Flame of Annihilation - An Inquisitor Guide by Cruro
I try my best to keep the guide updated and keep in touch with other Inquisitor mains, but I still recommend to double check with the community before making any big commitments: See #acolyte in muhro-discord
Prologue
Inquisitor is the 4th job class that follows the tree of: Acolyte -> Monk/Champion -> Sura -> Inquisitor
As such it retains some of the useful utility skills that Priests enjoy, like Teleport/Warp/Pneuma and buffs like Agi Up/Blessing, while gaining new powerful offensive options.
Their acolyte-heritage should not be confused with a support class though, Inquisitor is first and foremost a dps class with some utility options on top.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
|
|
Beginner Chapter: Basic Techniques
Stats and Traits
- Str: As a knuckle (or mace) wearer, this increases status-atk by a high amount. It also helps with carrying more loot. Recommended: 90 - 120 (120 when using
Happy Card (300271) -combo). - Agi: Increases aspd and flee. Aspd is important to fluently chain skills. Recommended: Whatever is needed to hit 190+ aspd with consumables (might only be possible with later gears that also give aspd)
- Vit: Increases your maximum health and resistance to certain status effects. Recommended: 90 - 120.
- Int: Reduces variable cast time (half as efficient as dex) and increases maximum SP as well as SP recovery. Recommended: 60 - 90.
- Dex: Reduces variable cast time and increases hit. Recommended: 90 - 120 (120 when using
Empathize Card (300270) -combo). - Luk: Increases crit-rate (Cri), slightly increases status-atk and gives resistance to curse. Recommended: 30 - 120 (depending on Cri-needs)
For traits, only the following matter for offense:
- Pow: Every 3 Pow increases P.Atk by one. P.Atk is a new final damage modifier (similar to range%, melee% and crit-damage%) that has been introduced with 4th jobs. Recommended: 100
- Con: Additionally, every 5 Con also increase P.Atk and give some secondary stats like hit, flee. Recommended: Either 35, 45, 90 or 100 (depends on build/gears, see specific chapters).
- Crt: Increases C.Rate, a new final modifier similar to P.Atk but for critical damage only (not to be confused with your critical hit chance, aka. "Cri"). Recommended: Either 35, 45, 90 or 100 (depends on build/gears, see specific chapters).
Relevant Skills
Buffs and utility skills
Body Relocation (Snap): This is the reason to play this class. It grants you the fastest movement in the game, but it also aids as an additional tool to fight position bugs - the cell you snap to is definitely where you character is standing.
Hint: Make sure to set /camera to disable camera smoothing (you will want your character to always be dead-center of the screen) for much simpler snapping.
Movement speed stops mattering entirely if you can simply chose where to exist in space. Once you unlock Snap, you will never walk again.
Rising Dragon: Bumps your sphere-limit to 15 and spawns all of them immediately, grants additional HP/SP, and puts you into "Explosion Spirits"-state which removes sphere-consumption from Snap.
The first skill you are going to press before doing anything and mandatory to keep up.
Dangerous Soul Collect (Zen): Instantly calls the maximum amount of spheres. If you're missing spheres, this is the basic tool to gain them back, pretty straight-forward.
Cast can be cancelled, so it requires either -1s FCT to remove cast time entirely, or you can snap away from a mob to not get interrupted so easily and snap back. Alternatively you can also just cast Rising Dragon again if it's off cooldown as it has no cast time that can be interrupted.
Power Absorb: Consumes all your spheres and grants back 1% SP for each sphere that has been consumed. With Rising Dragon active, this is a handy tool to regain 15% SP immediately.
Teleport: Essential for field/dungeon farming. Allows you to teleport to a random spot (put Lv1 on your hotkeybar to avoid the popup-window).
Increase Agility: The increased movementspeed is irrelevant to us, but the additional Agi helps our attack speed, which is absolutely welcome.
Blessing: A nice +10 boost to Str/Int/Dex. However, it also clears Curse-status from yourself and others, and Stone-Curse-status from others.
Gentle Touch-Cure: Removes various negative status effects, with the more important ones being: Freeze, Stone Curse and Hallucination (upside-down screen). This skill can even be casted while Frozen/Stone-cursed yourself, which is extremely rare and valuable.
Gentle Touch-Revitalize: Increases Max HP by 10% and also boosts Def/HP-recovery. Useful for HP-scaling skills like 
Tiger Cannon and 
Third Flame Bomb. Cannot be used together with 
Gentle Touch-Change.
- Gentle Touch-Change: Increases Atk% and flat Atk. Useful for all attack-skills that do not scale with HP. Cannot be used together with Gentle Touch-Revitalize.
Firm Faith: Increases MaxHp%. Useful for HP-scaling skills like Tiger Cannon and Third Flame Bomb. Cannot be used together with 
Powerful Faith.
- Powerful Faith: Adds +15 P.Atk. Very strong buff during early- and mid-game where there are not many sources of P.Atk from gears yet. Still decent in end-game. Cannot be used together with Firm Faith.
First Faith Power: Self-buff that removes sphere consumption of Fallen Empire. Mainly only used as a stepping-stone for 
Judge.
- Judge: AP-consuming self-buff that additionally removes sphere consumption of Flash Combo. Mainly only used as a stepping-stone for
Third Exorcism Flame.
- Third Exorcism Flame: AP-consuming self-buff that additionally removes sphere consumption of Tiger Cannon. Mainly only used to enable usage of Third Flame Bomb-combo.
Attack Skills
Oleum Sanctum: Not a strong skill on its own, but it applies a heavy debuff on the targets that will make them receive +50% more damage from all range attacks (including your own).
Very useful in party scenarios with range-attackers or yourself on Explosion Blaster build.
Explosion Blaster: Strong, self-targeted 9x9 Aoe attack that scales with range% and crit-modifiers. Base damage formula becomes even bigger against targets that are afflicted with the Oleum Sanctum debuff.
This lets you effectively double-dip on Oleum: You deal +50% more damage due to the applied debuff, and you also get the increased damage formula. This usually results in twice the damage for Explosion Blaster.
For more in-depth information, check Intermediate Chapter: Explosion Blaster.
Massive Flame Blaster: Only worth getting when going pure ranged build, meaning not (fully) skilling into Third Flame Bomb and when also using the new Time Dimensions Rune Crown + Dimensions Judgement Claw combo to actively boost this skill.
That combo boosts Massive Flame Blaster enough to be noticably stronger than Explosion Blaster. However, due to its remaining 3s cooldown it can still only be weaved inbetween Explosion Blaster casts. This skill is not worth getting when using e.g. Dim Glacier weapon which boosts Explosion Blaster exclusively (Massive Flame Blaster will be weaker than Explosion Blaster, while also costing AP and having cooldown).
First Brand: Initial starter for Third Flame Bomb combo. Applies "Brand"-status on all monsters around the target in a 7x7 Aoe (needed for the next combo-step).
Second Flame: Second step in Third Flame Bomb combo. Can only be casted on targets afflicted with the "Brand"-status. Applies the upgraded "Judgement Brand"-status on all monsters around the target in a 7x7 Aoe. Requires Third Exorcism Flame to be active.
- Third Flame Bomb: Finisher of the Third Flame Bomb combo. Can only be casted on targets afflicted with the "Judgement Brand"-status. Deals very high damage on all monsters around the target in a 7x7 Aoe. Requires Third Exorcism Flame to be active.
This skill scales with max HP, melee and attack modifiers. It deals three hits if 15 spheres are active (but does not consume any). Beware that it deals 0 hits with 5 or less spheres (e.g. when Rising Dragon runs out).
For more in-depth information, check The Final Chapter: Third Flame Bomb.
Sphere Management
While other classes may have consumables like arrows or gemstones, Monk class uses a sphere-system that needs to be managed like a resource in order to be able to use certain skills or at least to use them at their full strength.
This used to be a limiting factor during Monk-era with skills like 
Investigate, 
Finger Offensive and most notoriously 
Asura Strike, but it also carried on into Sura-era with skills like Tiger Cannon and 
Gate of Hell.
Those skills could only be used as long as you still have the needed amount of spheres (varies by skill). With insufficient spheres, they can be re-called using either 
Call Spirits, or more likely its successor Dangerous Soul Collect (Zen) which will refill the maximum amount of spheres instantly.
Another important skill to mention here is the bread and butter Body Relocation which normally also consumes spheres, unless you're in "Explosion Spirits"-state (usually by using Rising Dragon, or if it's currently in cooldown, alternatively 
Explosion Spirits).
For that reason alone, the "Explosion Spirit"-state should be kept up at all times.
The original maximum spheres used to be 5 spheres, at least until you're Sura and have access to Lv10 Rising Dragon which will bump the limit to 15 Spheres.
One very useful trick to maintain your SP is by occasionally using Power Absorb to consume all 15 spheres, and in return grant an immediate 15% SP back.
With these things out of the way, sphere-management has been simplified a lot as Inquisitor. Neither of the main damage skill consume spheres at all, however Third Flame Bomb will scale its damage based on the amount of spheres currently active. So it's highly recommended to use Dangerous Soul Collect (Zen) or Rising Dragon whenever spheres might have been consumed (as Inquisitor that's usually just by Gentle-Touch buffs or Power Absorb).
On top of that, the Inquisitor-specific AP-consuming buffs even remove sphere consumption on most Sura skills (that we tend to not use anymore at this point though).
Intermediate Chapter: Explosion Blaster
Explosion Blaster is a 9x9 AOE based on ranged dmg and crit.
It is highly recommended to build for Aftercastdelay-reduction (ACDR), even far beyond the point needed to reduce the 1s ACD to match its 0.7s CD.
While the former would only require 30% ACDR, getting 50% and higher will allow you to snap away to the next target noticably faster.
Stats
- Str: 120
- Agi: 60 - 90
- Vit: 90+
- Int: 60 - 90
- Dex: 120
Needed when using Empathize Card (300270) combo, can be lower otherwise.
- Luk: 30 - 120
Heavily depends on your Cri-needs (see Secondary Stats below)
Traits
- Pow: 100
- Con: 35
- Crt: 100
Beware that if you plan to use any Nebula Armor with 
Star Cluster of Concentration Lv.3 (310682) , it should be Con: 90 and Crt: 45 instead
Secondary Stats
- Cri: 140+
The actual amount of Cri needed depends on the target monster. In an ideal scenario 100 Cri would equal to 100% critical hit chance. However, enemy Luk will lower your chances of critting, that's why overshooting 100 Cri is often necessary. Concrete values can be checked by using @mi <monster-name-or-id> ingame and check for the crit-shield value. With the recommended Cri-value of 140, any target with a crit-shield of 40 and lower will always be critted. Certain endgame places may require even higher values, but that's relatively rare.
- Aftercastdelay reduction: 30 - 86%
30% is the bare minimum to use EB on cooldown, however in order to be able to snap to the next target, at least 50% or higher is recommended for farming.
Gears
Endgame
| Slot | Items | Cards | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headgear (Top) |
|
|
Ideally the respective Jewel-enchant should be gotten first, to then go for the determined special enchant (for either headgear). Going for ACDR cards may be preferable when dropping Dim Glacier (and it's 15% ACDR enchant) |
| Headgear (Mid) |
|
|
Any other mid headgear with ACDR-enchant can also be useful here |
| Headgear (Low) |
|
- | Blood sucker helps a lot with sustain, and would be the prefered choice for farming when a minor damage-loss is usually acceptable |
| Armor |
|
|
- |
| Weapon |
|
 White Knight Card (4608) (+  Polluted Wander Man Card (27361) for Dimension weapon) |
Fully enchanted +12 A Dim Glacier is about 1.4% (depending on gears) stronger than +12 A Dimensions weapon, |
| Shield |
+12 [A] |
 Khalitzburg Knight Card (4609) |
- |
| Garment |
+12 [A] |
|
Empathize Card is mandatory when using Observation Card in Armor |
| Shoes |
+12 [A] |
|
Rgan can only be used with +12 gear |
| Accessories |
|
 Void Mimic Card (300278) |
Gray Wolf Ring with +30 Cri can help a lot when leaning towards TFB stat-build which lacks natural cri. |
Future gears (currently not obtainable)
| Slot | Item | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Headgear (Card) |
Episode 20 |
Should give 7% ACDR when put into a +10 armor-lv2 headgear, according to divine-pride (item description might be currently incomplete here) That would make it the best non-mvp card for ACD reduction. |
| Garment |
Hall of Life |
Circulation of Life: Winter Info by Sigma No idea yet how these enchants work, how they level, which slots etc. |
| Accessory-right (Card) |
Episode 20 |
15% range easily beats 15% crit-dmg (from previous Void Mimic Card), since EB only uses half of crit-dmg modifier |
| Accessories |
Hall of Life |
Signet of Circulation: Winter Info by Sigma Again, unsure how the enchanting system will work. These enchants will most likely make Nebula best for armor-slot again. |
Midgame
| Slot | Items | Cards | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headgear (Top) |
|
|
Bio5 headgear with acute is a decent filler until Temporal Circlet |
| Headgear (Mid) |
|
|
Any other mid headgear with ACDR-enchant can also be useful here |
| Headgear (Low) |
|
- | Blood sucker helps a lot with sustain, and would be the prefered choice for farming when a minor damage-loss is usually acceptable |
| Armor |
+11 |
|
- |
| Weapon |
+9 |
- | - |
| Shield |
+11 |
Khalitzburg Knight Card (4609) |
Illusion Silver Guard is close to the best-in-slot option in raw damage |
| Garment |
+9 |
|
- |
| Shoes |
+11 |
|
 Abysmal Merman Card (300144) requires to also use  Abysmal King Dramoh Card (300150) in headgear
|
| Accessories |
|
Void Mimic Card (300278) |
Automatic Boosters are pretty close to Varmundt Accessories at a fraction of the price if you can find the modules |
Shadow Gears and Costume Stones
| Slot | Item | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Headgear (Top) |  Assassin Cross Stone II (Top) (1000222) |
- |
| Headgear (Mid) |  Critical Stone (Mid) (25060) |
- |
| Headgear (Low) |  Guillotine Cross Stone (Low) (1000976) |
- |
| Armor | +10  Maximum Mammoth Shadow Armor (24679) |
- |
| Weapon | +10  Infinity Shadow Weapon (24386) |
- |
| Shield | +9/10  Separate Reload Shadow Shield (24746) |
- |
| Garment |  Guillotine Cross Stone II (Garment) (1000221) and  Critical Stone (Dual) (1000855) |
- |
| Shoes | +10  Maximum Mammoth Shadow Shoes (24680) |
- |
| Accessories | +9/10  Full Penetration Shadow Earring (24661) and +9/10  Full Penetration Shadow Pendant (24662) |
- |
Buffs and Consumables
- Gentle Touch-Change (Sura): Minor attack (flat and percentage) boost
- Powerful Faith (Inquisitor): Nice +15 P.Atk for free
Awakening Potion (656) / 
Infinite Awakening Potion (12885) : Faster aspd = faster movement
Red Herb Activator (100232) : More damage if necessary
Abrasive (14536) : Only necessary when really struggling with getting enough Cri
The Final Chapter: Third Flame Bomb
Third Flame Bomb is a three-step combo that ends in a 7x7 AOE finisher based on melee dmg and your total health.
To be able to use the combo, it's necessary to activate the following three buffs in order: First Faith Power -> Judge -> Third Exorcism Flame
While the first buff does not cost AP, upgrading to the final buff will consume a total of 100 AP (if the skills are maxed, if they are not, more AP is consumed). When done correctly, a bright golden circle appears behind the character.
The easiest tool to recover AP (when there is no healer NPC nearby) is casting Explosion Blaster. Since it's a self-targeted skill it can be used at anytime without requiring a target monster. However, this is usually only necessary when dying inside an instance. Using the Third Flame Bomb combo repeatedly will quickly recover any AP lost by activating the buffs to begin with.
Brand Mechanic
The combo itself uses a "brand"-mechanic. This is a kind of mark that is applied to all targets that are hit by a combo skill. The general flow is:
- First Brand will apply "Brand"-status on all monsters in a 7x7 area around the target
- Second Flame can only be used against targets with "Brand"-status. When hitting the target, all monsters in a 7x7 area receive the "Judgement Brand"-status (regardless if they had any brand on them previously). This will remove the "Brand"-status.
- Third Flame Bomb can only be used against targets with "Judgement Brand"-status. When hitting the target, all monsters in a 7x7 area will receive drastic damage. This will remove the "Judgement Brand"-status.
With the brand-mechanics in mind, the following two limitations may appear:
- On especially mobby maps, it can happen that the sprite of a monster with no brand or incorrect brand covers the correctly "branded" monsters, which can make it tricky or impossible to properly continue the combo. This can be fixed by simply restarting the combo from step 1, to ensure that all brands are applied in the right order.
- Multiple TFB Inquisitors against one target can steal each others brand, which interrupts the combo of the others. This is an unfortunate one :(
Stats
- Str: 120
- Agi: 60 - 90
Getting to 190+ aspd is highly recommended for a smoother combo
- Vit: 120+
- Int: 60 - 90
- Dex: 90
- Luk: 30
Traits
- Pow: 100
- Con: 100
- Crt/any: 35
After maxing Pow/Con, the remaining points can be put into any defensive trait. However, I would recommend putting it into Crt if planning to use Explosion Blaster with the same stat-build.
Secondary Stats
- Aftercastdelay reduction: 40%+
The recent rebalance added 0.7s aftercastdelay to Third Flame Bomb, the last step of the combo. I found 40%+ to be a decent enough value to perform the combo just fast enough. Fortunately, this can already be achieved with offensive endgame gears without intentionally sacrificing damage for it: 15% (Dim Enchant) + 15% (Grade A Glade Rune Manteau) + 10% (Depth Armor) Separate Reload Shadow Shield can also be used to compensate missing gears to some extend.
Gears
Endgame
| Slot | Items | Cards | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headgear (Top) |
|
 Melted Poring Card (300174) |
Using the dimensions headgear+weapon would normally be a dps-loss as First Brand cooldown gets increased to 1.8s. |
| Headgear (Mid) |  Gambler's Seal [1] (410233) Melee% or HP% enchants |
Melted Poring Card (300174) |
Alternatively any mid-headgear with hp% enchants |
| Headgear (Low) |
|
- | Blood Sucker is especially strong on TFB build - extremely high sustain |
| Armor |
|
|
Use Two Eyes Dollocaris Card only if armor is +12, otherwise Shelter Card unless you have these MVP cards |
| Weapon |
|
|
Judgement Knuckle (without enchants) beats fully enchanted Dim Glacier weapon by roughly 3~5% at +12 A. However Dim Glacier also grants valuable utility with its +15% acdr and +15% aspd. Judgement Knuckle will mostly start shining when combined with headgear (see headgear section for details). With my current setup I found Wanderer Card to be about 0.5% stronger, but Punch Bug also works against small monsters. |
| Shield | +11  Illusion Guard [1] (460017)  Rune of Vitality Lv2 (29010) Rune of Vitality Lv2 (29010) |
|
Mushy Ant Egg gives slightly higher damage, but the all-size dmg reduction from Khalitzburg Knight Card |
| Garment | +11 [A] Glade Rune Manteau [1] (480231) |
|
Happy Card is required when using Shelter Card in Armor |
| Shoes | +11 [C] Boots of Unknown Life [1] (470073) HP% enchant |
|
The boots proc often (especially when mobbing) and roughly double the damage of TFB |
| Accessories |
|
 Broken Beta Guards Card (300076) |
- |
Future gears (currently not obtainable)
| Slot | Item | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Garment |
Hall of Life |
Circulation of Life: Spring Info by Sigma No idea yet how these enchants work, how they level, which slots etc. |
| Shield (Card) |
Episode 20 |
- |
| Accessory (Card) |
Episode 20 |
- |
| Accessories |
Hall of Life |
Signet of Circulation: Spring Info by Sigma Again, unsure how the enchanting system will work. These enchants will most likely make Nebula best for armor-slot again. |
Midgame
Shadow Gears and Costume Stones
| Slot | Item | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Headgear (Top) |  Melee Stone (Top) (1000377) |
- |
| Headgear (Mid) |  Melee Stone (Mid) (1000378) |
- |
| Headgear (Low) |  Melee Stone (Low) (1000379) |
- |
| Armor | +10 Maximum Mammoth Shadow Armor (24679) |
- |
| Weapon | +10 Infinity Shadow Weapon (24386) |
- |
| Shield |
|
Durable Shadow Shield is stronger, but Reload helps with the recently added 0.7s ACD in TFB |
| Garment |  Melee Physical Attack Stone (Garment) (1001053) and  Melee Stone (Dual) (1000524) |
- |
| Shoes | +10 Maximum Mammoth Shadow Shoes (24680) |
- |
| Accessories | +9/10 Full Penetration Shadow Earring (24661) and +9/10 Full Penetration Shadow Pendant (24662) |
- |
Note: I believe Infinity Shadow Weapon is necessary since we use Knuckles (100/100/75 size-mods), but was told that the partial RES-pierce of fully enchanted Master Shadow Set does outperform blue shadow gears in most endgame-places.
Huge thanks to Binho who was able to provide some numbers here: Fully upgraded/enchanted Master Shadow Gear can be up to 5~7% stronger in extreme cases (625 RES) and starts to shine at around 300 RES (e.g. Depth monsters), otherwise blue shadow gears are the easier and stronger choice. Additionally, blue shadow gears allow for flexibility to swap single pieces for utility without having to break def-pierce, and are not locked to a single skill like Master.
Buffs and Consumables
- Gentle Touch-Revitalize (Sura): Another +10% maxhp.
- Firm Faith or Powerful Faith (Inquisitor): Firm Faith will win in the end when you have high hp% amounts from gear, but Powerful Faith is usually better during early/mid game.
- First Faith Power -> Judge -> Third Exorcism Flame (Inquisitor): Required in order to be able to perform the Third Flame Bomb combo at all.
- Awakening Potion (656) / Infinite Awakening Potion (12885)
HP Increase Potion (Large) (12424)- Red Herb Activator (100232)
Trans Candy Red (11592)
Thanks
Special thanks to these players which helped me along the road with build discussions, theory-crafting and hints:
- Binho
- IntrepidEnigma
- Rgasm
- Toru
- Zapallo
And another huge thanks to the GM team and their dedication!