Fireball Inquisitor Build Guide - Path of Exile: 3.24

Fireball is a fire spell skill gem in Path of Exile that has not been popular in the past few leagues. Fortunately, Grinding Gear Games made a huge balancing pass on all of the item and gem interactions in 3.23 Affliction League to make certain spells popular again. One of these spells is, of course, Fireball.

In this guide, you will learn how to create a viable build that you can take to the endgame. Although it does require some unique items to work, every piece of gear you equip feels like a definite upgrade.

Are you interested? If so, read on! This is our comprehensive build guide for the Fireball Inquisitor in Patch 3.23!

Basics

The Fireball Inquisitor uses some pretty cool gem and item interactions. The first is Energy Blade. This buff, when activated, effectively replaces your equipped weapon with a cool-looking energy blade that grants huge amounts of flat lightning damage. Besides that, the maximum lighting damage this buff provides is based on the amount of energy shield you have. Keep in mind that activating this buff significantly reduces your maximum energy shield, so scaling this particular defensive layer is a must. Energy Blade also takes into account the weapon you are using, which is why you're going to equip a sceptre or a wand with one abyssal socket to take advantage of this.

In addition, this build utilizes STR and INT quite nicely because of the items and keystone passives you will allocate on the passive tree. One of the most important items for the Fireball Inquisitor is The Ivory Tower. This body armor grants more energy shield per 100 life. Since STR increases your life and INT improves your energy shield, they are definitely pretty useful for the build. You are going to allocate a point to the Iron Will keystone as well. This turns the damage bonus provided by STR into spell damage, helping amplify the damage output of this build immensely.

The main spell for this build is, of course, Vaal Fireball. Fireball launches a series of fiery projectiles that can melt your enemies with ease. You will utilize the Nimis unique ring on this build so that you can deal incredible damage thanks to the fireballs that return to you. Furthermore, the "Vaal" portion of this spell skill populates the screen with 32 fireballs that move in a clockwise fashion. As you can tell, this build fills the screen with a ton of projectiles, so if you are going to try this one, make sure that your PC can handle the graphical load!

Fireball is also supported by Spellblade Support. This synergizes really well with Energy Blade because it grants additional spell damage based on a percentage of damage from your one-handed weapon. Because Energy Blade provides humongous amounts of flat lightning damage, you will receive great benefits by adding Spellblade Support into Fireball's gem setup.

Look for these mods on your gear to improve the damage of the Fireball Inquisitor:

• Increased Spell Damage
• Increased Fire Damage
• Increased Lightning Damage
• Increased Elemental Damage
• Increased Strength
• Increased Intelligence
• Increased Attributes
• Increased Maximum Energy Shield

Playstyle

Although a lot of mechanics are at play here, the Fireball Inquisitor is surprisingly very easy to use. When you hop into a map, just activate Energy Blade and use Shield Charge to scour the area for enemies. Once you come across some monsters, just press and hold the hotkey for Fireball and let the projectiles fly!

Since you will be taking Instruments of Zeal on this build, keep an eye out for the Fanaticism buff. If it falls off, use Shield Charge a few times to bring it back again. Do this every several seconds to ensure that Fanaticism is always up.

Because of the Nimis, you no longer have to aim at the monsters directly. All you have to do is stay in one place as you unleash a bevy of burning projectiles that will populate the screen in no time!

Ascendancy

Builds that utilize Energy Blade and Spellblade Support always gain great benefits from using the Inquisitor. That is because this ascendancy class has notable passives that allow them to deal incredible amounts of damage than other classes in the game.

Augury of Penitence should be taken first. This weakens your enemies to not only take increased elemental damage, but it makes them deal less elemental damage to you as well. This node is best for offense and defense, which is why you allocate points to it as soon as you finish your first labyrinth trial.

The next is Righteous Providence. This node increases your critical strike chance based on each point of STR or INT, whichever is lower. This allows you to cap your crit chance to 100% so that your fireballs always deal the maximum amount of damage possible.

Then, you will take Instruments of Virtue after completing the third labyrinth. This is what enhances the Fireball Inquisitor to the best version it can be. Instruments of Virtue grant Battlemage, which is a buff that causes you to gain spell damage equal to the damage of your main hand weapon. If you have come this far, you know that this build utilizes Energy Blade, so taking Instruments of Virtue is a no-brainer given that you have this buff always active.

For the last notable ascendancy passive skill, you are going for Instruments of Zeal. This gives you the Fanaticism buff that significantly increases your cast speed and area of effect for several seconds. What's more, it greatly reduces the mana cost of Fireball, enabling you to cast it without any worries! Now, because you only gain Fanatic Charges when using attacks, you should always use your Shield Charge as an opener. Once Fanaticism is active, incinerate your enemies by casting as many fireballs as you can!

Now, if you want to take this build to another level, you can purchase Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh with "Sanctuary of Thought" as the matching modifier. This Hierophant notable ascendancy passive gives you more energy shield, some mana reservation efficiency to let you activate more auras, and mana cost reduction when casting your skills.

Gear

The Fireball Inquisitor is an attribute stacker, which is why most of your equipment has some STR or INT on it to maximize the mechanics at play on this build. Let's start with the weapon, shall we?

Weapon

As mentioned earlier, Energy Blade is going to replace your one-handed weapon. However, it will still take the stats of your equipped weapon into account. Hence, you will use a good sceptre or wand, preferably with an abyssal socket.

To craft this weapon, all you have to do is use a Hollow Fossil to put one abyssal socket on it. That said, use the Prophecy Wand (spell damage) or Opal Sceptre (elemental damage) for their high critical strike chance and good implicit modifiers.

Shield

If you are still starting out, get a Harmonic Spirit Shield or a Titanium Spirit Shield with the mod, "+1 to Level of All Fire Spell Skill Gems". You can use this until you can get your hands on the Rathpith Globe.

The Rathpith Globe is amazing because it not only gives you heaps of energy shield, but it also increases your spell crit chance and spell damage based on your maximum life. That is why it is imperative to increase your STR attribute to ensure that you have a considerable amount of HP for better scaling.

Body Armor

Another mandatory piece of gear for the Fireball Inquisitor is The Ivory Tower. This unique Saint Hauberk alone is great for defense because it increases your maximum energy shield by 30 for every 100 HP. But, because this build takes advantage of certain mechanics, energy shield becomes more than just a defensive layer; it is used for scaling damage as well.

The Ivory Tower mitigates the downside of the Rathpith Globe by making sure that chaos damage is taken from mana before life. Since you have plenty of mana to work with, this unique effect works really well for this build.

Helmet

There is a reason why Crown of the Inward Eye is one of the most popular helmets in Path of Exile. This helmet provides a significant boost to your armor and energy shield. But more importantly, it grants you the three "Transfiguration" buffs, such as:

• Transfiguration of Soul = more spell damage
• Transfiguration of Body = more attack damage
• Transfiguration of Mind = more damage

If you have the PoE currency, purchase a Crown of the Inward Eye with the corrupted implicit modifier, "Socketed Skill Gems Get a 90% Cost & Reservation Multiplier".

Gloves

The Shaper's Touch is a unique pair of gloves that is a staple in most attribute-stacking spell builds like the Fireball Inquisitor. The reason why these gloves are mandatory for the build is that they give a huge boost to your energy shield, particularly when you have a lot of STR on your character. The STR attribute also increases your mana pool when you have the Shaper's Touch equipped.

Get a Shaper's Touch with the corrupted implicit modifier,"+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems" if you can.

Boots

While you can equip a pair of Onslaught boots for this build, nothing beats The Stampede for the value it provides. These are not your run-of-the-mill boots as you can actually anoint it with any passive skill that you want. That said, you will anoint them with Charisma (Opalescent Oil, 2x Golden Oils) for that 16% increased mana reservation efficiency of skills and 6% increased effect of non-curse auras.

Another great thing about The Stampede is that your movement speed is always set at 150% of its base value, meaning, you cannot be hindered, maimed, or slowed down by any means.

Additionally, it grants up to 40% increased mana regeneration while you move, which ensures that you will recover most of your mana just by moving for a few seconds.

Amulet

A good cheap amulet for the Fireball Inquisitor is the Astramentis. This gives a huge boost to your attributes. Another benefit of using this amulet is that you receive less physical damage taken from attack hits, which is good for survivability.

Ultimately, you are aiming for the Eyes of the Greatwolf, specifically with "% Increased Attributes" and "+% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier" as its explicit modifiers.

Alternatively, you can create a Three Rat Talisman with some good attributes if you want a more balanced amulet. Get an amulet with a fractured "+ to All Attributes" and spam it with Deafening Essence of Rage until you get either critical strike multiplier, intelligence, or cast speed.

Then, go to the Crafting Bench and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed". Use a Veiled Chaos Orb to get a veiled prefix. Before you go to Jun, interact with the Crafting Bench again and put "+ to Maximum Mana". After that, talk to Jun to unveil. You are looking for the prefix, "+(55-60) to Maximum Life, Regenerate 5.3 Mana per Second". Go back to the Crafting Bench and put "% Increased Maximum Energy Shield".

The next part of the process involves the Immortal Syndicate. Make sure that you complete a Betrayal run with Jorgin as the Captain of Research for a chance to turn the amulet into a Three Rat Talisman with attributes and other good mods.

Whichever amulet you end up using, be sure to anoint it with Utmost Intellect (Amber Oil, Violet Oil, Crimson Oil) to greatly increase your INT stat.

Rings

The Nimis is another core component of the Fireball Inquisitor. You are using this particular ring mainly for its unique effect where projectiles not only return to you but are fired in random directions as well. What's interesting about this ring is that your fireballs will only explode upon their return. This means that even if they do come into contact with an obstacle after their initial release, they will just bounce right off and return to you no matter what.

For the other ring, you are going to use a self-crafted Helical Ring with attributes, strength, intelligence, and critical strike multiplier. To craft this, get a Helical Ring and spam it with Deafening Essence of Rage (STR) or Spite (INT) until you get the following:

• + to All Attributes
• + to STR/INT (Opposite of the essence you use)
• +% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• + to Maximum Life (Bench Craft)

Be sure to spam your pieces of jewelry with Intrinsic Catalysts to further improve their attribute modifiers for maximum effect.

Belt

For the belt slot, the Cyclopean Coil is a relatively cheap unique Leather Belt that increases your attributes and makes you immune to Ignite or Shock depending on whether your STR or INT is higher than the other. This can be used until you have enough currency to craft a better belt, specifically an influenced Stygian Vise.

To craft the belt, get an item level 85+ Stygian Vise and spam it with Deafening Essence of Spite until you get T1 Strength. Make sure to leave one prefix and one suffix open. You may have to use a couple of Orb of Annulment to achieve this.

Once you have that, put the prefix, "+ to Evasion Rating, + to Maximum Energy Shield" from the Crafting Bench so that the only guaranteed mod that will appear in the next step is a suffix. Having said that, use a Hunter's Exalted Orb and hope that you get the mod, "% Increased Attributes". You have a 20% chance of obtaining it, so you may have to do this craft a number of times until you achieve the desired outcome.

Flasks

• Topaz Flask of the Rainbow (40% Additional Elemental Resistances)
• Sapphire Flask of the Order (25% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills, Bench Craft)
• Coruscating Elixir

The Fireball Inquisitor only has three flasks equipped because you will be utilizing a particular keystone passive, which is discussed later in the build guide.

The two magic utility flasks mentioned above can be anything that you want. We just went with a Topaz and Sapphire Flask to cap Lightning and Cold resistances, respectively. However, you can freely swap them to anything that you want, so long as your elemental resistances are sorted out.

This build utilizes the Coruscating Elixir as well. This unique Ruby Flask ensures that the chaos damage you receive from your enemies does not bypass the energy shield. This greatly improves your survivability given that you have a lot of energy shield on this character.

Jewels

The Fireball Inquisitor works really well with several unique jewels. Split Personality should be a top priority, so save up some currency to purchase two of them with, "+5 Strength, +5 Intelligence". The reason why Split Personality is mandatory on the build is that it increases your STR and INT significantly, especially if you slot them really far away from the Templar's starting location on the passive tree.

Aside from that, get your hands on a Watcher's Eye with any of the following mods:

• Wrath

  • % of Lightning Damage is Leeched as Energy Shield
  • Damage Penetrates % Lightning Resistance
  • % Increased Lightning Damage

• Discipline

  • Gain Energy Shield per Enemy Hit
  • Regenerate % of Energy Shield per Second

• Clarity

  • Gain % of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield
  • % Chance to Recover 10% of Mana When You Use a Skill

• Determination

  • You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes

• Purity of Elements

  • +% to Chaos Resistance

Remember the flask setup for this build that was touched upon earlier? There is a reason why you only equip three flasks for the Fireball Inquisitor and that is due to the Brutal Restraint (Balbala). When you have this particular jewel, the keystone passive in its radius is turned into "The Traitor" which gives you four flask charges every five seconds for every empty flask slot. In this case, you gain eight flask charges without even trying.

With the Brutal Restraint (Balbala), you get to feel what it's like having a Mageblood unique Heavy Belt on the build, giving you semi-permanent uptime of your flasks. Use the Path of Building (POB) to help you obtain a Brutal Restraint with "8% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Aura from Your Skills" and "4% Increased Maximum Life" on the notable passives in its radius.

As an attribute-stacker, you will get huge benefits from a 12-passive Large Cluster Jewel (spell damage). On a rare ilvl 84 Large Cluster Jewel, spam it with Chaos Orbs until you get the following:

• +4 to All Attributes

• 4% Increased Damage

• +8 to Intelligence

• +12 to Maximum Energy Shield

You could also replace the maximum energy shield mod with "35% Increased Effect" for even more damage and attributes. However, you have a very slim chance of having it rolled together with the other mods, so do keep that in mind if you are crafting the cluster jewel yourself.

After you have secured the previous three jewels, you will then set your eyes on the Emperor's Mastery. This provides some amazing stats for the build, including increased attributes, maximum life, and improved global defenses. It does increase your character's size a little bit, which might make it a bit difficult for you to navigate the map. But hey, at least you get to tower over your enemies, right?

If you have played Path of Exile recently, you may have heard of the new jewel called That Which Was Taken. This was introduced in 3.23 Affliction League and it is quite amazing, to say the least. That is because it can give you modifiers that can greatly enhance the build in more ways than one. Here are our recommendations:

• Skills Fire an Additional Projectile
• (6-8)% Increased Effect of Your Curses
• (130-160%) Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Full Life
• (71-100)% Increased Critical Strike Chance if You Haven't Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• (20-30)% Chance to Create a Consecrated Ground When You Hit a Rare or Unique Enemy, Lasting 8 Seconds
• Projectiles Gain Damage as They Travel Farther, Dealing Up to % Increased Damage with Hits to Targets
• Critical Strikes Have Culling Strike
• % Increased Strength
• % Chance to Cover Rare or Unique Enemies in Ash for 10 Seconds on Hit
• Gain % of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield
• Regenerate % of Energy Shield per Second
• % of Damage Leeched as Energy Shield

Gems

The gem setups for the Fireball Inquisitor are pretty tight, leaving little to no room for flexibility. You could swap a gem or two, but for the most part, the gems you are going to use on this build are set in stone.

Body Armor

• Vaal Fireball
• Spellblade Support
• Elemental Focus
• Increased Critical Damage
• Inspiration Support
• Empower (Lvl 4)

Fireball is your main spell skill gem on this build. The Vaal Skill is mainly used to burst enemies down, especially when you encounter tougher monsters.

Spellblade Support greatly increases the damage of your fireball projectiles as it synergizes really well with Energy Blade.

Elemental Focus, Increased Critical Damage, and Inspiration are all support gems that contribute to the overall damage output of Fireball.

Since spell skill gems in Path of Exile scale really well with higher gem levels, you will include a level 4 Empower Support gem too!

Helmet

• Herald of Ash
• Discipline
• Precision
• Arrogance

Discipline is pretty much mandatory for the Fireball Inquisitor because this aura boosts your maximum energy shield. Furthermore, it unlocks additional effects from the Watcher's Eye jewel, specifically those that get enabled when you have Discipline active.

Herald of Ash provides a slight increase in your fire damage. But, the reason why this is included in the build is so that you can cause nearby enemies to suffer from the "Burning" status effect, therefore, increasing your clear speed.

Precision is there to increase your crit chance, ensuring that you reach that 100% cap without a hitch. Because this reserves flat mana instead of a percentage of your mana pool, you will link it with Arrogance Support.

Gloves

• Wrath
• Determination
• Defiance Banner
• Enlighten (lvl 4)

Wrath boosts the lightning damage provided by Energy Blade. Determination and Defiance Banner helps improve your survivability by giving you a considerable boost to armor and evasion rating. A level 4 Enlighten Support significantly reduces the mana required to activate these auras.

If you're more comfortable having a guard skill, you can swap Defiance Banner with Steelskin for that brief immunity to bleeding, as well as some armor when it is activated.

Boots

• Clarity
• Purity of Elements
• Haste
• Enlighten (Lvl 4)

Every bit of mana on this build is vital to your success. That is why you will activate Clarity so that you gain a considerable boost to the amount of mana you regenerate per second.

Haste is also another good aura to activate for the Fireball Inquisitor. It increases your movement speed and cast speed, which can aid you in clearing maps in less than three minutes!

Even though you stack a lot of STR and INT on this build, you may still struggle to cap your elemental resistances. For this reason, you will activate Purity of Elements to help you with that. This aura also provides elemental ailment immunity, which is great from a survival standpoint.

Enlighten level 4 makes a return on this setup for the same reason stated above.

Weapon

• Sniper's Mark

• Mark on Hit Support

• Abyss Jewel

Sniper's Mark makes cursed enemies take increased damage from your fireballs. Moreover, it makes your projectiles split toward five additional targets when the cursed enemy is hit. Mark on Hit applies Sniper's Mark automatically when you hit a rare or unique monster.

Because this build uses a weapon with an Abyssal Socket, we recommend that you insert an abyss jewel that has any of these mods:

• + to Maximum Energy Shield
• + to Maximum Life
• + to Strength and Intelligence
• +% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• Corrupted Blood Cannot Be Inflicted on You (corrupted implicit mod)

Shield

• Shield Charge
• Energy Blade
• Enhance

Shield Charge is not only utilized as a travel skill but it also acts as an opener to gain the Fanaticism buff from Instruments of Zeal.

Energy Blade is another core component of the build. Although this buff reduces your maximum energy shield by a significant amount, it does grant you a ton of lightning damage as a result.

Enhance Support is a great addition to this setup. It is included primarily to mitigate the amount of energy shield required to activate Energy Blade.

Secondary Ascendancies

The Wildwood Primalist is the best secondary ascendancy class for the Fireball Inquisitor, mainly because of its three Charm slots. The additional inventory provided by Might of the Bear notable passive is just an extra bonus.

Anyway, look for these modifiers if you are shopping for Charms on the trade website:

• + to Strength and Intelligence
• % Increased Strength
• Culling Strike
• % Chance to Gain Power Charge on Critical Strike
• You and Nearby Allies Have +% to Elemental Resistances
• Recover 2% of Life/Mana/Energy Shield on Kill
• % of Damage Leeched as Energy Shield

Passive Tree

POB

Fireball Inquisitor

Final Thoughts

The Fireball Inquisitor may not be as popular as other spell builds in Path of Exile, but it is definitely fun and easy to play. The damage of this build scales really well the more INT, STR, and energy shield you have on your character. That is why you will look for these modifiers wherever possible, may it be from your gear, jewels, and accessories.

It makes use of Energy Blade to provide huge amounts of flat lightning damage. Spellblade Support is added to take advantage of Energy Blade as well. These two combined will make your fireballs even more devastating, allowing you to make quick work of the enemy.

The only downside of this build is that it requires an awful lot of unique pieces of gear to work; some of which are quite expensive. But, if you are able to get enough PoE currency, you should definitely try the Fireball Inquisitor out!

PROS

+Deals tons of damage thanks to the interaction between Energy Blade and Spellblade Support

+Unique jewels are carefully selected to ensure that this build reaches its full potential

+Can easily attain 100% crit chance thanks to Inquisitor ascendancy class

+Very easy and fun build to play

+Has insane cast speed to help populate the screen with fireballs in no time

+Each piece of mandatory gear that is used truly feels like a worthwhile upgrade

+Pretty tanky due to the huge amounts of energy shield this build has

CONS

-Uses quite a lot of unique items and jewels

-Can be expensive depending on trade website pricing

-May have trouble capping chaos resistance

-Multiple fireball projectiles can cause serious frame rate dips on lower-end systems