[2.3] Storm Call - a different approach vol.2 ft. Inquisitor



The 2.2->2.3 patch does not really changes much (at least in theory, in practice, who knows?), updated nevertheless.

I have decided to make a Storm call sorta-guide, since I think that this skill is greatly underrated. I realize that this skill is NOT as strong or good as the current FOTM skills that most people use, but I am pretty sure that storm call classifies as "viable". The recent buffs it received (both the direct and indirect ones) help a boatload, and with the addition of the inquisitor, storm call can go to places now.

How to do damage?
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Actual screenshot

Storm call has an inherently large dps, but it has a flaw - it has a 1,5+ second delay before it hits, usually making hard to aim it properly. However, with the recent less duration gem buffs, it can easily be compensated - with a leveled up less dura, it only takes ~0,7 seconds for the storm calls to crash down, making it much more reasonable to work with.

Now about the advantages storm call has:
-decent base aoe
-high dps
-lightning - probably the best element to work with due to shock/conversions
-6% base crit, good base for crit builds

Since we are running a templar for the sake of Inevitable Judgement, you want to get as much crit as possible - non-crit storm calls wont get the crit multi, wont penetrate enemy resistances, and wont shock/freeze - all in all, non-crit casts are pretty much useless.


How to sustain the mana cost?
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In my case, it was fairly simple - I have decided to make a pure MoM build, with an actual big mana pool, most of it unreserved. Since we are planning on massing up huge amounts of mana anyway, the actual storm call cost is like a drop in the sea, and we will regen it up almost instantly anyway. I am sure that u can make it work with either blood magic, or EB + MoM + ZO, but I have no experience in those.
Additionally, we will be using warlord's mark, (partly) for some additional manaleech - it is only really needed when you take a big hit, and your manapool drains, otherwise its overkill.


How to survive?
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Actual screenshot

In order to survive, you have to have high base life/ES, and preferably some kind of mitigation. My char has ~5k HP with ~2k unreserved mana for MoM, giving me a decent overall pool to work with.
On the mitigation front, we take acro/phase acro - it doesnt really take away anything, and gives us fairly high mitigation for just a few passive points.
Another layer of mitigation is the cwcd-immortal call setup - it is fairly basic, but since we are feeding endurance charges to the immortal call, it lasts fairly long.
And the final layer is actually the call of the brotherhood ring, allowing us to freeze most things, but I will be talking about that later.

Additional note on reflect: one of the main threats. Phase acro and our high healthpool helps, but it will still chunk you. One of the biggest threats to our build. When fighting against a reflect mob, space your storm calls out to allow your regen/leech to counteract the damage.


Passive skill tree


Ascendancy passives
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Righteous Providence: Really good way to get crit multi. It also sets a soft-crit cap of 87% (assuming you use inc. crit strikes gem, and you should, more of that later.) Since the base crit-cap (without assassins mark) is 95%, and your first storm call will hit an opponent who is NOT effected by elemental status effect, you will receive an additional 100% chance to crit (8%), and that number is not counted on your character sheet. 95 minus 8 is 87, hence the soft crit-cap. You can totally go over this soft-cap, it's only wasted on your 1st storm call - opponents WILL be effected by status elements on your additional storm calls, and the crit multi is not wasted at all.

Inevitable Judgement: The reason why we roll inquisitor in the 1st place. Saves us a gem slot (lightning penetration), allows us to use Call of the Brotherhood (more of it later), and just generally makes our damage extremely consistent on every mob.

Instrument of Virtue: Decent cast speed/spell damage node if you use leap slam to move around. It also speeds leap slam up. Buffed in 2.3, was decent before, pretty good now.

Augury of Penitence: Additional safety (mostly against reflect) and damage source. The "nearby enemies take 16% increased damage" works as a pseudo-shock (so kinda like a more modifier), pretty decent. The range is pretty short tho (as far as i know, "nearby" in the ascendancy's aura case means 40 range), but still decent.


Gearz
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Unique items:

Weapon:

Pledge of hands. We really need the mana, the huge spell damage increase is amazing (and it is something we lack from the passive tree, making it even MORE amazing), and an additonal link.
Honorable mention to Divinarius - If you make this build with EB-ZO-MOM, you can totally use this, possibly 2 of them.

Chest armor:

Carcass jack fits the theme, the aoe increase is amazing, and, most of all, fun. If you use Divinarius, or just want to be tanky, possible to use other chests as well - like a Lightning coil.

Ring:

Call of the brotherhood is simply amazing. It allows us to freeze whole screens, making everything much safer, while still having the ability to shock.
Its biggest downside used to be the fact that converting half of your damage to an other element makes you lose half of the effectiveness of the (used-to-be-mandatory) penetration gem - however, since we simply ignore elemental resistences as a whole, thanks to the Inevitable Judgement ascendency point, this downside just flies away.

Rares:
Fairly usual stuff - hp, resist, mana (dont skip base mana out - your unreserved mana should be around ~42% of your HP pool if you want to take full advantage of MoM). Try to get crit on your other ring slot and amulet if you can.
The rares that i currently use:

Nothing out of the ordinary.


Gem setups
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Storm call
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-Inc aoe is amazing clearspeed-wise, and it makes sure that none of your storm calls miss against bosses, even while kiting.
-Inc crit strikes adds 2 base crit at lvl20, making it possible to cap crit.
-Less duration (also) makes it easy to hit all of your storm calls, gives a decent "more" multiplier, and gives additonal safety - frozen/dead enemies dont do damage to you, do they?
-Crit multi/faster casting: crit multi gives you a higher treshhold to freeze/shock tough monsters/bosses, faster casting gives (slightly) more dps, and more "fluid" gameplay. I often switch between the two, depending on the situation. Given a 6-link, you can just use both.
-Other (suboptimal IMO) choices:
-Empower: storm call doesnt scale that well with levels. Unless you got a lvl4 empower, even added lightning beats it.
-Added lightning: really good while leveling, gets overshadowed by other choices later.
-Hypothermia: only if you use call of the brotherhood, and even then, there are better choices.
-Controlled destruction: dps-wise, its really good. Consistency-wise, its bad - you really want to get as close to 100% crit as possible. With really good gear (meaning high crit), probably beats crit multi.
Concentrated effect should be skipped, it kills all the fun. Penetration gems are useless because Inevitable judgement. We get spell echo from our staff.


Vaal storm call
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I use two vaal storm call gems in my setup, makes it easy to space it out between semi-hard, or actually hard monsters - you can use both at the same time on bosses.
-Spell echo: a 80% multiplier. Cant really skip this.
-Inc duration: a 70%+ multiplier. Again, not really skippable.
-Inc crit strikes: Just like with storm call, we want to get as close to 100% crit as possible. Since the spell rolls its crit only once (meaning, if it doesnt roll crit, none of the lightning bolts will crit), we really want it to crit.

Other choices:
-Crit multi: in a 6-link, or with a single vaal storm call gem.
-Controlled destruction: same as storm call, if you can compensate, this gem becomes golden.


Mobility (Leap slam)
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Leap slam - inc aoe - fortify - faster attacks. Decent for moving around, really good getting free fortifies. Since we use a staff, whirling blades is not an option.


Herald of thunder curse-setup
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Herald of lightning - curse on hit - assasssin's mark - warlords mark. Pretty standard. It wont curse the whole pack, but it will keep your power/endurance charges up, will provide decent hp/mana leech, and will (usually) keep bosses cursed.


CwDT setup
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Cwdt (lvl10) - Immortal call - increase duration - Ice golem. Fairly standard, decent immortal call uptime. The ice golem will help you cap your crit.



Flask setup
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You can use whatever flasks you want, it really is a personal preference, this build does not depend on any specific flask. I will share mine tho, if anyone is interested.
Silver flask is good for mobility (faster movement speed and attack speed - faster leap slams), and can be used while dps'ing - it gives castspeed as well, after all. Thanks to this flask, I dont use quicksilver at all.
The "reduced flask charges used" mod allows us to use this flask 2 times without recharging.

Quartz flask is probably not a popular choice - however, with acro/phase acro, it gives ~17%/~14% damage reduction against dodgeable/spell dodgeable stuff. Good for conserving endurance charges (since its a binary, CwDT wont even pop if you dodge), and good against reflect (the nerf to resistance flasks, and the use of Call of the brotherhood makes it hard to mitigate reflect with potions aside quartz.)
It should be rolled to "increased duration" to match with the other 3 potions, but i was unlucky with it so far :(

Every mitigation so far has been binary, meanig if something actually DOES hit you, it's going to hurt. You can make it hurt less with a basalt. Should be rolled to "reduced flask charges used", like the silver flask.

Fairly standard instant HP flasks. You have decent regen and leech for sustain, you only really need it for "oh shit" moments. Since i have -60% chaos res, the poison removal flask is wellcome.


Actual gameplay footage
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-res Arsenal (nuking the reflect mob was TOTALLY intentional, khm..)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA1QTgLa0go&feature=youtu.be
Courtyard (somewhat potato quality)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOwoyrithhg&feature=youtu.be
Last edited by Febrile#2480 on May 28, 2016, 4:29:42 AM
Last bumped on Dec 8, 2016, 2:04:20 PM
Nice Job Bro...

Very good Guide...
Thanks!

Uploaded a -res Arsenal run as well. Had a close call on a reflect mob, that bugger hid in the shadows :)
Hi

I like a lot the idea of this build, thanks for posting.
Trying to follow the guide as close as possible with the things I have but I am nowhere near the defense and dps that you have on your character.

Could you check my profile and give any advice in what am doing wrong and what can I do to make it better?

Thanks!

Sure stuff, just set ur profile to public, cant view ur char otherwise ^^
Thanks! total noob here, I think now should work?
Okay, 2 easily fixable, but huge problems:
-spec out of avatar of fire (why do you have that o.O)
-remove romira's banquet (makes u lose your powercharges on crit, and you do crit a lot)
Looks pretty good otherwise - spec out of arcane focus tho, you dont have any reasonable energy shield, and acro halves even that amount.
I don't know why I had that lol.

Thanks a lot for the advice, will do :)

Other question, between the choice of the carcass that I have now or a shav still is better the carcass?
And what about a 6l astral plate if I craft it , will be better maybe?


Wow, I did those changes and the difference was day and night. Now I am at almost 8k per shot and before 4.5 m thank you!
I have been testing this out and have really enjoyed it as a change from a Hierophant non crit. A recent change I made was to 6 link the Curse On Hit set up so I could include an Empower and Enhance. This left my gloves open to experiment.

I am having a lot of fun with Frost Bomb + Spell Echo + Increased Area of Effect + Less Duration.

I also finally got Call of The Brotherhood. So that converted damage is now getting some sweet -20% x2 for each Frost Bomb pulse.

Just wondering if this seems to be a good idea or if any other variations have worked.

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