[2.6] The Curse Whisperer - Tri-Curse CI Whispering Ice Inquisitor - Viable for Everything

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ekunholy wrote:

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Boss Guide
- Phoenix:
Use Purity of Fire (see above). Facetank the boss. Refresh Orb of Storms often. Fortify. Kill the phoenixes as they appear. Bring Ruby flasks to be more safe, although that's not necessary unless you are doing it with -maxres.

https://youtu.be/n2LkrSRIz2o
When facetank gone wrong...

Spoiler

gear & character

Link to character with gear

Since this post from december I've upgraded every rare piece and also got 1 or 2 rare jewels

Btw I really like rare helmet with int instead of unique helmet.
DPS is still good, increase ES by about 2k, and make ew-capping resists a bit easier.

For the sake of safety, I'm not going to facetank him in next season :D
There is about 2 sec window to jump or run away, not gonna be as lazy as usual.

Finished Phoenix (with harder mods), Shaper and Uber Atziri runs on STD deathless within first attempt each.
Thanks for the guide! And may the Force Nerfhammer skip WI :)

Huge props for trying that stuff in HC! I'm too chicken to risk it all like that. :) Obviously, if the boss guide was written for HC it would go like this: "Dodge everything. And don't roll any mods." :)

You did miss these 2 things:

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Fortify. Kill the phoenixes as they appear.

and eventually the phoenixes did you in :( The debuff they stack on you can hurt.

Hubris vs BSC is a trade of ES vs DPS. For SC it's an easy choice: DPS is better than ES. I'm not an expert in HC, but in this case with higher DPS the Phoenix would be dead before the adds put that many stacks of the debuff on you.

That move you did at the start of the fight - I thought you would get killed right there. You need to pre-cast Icestorm on the center of the room (not on Phoenix; he always charges immediately anyway), then walk there, pop Orb there immediately and Leap Slam right there. You will land right on top of the charging Phoenix and get Fortify, and he will instantly get cursed by the Orb.

> Like this <

Well, that's why I play in SC: you don't get to perfect your moves in HC. I guess you can practice in SC before trying it in HC, but that requires leveling and gearing 2 characters.

I didn't switch the Inquisitor to the SR-CwC setup because that would lower his DPS against bosses. You cast faster than 0.35 sec while facetanking the boss, and if you also don't forget to Leap Slam every 5-6 sec it gets double awesome: Fortify + Instruments of Virtue.

About debuffs in Phoenix fight:
There are two - one coming with big explosion, decrease fire resist by 50% (like any curse, so overcap fire or use fire flask), and second is permanent debuff reducing max fire resist by 1%, and coming after taking down every 10% of boss HP.

Frankly, wiki have good explanation of this:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Guardian_of_the_Phoenix

I haven't seen any effects from little phoenixes so far, except one person died to them on multiproj + minus max map :)

There is one very detailed (but not so entertaining, especially after first 20 minutes) video with phoenix mechanic - https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/575hxz/needed_help_on_crazy_phoenix_map_reddit_pulled/

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About CWC/nonCWC for inquisitor part, there is my cast speed with echo and triggered extra cast speed from ascendancy:

Which is pretty similar to 0.35 cooldown on CWC

My logical choice behind this was based on 2 things:
- I can drop Enlighten
- I don't run out of mana after casting twice, easy no-regen maps, and easy uber lab
- This character is my boss killer, and extra fire pen is amazing boost

I didn't ran it all through Path of Building dps calc, so maybe I'm wrong about single target comparison

I guess I haven't checked the Wiki in a while. :) Yeah, that makes sense if it's all just percentage based. However, killing the phoenixes ASAP still makes the fight easier because it triggers the extra leech from 'when killed recently'.

Looking at your video again, I can see what killed you: tanking him near a wall. He charged at you, but instead of hitting you a few times and moving past you, he couldn't move past you (the wall blocked him), so you ate the entire hit sequence. And you were not fortified.

0.36 sec cast time looks like not all Ascendancy was triggered. My cast time in the Stats is 0.31 sec. I think you have Pious Path working there but not Instruments of Virtue. If you re-fortify every 4 sec you not only get perma-fortified but it increases your damage and the next Leap speed.

Here's something that I never checked: does channeling SR count as casting it every 0.35 sec? Because if it doesn't then you lose 30% inc damage from Instruments of Virtue.

As for the extra resist penetration, it's a part of compensating for a lost gem (you lose a good gem but you get the penetration, 10% MORE on CwC instead of 10% LESS on SE, and some damage from SR itself). I'm not sure about the exact amount of damage lost/gained but it seems to be about even. Instruments of Virtue is why I'm hesitant to switch the Inquisitor to CwC.

Btw, there is another bonus for switching: you also don't need Deep Thoughts with CwC. So that's 2 skill points, i.e. reaching all goals 2 levels earlier.

Yep, cast time must be 0.31 (I forgot to use sulphur flask)

And... dammit, you are absolutely right about channeling SR only providing buff for first 4 sec.
It kinda promoting active gameplay with better fortify uptime :D

The only thing I hate about staff and fortify application is:


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Threw stuff into dps calc (Path of Building)
CWC - 12994.5 avg hit, 0.35 cast, 5.22 sec duration
Selfcast - 12766.7 avg hit, 0.31 cast, 5.22 sec duration

After some rounding and few assumptions (target is so small that only 1 icicle hits, and all possible buffs are active without wasting time to reapply them, no changes in tree to sustain mana, lvl 84 boss-monster) numbers are:
CWC - 1 819 230 dmg over 5.22 sec
Selfcast - 2 042 672 dmg over 5.22 sec

Selfcast is stronger by ~12.3% with given conditions

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ekunholy wrote:

target is so small that only 1 icicle hits

That's a bad assumption. Bosses get hit by most of the icicles.

Size 1 is the tiny bugs. Size 2 is the regular character model and similar mobs. All bosses are larger than 2, most are much larger. And you use CE on bosses. The old Firestorm calc was pretty good until somebody changed the formula incorrectly.

can i play this buil with a marauder in hardcore? i have a 84 marauder i want to respec him

thx you

i died 3 times as a templar :-/ 1. i think it was my own bad 2.time fucking breach with lvl 20 ^^ 3. time my pc was freezing :-/

and i dont want to lvl again templar

i realy like to play this build

ok i found your marauder build..

but it is rly not that tanky as the other ones?

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Holzauge wrote:

can i play this buil with a marauder in hardcore? i have a 84 marauder i want to respec him

thx you

i died 3 times as a templar :-/ 1. i think it was my own bad 2.time fucking breach with lvl 20 ^^ 3. time my pc was freezing :-/

and i dont want to lvl again templar

i realy like to play this build

ok i found your marauder build..

but it is rly not that tanky as the other ones?

Marauder is VERY tanky if you go with the main version (i.e. keep Life Leech and Warlord's Mark instead of swapping one of them for more DPS because you already get leech from Ascendancy). With all that leech going on, my Berserker has the easiest time facetanking the Shaper of all the versions with similar gear levels. And the easiest time leveling with his combination of clear speed and leech - I took him to lv 95 in the Breach league without any effort, while my other chars always stopped at lv 91-93 in their leagues.

The problem with playing it in HC is with not dying at all, even once. And that's really hard on the Berserker. He has no elemental mitigation, he takes 10% extra damage instead, and he is not immune to stun until he starts killing. I've had a few deaths to stun by running into fast hitting packs, and a death to one of the map versions of Merveil (her steam columns chain stun) before I learned to be more careful and carry The Writhing Jar. And I got 'suicide bombed' several times in -maxres maps by Volatile rares that charge from off-screen and explode near you before you can even react.

Of course, if you have a lot of experience in HC you should already know to avoid EW, -maxres, reflect, leech/curse immune and probably even +dmg maps. And don't run headfirst into the packs. So yes, if you are very careful you can definitely play it in HC as Berserker. Once the leech starts, he's almost unkillable (if the boss doesn't have 1-shot attacks that is). But my experience in HC is very limited and I can't say if it's a good or bad idea to try.

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ekunholy wrote:

Yep, cast time must be 0.31 (I forgot to use sulphur flask)

And... dammit, you are absolutely right about channeling SR only providing buff for first 4 sec.
It kinda promoting active gameplay with better fortify uptime :D

The only thing I hate about staff and fortify application is:


---
Threw stuff into dps calc (Path of Building)
CWC - 12994.5 avg hit, 0.35 cast, 5.22 sec duration
Selfcast - 12766.7 avg hit, 0.31 cast, 5.22 sec duration

After some rounding and few assumptions (target is so small that only 1 icicle hits, and all possible buffs are active without wasting time to reapply them, no changes in tree to sustain mana, lvl 84 boss-monster) numbers are:
CWC - 1 819 230 dmg over 5.22 sec
Selfcast - 2 042 672 dmg over 5.22 sec

Selfcast is stronger by ~12.3% with given conditions

So self cast is higher damage, is this true in the case of the witch-version as well?

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Kurnis wrote:

So self cast is higher damage, is this true in the case of the witch-version as well?

I don't think so. Elementalist doesn't get the casting speed of the Inquisitor. A part of the self-casting DPS for that version also comes from the Lightning Golem's casting speed bonus, and switching to CwC allows you to use Ice Golem instead with a nice damage bonus from Liege of the Primordial.

For all versions except the Inquisitor, CwC is clearly better.

GGG just announced that Pyre will be nerfed in 2.6. Which means we are going back to the old fire conversion scheme: AoF + CtF + Perandus Signet. It will result in slightly lower DPS and slightly higher ES. Nothing major.

Also, the 12% block mod on the staff is getting buffed to 18%. Nice.

Stay tuned for more announcements from GGG.