Sacred 2:Inquisitor - "Corpse Explosion" Necro (caster), a caster Inquisitor designed to take on HC till the level cap

Inquisitor - "Corpse Explosion" Necro (caster) By gasconron Introduction: Just Like my Invinci Shadow Warrior guide, this is going to be very equipment extensive. The objective of this guide is to direct you from Silver to Niobium mainly by levelling and just playing through the difficulties just doing the main campaign. Then upon reaching Niob, play Sacred 2, the way it should be played. Before making this guide There will be overlaps with the other guides posted by other users in this section due to the limits of a Caster Inquisitor's "variation." However, you will notice that I've modded some Combat Arts differently from the majority of the other Caster guides and I will be discussing specific equipment choices and why I chose them in contrast to the "general opinion" of what to use. As this is a HC caster you would want the optimal gear you can get. You will need niob Shoppers and Smithers and a hella' lucky EP Pyromancer Farmer or Dryad, for certain pieces of gear you need/want via end game. Skill Selection: level 2: Armor Lore - 75 pts max keep it at char level and stop at mastery. Inquisitors do not enjoy any Combat Art reducing buffs, we need this skill first because of 2 reasons. Helps decrease armor penalty to regen, and it enables us to wear higher armor at lower levels, this is especially good for us because this is a Caster HC build. level 3: Nefarious Netherworld Lore - 150+ (150-170) pts. this skill is developed later on, but needs to be chosen early to unlock the "Focus" skills. Like any other starter caster, you work towards making your spells spammable first before making them deal more damage. Put 5 pts, to unlock the "focuses" and leave it until Armor Lore, NN Focus, and AS Focus reach Mastery level. After that, increase at your own pace. level 5: Nefarious Netherworld Focus - 75 pts max 2nd skill that must reach mastery by level 75 level 8: Astute Supremacy Focus - 75 pts max 3rd skill that must reach mastery by level 75 level 12: Astute Supremacy Lore - 100+ (100-120) now we can take the lore. Leave it at 1 point for a while. let the + skills carry it for the mean time. level 18: Concentration - to allow for 2-3 buffs and further improve the regeneration times for our Combat Arts. After the mastery of the 3 priority skills (Armor Lore, NN Focus and AS Focus) Gradually improve this along with the NN Lore and the next skill. level 25: Combat Discipline - 75 pts max It improves REGEN and adds humungous damage to our Combat Art's. After the mastery of the 3 priority skills (Armor Lore, NN Focus and AS Focus) Gradually improve this along with the NN Lore and the Concentration. This is the primary reason why AS Lore can be neglected at 1 pt. Since the generic AS-based Area of Effect combo "CM + LA +(optional Eruptive Desecration)" is buffed up by this baby. level 35: Dual Wield - 1 pt It's only use is to let you equip 2 weapons that will Potentially make your overall char better Survivability level 50: Constitution - 75+ points This skill and its eventual mastery is a must. Increase at your own pace. level 65: Toughness - 75+ points increases our survivability... mastery is a must. any point in excess of 75 is up to you balance the amount with how much you put in Constitution. Stat Allocation: 25/75 ratio Vitality and Intelligence . I would recommend however that the 1st 100pts go to Vit. Combat Arts: Dislodged Spirit - gelidity > torture > wildfire ***1st Priority*** fully mod this skill before anything else in NN aspect I know, I know... completely unorthodox when the "generic mod choices" are: spite > deprivation > stimulate This skill the way it is modded is intended to be the primary bosskiller, when combo'd a synergy modded Raving Thrust + Inexorable Subjugation. This Combat Art is modded completely as a Spike skill, rather than a debuff. Let me explain: the 1st 2 mods are self explanatory, added damage... minimal, but it adds up. In a spike any extra sources of damage is always welcome... Wildfire is the main reason why this skill became our spike skill. What it actually does is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from its function description. Even though it says, "if target dies the sould held will explode causing minor area damage", all it does is give you an added chunky physical damage. Comment: I doubted my eyes at first, but after conducting a test using 2 different hacked level 200 Inquisitors (no equipment & jewelry worn, no attributes allocated, no SB difference), both using gelidity and torture as their bronze & silver mods, but using different gold mods, the damage gap was enormous on their base damages. On another test, I geared 2 different level 200 Inquisitors with ~+90 all skills & Combat Arts, ~+200ish% (x type of damage), then put used an elemental modifier on the equipped weapon to fit the equipped damage type % boni. The result: Dislodged Spirit - gelidity > torture > wildfire - - - nets about ~50k+ damage Dislodged Spirit - spite > deprivation > stimulate - - - nets about 6-7k damage Advantages: damage is great, you'll never have a problem taking down a boss, even at early game. Killing speed is phenomenal. Outside of boss fights, use this in a combo "IS + DS" touch anything you see and 2 seconds later = instant meat shield. Disadvantages: its a touch skill, so you'll be living like a viking.gif during boss fights, which puts you in immediate danger in higher difficulties (dealing with this problem will be discussed further along the guide). Inexorable Subjugation - brunt > menace > probation self explanatory... this is the generic modded IS. when combo'd with DS, you become a Diablo 2 or Guild Wars Necro Minion Master in your own right. Soul Reaver - zealot > source > zealot ***2nd Priority*** mod this until "source" to further decrease regen of Combat Art's making skills more spammable. Then proceed to fully modding IS, before you come back to mod the last zealot. again, generic modded SR for added defense, should be no surprises here. Eruptive Desecration - restore > violence > apocalypse 1. Restore - life gain, 2. Damage - 3. increase range - this is used as the clean up skill in the generic AS-based Area of Effect combo "CM + LA" add as the 3rd skill in the combo to finish of any stragglers. Thus, the corpse explosion effect, that you will see about 90% of your game play. Paralyzing Dread - despair > decripit > extention again, generic modded PD for added Boss debuff... Since you will be using a "RT (ranged) + IS (ranged) + DS (touch) combo spike" in every boss fight and at every moment of the said boss fight, you will find your caster ending up right in front of the boss. Paralyzing Dread ensures 2 things: 1. that the boss doesn't swing at you as much. 2. that the boss walks like a crippled 90 yr old, as you retreat further back to start your "RT + IS + DS combo spike" over again. Clustering Maelstrom - chaos > vortex > vortex this is the setup for your Area of Effect have fun in Swamps, Dessert and Orclands with this. Agro a lot! the more bodies collide the more damage taken from Chaos mod. Levin Array - disperse > hesitation > dynamic generic modded LA... should be no questions here. Raving Thrust - bedaze > vehemence > lesion this is the setup to our "RT (ranged) + IS (ranged) + DS (touch) combo spike". stuns the target, added damage, reduces base HP temporarily (technically since the combo is being spammed, the base HP is actually almost permanently reduced throughout the duration of the boss fight. Reverse Polarity - rebound > counterblow > exploit this will be the 2nd buff you take to add to your survivability. no surprises in the modding except probably your gold mod. exploit actually mitigates 5% of the damage taken to your minions. Since, you are a minion master, might as well take advantage of it. Mitigation is better than evasion in this case, because %chance to evade can be gained from various other sources, where as damage mitigation has limited sources and in the Inquisitor's case armor sources of "damage mitigation vs. all" are rare. At least in my experience. Seraphim and Shadow Warrior armors with miti sources were not to hard to find with an EP farmer/niob shopper (the rare ones are those, with good 2ndary mods and 2 sockets). For inquisitors, just finding an armor with a dam miti vs all with just 1 socket makes you cry blood. Zealous Doppelganger - incentive > either > companion meat shield goodness, however out of all the 3 buff you will use this will be the last one you should gain. Booster Slots: Slot 1 - Combo: Raving Thrust + Inexorable Subjugation + Dislodged Spirit Usage: spike skill, for champions, orcs in orc cave, boss killer Slot 2 - Combo: Clustering Maelstrom + Levin Array + Eruptive Desecration Usage: Area of Effect, if you prefer lvlling up via "mob hoarding" this makes it very viable. Slot 3 - Paralyzing Dread - - boss debuff Slot 4 - Mortifying Pillory - - use in early game as a way of turning the crowd against target you feel threatens you the most. Equipment (end game): **you have been warned this is gear intensive, especially on the wicked nerf on +skills and deathblow since the latest update.** First the needed modifiers and the recommended thresholds at around level 180+: ~+90 all skills & Combat Arts (im not a fan of + 100+ skills chars *cough*breaks game balance*cough*, except for shoppers), ~70-75% deathblow, ~30-50% chance to crit, ~65-90% chance to disregard armor, 50-60+% chance to evade & ~+ 175+% (x type) damage w/ a corresponding convert ~70-81% to damage type (chunk of lava, magic pearl, ice, poison fang) 1. Taking care of our death blow need w/ just 3 sources, this quickly takes out he problem of the nerf on jewelry bonuses: 2x Ignis Magica & Deylen's loyalty. a level 185+ of these items will get around ~70% DB, as an added bonus you get a chunky bonus to your spell intensity and decent increase to your Area of Effect Combat Arts. I know it's asking a lot but socket both ignis Magica with the rare Silala's rings to quick boost your crit chance & armor ignore 2. start hunting for yellow gear (head, sleeves or boots) with ~+20-24 Combat Art on them. 3 armor pieces with the mentioned mod preferably with a 2ndary mod that addresses the needed modifiers. headgear and belt MUST have 2 slots, sleeves or boots can have 1 as I barely see any with 2, if they do the modifiers are usually crap. Add 1 Maldrion's and that should put your +all Combat Arts to ~90ish 3. Damage mitigation gear (torso, shoulders and belt) - a. physical damage miti - it was a choice between using Insignia of Deference (helmet) and equipping a +20-24 all Combat Art belt. Or using Deylen's Strength (belt) and equipping a +20-24 all Combat Art helm. Deylen is probably the way to go since it is easier the get Insig of Deferrence. b. try to find at least 1 with 2 sockets... this is probably the hardest one to get out of all; Inisignia of Pain for a chunky evade chance%, added defense, and 2 slots. By now, you have a lot of free jewelry sockets on your gear and an 4 empty ring slots with DB and +Combat Arts are knocked out of the way, and all of the needed modifiers are partially addressed. However, you have "0 +skills." Now for the most boring part... Bust out your niob shopper and hunt for those +14-16 skill rings/ammys with 2ndary modifiers (crit, disregard, evade chance) to get them to the desired threshhold. --- After addressing all the needed modifiers, you should have about: 2-3 jewelry sockets left, and no rings worn. Depeninding on the sockets left remaining use 2-3 artamarks for socketing for increased armor, depending on how much you can spare. Shop for 4 rings with +50-60% (x type) damage of the same kind, hopefully with 2ndary modifiers...the 2ndary mods to the ring is up to you depending on what you feel is still missing (I personally recommend spell resistance... to pass against opponent Combat Art intensity vs. player resistance check.) comment: definitely, the most gear dependent build I've played. very expensive too with 2-3 artamarks, 2 silala's rings and 2 hard to find armor pieces. Leveling Up: In my accelerated (balance.txt x50 to gained xp) run, early on I just hoard farmed in the kobold region using the Area of Effect combo, did the Gar Colossus and lvled up in the Orc region until I fully modded DS, got the "source" silver mod on Soul Reaver, before I actually farmed the orc cave. It was to ensure that the combo spike was semi- spammable. What is good about this build is that you can opt not to farm the Orc cave, because you can level up minimally slower by mob farming, but increases your safety from early to mid game. In my actual run, I am at late Gold as of the moment, and still kicking ass. comment: I have to reiterate that due to frailty of this build, you must have booster equipment (above average equipment at your current level) readily available as you progress. Your "good" equipment 20 lvls ago is now mediocre... For that reason, I have 2 non-HC EP farmers to farm gear, 1 who has access to Silver & Gold LAN freeplay and the 2nd one that has access to Plat and Niob, for mid to end game equipment. I also duplicated my non-HC Smith/Shopper Temple Guardian when he was in Gold, and got one copy to Niob to serve the same purpose (it's technically cheating, but I don't really care making, since Utility chars is boring as hell to build.) Build Rating (personal opinion): Survivability (Early Game) - 2/5...you are generally safe because you have a lot of meat shields, but since your boss kill combo involves a touch skill, not really good. Survivability (End Game) - 3.5/5... it get's better because you gain bigger armor rating, damage mitigation. but bosses can still kill you in 4 unlucky consecutive crits. Damage (Early Game) - 4/5 provided you setup your Area of Effect right, and your RT+IS+DS combo early on. there will be no problems whatsoever. Damage (End Game) - 5/5, mobs are a joke, bosses are a joke... I actually timed my boss runs I kill the bosses faster than DW Serra and Invinci Shadow Warrior Game Progression - 4.5/5 progressed until gold faster than my Shadow Warrior and Sera, but still slower than my High Elf. level'ing grind - n/a... many options on lvlling up. you are not confined to the stinkin' Orc Cave. Equipment Dependancy - 0.00000001/5... to get to the desired damage mitigation level (60-80), deathblow (65-70+), crits (30-40), ignore armor (70-90), +all skills & Combat Art's (40-60) and still have slots on your weapon of choice to socket +base weapon damage w/ +damage% type rings. It takes a long hours of niob shopping, EP farming, unless of course you started the build, with all the end game items ready to use (just like I did) 1smile.gif... comment: same description as what I put on my Invinci Shadow Warrior guide, but finding the mitigation gear w/ at least 1 jewelry socket was really painful. not to mention using 2 Silala's and 3 artamark's. This build needed ~90+ skills and Combat Art's, while my Shadow Warrior only needed ~+50-60 to do good damage. (this meant more hours wasted on shopping for jewelry) Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion. See Also Inquisitor Guides Inquisitor Combat Arts Sacred 2 Player Contributed Guides