Is anyone else finding that the Inquisitor is completely underwhelming when it comes to a focus on ranged whether dual or single wielded?
I’m mixing it with Arcanist to try and get the damage up & without better split/strike through there is little reason not to solely focus on word of pain.
Even there though you seem to hit a damage ceiling for specific amount around level 30; by then it’s starting to become a background general skill.
To me it’s like crates essentially just made a Demolitionist mark 2 with different skill names and while that’s all well and good for people who enjoyed the Demolitionist; firstly we already have that class which requires dual classing and split focus with traps to be viable, secondly Grim Dawn still doesn’t seem to have a specific focused ranged class.
It’s weakness doesn’t seem to stem from squishiness (surprisingly), or unlike other ranged builds trying to get singular %damage (type) up [as it uses elemental & it’s hard to not find increases for 2 to 3 of the elements though always weaker in general when split].
It seems to stem from it not being firstly rapid enough with enough support skills to ‘devote’ on, and secondly because as a lower damage alternative doesn’t hit enough enemies to be a crowd controller.
What you are left with is a class that is basically a trap caster who also likes to fling poop occasionally if you want to waste 20 skill points devoting effort to it.
What’s your take on the viability of guns in grim dawns gameplay? Would grim dawn simply be better off not bothering to have them at all if it’s just going to be a half arsed after thought?
[What I’m hearing back so far is that it becomes a little more viable with base attack substitutes (cadence/savagery/etc.), that it doesn’t seem to keep up with the damage curve well @ levels 30-60, Dual wielding doesn’t really increase procs restricting crowd control (one fires at a time MotT and RNG procs seperate) and there is too many bosses made to counter kiting though kiting/stutter-backing is a necessity as ranged have to face tank.
…As an update I decided to run a pure sorcerer style on the exact same character and my clear speed has gone through the roof using flash freeze/word of pain/ Panetti’s Replicating missile/vitality wave from gear with elemental AoE devotions attched. Because the crowd control is easier (keep toggling 4 buttons to evaporate) it also beats the pants off ranged @ direct damage because you run circles round them.
Both are at ranged builds, so why would you ever choose the former? You wouldn’t)]
I won’t judge if I didn’t make it to the peak of the build yet.
During leveling session. It’ll be pain or easy depends on your customization. Try posting your grimtool build then lets people help you to find out what should min-max.
your example of how bad at lv30 is no matter with max lv 100 and bunch of legendaries to create awesome build out there.
Grim Dawn doesn’t do ranged at all due to lack of crowd control on hero enemies. In addition, nearly all enemies having a charge, dash, or simply move too fast to bother kiting, unless you want to develop severe arthritis from all that stutter stepping. Furthermore, there are no movement abilities to create space because of the designer’s aversion to those sort of skills.
So yeah, any sort of ranged class is a pipe dream in this game. No matter what you’ll be a guy who face tanks enemies while shooting them in the face. I propose Crate get rid of all guns and graft a shield to the arm of each class. The tank classes can have a shield on each arm, and the tankiest will have a face shield.
Typically skills don’t start to feel underwhelming until level 70 or more, so surprising to hear it’s not doing the job even at 30. Your complaints sound like the issues I have with Necro’s Drain Esence in that you wonder WTF it takes to make it kill something. Looking forward to next patch and some massive buffs.
“Underwhelming” is the right word, I guess. I’ve tried two ranged focused Inquisitor builds so far and abandoned both around Level 45 (or respecced into melee). They were not awful… just not good either. They dealt with crowds and trashmobs very well but struggled a lot with bosses.
The runes/traps are quite strong, but the preparation time messes with the gameflow. When they announced a dedicated ranged class I was really hoping for some active ranged skills… piercing shots, homing shots, anything that gives ranged combat a unique flavour. A few procs is what we got.
It seems that everything Inquisitor can do, some other class can do better. At least Necro has been great fun so far and seems to be a genuinely good addition to the game. I’m usually a sucker for ranged classes in arpgs, but in Grim Dawn they just don’t feel right.
I don’t get your complaint, but I think some of your issues stems from a misconception. First, there previously was no class with dual wielding proc damage, and it also includes 2 AE’s. That’s pretty good right there.
The misconception you are having is that classes are entirely focused on a particular style of play. Every class has some specialties, but they have many different options to play with, and no one ever uses them all. Inquisitor has great dual wield ranged options, not previously given, but it also has tanking options, mine/trap options, and a channel option.
Pick one or 2, and leave the rest be. Pick another class that has options to create synergies between them.
Previously, Demolitionist was more or less the defacto dual wield class to pair with, using Fire strike. Now, Inquisitor is, but Inquisitor does lack a default attack, which means you need to pair the inquisitor with a class that has one. Shaman has Savagery, but lacks dual wield damage bonus. Demolitionist offers Fire Strike and has fire and lightning damage bonus. Soldier also makes a good choice with Cadence, and physical damage bonuses.
Inquisitor a is great dual pistol class, but not by itself. It’s also capable of several other types of builds too.
And if you chose a class without a default attack, look at the Mistborn Talisman relic, or the Shard of Beronath weapon component. They aren’t great, but they are better than auto attacking.
Since your 2nd mastery is an Arcanist, I think your underwhelming experience stems from the same reason why most auto-attack theory builds suffer; which is the lack of a Default Attack Replacers (Cadence, Savagery, Firestrike, etc; ) on the build.
This was my same experience when I was trying to theory craft an Auto Attack Scythe Build for my Reaper, wanting to take full advantage of Necromancer’s Reaping Strike and Necrotic Edge for a melee cold/vita based build.
When playing a ranged build you would want your damage as consistent as possible. Rolling with a Mage Hunter that only relies on it’s flat bonuses on its passive kit, with your constant Inqui procs I imagine will result in a disappointing damage output.
Now compare that to a Cadence/Fire Strike/Savagery Build, which you convert 100% to Elemental through the skill modifier. You get a much bigger flat damage bonus on your Auto, you modify you 1h/2h damage %, and all you have to worry about is the +% (damage type) bonuses and Resist Shred.
Try redoing this with Soldier/Commando/Shaman 2nd Mastery. Then tell us what you think. I personally think, Mage Hunters are better as casters than an Auto-Attack based build.
What I’ve done with my Mage Hunter is change the relic she was using to a Mistborn Talisman which gives her Troll Rage as a default weapon attack on the LMB.
I have a level 78 Mage Hunter atm, and it was definitely mediocre/underperforming until I was able to equip Shard of Beronath and use some decent guns (Blessed Steel works quite nicely on the other gun as Sacred Strike hits pretty hard). It has around 20k DPS now, ~72% crit, and around 165% attack speed, which is somewhat decent. But it’s still quite fragile and health regen isn’t all that great, nor is HP, with around 8.8k.
I should also add that gearing for an elemental dual pistol mage hunter is pretty lackluster as well.
I recently leveled a lv100 Vindicator (I think that’s Inquisitor + Shaman), using lightning pistols (Exonerators) with Savagery as my main attack. Inquisitor’s DW procs are nice, Inquisitor seal is ridiculous (IMO), and the RR from Aura of Censure is also very nice, bringing my RR to over -120% + ~20% reduction from Hand of Ultos.
My DPS isn’t godly (since I haven’t change weapons since level 58, the DPS has stayed around 38k in Inquisitor Seal’s aura), and my gear is seriously behind (average gear level 65 in level 100 xpac ultimate hurts with all those high physical enemies), but I’ve found my clear is respectable. To be honest, I mostly fight in melee range - Inquisitor Seal + Wendigo Totem = mad sustain. Procs make up for it - I have a few lightning / chain lightning procs on gear, add that to decent crit damage from Inquisitor Seal and Deadly Aim…
This sounds like a fun build. If you don’t mind, could you post a grimcalc when you’ve got time? I’d like to try something similar and would like seeing what you’ve done.
Having quite good time with my dual-guns Tactician (Inq + Sold) right now. Closing in on the pre-xpac content finish (cleared Plains of Strife). 0 deaths, veteran. A few points in Cadence, about 4 points in each Inq gun proc, around 4 in each mine, Word of Pain is 1-1-1 for devotion procs. Sacred Strike from Blessed Steel in one gun helps a lot with single-target damage bursts, Demon Breath from Devil-Touched ammo in other gun helps with strong crowds. Main focus is on elemental damage, with a touch of piercing at the side. Took down Sentinel, and kited Rashalga to death with mines.
Not in the Ultimate yet, but veteran tends to be harder than elite for me, feeling pretty good about that build doing Ult. Strongly suspect that damage absorption from Inquisitor Seal won’t be enough for occasional face-tanking needs there, though.
You should toy around with 2h. With the transmuter, and Brute Force, the DPS gets pretty good. I’m not at level 100 on mine, but at level 56, my Vindicator already has ~34K DPS when standing on the Seal. Shaman favors 2h imo.
I won’t bother with all the gear/devotions if that’s okay - maybe if I have more time later I’ll fill it out in full. http://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKQYBWV - note that certain skills don’t need to be overcapped (e.g Heart of the Wild), so points can be taken out when you get + skills to it. One might also consider not going for Aura of Censure in Inquisitor, and instead going for Stormcaller’s Pact in Shaman for the % conversion and % crit damage. I personally wanted as much RR as I could, but it’s down to preference.
I’m sure it’d be better, but I haven’t dual wielded guns since about B29 or so when I think they were really strong… so I thought I’d give it a go seeing as the class support for it finally came.
Hey that’s great, thanks very much. Gives me an idea of what to work with. And yeah, I was thinking of going with Pact over Censure. Will probably try both though eventually and see what I like best. Cheers!
When you use weapon, the FIRST thing you should think about - “What skill will i use as my primary (spammable) attack?”. Inquisitor has nice WPS, but he doesnt has any ranged skill. You should get one from another class (and for that, you should get Soldier - Cadence, Demolisher - Fire Strike or Shaman - Savagery/Primal Strike). Or use a skill provided by item, for example Runebinder’s Spellthrower has the one.