ES/Inquisitive???

[Seydlitz]

Has anyone ever tried combining Enlightened Spirit with Inquisitive? Would it be possible to have a warlock running around with the aura while using crossbows? Truly, just a random thought but I wonder if the build masters out there have ever put something like that together.

Any links, thoughts welcome!!!

[Cernunan]

Several times, it plays poorly. There is absolutely no synergy, as the aura is a primarily melee ability. Plus as inquisitive takes most points and needs the tier 5s/ capstone, you can't acquire the things that make ES useful without making the build extremely gimped.

I love mix matching and experiment often with favorite classes. This dog does not hunt.

[unbongwah]

Would it be possible to have a warlock running around with the aura while using crossbows?

Like many DDO combos, it works but...why would you want to?

• Inquisitive is a ranged DPS tree and Enlightened Spirit's Aura is primarily a close-range caster / survivability buff tree. Auras, Eldritch Bursts, and Spirit Blasts are centered on you.
• Spiritual Retribution (3d4 Light damage per hit) is pretty weaksauce as a ranged DPS boost. If you really wanted to add proc-on-hit damage, you'd be better off with Eldritch Knight or Vile Chemist IMO.
• I feel like the best bits of ES and Inquisitive are their tier-5s and capstones and you can only take one of them.
• Feydark Illusionist gives the option of CHA to-hit and damage but no Battle Trance; which means splashing cleric / FvS for Divine Might, making INT a secondary stat and using Know the Angles, or skipping a Trance and relying on Insightful gear.

Compare any warlock-based Inquisitive to, say, Warforged wizard 18 / Artificer 2 with 41 Inquisitive / 12 Harper / 21+ Eldritch Knight. You have Inquisitive ranged DPS, Runearms + trap skills, effectively 1.5x INT mod to damage thanks to Strategic Combat + Know the Angles, 6d8 Spellsword imbues (>3.5x more powerful than Spiritual Retribution), level 9 spells, and all the usual WF goodies (immunities, self-Repairs, Adamantine Body, etc.) with zero ASF thanks to EK cores. And I'm not even saying this is the best Inq option, just that it's the first idea which occurred to me for "dual crossbows with magically imbued bolts (which isn't just an Artificer)."

[Torkzed]

If you are doing this on regular servers, it is probably not optimal (as others have said).

However, one my friends has used an ES/Inquisitive on hardcore and was very happy with it (warlock/paladin/artificer, I think). For hardcore, you are probably running no higher than R1, and more likely, just elite. So the combo of decent ranged dps and many temporary HP options from ES actually worked pretty well, from what i hear. (Pretty sure he did a 5000 favor run with the build.)

One of the coolest things about DDO is the endless number of builds. Have fun with it!