Considerations about a play-for-fun Inquisitor build

[Dobri 55]

After all the boss killing and legendary item hunting, I'm really in the mood for a play-for-fun, all-round, do-it-all build.

 

Through much research and deliberation, I decided to try an Inquisitor. Originally, I was thinking of improving the pure caster. I really think that almost any build can cut it in Ice and Blood even through the wicked nerfs to casters, but on paper, things don't look too good. He'll be forced to play with Clustering most of the time (from half the platinum onward), which makes the nefarious aspect pretty useless and underpowered. The Caster Inquisitor won't be able to kill bosses in niobium efficiently. He can still do it, but it'll be really, really slow.

 

So I decided to go with a hybrid build that can do everything, have good offense and defense and good options to kill anything that's not bugged. Here's the basic skill setup:

 

Offense:

Dual Wield

Tactics Lore

Speed Lore

 

Offense/Casting:

Gruesome Focus

Astute Lore

Astute Focus

Concentration

 

Defense:

Armor Lore

Toughness

Constitution

 

This gives me good offense, decent attack value. Frenetic Fervor, in combination with Dual Wield + Speed Lore bonuses on the attack value should give me a decent chance to hit the guardians in niobium. Quite honestly, I will need over 10k atk value in niobium by all means, so that I can reduce the amount of enemy evade mods I will need to use and shop for. I've gotten so used to the awesome Battle Stance buff, that everything I see for almost all other characters pales in comparison to it.

The combat arts will be the standard ones for such type of a Inquisitor: Callous Execution + Ruthless Mutilation combo and Clustering + Raving or Clustering + Levin combo.

The buffs will be as expected: Purifying Chastisement + Reverse Polarity + Zealous Doppelganger

 

I'm thinking about some tweaks though. I will mod Purifying to provide damage mitigation, which along with toughness will provide enough survivability. What I don't like is that I can't add a lot of useful skills - like spell resistance or bargaining - bargaining will allow me to shop for torso and shoulders with all-channel damage mitigation that will boost the survivability even more.

 

I can sacrifice Tactics Lore. For regular monsters, I will surely use clustering, raving and levin, because those combat arts make for fast and efficient mass killing, and for that, I do not need tactics lore. For bosses, I will use a combination of Felde's and Kaldur's for life leech, and this is all the damage the Inquisitor will need. I am also interested in trying Dual Blood Dryads swords - but for those, I do need tactics to boost the damage. However, dropping Tactics will allow me to add either spell resistance or bargaining.

 

I suppose I can sacrifice Speed Lore. However, that will force me to add a lot of enemy evade modifiers. For example, speed lore provides my 156 level seraphim with +275% atk/def value, which is great, especially for hunting bosses niobium. In such case, I'd rather sacrifice tactics lore than speed lore.

 

This build seems to have some really good potential and a good combination of play styles. I can use LL% for bosses, spells for regular mobs and I also think I may be able to do a WIDD-Y build (damage of enraged players, or wounds in crease damage dealt, the term from S1). I have the feeling that a HC WIDD-Y build must not be based on taking a lot of damage while hoping to survive. Steady "supply" of damage sounds much better and much safer to me, as it will allow me some form of control over it. Otherwise you're just begging for a few awful dice rolls that may result in a dead char.

 

In theory, this build should be able to do everything in this game - kill mobs, kill bosses, do quests, open map, survive, and provide diverse gameplay.

 

So... any comments and ideas will be appreciated

Edited August 26, 2010 by Dobri

[Dragon Brother 619]

Well it seems similar to an inquis I'm playing at the moment except I'm using astute and only the gruesome buff, nothing else. Otherwise it seems pretty similar...haven't really done much boss killing yet, but what I have has been ok, need a few more levels into doppelgänger first. Otherwise, the levin +clustering combo one hits everything champs included if the mob is big enough...I'm just sick of shopping new gear for him while he levels so fast. Admittedly he's only in silver at the moment but I want to get him camped to gold these weekend to up the fun

Edited August 27, 2010 by Dragon Brother

[Dobri 55]

Thanks for the input. The thing is, the are not that many inquisitors out there and I don't have that good of a comparison option. Granted, I had some experience with it, but that was some time ago, and it was in S2FA. Many things changed since then, and some new bugs appeared. Quite honestly, even with spell resistance, I am afraid to venture very deep in Crystal Plains, Cursed Forest and the Wastelands. Some hits may be fake deaths, but I'd rather never take that chance

 

So I will probably keep this guy in the well-knows territories and kill the well-known stuff. That should keep him safe.

[essjayehm 58]

I assume you're avoiding the staff-shooting exploit?

 

Anywho... Combat Discipline may be a viable alternative. Yes, you lose on Gruesome mods, but you gain damage on your astute spells. I only suggest that since your "main" source of damage with GI combat arts will be LL% anyway, so Tactics isn't really doing all that much for you, especially if you are not using staff-shooting.

 

Sux that you can't put IS first in a combo, as that would definitely make the difference to go CD instead of Tactics. Even without NN skills, IS works just fine (on console 8) for neutering bosses while you Mutilate and Execute them to death.

 

Definitely you should have a lot of fun with the Inquisitor, just from the quotes alone!

[Dobri 55]

Well, the thing is I don't want to turn him into a pure caster. Pure caster inquisitor is even worse than pure caster seraphim in Ice and Blood. The seraphim can still use AW + LL% and level u quickly on pretty much anything, while the Inquisitor with his spells and no deathblow will suck against bosses - he has no viable spell against them at all - IS's damage is really, really low compared to their HP in niobium, so I will be stuck with clustering all the time.

 

That forces one simple question - why would one need the NN aspect at all, save for buffs?

 

This is why I decided to leave the NN aspect out. I may try later on to make a caster Inquisitor for ice and blood, but on theory, things don't look good at all...

[essjayehm 58]

I had meant CD as an option for a hybrid!

 

Tactics will boost only your Gruesome Combat Arts, while Discipline will boost Gruesome and Astute Combat Arts. Tactics does give a bigger damage boost, as well as criticals, but on the other hand, you can have 3 or 4 Combat Arts in your combos with CD.

 

I have always hated NN aspect, personally. BUT, Inexorable Subjectation in S2FA, it is really, really good defense (as good as Tangled Vines on a ranged Dryad). Paralyzing Dread is bugged on consoles, and I grew to HATE Soul Reaver buff as well, so using NN for me was always about the one combat art (IS), which isn't enough for me to justify picking NN focus as a skill. Since Ice and Blood players cannot put IS first in a combo, then (for me) there would be no reason whatsoever to use NN aspect, like you said.

 

I had also assumed you were going to dual weild LL% weapons, which out-class CA damage in Niob by a fair amount, so it is safe to say you don't need Tactics anyway?

[Dobster 39]

The stimulate gold mod for Disloged spirt works now in Ice and Blood. When modded for increased damage and DOT it can be spammed on bosses. I didn't test it much but it might be worth a look

 

Sounds like a fun build Dobri, will be intersting to see what you do with him.

[Dobri 55]

Well, the only reason I am pondering about tactics is that at some point, I may want to check how a "damage of enraged players" build will work on this char. 2x Sword of blood dryads + taking some damage + some more damage of enraged players + tactics will be a really nice combo. I have always wanted to try that out, and as I said in the opening post, I think that a WIDD build is based on steady damage taking rather than quick damage taking, and this build provides that.

 

In the end, I will surely opt for either CD or Spell resistance as a last pick. CD will raise the damage while Spell resistance will allow me to breathe a little easier then doing the Cursed Forest quest. It's a really hard choice... But I'll think about it when I hit 65. I can always leave a free pick and decide later.

 

So far the PFF Inquisitor is only level 18, so plenty of time till then.

[Dragon Brother 619]

Well...mine is a pure caster...and I made a mistake in my previous post, instead of the gruesome buff, I meant the NN buff, soul reaver. So I NN focus in stead of gruesome focus, and instead of tactics and speed lore, I had Ancient magic. Only level 46 or so and im not getting to play much at the moment cos of uni but it is fun and not difficult. PS...seriously, blood/cursed/whatever you want to call it forest is an awesome place to level in...either you round up massive amounts of constructs or towards the end where those female demon/seraphim lookalikes are is great. Round up a mob of floating eyes and those demons and they summon a bazillion of those orange things...so many things dieing! Like I said before though, Im waiting on some levels into doppelganger to see how that pans out as a boss killer...If I can get a high enough level with both of us whacking away with %leech, I figure thats how im going to do it...not quite caster per se...but he summons a copy of himself so thats casting enough for me

 

PS...I might be wrong but I think I remember schot playing a toon that was gonna use enraged to increase damage but it didnt work on SW's belligerant vault because it turned out to be a spell based CA and not a weapon based CA...but I might be wrong...just letting you know tho.

Edited August 27, 2010 by Dragon Brother

[Dobri 55]

Well, the Pure caster Inquisitor is fun, but I can't accept a build that cannot complete the campaign from silver to niobium.

 

The Pure caster can wipe out any mob with complete ease no matter how big it is, he can level anywhere, but he just isn't able to kill a boss efficiently. Even if you somehow manage to get IS to do 10k damage per tick, that's still nothing compared to the millions of HP the bosses in niobium have. Levin is ok to get to that much damage, but the problem is most bosses are magic resistant - and all your single target offensive options go down the drain...

 

That doesn't say that he can't cut it - actually, he'll be a very fast leveler (all he needs is some + all skills, + a few all combat arts and all out XP per kill), he just won't be able to do bosses from early/middle platinum onward Still, in a well-populated server, he will rock every area and will out-level almost anyone.

[Dragon Brother 619]

Well, the Pure caster Inquisitor is fun, but I can't accept a build that cannot complete the campaign from silver to niobium.

 

The Pure caster can wipe out any mob with complete ease no matter how big it is, he can level anywhere, but he just isn't able to kill a boss efficiently. Even if you somehow manage to get IS to do 10k damage per tick, that's still nothing compared to the millions of HP the bosses in niobium have. Levin is ok to get to that much damage, but the problem is most bosses are magic resistant - and all your single target offensive options go down the drain...

 

That doesn't say that he can't cut it - actually, he'll be a very fast leveler (all he needs is some + all skills, + a few all combat arts and all out XP per kill), he just won't be able to do bosses from early/middle platinum onward Still, in a well-populated server, he will rock every area and will out-level almost anyone.

And thats what im sure I'll find out. Still, since every toon Ive made recently has been a boss killer, at the very least it will be a pleasant change not killing them. Of course if ZD works well enough I may use that from time to time just to get a quick boss-kill finx

[essjayehm 58]

I think that a WIDD build is based on steady damage taking rather than quick damage taking, and this build provides that.

 

In the end, I will surely opt for either CD or Spell resistance as a last pick. CD will raise the damage while Spell resistance will allow me to breathe a little easier then doing the Cursed Forest quest. It's a really hard choice... But I'll think about it when I hit 65. I can always leave a free pick and decide later.

 

Your thought on WIDD I feel is exactly correct. Healthy HP regen, along with a good amount of mitigation allows very easy use of "controlled" enraged bonus. Also, I was using light health potions, and later, health potions, to control the amount of healing so that I was always angry. Er, the toon was, anyway, since I was happy (ie not dead)

 

Defintely lots of time to figure out your last skill. When you're stuck between a defensive and offensive choice, best not to make the choice until you know how your character handles the situations you want to play it in!

[Dobri 55]

Well... Valid points, but he is retired to SP now. Since gogo wanted a movie of the Ice and Blood caster inquisitor I wrote the guide on a few days back, I had to free a slot for him and the PFF Inquisitor paid the price.

 

I'll still fool around with him in SP though. I decided to do just that - leave the last pick till I'm completely sure what do I want from him.