[Guide+Theorycrafting][95 Cap]Pve Inquisitor 3.5 - Get Charged!

[Jovion]

Introduction

Oh boy, it’s been 2 years. 2 years since I last updated my old Inquisitor guide and quit Dragon Nest. Well, I’m back, Inquisitors got that much needed revamp and it’s really good. A lot of Inquisitor’s old weaknesses have been addressed and it is now a far more fun class to play.

About Me: Hello! I’m Jovion, an old-time Inquisitor player who wrote the guides for previous caps. I’ve also raided in previous caps, with my prime being 90 - 93 cap where my team was one of the first waves to clear RuDN - about 2-3 months following release.

Currently I am progressing through GuDN and FDN HC, having made it to the dragon stage in both raids. I have also successfully cleared STG Floor 15 - my name is on the ranking board for all to see.



0.0. Contents
1.0. The Role of the Inquisitor
2.0. Inquisitor as a DPS: Pros and Cons
3.0. Skill Builds

3.1. The Basics

3.2. Recommended Skill Build

4.0 Playing Your Class

4.1. Playing Your Class: DPS and Explanations

4.2. Playing Your Class: Priority

4.3. Playing Your Class: Utility Spells

5.0. Gearing

5.1. Equipment
5.2. DDJ vs BMJ vs (FMJ?)
5.3. Heraldry/Jades/Talismans
5.4. Using the DN Gear Simulator
5.5. High Floors
5.6. Skill Heraldries

6.0. Advanced Section

6.1. Math: DPS Skills

6.2. Mechanics: Dealing Damage

6.3. Mechanics: Electrocution and Class Mastery I

6.4. Mechanics: Debuff Explanation

7.0. Other Resources
8.0. Acknowledgements
9.0 Version Changelog

CTRL+F and enter the section number (e.g. 0.0 to return to Contents, 3.1. for Skill Build (The Basics) etc.)

1.0. The Role of the Inquisitor
Inquisitors have been a pure DPS class for a long while, for newer players interested in the history of the class, Inquisitors prior to 90 cap was a hybrid support/DPS class which had bad damage (60 cap - early 70 cap), unstable damage (70 cap - 80 cap) and had only one good thing to its name - light debuff stacking (70 cap - 80 cap).

From 90 cap onwards, ED retooled Inquisitor into a proper DPS class, shifting much of the Priest’s support power to Saint. However, even then, balancing was uneven. There were times Inquisitor was near the top in some circumstances (e.g. God Cross vs Dragon in 90 cap, Post-Awakening) while there were other times where Inquisitor was pretty pathetic (post-God Cross nerf in 90 cap, early 95 cap).

One thing that continued to muddy the ground between Saint and Inquisitor was access to Cure Relic, Miracle Relic, and Protection Shell. Inquisitors for the longest time had the distinction of being a DPS class who could provide some support, which might have made ED hesitate to give us more damage (why would you take any other DPS class if Inquisitors had both high damage and utility?).

That all changed in the May 2020 patch. Priests were rebalanced such that ONLY Saints can perform party support roles. Inquisitors still have access to Cure, Protection Shell, Heal etc. but it only works on ourselves and not the party. This means that while our survivability is higher than other classes, we can no longer perform party support in any meaningful way. In exchange, Inquisitors had perhaps one of the best revamps to date - we shot from an irrelevant class to pretty much one of the top DPS classes in the game.

[Jovion]

2.0. Inquisitor as a DPS: Pros and Cons


Pros

• One of the highest DPS classes in the game as of July 2020.
• Good Survivability - You are a Cleric and Priest, you have Heal, Block, Purify, Protection Shell etc.)
• High AoE damage - Inquisitor’s main skills generally have large areas-of-effect and we can consistently hit multiple targets without thinking.
• Has a High Burst Skill with Low Cooldown - Detonate is our main damage skill with the BMJ and it does insane damage with a short 12 (10 sec with +10 BMJ) cooldown.

Cons

• Single Aerial Evade - while more relevant for PvP, in PvE, you will occasionally run into a situation where getting tossed in the air twice in a row results in death. On the first toss you Aerial Evade to recover, but on the second toss, you are rendered helpless and a single stomp can easily end your career if the boss decides to follow up. Perfect dodging allows you to avoid such situations but as we all know, no human is ever truly perfect.
• (Some) Long Cast Times - Falling Thunder, Exceed Lightning, and both Grand Cross versions are big offenders of this. This issue is somewhat mitigated by Lightning Moves but you need to be REALLY careful when casting these skills less you eat a boss attack.

Stuff They Fixed from Before

• No Longer Reliant on Fixed Damage-Over-Time AoEs or Channels - Consecration got removed, Lightning Storm is now a glorified buff skill, our main DPS skills are now skills that hit immediately. This fixes our old issues where our DPS was unreliable depending on how the boss moves and whether they sit in our AoEs our not.
• Least iFrames - Lightning Moves, while being just one additional iFrame, goes a long way to mitigate many problems Inquisitors had. You can cancel any skill with it, functioning as non-damaging Evasion Slash. It also travels a good distance. This makes it a get-out-of-jail-free card for when you miscast something or are badly positioned, making our gameplay feel more fluid than before.

[Jovion]

4.0. Playing Your Class

As before, I will preface this by saying that DN is an action game. In ideal circumstances, you -may- be able to pull the bottom off, but some of the time you may not. Use your experience and knowledge in order to maximize your DPS.

For example, with BMJ the rule of thumb is to cast Detonate on cooldown, but if the boss mechanic teleports it 9999m away you obviously don’t cast Detonate even if it just came off cooldown. This is an extreme case but I do want to emphasise that maximizing DPS is as much adapting to what the boss is doing as ensuring your skills are casted in the proper order. Hence, I will start off this section with a set of guidelines.

4.1. Playing Your Class: DPS and Explanations

There are six golden rules to adhere to for Inquisitors to do remotely competitive DPS.

1. Keep Striking and Passion up at all times. Without them you are a bad DPS. Fortunately, in this cap, it is pretty easy with 999 duration and very little buff wipe mechanics.
2. Keep Electrocution on Target at all Times. You lose out on 20% extra damage without it.
3. Maintain Your Debuffs. The boss should always have Lightning Bolt’s +20% damage taken debuff and MindBreaker EX’s -20% elemental resist debuff applied at all times. These are critical not just to your own damage, but also your party’s damage.
4. Use Lightning Storm on Cooldown. It provides you with light attack and action speed buffs and unlike before, the buff is applied to your character so long as you cast the skill - no more standing in Consecration’s AoE. The uptime is also extremely generous especially with Lightning Storm CD plate - 20 sec duration and 24 second cooldown.
5. DETONATE, DETONATE, DETONATE. Especially with BMJ, Detonate becomes your main skill with absurd board damage and absurdly low cooldown. Spam it as much as you can.
6. Always. Be. Casting. (when the boss allows you to cast) Simply put, Inquisitors have a plethora of spells that are all powerful. If the boss is not doing anything and you are also sitting there something is very wrong (although it is possible to run out of skills now in some situations)

Refer to the advanced section if you want specifics on how our coefficients work and how our skills does damage.


4.2. Playing Your Class: Priority

I think in DN, there are no such thing as skill rotations in the strictest definition of the term. Skill rotations imply that you can easily fit all your skills in a neat cycle which you can repeat ad infinitum. This is often not the case given boss movement and the various cooldowns of each skill. Even assuming a stationary boss, I think trying to fit our skills into a pattern would make each cycle last several minutes. Instead, I suggest following a priority mindset - use the first skill off cooldown in the following order.

No BMJ

1. Lightning Storm (Maintain Light Attack/Attack Speed Buff)
2. MindBreaker (Maintains Elemental Resist Debuff)
3. Judgement Spear (If saved 3x Spear)
4. Lightning Bolt (Maintains Damage Taken Increased Debuff)
5. Judgement Spear
6. Shock Smash (If no Electrocution is applied on boss)
7. Detonate + Enhanced
8. Enhanced Grand Cross
9. Heavenly Judgement
10. Charge Bolt
11. Exceed Lightning
12. Normal Grand Cross
13. Falling Thunder
14. Shock Smash (If electrocution is already applied on boss via Lightning Bolt/Judgement Spear and you have nothing else to cast)
- Weave in Avenging Wave after any skill if close to the boss.


Explanation: Without a BMJ, your gameplay revolves around maintaining your buffs/debuffs while stacking up as many Judgement Spears as possible before Detonating. After you set off your Detonate, make sure you use Enhanced Grand Cross and Heavenly Judgement whenever you can - the former has a very short window of time to be used while the latter provides very high DPS now and has its cooldown reduced by later Detonates/Avenging Wave.

Charge Bolt is lower on the priority due to the need to be close to the boss to maximize damage, but if you can use it over Exceed Lightning/Falling Thunder you should do so as it returns a Spear to you.

Exceed Lightning does more damage than Falling Thunder if all hits land on a single target. Otherwise, it is pretty low on the priority as it only does damage and has zero interactions with our other skills.

Falling Thunder, for all intents and purposes, is simply a filler when we have nothing left to cast. Like Exceed Lightning it has zero interactions with other skills and its damage is rather pathetic for its cooldown (Detonate does similar damage with half the cooldown). Even Grand Cross does more damage-per-cooldown compared to Falling Thunder (8k% per 15 sec vs 10.6k% per 23 sec). This is further compounded by its long cast time, making Falling Thunder really the one of the last things you should ever cast.

With BMJ

1. Lightning Storm (Maintain Light Attack/Attack Speed Buff)
2. MindBreaker (If Elemental Resist debuff is not applied)
3. Judgement Spear (If Electrocution is not applied)
4. Lightning Bolt (If Damage Taken Increased debuff is not applied)
5. Detonate + Enhanced
6. MindBreaker (Maintains Elemental Resist Debuff)
7. Judgement Spear (If saved 3x Spear)
8. Lightning Bolt (Maintains Damage Taken Increased Debuff)
9. Judgement Spear
10. Shock Smash (If no Electrocution is applied on boss)
11. Enhanced Grand Cross
12. Heavenly Judgement
13. Charge Bolt
14. Exceed Lightning
15. Normal Grand Cross
16. Falling Thunder
17. Shock Smash (If electrocution is already applied on boss via Lightning Bolt/Judgement Spear and you have nothing else to cast)
- Weave in Avenging Wave after any skill if close to the boss.


Explanation: The main change for the BMJ rotation is you use Detonate as much as possible AFTER applying your buffs/debuffs. It doesn’t matter how many spears you casted beforehand, you Detonate. If debuffs are already on boss and you have Detonate available, DETONATE then refresh your debuffs.

Detonate, Detonate, Detonate, your entire DPS post-BMJ revolves around throwing out as many full-powered Detonates as possible. The only time you should consider holding back on Detonate is when Lightning Storm is also up and your debuffs have fallen off - quickly reapply your buffs/debuffs and Detonate.

Any other time, delaying Detonate results in you losing Detonates over the fight. Let’s say you delay Detonate by 2 seconds for no good reason every time Detonate is up, do it 6 times you lose one entire Detonate you could have used in the same timeframe. Put another way, every second you waste not casting Detonate off cooldown is 1/15 or 1/12 of a Detonate lost depending on your BMJ’s enhancement level.

Quick Note: After BMJ your Spears, Charge Bolt, and Lightning Bolt gain additional value as the first Detonate explodes them WITHOUT consuming them, meaning you can explode them a second time with the Enhanced Detonate proc. However, this does not really change the priority much - you still want to use HJ/Enhanced Grand Cross before considering Charge Bolt given the absurd damage of these skills.

[Jovion]

6.0. Advanced Section (Under Construction)

This is a more advanced section with math, explanations and whatnot. This is for those interested in how stuff works or have a bit more knowledge than the average Inqui player.

12/07/2020 - I have yet to do the testing for our new skills’ coefficients and mechanics. So I can’t make the full table or mechanics explanation yet.

6.1. Math: DPS Skills (WIP)


6.2. Mechanics: Damage Skills (WIP)
Lightning Bolt Awakened: Cast it you instantly do 10 hits of x coefficient on the boss. Easy. You must land at least 1 hit to reset 1 charge of Judgement Spear AND apply the damage taken debuff

MindBreaker EX: The ball itself does x coefficients for 10 pulses before exploding. The explosion does an additional x coefficients. I believe the old melee wand hit was removed. The elemental resist debuff is applied on ANY HIT.

Judgement Spear: Landing the Spear does a flat 1 coefficient and leaves an afterimage. Using Detonate explodes the afterimage for another 1 coefficient. The afterimages of multiple spears can stack. When using Detonate, the Spear afterimage hit is separate from Detonate's main hit and has unlimited range (you can Detonate far away from a target and all Spear afterimages on it will still explode and deal damage even if Detonate itself does not land).

Detonate Awakened: Does one big main hit of x coefficient. Upon use you will trigger Enhanced Detonate where Detonate's skill icon will be highlighted with a yellow border and the skill can be casted again. If no electrocution is on the target Enhanced Detonate deals the same damage as a normal Detonate. If there is electrocution on the target, Enhanced Damage does 1.5x damage for a total coefficient of x.

Both Detonate and Enhanced Detonate can trigger Judgement Spear afterimage explosion.

BMJ Detonate: Only the first Detonate’s damage is boosted by the BMJ bonuses. In addition, the first Detonate can be used without electrocution. Furthermore, while Judgement Spear afterimages still explode, they will not be consumed, allowing Enhanced Detonate to explode the afterimages again.

Heavenly Judgement: 5 pulses of 3 small hits and 1 big wave. The effect is largely aesthetic, 1 small hit and 1 big wave deals the same damage (x coefficient). Total of 20 hits and applies electrocution.

Lightning Storm EX: x hits of y coefficient over z seconds. Upon use it will apply a 20% light attack and action speed buff directly to your character for 20 seconds regardless of whether the skill is cancelled or whether you are standing in your AoE. This means that you can drop Lightning Storm far away from the boss and still enjoy the buff’s benefits when you move closer to it.

Normal Grand Cross: Now a much faster cast, does 6 hits of x coefficient each, fast projectile that slows down when it hits an enemy.

Enhanced Grand Cross: Changes Grand Cross to a single hit burst skill with x coefficient. It also becomes a much smaller projectile that is more akin to Sniper’s Siege Stance and you will need to aim it a lot more carefully compared to Normal GC.

Falling Thunder:

Exceed Lightning:

Shock Smash:


6.3. Mechanics: Electrocution and Class Mastery I
Electrocution since 90 cap no longer provides a resist debuff, so why is electrocution still important?

The answer is our 65 passive, it duplicates damage done at 20% efficiency. In other words, if you hit 1000 on an electrocuted target you will do 200 damage with the 65 passive.

It duplicates the damage displayed and not the base damage. This means if you just crit the boss for 1,500,000 damage, our 65 passive adds 300,000 damage and not 100,000 damage.

This means it is effectively a 1.2x damage boost that is multiplicative with other multipliers.

Skills that have a chance to electrocute are:

Charge Bolt: 10% chance of electrocution per hit.
Lightning Bolt: 20% chance of electrocution per hit.
Heavenly Judgement: 35% chance of electrocution per hit.
Judgement Spear: 100% chance on landing the spear.
Shock Smash: 100% chance of electrocution upon hit.

All of these skills electrocute on a per hit basis, meaning to say the "RNG-check" for electrocution occurs on every single hit of the skill and not the entire skill as a whole.

Thus, Charge Bolt, Lightning Bolt, and Heavenly Judgement actually have a far higher electrocution rate than displayed. Lightning Bolt's total chance of electrocution is approximately 65% at 10 hits. Charge Bolt's total chance is dependent on how many hits you land. Heavenly Judgement is more or less going to guarantee electrocution unless you are pretty unlucky.

Skills that guarantee electrocution are:

Chain Lightning: 100% chance of electrocution on any hit.
MindBreaker EX: 100% chance of electrocution on melee wand hit AND 100% chance of electrocution on explosion.
Avenging Wave Awakened: 100% chance of electrocution.

These 3 skills can apply electrocution at a 100% rate, making them ideal for applying/reapplying electrocution especially after a Detonate. LB/CB/Storm/Spear electrocution would only matter if you were unable to land any of these skills for whatever reasons.


6.4. Mechanics: Debuff Explanation
Unlike in pre-90 cap, your debuffs are not tied to electrocution. For newer players, during the 70 cap to 80 cap era Inquisitors had very high light resist debuffs which stacked with each other but these were tied to electrocution. This meant that we were not allowed to use Detonate last time as Detonating electrocution effectively also removes the debuffs which parties need to do high damage.

Fortunately, DPS increasing debuffs are no longer tied to electrocution since 90 cap, allowing us to Detonate whenever we want, which is great as Detonate is now our most powerful DPS skill.

We have two debuffs, Increase Damage Taken and Decrease Elemental Resist. Lightning Bolt Awakening applies the Increase Damage Taken debuff while MindBreaker EX applies the Decrease Elemental Resist debuff.

For both skills, landing ANY hit of the skill applies the debuff, meaning you don’t have to worry about hitting the full skill/landing the initial hit/whatever. Just throw them out, make sure at least 1 hit lands and you are good.

[Jovion]

Reserved just in case!

[Jovion]

Reserved just in case!

[TashaGodspell]

that was fast

[mylonglostself]

with the introduction of level 95 epic and unique gears this should be updated (just the gears part)

[ayban]

Does MB really need to be maxed?

[WolfLover]

Does MB really need to be maxed?

Yes you should max it

[Jovion]

Does MB really need to be maxed?

When you look at it's DPS/CD and it's position in the rotation (used on cooldown to provide resist debuff/light attack buff) it is practically a must-max

1) It has the highest damage/CD out of all non-Consec/Storm skills by virtue of good coefficients and low cooldown relative to other skills.
2) You WILL maximize its damage since it is casted on cooldown (it has significant rotational value as it provides a elem resist debuff and light attack buff).

Compare it with say Chain Lightning which is not only lower DPS but it also near-bottom priority due to its lack of rotational value (no interaction with other skills and no other buff/debuff other than to re-electrocute the target after a Detonate), you realize there is really no contest. All other skills are Awakening stuff/requirements which makes them must max or have significant rotational value.

The table I posted in the math section (and the more detailed version linked) is still relevant for all the values are unchanged. It is only outdated as I've yet to include Charge Bolt Link.

[ayban]

Okay thanks both of you Sir may i ask in your cure relic build , why do you maxed Grand cross instead of holy burst ?
Thanks for this guide really help me a lot

[Jovion]

Generally speaking skills have a relatively larger jump in damage at levels 6, 11, 16 etc. So when you go from level 5 to 6 or 10 to 11 or 15 to 16 the increase in damage is greater than any other levels. Notice that GC's max level is 16 (a breakpoint) while HB's is 13 (a non-breakpoint)

In the case of GC and HB the jumps are not obvious, but you do lose more from dropping GC from 16 to 14.

Considering the enhanced versions alone (same CD)

GC 16 - > 14 = 1019% -> 919% = 100% board damage is lost, enhanced version is x5 damage so 5*100% = loss of 500%

HB 13 -> 11 = 1034% -> 978% = 58% board damage is lost, enhanced version is x6 damage so 6*58% = loss of 348%.

I actually do not really recommend the Cure Relic build, but I do acknowledge that it is viable this cap as an option for Inquisitors that wish to take it (hence why I listed it as an option). In raids for the most part your two healers can cover the raid adequately for RuDN HC even if they are a LF/Phy combo.

[ayban]

Thanks for the info sir Jovion really helps a lot

[Verbena]

Sticking this.