Inquisitive heroic/epic lvling damage

[wolfdy]

So, i've played an inquisitive life just now, Pure alche 20, and that made me think about my previous and current life in comparrison.

Whats the best way for inquisitives to get more dmg? Im talking 1-20, and 20-30 lvling here btw, lvling

- I played a sorc and thats pretty simple, Spell power & Crit chance/dmg, having good cds
- Also PLayed Staff monk and now playing Figther/Paladin both THF, and thats also simple, stack your main stat and Powerattack+THF+good crit weapon should carry you in dmg enough (3x ability modifier)
- From what i've seen, inquisitive gets good dmg by having law dice (1-20) specialy with the scaling on 20-30 cuz shiradi and great attack speed, when i played the alche, vile chemist was also a big help, hitting mostly 80-100 on lvls 20-22.

Based on that, my question is, what about the other options?
1 - Figther kensei has Some dmg from tree + weapon esp/focus + some extra ranged power, and their dmg also multiply on weapon crits
2 - Paladin has light dice that scales on epics quite nicely cuz ranged power
3 - What about the other enchantment, EK dice? ik you'll end up delaying IPS into epics cuz sorc and wzrd BBA is trash, but it also seems nice, specialy since my main problem with alche was the abundant imunity to poison mobs have, with EK you have plenty of dmg dice options
4 - what about rogue? Sneak attack dice? Is it worth it? Do i need some ranger to apply vulnerability via DWS?
5 - And the other classes i didnt listed, how do they perform while beeing an inquisitive?
6 - Arti 2 seems the best splash for what i've seem, you dont actualy need 20 on classes cuz you're skiping the t5 and capstone anyways for inquisitive, specialy with a weapon like Dumspter fire that has 2 imbues

Im asking this cuz i rly liked the playstyle, specialy as a new player (doing 5th life now) sometimes you get superpowered steamtrucks of players that just destroy everything in sight, at least with inquisitive a have a niche on single target burst + getting mobs that are out of the way (high ground & etc) and i get to be actualy useful

Bonus question: is there any t5/Capstone worthing going for as an inquisitive and skiping the inquisitive ones? Figther kensei seems pretty solid with the 20(t5)+20*lvl18) ranged power total + double shot (lvl20)

[Stoner81]

Best damage split (afaik) is 2 Arti and 18 Rogue due to Sneak Attack Dice.

I prefer 9 Ranger, 4 Arti and 7 Rogue since you get IPS at level 12 and more spells which are useful.

Stoner81.

[cru121]

Bonus question: is there any t5/Capstone worthing going for as an inquisitive and skiping the inquisitive ones?

No.

[Ultinoob]

I have not looked much at the sneak dice inq builds damage output as i tend to solo and so sneak dices are often wasted.

I did some number crushing on other buids and an alchemist using poisen imbue should be slightly better of than a ek if you can get the same spellpower. According to my math, which may be wrong, taking 2 levels of artie to get the legendary dumbster fire for both fire and bludgeon imbue is basically 20 more damage.

Disclaimer:
I've never tested this but 18/2 alchemist/artie seems to be a good damage split. 41 ap in inq. 12 in harper and rest in vile chemist.

[SocratesBastardSon]

I had discussed this elsewhere, where I described my experience playing an alchemist-inquisitive.

How this compares with the Rogue/Arti build recommended for sneak attack, I can't say.

My biggest complaint running a pure Alchemist-Inq (well, 18/2) was the number of poison immune mobs, e.g., undead. Vile Chemist has lots of ways to strip poison immunity, of course, but two of the main ones, Greater/Wave of Poison, require closing with mobs in a way that ranged should not be doing. Stand-off attacks are the biggest advantage to playing ranged, so do you really want to give that up in order to impose a damage type that you're overinvested in?

My solution was to take advantage of the fact that KotC now has a ranged option.

I went Alch 12/Pal 6/Arti 2; 41 pts in Inq, 3 pts in BE, 21 pts into VC, 15 points in KotC gives you light damage that scales off of ranged power, ghost touch (big quality of life improvement in heroic), some useful special attacks on short cool down (Divine Sacrifice), and the usual stuff from Paladin like better saves, more robust health, and some healing options like Greater Restoration, saving a spell slot from Alchemist.

What's the trade-off? There's always a trade-off, of course. Against poison-vulnerable mobs you do less damage than a pure alchemist. You lose some higher level spells (obviously). You're splitting your scaling damage between spell power and ranged power.

As for VC Poisoned Coating dice, KotC light damage + light attacks + favored weapon damage increases (requires Divine Inquisition), almost make up for it. The DPS loss is not as great as you might think, but it is there. My experience is this: rarely do poison immune mobs (including most or all reapers) also have light immunity/resistance. This means that in actual combat situations in most quests, while you're charging up your poison vulnerability via Poisoned Shot (presumably using IPS), you're still dishing out light damage. This means that while your peak damage output in some situations is lower, your overall damage curve is smoothed out, without the sharp valley/peak effect you see with VC-Inquisitives.

I don't have the numbers, and frankly, I don't know how you could subject this to a numeric analysis, but it seemed to me my damage output over an entire quest not only remained far steadier, it was on par with, or a hair behind, 18 levels of alchemist (I like having trapping). Again, the trade-off, even with the loss of level 6 Alch spells, was a more robust, defensive character.

I've only done this build once up to 30, with one Epic Reincarn, followed by another run to 30. I ran it in mid-reaper as much as possible, and noticed a big drop in damage in R10, but I only had 25 Reaper APs at the time, so that's not surprising.

It felt more flexible and robust than going pure alchemist and plan on doing it again.

[Bunker]

I have not looked much at the sneak dice inq builds damage output as i tend to solo and so sneak dices are often wasted.

I did some number crushing on other buids and an alchemist using poisen imbue should be slightly better of than a ek if you can get the same spellpower. According to my math, which may be wrong, taking 2 levels of artie to get the legendary dumbster fire for both fire and bludgeon imbue is basically 20 more damage.

Disclaimer:
I've never tested this but 18/2 alchemist/artie seems to be a good damage split. 41 ap in inq. 12 in harper and rest in vile chemist.

Just to touch on solo and sneak attack damage. Look for an Improved Deception item. There are a few, including ones that you can equip at level 13. This will open your eyes to more possibilities.

[majorhavoc]

Just to touch on solo and sneak attack damage. Look for an Improved Deception item. There are a few, including ones that you can equip at level 13. This will open your eyes to more possibilities.

I have got to agree, add in sniper from ranger = some amazing DPS
I have played a bunch of Inquis builds & I keep coming back to the 12/6/2 Rog/Rng/Art split, the DPS is over the top, I regularly over kill Fire Sorc & Locs.

[droid327]

Just to touch on solo and sneak attack damage. Look for an Improved Deception item. There are a few, including ones that you can equip at level 13. This will open your eyes to more possibilities.

The combo of Ring of the Stalker and Celestial Sapphire is one I really love for any quick-hitting weapon build

Even though its only L20, Epic RotS gives you +18 damage on any sneak-eligible attack, Imp Deception to make attacks sneak-eligible, and a bunch of other useful mods like Ghostly, Manslayer, Profane Well Rounded, and CON. Inquis probably will benefit from the Dodge too, being light-armored.

Also a VC Inqui split is 41 Inqui, 8 Harper, 31 VC for the Core 5 and d10 imbue die. Alch doesnt need 12 points Harper since they get INT to dmg from Battalion Brew already, they just need 8 for KTA.

[RangerOps]

I had discussed this elsewhere, where I described my experience playing an alchemist-inquisitive.

How this compares with the Rogue/Arti build recommended for sneak attack, I can't say.

My biggest complaint running a pure Alchemist-Inq (well, 18/2) was the number of poison immune mobs, e.g., undead. Vile Chemist has lots of ways to strip poison immunity, of course, but two of the main ones, Greater/Wave of Poison, require closing with mobs in a way that ranged should not be doing. Stand-off attacks are the biggest advantage to playing ranged, so do you really want to give that up in order to impose a damage type that you're overinvested in?

My solution was to take advantage of the fact that KotC now has a ranged option.

I went Alch 12/Pal 6/Arti 2; 41 pts in Inq, 3 pts in BE, 21 pts into VC, 15 points in KotC gives you light damage that scales off of ranged power, ghost touch (big quality of life improvement in heroic), some useful special attacks on short cool down (Divine Sacrifice), and the usual stuff from Paladin like better saves, more robust health, and some healing options like Greater Restoration, saving a spell slot from Alchemist.

What's the trade-off? There's always a trade-off, of course. Against poison-vulnerable mobs you do less damage than a pure alchemist. You lose some higher level spells (obviously). You're splitting your scaling damage between spell power and ranged power.

As for VC Poisoned Coating dice, KotC light damage + light attacks + favored weapon damage increases (requires Divine Inquisition), almost make up for it. The DPS loss is not as great as you might think, but it is there. My experience is this: rarely do poison immune mobs (including most or all reapers) also have light immunity/resistance. This means that in actual combat situations in most quests, while you're charging up your poison vulnerability via Poisoned Shot (presumably using IPS), you're still dishing out light damage. This means that while your peak damage output in some situations is lower, your overall damage curve is smoothed out, without the sharp valley/peak effect you see with VC-Inquisitives.

I don't have the numbers, and frankly, I don't know how you could subject this to a numeric analysis, but it seemed to me my damage output over an entire quest not only remained far steadier, it was on par with, or a hair behind, 18 levels of alchemist (I like having trapping). Again, the trade-off, even with the loss of level 6 Alch spells, was a more robust, defensive character.

I've only done this build once up to 30, with one Epic Reincarn, followed by another run to 30. I ran it in mid-reaper as much as possible, and noticed a big drop in damage in R10, but I only had 25 Reaper APs at the time, so that's not surprising.

It felt more flexible and robust than going pure alchemist and plan on doing it again.

Would you be willing to screenshot your point spent in trees and your level up progress thru heroic levels please? Also your ability score stats at creation?

[Xgya]

My solo builds based off sneak attack dice always manage to slot in 6 levels of Ranger.
I've become addicted to Sniper's Shot to some unhealthy degree, and it nets some useful feats along the way.

It's slightly worse in some circumstances than 18 rogue, but that's because 18 Rogue nets you the 18 Mechanic core, which means you can do some impressive levels of ranged damage using GXBs while NHB is active.

Soloing, I prefer the Ranger split for the consistent sneak attack dice and extra room for feats.