RIFT 2.6 – 61 Inquisitor Guide – Cleric Ranged DPS

Inquisitor is arguably one of the most solid, all-around souls in the game. It can be used in every aspect of the game and perform outstandingly. Whether you’re looking for a decent leveling build to quickly slice through mobs, mash out some serious numbers on the damage meters in endgame raids, dominate Warfronts with fast, hard-hitting bolts or go back and solo old content, Inquisitor has tools for every job! In this guide, I’m going to be showing you how to get the most out of Inquisitor in almost every scenario.

Strengths:

• Highest ranged DPS build for clerics currently in the game
• Strong burst damage
• Good target switching capabilities
• Viable in all aspects of the Game (soloing, raiding, PvP, dungeons etc.)
• Possesses both an interrupt and purge

Weaknesses:

• Slightly behind on damage in comparison to both Shaman/Druid
• A bit more complex rotation-wise than Shaman and Druid

Link to video guide on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6alBeZJ-YBg

Builds:

There are 3 different variants of this build, a standard one which pulls the most DPS,  one if your going to be below 90% quite often which pulls slightly lower dps and one more for those without Storm Legion souls which pulls the lowest dps of the three builds.

61 Defiler/15 Defiler/0 Justicar

This is currently the highest damaging version of the 61 Inquisitor build. The problem with this build is that to get a higher output than the other variant, your health needs to be above 90% at least 80% of the time. This build also has the pros of having a dispel and additional self healing from Justicar on every attack. This makes it quite a strong and sturdy build for solo gameplay and soloing old content. However, if you’re going to solo old content (raids for example), it is likely your health will be below 90% the majority of the time, so if you are using this build purely for soloing you can also move 5 points from Defiler to Justicar for an alternate 10% increased Wisdom and increased endurance and mitigation through passives.

61 Inquisitor/10 Defiler/5 Sentinel

This is the alternate build that you should use on fights with a lot of raid damage going out where at least 80% of the time your health is below 90%. The build opts out the 5 points in Defiler that provide a 10% damage increase when you’re over 90% for 5 points in Sentinel, which give you 10% increased Spellpower, despite not having a passive %bonus damage from placing points in the Sentinel tree, this build always seem to rear ahead in comparison to the 10% increase Wisdom. Bear in mind you lose both the dispel and the self-healing from Justicar with this build. You do however gain healing breath, which has it’s occasional use.

61 Inquisitor/10 Cabalist/5 Sentinel

(Build if you don’t have Storm Legion Souls)

If you do not have access to the Storm Legion souls, this is the best Inquisitor DPS build for you. Not having Defiler means that you’re losing out on both Rage Blight and Blighted Greed, which provide a 5% damage bonus. You will also not have the self-heal utility spell Loathsome Restoration or Marrow harvest for when you are facing away from a target. You do however get healing breath, which has it’s occasional uses as a mediocre burst heal. You’ll also get several abilities from Cabalist, however they are all fairly useless unfortunately.

Buffs:

• Armor of Awakening
• Spiritual Scrutiny
• Shroud of Agony
• Rage Blight
• Blighted Greed (applied to Defiler when possible– if no Defiler, apply to the tank taking the most regular hits)

Single Target Priority List:
1. Scourge
2. Vex
3. Sanction Heretic
4. Instant Cast Bolt of Depravity
5. Nysyrs Rebuke
6. Bolt of Retribution ONLY if you have stacks of
7. Bolt of Judgement
8. (Not mentioned in the video) If you are facing away from the target for whatever reason – Marrow Harvest

AoE Priority List (3 or more targets):
1. Soul Drain
2. Circle of Oblivion
3. Scourge

Single Target Rotation:
The single target rotation is as simple as following the priority list above. The basic way to help this spec flow correctly is to ensure that you have all your damage over time abilities (Scourge, Vex, Sanction Heretic) on the target and then work on building 5 stacks of Life and Death Concord with Bolt of Retribution and Bolt of Judgement. As soon as you reach 5 stacks, you will want to cast a Bolt of Depravity.

So not factoring in cooldowns, your standard rotation would begin as such:

Scourge -> Vex -> Sanction Heretic -> 4x Bolt of Judgement -> Insta-cast Bolt of Depravity -> 2x Bolt of Retribution -> 3x Bolt of Judgement -> Insta-cast Bolt of Depravity ->

From then on it’s just as simple as following the priority list above. As a side note, usually after your first insta-cast Bolt of Depravity, your raid cooldowns are active so you will want to start the cooldown rotation as listed below.

Cooldowns:
You want to make the most of Radical Coalescence, which expands your rotation a bit. If pulled off correctly, this will give you a huge boost to DPS.

Get Unified Theory -> (Fanaticism) Bolt of Depravity -> Nysyr’s Rebuke -> Bolt of Retribution -> Bolt of Depravity (assuming you finished Nysyr’s, that gave you 4 stacks) -> Radical Coalescence -> Fanaticism -> Bolt of Depravity -> Nysyr’s Rebuke -> Bolt of Retribution-> Bolt of Depravity

This looks complicated, but it’s only a few buttons really.

AoE rotation (3 or more targets):
Soul Drain -> Circle of Oblivion -> 1-2x Scourge

You will notice your Soul Drain has a 10 second cooldown while Circle of Oblivion only has a 7 second channeled duration. This means there is a 1-2 second gap between using another Soul Drain after you’ve cast Circle of Oblivion. Use this time to quickly tab through and put a Scourge on the mobs with the highest health and then rinse and repeat the rotation.

Only macro worth using:
#show Fanaticism
suppressmacrofailures
cast fanaticism
cast bolt of depravity

Why no Dark Water spec?
The Dark Water variant of 61 Inqui spec relies on keeping up and maintaining 3 stacks of Dark Water and is only a very minor dps increase (500-700). This is provided you never let the stacks drop and refresh dark water within the 1-3s of it falling off.

As your dps takes a bit of a hit initially getting this stacks up it makes it sub par to this build for any fights that last under 45-50 seconds. (Experts?)

If the stacks drop off however or you are playing the build to safe and refreshing the stacks to often, your going to continually lose DPS.

Due to the travel time of Dark Water a lot of new players to 61 Inquisitor struggle to keep Dark Water up or continually refresh it far to early, thus resulting in a fairly sizable DPS loss. This is why I often discourage the use of it for new players to 61 Inquisitor.

Now realistically for most of the raiding fights in Storm Legion you are not going to have the opportunity to do this, let’s just use Frozen Tempest and Endless Eclipse as an example of why you won’t be able to keep stacks up or if you do it will result in either a dps loss or a danger to the raid.

61 Inqui/10 Cab/5 Defiler in raiding (Why it is usually not worth it):

Frozen Tempest

• Gelidra: Add Phase, target switching, you will either let the stacks drop off or waste time and GCD’s trying to keep them up on a 99% damage immune Gelidra.
• Zaviel: Coduit Phase, you will either let the stacks drop off or waste time and GCD’s trying to keep them up on a completley damage immune Zaviel
• Twins: May be worthwhile provided your dps is perfectly balance, if however one is ahead, which is often the case, your either going to risk pushing one to far or loose your stacks target switching.
• Crucia: Tons of short bursty add phases, need I say more?

Endless Eclipse

• Prog: Bursty target switching Galore
• Kain: Shorty bursty add phases, may be better for dps in the last phase
• Matriach: If you can manage to keep the stacks up on Matriach while you are also burning the child, Ahov’s spec may be better!
• Goloch: Since it’s a straight up nuke, this is one of the specs that 10 cab/5 defiler if played correctly will beat 15 defiler
• Regulos: Target switching and platform phases galore.

With that in mind, there are a few fights in Tier 2 raiding where the 10 cab/5 defiler variant (Aka Dark Water) spec will rear slightly ahead if played correctly (E.G Warden Thrax, Kyzan, Magma Lord Kaliban) So if you’re delving further into the raiding scene and want to impress your guild, it’s probably worth having a look at the Dark Water spec, feel free to read more on the official forums: Ahov’s Umbral Zealot

Thanks for reading the guide, if you have any corrections, questions or feedback, please leave them in the comments section below!

~Seatin