Sacred 2:Eye of the Storm: a Hybrid Inquisitor Build

Eye of the Storm: a Hybrid Inquisitor Build

By MTCityHunter

This is a 3 tree build, designed to utilize as many CAs as possible (everything but Eruptive Desecration anyways). I wanted to boost defense to stay alive reliably, but didn't want to go overboard so that I could flesh out the "hybrid-ness" of the build. I'm a PS3 user, and played this build as "console hardcore" all the way through Platinum by level 96. After that, I messed around a bit in platinum some more, and I dabbled a bit in Niob, but only faced the Kobold Boss there (went fine BTW) before I had a very unfortunate save game corruption. Needless to say, that will prevent me from finalizing any testing and/or fine tuning with regards to Niob, but the build performed very well up to that point. I finished Silver by the mid-40s, and gold by 75, just to give you an idea of how I progressed. I found that as difficulty level increased, the build actually became more effective and easier to play. Level 75 was a huge jump in performance (as with all builds) that made platinum very easy in comparison to gold. Silver was by far the toughest stage of development, although I believe choosing a weapon skill earlier than I did (50) would have helped that some.

I had zero deaths up until the point where my save data had to be deleted, but I won't sit here and tell you the build is indestructible. I had a few close calls, mainly in Silver and during the Nameless Guardian fight in gold when 2 of them woke up simultaneously, but Kral almost 1-shot me in platinum even (I shouldn't have been unmounted, as I'm aware he has a track record for 1-shotting HC characters, but I did make it after all; still it was a rather close call). Just be aware of your HP, and be ready to drink potions at the right times to save yourself. Besides, it was never my goal to make an un-killable character; I've played a high level Shadow Warrior and Dryad who were both pretty invulnerable (although my Dryad was vulnerable to reflect and debuffing), and this was WAY more fun. I like the threat of dying if I stop paying attention, but don't actually want to die, if you get my drift. It's like riding on a razor's edge: sure its possible to fall off, but ride it just right and man does it cut DEEP!

Skills

• Bargaining - 75 - better quest rewards and vendor loot. Obviously you can leave it out if ya have another character to shop, my 1st replacement choice would be toughness. My second choice would be GI Focus to get more out of PC and the other CAs.

• Concentration - 75 - need 3 buffs, and better regen always helps

• Combat Discipline - 75 - big boost to CA damage, especially the AS spells, and big regen boost as well, plus I like 3 CA combos

• Astute Supremacy Lore - 200 - gotta boost that spell damage to keep spell CAs on par with weapon CA damage, especially later on

• Astute Supremacy Focus - 154 - helps to use higher CA levels to boost damage/effects, and RP keeps us alive

• Tactics Lore - 126 - mod points for GI. Also a nice boost to weapon damage and crits. Could choose GI Focus Instead.

• Armor Lore - 75+ - great boost to all around defenses, plus mastery unlocks nice mods on armors like +mitigation and -detrimental magic effects.

• Constitution - 75+ - in combat HP regen and bigger HP pool to better survive big crits and make a bit more use of PC damage boost

• Dual Wield - 1 - Mainly for extra socketing goodness. Passive skill points from +all skills is enough to boost hit chance and attack speed is easily maxed later on, even without FF.

• Nefarious Netherworld Focus - 55 -For mod points to boost SR, DS, and PD; you could use Lore here as well, but I don't really use NU for damage and keeping focus for SR is nice.

This is the order I picked them in, but there's no reason that couldn't be manipulated a bit. I will say that the late 40s was probably the toughest stage of this character so far as it was before I got a weapon skill, and also well before I got my 3rd buff (SR), so my GI CAs missed quite a lot at that stage with no source of "to hit" other than gear. Bosses still weren't a problem because I could always lock them down with IS if I needed to once I disposed of any minions they had, but they took longer to kill back then. Nonetheless, bumping whichever weapon skill you prefer up a notch or 2 would have eased that transition immeasurably, as would have modding CE earlier than I got around to it.

Mods

• Callous Execution – bleed, stun, crits (1 rune). The other mods would likely be fine as well.

• Ruthless Mutilation - damage, stun, frenzy (1 rune). This can be left unmodded for a very long time (or forever if you prefer).

• Mortifying Pillory - armor reduction (moderate runes). Only bronze modded; note that there is currently some uncertainty over whether this mod and others like it work at all. If not, it can be left unmodded; the damage conversion is still very effective.

• Frenetic Fervor – cast speed, attack value (huge numbers of runes). Attack speed is easy to max even without the other bronze mod; its not difficult to max attack speed without FF up at all if you use gear that boosts it.

• Purifying Chastisement - magic dam, threshold, mitigation (runes added as needed to keep maxed without penalty). Perhaps eradicate may have been a better choice than merciless, since I prefer to stay at high HP, but the difference is not very large.

• Levin Array – range, movement speed, crits (1 rune). I went with -movement speed, but if you want to add boss functionality, -attack speed wouldn't be a bad choice. Similarly, the crit mod may help LA's damage, but the %LL mod could theoretically keep you topped off just like the heal mod for SR, which would allow for the 2nd duration mod on SR, so preference prevails here I think. You may be able to use it as a replacement for the SR heal if you really want the duration, but I'm not gonna bother. Again, crit it is.

• Clustering Maelstrom – tumble damage, range, range (1 rune). Maximizing its pull radius and damage to groups is important.

• Raving Thrust – stun, relay, lesion (1 rune). Great as 1st combo CA to apply lesion prior to other damaging CAs.

• Zealous Doppelganger - atk/dam, GI aspect, duration (Lots of runes). I only use him on bosses, and he last way longer than he's needed for every boss fight except the Nameless Guardians. For them, he can be up for 2-3 of the 4, so it's still fine. You could make him a buff if you prefer though to replace SR as the 3rd buff on boss fights.

• Reverse Polarity – magic reflect, melee reflect, +defense (runes added as needed to keep at max level w/o penalty). If you prefer ZD as a buff, and also like to use IS to raise mini armies, the exploit gold mod would provide up to 25% mitigation and would likely be a better choice for that playstyle.

• Dislodged Spirit – duration, further reduce attributes, regen time (1 rune). VERY nice debuff, especially when modded. The -regen mod is also no joke; it can make a big difference in fights you keep this up for.

• Inexorable Subjugation – unmodded (no need, it locks down single targets just fine already, and I don't need it for damage; 1 rune).

• Eruptive Desecration - unmodded (and unused). This CA's damage scales very poorly in this build, and its targeting makes it too unreliable for me to bother with.

• Paralyzing Dread – reduce attack value, reduce attack speed even more (huge numbers of runes). Another nice debuff.

• Soul Reaver – duration, regen time, heal (runes added as needed to keep at focus level). I tested the heal mod a good deal prior to making these choices, and it would still nice to have, but I've backed off of calling it essential, especially if you choose to mod LA for LL. I think one or the other remains desirable, if not fully essential, but it sure would be nice to further boost the duration of SR despite not needing or wanting to rely on it for hit/defense. You could do without the either the heal from SR or from LA, but I'd rather have one of them for an added safety net in AoE situations. I think the 10% per soul sounds a lot better than +X for LA, plus I know this one works, so I'm sticking with the heal mod here, and not on LA. More LA damage is never bad, and I've never relied on the SR bonuses for hit/defense anyway, so duration isn't as important as it could be to me. I might leave the gold mod empty here until niob though to see if I can get away without using either heal though.

I've highlighted the modifications I consider vital in red

All I mean by "1 rune", is you need to keep regens low and under control for this CA and leaving it at 1 rune for a while is advisable (see thread replies below). You can read more runes than indicated if you prefer, but in early levels, keeping regen times under control can be difficult if you do that. Later on, +all CA and +aspect items will give you the kick you need from the attack CAs. Once you've gotten regens solidly under control later on, there's nothing wrong with reading more runes as the impact on regen will be minimal. Also, if you use some CAs exclusively in the same combo (i.e. - RT, LA, and CM always in the same combo, and you don't cast those CAs outside of that combo) its a good idea to equalize the regen times of the CAs in question to one another by reading runes or equipping items that boost that particular CA.

Combos:

Primary AoE: Raving Thrust --> Clustering Maelstrom --> Levin Array The AS spider is fantastic for this; this combo will not work properly at early levels and before you get the following mods: LA range, RT relay, CM rangex2, but when it does begin working well, look out. It's a ton of fun! Its main advantage is that you control what RT targets. Go for champions to make sure they get the lesion debuff which will make them much more likely to die in the CM/LA bomb. It also looks really cool. (See r00ster's really awesome video for shots of this combo in action. His boss combo is slightly different from mine, but I believe the differences are mainly technical/cosmetic.) The disadvantage vs. combo 2 below, is that there will probably be a few more stragglers that don't get caught in the maelstrom when you gather large numbers, especially in the early levels)

Alternative / Low level AoE: Clustering Maelstrom --> Levin Array --> Raving Thrust I sometimes change the other one to this when I go underground or for a different feel; it allows more specific targeting of the CM and ensures LA hits everything pulled in, so its better to use at lower levels before combo 1 really takes off. The tradeoff is less control over what RT targets, although you can think of it as "smart targeting" champions because they're much more likely to survive the 1st 2 CAs. Still, sometimes it'll fire off in some random direction. If you don't mind the targeting mechanism its still good, but these days I don't need this one anymore since the pull radius of CM, even un-mounted, has improved to the point where it grabs everything pretty much regardless of where you target, so combo 1 is back in my favor, mainly because I like the lesion debuff from RT applied 1st and because it looks cooler) Single Target DPS: Ruthless Mutilation --> Callous Execution I removed RT from the end to keep it on a separate timer from the real AoE combo, and because I use it on bosses as well; stun-locking is quite easy, albeit rather superfluous, with low regen and/or "+X.Xs regen on hit" gear. I especially like to have at least some regen on hit gear, like Ilgard's gloves, so that this can be used to very quickly/instantaneously recharge the other combos, especially if you hit a group with RM, If you do include RT at the end, I do like that all 3 of these CAs have the capacity to stun, and its a nice setup for the single target combo that follows. You get a fun "yo-yo effect" by following RT with IS

Single target Debuff: Inexorable Subjugation --> Dislodged Spirit --> Mortifying Pillory Paralyzes the target, even from range, then debuffs, then finishes; I replaced CE with MP at the end to make a nice 1 button debuff chain, which will still 1-shot champs unless they're highly resistant to poison damage, in which case you can still switch it back to CE. Put a decent number of runes in each of these to maximize their effects, but keep the regen somewhat under control. You don't need to spam it, but you'll probably want it available more than every 20 seconds. Regardless, casting this once on bosses, then spamming the RM-CE combo is extremely effective. You won't likely need to use this more than once before the boss dies.

(De)Buff: Paralyzing Dread --> Frenetic Fervor A nice, quick way to buff yourself and simultaneously debuff your enemies.

Note for PC users: I play on PS3, where PD is functioning rather well; I understand that its still a "suicide spell" on PC, applying any debuffs from your gear to you instead of your target. I'd avoid using PD at all if you play on PC until that issue is resolved (or at least be careful about your gear; absolutely avoid "chance for serious open wounds" if you want to utilize PD).

Equipment Try to get about 50% deathblow collectively from gear Get as many +All CAs or +Aspect items as you feel comfortable with, and supplement with eating runes later on. Socket as many +All Skills as you can, but be sure they have a good secondary effect (really, treat the +All Skills like it's the secondary) +chance that enemies cannot evade (I like ~20-25% or so, but more is never bad) -regen penalty from buffs can be very useful +attack/defense never hurt anyone, good to have a chunk of (gotta have something for all those +% bonuses to modify, don't worry about gunning for this though; you won't likely be able to avoid these mods on your gear) I've become a fan of having at least some -detrimental magic effects gear as well. 15-30% seems fine to me. I don't need to mention the +damage gold mod do I? Everyone likes that one. I also forgot to mention it initially, but +max HP gear is great too, if its combined with something else useful. All Bronze sockets are defensive BS arts, as are “extra” silver/gold ones (I like to live)

Stats There's a lot of flexibility here; boost whichever stat you like to fine tune what you perceive as lacking. Personally, I've gone 100% Vitality, because surviving is priority number 1 for me. I'm not certain, but that's probably saved my life once or twice; it definitely makes me feel safer. More HP also provides a bit of a buffer to make use of PC's damage boost, but I don't go too crazy with that. Still, you could choose to boost Str or Dex (depending on weapon) for more melee damage (and doppelganger damage), or Int for more AS/NN damage, or Sta for better regen (and indirectly more damage due to the higher CA levels you'll be able to use), or Will for better SR. The build ultimately doesn't revolve around stat allocation choices, and I've not tested the specific impacts of going in other directions, but I think its feasible to do whatever you choose.

Hope some folks find this useful, and I'll be glad to answer any questions! Peace.

Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion.

See Also

• Inquisitor Guides
• Inquisitor Combat Arts
• Sacred 2 Player Contributed Guides