[3.1][HC] Scorching RF Inquisitor - cheap starter build - ZiggyD

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Idyar wrote:

Hey thanks for the guide / discussion. Absolutely crushing content now and having a blast. So the problems I have run into so far is picking up Chaos resist and Dex (Faster Attacks / Swift Affliction) In farming mode now to get some currency. Got a great catalyst last night after 9 Atziri so stuff is going well !

Been using the pob from uberdan when he killed shaper but before he went low life not sure if this will help anyone else but was like a good actual real character example early in the league. https://pastebin.com/RzRZcaaZ

That's actually a very interesting tree using radius nodes so we use can use conc effect on RF.

I'll compare the builds a bit more later in detail and add it as a variation.
in short: a lot more rf damage with 2 less radius, less life, less dmg on sr but more jewels and imp flask nodes

Just a question. Can i know what is the purpose to play mom rf + SR ? Pure life RF will be better right?

I just wanted to do a quick post, in Harbinger Softcore I have gotten some fairly decent gear and am able to farm t14 maps at level 88. My gear is as follows

at the moment I am well overcap on resists, i have 2018 total mana, 1018 unreserved and 6784 life (595 es). I am able to sustain RF no problem, as you mentioned there can be some bursty damage but it has been manageable. For maps with Vulnerability or partial regen I just do not turn on RF and SR does just fine with it's damage. Overall really enjoying the build thanks for posting this.
Edit: not sure how to post Jewels but the 3 i have are all damage over time, life and burning damage

After 92 levels i'm pretty close to being done with this guy so i'll share my gear, links and a few thoughts.



Here's a path of building link to my passive tree. https://pastebin.com/B8Qh6eyt
The notable choices/changes are the marauder resistance cluster (for The Red Nightmare) and the +1 curse cluster for 3 in total - Vulnerability (via witchfire) plus Flammability and Enfeeble linked to Curse on hit & Orb of Storms.

TL;DR summary:

Righteous Fire is amazingly strong, but realistically MOM Inquisitor isn't the best way to utilize it. A simple life-only RF Chieftain/Berserker build would almost certainly be stronger and easier.

In more detail:


1. Righteous Fire combined with EE and EO is crazy good. I started using it when I got my Phoenix and it has absolutely melted everything since then (I'm chain farming T14 maps atm).

2. Scorching Ray just isn't a good skill. Given how heavily the build needs to invest to make RF work and the fact that RF instantly melts packs while you fortify/shield charge through them at blistering speed, having a "stand still to channel" second skill just doesn't make sense. What you want is a skill to help versus tough bosses that can potentially one-shot you and for this purpose self-cast SR is just terrible. I linked it to spell totem, but only really use it when kiting very tough bosses.

3. This build is great in the Labyrinth. Nothing more to say really - once I learned the boss mechanics I could clear it very safely and quickly.

4. Witchfire Brew is extremely strong. Not just for the inc damage and free curse, but also for the 100% increased evasion AND smoke cloud which reduces mob accuracy. It stacks (additively) with a Jade Flask of +EV rating to get me up to 20k EV, 5k AR. Along with fortify, block & endurance charges that's more than enough survivability for any normal pack of monsters.

5. You need a lot of Mana & mana-regen to make Mind Over Matter work. This stretches you thin on the tree and also limits you in terms of gear selection. Although most rare ES hybrid pieces can roll +mana, they also generally have ES and low defence. Being able to ignore mana completely and simply focus on life and damage mitigation would make gearing a lot easier, actually make the build tankier and also allow the use of more interesting/niche uniques.

6. You don't get much benefit from MOM anyways. With Purity and Clarity pretty much required, I only ended up with ~1.1k available mana. Although it does regenerate very quickly while standing on consecrated ground, it's mostly an inconvenience rather than a benefit to have your mana-pool occasionally emptied by a big hit. Again, not having to worry about mana at all and tree/gear entirely towards life would just be better! Maybe an Essence worm is the best way to go, but again that is a pile of stats/damage missing. Finally, given that RF scales damage off of life, and doesn't gain anything from a 6L, running 10k life with a kaoms and most mana reserved would just be directly better than the 7k life 2.2k mana with half reserved that i'm currently running with pretty high end gear.

7. Inquisitor's skill set is pretty lackluster for a RF build. The attack speed buff after shield charging is handy for mobility and allows almost instant orb of storms spam, however the damage portion is mostly wasted. If the consecrated ground buff also improved life regen it would be amazing, but only boosting your mana-regen (and non-existent energy shield) again makes it feel pretty weak.

Overall, my SR RF inquisitor ended up heavy on the RF and light on the SR. It was a fun experiment but not a resounding success!

Dinged 92 few hours ago, still having a blast with the build. Clear speed is not bad since I finally crafted decent 30 % movement speed-boots, only thing not to be corrected is boss damage. I assume 4 best in slot jewels and a perfect Opal ring could do it? Or should I strive for some more elemental damage nodes after a few more levels? I was able to down two of the Guardian's with no deaths but the lack of damage before Scorching hits max stacks is very offputting, especially on bosses like Phoenix and Minotaur where you have to dash around like a maniac anyways if you don't have flasks ready to take the big hits.

All of this wouldn't be a problem if you could facetank the incoming damaging, but perhaps I need a couple more endurance charges for that.

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Righteous Fire is amazingly strong, but realistically MOM Inquisitor isn't the best way to utilize it. A simple life-only RF Chieftain/Berserker build would almost certainly be stronger and easier.

I appreciate the effort you made to summarize your experience

While I agree on the fact a pure RF is easier to gear and only requires a shitty 4 link
I don't agree it's far superior, it's just a different playstyle with each their perks

Let's compare a dual curse 4l RF 6L SR (Dan build, Decent gear) to Pohx his pure RF build with full bis gear lvl 96 + 6 expensive life jewels.


Taking all this into account a pure RF probably has more clearspeed on general maps and I guess slightly higher defences.
But it has no safe way to deal with scary stuff from afar and A LOT less single target damage.
Pure RF also kinda requires koams which is never really cheap in any new league

tl;dr

Both builds are crazy strong, just different playstyles.
I found a pure RF pretty dull as you literly only use 1 button (shield charge)
While this build is less braindead

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WesleyCau wrote:

2. Scorching Ray just isn't a good skill. Given how heavily the build needs to invest to make RF work and the fact that RF instantly melts packs while you fortify/shield charge through them at blistering speed, having a "stand still to channel" second skill just doesn't make sense. What you want is a skill to help versus tough bosses that can potentially one-shot you and for this purpose self-cast SR is just terrible. I linked it to spell totem, but only really use it when kiting very tough bosses.

Scorching Ray does so much more damage on a 6 link if you would only be in 4link RF. Sounds like you did not clear much of the higher tier maps?

Hello again guys. Time for my experience with this build ;) Finished 120/126 atlas (missing 6 unique maps), all guardians and shaper deathless. It's managable tho some are hard to achieve (yes Chimera, im talking about u!) ;) LvL 91 easy clearing all maps t15. Clear speed is decent (i run conc. effect in RF all the time) and bosses dmg is gr8 if u can achieve to facetank them with all your shit, otherwise it's not that op but still acceptable. I like the build and enjoy it way more than standard RF. Not abandoning my champ yet as i think there is much to improve + still didnt try Uber Atziri. Now my goal is lvl 92 for extra socket, then i have to replace my jewels for good ones as mine sux (except one) and maybe gems lvl 21 + better belt. I think Hall of the Grandmaster might be hard. I will take some chaos ress gear and try it later, hopefully succefull ;)
Edit: Forgot to mention u can run all map mods as soon as you overcap for ele weakness. Wouldnt recommend no life regen tho ;) -60% mostly u have to turn of your RF aswell, but -max res easy with some flask managing.

Here is my atlas screen: http://scr.hu/0qqw8/nepp7

Here is my PoB character: https://pastebin.com/Dpp3BDdH

I have a question aswell: What do u think about going vaal haste, vaal grace or vaal lightning trap (does it even work?) for bosses?

Thanks for the build and your effort answering all those "stupid" questions, keep it going ;)

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suitonek wrote:

Hello again guys. Time for my experience with this build ;) Finished 120/126 atlas (missing 6 unique maps), all guardians and shaper deathless. It's managable tho some are hard to achieve (yes Chimera, im talking about u!) ;) LvL 91 easy clearing all maps t15. Clear speed is decent (i run conc. effect in RF all the time) and bosses dmg is gr8 if u can achieve to facetank them with all your shit, otherwise it's not that op but still acceptable. I like the build and enjoy it way more than standard RF. Not abandoning my champ yet as i think there is much to improve + still didnt try Uber Atziri. Now my goal is lvl 92 for extra socket, then i have to replace my jewels for good ones as mine sux (except one) and maybe gems lvl 21 + better belt. I think Hall of the Grandmaster might be hard. I will take some chaos ress gear and try it later, hopefully succefull ;)
Edit: Forgot to mention u can run all map mods as soon as you overcap for ele weakness. Wouldnt recommend no life regen tho ;) -60% mostly u have to turn of your RF aswell, but -max res easy with some flask managing.

Here is my atlas screen: http://scr.hu/0qqw8/nepp7

Here is my PoB character: https://pastebin.com/Dpp3BDdH

I have a question aswell: What do u think about going vaal haste, vaal grace or vaal lightning trap (does it even work?) for bosses?

Thanks for the build and your effort answering all those "stupid" questions, keep it going ;)

Vaal Lightning Trap absolutely works, and is a very common thing to do on the longer bosses. The effect is 20%. See: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Shock

Vaal Haste and Vaal Grace are cool for clear speed or clear safety, but wouldn't help much on bosses. If I had to choose one, I'd probably go for Grace - avoidance is incredible versus packs, especially if you're going to run big packsize and/or sextants.

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RACE_WAR_NOW wrote:

Vaal Lightning Trap absolutely works, and is a very common thing to do on the longer bosses. The effect is 20%. See: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Shock

Vaal Haste and Vaal Grace are cool for clear speed or clear safety, but wouldn't help much on bosses. If I had to choose one, I'd probably go for Grace - avoidance is incredible versus packs, especially if you're going to run big packsize and/or sextants.

I'll try vaal trap with inc duration instead of leap slam and rallying cry. Thanks for your advice ;)