For this hybrid pet build I decided to go absolutely nuts with ascended affixes to get the most thematic ranged inquisitor possible. Since the final version is an affix rerolling fantasy, I decided to add a 2nd endgame version that is easier to farm and has random offensive ascended affixes. So with the budget build included that makes 3 builds total:
Endgame SR32: DW Ranged + 100% Storm spread WPS + 2 x 8 projectile Ravens + Hellhound
Endgame SR30: 2H Ranged + Mixed WPS + 2 x 5 projectile Ravens + Hellhound
Budget SR26: DW Ranged + Mixed WPS + 1 x 4 projectile Raven + Hellhound
It is possible to change the playstyle of each build by removing the hellhound in exchange for inquisitor seal to tank most of the damage yourself. The builds share ~80% of their devotion setup but some constellations are different to meet different requirements.
Performance
Since the FoA SR timer changes I have a simple rule to rank my builds. If my build is marked as SR32, then this is the highest SR shard that it can do ‘comfortably’ within timer. What is comfortable is subjective, but demonstrated as for me in the video. I suspect some of my 1.2.x builds marked as SR30 will now go higher because of ascended affixes.
Video
Gameplay
For gameplay I pretty much use the same criteria for all my hybrid pet builds, but since the introduction of ascended affixes I add a new one:
-I use ascended affixes because they are part of the game now, but I use only offensive ones (no resistances, HP or DA), this means you only lose dmg by not having ascended affixes and no important defenses.
Also green items are sometimes double rare on my endgame builds since they became much easier to roll since FoA. So the remaining criteria are as follows:
-Gameplay should be similar to a normal ranged build with ‘player-scaling pets’ because pets die very rarely.
-Button count is low, I try to keep it around the same button count as top20 builds with 8 or more ‘easiness’ score.
-Leveling is very straightforward, build is ‘online’ very early, no conversions or rare items needed.
-Useful items will be in the loot pool at all experience levels, can be played SSF or beginner without stash.
Endgame SR32
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Endgame SR30 (Easier Farm)
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Budget SR26
Notes
Initially I had a goofier version with 2 x 11 projectile ravens, but the cone of projectiles became so wide many would hit nothing, overall having passthrough on storm spread is proved much more valuable then those extra projectiles flying to the side.
Leveling
This build can be leveled very smoothly as hybrid pet gunner with my ‘storm spirit method’ that I also used for leveling the Ice King build. This is an amended version of that step-by step guide with all specifics for ranged inquisitor:
Leveling Guide for Hybrid Pet Ranged Inquisitor
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Pick the occultist class first!
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For your main dmg use the best rifle you can find with slam component on it, until you find an elemental rifle just use a physical one. It is also possible to use a caster component like fireblast for a while. (if you don’t have these components don’t worry they will drop soon)
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For your attributes keep cunning at the requirements for guns (keep an eye on stores to see how much you need, if your current weapon is low level), everything else goes into physique.
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Put summon familiar at 7/16 to unlock the 2nd projectile
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Get storm spirit at 12/12 ASAP!
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The first 3 devotions are Raven > Wolverine > Rhowan’s crown, in that order.
Explainer: Storm spirit will strongly buff your component skill and basically works as your main damage early, while simultaneously building up your pets defense and offense. This combined with the huge %dmg bonus from raven devotion will crush the early game as pet-player duo. Wolverine will make gearing easier during the whole leveling process by locking in the most important pet defenses.
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Get the hellhound as second pet and also get some blood of dreeg to heal it (aspect of guardian can be postponed a bit as hellhound has 75% innate poison resistance, so put points in hellhound first). The first points invested should be 8/16 summon hellhound + 4/12 ember claw. Also start putting some points in Lightning strike. Note that the hellhound is primarily a damage sponge, and keeping him alive with blood of dreeg is your main priority. (Around the time you reach the FoA areas you should have 12/12 ember claw to have fully reliable aggro for hard bosses).
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Upgrade your main damage component to the higher level variant
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Continue act 2 and act 3 and get the halion crest and zaria pendant. It is recommended to get all the devotion shrines in the side areas, you need them for the harder FoA areas.
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The next 3 devotions are Stag > Viper > Staff of rattosh
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Between level 30-40 you will have a strong pet setup and can start investing in inquisitor, at first you will still be shooting mostly with Blessed Steel and some investment in ranged expertise and bursting round.
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When you reach the Homestead area you can pickup a Fleshwarped incinerator, which is probably the best weapon until you reach the Fangs of Asterkarn area, you could decide to use Rune of kalastor as your main dmg for a while instead of investing in WPS (with this rifle it will be more efficient)
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I recommend choosing Order of death’s Vigil, because their vitality resistance on pets augment can help moving gear around during leveling.
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When you reach Fort Ikon you can decide to go to FoA immediately to get two Storm Emitters ASAP, however if you are using a Rune of kalastor setup you can also decide to go to the Malmouth steelcap district first for the Ancestor recipe. This is the best low-level relic to use after level 35, it works fine until endgame. Of course if you already have the recipe you don’t need to care for this. You also need the Desolation relic from the same location to craft Eye of the Storm later.
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For the remaining devotions follow the budget build, but be careful not to remove defenses (like wolverine) before they are properly replaced later.
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At level 55 you likely obtained both Ancestor and the storm emitters, now your highest priority will be getting the shard of beronath, can be sold by Vinelton in the Feral thicket, so that (finally) you have an auto-attack replacer and can fully focus on your WPS skills.
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For reputation the witch cults are the most important, it is recommended not to go against barrowholm because of their pet augments.
HIGH LEVELS 60-100
At higher levels the pet resistances from devotion may no longer be enough, if pets die too often take note of the following innate resistances:
Hellhound 75% poison, 22% pierce, 15% aether, 30% chaos
Raven 0% poison, 0% pierce, 25% aether, 25% chaos
For practical purposes you can consider all other resistances at 0% because you can’t raise the hellhound’s 0% cold resistance without increasing its 500% fire resistance as well. So you only need to remember these. The raven will not be aggroed so stays mostly alive as long as the hellhound is alive.
During the leveling process make sure your loot filter does not filter out common green armor pieces with pet bonuses, you should collect in your personal stash the best armor pieces you find with the following affixes:
‘…of the wild’
‘…of the untamed’
‘…of the primal will’
‘taskmaster…’
these 2 only very late game (or against special bleed bosses), you may never need them because of augments or legendary medals:
‘…of the caged souls’
‘…of nature’s bidding’
Depending on the relic you use one of the above will not be needed (Ancestor already fixes vitality). The reason you collect them is so that you can easily swap around your pet defenses when you want to modify your build. I mostly hoard around one stash page of these items and throw away older ones as their armor values become too low.