[2.6] Righteous Ray Cyclone Inquisitor | Life-based resistance melter | Shaper/Endgame Viable!

Pros:
- Heavily Automated
- Very Tanky
- High Damage
- Immune to all reflect
- Decent Clear Speed*

Cons:
- Can't do certain map mods
- Can leave behind a lot of stragglers

*The build can be slowed considerably when killing stragglers

Bandits: Oak - Kill all - Kill all/Oak (Only do Oak if you're generating charges)

Passive Tree:
40 Points
Start with Sanctity, work your way through Discipline and Training to grab Retribution, then make your way to Arsonist, then Combat Stamina and Amplify. Finally, travel up through Shaper to Holy Fire.

68 Points
Next you'll grab the Scion life rectangle with Constitution, then Armour Mastery and Warrior's Blood, then the Barbarism Circle. Explosive Impact is next, followed by Quick Recovery and the two Jewel Sockets along the pathway that takes you into the Witch tree.

98 Points
It's around this point that you should be using RF. Grab Heart of the Warrior, then work through Juggernaut and then the Bloodless circle and get both Bravery and Golem's Blood (take your pick on which one you want first). Once you have your Cyclone setup for EE, don't forget to grab the keystone as well.

Completed Build (No Charges) 121 Points
Completed Build (With Charges) 122 Points
At this point we mostly just top off the Life nodes on the tree: Cruel Preparation, Purity of Flesh, and Tireless. Lastly, if you're using The Red Nightmare/Red Dream for Endurance Charges, get Stamina and the regen node next to it, as well as the Jewel socket (where you'll put TRD/TRN). You'll also want Diamond Skin and it's accompanying Fire Resistance node for the Jewel effect. If you're not going this route, simply get the Heart of Flame node instead. Alternatively, if you want best of both worlds, you can shave off some of the 5% life nodes and use the points to get Heart of Flame for the extra damage.


Leveling:
Leveling this build is relatively simple: Use the fire skill of your choosing until you get Scorching Ray/Firestorm at the end of Act 1, then use those until you can sustain RF. You'll want decent positive regen while you have RF active, so keep one socketed and test it out periodically as your regen and fire resistance increases. You'll probably end up being able to use RF at around level 65, when you can use Rise of the Phoenix.

Thanks to Wendek for pointing this out:

"

Wendek wrote:

Hello, just want to mention that RF can be sustained as early as level 34 with a slight degen (as in, no issue as long as you keep killing stuff and using flasks, perfect for Normal Dried Lake), and 38-40 with no degen. Might require slight adjustment to the tree, but leveling with RF is actually pretty fun and makes some fights pretty easy, like the entirety of the Cruel difficulty including Dominus and Malachai. Only requires Springleaf (upgradeable to The Oak starting from 40) and two Kikazarus, all of those being super cheap. The Overflowing Chalice as flask is pretty nice as well especially for an Inquisitor, and is likewise dirt chep.

You need lots of life, armour, and of course max resists. Strength stacking can prove extremely useful as well, working well with Doon Cuebiyari (see Uniques) and giving you additional life. Life regen rolls on gear are tempting, but don't actually amount to much as almost all of your regen is going to come from the passive tree as a percentage of your max life, and since our life pool is large, this is a lot more useful than a flat regen roll as it scales with our max life (and therefore with RF's degen as well). Movement speed on your boots are going to be a huge boon for clear speed.

Dexterity is VERY sparse on this build, and you'll need it on some of your gear if you want to use a high-level Stone Golem gem. You'll also want some kind of cold or lightning damage to attacks on one of your gear pieces to trigger EE. Avoid any and all added fire damage to attacks mods. They will make enemies more resistant to fire. %fire damage is fine.

This build has no strictly -required- uniques per se, although there are a few that are highly recommended:

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Kaom's Heart

KH is obvious; massive life buff as well as extra fire damage and decent enough armour. People like to corrupt these, so if you're trading for one, try to find one with either 20% quality or is uncorrupted.

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The Formless Inferno

Formless Inferno does wonders for survivability, making use of our excess fire res as well as applying 8% of phys damage taken to our 88%+ fire res.

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Rise of the Phoenix

This shield is a fantastic way to get to a point where you can sustain RF via the max res mod. The additional resists, regen, and low life mods are helpful as well, especially when considering Formless Inferno.

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Doon Cuebiyari

This makes a 3-link for Scorching Ray much more palatable, as the damage increase from both the Iron Will mod and the additional damage per 8 str make Strength stacking all that more beneficial on this build.

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Shaper's Seed

Shaper's Seed gives us some strength and a very nice 2% life regen. This is a great leveling option as it's cheap and can be used from level 16.

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Xoph's Heart

This is a luxury item, as it is rather pricey, but if you can afford one it adds a good amount of damage, strength, and fire res (for Formless Inferno). The fated version (Xoph's Blood) gives us a lot more life and strength, but it also gives us Avatar of Fire which negates our ability to use EE.

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Doryani's Invitation

The Fire damage variant of Doryani's invitation is by no means BiS, but it's a cheap, easy solution to round out our resistances and buff our damage, as well as giving us a bit of life leech (although I haven't noticed the effect too much).

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Belt of the Deceiver

While you can definitely get better rares than Belt of the Deceiver, it's still a valid option if for example we have all of our resistances maxed. It gives us a bit of strength and life, as well as reduced damage taken from crits. Nearby enemies also take 10% more damage thanks to the Intimidation effect.

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Immortal Flesh

Immortal Flesh gives a ton of life and regen, as well as a nice 40% to armour while not afflicted with a status ailment (which is basically all the time thanks to the Pious Path Ascendancy node).

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The Red Dream/Nightmare

The Red Dream, or it's upgraded variant, Nightmare, is definitely a luxury item, but it does add a good amount of survivability to the build. The endurance charges give us additional phys reduction and fire res, and they also allow us to use Immortal Call more effectively. Nightmare's block change is a plus, but not necessary. With this, you can try to implement Kaom's Way, which will give you more charges and a pretty decent amount of life regen as well (I haven't been able to work it in yet on my char).

4L: Righteous Fire - Increased Burning Damage - Elemental Focus - Increaesd AoE/Concentrated Effect (Inc. AoE will work for 99% of content, but Conc. Effect might make some endgame bosses easier)

3L (Doon Cuebiyari): Scorching Ray - Elemental Focus - Controlled Destruction

4L: Cyclone - Curse on Hit - Flammability - Fortify

4L: Summon Stone Golem - Immortal Call - Cast When Damage Taken - Increased Duration

3L: Flame Dash - Faster Casting/Vitality - Purity of Fire

Rejuvenation totem works well if you can find a way to fit it in.

If you use an Unset Ring, you can put vitality in it and use Faster Casting for Flame Dash in it's place.

Quality is worth it on all gems except Flammability, your Auras, Immortal Call, and CWDT, and your Golem (since it's auto-casted and is usually recast way before it dies).

My Flasks in Standard:


You'll want one or two life flasks, as well as a basalt flask. The ruby flask helps add extra armour (via The Formless Inferno) and boosts your regen (extra fire res). A quicksilver flask of adrenaline really helps move things long as far as clear speed goes, and having two or three flasks of staunching is a boon, as bleeding can be very dangerous for this build.

Having increased effect and/or armour on your Basalt flask will give you a lot more bang for your buck when you use it, in my case maxing out my phys reduction (90%). Rumi's Concoction is also an option if you want some extra block chance.

Additional Option: Vessel of Vinktar
While somewhat risky, if you have the regen/resists needed, a Vinktar can substantially increase your damage with little effort. The flask shocks nearby enemies, causing them to take 50% increased damage from all sources.

Most of the build's damage comes from lowering enemy resistances to very low amounts. With EE, Flammability (lv20) and Scorching Ray at max stacks, the enemy will receive -118% to their fire res, which can (literally) melt most bosses pretty quickly.

Your cyclone setup will distribute both Flammability and EE, assuming you have some kind of added cold or lightning damage on your gear (doesn't matter how much). For normal mob packs, you'll be able to just walk through them and RF will kill them near-instantly (esp. with the recent AoE buff), for rares and some magic packs, you'll want to grind them up a bit with cyclone, and RF will do the rest. For tanky rares and bosses, hit them with cyclone to tag them with Flammability and EE, and lay into them with scorching ray. Remember: The longer you hold Scorching Ray, the more damage you'll deal.

Be careful not to get too cocky with this build, which is easy as it can facetank most incoming damage, but if you get lazy you'll die to otherwise easily avoidable attacks, make sure to pay attention to your health.