I have just started an Inquisitor and I am not sure in which direction to go in terms of damage type. Inquisitor tree seems to mix both piercing and elemental, and it seems possible to run both (at least at lower level). However, for the devotion tree, I feel like I need to go in one direction only. There are a few devotions who can support both, but in terms of resistance reduction, I will have to make a decision at some point I guess.
I am playing as a gunslinger for now, using word of pain for AoE and later debuf. Again, while Word of pain focus on elemental damage, it allows pierce resistance reduction. Was it designed such as you use it for damage or debuff, but not both?
So is it viable to run pierce damage along with elemental damage?
I don’t see why not, the only devotion with Pierce RR meets its own requirements so you can pursue Elemental damage or Harp with minimal issues.
As for which to focus on it obviously depends on your second class, although if I wanted to focus both I’d either go Nightblade (Pierce + Cold RR and abilities) or Demolitionist (Fire Strike, Fire + Lightning RR, Fire/Lightning/Pierce abilities). You can probably do Shaman as well due to Elemental RR and Savagery, but competing exclusive skills is a pain and there’s no piercing support.
Of course, no.
Futhermore, even focusing on elemental damage usually doesnt bring good results, because “elemental” is in fact the mix of 3 damage types - fire, cold and lightning.
The best results can be achieved when you’re focusing on just one damage type (pierce, or fire, etc). In some special cases, you can build around 2 damage types, or maybe around all 3 elemental damage types, but that build should be heavily supported by very strong gear to shine.
The main problem is that devotions and items often offer boost to just one damage type, or resistance reduction to just one-two. And all the time, those “two” dont match. For example, Assassin’s Mark reduces pierce and physical resists, while Ring of Black Matriarch reduces physical and acid. Or Eldrich fire reduces fire and chaos, while helmet from Ulzuin set reduces fire and lightning, etc.
I think you’re confusing viable with optimal. Given the boatload of RR inherent in the Inquisitor class and all the new Elemental/Pierce gear/devotion support, I would argue a build running all 4 is absolutely viable (e.g. able to clear all vanilla content on Ultimate, excluding superbosses like Mog).
Maybe there is a misunderstanding about what I called elemental damage? I was referring to a combination of fire, cold and/or lightning, in the general term, not only to the “elemental type of damage”. In this respect, we could take the exemple of the Infiltrator: going pierce and cold is a good idea or should one focus on either one of them, and forget the other? The same goes for Purifier: while strongly focusing on fire/lightning via fire strike, the demolitionist class is still supporting pierce damage via temper.
But I do think that the devotion system still tend to favor focusing on either pierce or elemental. Again, while you do have the choice for damage bonus, it seems to me that stacking resistance reduction for both is tough. Eventhough, one can still attach Elemental Storm to Word of Pain/Death Sentence…