[3.1 SC] Non-crit Lightning Strike Melee Inquisitor Build (update)

14 Jan 2018 – Build created.
22 Jan 2018 – Updates to skills and gear choices. Included version history. Included key stats section.
29 Jan 2018 – Updates to flask choices. Shared path of building stats. Added video demo.

Pros
- Relatively cheap. I would say so far I spent between 2-3EX including the mistakes I made with the build.
- Reasonable damage for a non-crit build. On path of building 130K unbuffed DPS, 180K-199K (with Ancestral warcheif) buffed.
- Lightning strike can be used as both a melee and ranged skill although I built it into melee. At times, I’d use it ranged.
- No need mana regen/mana leech which is hard to get on a full ele build.
- Quite versatile. Can do map bosses and mobs.
- So fun

Cons
- Levelling was a struggle for me (due to my lack of knowledge) and I hit a brick wall several times. Almost gave up on the build.
- Melee. Lots of mitigation layers needed. Hard to make it hardcore viable.
- Not the fastest boss killer.
- Only starts to really shine with decent attack speed.
- Cannot do ele reflect maps.
- Hexproof rares can be a pain during earlier levels but negligible once you get the DPS going.

This was a very tanky T11 map. I got monsters with heal and increased cast speed, and I had EE. Monsters usually go down in more than half this time. Sorry for the lag. Hopefully it gives an idea of how the build performs. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/zIFsTlo1gCg

https://pastebin.com/2auw5k7C

• Main skill (single target/AOE): Lightning strike (LS) – Physical to Lightning (P2L) – Life leech – Elemental damage with attacks (EDWA) – Multistrike (MS 5-link) – Elemental Focus (EF 6-link)
Full lightning conversion with LS + P2L allows for all out scaling of lightning damage. Elemental leech is hard to obtain so the life leech gem is compulsory. EDWA is high damage multiplier. Switched out Faster Attacks (FA) for MS and loving the damage boost. Definitely worth replacing FA for. Lastly, replaced lightning penetration for EF as another more multiplier basically. Makes more sense since we do not rely too much on shock anyway.

• Secondary skill (AOE/curse application): Orb of storms (OOS) – Curse on hit (COH) – Conductivity – Blood magic (BM)
One of the issues I faced with the build is the lack of AOE. After trying all sorts of things with COC, COMK storm call etc., I wanted to give up as mobs were dying too slowly. But then when I switched into OOS, all that changed. Why is this important? LS is great when mobs line up in front of you but often in melee range, you are surrounded by mobs. When using LS inside of OOS, additional bolts of lightning shoot out of the orb, providing you with AOE damage to mobs surrounding you. The bolts also shoot outside the orb as long as your character has line of sight on the enemy. Casting this before engaging mobs with LS also grants you the damage boost+attack speed that Instruments of Virtue ascendancy passive provides. Tying in COH + Conductivity gives you an efficient way to curse mobs in the orb. OOS also has good crit chance allowing elemental overload to proc consistently. BM is used as you will be reserving near 100% mana.

• Aura setup: purity of elements (POE) – purity of lightning (POL) – herald of thunder – Enlighten (lvl. 3), Arctic armour (AA in an unset ring)
Using Soul Taker allows me to run all these auras. I would say all but POE is compulsory for the build. The reason I run POE is because I have a jewel called “Watcher’s Eye” that converts 8% of physical damage taken to lightning. POE also gives your golem some ele resists so it doesn’t die too often. Good utility. If you choose not to run POE and can sustain the mana regen/leech, you might decide to use a better weapon. AA for physical/fire damage mitigation and chilled ground.

• Defensive setup: Cast when damage taken (CWDT lvl. 1) – Increased duration – Immortal Call (IC lvl. 3) – Vortex (lvl. 4)
For obvious reasons, IC to mitigate a sudden swarm of physical attacks. Since we don’t use endurance charges, we’re keeping it to level 1 CWDT. Vortex provides good utility at melee range. When cast, vortex will create a chilled ground, slowing enemies. As far as I know, the slow does not rely on the damage made by vortex because it is a ground effect. The implication of this is that the chill will still work despite being at a low level.

• Movement skill: Shield charge (SC) – Fortify – Culling strike (CS 20% quality)
Since you use a shield, SC feels the best on this build IMO. You could switch to leap slam since Soul Taker is an axe but it feels a little clunky to me. Nontheless, I’d level a leap slam gem as well to switch for certain situations like lab traps and maps with lots of tight corners. Problem with SC is that sometimes the obstacles block you in tight spaces and that could cause you to die. One example is the hole that abyss monsters make. If you’re caught in between mobs and the hole and you can’t kill the mobs fast enough, you might be overwhelmed. CS is there for boss killing think of it as effectively reducing the boss’ HP by 10%. A 20% quality CS gives you 10% attack speed so it synergizes very well IMO. Otherwise, switch it out for FA. Fortify for reduced damage taken everytime your charge hits.

Support setup: Summon lightning golem (SLG) – Ancestral warchief (AW) – Blood magic (BM)
SLG for attack speed bonus. The golem also casts a wrath aura that adds lightning damage to attacks and spells. AW is used for boss fights or single target encounters. Use this only when your APS is high enough. It tremendously boosts your single target damage. Otherwise instead of AW, you could go for Vaal Lightning Trap but I just think AW is more consistent in terms of damage output and you’re not limited to 3 uses in boss fights. BM again because all your mana is reserved.

Compulsory/Good to have:
• Soul Taker – you will be using this as the main hand instead of how it is typically used as an offhand. The main problem with this weapon is it’s low crit chance which is perfect for a non crit build. Otherwise this weapon has high APS, insufficient mana does not prevent melee attacks. You have no physical damage on this build so your attacks will not chill. However, AW will attack with physical damage and apply chill, but if I am correct here, the damage produced by AW will be negligible on most bosses and will not slow them anyway.
• Warlord’s mark with immune to shock while affected by purity of lightning. For vessel of vinktar flask. Grants life % increase too.
• Karui Charge (Good to have) – Has good attack speed, accuracy, dex and boosts projectile damage and movement speed. All benefitting this build.
• Corrupted Karui Charge (Best in slot) - get an amulet that has the 0.2% lightning damage leeched as life implicit. Replaces dexterity with more life leech.
• Corrupted Impresence (Dream to have) – one with an additional curse on enemies. This would allow you to run conductivity on a blasphemy setup and another curse (either ele weakness or enfeeble) as a COH setup. Perfect but very expensive.
• For gloves, I’d recommend a pair of spiked gloves for the melee implicit with attack speed.

The offensive stats and defensive stats you want to lookout for on generic gear are…
Offensive:
- Inc. accuracy
- Inc. attack speed
- Added physical/lightning damage.
- Inc. physical/elemental/lightning damage
- Inc. phycal/elemental/lightning damage to attacks (prioritize before damage to spells)
- Dexterity (gives you accuracy)
- Try not to stack crit chance/crit damage as much as possible. Amulet already increases crit chance by 100% and that should be all you need.

Defensive:
- Max life
- Max resists (don’t overlook chaos resists)
- Armour (Prioritize armour over evasion)
- Evasion
- Block chance/spell block/dodge

Flasks:
- Life flasks (with freeze and bleed immunity. You want 50% instant recovery. Don’t take the ones with 100% instant recovery. Normally the HP they give you is dramatically reduced because of that.)
- Stibnite flask (with curse immunity. Grants evasion rating and blinds. Good utility especially for melee)
- Sulphur flasks (with poison immunity. Ascendancy benefits from consecrated ground effects produced and flasks gives 40% increased damage)
- Vessel of vinktar (for boss fights or abyss/beyond/breach fights. Gives damage boost and 20% damage life leech.)
- When you are ready, drop one life flask for an Atziri’s Promise. Retain freeze, curse and bleed immunity for your flasks.

View my toon INQ_SPLUDGE_LS in…
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/spludgevan/characters

Bandits: Kill all for 2 passive points.

Key passives:
• Elemental overload (EO) – the crux of this build. It is a multiplier on damage. Easy to keep up with OOS+LS combo coupled with high APS.
• Sovereignty – nodes leading to this provides 14% reduction in mana reserved.
• Slaughter – Great for axe melee damage. Onslaught on kill is up a lot. Gives good boost to attack speed.

I don’t want to share too much of what I did here because I think it was very bad. Go for health and damage during early stages, making sure to balance the two. When you can use LS+OOS combo, rush for EO. This build is dex starved so I grabbed the major dex nodes where they were available. Also, dex grants you accuracy which you want to stack. Do not overlook accuracy rating. It contributes to your overall effective DPS and since we cannot go Resolute Technique, it is something you need to keep on top of.

Inquisitor class. Passives in order of priority: Instruments of Virtue (IoV) – Augury of Pentinence – Sanctify – Pious Path

Why not Righteous Providence and Inevitable Judgement? These are for high crit builds that benefit from crit multipliers. Also, we are already penetrating enemy resistances to the negatives. IJ only treats enemy resistances on crit as 0% and reduces on non-crits by 10%.

My choices were Soul of Solaris for boss damage mitigation and Soul of Gruthkul for mitigation on hits. You can spec into anything you want here as long as it suits you.

Charge into mobs to keep Fortify up. At melee range, cast OOS then proceed with LS attacks. OOS has a low cast time so you will not feel too interrupted casting it repeatedly. Repeat this sequence to keep up fortify and IoV. Keep your golem up. Depending on your attack speed, you might not want to always cast him mid-fights as it takes awhile to cast him. 0.8 seconds in the heat of battle is a long time. Use AW when facing bosses and fight near the totem to gain its bonuses. Beware of things like freeze and chill as they can pose a big problem if you are in a swarm.

- Better enchant on boots.
- Relevant enchant on gloves.