Here is the long awaited part 26 of my controller friendly build series: **Piercing FoI Infiltrator **
Initially, I thought I could use armor piercing to turn Tome of Names into piercing damage. It turns out that it doesn’t work like that, so I had to use Nadaan’s Reach with two Bladetwister Signets for the conversion. As a result, this is by far the lowest damage FoI build I’ve made. Still, this build has enough defense that it can clear SR85 despite its relatively low damage. I think with better greens it could even clear SR90.
grimtools link. The MI prefixes and affixes are just the best I had, not what is theoretically optimal. In fact, they’re quite far from it.
Playstyle: stand in Inquisitor Seal, cast FoI (and watch something on TV as everything else slowly dies, as long as it’s not a big deal if you occasionally die.) Run from big nukes like those offered by Archmage Aleksander, Benn’Jahr, or Grava’Thul. I also found it possible to die to Commander Lucius’s Devastationy thing. Sometimes you can facetank these enemies though, if you’re lazy enough to try.
Permanent buffs only. This has a lot of temporary buffs, so the stats are usually higher.
Video proof of clear
Fight tips
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Offense: make sure Word of Pain successfully casts.
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Defense: cast Horn of Gandarr on cooldown, standing in Inquisitor Seal. Use Word of Renewal and Pneumatic Burst for burst healing.
Gear
As usual, the resists are overcapped to deal with resist reduction on high SR. The greens are far from ideal. The prefixes and affixes are the best I had, focused on fixing the holes in this build’s OA and defense.
Essential Gear:
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Nadaan’s Reach: conversion, +2 to Inquisitor. Really, there aren’t any high synergy options here, but this gives the most damage, even though it doesn’t have cast speed. You can get a lot of that from components, at least.
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Incendiary Casque: FoI stuff
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Bladetwister Signet x2: conversion
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Gauntlets of Ignaffar: the points in Intensify more than cancel out the Piercing to Fire; this is by far the highest damage option.
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Loghorrean’s Corruption: need that OA
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Bloodsworn Sigil & Essence of the Grim Dawn: need the healing on FoI.
Stuff I’m pretty sure is best in slot:
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Magelord’s Greaves: not perfect, but you need the slow res, and these give damage and OA.
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Grava’Thul’s Leggings: +3 to Death Sentence isn’t bad, but the main virtue here is the potential to get 5% OA.
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Gunslinger’s Jacket: 5% total speed. And cunning and damage and OA. Mostly the speed though.
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Serenity: not the highest damage option, but it provides vital defense. With better greens, Bane may ideal.
Other stuff:
- Cord of Deception: I forget why I chose this belt. Resists? A perfect Ugdenbog Waistguard would likely be better, but I don’t have one.
Devotions
I wanted more offense, but it just didn’t seem to be there. There are things that give more piercing, yes, but the cost to defense would have been enormous, and this build still would have been lower damage than other FoI builds.
Core:
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Scales of Ulcama: the lowest flat res reduction, but is accessible on the path to the other devotions. You need the energy regen from it anyway.
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Bard’s Harp: with Ulcama, solves energy regen. Harvestman’s Scythe isn’t necessary for energy management, but it is the best way to get the 3 blue and 3 purple it offers.
Skill Choices
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FoI: the point
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Inquisitor Seal: since this build has high defense, you can just sit in Inquisitor Seal almost all the time.
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Horn of Gandarr: the damage reduction is worth the points.
Leveling
One option would be to go with Mistborn Talisman and auto attack your way to level 94. I did FoI the whole way. I followed Piercing devotions the whole time, but I switched to piercing items/damage at level 60 with the Sharpshooter’s Mark set, then used Nadaan’s Reach from 65-94. It was slow due to low damage, but it worked. I wouldn’t recommend it.