Firestorm Inquisitor Tank, by Octavian.

My main skill, as I mentioned, is firestorm. Firestorm is a bit of a doddery old relic at this point, with little to offer in terms of clear speed as compared to many other, sprightlier spells. However, what it does still have going for it in this age of EK Nova and Spark is the tendency to hit very often, and rather respectable single-target dps. These are both things we desire in this build, as our recovery comes from landing many individual hits, and obviously a bosskiller needs to do good damage in order to, well, kill the boss.

For clear, my setup is as follows -

Firestorm, Spell Cascade, Concentrated/Increased Area of Effect, Increased Critical Strikes, Spell Echo, Immolate.

On a five link, I would suggest dropping immolate. However, this build does not function nearly as well on a five link as it does a six, so I wouldn't recommend it if you don't have access to the 6th link. Fair warning. Also, concentrated effect can be used while clearing from faster and safer rare kills due to how strong spell cascade is for augmenting firestorm's clear. If you don't mind being a bit riskier vs. abyssal rares and the like, inc aoe is fine too, and slightly faster going. Honestly, I mostly use conc. effect while clearing because I don't like gem swapping two gems in for single target.

Speaking of, swap in Chance to Ignite instead of Spell Cascade for single target scenarios - This is used instead of controlled destruction because controlled destruction has too much of an adverse effect on our crit chance to be usable, at least when diamond flask is down.

For movement, this build uses Whirling Blades, linked to Faster Attacks and Fortify. This is because with kaom's roots and no real movement speed scaling elsewhere, shield charge feels pretty lackluster. However, inquisitor ascendancy nodes and a good dagger are enough to make whirling blades feel pretty smooth.

For auras, this build makes use of Arctic Armor, since firestorm spell echo often leaves us stationary. As well as this, Vitality and Clarity (and clarity is leveled pretty significantly - in my build, it is leveled to 20 but this may vary depending on your mana needs) are both used to activate a Watcher's Eye.



The price of these specific affixes together is highly variable, and I've seen everything from 50 chaos to 5 ex listings. If you cannot find the clarity affix along with the vitality one, prioritize the vitality affix, as it is the most important to the build properly functioning. Use a lower level clarity to give yourself more breathing room mana-wise if you can't find the clarity affix, or do this with a combination of a second, less useful affix "-max mana cost of skills while affected by clarity"

The rest of the sockets on the build are taken up with cast when damage takens, for the most part. One of the links is

CWDT - Firestorm - Blind - Ball Lightning

And the other is

CWDT - Tempest Shield - Enfeeble

Tempest shield and enfeeble are both simply powerful defensive buffs, well worth fitting into any build that can comfortably use them. The firestorm and ball lightning setups, in the meantime, are meant to pump out more spell hits in situations where the self-cast firestorm may not be enough, and indeed are so powerful that this build has tanked whole breaches, literally hundreds of monsters at a time, without raising a hand. In fact, due to the nature of our hit frequency multiplying with how many enemies there are to hit, the more enemies there are the tankier we get, recovery-wise.

This brings me to the final skill gem in the build, and the most optional of them - Vaal Breach. As I said, the more enemies on the screen, the more recovery we have access to. This plays beautifully into the functionality of Vaal Breach, meaning it essentially transforms into an immortality button. Under the right circumstances, I have face tanked things like shaper beam, just about anything a guardian can throw out (except for phoenix's mega-blast), and just about anything else that isn't an instant one-shot. However, it can be difficult to time correctly, and can certainly backfire. Use with care.

This is the fun part. As I warned earlier in the guide, this build is not for the empty of wallet. Many of the items in this build cost me a few ex each, minimum, and while it certainly doesn't break the bank for any veteran or even moderately dedicated player of the game, this is not for new players. If you're still rather new to the game, and have been unsure thus far if this build is for you, I'd warn against it. Though, to be fair, theres no time like the present to try new things, right? Just be ready for some of the gear to be tricky to obtain, or to require self-crafting.

Lets begin with the most important components of the build - the recovery engine. This is composed first of the two shaper-touched rings

on which you are looking for the life-gained on hit mod, preferably on a diamond base with some decent life. Resistances take something of a back seat here since you need to be fairly demanding otherwise in terms of the rolls you look for, but if you can get them within your budget, thats awesome. Shaper rings can also roll explicit crit chance, spell damage, and curse on hit - all of which are great. Cast speed doesn't hurt either - but really, prioritize life gain on hit, life, and a diamond base - in that order.

Second in the recovery engine is the Vitality watcher's eye, which needs the roll "Life gained for each enemy hit while affected by vitality". This is ABSOLUTELY VITAL. Secondary to that is a clarity mod, with mana recovery on spellcast being the most useful. Here is an example -

.

Next, you'll want to invest into a good shield. Recovery is nothing without the mitigation to avoid being oneshot, and a good shaper-touched shield goes an extremely long way in that regard. The most important rolls to prioritize are a good life roll, a decent resist total, and % of block chance applied to spells. After that, there are a number of very good mods that can add a lot of value. The shield I've gone for looks like this -



That 1 thorns damage is the result of a particularly sad exalt slam. Don't look for that roll. Please.


Next on the shopping list - a good chestpiece. There are a number of options here - You could be boring, and go for a belly of the beast. You could be slightly more interesting and get something like a lightning coil (R.I.P.), or you could follow my guide and get a shaper-touched chestpiece with some base crit chance for spells, life and resists. Starting to see a trend here? Heres my chestpiece of choice. I bought it for 20c, and self-linked, so if your fusing luck is good this can be relatively cheap -



Now lets break that trend. One of the only item slots that shaper or elder didn't get their dirty mitts on is my boots, and thats simply because kaom is the boot king. Stun and freeze immunity is simply too valuable to pass up on a build that relies on continuing to cast to stay alive. Get yourself a pair of Kaom's Roots with as good a life roll as you can manage and squeeze em on.



For my hand-shoes, or as most people call them "gloves" I've opted to return to form and get a pair that were touched thoroughly by elder. I figured, since my shield was so powerful it would be a good idea to make my gloves into more shield, so I went for a 5% block roll, which is an elder-exclusive mod. A pair with a good life roll, a nice res and 5% block cost me 2 ex if I recall, so just skip the block roll if your budget is starting to get a bit tight.



My amulet of choice is a corrupted rare amulet with spell damage, life, multi and an additional curse. This was a very lucky corrupt of mine early in the league and has served me faithfully throughout abyss on multiple characters. If you don't have an extra curse amulet that can fit in here, make use of a rare amulet with the same sort of rolls and drop curse on hit on a ring if you were planning on using that, as enfeeble on the CWDT is likely more powerful. Amulet pictured here -



The helmet I wear is also elder-touched, as this allows for some further augmentation of firestorm through a mod which adds flat fire damage to spells. Speaking of augmenting firestorm, the "Firestorm Explosion Area of Effect" enchant is by far the best that Izaro has to offer, so try to convince him to give it to you. The helmet I have is self-crafted with the assistance of a guildmate, but I would honestly prioritize the enchantment over the elder effects, so if you can't get an elder base to craft on with the correct enchant, go instead for just a good rare with life and res.



My stygian vise slot - I mean belt slot - is taken up with a boring old non-touched stygian vise with life, strength, and resistance. This slot is where a lot of resistance capping gets done, so don't be stingy - not that you'll have to, belts are cheap these days.



My weapon of choice is not a cybil's paw, as some may have anticipated. This is because, sadly, cybil's paw's "life gain on hit for each enemy hit by a spell" effect is actually now the absolute worse source of that in the game, and with so many other sources, certainly not worth giving up the strength of a shaper-touched dagger for. Speaking of shaper touched daggers, get yourself one with some attack speed, crit and/or crit multi, spell damage. Also, elemental damage gained as extra chaos damage is great if you've the budget. I self-crafted mine with essence of woe spamming, took a half-dozen attempts.



Finally, flasks - Since I whirl about everywhere, a quicksilver flask is not strictly necessary, so the build doesn't use one. Instead, another utility flask can be subbed in, so our flask setup looks like this :



The rumi's brings us to almost block cap with the help of our gloves, a decent shield, and tempest shield. You can also get 2% block if you've been hit recently on abyssal jewels, which speaking of - aim for life, crit multi, and 2% block if you've been hit recently on those, though there aren't many in the build. That should be all the items!

Path of Building link for a level 67 version of the tree, with normal lab and cruel lab done. - https://pastebin.com/gfH28Jj3

POEPlanner link to the same tree - poeurl.com/bLae

This tree can honestly be filled out in almost any order, and it will work just fine. Get to this point with just about any spell you enjoy leveling with - firestorm actually works quite well! Spell cascade is also available from an early level, so it should be a relatively smooth leveling experience. Solid leveling uniques to include along your journey include Tabula Rasa for an easy six link, Wanderlusts early on for some movement speed, Lifesprigs for the first few dozen levels and Heartbreaker thereafter (or use low level woe essences to craft spell daggers).
Goldrim can help solve res problems, and if you find yourself doin just fine on damage and not needing spell damage daggers or heartbreaker, grab a brightbeak and a Mutewind Pennant or Brinerot Flag (both highly undervalued leveling items) and shield charge your way to endgame.

Path of Building link for a finalized version of the tree - https://pastebin.com/tX2WT0vP

POEPlanner link the same tree - poeurl.com/bLag

As you can see, not much more very fancy is done. Duration nodes are picked up, life wheels filled out, and a few more jewel sockets picked up. All in all, the passive tree is not particularly innovative, since really there isn't much to do on an inquisitor tree but path to crit nodes and click on life.

For the Pantheon -

I recommend upgraded Tukohama for most situations as your minor power. Spell echo firestorm often leaves the build stationary, and thus in a perfect spot to take advantage of the regen and physical mitigation. Against guardian maps that roll poison on hit, however, soul of shakari is imvaluable. Swap between the two as necessary.

For your major power, both solaris and lunaris are worth upgrading. Use solaris for dangerous bossfights such as shaper and uber atziri, and lunaris for particularly rippy, high pack size maps.

For bandit choices -

Help alira. Crit gud. Mana gud, also.

For anything else -

Ask! You can ask below, or catch me on my discord or stream, which I'm not sure I'm allowed to link on the forums. Don't wanna break any self-advertisement rules.