[3.6 Video Guide] Volatile Dead Inquisitor (or Elementalist) [HC/SC/Uber Izaro/Shaper]

I invested some currency too and bought the recommended weapon and it feels like I hit a sweet spot.

Got some improvements on my gear and adjusted my playstyle a litte and it looks like it's working very well.

Made it to t6 by now. But dont even have lvl 20 gems nor uber lab points. There's a lot of potential left and the sweet feeling I got while leveling returned.

Looks like my mistake was beeing impatient.

Anyways, good luck and fun with your new specc @NayleenMT

What are your thoughts of fitting poets pen into this build? Is it worth it for the added gem level or is the 6L still more worth while?

Poets pen variant is essentially a different build. A 6L VD will do plenty of damage.

If you want maximum clear speed, try HBL necromancer variant.

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Eluvex wrote:

I invested some currency too and bought the recommended weapon and it feels like I hit a sweet spot.

Got some improvements on my gear and adjusted my playstyle a litte and it looks like it's working very well.

Made it to t6 by now. But dont even have lvl 20 gems nor uber lab points. There's a lot of potential left and the sweet feeling I got while leveling returned.

Looks like my mistake was beeing impatient.

Anyways, good luck and fun with your new specc @NayleenMT

I had the 6L cloak of defiance, the doryani's catalyst, the starkonja, 50%+ crit chance without diamond flask, etc. Still felt like a wet paper bag against most bosses :(

What level maps are you running? I'm on a 5L with mediocre gear and have not had any issues with yellow maps.

Could clear red maps easily, wasn't the issue. Bosses were :(

How much ehp do you have with MoM?

5k life and 3.5k mana before I respecced

"

Pixle_Twitch wrote:

Noob question, wouldn't Elemental overload add a ton of damage for this build?!

The Elementalist version uses it :)
The inquisitor is scaling the dmg from the crit multipliers rather than penetration which makes EO a bad keystone for this version!

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Gumbilicious wrote:

Hi! Thanks for posting this build, helped me refine what I was putting together for VD =) A few questions, bearing in mind I'm still a relatively new player. First, what's the best way to handle fire damage reflect for this build? This seems to be a problem given the enormous amount of dmg you can put with a large group of balls, and it seems that overkill dmg is getting reflected as well (could totally be wrong here). I'm also trying out Lightpoacher and had the fun discovery that Spirit Burst is physical damage haha, but I obviously just need a secondary gear setup for physical reflect maps.

Finally, what're your thoughts on Righteous Decree (either via Sanctity for a tiny bit of mitigation or Elementalist for dmg) instead of 3 points in the Witch mana and mana regen nodes? I don't have a great concept for how well mana cost reduction scales versus mana regen, especially because I haven't gotten the currency to pick up the Grand Spectrum jewels to get my mana to where it needs to be for MoM (and they're going up in price!! D:). It seems just from eyeballing that it's a fair option for higher cast speed builds, especially when combined with high mana on kill (I got a chest that returns 3% of mana on kill, lovely for high density groups).

Edit: forgot to ask - wouldn't area damage be a superior stat to spell / elemental damage since, if I'm understanding the skill correctly, it applies to the corpse explosion damage as well as the fireball? I'm also assuming it scales the same as spell / elemental damage on the fireballs.

Hey,

Cheers!

You don't want to run Elemental Reflect rolled maps, other than that you're good.
The mana sustain is usually not a problem once you get a bigger mana pool, however, reaching a point where you have enough mana to take those big hits without any regeneration time being required is crucial. High flat mana providing abyssal jewels gives less than Grand Specs but can work as a decent substitute and can also bring some other decent mods but buying a blue one with a high flat mana roll should work alrightish!

Correct, though the corpse explosion is not a damage source we really prioritise hence my prio scaling in the guide to avoid confusion for newer players.

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Eluvex wrote:

"

Giving out this one a try, only level 80 atm and the character feels extremely squishy.

Sure I can dish out a lot dmg but the second something that doesn't insta die to the balls looks at me I'm dead in 2 seconds since there's basically 0 defense besides MoM.

Anyone else having that problem ? Just got destroyed by the T10 Bog boss, coming out from my summoner with MoM and max block / spell block it feels like I'm playing completely naked...

Character is DeadlyMcBalls (yes I know, very original) if you want to take a look.

Edit : level 83, got my 3rd grand spectrum, now sitting at 5k life and 3.3k mana. Swapped for spell cascade for spell echo and finding it much easier (and the dmg boost is very noticeable). Still a bit squishy compared to what I'm used to, will have to see how it goes once I go full ham on jewel slots.

Hi, thanks for the build at first @Ghazzy.

It was really fun leveling and felt very powerfull in story mode.

Unless when I hit maps i got the same problem as NayleenMT. Sure my Gear is far from perfect, even not quite acceptable (resis uncapped etc.). But the main problem for me is the huge amount of time you need to actually do damage.

When i try to find myself some kind of good position to cast I need to much time and get easily caught by enemies. Especially in Abyss-Encounters and against enemies with gap-closers like leap slam.

Is this just an issue of the lack of cast speed and poor defences? I feel like I'm doing something horribly wrong.

BTW: We are talking about t1-t3 maps.

The high mana pool truly helps your eHP making you a ton more tankier. Other helpful solutions if you still feel squishy are:
* Decoy Totem or Spell Totem linked with Summon Skeleton
* CWDT setup (CWDT + IC, recommended lvl 3 with IC at 5)

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Eluvex wrote:

@NayleenMT

Yep, was thinking about taking Sanctity for 1% life regen, but I think this won't fix this problem.

Also proximity shield forces you to stand close to the enemy, like ... really close.

I switched the unearth-totem for skeleton-totem as distraction. Works better but slows down a lot.

I'm afraid to use my shield charge to get some clear speed (no sources of movement speed except for boots and 1 or 2 notables).

Placing a totem every 3 seconds is more safe but feels not smooth and you loose the ascendancy buff for using shield charge as an attack - until you use it to disengage.

I'm thinking about to link spell echo to my skeleton totem (additonal to minion life support) for fights my skeletons die too fast.

Spell Echo doesn't work on totems.

By adding a CWDT setup helps a lot for the tanky feeling. Whilst Spell Totem + Skellies are very useful vs bosses or harder enemies, then again, Unearth Totem helps with that as well. There are multiple ways of "sorting" it depending on the players playstyle.

I will go ahead and change the guide slightly to add information about this so that the guide caters to multiple playstyles.

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NayleenMT wrote:

Honestly it was super fun levelling this but too furstrated once in maps. I made good use of all the currency I had amassed and respecced to dual poet's pen (VD, unearth) with kaom's heart and some shaper rings for dual curse & life on hit.


It's awesome to play and just destroyed Elder with it :D

Will be adjusting minor details to cater to more playstyles which should offer a safer approach for the issues a few guys have listed in the comments :)

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Eluvex wrote:

I invested some currency too and bought the recommended weapon and it feels like I hit a sweet spot.

Got some improvements on my gear and adjusted my playstyle a litte and it looks like it's working very well.

Made it to t6 by now. But dont even have lvl 20 gems nor uber lab points. There's a lot of potential left and the sweet feeling I got while leveling returned.

Looks like my mistake was beeing impatient.

Anyways, good luck and fun with your new specc @NayleenMT

Glad to hear things are working out for you! :)

"

DrWafer wrote:

Poets pen variant is essentially a different build. A 6L VD will do plenty of damage.

If you want maximum clear speed, try HBL necromancer variant.

As you say, Poet's Pen is a different build. I'm working on a Poet's Pen build atm and honestly, I don't think corpse spell approach is the best for those wands. Will continue that build on stream in an hour from now ish.

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NayleenMT wrote:

5k life and 3.5k mana before I respecced

Did you try cremation against bosses that don’t move that much? Then you can focus on dodging stuff. A 6L cremation with high crit just melts bosses.