[3.13] Phoenixscales Cold BV Inquisitor - All Content ready - including Video Showcase/Guide!

Hey, Awesome thanks mate, didn't even know that the Pastebin import actually had a notes section /newb haha

Happens. If you use this as a leaguestarter, and wanna use archmage, there is no need to level BV as you will gain only minimal damage from it. I don't think I've updated this into the PoB yet.

I like this build and still trying to progress with it.
i have question tho is 100% crit chance important?
I compare my and your build and can't really find where i'm loosing this 30%. Sure my build is nowhere close to yours, but still. Any tips?
My pob
https://pastebin.com/6gZuXjnu

you are missing 1.x crit chance for spells on the chest and the Bottled Faith flask

Hi, thinking about trying this out. Has anyone taken this build to endgame and willing to share feedback? Did you go Ascendant or Templar? At what point did the damage really come online and feel good?

I am worried about an earlier poster that had a great •5 staff and still felt damage was lacking. Any thoughts?

Perhaps this is a good time to say a couple of words regarding this build in general and with regard to 3.13.
This build really excels in the lategame stages. If you have a good base to start from, you have medium-good results, but everything you improve will add more and more, instead of reaching the level where you invest 30ex for 2% more damage. This does not mean you cannot start the league with it or not play it until you have x amount of items: you will need to adjust your expectations accordingly.
I initially started this build in Harvest as a second character. I had a +2 Staff and an Explosion Chest with +1, and I used to farm T10 Lookout Maps for Harvest Seeds to gradually improve my gear. I was speedclearing them in a minute or two, and it felt amazing for this level of investment.
As I progressed my gear, I started to do higher Content and it was a breeze, yet I had far better gear than I had when I was doing T10 maps.
Having played this build this league as well, with about the same starting budget, it naturally did not feel well going into red maps, since I was used to speedclearing them and onetapping the bosses. It can for sure be done and I have had people doing red maps and they were satisfied. It was okay, yet not insane on this budget.
For my personal taste I would want a good starting base of gear to make this build feel good. I was glad in Harvest and even more glad in Ritual for having the key components, namingly a Staff base to craft on, the Explosion chest and Doryanis Cluster and Timeless Jewels. Yes it felt lackluster for Red Maps and Completing the Atlas & Objectives, yet if you can relax on that by either doing it later or having already done it, you can farm Harvest or other League Mechanics in High Yellow/Low Red Maps, and I personally think the new Atlas Expansion really helps with this playstyle. Run a couple of temples perhaps, run Valdos Rest maps for Harbinger Currency, choose your poison. I don't think this build doesn't work anymore or has outgrown its viability, just adjust your expectations accordingly.

In regard to the changes made in 3.12: there are very interesting gem quality changes that are QoL for this build. E.g.: Urgent Orders & Enduring Cry Warcry Speed makes it really nice to use now, Permanent Frenzy Charges with Blood Rages Frenzy Charge on hit, more Chill Effect, Life Leech on BV, just to name a few.
The mod tag updates hit some of the crafted items, mainly the Helmet and Boots, but this will only be a minor inconvenience.

3.13 hit the Inquisitor version fairly hard in my opinion, now that I played and tested it myself.
The mana regeneration from Consecrated Ground made it so that we never needed to worry about mana sustain, yet now this is actually an issue. Solutions could be Arcane Surge, Clarity or an Enduring Hallowed Hybrid Flask.
The penetration nodes are probably not even worth taking since there is so much -res available via Frost Bomb, Exposure, Curses etc.
With an Ascendant version with Inquisitor/Elementalist the damage goes even higher, gaining Reflect Immunity, an extra Golem and more ways to invest in elemental penetration, I think this is the option going forward. Inquisitor is still very much playable, there is no need to cast Frost Bomb, and you can easily run +Elemental Resistance/Equilibrium maps and its overall probably simpler.

The Atlas Expansion and Maven Orb Crafting opened up the Sky for Lategame Crafting. The 5% Explosion Mod Feels Amazing paired with 2% Spell Crit, both of which are deterministically Achievable, granting us a possibly 4T0 Maven Mod Body for example. The sky is the limit.

I feel like this is already far too much too read, so I'll cut it here. I will be reading the answers here a bit less often, as im going into exam phase, though I will still try to explain and answer questions whenever possible. The crafting Guide will be the next thing I'll work on when I get the time.
Phoenixscale