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

Alright, I've made a few upgrades. Specifically, I found a decent 5L armour that I could afford. 6L is entirely out of the question, it's just too expensive. I also got a nice set of boots, finally with life and even a little mana.



I think what I really need help with is upgrading my trinkets. I know the build is supposed to use an Essence Worm on one finger, but in my case, neither of my rings could cover what would be lost by the other, let alone what would be lost by the amulet in changing to a Marble Amulet. Particularly in mana regen. Both my HP and mana regen are just barely in the positive with RF active.

So, if anyone could make some more specific/individualised recommendations for upgrading my trinkets from what is posted above, I would be highly appreciative. My budget is limited, but I'm willing to spend a bit on this guy to finish him off.

Also, I learned how to link my gear :D

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StandardFiend wrote:

I haven't had a problem with resists yet, but retaining them while upgrading my life and also maintaining the mana and mana regen is proving difficult. I have an Immortal Flesh so if I can well overcap then I'll wear it.

Straight off I can improve my boots. They don't have any life. I'm prepared to spend a few c on some good boots. Unfortunately, once I get boots and new jewels and trinkets I probably won't be able to upgrade to a 5l chest.

And here I thought this was supposed to be a "cheap starter build" :P

it is a cheap starter build.

the only unique you need is a 1c shield and you only need that once you have leveled purity of fire enough to use it.


you dont need a 6l atziri splendor or a belly either . i am still using the 6l rare i bought for 60 chaos when the league started.

you dont need a super rolled marble ammy either .. i still just use a bloodgrip

and you dont need mana life and mana regen on every piece of gear. it is nice too have . but frankly all you are trying to do is make sure you mana covers a certain portion of your life and your mana regen can handle the rf degen. that is pretty much it. you make up a bunch of that by just investing 1 or two points extra into mana.


my jewel investment in the build is 3c and i farm shaper.

hell i dont even use the blood magic ring... which makes my life way easier on gear.


look , once you start doing the whole upgrade to perfection shtick .. every build becomes expensive. if you want this to be budget you need to learn where to stop.


i haven't purchased an upgrade to my build in over a month. i have 40 exa in currency .. but less than a 4 exa budget in total and that is with 2 of that exa being blown on frivolity like a dory or a unshattered will (when it was 30c)

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Subothai wrote:

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Lanthrum wrote:

Can someone look at my current build and tell me why, even with what seems like good gear for the level, i am just barely able to out-regen the RF or is that just how this build is?


Thank,

In fact, you need more HP regen... buy some Marble amulet for example, stat: X% Increase life regen is perfect.

And too maybe pick some more life nodes, more HP = bigger regen...

That's not correct at all.. with RF up more life you have more damage you take from it (90% of max life)

You actually have a normal equip for your level, but you have to work with :

a) level up more (at least level 75) and grab usefull nodes : Deep wisdom, Purity of flesh cluster, probably Righteous Decree till u gain more mana from items.
b) life regen before max life, try to add some life reg item, or the lab enchant on your boots.

Said that, I suggest to avoid RF 'till you have at least accomplish some of these steps.

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StandardFiend wrote:

Alright, I've made a few upgrades. Specifically, I found a decent 5L armour that I could afford. 6L is entirely out of the question, it's just too expensive. I also got a nice set of boots, finally with life and even a little mana.

I think what I really need help with is upgrading my trinkets. I know the build is supposed to use an Essence Worm on one finger, but in my case, neither of my rings could cover what would be lost by the other, let alone what would be lost by the amulet in changing to a Marble Amulet. Particularly in mana regen. Both my HP and mana regen are just barely in the positive with RF active.

So, if anyone could make some more specific/individualised recommendations for upgrading my trinkets from what is posted above, I would be highly appreciative. My budget is limited, but I'm willing to spend a bit on this guy to finish him off.

Also, I learned how to link my gear :D

heya, for what I see, you could replace Beast Spiral Ring with essence worm atm.
You still remain capped with elemental res (all of them).

You idd lost some life but, you have all of your 3 jewels that are not sooo good.

Try to work with some #% max life and mana regen with them (avoid crit).

Hey everyone! I started with this build day one on Harbinger, I can add some tips or answer questions if anyone needs. I currently have the total max fire resists possible, 6.5k health, and 4,000 armor. Easy enough to do endgame and ect. I have not tried Uber Atziri or Shaper, but I crush Minotaur and dominate T16 maps without issue (I use Increase AoE for T16 to put into perspective). Health could much be higher, I use essence wyrm to make MoM insanely more powerful against the end game bosses. I still have two more health passive nodes to get, and I am considering the +1 to curses but I would lose a lot of health so not sure it would be worth it as I already do great damage. I also could perfect two of my jewels which is my next step. I believe with both the passives and upgrading jewels, I could hit 7.1k health.

Thanks for the tips. I think jewels should probably be my priority now. I've just been using what I've had on hand. Good jewels seem incredibly rare to find.

As a side note, I attempted Atziri for the first (and second) time last night with two friends. The attempts were pretty much ruined by one of them, who died repeatedly to the trio in both attempts. The problem was with his flasks, which he is inexplicably refusing to change. The second try we actually got to Atziri, but we all died to her third form.

I actually lived the longest, but at no point during her third form was I ahead, I was just barely staving off death until my flasks ran dry, and none of the clones were more than 10% down.

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StandardFiend wrote:

Thanks for the tips. I think jewels should probably be my priority now. I've just been using what I've had on hand. Good jewels seem incredibly rare to find.

As a side note, I attempted Atziri for the first (and second) time last night with two friends. The attempts were pretty much ruined by one of them, who died repeatedly to the trio in both attempts. The problem was with his flasks, which he is inexplicably refusing to change. The second try we actually got to Atziri, but we all died to her third form.

I actually lived the longest, but at no point during her third form was I ahead, I was just barely staving off death until my flasks ran dry, and none of the clones were more than 10% down.

For jewels, I check poe.trade every once in a while. You can usually find them for 10-15c. I go with +dex because I have a 6L and need dex for Swift Affliction, so it doesn't hurt to get it now if you want to go 6L eventually.

http://poe.trade/search/oramkokaboroma

The rest is your gear. I'm torn on your helm. On paper it seems good, but if you're going the armor route (it seems like you are), I would look into a Brine King and Immortal Flesh. You might get better mileage out of those, but you'd have to play in PoB to check.

Remember that ES contributes to your degen, so try to minimize it. Your belt has +ES.

You have no non-fire +elemental damage on hit on your gear! You need to get this on a ring or gloves. This lets you shield charge into packs/bosses, which triggers your EE and Fortify. Fortify will give you survivability and the EE makes mapping quicker.

Look into an Unshattered Will shield. For boss fights where you've dropped RF, it provides more block and 60% more channeling damage. Pair this with Rumi's flask + tempest shield combo and you're a little tankier.

Essence Worm makes a massive difference because you get a huge chunk of your mana pool back. This means that you've got more damage buffer, an extra slot for gems, and an extra +1 max res (+2 if/when you get a level 21 purity of fire). That 1% max fire res alone makes a huge difference to regen.

Your flasks need to be instant (flask regen doesn't help much since we already have lots of that) and when you pop them, you need them to happen fast. This made a huge difference for me when I switched.

If you want, I've been trying a the CWDT + Tempest Shield + Rumi's Flask combo and it's been pretty fun. Pop that + Basalt and you're doing pretty good against tank bosses.

Last, I would start investing in some % quality gems. You can boost your damage a bit with this.

Hopefully some or all of this helps! I'm no pro, so if I said something wrong or it's a bad suggestion, just let me know.


Edit: Made a comment about having more dps, but realized I was comparing 6L to 5L, my bad. Quality gems + jewels + 6L almost doubled my scorching ray dps compared to yours though, so it's a good investment!

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AgnateHeartstone wrote:

For jewels, I check poe.trade every once in a while. You can usually find them for 10-15c. I go with +dex because I have a 6L and need dex for Swift Affliction, so it doesn't hurt to get it now if you want to go 6L eventually.

http://poe.trade/search/oramkokaboroma

Ironically the cheapest item in that search right now is 28c. I'll keep looking though. I will probably end up needing mana regen on my jewels more than damage though, if I'm dropping a ring.

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The rest is your gear. I'm torn on your helm. On paper it seems good, but if you're going the armor route (it seems like you are), I would look into a Brine King and Immortal Flesh. You might get better mileage out of those, but you'd have to play in PoB to check.

I agree, my helm is something I'm intending to upgrade. Brine is good, but might be too expensive for me. I may go with Formless Inferno. I also do own an Immortal Flesh, and I'd love to wear it, but I believe right now it would uncap my cold resist pretty hard. I'd have to regear some other things to short it up first. But you're right in that I also need a new belt.

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You have no non-fire +elemental damage on hit on your gear! You need to get this on a ring or gloves. This lets you shield charge into packs/bosses, which triggers your EE and Fortify. Fortify will give you survivability and the EE makes mapping quicker.

I use an Orb of Storms setup for EE and EO, and I still Shield Charge to Fortify. My standard fight initiation is charge in to fortify, drop an Orb, then enough passes of SR to kill everything. Don't have much issue with map clearing speed. My one and only problem is with surviving bosses. I regularly get shrekt by bosses with big burst damage, and I just don't know what to do about it. My thinking is, if some T6-8 map bosses can bring my character to his knees, the higher-level content will just not be possible to accomplish.

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Look into an Unshattered Will shield. For boss fights where you've dropped RF, it provides more block and 60% more channeling damage. Pair this with Rumi's flask + tempest shield combo and you're a little tankier.

Looks like a sweet shield, I think I'll grab one after shoring up my other gear.

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Your flasks need to be instant (flask regen doesn't help much since we already have lots of that) and when you pop them, you need them to happen fast. This made a huge difference for me when I switched.

For life, I run both an instant flask and a longer duration flask, the second because it's a staunching flask (as a matter of fact, both instant flasks and staunching flasks are things my one friend outright refuses to have, which is what cost us the Atziri attempts). I'm kind of waffling between a bubbling and a seething mana flask. On the one hand, the instant recovery is necessary, but on the other, the seething flask restores so very little mana that I usually have to drink the entire flask in one go because my regen is so slow. Even with the bubbling I usually have to drink two or three gulps at once in boss fights, and then my load is blown so to speak, so when I run out of mana I can't fight anymore. That has cost me more than one battle.

If the actual answer is that, I can't do more than ~T8 maps and endgame content without investing hundreds of chaos into buying gear, then that's fine. It means I just might have to abandon this build for one that can do it cheaper. I dunno if my luck is bad or if I'm just expected to play the game way more than I have time for, but I can't accumulate the kinds of currency necessary to buy the high-end stuff. Like, 30-45c for a set of relevant jewels is like buying a new car for me.

I think 30-45c sounds like a lot more than it is, personally. 10c = 20 fuse = 80 jewellers = 160 alts. I'm pretty sure I had over 300 alts leveling from 1-60 when grabbing rares to inspect. Currently I have over 300 jewellers just from collecting while mapping. It's not a lot, but it meets the budget threshold you listed.

I was grinding atlas the other day and I easily pulled in about 10c worth of raw currency orbs over the course of 20-ish T3-T8 maps. Maybe it's how you're collecting and spending currency? Do you sell off your old leveling gear? Are you grabbing all the vendor recipe items for 6s and tri-color 3L? Every time you level, did you do a quick check of vendor inventory to find 6s, 5L, or 6L items? I can't tell you how many 5L body armor I bought from the vendor for 1 transmute, alch + scour a couple times, and sell for 5-7c. It all adds up! Not spending it is the hardest part though. ;)

Once you get some good pieces (6L, etc), you can run the higher tier maps and get your money for upgrades. With my gear setup I can solo T10 comfortably (probably higher but I haven't gotten there in atlas yet).

To be honest, I've tried lots of builds, and in the end it always boils down to being thrifty with currency and getting a bit lucky so you can advance. I scour poe.trade with a bunch of premade links to find good value purchases and save a lot that way. I've yet to see a 30-60c build that gets you all the way to the end.

For example, that link for jewels doesn't list any for 10-15c but check over the course of a few days and inevitably one pops up. I haven't paid more than 15c for a jewel and I've got 5 now that fall into that category. I didn't buy them all at once though (which also helps you save up for the next purchase).

So I missed something really important. You're not running decoy totem! This thing changed my life for boss fights and harbingers. It takes the pressure off you so you can focus your beam. Just before it dies, drop another, shield charge, and then shoot with beam again.