[3.0] RAT Ele Wander Inquisitor, Budget options, Life/Hybrid or CI, T15+ Viable

Updating the build for Fall of Oriath

The build hasn't really particularly been changed too much at all. It's not dependent on burning or any ailments so that had no effect.
It definitely hasn't been nerfed, except for the higher end ES approach
Probably best to run this build as Life or Hybrid now
Updating tree links
Still using RAT-KB-Pierce-WED- Added Lightning-FA or Slow Proj


Ran through 3.0 Beta as both Templar Inquisitor and Scion Assassin/Deadeye

Was able to switch over to using RAT KB on a 4L at Level 40! It was not great whatsoever with single target but I was using no more than a 100dps wand and clearing basically every white mob instantly, with the blues, rares, bosses taking substanially more time. I would heed caution or recommend levelling as something else but keeping the tree relatively how you want it for when you switch.

3.0 tree as hybrid life/ES

About me


Perspective on RAT and why RAT?


Build Concept

Pros--
-Inquisitor is a purely "Ethical" build , no double dipping/poison 'exploits'.(I have experimented with variants involving poison, but that is not covered here)
-Awesome farming build and a cheaper, easier alternative to dried lake vaal spark farming. No expensive jewels to buy (rain of splinters will set you back maybe 1-3c)
- VERY Low initial gear requirements to get the build off the ground
-Can scale pretty well according to currency investment and good wand/quality gems, but can do up to T12-T13 maps with absolute dumpster gear
-can farm T15 maps pretty comfortably with good gear.
-relatively very cheap initial investment
- 10%+ ES regen and 4%+ mana regen upon using Sulphur Flask with just one actual passive tree node with regen.
-can do atziri ezpz
-one of my friends that I map with, "You fixed the whole wander movement speed problem by not having to actually stop and cast Kinetic Blast"
-confuse people and have them ask you what actual build you are playing
-Memeworthy clearspeed for a build far from what would be considered 'meta'

Cons
-No Whirling blades/Shield Charge :(
-Movement speed with flasks down FeelsBadMan
-Peddling flasks pretty regularly to keep damage consistent. This is not a con for those not used to it, but if you're a new player, this is a good build to learn flask management
-If you can't play a CI build with less than 10k es, may want to skip, although you could build this without the hits cant be evaded shield....just going to get super pricey with all the rolls you would need on jewelry.
-Totem Playstyle, which is a huge negative for some. I personally don't mind it. I prefer self-cast wander but this is more of a lazy man's build without the true need for life/mana leech to keep attacking.
- Without further investment into totem life/resist, your totems (even lvl 20 RAT) can die easily in some situations making some boss fights a pain.

Flameblast Totems are all the rage right now. They are insanely strong for the amount of currency you spend getting the build up and running. It can do all content in the game as well (with the right investment)

Luckily for someone interested in running this type of totem build, gear requirement for it working properly is arguably lower than Flameblast Totems. With that build -- without enough cast speed, Pizza totems are going to clear relatively slow or feel terrible to use. With the cast speed however, it does in fact feel pretty nice to play.

It comes to personal preference. I personally believe that while Flameblast totems can safely do any content in the game, this build can farm maps MUCH quicker than Flameblast Totems, minus boss kills.

Other RAT builds, like tornado shot variants can be very strong but I am not personally a fan of bow skills or bow builds. Some people ONLY play those sorts of characters, so it's really not my place to say if this is better/worse/about the same. I believe that with the right gear, clearspeed with this build will be on par or better but slightly worse for bosses.

With enough levels to your character and gems, even bosses in red maps will die relatively quickly so unless you are wanting to play a build that can safely do guardians , uber atziri, shaper etc , this is a perfect build to spend 10c - 1ex to farm a lot more currency than you put in!

Even if you are new to Path of Exile or wanting to explore mechanics in the game that you haven't really done before, this is a build that could open your eyes to what PoE theorycrafting will allow you to achieve!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127221647

Please note I'm a total idiot when it comes to streaming and I have the sound of the stream
turned on in the background so for about half of the vod things will echo. FeelsBadMan

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127514686 is a breakdown of current Inquisitor in Legacy, and my original inquisitor that this build was written about specifically.

This is a video where I do basically break down my 'super dumpster budget options' , as well as show off current setup in mid tier maps, and show my original character doing red maps in standard to show the potential of where it can take you and what to expect. I also offer at least some explanation for different things in the build, it has poorly recorded audio and I don't yet have a very good setup or knowledge with OBS. Hopefully that will come soon..lol.. will also include youtube mirror soon once I can edit the videos into multiple parts and at least put *some* production quality into it.




Gear is mostly still terrible outside of the actual decent wand that I have.

Level 88. Debating on holding off on playing more of the build until I can get the currency for a good 6L regalia.

I would say the most important uniques, or ones you should prioritize:

Crown of Eyes -- Staple of any wand build, and adds a ridiculous amount of damage. Makes it so anything with "Spell Damage" actually mean "Attack Damage". Please note if you aren't familiar, CoE does not work with things like Righteous Fire.

Lycosidae- This shield looks like complete shit, and for most builds it really is. Why use it then? "Your hits cannot be evaded" eliminates the need for accuracy rolls on gear, accuracy nodes on the tree, and makes any wand you equip essentially a vagan-modded weapon. Having 100% accuracy makes the build feel so much better while leveling or farming and makes single target a bit less shit.

Rain of Splinters- Unique Jewel that I would say is the closest to a 'requirement' in the build. It offers 2 additional projectiles for a 'reduced' modifer. This is superior to using a gem link for LMP or GMP. Want to get as close to 30% reduced roll as possible.


Ones not required:

Presence of Chayula-- When I made this build , I already had one of these and initially intended to run this build as low life, but I couldn't squeeze enough ES out to feel comfortable in red maps.

Tabula Rasa-- You could technically use a Tabula in this build --easily farmable in the Aqueducts, but more or less a super-budget option until you can get a better 6L.

Dying Sun-- It goes without saying, but this is just a huge quality of life improvement to give more projectiles essentially for free, at the cost of a flask slot. More AOE for the kinetic blast explosions too. Again, not required in the slightest, I already had one and decided to make use of it.

Voidwalker-- I'm adding this here because it's a great way to get 100% pierce chance on your kinetic blast with the help of the quartz flask (which gives you phasing). Voidwalkers give you 100% pierce w/ projectiles while phasing. This frees you to take a different gem slot (like inc crit strikes or even inc crit dmg gems) without the need for the Pierce gem, which only gives 50% pierce chance. The only reason I haven't *recommended* them yet as part of this guide is because with Legacy league still being new, they are expensive for a true league starter. Definitely a great option to explore though.

*IF* you use Voidwalker boots, one complimentary unique you could consider would be the Ascent from Flesh unique belt. This thing synergizes REALLY well with the Voidwalkers.
"You have Phasing if Energy Shield Recharge has started Recently" , along with 10% movespeed, 6% dodge while phasing , 100 flat es, 10-15% all res and 300 flat evasion. Definitely something to consider if you go the Voidwalker route and IMO would be almost required in that case as the real limiting factor of this build in farming is movement speed!

You can also run Brinerot Whalers, as they have some nice damage boost + resist with a respectable level of ES. Definitely consider Brinerot + Crystal Belt over Voidwalker + Ascent from Flesh if you are hurting for ES.

Southbound gloves (temp chains or vulnerability on hit) would be a massive boon to poison variants, as well as non-inquisitor ele RAT wanders with Elemental Weakness on hit. Regular Southbounds are viable for this Inquisitor variant if you use both BLUE and GREEN dream jewels. These Jewels will work to generate charges automatically without needing the Frenzy setup, although Frenzy setup to generate charges would be great to have for bosses/single target to keep them up.

Why Southbound? Well, Southbound gives the ability to credit all of your totem kills to *you*. Would need to have some fire damage and burn damage on the Inquisitor for this not to feel like crap, but having auto curse application is pretty amazing without the reliance on Herald of Thunder + COH + w/e

Actually you could use absolutely any sort of wand.

With Kinetic Blast, although a well rolled high eDPS will work well, it still scales and works great with very little investment into your weapon.

Of course, results will vary, but for dried lake and low/mid tier map farming, you could wear a white imbued wand. I had 15k kinetic blast tooltip with a white wand farming dried lake at 270mil xp/hr. Actually hit over 300mil xp/hr previously but I was wanting to push at the time and didn't take a screenshot of it.



Not bad!

For reference, Havoc's Pathfinder variant, albeit using the Self-Flagellation mechanics that will be patched soon was reaching 570mil xp/hr in dried lake. That is near vaal spark levels of lake clear speed. As I will say many times, farming with this build, you are limited to how fast you clear by how fast you can move as a damn wander.

((PLS GGG Make Shield Charge work with wands :) ))



The Rare wand here is something that I spent lots of alterations on and eventually master crafted using Elreon's mastermod "Can have multiple crafted mods"

It is ~260 edpds, 310 total dps. That's likely going to be in the neighborhood of what you would strive for if you wanted to push and see how far you can take it.

A magic rolled wand with an ele damage roll will allow you to easily steamroll merc dried lake and farm at run speed. (by priority of ele dmg type : lightning > fire > cold)

Prioritize getting stun immunity either through Eye of Chayula (Again, presence not required at ALL) , Valyrium ring, or boot enchant "80% chance to avoid stun".

Weapon Ele Damage (WED) , flat ele damage on jewelry and gloves needed to max what you can squeeze out of everything.

As high as possible ES on chest, gloves and boots. Crystal Belt would be ideal at higher levels with es, resist and WED roll. Flask rolls a plus.

So, you're broke. Have very little currency or assets to put together what is in the gear section.

Please consider that I don't necessarily *recommend* this route, but if this is your only option, so be it.



Crown of Eyes- On a budget, this will be your "most expensive" item, and will run you 2-4c , there are some listed (As of 3/9/17 in Legacy League) for 2c. The rolls don't necessarily matter as far as the leech (Because we don't leech) but you would want to get as much ES as your sheckles allow for.

Thunderfist gloves - 1c - could potentially use this as an alternative 5L - making your links in the gloves RAT-Kinetic Blast -Weapon Elemental Damage - Pierce

Lycosidae Shield- 2c -- could use a regular shield but with no other investment in accuracy, 2c is a huge STEAL for the advantage this gives you.

5L chest - 1c as a white 5L (used Essence of Greed to get life, with hybrid base (armor/es) being best budget option. Can search for 2 Red 2 Green 1 Blue socket 5Ls on poe.trade -- you can use this search link to see exactly what I'm referring to http://poe.trade/search/ahusahukoragom
Links would be RAT- KB - WED - Pierce - Faster Attacks

Belt- 1c (want WED, life or ES + resists)

Gang's Momentum Boots- 1c - Easy boots to counteract Crown of Eyes downside with 60% fire res, also has chance to ignite and damage against ignited enemies with some movement speed.

Wand - 1 alc- I literally went to the A4 Merciless vendor, bought a white imbued wand, Transmuted to make it magic, landed a low flat fire roll, and then master crafted 1alc crit chance (there is a better option with leveled master for higher crafted crit chance)

Rings/ Ammy: You don't even technically need to buy any , you could craft with essences using ones that add lightning, fire or cold to attacks. Or just try to get as much resistances as possible. WED, Life/ES a bonus.

Jewel - Rain of Splinters - More projectiles -> More KB explosions -> more deeps. Free LMP without the LESS multiplier and instead just gives a reduced dmg penalty. Get as close to 30% as possible (range is 30-50)

With this dumpster super-crazy low budget setup, this is what it looks like:

With Wrath and Lightning Golem in hideout :


With Wrath and Lightning Golem + crit bonus from Shaman's Dominion by summoning a totem:

Gratz! Now go farm dried lake until you have the currency to get not-dumpster-gear :)

Without going into too many mechanical details for those that don't know, I'll give you the TL;DR for why this shield is highly recommended, closest thing to a requirement without a high budget where you can afford high Flat accuracy, Flat ele damage, WED, and resists on rings/ammy.

For example, a well rolled ele attack ring with flat accuracy could easily run you 1-2ex at the very bare minimum. My jewelry linked in the gear section is *NOT* fully min/max'd and are relatively budget options compared to something high-end. This is why this shield will carry your damage at a much lower cost!


So, explaining the mechanics of why it's so good and why stacking accuracy gets expensive and can hamper your damage otherwise.

Accuracy for if you hit a mob AND the success of if you will crit or not *IF* the hit lands rolls separately for each attack.


For example. You have 50% critical hit chance, and you have 85% chance to hit.

You have 85% chance to hit the monster
You 36.125% chance to land a critical strike (85% * 85% * 50%)

Let's say that you increased your chance to hit to 90%, with the same 50% crit chance.
You have a 90% chance to hit
You have 40.5% chance to land a critical strike (.9 * .9 * .5)

This means that for attack based builds, stacking an obscene amount of critical strike chance becomes less meaningful if you don't have very high accuracy. Most crit builds that I have seen have around an 80-85% chance to hit at end game. Having low accuracy severely handicaps your ability to land a critical strike.

In the case of this build, if you are not critting to get the full benefit of Inevitable Judgement, you are missing out on a large portion of your damage!

So with the shield :

You have a 100% chance to hit
You thus have a 45% chance to land a critical strike BECAUSE you have a crit chance of 45%.

With a diamond flask ("Critical hit chance is lucky") it will roll your crit chance twice on each hit making it much more likely that each hit crits.

Kill All - Attack Speed or Kill All - Power or Frenzy charge

I took Attack Speed in Cruel because attack speed is hard to come by on Templar. Could easily just get the skill point. I took power charge in Merciless but depending on your charge generation setup, you could easily take frenzy charge instead.

3.0


Legacy/2.6 tree

For this build, Inquisitor is what this build is based around.
There are other choices.

You could go the 'unethical' poison route with Pathfinder. You can see this being played on Havoc's stream http://www.twitch.tv/havoc616 He plans on playing with necro support, and has a buttload of movement speed. For pure speed farming, that variant is undeniably better, but as a solo build, not sure how it will play out.

You could run Hierophant with the free + 2 totems at the downside of a bit less damage. Would allow you to run a Mantra of Flames jewel for actually great burst damage and the potential for free power charge generation (when placing a totem). The Sanctuary of Thought notable also is an option , as that will give you free totem cost -- when the totem normally cost 80+ mana a piece, that's a pretty big benefit.

Occultist works fairly well with either Ele or Phys/Chaos scaling and requires a few tweaks.
Southbound with Occultist is pretty much a requirement as the on-kill procs do not work unless you have Southbound equipped. To be clear, on-kill effects will work if the target is killed by a Damage over time effect (DOT), so Southbound basically forces it to recognize each kill as your own. This makes whatever on-kill effect you want possible to be a reality, including Occultist's profane bloom with curse on hit corrupted gloves. It is ***REALLY STRONG***

Assassin is another option, works specifically (obviously with poison) where it is very much charge reliant. If your charges fall off, it's going to be struggle city, but with them up, the build has a feeling that the only thing limiting your DPS is the attacks per second. I am in the process of creating a few different versions of this guide for both Occultist and Assassin so that if someone wishes to know more specifically about those versions, that will be a thing soon.

Normal - Righteous Providence -- pretty much a no-brainer for any Inquisitor build.
Cruel- Inevitable Judgment -- again, a no-brainer. Stupidly strong and will accelerate your damage considerably once you pick it up.

Merciless and Uber lab will vary for personal preference.

Most every other inquisitor build will take Instruments of Virtue and Augury of Penitence because they are really strong. You *could* take that and you could make it work.

I wanted to see if the Sanctify -> Pious Path 4 point path would be strong for a totem build.

Since we can't leech, life regen via Zealot's Oath is a great way to mitigate a lot of lower-level damage.

With Pious Path regen which stacks with consecrated ground generated via Sulphur Flask, we get 10% regen and 4% mana regen/sec from consecrated ground! A huge boost, but we also get an additional 50% damage and 25% cast/attack speed from consecrated ground as well, making it super strong for what we want to do.

Why I prefer this over Instruments of Virtue *for this build* is that 'casting' a totem actually does not trigger this ascendancy effect. This means in order to keep this buff, you would need to constantly cycle Lightning Warp -> charge generating attack -> summon totem every 4 seconds and slows you down considerably.

Test it out and see what you like best, but this is what felt best after testing both choices.

You can use Orb of Storms with Power charge on crit (PCOC) and a few other options like a curse on hit setup.

I personally find Orb of Storms to be clunky and I don't like using it at all in ANY build.

What I did want to do to get a feeling that I was at least contributing myself since this is a totem build, I have been using a 4L --

Frenzy - GMP - PCOC - Knockback *OR* Inc Crit Strikes

which does a great job at generating charges , but I will emphasize that charges are not a requirement for this build as you can get by and farm without generating any. I mainly used it for burst and single target damage for bosses.

Use Knockback Gem to get pesky mobs that won't die against the wall where they will die almost instantly to a blast from your totems.

Ranged Attack Totem- Kinetic Blast - WED - Pierce -
optional 5 and 6L gems: Added Lightning, Added Cold, Faster Attacks, Minion and Totem Elemental Resists.

**IF YOU USE VOIDWALKERS, SWAP PIERCE FOR SLOWER PROJECTILES** It's essentially a 10% more damage boost, at the cost of not having pierce before you kill something.

You will find that the Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance gem (recently?) had 10-19% MORE elemental damage added in addition to making the totems more tanky. I would swap Added Lightning and the minion/totem gem for when the totems just wouldn't survive in high level or hard modded maps.

CWDT- Immortal Call - Enfeeble
Just used primarily as a defensive option. Could also use temp chains.

Enlighten - Wrath - Discipline

Lightning Warp - Less Duration - faster casting

You'll want to use a Lightning Golem , Vaal Haste (even post-nerf) - increased duration.

I was using Vaal Discipline but haven't decided what to substitute since it was practically deleted from the game.

One question that I've been getting asked or whispers about, is (x) or (y) good for the build. My guide here is really just a breakdown of everything that I've tried or suggest that may helpful. If you feel like I have left anything else out, please let me know and I'll be sure to add it to the guide.

Piscators?
It's an option, sure, and considering how cheap they are, esp if playing SSF, you could use it until you get something better. To be honest I feel like a blue wand with a high lightning roll will be better though. Ideally Piscators would be best in something like a low life version, but I don't know how to make a low life build feel good with both damage and survivability.

Poison/Double dipping?
The initial goal was to create a build not using Poison or explicit double dipping mechanics. I have since created both Occultist and Assassin variants and will include more information very specific to each here soon.


More Coming Soon

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127514686
youtube mirror https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VfrPafDWVQ

will also have youtube mirror shortly with annotations/links to me testing out various setups.
In the video I'm showing off dumpster budget gear, current (only slightly above dumpster gear) , and original character that the build guide was written for. Showing off dried lake farming, mapping in red maps T13-15 pretty comfortably, as well as some poorly recorded audio (my mic sucks) of some explanations of some of the mechanics or things you'd want to look out for.

More to come as more people ask questions or want to know more.