I generally leave ranged classes to the last when I play ARPGs - I barely played with the Amazon in D2 and the Demon Hunter in D3, for example. So I only now got around to make a Purifier (Inquisitor/Demolitionist). I am rather clear on what gun skills and buffs I want to use, but not having tried them yet, I am not sure what the various “explosive” skills do that is different… Can someone quickly explain their advantages and disadvantages? So far I don’t fully see how Grenado differs from Canister Bomb, for example. Thanks in advance!
I think you should test or watch a video on those. They aren’t your typical ranged skills and kind of need a visual explination. If you want to start with a ranged build, you might start with a gun or 2.
Sure, I am using fire strike and the passive Inquisitor fire gun skills for now, but I want some explosive skills to go with that, preferably fire-based.
So max fire strike line including brimstone and take chilling rounds on inquisitor to six skill points and you will have one of the most powerful options for a ranged character. If you then use the dagallon pistols when you hit 94 you’ll be laughing, probably literally. Chilling rounds does either a rapid three burst for two handed ranged weapons or bursts of two from both dual wielded pistols. Each of those burst procs a brimstone activation. If you use the dagallon pistols they have a 100% chance to pass through enemies with every shot and every enemy hit also procs a brimstone activation. Storm spread is also amazing as a shotgun ability up close because each of the projectiles in the spread procs a brimstone activation and you can get 4 projectiles per activation of storm spread. Brimstone hits an enemy and then splinters into 6-8 splinters that radiate out from the target hit doing fire and chaos damage.
It’s definitely fun. I’m now working on a Vortex of Souls Ritualist build using Primal Strike. Every target the rifle hits, shoots lightning at everything around it. Upheaval and Savagery is also pretty awesome with it. Every crit has an AE crit, but I think Primal Strike is currently broken. It does higher single target damage, with the transmuter, than Savagery does, which probably means the -75% weapon damage is directly subtracted from 225+% it starts with, rather than taking off 75% of the total weapon damage.
Grenado is single target focus with a small AoE but does pretty massive damage and you can use the transmuter to convert to lightning damage. Canister bomb is an AoE that splinters into smaller charges. I don’t see grenado or canister bomb used much. I think canister bomb is not used much because brimstone outclasses it significantly. Grenado seems pretty great though but I haven’t used it for quite some time. Black water cocktail is a staple in most builds because it does excellent damage, has the option for RR and can proc devotion skills reliably.
I don’t want to derail this thread but could you PM the build you are working with? I’d really like to see that as I’ve been thinking about the same thing.
The problem I have with bombs in general, is they are delayed and difficult to aim/hit your target. They bounce around and can end up in the wrong place, and the delayed explosion makes them difficult to control.
And enemies seem to be able to shoot them out of the air on occasion. I find it happens with flashbang all the time. I find the targeting is sometimes awry. Like when you want to drop a blackwater cocktail under an enemies feet and it goes sailing past where your cursor was pointed or it flies off in completely the wrong direction.
Yeah, I’ve also shot down their bombs too. It seems like the bombs will bounce off targets until they explode. If you drop it down on yourself, they often bounc off your knee and fly away 10 meters. It’s pretty decent for BWC, as it’s a damage over time deal, so you can drop it in front of you and let the enemy walk on it after, but it does take getting used to not targeting yourself.
Thanks, that’s what I was mainly asking about. 
I was trying to use either of these two, because Blackwater Cocktail is mostly dependent on enemies actually staying in the burning patch, something that is hard to do with a ranged character, plus it does fire+chaos while I am more gearing this build towards fire+lightning damage as the Inquisitor has those.
I was also considering in investing in Mortar Trap as it does these damage types too.
I dunno why people keep mentioning Brimstone, that is a passive skill that enhances Fire Strike, not a separate right-click skill.
One question, what exactly does Vindictive Flame do? From the skill description it seems like a centered-on-you AoE skill that activates when you are hit and does damage around you. Correct?
You kinda answered everything BUT my question about those skills. 
I am already investing in the passive Inquisitor gun skills, but since I want a fire+lightning focus build I don’t plan on investing in chilling rounds.
I want a good active right-click skill to use for area damage, and now the decision is between Grenado and Canister Bomb. I see that the Transmuter can be used to make Grenado pure Lightning instead of physical, but Canister Bomb seems more like a bigger bang skill.
I already tried out Rune of Kalastor and that thing is a beast, throwing enemies around and having so many smaller explosions it always hits something.
Btw, am I the only one who feels the game does not give you enough skill points? I often want to play around in Grimcalc and find out that if I max out both classes that costs me 100 skill points, and I am not left with enough to max out more than a few select skills and only put a few points into the rest.
Blackwater in my opinion is a very hard skill to use effectively if you aren’t using another skill that can root the enemies in place or slow them because with ranged builds and having to kite most enemies you are right they just run out of the flames. I actually rarely use it because I just can’t figure out how to make it work and the random weird directional launches can be life or death sometimes with the cool down.
Mortar trap is a tricky skill to use effectively and the big one skill is not worth investing in, again in my opinion because it seems that it only fires once near the start of the barrage and it does only a slight amount of damage more than just the standard mortar.
Brimstone is one of the main reasons to take fire strike to be honest. The clear speed of your build will increase in leaps and bounds when you get that skill maxed. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t doing chaos damage, it is still worth it. You can rely on explosive strike but it doesn’t have the killing power of brimstone in my opinion. If you are running inquisitor and not taking chilling rounds, even if you aren’t doing cold damage, then you are losing a massive DPS boost. Chilling rounds and brimstone together is honestly one of the strongest ranged options in the game as it stands. You aren’t obligated to take either but just remember that with those two options your build will clear faster and hit harder because of the burst nature of chilling rounds.
Vindictive flame is awesome and a staple of many builds. I’ve seen arguments for and against going beyond 11 skill points invested but it depends if you focus health regen or not. Most vindictive is taken because of the total speed boost. What you said is pretty much exactly what it does. Ulzuin’s wrath though is essentially useless because of the way it procs at the moment. As in more often than not it doesn’t proc at all, especially for ranged builds. Put a point into it for occasional spikes but don’t rely on it.
Canister bomb recently got some boosts (see the changelog for details) but you’ll have to experiment as grenado and canister bomb are not very popular. If you don’t take brimstone you will need to find a good AoE skill to compensate for the loss of it.
This is all my opinion and I’m sure others will disagree with me but food for thought. I have a purifier that runs the dagallon pistols and brimstone procs so much I can’t even play it in crucible because frames drop insanely low with chilling rounds. Even if you don’t take brimstone you should hope to get those pistols as they make a massive difference in the ability to rapidly clear and deal with enemies. If you can’t get the dags another great option is twin earthscorchers as they rain so much fire from the sky you can blanket an area in fire with the right gear choices and devotions.
Oh, playing GD and not touching demolitionist is outright heresy, by the Emperor, how did you lived all that time?
When playing fire strike explosives are usually not touched. FS and inquisitor wps eat so many points you normally won’t even have any spare points for such luxury. Canister is an AOE clear that is redundant with brimstone, it can work in burning DOT builds or dedicated bomber. Grenado is single target requiring considerable point investment. Good in bomber caster builds with Ulzuin chozen, preferably arcanist or with off-hand and caster armor because of obscene mana cost - your typical shooter won’t have that much mana. Mortar trap can be focused with CDR and extra summon limit if you like tanking for your “summons”.
Shooters use flashbang and BWC. Flashbang is main CC against trash, OA debuff and fumble against bosses. Both flashbang and searing light need 8-10 pt. BWC at 12 pt is to proc eldritch flame, debuff monster physical damage and OA, debuff resist with agonising flames if they are taken (but you can get elemental storm instead to save points). Don’t underestimate it as this will be your main defenses against bosses. You will be facetanking bosses all the time anyway because there is no real ranged in GD. Demo is the master of “curses” with all the debilitating stuff and debuff he has, what arcanist gets from Maivens and mirror, demo gets from flashbang and bwc.
It gives you total speed, needed to cap your attack speed and run speed. Also does damage and stuns mobs in a small radius around you upon activation.
I am already investing in the passive Inquisitor gun skills, but since I want a fire+lightning focus build I don’t plan on investing in chilling rounds.
Chilling rounds is a strong single target wps with two pistols or rifle, 70%x4 or 70%x3 weapon damage regardless of the element that is there. Ignoring it is unwise.
I want a good active right-click skill to use for area damage, and now the decision is between Grenado and Canister Bomb.
But brimstone… Why would you even want to interrupt your attack when it does everything explosives do and better?
Btw, am I the only one who feels the game does not give you enough skill points? I often want to play around in Grimcalc and find out that if I max out both classes that costs me 100 skill points, and I am not left with enough to max out more than a few select skills and only put a few points into the rest.
This is normal for a shooter you are building, can be a problem for some others but generally not as terrible now as it was at level 85. You will have Ulzuin’s torment, Essense of Beronath (to cap attack speed and for flat elemental), +1 demo helm and +1 demo relic, thats already +4 demo. Dagallon pistols don’t have +demo skills unfortunately. There are other weapons that do though.
I find the amount of points to be about right. If you were just given enough points to max everything then what is the point? Balancing builds is as much a part of the game as anything else. Not every skill has to be maxed and many offer diminishing returns after a certain threshold. Also balancing builds leads to build diversity.
I would take Brimstone of course… I mean it is in the Fire Strike “tree”, when I take a skill with enhancers I usually max out every skill on the “tree” unless it does damage I don’t use, and Brimstone has the whole +fragments thing and the fire damage.
I feel Chilling Rounds would not add much as it is a % chance to happen passive, adding +cold damage - and as my build would focus on fire+lightning, my +%cold would not be high. It’s the same as how my current Blademaster is pierce+acid/poison+bleed focused, so I don’t invest in any cold damage skills, as their damage would be minimal compared to the +900% poison damage I have.
Btw, I was surprised when checking Devotions how few constellations are there with clear +% Fire Damage. The only one I can take with +1 devotion at the start was the Fiend.
I dunno, just relying on one skill (Fire Strike) and passives seems to me like a boring build where you go and shoot and that’s all. I like to have multiple skills at my disposal, call it a call-back from the Diablo II times. If I am playing a fire damage specialist, I would think having an explosive skill at right-click is something of a staple of such an archetype.
I will check, but I did not recall it does weapon damage too.
But brimstone… Why would you even want to interrupt your attack when it does everything explosives do and better?
Because that’s boring, y’know? Just… having one skill and passives and nothing else? I’d not even finish Normal with such a build, I’d bore myself to death. It’s why I never finished DII with an Amazon either, as people always told me to just invest in one skill tree and that’s that.
This is normal for a shooter you are building, can be a problem for some others but generally not as terrible now as it was at level 85. You will have Ulzuin’s torment, Essense of Beronath (to cap attack speed and for flat elemental), +1 demo helm and +1 demo relic, thats already +4 demo. Dagallon pistols don’t have +demo skills unfortunately. There are other weapons that do though.
LOL you assume everyone has every Legendary set ever made? I have played the game since the Alpha and I don’t have a single complete Legendary set. I completed a few Epic sets, that’s all. But most late level stuff drops only on ultimate, and I usually get bored with a build by the time I get there and start a new one, so I don’t have so many such items.
What you are missing with chilling rounds is the exponential increase of damage due to the nature of its burst and how it procs with each shot in the burst. It is essentially 3 shots for two handed and 4 shots for dual wield in a single second. Also the % it procs is quite misleading. It procs more often than not, especially if you have high attack speed. Ignore the cold damage aspect and look at it for the unique burst aspect or better test with and without. See how it works for you. If you take that burst ability from chilling rounds into account with a weapon that passes through enemies it gets ridiculous really fast in terms of damage and procs.
It seems you missed scholar’s light in the devotions and also imp that only need a single devotion point to get % fire damage.
It depends how you want to play and what you are playing. I know personally I like builds that require fewer buttons to survive because of neurological stuff that affects my memory and things. I don’t find them boring to be honest. I get frustrated with builds where too many things have to happen to be survivable. Or I have to stop shooting at enemies to drop an AoE like inquisitor seal.
Um no. Your left click should be move to and your right click should be your ranged attack replacer such as fire strike.