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

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tanbunz wrote:

I've really been appreciating the detail in this
How do you get up to 5 brands? I only have one additional brand due to explosive runes.

Explosive runes & Runesmith

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Explosive runes & Runesmith

thanks for the help.

I am still enjoying this build and was flying through maps, until I hit red maps. I have about half of the watchstones now and conqueror fights are difficult for me. Now it feels slow and tedious and I have been dying so much I can't level up. I am also not sure of what changes to make. I spent 375c on a 6-link loreweave and it feels like it wasn't worth the price when comparing it to a cheap 6-link armour. I know I should do the eternal lab, and will as soon as maps give me the correct trials of ascendancy.

Is it still possible to beat shaper with this build in 3.9? What about sirius level 8 awakening level?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/H8eff2jh

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tanbunz wrote:

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Explosive runes & Runesmith

thanks for the help.

I am still enjoying this build and was flying through maps, until I hit red maps. I have about half of the watchstones now and conqueror fights are difficult for me. Now it feels slow and tedious and I have been dying so much I can't level up. I am also not sure of what changes to make. I spent 375c on a 6-link loreweave and it feels like it wasn't worth the price when comparing it to a cheap 6-link armour. I know I should do the eternal lab, and will as soon as maps give me the correct trials of ascendancy.

Is it still possible to beat shaper with this build in 3.9? What about sirius level 8 awakening level?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/H8eff2jh

Respec:
-Move 4 points from "Herbalism" life nodes (bottom right) to the "Purity of Flesh" life nodes
-Move 2 from "Deep Thoughts" to a spec into a Jewel slot (you only have 1, you need more spots for the % Life Jewels)
-Do Uber lab dude and then spec to Pious Path

Gear:
-Get %Life on your Tree Jewel
-Get boots with +Life
-Get Abyss Jewel w/ +Life
-Aim for a %Life Vermillion Ring
-Replace Choir of Storms (you need more life/resists/leech
) Get Amulet with +Life, +Resists, Leech %Lightning Dmg as Life

Gems:
-REMOVE "Elemental Focus" from Storm Brand 6L (I use Inspiration Support - Added Lightning Dmg - Incrsd Crits - Conc. Effect - Energy Leech Support - Storm Brand)
-Get Whirrling Blades linked with Fortify
-Look at my Links

I went back and forth on this build. It plays best with Acro/Phase Acro/MoM like you have. Playing this as energy shield build with EB/MoM was a nightmare for me. Yea, you can use more Auras but I came to the realization that storm brand does a TON of damage already. We have to gear and build for survival or you will get chewed up once you hit Tier 10 maps.

This is an expensive and non-beginner build (despite what the build guide says). I spent around 10ex for this build before i attempted Sirus (0 awakening levels). It was easy enough but if I roll a high modded T15/16 theres a chance I will get one shot during the run.

The build is fun, brand play style is fun, but this is an intermediate/non-beginner build that can be rewarding if you can invest the currency. Remember, spec and gear for Life, Life, and then some more Life - I promise you don't need more damage.

I saw a LOT of players playing Storm Brand with CI.

What's your opinion on that? Could you provide a little of approach for it?

At least, as far as i saw, like 90% of the players i checked was going with that.

Would that change a lot from your talent tree?

Sorry, not CI, but Shav chest!

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TeXpla wrote:

I saw a LOT of players playing Storm Brand with CI.

What's your opinion on that? Could you provide a little of approach for it?

At least, as far as i saw, like 90% of the players i checked was going with that.

Would that change a lot from your talent tree?

Yeaa 90%???... I think you're scanning poe.ninja for top DPS builds? Those are usually people are spending mirrors worth of gear just so they can top the charts on poe.ninja with like 0 surivivability. Like I see your 4L ball lightning on your boots???

Don't recommend scanning poe.ninja and copying others "Top DPS builds" and then trying to play with those builds.

To your point though - No idea about using Shav/CI. My experience with energy shield wasn't very satisfying. It may be doable. *shrug*

This was my league start but even though I liked the play style I felt so squishy and I ultimately moved onto something else. But after finishing my 36 challenges I wanted to come back and try it again, when I could also invest some currency and use items I'd saved along the way. But again it just felt squishy, if I took a hit from anything I'd die - granted my skill tree isn't all the way there yet but even so looking at it in PoB there wasn't a whole lot more to gain that would make me feel safer.

So I thought I'd try and make my own version, (my first attempt at making a build so maybe obvious mistakes or errors) a LL variant, a mix of this and things I learned from the Icicle Miner build I was playing and I stripped my Miner for it's gear to test out so obviously this isn't league start but potentially something to work towards. Changed the tree in PoB for more ES nodes instead of Life and went from there. From the (very) limited testing I've done so far, A8 T16 maps and meta's aren't an issue, I feel tankier and the damage feels considerably more. Main weakness is probably a low amount of ES regen, and mana cost of Storm Brand as I'm using mana for additional aura's but you get around that with an Enduring Mana Flask, may end up ditching an aura (likely Spider) to make it smoother as it might pose a problem on some bosses. As for bosses I've only had time to do 1 A8 Conqueror but that was easy as well. Aim is to test more over the next week with Shaper, Elder and A8 Sirus.

Here's my level 95 goal PoB for anyone interested: https://pastebin.com/sA94ek99

Just wanted to check back in. I now have done 36 challenges with this build and beaten UberElder for the first time ever on my first attempt with this character third overall (granted with a bunch of deaths...)

This might be the most fun build I ever played (tied with the volatile dead self harm build I played last season).

The one thing I have to say is that you really need to keep an eye on path of building in the late game and keep tweaking which support gems you use. But if you do that and get some good daggers (I played dual dagger), the damage you deal to bosses is really nice. Everything else just drops immediately anyways.

Thanks so much for the guide!

Totally agree, its a super fun build. Brands are like nothing else. I finally got myself a pair of Tailwind/Elusive boots (only 4 Ex) and the build feels even better. Definitely not a mandatory upgrade but it feels good due to how much benefit we get from action/cast speed (Tailwind) and some more survivability (Elusive)

Hi, long time lurker here. Thanks a lot for the detailed build guide. It is my second PoE character and I've been the appreciating the straightforwardness of the build. Really good for beginners.

I was wondering if anyone who knows what he's doing can give me a quick look over to find some low hanging fruits / good bang for the buck improvements. It seems like everything I can improve now is upwards of 1+EX and I don't know how to prioritize my upgrades.

Thanks in advance for all the help!

https://pastebin.com/Z99qrSmz