[On Hold] Storm Brand Inquisitor - Beginner Friendly - SSF/League Start Viable - All Content

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InsanusG wrote:

Hello thi3n!
I'm going for storm brand as new league starter, but I have a big doubt. Why Inquisitor and not Assassin? Does not Assassin scale better taking in consideration a gradual gearing up? Not really sure about that, I would like your opinion thi3n. Which is a better league starter and why. As far as I see, late game, Assassin performs better, but it does not make him a better starter :) Let me know please! Thanks a lot!

Assassin is viable, but you won't be playing brands until end game. Technically your league start will be orb of storms and you'll spec to brands later due to where the keystone is on the tree. Also, you'll be taking passives and gear mods for resist pen.

What do you think about that new Voltaxic Bow for the build?

Very good build thi3n, i'm going with that for my league starter, patch notes were graceful to us inqui ! Probably gonna lvl with arc, first time storm brand but i think i'm gonna like it.

I also considered the new voltaxic, but i really think we lose too much here : A good weapon with crit multi, spell dmg, cast speed etc... All that for a 60% chaos conversion that not gonna be helpful (cuz we're inqui and we got free ELE pen, not chaos), and i dont think an ok-ish shock is gonna overwhelm a good rare weapon.

Cant wait to know what you guys plan for this build after the patch notes !

Looks like this build got a buff or will be stronger - monster resistances got buffed ( we dont need to care because of our ascendancy ) and its easier now to apply shock. Maybe going for it as a league starter - was viable in 3.8 and is even more viable now in 3.9.

How important is the Mind Over Matter here? Never a fan of this because i hate getting hit then not being able to use spells. Also have you tried eldritch battery with storm brands?

New Video for 3.9 Metamorph League

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Is really necessary the key stone passive skill "Acrobatics"? reduce your armor and shield drastically, thats worry me

I like the playstyle of it but my guide is simply a guideline and you are more than welcome to adapt it to your own playstyle. I present my version of the build and try and show you guys what's possible with that version and my specific gear/ping/passive-tree setup but I do encourage people to go off the beaten path. If you're a newer player I would recommend following the guide more closely as it may be hard to understand why something is good... but if you're more experienced just use the guide as a guideline and make your own adjustments.

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Hey, I'm having a blast with this build, but was wondering: wouldn't it be good to have Warlord's mark on hit in the ring and Frost Bomb or Wave of Conviction?

These are great things to min-max the build with. This is a newer player guide so I try and have as little on the bar as possible as to not overwhelm players. If you're trying to squeak out optimal DPS and survivability consider Decoy Totems, Vaal RF, Enduring Cry, Boot swap charge generation, etc.

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Hello, could you please explain why you use arcane surge? Arent there better support gems to use?

I like getting the arcane surge buff from my flame dash or brand recall. It's a more multiplier for damage but be cautious to not level the gem too much and increase the threshold for the buff too high.

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Been having fun with this build except recasting storm brand all the time. It's pretty clunky. about every 30 seconds I have to get my 5 back up. Am I doing something wrong is it just how it it?

Storm Brand has less of a problem with this over other builds due to Brand Recall. Have you tried something like essence drain/contagion? What about Ancestral Warchief Totems? Every ability in the game recasts for packs and this one is actually on the nicer end of the spectrum.

Summoners and RF builds are the only ones I can think of that have "set and forget" playstyles if you are looking for that.

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Hello thi3n!
I'm going for storm brand as new league starter, but I have a big doubt. Why Inquisitor and not Assassin? Does not Assassin scale better taking in consideration a gradual gearing up? Not really sure about that, I would like your opinion thi3n. Which is a better league starter and why. As far as I see, late game, Assassin performs better, but it does not make him a better starter :) Let me know please! Thanks a lot!

I actually played the build as assassin last league and it went fine (killed uber elder deathless with a tablua in my latest video). Even with that I personally like Inquisitor more and found myself wanting to be Inquisitor more often than not.

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What do you think about that new Voltaxic Bow for the build?

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Very good build thi3n, i'm going with that for my league starter, patch notes were graceful to us inqui ! Probably gonna lvl with arc, first time storm brand but i think i'm gonna like it.

I also considered the new voltaxic, but i really think we lose too much here : A good weapon with crit multi, spell dmg, cast speed etc... All that for a 60% chaos conversion that not gonna be helpful (cuz we're inqui and we got free ELE pen, not chaos), and i dont think an ok-ish shock is gonna overwhelm a good rare weapon.

Cant wait to know what you guys plan for this build after the patch notes !

Personally I dislike voltaxic for this build since SB cares about frequent small hits as opposed to single larger hits for bigger and more effective shocks.

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Looks like this build got a buff or will be stronger - monster resistances got buffed ( we dont need to care because of our ascendancy ) and its easier now to apply shock. Maybe going for it as a league starter - was viable in 3.8 and is even more viable now in 3.9.

I think it will be a great league starter and will be using it myself in the upcoming league.

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How important is the Mind Over Matter here? Never a fan of this because i hate getting hit then not being able to use spells. Also have you tried eldritch battery with storm brands?

I really like it for the effective HP but you could def try EB MoM which is something one of my other builds (Bane Occultist) takes advantage of. To solve the "cant cast" problem I really like using an instant mana flask (Seething/Bubbling)

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Hey, I'm having a blast with this build, but was wondering: wouldn't it be good to have Warlord's mark on hit in the ring and Frost Bomb or Wave of Conviction?

Also worth noting that Warlord's Mark was nerfed 2 patches ago and no longer works with spells.

"Cursed enemies grant 2% Life Leech when Hit by Attacks
Cursed enemies grant 2% Mana Leech when Hit by Attacks"

hey guys,

will this be a good bosser without high budget investment ?

I'm curious how this build handled Blight encounters, especially Blight maps. Is the AoE enough to clear lanes effectively? Can you spread brands between lanes?

And a similar question for Delve - does it do ok pushing Delve a little bit? Not like crazy amounts, but enough to find Aul.

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How important is the Mind Over Matter here? Never a fan of this because i hate getting hit then not being able to use spells. Also have you tried eldritch battery with storm brands?

You can always run an enduring mana flask which will ensures you will never run out of mana due to 400+ mana regen per second and it has a 100% uptime.

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hey guys,

will this be a good bosser without high budget investment ?

Its not the best bosser since its not super tanky nor is it a 1-shot build, but it can do bosses on a very low budget as the playstyle is quite safe and the damagge is decent.

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I'm curious how this build handled Blight encounters, especially Blight maps. Is the AoE enough to clear lanes effectively? Can you spread brands between lanes?

And a similar question for Delve - does it do ok pushing Delve a little bit? Not like crazy amounts, but enough to find Aul.

Its not the best for clearing blight from my experience as the mobs are dense enough and have enough hp that it takes a few seconds to clear up each lane. I did not have very good experiences running blighted maps as SB just didn't clear fast enough, but this was my league starter so I'm not sure if its the same for top end gear. Unless the blight encnounter has a lot of interwoven lanes the brands won't be jumping from lane to lane. You can place a couple of brands onto each portal, but you'll need to recall them if a rare or boss spawns.

Its the same thing for delve, it can do it but its not great at it. You could probably get to 300 with a bit of investment but beyond that I would imagine it getting more expensive. From personal experience I start to find auls at 400, and 600 is when he starts to spawn consistently. You could get lucky and find him earlier than depth 400 but its entirely rng..