Part twelve of my controller friendly build series: Acid Ugdenbog Venom Launcher Paladin.
“Acid Paladin?” You say, “Inquisitors have 0 acid synergy!” But Gulgazor’s Heart and Ugdenbog Venom Launchers (henceforth referred to as UVLs) change that, and make Inquisitor the best source for the 2 WPS skills needed to reach 100%. This is the first acid Paladin build on the compendium, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t strong. It cleared SR80 fairly easily, so I’m calling it a success.
With 7 MIs, this build makes sense for two groups of people: newcomers, who can directly farm the items necessary to make it work, and grizzled veterans, who have played way too much of this game and so already have everything they need sitting in their Grim Dawn Item Assistant stash.
Sheet DPS doesn’t take into account the 15% to RF bonus from Korvan Gaze. Thanks to the cooldown reduction from Path of the Three, Deadly Aim should have more than 50% uptime, and do note that you do 24% (if they stack additively) more damage due to UVLs.
Video proof of clear
Fight tips
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Offense: unusually, Inquisitor Seal does not have Arcane Empowerment, so it provides 0 offense. So just shoot stuff.
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Defense: Inquisitor Seal is essential against tough enemies if you’re planning on fighting while stationary. With Vire’s Might, you can kite extremely effectively, and some bosses will necessitate this strategy. I like to put two Inquisitor Seals a Vire’s Might apart, and move between them as necessary.
Gear
As usual, the resists are overcapped to deal with resist reduction on high SR.Essential Gear:
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Gulgazor’s Heart: the defining element of this build. It’s hard to farm, since it’s a single enemy drop in a Skeleton Key dungeon, but the crucial part is the core item, not its prefix or affix.
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Eldritch Ugdenbog Venom Launcher x2: The “Eldritch” prefix is very important. You need Righteous Fervor to have 24 points in order to unlock the 9th charge level. If you don’t have at least one Eldritch UVL, you should replace one ring with either a Deathguard Sigil or a Ring of the Black Matriarch. UVL isn’t easy to farm, but you’ll gradually accumulate them during repeated playthroughs of act 5. The Coven Venom Launcher and Mythical Mutiny should be able to slot into the build, but are definitely inferior.
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Korvan Gaze: gives 15% attack speed and acid damage, and is very easy to farm: just run through the Temple of Osyr or the Cairan Docks, killing Ancient Armors and Eldritch Armors, and elites.
Do note that the 15% AS to RF is not taken into account in your DPS, and doesn’t show up anywhere in the character info sheets, so if you have 185% attack speed in the second tab, items which increase AS could increase your sheet DPS without increasing your actual damage.
Stuff I’m pretty sure is best in slot:
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Mythical Pack of Deadly Means: the Eldritch affix on the UVLs gives vitality damage to convert, but everything on this item is great. With only two sources of convertable vit damage (Eldritch UVLs and Meditation), this isn’t quite essential, but damn is it good.
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Meditation: the flat acid damage is a huge deal. And most of the vit becomes acid.
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Arcane Harmony Leggings: I know I’m probably the biggest fan of these, but I believe a build is only as strong as its weakest link, and without disruption protection you will really struggle against certain enemies. +84/126 spirit is great, and +84/126 DA is awesome as well. The resistances are good too. I don’t know why other people don’t use this as much as I do.
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Alchemist’s Mantle: +2 to RF and good acid damage. I suppose a Blighted Korvan Pauldrons of Blight could work, but you’d have less fire to acid conversion (which is important on your WPS), and I don’t like using MIs anyway. Aside from, you know, everywhere in this build.
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Viperfang Grips: they give OA, and there aren’t many gloves which give acid damage boosts. And they give a ton of OA, which is what makes this build shine. They don’t have attack speed, so if you don’t have enough AS from your weapons, you could run something else, like Iceskorn Talons, at the cost of nearly 200 OA.
Other stuff:
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Venomancer’s Raiment: has a lot of good stuff, but it has stiff competition from Chosen Raiment, Stealth Jacket of the Venomblade, and Vestments of the Great Guardian. I’m not sure which is best, but Venomancer’s Raiment definitely works. Oppressor’s Chosen Raiment, with the +2 to Righteous Fervor Oppressor’s affix, (ideally of the Cabal) should be stronger, but I don’t have one, so you probably don’t either.
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Viloth’s Ring: great for damage, and I had a couple that were great for OA and resists as well. If you don’t have a good one, then it won’t be ideal, and if you don’t have at least one Eldritch UVL, you should replace one of these rings as mentioned above.
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Magelord’s Greaves: I wanted maxed slow resist, and these seemed to be the best way to get it.
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Basilisk Crest: as an MI, it can give a lot of important resists, and a big chunk of OA. You could also run Ilgorr’s Eternal Curse, since Chilling Rounds strikes 3 times (so everything on it is tripled), Mark of the Forbidden, Mark of Burning Shadows, or maybe even a Pyroclasm Mark and replace one Seal of the Void with a Seal of Blight. But a good Basilisk Crest gives 40 OA and DA, and is great if you’re prone to forget to cast Word of Renewal (which I am).
Devotions
This is a relatively offense heavy devotion tree, made possible by the Paladin’s outstanding proficiency for running the **** away. If you’re having trouble surviving, perhaps because you’re lacking the great resist rolls on your MIs, you can run something like the devotions shown here, which I have not tested, but I think are very strong. (I didn’t alter the items or skills to compensate for the shift in resists.)
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Murmur and Manticore: acid damage and key resist reduction, especially as Inquisitor doesn’t have any acid resist reduction. Since Manticore/Acid Spray affects enemies in a smaller area than Murmur/Rumor, I put Manticore on RF so it’s always being applies where I’m shooting, and Rumor on Guardian of Empyrion, since they are great at applying devotions.
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Hydra: outstanding on pretty much all ranged builds.
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Yugol: expensive prerequisites, but it gives good damage and 16% damage reduction.
Skill Choices
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Righteous Fervor: the damage skill. Retribution isn’t very useful, but the first point gives 3, which is worth it. Do note that the AS from Consecration is only factored in to your DPS when you have at least one stack of Righteous Fervor, and the attack speed bonus from Korvan Gaze isn’t factored into your DPS at all. So if your char summary says 185% attack speed with Consecration, or 170% when its inactive, you have max attack speed.
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do also note that WPS are extra important in a dual wielding build, since they always attack with both weapons. Auto attacks without WPS use both weapons 50% of the time, 25% left hand, and 25% right hand, which averages to 75%. A WPS with 100% weapon damage is a substantial increase in damage. This build hits 100% WPS, so you always attack with both weapons, which isn’t actually factored in to the sheet DPS.
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Ranged Expertise: do note that most of the piercing damage gets converted to acid, making this a great skill.
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Bursting Round: a great WPS, since it applies AOE damage. With two Seals of the Void, you already have good AOE damage, but Bursting Round is still great.
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Chilling Rounds: this applies the listed damage twice, meaning it does 172% weapon damage in total. And penetrates. And freezes.
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(Storm spread): I like it here, but, ultimately, I needed the points to put into defensive skills Word of Renewal/Vigor/Steel Resolve and Haven. Doing so necessitated the Seals of the Void, reducing damage output compared to running Storm Spread, but made the build tough enough to survive SR80. I suppose you could run Storm Spread with the defensive devotions, but I think it’s stronger this way.
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Smite: generally inferior to Chilling Rounds, except against undead and Chthonic, but it activates frequently and penetrates, so it’s worth dumping points into. I’m not a huge fan of racial damage, which is inherently unreliable, but some of the most troublesome enemies are Chthonic.
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Word of Renewal: with Basilisk Crest, you can save it for its healing, and it acts like a minor health potion. The DA is huge, Vigor gives 1560 health, and Steel Resolve gives critical resists.
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Inquisitor Seal: I don’t like using this on ranged chars, especially high mobility Paladins, but I couldn’t get through SR80 without the defense it provides. For whatever reason, on this build, the bonuses from Inquisitor Seal made an enormous difference in survivability.
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Deadly Aim: with the modification from UVLs, your entire damage is multiplied by 1.24 times when Deadly Aim is active. Since Deadly Aim is active over 50% of the time, you do more than 12% more damage as a result, even before taking into account the bonus damage, crit damage, and OA from the base ability.
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Vire’s Might: mobility is fun, and is really useful for kiting with ranged chars.
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Summon Guardian of Empyrion: provides great resist reduction, and is great at activating Rumor, for more resist reduction.
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Path of the Three: increases damage, although the fire to acid conversion is wasted because (as Gnomish_Inquisition reminded me) the conversion on Dreeg’s Reproach to Righteous Fervor turns all RF and WPS fire into vit.
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Presence of Virtue: as tempting as the OA is, you need the health from Haven, and I really like Rebuke.
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Resilience: a single point gets this to 6. I don’t pay attention to it, but I’m sure it’s useful.
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Ascension: I don’t like its low uptime, so I only have 1 point in each. It’s slightly useful, but ultimately not too important.
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(Arcane Empowerment): same as Storm Spread, there just aren’t the points for this.
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(Horn of Gandarr): same as Storm Spread, there just aren’t the points for this.
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(Rune of Hagarrad): same as Storm Spread, there just aren’t the points for this. The slower enemy attack speed is very tempting, but it would be at the cost of Inquisitor Seal. I tested Rune of Hagarrad instead of Inquisitor Seal, and I really struggled to survive at SR80.
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(Judgment): same as Storm Spread, there just aren’t the points for this. Heart of Wrath is great for applying devotions, but you don’t need it in this build.
Levelling Tips
I thought this would be tough to level, given that all of the offensive Inquisitor boosts require conversion to acid. In fact, levelling it as acid was pretty easy. There are good one handed acid ranged weapons available at low levels, and it wasn’t hard to level at all.
Make sure you max the Yugol devotion first, since it takes the most XP to reach max level.
