[3.8] HahaMustard's Storm Brand Inquisitor - Great League Starter!
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INTRODUCTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to my guide on Storm Brand with the Inquisitor Ascendancy! I decided to make this guide as I did not see much content regarding the skill, and the way I built it diverged a bit from what others have posted. I hope you enjoy it if you happen to try it! This build can complete all content in the game, however it shines much more regarding maps and clear speed. The boss damage and speed is however lackluster to other builds, but we can compensate for this by running Lightning Spire Trap in a 4-link. This build also shines as a nice league starter as well. Our only expensive items here are our endgame wand and our chest piece (maybe the helmet with the enchant if you want a really nice base). The endgame wand and chest piece is optional however if you are really trying to run on a budget. I will be posting more videos of the build once I get a chance away from University, so sit tight! VIDEO (More Coming Very Soon) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- T15 Juiced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvubqWnE3sg Minotaur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM6v9WrqS5s Hydra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGRhKZKBTI&t=6s Chimera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paiIZe3dP-M Phoenix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peyimMsARDQ&t=2s Shaper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow3msSgNAqU&t=2s Uber Elder: OVERVIEW ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pros: + Fast clear speed + Low budget to get started + Very versatile, can take the build in many directions + Large AOE Cons: - Squishy - Can't run elemental reflect or no regen maps - Boss killing not as amazing as other builds SKILL TREE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ascendancy Points: Righteous Providence -> Inevitable Judgement -> Sanctuary -> Pious Path Bandits: Kill all Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/S2Lfws0U GEAR -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current
Helm
For this slot you are looking to pick up life, mana, and resists. This is also a good spot to pick up some dexterity for our skill gems. Other than that, look for defensive mods for this piece.
For the lab enchant, we are going to be running “Storm Brand deals 40% increased damage” as we don’t really benefit from the lightning penetration enchantment (due to inherent Inquisitor elemental penetration) and the chain enchantment does not add as much benefits as extra damage for us
Chest
For this build we use Inpulsa’s Broken Heart. It is the perfect item for our build, it heavily increases our clear speed with increased damage when we shock and the AOE when shocked enemies die. It is however a little expensive, running around 50 chaos (at the time of this guide being made). If you wanted to use a cheaper alternative to Inpulsa if you can not afford it, I’d recommend Belly of the Beast. I strongly suggest you pick up Inpulsa whenever possible though.
Gloves
In this slot we are also running another rare item. Prioritize resists, life, and mana here when getting your gloves. A nice bonus is if you can pick up some dexterity here, or a nice damage mod to go along with our defensive mods such as crit strike chance.
Boots
Another rare item is slotted in here. Once again here, prioritise life, mana, and resits. Quality of life here is also picking up movement speed and dexterity here as well, if you need more for your skill gems. A nice uber lab enchant such as mana regeneration or stun avoidance can also be slotted in here.
Weapon
Here we will be running a rare high ivl wand, preferably at or above 80 ilvl. We are looking for the “+1 to lightning spell skill gems” mod here to multicraft our end-game weapon. We will multi-mod spell damage, lightning damage, cast speed, and global crit strike multiplier.
This is our most expensive item here, so you can run a Doryani’s Catalyst until you can afford to buy or craft this wand.
Shield
Another rare item for this slot, we are running a “+1 to Lightning Spell Skill Gems” here as well. Look for, or craft one, that has the standard defensive mods such as life, mana, and resists. I prefer using a fossilized spirit shield here as well, for maximum spell damage on the implicit.
Rings
For rings, we are running a combo of Mark of the Shaper and an Elder ring. Mark of the Shaper gives us good damage and resists, while giving us a 20% chance to spawn volatile anomalies, which is a nice little addition to our clear speed. The Elder ring can go two ways, based on what you feel you may need. I would suggest an Opal Ring with offensive mods such as lightning damage, increased damage, and the such. If you are wanting more defense, I would suggest a Two-Stone Ring with life, mana, and resists. These two rings together also give us 75% increased spell damage from Mark of the Shaper.
Amulet
For the amulet, we are looking for more offensive modifiers such as global crit multiplier, life, mana, and resists. Added cold or lightning damage is also a nice touch to it. Add Dexterity if you need it here as well for our skill gem requirements
Belt
Pretty standard setup here. We are looking for life, mana, and resists once again. Treat this as a completely defensive piece. Min-Max wise, if you can find a very nice stygian vice then you should use it instead.
Jewels
Here we are looking for Spell Damage, Spell Damage While Holding a Shield, Lightning Damage, or Cast Speed. For the last jewel, you can run more damage or add some defensive mods such as increased life, mana, or resists
GEM LINKS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3-Link
Brand Recall -- Flame Dash -- Arcane Surge Support
This link is for our brand recall, which lets us recall all of our brands to our current location while also increasing their attachment range, detached duration, and attached duration. You will want to essentially be using this ability on cooldown. We also have our flame dash linked to our arcane surge to trigger it, make sure to keep arcane surge at level 5 to reliably trigger it's buff
3-Link
Steelskin -- Cast When Damage Taken -- Summon Lightning Golem
This is our standard cast when damage taken setup. Make sure to leave Steelskin at 19, CWDT at 17, and Summon Lightning Golem at 17 for optimal defensiveness
4-Link
Ice Bite Support -- Onslaught Support -- Herald of Ice -- Innervate Support
We use this setup to further enhance our clear speed with stronger aoe and damage all around. Onslaught helps us go much faster, Innervate and Ice bite adds chance to trigger ailments as well as adding more damage to our Herald of Ice
4-link
Orb of Storms -- Curse on Hit Support -- Enfeeble -- Power Charge on Critical Support
This link is how we acquire our power charges and apply our curse to enemies. I chose to use enfeeble here as inquisitor does not really need more pen from curses such as conductivity or elemental weakness. I instead opted for a more defensive option to better increase our odds of living
4-Link
Lightning Spire Trap -- Controlled Destruction Support -- Elemental Focus Support -- Trap and Mine Damage Support
We use this Lighting Spire Trap setup to help with one of the weaknesses in our build, which is boss damage. This setup, along with our main skill, really helps shore up our average single target dps on targets such as The Guardians, The Shaper, or Uber Elder.
6-Link
Storm Brand -- Controlled Destruction Support -- Concentrated Effect Support -- Added Lightning Damage Support -- Energy Leech Support -- Increased Critical Strikes Support
The meat of the build. Setup here is pretty standard, except I opt to use Energy Leech Support here. I use this due to our Ascendancy Passive in Pious Path. Due to this, we are usually always sitting at max energy shield which yields us extra damage here. FLASKS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler
Notice we do not run an anti-freeze flask in our setup. Due to the nature of our ascendancy in Sanctuary and Pious Path, we are immune to elemental ailments such as freeze. Therefore we are free to run whatever we want in our last flask slot. I chose a quicksilver flask as movement speed is king.
We run a mana flask here as well, since we use Mind Over Matter and we do not have enough mana regen to naturally keep it up. ASCENDANCY -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Depth
Righteous Providence and Inevitable Judgement are pretty standard here for Inquisitor, as it provides us our famed penetration and critical strike chance. We grab Sanctuary next instead of Augury of Penitence or Instruments of Virtue. This is because compared to the other two, Sanctuary and it’s subsequent upgrade Pious Path provides a more reliable defensive AND offensive option compared to other choices. This is due to the consecrated ground we create while stationary. Once we grab Pious Path, we regenerate 15 Mana per second, 200 Energy Shield per second, gain 20% increased cast speed, and become immune to elemental ailments while on consecrated ground. Due to the nature of casting Storm Brand, where our character becomes stationary to cast the skill, we are usually always benefitting from the consecrated ground due to it lingering for 4 seconds on us. This stationary cast also applies to our Flame Dash, Orb of Storms, and Lightning Spire Trap.
Augury of Penitence has a nice little dps increase, but our build is a bit squishy and does not want to always be close enough to trigger this. Instruments of Virtue only gives us 30% increased spell damage, which is great in it’s own right. However, by taking this node, we are left with one more ascendancy point with kind of bad options in Augury and just Sanctuary by itself without Pious Path. PANTHEON ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major- Soul of Lunaris We choose Lunaris here as she provides a lot of defensive benefits to help keep us alive. You could use Soul of the Brine King here as well, but I feel as the points are wasted here. We don’t require reduced effect of chill or freeze immunity, due to our ascendancy. The stun immunity is nice, but I feel that if this build were to get into a situation where we could be stunned, then we are already dead. Minor- Soul of Tukohama I chose Tukohama here, as it synergizes with our skills and ascendancy due to being stationary. You could go Shakari for the poison immunity, or Gruthkul here. It is entirely personal preference here. ANNOINTMENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am unsure as of yet of what might be best here, but it is personal preference here as well. Breath of Lightning (Expensive with Golden Oil) Heart of Oak (Expensive with Golden Oil) Disciple of the Forbidden (Slightly Expensive with Black Oil) Heartseeker (Cheapest) FINAL NOTES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you to everyone who read my guide. I really appreciate it! I hope you all enjoy the build as much as I have. Feel free to ask questions here, and I will try my best to personally respond to them. Feel free to add me at HahaMustardTime in POE as well if you would like to ask me a question there! Last edited by FatalNugget#2821 on Sep 26, 2019, 12:36:10 AM Last bumped on Nov 18, 2019, 11:48:19 PM
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This post is reserved for edits or additions to the build
09/25/19 EDIT: Uploaded all boss videos except for Uber Elder. Chimera was not my greatest moment, but I always do bad on Chimera. Last edited by FatalNugget#2821 on Sep 25, 2019, 10:52:58 PM
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Hey, a couple things:
1. I noticed you multimodded local crit chance on your wand - was this a mistake multimodding (as it doesn't affect Storm Brand's crit chance)? 2. Poacher's Mark only grants life and mana from hits with attacks, not spells - do you still think it's important or would focusing on life, resists and possibly damage stats (new Void of the Elements card makes getting an Elder Opal easy)? Thanks! Last edited by WarriorAvi#4246 on Sep 25, 2019, 6:56:48 PM
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1) That is correct,in that it was a mistake haha. I realized way too late multi-modding that I went for the wrong crit modifier.
2) I actually never thought that Poacher's mark worked only with attacks, thank you for bringing that to my attention! I personally think a BiS ring can go either two ways. We could go Two-Stone ring and grab defensive stats, or we could go opal like you suggested and grab offensive stats such as lightning damage, increased damage, and the such. I believe here it is personally up to how you want to take it, but I would lean towards a Two-Stone with defensive rolls. Thanks for pointing these out to me, I'll go ahead and make adjustments! |
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thank you for your hard work this building is wonderful <3 |
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Last edited by rsdvagner#7414 on Oct 7, 2019, 11:05:42 PM
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Yeah that ring will do very well, solid DPS elder ring! Thank you as well by the way, I appreciate it a lot!
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Could you tell me if 2 "inspired learning gems" would work in this build?
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Yea definitely, they would make a great addition. You could always pick up 2 more gem slots in the tree or just replace some of the passive jewels for them. The build mauls through packs so it would help even further
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What gem should I remove from the 6 link storm brand to fit in faster casting, since cast speed affects how frequent it hits
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