[3.16] Blazing Salvo Fireball Inquisitor (self cast) - play with fire!

[3.14] Trialmaster and other stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x4ajyqIgZI

[3.13] Road to The Feared (Mavened UE included): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1jcVhkTMtw

[3.13] The Maven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93wiNSyX3js

[3.12] Video Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aewG_GQYSCk

[3.12] Awakener 8 with 7 seconds in last phase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YrjGfEg4k

[3.12] Uber Elder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSNWMqPF7Nw

Playstyle:
We use Blazing Salvo with Intensify for tough enemies and Fireball (in our gloves) for clear speed. This playstyle is very satisfying because we have different tools for different situations and can react accordingly. Our cooldowns are Vaal Fireball for clear speed and Vaal Grace for defence. We are very mobile with Shield Charge and can use Flame Dash as a gap closer. We generate Fortify on hit with shield charge. We use Arcanist Brand to trigger Flame Wall (added fire damage), Assassin's Mark (power charges and crit) and Blade Blast (unnerve)/Cold Snap(frenzy charges for clear)/Frost Shield (defence).

Due to the nature of self casting the character needs to stand still to do DPS. This is why this build invests heavily into defences and is able to survive all content.


Inquisitor:
This build utilizes the Inquisitor Ascendancy to gain permanent uptime on Consecrated Ground, which leads to infinite "mana" sustain due to Eldritch Battery. Inquisitor also gains Critical Strike Chance and ignores Elemental Resistances of enemies.


DPS Layers:
Critical Strikes, Frenzy and Power Charges, Eldritch Battery, Ignore Enemy Resistances, Assassin's Mark, Culling Strike, Unnerve, Tailwind, Onslaught, Arcane Surge (cheap Watcher's Eye)


Defensive Layers:
6k Life + 2k ES (MoM), Max Attack and Spell Block (Glancing Blows), Recover 5% of Life when you Block, Fortify, Endurance Charges, Elemental Ailment Immunity, Global Chance to Blind, Immortal Call (CWDT), Life+ES leech

Pros:
- Strong boss DPS
- High clear speed
- Many defensive layers
- Action-oriented playstyle
- Fire!

Cons:
- Needs to stand still to do DPS
- Expensive to reach full potential
- Cannot do elemental reflect

For the PoB link see at the beginning of the guide.

Ascendancy Order:
1. Sanctuary
2. Pious Path (for permanent Consecrated Ground)
3. Righteous Providence (Crit Chance)
4. Inevitable Judgement (Ignore Monster Elemental Resistance)

Bandits:
Kill All

Pantheons:
Disclaimer: Pantheons are meant to be swapped depending on content, but here are some general suggestions.
Major: Soul of the Brine King (or Solaris, if you have other stun avoidance)
Minor: Soul of Shakari (or Tukohama, if you have a poison flask)

Body Armour: Blazing Salvo = Intensify = Pinpoint = Increased Critical Damage = Concentrated Effect = (Anomalous) Spell Echo

Weapon: Shield Charge = Fortify = Faster Attacks

Gloves: Vaal Fireball = Elemental Focus = (Anomalous) Spell Echo = Greater Multiple Projectiles
Alternative: Use (Anomalous) Added Cold Damage instead of Elemental Focus for corpse removal (like against Porcupines or DD). It is significantly less DPS, but insane for survivability.

Boots: Arcanist Brand = Cold Snap = Assassin's Mark (with quality!) = Flame Wall
Change Cold Snap to Blade Blast, when you get the frenzy mod on your body armour. You can also use Frost Shield for defence, especially as soon as you have your unnerve cluster jewel.

If you have a 4 second trigger weapon, use this setup in your weapon and move the Shield Charge setup to the Boots. Add Vaal Righteous Fire or something else.

Shield: Immortal Call (Level 3) = Cast When Damage Taken (Level 1), Flame Dash

Helmet: Herald of Ash, Anger, Zealotry, Vaal Grace (as high as your Dexterity allows)
Use Arctic Armour instead of Anger if you don't have The Devouring Diadem.

Helmet:
The Devouring Diadem

This unique Helmet saves us two skill points for Eldritch Battery but more importantly allows us to use Anger on top of Zealotry and Herald of Ash to immensely boost our DPS. It also triggers Feast of Flesh to give us some extra defense.



Potential Helmet Enchants (in order of value):

Blazing Salvo fires an additional Projectile
Blazing Salvo deals 40% increased Damage
30% increased Assassin's Mark Curse Effect
12% increased Fireball Cast Speed
40% increased Fireball Damage
Flame Wall grants 31 to 47 Added Fire Damage to Projectiles
40% increased Herald of Ash Damage
15% increased Shield Charge Attack Speed
Immortal Call has 30% increased Buff Duration per Endurance Charge removed
Flame Dash has 30% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate




Chest:
We want a 6-link rare Body Armour of any kind. ES bases are generally preferable for this build, since they give us EHP and mana sustain. Final mods are:
- 10% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Hit
- 1.5% to Spell Critical Strike Chance
- Life
- Crafted Mod: Gain 10% of Maximum Life as Extra Maximum Energy Shield
- Resists


The Frenzy Charge mod allows us to swap our Cold Snap Trigger to Blade Blast to unnerve bosses and gives us Frenzy Charges on boss fights.

Unique options are: Tabula Rasa, Farrul’s Fur, Carcass Jack




Gloves:
We use rare Shaper Gloves with the following mods for our 7-link Fireball Setup, in order of importance:
- Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Faster Casting
- Socketed Gems are supported by Level # Blind
- Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Slower Projectiles

The secondary stats of those mods also boost our Blazing Salvo DPS and give us a Global Chance to Blind.

Furthermore we want to craft the following mod (prefix) to enhance our clear speed:

+1 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems
Projectiles Pierce an additional Target





Weapon (Wand/Sceptre):
Optionally, we want a rare Wand or Sceptre with the veiled suffix "Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill (4 second cooldown)". The crafted version of this mod (8 second cooldown) is not enough to reliably trigger Assassin's Mark, Flame Wall or Blade Blast. Here are some more good affixes for our Weapon:
- increased Spell Damage
- increased Cast Speed
- +1 to Level of all Spell Skills Gems
- +1 to Level of all Fire Spell Skills Gems
- to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
- increased Fire Damage
- adds # to # Fire/Cold/Lightning/Chaos Damage to Spells
- increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells
- gain #% of Elemental Damage as extra Chaos Damage




Shield:
We need a rare Shield with Shaper or Warlord influence for the mod "Recover 5% of Life when you Block". This mod is essential for our defense and is absolutely necessary! We also want a free suffix to craft "5% Chance to Block Spell Damage" (if we need it to cap our block).

Other good mods for our Shield are:
- Life
- Resists
- +1 to Level of all Fire Spell Skills Gems
- increased Spell Damage
- increased Cast Speed
- increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells
- increased Fire Damage
- gain #% of Fire Damage as extra Chaos Damage
- Chance to Block Spell Damage (instead of the craft)




Boots:
Rare Boots with Life, Resists and Movement Speed. Eventually we want boots with the Tailwind (and/or Elusive) mod, but those can be expensive.

Potential Lab Enchants:

- 80% chance to Avoid being Stunned if you've Killed Recently (defense)
- 16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently (clear speed)
- Adds 45 to 68 Fire Damage if you've Killed Recently (clear speed)
- Adds 1 to 160 Lightning Damage if you haven't Killed Recently (boss dps)





Belt:
We use a Stygian Vise with Life and Resists.




Rings:
One ring should be the unique ring Gifts from Above, because it gives us extreme DPS and is very cheap. Circle of Anguish with the mods "48% increased Fire Damage while affected by Herald of Ash/Herald of Ash has 42% increased Buff Effect" is even better for damage, but it is very expensive and makes us lose attack block (and 40%+ item rarity).

For our second ring we just get a rare Ring with Dexterity, Life and Resists.



If we really want to go all out, we can go for ring beasts like this one:




Amulet:
For our rare Amulet we want the mod "#% of Fire Damage Leeched as Life", which is essential for our survival. The temple mod even gives us a lot of fire resistance on top. Other good mods include:
- Life
- Resists
- Global Critical Strike Multiplier
- Cast Speed
- increased Spell Damage
- increased Fire Damage
- increased Global Critical Strike Chance

For our amulet anoint we use Arcane Swiftness. We can also go for a Talisman implicit like Endurance Charge on Kill, so we don't need The Red Dream jewel anymore.




Jewels:
We use the unique jewel The Red Dream (or to cap our block: The Red Nightmare) to gain Endurance Charges while mapping, which is very good for surviving Legion, Delirium etc.













Flasks:
- Bubbling Divine Life Flask of Staunching
- Ample Silver Flask of Grounding/Heat
- Ample Diamond Flask of Grounding/Heat
- Bottled Faith
- Dying Sun
- Quicksilver Flask if you really feel you need the movement speed.

Weapon Swap:
Sinvicta's Mettle for rampage. You only need to kill one mob with it right at the start of a map and swap back to your main weapons instantly. You will keep the Rampage effect for the whole map.

Step 1 (cheap gear to get asap):
Gifts from Above
Amulet with Fire Damage Leeched as Life
Decent Trigger Weapon
Shaper Gloves with Faster Casting, Slower Projectiles, Life and free Prefix
Ring With Dex, Life and Resists
Large Cluster Jewel with Mage Hunter (+ Essence Rush or Practiced Caster)
Medium Cluster Jewel with Wish for Death
Nature's Patience, if you want to use it
Jewels with Life and two damage mods

Step 2 (medium priced gear):
6-link Body Armour with Life and Resists
Shield with Recover #% of Life when you Block, Life and free suffix (or Chance to Block Spell Damage)
Wacher's Eye with Arcane Surge

Step 3 (high priced gear):
The Devouring Diadem
Shaper Gloves with Faster Casting, Slower Projectiles, Blind, Life and free Prefix
The Red Dream (The Red Nightmare)
Strong Trigger Weapon
Dying Sun
Cinderswallow Urn (random enchant)

Step 4 (monster priced gear):
Cinderswallow Urn (crit enchant)
Tailwind Boots with Movement Speed, Life and Resists
6-Link Body Armour with Chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Hit and Spell Critical Strike Chance
Medium Cluster Jewel with Wish for Death and Master of Fear
Double/Triple stat Watcher's Eye
Bottled Faith

This is a guide on how and when to use Skill Gems while leveling on a fresh league start. For Passive Tree progression see the various Passive Trees in the PoB.

Buy Fireball right at the start (Nessa in Lioneye's Watch) and get Arcane Surge after Hailrake.
Start with Fireball - Arcane Surge for now.
Also use Flame Wall to kill packs on the move.

After Brutus (Act 1) switch to:
Fireball - Combustion - Onslaught
Flame Dash - Arcane Surge (low level)
bind Steelskin on left click

You can literally onetap every single white mob until Act 4 with Flame Wall, so use that as your clear spell and only cast Fireball/Blazing Salvo for Blue/Rare/Unique enemies.

Do two vendor recipes for fire damage wands (3-link Wand + Ruby Ring + Alteration Orb) to get decent fire damage wands that will carry you through the whole story. They are absolutely worth it! Try to use rare Ruby Rings (use random Essences) to get better fire mods. You are going to dual wield for now and switch to a shield no later than when you start taking block nodes on the tree.

Get Blazing Salvo after Fairgraves (Act 1) and get rid of Fireball for now.

Blazing Salvo - Combustion - Onslaught


After Weaver (Act 2):
Blazing Salvo - Combustion - Concentrated Effect

Use Herald of Ash and Wave of Conviction after Chamber of Sins (Act 2). Use Wave of Conviction for debuffing bosses.


Use Zealotry and Flammability after Crematorium (Act 3). Get Anger as well and level it, but don't use it, until you get The Devouring Diadem.

Flammability is easier to use than Assassin's Mark and will be basically as good until Uber Lab. Use it for bosses and tough rares. Buy Assassin's Mark though and level it, because you want to flip it for quality asap. Get an Enduring Mana Flask, because mana is going to be a bit tight from now on until we can skill Eldritch Battery. Do not skill Eldritch Battery before cruel lab! Also, remember that you can use your 2nd weapon set to level gems that you don't use yet.


After Library (Act 3):
Blazing Salvo - Intensify - Combustion - Fire Penetration
Shield Charge - Fortify - Faster Attacks (switch to shield, if you are still dual-wielding)

It is time to get tanky now and care for capped resistances and good life rolls on your gear, because you want to facetank things in order to maximise your dps on bosses.

Buy Arctic Armour to level it and use it after Cruel Lab. Do all Vaal Side Areas to have a chance for Vaal Grace and Vaal Fireball to drop.


After Malachai (Act 4):
Use Lightning Golem
Use Immortal Call (level 3) - Cast When Damage Taken (level 1), remove Steelskin
Start using Fireball for clear now with:
(Vaal) Fireball - Elemental Focus - Spell Echo - Greater Multiple Projectiles. You get the Poacher's Aim unique jewel after Utula (Act 5) and use it to pierce enemies, until you get the pierce enchant.
Start leveling 2x Spell Echo
Use this setup now on tough enemies:
Wave of Conviction - Hextouch - Flammability. This will be very helpful until Uber Lab, when we get resistance ignore. After Uber Lab this setup is useless.

Get a Diamond Flask, a Granite Flask and a Jade Flask as soon as possible, you get one for free from the quest "The Silver Locket" (Act 7).

Farm a Tabula Rasa in Blood Aqueduct (Act 9) and start using this 6-link-setup until you get Uber Lab done:

Blazing Salvo - Fire Penetration - Intensify - Spell Echo - Combustion - Increased Critical Damage

Since a lot of people seem to have problems with survivability, here is a checklist the see if you have everything you need.

0) Cap your elemental resistances!
1) Do you have Brine King pantheon? You definitely need stun avoidance from Brine King, boot enchant or Cinderswallow Urn.
2) Divine your shield to 5% recover life on block. It is HUGE.
3) Get as much life as you can on every piece of gear. It is our main source of survivability.
4) Use ES bases to boost your lifepool for MoM.
5) Have a source for endurance charges (Red Dream).
6) Use basalt, granite and/or jade flask instead of unique flasks.
7) Get jewels with life and some damage mods (see jewel section).
8) Cut the top left part of the tree and go full into Constitution wheel + jewel socket with life OR go for cluster jewels to substantially increase DPS and spell block.

Since the crafted version of the Betrayal trigger mod now has an 8 second cooldown, we want a weapon with the original veiled trigger mod (which is now ilvl 60+).

Method 1:
1) Get the veiled mod (ilvl 60+) on a usable base (wand or sceptre) by running Betrayal or using Veiled Chaos Orbs.
2) Use reforge keep suffix crafts until prefixes are decent, don't have a caster mod or empty.
3) Use non-caster to caster crafts. For suffixes, this will always give you spell crit and cast speed.
4) Benchcraft non-caster mod and repeat 3. Alternatively, use augment caster.
5) Repeat 2-4 until mods are decent.
6) Benchcraft a missing caster mod.

Method 2:
1) Get the veiled mod (ilvl 60+) on a usable base (wand or sceptre) by running Betrayal or using Veiled Chaos Orbs.
2) Try to fracture the veiled mod onto the item with Harvest.
3) Repeat 1 and 2 until you hit the trigger mod.
4) Use any crafting methods you want.
Examples:
- Essences: Anguish, Misery, Scorn, Suffering, Torment, or Woe
- Fossils: Aetheric, Faceted, Scorched
- Harvest reforge caster

Method 3:
Craft/Buy a good wand with an open suffix and use Aisling in Research to add a veiled mod to the item. The unveil will give you three options, so chances to hit the trigger with this method are around 40%.

2021-10-21: Added PoB for 3.16
2021-08-03: 3.15 video added
2021-07-22: Updated for 3.15
2021-05-02: Updated for 3.14 - removed VRF and trigger weapon from PoB
2021-04-16: Wand crafting guide
2021-04-14: Build update for 3.14.0
2021-02-15: Soul Tether budget only now, added Glorious Vanity
2021-02-13: Added Soul Tether and changed skill tree to support MoM better
2021-02-09: Body Armour updated for MoM
2021-01-30: Added 3.13 videos
2021-01-26: Added Sinvicta's Mettle and Body Armor crafting guide
2021-01-21: 3.13 fine tuning
2021-01-13: Update for 3.13 Ritual League
2020-11-06: Added "how to become tanky" section.
2020-10-25: Updated tree, main links and alternate quality gems
2020-10-14: "Item Upgrade Order" section added
2020-10-13: Gear Sets in PoB, "League Start Leveling" section added
2020-10-11: created