[3.13] self-cast Firestorm Inquisitor - Martyr of Innocence. Replica Restless Ward is a build

Having missed the old (and much better) firestorm, it is time for some experimental self-caster

Pros:
- VERY high sustain
- 'die dinosaurs, die' playstyle
- stun immune, ailment immune, degens immune
- rather cheap for starter version
- uses gear people dont care about
- if you at least pretend to be looking at whats happening: you cannot die in normal (non 50%+ deli T16) maps

Cons:

- single target is.. adequate. it is not a 2sec Shaper build
- firestorm in general has pretty meh clear speed as it is 'low aoe' and 'delayed' at the same time. it feels like playing slow trap build
- apparently it CAN die to the DIE beam if you dont pop Frost Shield
- no/less life/ES regen, ele reflect - these are impossible to run
- demand for some items (Vitality Watcher's Eyes, Martyr, +1 End Charge boots)


Overview:

Honestly, the 'damage' side of this build is pretty much whatever. Martyr of Innocence gives you damage, Inquisitor+Crit makes that damage grow, you stack bits and pieces and bam, you are dealing 'enough' damage.

It is the 'defensive' part that I wanted to try out. How about 900 net regen for life AND energy shield with Righteous Fire ON? If you turn it off, you get 1600 second regen. You can scale that up to 2000+ with investment if you opt to

POB:


https://pastebin.com/9E27gxgh
Warning: it is 'on the fly' export, it is raw, and as you can see - i did not polish this build at all (20/0 gems etc)


Mechanic Synergy:

Spoiler


I dont expect anyone to be surprised by this, but here we go:

Glorious Vanity (Doryani's) gives 'damage split' with half of all damage bypassing energy shield and hitting life directly.

Inquisitor's Pious Path gives 'your life regen applies energy shield regen' thus if you regen 550 life per second youll regen 550 energy shield per second REGARDLESS of your energy shield pool size. DO NOT PICK Zealot's Oath!

These two combined prevents you both from one shots (due to larger pool of life+ES) and sustained damage (due to literally doubling sustain effectiveness)



Passives:



Gear:

Good part: lots of it are uniques. Easy to buy, most of them cheap.
Bad part: resists and stats. Your rares are going to be very heavy on both.

Remember that because chaos damage STILL goes trough your ES, you need to care about chaos res to at least 0% it. Otherwise temples and delirium WILL KILL YOU.
Spoiler




The CORE of this build. That means 'no explody chest', and that sucks as the game is build around it in the endgame. Pretty bad design if you ask me.
Alas..

Replica Restless Ward just like its regular version is very strong yet VERY niche. There are BETTER versions (one Mathil used with 'regen 25% life every 4 seconds + explody is the end-endgame version) but sticking to realistic budget:
Its most important mod reads 'regen lots of life per second'. And it has Energy Shield!




The Damage. Flat added easily rivals +3 to gems you can get from rare, 100% fire is all we need. All that is missing is some form of crit scaling.
It even gives immunity to freeze with Righteous Fire but we already have it via Inquisitor.
Vengeance + Overlord Cluster Notable == free fortify. I do not use it but you can perfectly do.

Rare harvest crafted will beat it but youll need to REALLY try.



Energy Shield + trifecta of 3 amazing notables. Sadly the Enchant i wanted did not materialize (150% Stone Golem effect for hilarity). No big deal.



Your Source of +1 Endurance Charges. Death's Door is an option but i needed DEX on boots. +2 Death's Door cost a FORTUNE but they are a 'realistic' endgame option.



Tried to do something great here, failed. Unnerve == 10% more spell damage so it is always nice. you COULD use Iron Will gloves here for around ~20% more damage instead of 10 but I needed resists. Both options are good.

This is definitely the weakest piece of them all/



Needed resists. Catalyse for resists, spam highest resist essence youve got. I hit it in like 30 essences.



Stun immunity without the annoyance of no evasion? +16% chaos resist? yes, please. I always wanted to use Precursor Emblem but except for extremely overpriced +1/2 charges I hardly found a use for it. Till this time.



Ass-mark, stats. Just spam 'rerol rare with caster mod' harvest mod. I needed resists thus the catalyse.



Budget (yes) option. you can go much higher with rare amulet but.. I like Covering in Ash as a defensive mechanic. If you get it from other sources - pick a rare amulet.



Other Gear:

Spoiler


Vitality 'flat life regen' + Zealotry 10% more damage on consecrated ground Watcher's Eye



Gems:

Spoiler

You WANT Anomalous Firestorm. It deals like 15% more damage than regular version at lvl20 and like 5% more vs lvl 21 regular gem.



Firestorm + Controlled Destruction + Unleash + Inspiration + Arcane Surge + Concentrated Effect/Intensify (Depending on your playstyle)

Second/misc setup:

Armagedon Brand + Inspiration + Power Charge on Crit (for boss crit sustain) + Culling Strike + 2 random damage gems you want.

Why no Energy Leech Support? well.. you are pretty much at 100% energy shield all the time and Im simply not sure it counts as 'leeching', wihtout it you get 18% more damage + leech you dont need. Have not seen any change in survivability with/without this gem. But you are free to experiment



Pantheon:
Spoiler

Soul of Arakali (1st and 3rd) + Soul of Shakari (both)



Content Viability:
Everything up to - but not yet including - Maven. Most likely will do Maven as well but havent tried yet (i wonder how the no regen spell will f.. me). I purposefuly let Sirus and conquerors 'tickle me' and they CAN kill this build but it requires playing 100% reckless AND a bad luck with boss crits. Maps, even sickly rolled - are not a problem at all.


Future improvements:

- Stone Golem + golem enchant. additional 250+ flat life regen
- anoint +1 endurance charge
- extreme endgame option Precursor's Emblem with +1 charge and stun immunity (i do not like 'avoid', i pick surefire options only)
- awakened supports, lvl21/lvl6 gems etc
- better watcher's eye, better gloves

but.. that is just stacking layers of 'optional' over something that is already good enough. what i cannot fix however is Firestorm.. new version of it should be called 'Meteor Strike' because the 'storm portion' is 100% useless. Clear speed - even with ignite that ive tried for a while - is at most adequate. Fireball, Magma Orb, even Blazing Salvo are all simply better.

Last edited by sidtherat on Feb 19, 2021, 4:43:35 AM
Last bumped on Mar 27, 2021, 11:17:06 AM
Hey this is probably going to be my league start for 3.14. any updates are appreciated.
any video ? is it a good league starter ?

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