[1.1.4.1] FOIBOI - Retal FoI Paladin (c+) (sr+)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
, , ,
1

9779783740120104960_20190820184852_1
9779783740120104960_20190820184852_1.png1108Ă—509 760 KB

(stats with most procs)

no green setup - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25o0dlZ (crafted with slow res)

crucible of death 3b/vb in 7:44 - https://youtu.be/zipYNUY5U5Q

shattered realm 75 - https://youtu.be/Bv8MAHh7EWE

FOIBOI Hybrid Fire Retal Flames of Ignaffar Paladin

Time for a niche build. Pushed - hopefully - to the limits. Flames of Ignaffar is not a strong skill to begin with. Fire retal is not a strong concept outside a few items. Together they make a perfectly fine low-tier build that’s - honestly - as gimmicky as they go but functional. For the strongest FoI, I recommend a chaos deceiver/purifier with partial Black Flame set and Solael’s Devourer crossbow. This is ok but is held back by a few things I’m going to mention by the end.

HOW IT WORKS OFFENSIVELY:

We divide our attention between stacking 1) regular fire and burn, 2) %all retal and 3) flat fire retal. 1) is realized by maxing relevant nodes in FoI. 2) and 3) by 16% retal added from the weapon and the book. The result is not bad on paper: somewhere around 40k fire+burn on FoI tooltip. But because much of the 2) and 3) is on temporary procs this number is not very consistent.

Problem is cast speed which is only capped at the peak and with top rolls on everything.

HOW IT WORKS DEFENSIVELY:

Because FoI has only 34% weapon damage (EDIT: current, better version uses the conduit with extra 24% wpn dmg to FoI instead Avenger of Cairn from the first version at the time of writing this) we only get 1/3 of the sustain from adcth. So it had to be stacked quite high (26%). Ghoul helps as a circuit breaker. Bane and Hyrian’s Glare also give regular heals.

Besides, we have quite a nice dmg absorb from 3 sources: Seal, Ascension and Phoenix. And regular half-tanky stats from gear with good res overcaps (except acid and pierce - rest is very good in game) and not too bad armor and da.

Problem is cc res which couldn’t be helped without greens. And no 100% armor absorption because attribute requirements (1035 physique, 511 cunning and 724 spirit) are tight (exactly to the point) and had to be fixed with components. Health could also be higher…

WHAT COULD BE CHANGED:

First of all, no phys to fire conversion anywhere. For every 100 fire retal we got 35 phys retal that’s completely unused. This is because fire retal gear is scarce and we have to boost %retal modifier using phys gear (this also prevents us from using a regular fire gear). This makes fire retal a big underdog to phys retal which never has problems converting everything that comes its way (as of late even acid).

  • This could be fixed by adding 50% phys to fire to Agrivix Consumption (to FoI or inquisitor passive).

Secondly, Consumption of Agrivix is an off-hand supporting a spam cast (CT) and a channeling cast (FoI) but giving no cast speed.

  • This also could be changed by adding 8/12% cast speed to Consumption of Agrivix.

Thirdly, fire retal devotions are far behind phys in terms of tankiness especially cc res. It should be the other way. Phys retal already has stun res from soldier mastery, yet half the blue and white devotions give some. (Not to mention phys retal can take fire devotions and easily convert).

  • Some moderate cc res could be provided for builds that do not go east on devotions or Ascension+Aeon.

  • Another little thing: Serenir’s Commendation medal proc could be changed from on block to something else. This medal is very poor here, and fire retal has no other afaik.

  • Yet another thing: Arcane Empowerment could give %retaliation damage along with %all damage. Inquisitor has none of that at the moment anywhere.

THANKS FOR READING AND ALL FEEDBACK WELCOME.

5 Likes
2

Very very nice
Glad to see another FoI lover

I’ve made not full retal FoI but use it a little bit too
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2j8MwqZ

3

Thx. This is also kind of a hybrid. I max FoI and go for Meteors. Afaik fire retal cannot be stacked high enough to make it full retal like phys Drain Essense oppressor. And FoI has no built-in adcth so it has to maxed for at least some sustain from wpn dmg.

Also, good idea with the conduit. I overlooked it.

4

I know you have tried your best, but I can’t look at FoI without crying. It’s such a fucking sad shitty skill and it’s been like that since forever. It’s a real shame, because from the amount of (useless) nods it looks like it’s supposed to be Inquisitor’s signature skill (and it is, Inquisitor was first teased as a dude/dudette wielding pistol in one hand and shooting spells from another).

5

Lol my eternal argument, when someone says Inquisitor is OP, try FoI :grin:

So top builder and player can barely go 8 minutes, yup that’s a problem.

1 Like
6

I like it. It’s innovative.

How consistent was the activation of phoenix via Vire’s?

7

That’s hot!. Just not hot enough :frowning:

Man, sometimes even creativity and skill just isn’t enough to salvage an unsupported concept. Anyway I just have a minor thing to say:

Not global, please. That’s gonna be OP for all fire casters that don’t have dedicated offhands. 59% conversion straight on meteors just from 1 item is pretty bonkers.

8

Pretty good I suspect, since VM procs basically anything you assign to it like a machine :wink:

@ya1 great job on min/maxing such a lackluster FoI variant! This kind of work is often very frustrating, but very much needed if we are ever to see any buffs to them in the future – I mean, I doubt something like fire retal FoI was even on Crate’s buff radar before this…

Why 6/10 Vigor instead of supermaxed Inquis Seal though? Shouldn’t the flat absorb outweigh the cc res/health even here?

9

It’s ok. It procs off Volcanic Stride crits, too.

Good point. I could probably move 3 points to the Seal. I initially used Seal of Resonance for more cc res but sustain and pierce res was a problem. After changing to Seal of Blades I fixed what I could with Vigor.

But I didn’t try the conduit which would almost double the sustain (at the cost of 200% retal, though) and give enough points to max that Seal and keep Vigor.

Problem with this build is that it’s quite tanky but it doesn’t feel like it because its dmg is so low that you gotta eat every punch they have in store before they die. So cc res is important.

10

Hm. And what if you combined Conduit with Honor relic? Sure, it feels a little like the AdctH & the Retal components just switch places, but it might at least be worth testing :slight_smile:

11

Honor doesn’t fit here, sadly. Bane is needed for oa and cast speed. Build has no dedicated gear except the off-hand. All the rest is odds and ends. Most retal’s for phys, medal’s for shields, etc. Even the belt is for demo, lol.

It’s poverty. But it plays quite nice. It can’t be bound to LMB for max range for some reason so you gotta sweep the cursor in behind the enemies for max coverage.

The one made by Spanksalot with Solael’s crossbow and the conduit is quite strong, though (for FoI). It had 100% wpn dmg which is a lot for a channeling skill, especially with all the chaos flat.

12

Didn’t it also do like ~8 minute Crucible despite all the weapon damage and synergy and whatnot?

13

Yeah, lol, he didn’t post detailed results. Well… point taken. FoI is probably top 3 worst endgame skills in the game. If it was functional in leveling like OFF it would have an excuse. How to buff (except this particular retal hybrid which desperately needs phys to fire)?

14

One of the biggest issues I have with it is just how anemic the range is. When I first looked at the skill my impression was “This is a flamethrower, right?”, but with a 6m range it just doesn’t feel good.
One of the nodes needs to seriously increase the range.
Give Intensify or Endless Flame +6m range at 12/12, up to 9m at max. It even sounds like it would fit with the skill description.

15

Also, I don’t think it’s gonna happen but making Ignafarr pieces into a proper set could help.

16

It’s kinda weird, but the most decent FoI build I ever use is vitality FoI radaggan set + 2x decree of malmouth. Don’t know if pure fire or lightning can work, or even tri-elemental with mageslayer set. Haven’t really try it through.

I remember that @Ptirodaktill ever said that FoI is the best channeling skill in the game and build quite many build with it. I don’t remember if FoI ever be nerfed, or is it just power creep catching up?

17

Back then there was no EoR, Drain Essence had no retal added and AAR was called Agrivix Asks, Really…? Must have been Ptiro’s flamethrower fetish. :wink:

BTW conduit is BiS. I’ll be updating op but it’s mindblowing 7:30 now. :joy:

18

Where is my :blush: ?

19

The fact someone called FoI best channeling spell is puzzling. It’s like calling Shark to be best animal, which can eat you alive. It doesn’t matter which one, all are terrible. But now AAR pierces, Physical DE is nice, EoR too and that leaves FoI swimming in the open sea full of hungry sharks :smile:

20

EoR isn’t even channeling :rofl:

1 Like