method, but in that case, your AS combo would be capable of more damage because you could consume more runes for those CAs.

 

Cheers, and good hunting!

 

 

p.s. - thanks, gogo. It is a bummer, but whatcha gonna do? I'll make another Inquisitor someday. Right now I'm working on a 2H SW with damage lore, which is...very powerful. Now that I've kept an Inquisitor alive to niob, SW feels soooo much easier. After that, I think I'll make a EP/Bargaining seraphim, then come back to the Inquisition. With the seraphim in place, I'll be free to leave out utility and should be able to field an even more powerful Inquisitor I'm already planning it, and atm, I'm thinking instead of bargaining, I can take toughness, which will then free me to take hallow on PC if I want to. Since hallow+eradicate scales at roughly the same rate that aspect lores do, I could then swap tactics lore for GI focus to keep PC high level and keep GI regen times much lower than before while boosting AS damage even higher than before. *in best Mr. Burns voice* Yes, that will do nicely...

[gogoblender 3,326]

Glad you're back and in health MP. Master has returned! Do you choose an Astute Supremacy spider because you're using the AS Combat Arts the most often?

 

 

I chose the Gruesome Inquisition spider because my combat Combat Arts are my bread and butter. The yield from my sweet double-hander sword is so good, I wanted to make the most of it's damage.

 

 

gogo

[MTCityHunter 0]

Glad you're back and in health MP. Master has returned! Do you choose an Astute Supremacy spider because you're using the AS Combat Arts the most often?

 

 

I chose the Gruesome Inquisition spider because my combat Combat Arts are my bread and butter. The yield from my sweet double-hander sword is so good, I wanted to make the most of it's damage.

 

 

gogo

 

 

Thanks. Lol, I dunno if I'm any kind of "master", but I am back

 

Basically, yeah, that's pretty much it. I always choose the spider of CAs I use most often, in this case the AS ones (RT-CM-LA combo). When I was playing this toon, I always made sure that that combo did enough damage to ensure a kill on anything pulled into it. Since I tried to gather as many targets at once as I could before firing it (anywhere between 6 and 50 lol) and because it only performed better with more targets involved, my GI CAs were purely for mop up on normal grinding situations.

 

I also used the RM-CE combo to recharge the AS combo if there were a sizable number of targets left as I mentioned above, but I wasn't trying to optimize damage with those; they did plenty enough damage vs. bosses, and that's all I cared about for them. I did use GI CAs predominately on bosses to the virtual exclusion of AS CAs (except ZD), but I was almost always unmounted for boss fights (except Miasma and sometimes Kral) so I didn't need to worry about their regens while mounted. Same deal for NN CAs; they were mostly for support vs. bosses and solo or small groups of champions so I didn't need to spam them, especially while mounted.

 

If the GI spider works for you, its totally fine; everyone's got their own playstyle, and if you rely more on GI CAs for grinding than I did, that spider would probably be an optimal choice.

 

+ = WIN!

[gogoblender 3,326]

MT, what level were you able to get the Maelstrom too. Were you using a CA boosting slot, or eating runes, or just having them socketed in your armor or coming all from native armor values?

 

As well, what kind of regen were you able to get on it, and how much was the listed damage with you "E" key?

 

 

gogo