Velyna's Storm Brand Inquisitor (PoE Trial of the Ancestors 3.22)
Introduction
Kill uber bosses on a 3 button build! Smooth as butter to leaguestart, Storm Brand feels great from act 1 to endgame. One of the safest, most mobile playstyles around! Drop brands near enemies and they die, no aiming required. Combined with
Inpulsa's Broken Heart the map clear goes crazy. Bossing feels good with investment also, I have killed all the Ubers.
Overview
Pros
✔️ Easy Scaling – So much of our damage and defense comes from Ascend points and items/gems, the early league power scaling process is an absolute breeze.
✔️ Highly Mobile – Once the brands are out and ticking, your job is done and you can focus on dodging.
Cons
❌ Bossing Price – Storm Brand will clear your maps cheap but if you want to kill pinnacle bosses, it does carry a cost.
❌ Not For Everyone – Some people think brands feel ‘spammy’ with how much you refresh them. I have tried to fix this by not using swiftbrand.
How Does it Play?
You will see a pack, drop a brand near them, and they die. That’s literally it. The brands will jump from enemy to enemy within the pack, shocking and chilling everything until they explode thanks to Inpulsa's Broken Heart. As the enemies die you can be moving forward or dodging attacks, or even looting nearby!
Damage and Defensive Scaling
Nothing that reduces resistance works for us, because Inquisitors ignore resistance when critting. Our job is to stack crit as high as possible to maximize this benefit. Crit chance, crit multi, cast speed, spell damage, and percent/flat lightning should be the priority, roughly but not exactly in that order.
Defensively, we are ailment and stun immune which is fantastic. Petrified Blood and
The Burden of Truth massively reduce incoming hits while Inquisitor regen solves petrified bloods downside. The belt also allows flasks to recover ES + Life. Tons of armour, Divine Shield, leech, regen, endurance charges,
Steelskin.
Help
For help with this build, the best places to ask are:
My stream https://www.twitch.tv/velyna
Autarkis stream https://www.twitch.tv/autarki
PoE Vault Discord https://discord.gg/arpg-vault
PoB Imports
The current PoB’s for this build are always available here:
Gear
The gear page has premade item searches and info about each item in the late-game PoBs.
Leaguestart
Use the skill setup below, not the one in leaguestart PoB, until finishing acts 1-10.
All of my Leaguestart PoBs contain step-by-step pathing, and you can scroll down on this page to see what skills to use in acts 1-10.
Act 1
Level 1-12
Frostbolt-
Elemental Proliferation Support-
Arcane Surge Support
Clarity-
Vitality
Frostblink
Holy Flame Totem
Level 12+
Storm Brand-
Added Lightning Damage Support-
Arcane Surge Support
Vitality-
Clarity
Frostblink-
Steelskin
Orb of Storms
You will need 2 good wands before you take the dual wield nodes.
Keep Arcane Surge Support and
Vitality at level one.
Clarity should be kept low as well, depending on your mana situation.
I opened the cave for Flame totem and Frostblink, then did tidal island for Arcane Surge.
Added Lightning is a quest reward when you reach the prison, put it in a socket by itself to level immediately.
It’s normal to be riding your flasks pretty hard before killing Brutus, I usually save a portal scroll and use it right when I engage him. When I run out of flasks I quickly step in and return to finish the fight.
After Brutus you gain access to Vitality and Clarity, making life much easier.
Storm Brand is a quest reward after entering Merveils cave.
I swapped immediately at level 12.
Act 2
Storm Brand-
Concentrated Effect Support-
Added Lightning Damage Support
Herald of Thunder-
Vitality-
Clarity
Frostblink-
Steelskin-
Arcane Surge Support
Orb of Storms-
Culling Strike Support
You will get Herald of Thunder and Concentrated Effect as quest rewards.
Don’t forget the Great White Beast quest gives a second run speed flask.
Help Alira.
Act 3
Storm Brand-
Increased Critical Strikes Support-
Concentrated Effect Support-
Added Lightning Damage Support
Herald of Thunder-
Vitality-
Clarity
Flame Dash-
Steelskin-
Arcane Surge Support
Orb of Storms-
Culling Strike Support
Assassin's Mark
Do the library quest and buy Determination,
Petrified Blood, and
Arrogance Support. Put some weapons in your weapon swap slots, and start leveling these gems there.
Act 4-10
Storm Brand-
Increased Critical Strikes Support-
Concentrated Effect Support-
Inspiration Support-
Increased Critical Damage Support
Zealotry-
Herald of Thunder-
Vitality-
Clarity
Cast when Damage Taken Support-
Summon Stone Golem-
Inspiration Support
Flame Dash-
Steelskin-
Arcane Surge Support
Orb of Storms-
Culling Strike Support
Assassin's Mark
After killing Kaom and Daresso you can buy Cast when Damage Taken Support from the vendor, which let’s you automate a golem. Adding inspiration to the links helps with the high mana cost,
I finished acts like this and didn’t actually get the Petrified Blood and
Arrogance Support setups running until early maps.
Need Help?
I try to give all the information needed to enjoy the build and succeed, but questions do come up. If you need any help with my builds the best place to go is either My Stream or My Discord
This site also has guides for game mechanics, trading, crafting, and just about anything else, all collected here:
GL out there, Exile!