Spark Inquisitor Build Guide - Path of Exile 3.24

Are you looking for a competitive league starter in Path of Exile that can kill bosses on a budget? How about a build that you can take well into the endgame? If so, look no further than the Spark Inquisitor. This build can handle tough enemies and, with enough investment, it can even take on the game's pinnacle bosses like Uber Maven and Sirus.

In today's guide, we will go over everything you need to know about the Spark Inquisitor - why it's great and why you should try it for yourself.

Why Spark?

Spark is one of the oldest spells in Path of Exile. In fact, you can gain access to this particular spell once you defeat Hillock in Act 1. This scales really well with lightning and spell damage. Furthermore, you can equip some unique items early on that can help this build shine.

The mechanic of this spell gem is really simple. You just stay put, press and hold the hotkey for Spark, and then wait a couple of seconds until a flurry of lightning projectiles comes out. You can hasten the process by putting as much cast speed on your gear and passive tree as possible. More on this later on in the build guide.

Is it Still Viable in 3.24?

Grinding Gear Games has implemented a lot of changes to mana and mana cost reduction in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. Since this build has an insanely high cast speed, it is a bit challenging to keep your mana at a comfortable level. Fortunately, there are ways to address that - one of which is by crafting some rare pieces of gear with the mana reservation efficiency of skills mod.

As for the gem itself, there is no change on the base version, except for the Transfigured Gem, Spark of Unpredictability. In the 3.24 Necropolis League, Spark of Unpredictability now has a higher effectiveness of added damage (from 160% to 190%). On top of that, it now deals 1 to 28 lightning damage at level 1 and 104 to 1,983 at gem level 20. Because of these buffs, you could try Spark of Unpredictability to see if it works for your playstyle.

Anyway, the base version still fires additional projectiles in Patch 3.24, so make sure to increase its quality by using some Gemcutter's Prisms as soon as you can.

Now, you can address the issue with projectile speed during league start by doing a couple of things. First is by linking Faster Projectiles Support to your main gem setup because it greatly increases Spark's projectile speed by 69% at level 20.

Second is by putting a Medium Cluster Jewel on your passive tree, particularly one with "10% Increased Projectile Damage" as a base. This jewel gives you access to two notable passive skills that can help you improve Spark's projectile speed, Aerodynamics and Streamlined. These passives provide the following:

• Streamlined

  • 20% Increased Projectile Damage
  • 20% Increased Projectile Speed

• Aerodynamics

  • 10% Increased Projectile Damage
  • 10% Increased Projectile Speed
  • Projectiles Pierce an Additional Target

The Medium Cluster Jewel is actually pretty easy to craft and the materials you need are relatively cheap. To craft the jewel, put Shuddering Fossils inside Primitive Chaotic Resonators and spam the jewel until you get the aforementioned passive skills. It takes roughly 15 to 20 tries on average, though you can get them faster if you're lucky.

In the endgame, you can drop Faster Projectiles Support by equipping an 8-mod pair of gloves, where you'll transfer your Spark setup. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide for instructions on how to craft these gloves yourself.

To be clear, Spark has been nerfed in more ways than one. But, this is not to say that it is no longer effective in Path of Exile. You just need to pay more attention to how you can improve its damage; whether by increasing projectile speed or through other means.

For those who do not know, you can defeat Izaro at the Lord's Labyrinth and transform the base Spark gem into a "Transfigured" version with slightly different effects at the Divine Font, which you can interact with at the end of the run. The Spark of Unpredictability works similarly to the base version except that the projectiles that move randomly have large differences in speed and distance. This is actually a pretty good replacement for the base version, especially since the unpredictable speed of the projectiles alleviates the need to use Faster Projectiles Support.

The other Transfigured Gem for Spark is Spark of the Nova. Unlike the previous version, the projectiles fire in a circle rather than in a random direction. Even though you can unleash up to 14 projectiles with this one, the Spark of the Nova has a slower cast speed and higher mana cost compared to the other two variants.

Ascendancy

The best ascendancy class for Spark is the Inquisitor. That's because this ascendancy class has access to several notable passives that can improve Spark in more ways than one.

The ascendancy passive that you want to get as soon as you finish the first labyrinth is Sanctuary. This makes you leave a Consecrated Ground around you while stationary. The Consecrated Ground that you create weakens the enemies' defenses, allowing you to deal 15% more damage to them. 

Pious Path is the next ascendancy passive skill that you should get. This makes the effects of Consecrated Ground linger for several seconds. Not only that but it also empowers the Consecrated Ground itself, causing you to regenerate life and energy shield in the process. This is a great addition to your build because it helps improve your survivability.

For your third ascendancy passive, you should get Righteous Providence. This increases your strength and intelligence by 50 points. However, the main reason why you're getting this is that it increases your critical strike chance by 1% per point of strength or intelligence, whichever is lower. Critical strike chance is vital to any Spark build, even more so when you consider going for the Heatshiver variant.

Righteous Providence is a great prelude to the final ascendancy passive for Spark Inquisitors, Inevitable Judgement. What makes this special is that your critical strikes ignore enemy monster elemental resistances. To put it simply, when you land some critical hits on the enemy, you ignore their elemental resistances as a result. This means that Spark deals a ton of damage since it is a spell that deals elemental damage.

All of these notable ascendancy passives are what make Spark an ideal league starter. You can decimate enemies on a shoestring budget. However, you can take it up another notch by focusing on one of the three main variants, which will be discussed in the next section.

If you are so inclined and have some PoE currency to spend, get the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with "Sanctuary of Thought" as the matching modifier. This ascendancy node is a godsend as it reduces the mana cost of Spark by a whopping 50%! Besides that, it gives you a sizable amount of mana reservation efficiency, making it an incredible node to obtain for the Spark Inquisitor.

Build Variants

While there are many build variations for the Spark Inquisitor, only four stand out above the rest. They are:

1. Budget Version

Is the Spark Inquisitor a good league starter? Yes, it is! However, your playstyle will change a little bit due to the mana changes GGG has implemented in the 3.24 Necropolis League.

Basically, you cast Spark as usual, but you have to stop occasionally for your mana to recover. If you truly struggle to maintain the said resource, you can use a Mana Flask with the "Enduring" prefix to address this.

Having said that, the Singularity is a great starter weapon that can carry you until the early red maps. This thing was likely made specifically for Spark because it provides the bonuses that can make it shine. It boosts your cast speed, reduces the mana cost of skills, and it deals bonus damage thanks to its unique effect, where nearby enemies are hindered by 25% and you deal 100% increased damage with hits against them.

A very inexpensive ring that you can equip starting level 38, the Valako's Sign unique Topaz Ring allows you to leech life and do 40% damage against shocked enemies. On top of that, it grants 20% increased lightning damage which, in the early game, is significant. Equip this ring to help get you to higher levels or until you can get your hands on some better ones.

Another way to address any mana issues you may encounter is by crafting a ring with the "Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost". Grab a Two-Stone Ring (Elemental Resistance) or Amethyst Ring (Chaos Resistance) and use Harvest Reforge life until you get mana, chaos resistance, elemental resistance, or attributes. Leave a prefix open so that you can add the above-mentioned prefix using the Crafting Bench.

For the shield, you can settle with any Spirit Shield that provides increased spell damage on the implicit mod. Some good bases include the Walnut Spirit Shield at level 37, Chiming Spirit Shield at level 49, and Harmonic Spirit Shield at level 65. You can use any essence that you want in the early game. Alternatively, you can go for Harvest Reforge Lightning to get "+1 to All Lightning Spell Skill Gems" as one of the explicit modifiers along with some HP and resistances.

If you still have an open prefix, bench-craft the mod: "Gain 6% of Lightning Damage as Extra Chaos Damage".

There's a new unique helmet that was introduced in the 3.24 Necropolis League called the Ravenous Passion. This thing not only increases your armor and energy shield by a sizable amount, but it also grants Rage after spending a total of 200 mana.

If you are new to Path of Exile, Rage is a temporary resource that gives you bonus attack speed, as well as a couple of other things. With the Ravenous Passion equipped, Rage grants cast speed instead.

Although the new unique helmet can only drop from Uber Eater of Worlds, its price actually drops massively after just a few days. In fact, at the time of writing, the cheapest you can find on the trade website is just 15 Chaos Orbs! Be sure to get one as soon as you can because this can greatly help your map-clearing speeds on a budget.

2. Heatshiver Variant

Heatshiver is a unique helmet in Path of Exile that got nerfed in the previous league. This helmet still grants you 1% of cold damage as extra fire damage per 1% chill effect on the enemy. However, Heatshiver now only grants you 30% cold damage as extra fire damage against frozen enemies instead of 100%. This is obviously a substantial decrease in DPS, but this is still great from the context of a league starter.

So, how does the Heatshiver Variant work? If you examine its mechanics closely, you will find that you need to chill or freeze enemies for maximum effect. By now, you're probably wondering how you can freeze enemies if Spark is naturally a lightning spell gem. Well, you can do that by equipping a pair of unique rings, Call of the Brotherhood.

For the uninitiated, Call of the Brotherhoodis a unique Ring in Path of Exile that converts 40% of lightning damage to cold damage. That's why it's imperative to equip two of these rings so that you'll have at least 80% of your lightning damage converted to cold.

After equipping a pair of Call of the Brotherhood rings, you can freeze enemies easily with your critical strikes. This is the reason why Inquisitor is the best ascendancy class if you want to use Spark. It is the only class that gives you a high critical strike chance without heavy investment thanks to Righteous Providence.

You may have noticed that you're only converting 80% of your lightning damage to cold damage. Why not convert it all the way to 100%? The reason is very simple: you'd want some lightning damage so that you can still shock enemies if they're not frozen.

You see, for Heatshiver to work, you have to freeze enemies. If you cannot do that, Heatshiver does nothing. So, in the event that you're not freezing foes, you can rely on Shock to increase your damage output a bit.

For the main weapon, you can equip Singularity until you have enough currency to purchase or craft an Omen or Prophecy Wand with +2 to Lightning Spell Skill Gems.

The Heatshiver variant is a great league starter build because the items that are mandatory for this to work are quite cheap. The only downside is that you have to freeze enemies, but if you got that sorted out, this is one that we would definitely recommend if you’re on a budget.

If you want to proceed with this version of the build, you can replace Singularity with The Annihilating Light in the endgame. This allows you to deal triple damage with Spark, but this comes at the cost of heavily reduced elemental resistances. So, if you are going to equip this, make sure to sort out your elemental resistances through your gear.

As you get more "increased mana reservation of efficiency" jewels later on, you can equip March of the Legion boots instead of an essence-crafted pair of boots. The reason is that you will put Smite and Wrath in the boots to take advantage of that level 25 Divine Blessing provided by March of the Legion’s unique effect.

A viable alternative to March of the Legion is the Voidwalker. This grants some DEX, movement speed, and evasion/energy shield. But more importantly, this thing puts you in a state of phasing if you've killed enemies in the last four seconds. With phasing on, your Spark projectiles pierce five additional targets.

3. Self-Chill Variant

The next Spark build is a bit expensive because you need to have multiple items for this build to work. For starters, you should wear two unique rings for the self-chill variant: Winterweave and Call of the Void.

Winterweave is a mandatory unique ring for this build. What this ring does is it reverses the effect of chill on you. If you don't know, Chill is an elemental ailment in Path of Exile that reduces your animation/movement speed. Because of Winterweave, you'll actually gain an increase rather than a decrease in speed, which makes your character capable of zooming in and out of maps in just a few minutes.

Take note that Winterweave is only part of the equation. You'll need Call of the Void as well. This ring has several unique properties. The damage you take and the damage you deal can chill. Moreover, enemies chilled by your attacks can be shattered as though they are frozen. Lastly, enemies chilled by your hits lessen their damage dealt by half of the chill effect. For example, if you have a 70% chill effect, enemies will deal 35% less damage to you; great for improving your survivability.

To maximize the self-chill variant, you also want to equip the Algor Mortis. This pair of gloves is just too good to pass up for the Spark Inquisitor. The reason is that enemies in your chilling areas take up to 35% increased lightning damage. Besides that, it increases the effect of non-damaging ailments on your foes by up to 20%. Chill, if you're not aware, is a non-damaging ailment.

Another mandatory piece of gear for this build to work is a self-crafted wand with increased lightning damage, lightning damage with spells, increased critical strike chance for spells, and a veiled modifier that reads, "Trigger a Socketed Spell on Using a Skill, with a 4-second Cooldown. Spells Triggered this way have 150% more mana cost". The last mod is important because you're going to get Lethe Shade as a core part of the build. What Lethe Shade does is increase the duration of ailments on you by 100%. Since chill only lasts for two seconds, the self-chill Spark variant won’t work without Lethe Shade. 

The self-crafted wand mentioned earlier is mandatory for this build because it is used to trigger Forbidden Rite automatically every several seconds. Forbidden Rite fires a projectile that deals damage to the enemy, but it does so by dealing damage to you in the process. Can you see the synergy now? Remember that Call of the Void chills you whenever you receive damage with hits and Winterweave reverses the slow effect of chill, making you move fast instead of going slow. So, when you factor that with the wand's ability to cast Forbidden Rite automatically, and with Lethe Shade increasing the duration of chill to four seconds, you will get the reverse effects of chill active at all times!

Overall, the equipment that you will use for this specific build works incredibly well together. The only downside is that these items can get expensive, especially if more and more people are aware of this.

To craft the wand, you must do the following:

1. Get yourself an item level 84+ Omen Wand with a fractured "+1 to Level of All Lightning Spell Skill Gems". This makes it easier for you to get the desired explicit modifiers. Use Perfect Fossils to increase weapon quality to at least 25% (30% preferred)
2. Spam the weapon with Deafening Essence of Woe (Spell Damage) until you get Tier 1 or Tier 2 "Adds # to # Lightning Damage to Spells"
3. Next, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed". After that, use a Veiled Orb to get a veiled suffix
4. Before you go to Jun to unveil, head to your Crafting Bench and put "% Increased Damage Per Endurance/Frenzy/Power Charge". Any of them will do just fine. This is done just to block these mods from appearing during the unveiling process
5. After that, unveil the mod from Jun. You want to get the mod "Trigger a Socketed Spell on Using a Skill, With a 4-second Cooldown, Spells Triggered This Way Have 150% More Cost"
6. Once you have the mod, go to your Crafting Bench one last time and put "20% Increased Cast Speed"
7. If you still have an open suffix, you can use an Exalted Orb to fill it up. That's it!

4. Aura Stacker Variant

The most expensive build for the Spark Inquisitor is the Aura Stacker variant. It is called such because of the number of auras you can activate, as well as the items that you need to equip for this build to function.

This variant utilizes the Nebulis as its main weapon. The Nebulis is a unique synthesized Void Sceptre that can have some pretty cool implicit modifiers, such as increased global critical strike multiplier, added lightning damage per 10 intelligence, and a chance to deal double damage, among many others. If currency is not an issue, you can even get one with the mod, "Enemies you kill have a 15% chance to explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum life as physical damage". This mod is not required, but it can certainly help you clear maps faster since targets that explode can also eliminate other nearby enemies.

Another reason why Nebulis is the preferred weapon of choice here is that it increases your cold damage and lightning damage per 1% cold resistance and 1% lightning resistance above 75%, respectively. Top that off with a nice increase in cast speed, and you'll see why many Spark aura stackers make this their go-to main weapon.

Call of the Brotherhood returns in this build. You're adding this ring to your setup mainly for the ability to shock enemies 100% when you freeze them. Given that Spark builds have incredibly quick cast times that may drain mana rapidly if not mitigated in some way, the increased lightning damage and mana regeneration rate are welcome additions.

Another piece of gear that makes this build expensive is the self-crafted rare gloves. Ideally, you want to use a pair of Fingerless Silk Gloves as the crafting base since it provides the most energy shield out of the other options available. The mods that you need to have in your gloves are:

• Socketed gems are supported by Level 16/18/20 Faster Projectiles
• Socketed gems are supported by Level 20/25 Faster Casting
• Socketed gems have +3.5% critical strike chance
• Socketed Spells have +90% to critical strike multiplier
• Increased cast speed
• Increased projectile speed
• +2 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems/Projectiles Pierce an Additional Target

Crafting the gloves yourself can be time-consuming. In that case, you're better off buying them from someone on the trade website. Just make sure to have enough Divine Orbs ready because these gloves do not come cheap.

If you really want to try and craft these gloves yourself, be sure to go to our ultimate crafting guide for the full instructions.

The Aegis Aurora is a great shield to use if you don't want to craft your own. This unique champion kite shield increases your armor and energy shield by up to 400%. On top of that, it grants you +5% to maximum cold resistance, giving you more survivability. You can even use a Melding of the Flesh so that all of your elemental resistances are on par with each other (provided that they're at least 75%).

While every piece of gear mentioned thus far is vital, certain jewels are a core part of the aura stacker setup. Getting all of the jewels requires a ton of currency, so don't even think of putting this build together if you're not ready to invest.

Anyway, you will need some Small Cluster Jewels with nodes that grant increased mana reservation efficiency of skills. Each of these cluster jewels should have three passive skills to ensure that you have enough reservation efficiency to cast every aura that benefits Spark. Aim to get the following mods on your mana reservation efficiency small cluster jewels:

• 25/35% Increased Effect (the latter requires an ilvl 84 cluster jewel)
• + to Maximum Life

• Introspection

  • Auras from your skills have 10% Increased Effect on You

Wait, there's more! You also need to put an Impossible Escape jewel, which would allow you to allocate skill points in the radius of "Supreme Ego" without being connected to the tree. This particular Impossible Escape jewel costs a lot of Divine Orbs because of how many builds utilize Charisma, the notable passive that increases the mana reservation efficiency of skills by 16%. You can easily spend upwards of 70 Divine Orbs just to obtain this one, maybe even more!

The Aura Stacker Spark Inquisitor variant got hit hard due to the nerf to Ashes of the Stars. This unique amulet used to provide up to 20% increased mana reservation of skills back then. But now, that has essentially been removed with nothing notable to replace it. If there's any consolation, the 30% quality to all skill gems can increase the number of Spark projectiles per cast. 

You can push through with this build variant by replacing Ashes of the Stars with Replica Dragonfang's Flight. This amulet got nerfed too, but at least it still provides up to 10% increased mana reservation of skills. This gives you some leeway to recoup some of your mana back to cast Spark comfortably even with so many auras being activated at the same time. 

Be sure to get a Replica Dragonfang's Flight with the "+3 to Level of All Spark Gems" mod to maximize the amulet slot.

Important Mods

Although there are specific mods that you need to get from certain items, these are the ones that every Spark build should have:

Gem Setups

Spark Inquisitor has major differences when it comes to the gem setup. It all depends on what build variant you're going to use. You can find the ideal gem setups below:

Budget

Body Armor

• Spark
• Spell Echo Support (or Awakened Spell Echo)
• Inspiration Support
• Pinpoint Support
• Pierce Support/Faster Projectiles Support
• Increased Critical Strike Damage Support

Helmet

• Zealotry
• Divine Blessing Support
• Precision
• Determination/Grace

Gloves

• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks
• Molten Shell (lvl 10)
• Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 2)

Boots

• Molten Shell (Lvl 10)
• Cast When Damage Taken Support
• Vaal Haste
• Frost Shield

Weapon

• Arrogance Support
• Vitality
• Righteous Fire

Off-hand

• Sniper's Mark/Assassin's Mark
• Lifetap
• Mark on Hit Support

Ring

• Conductivity

This is the gem setup for the budget version of the Spark Inquisitor. Spark is, of course, your main skill. The support gems that are highlighted above provide the best possible damage output for the gear that you are wearing on this variant of the build.

Your main auras are Precision, Zealotry, and a choice between Determination or Grace. When you are gearing towards evasion and energy shield and you have the Ghost Dance keystone passive allocated, then you should use Grace for that increased evasion rating.

Precision helps increase your chance to land critical hits, which is vital if you want to inflict Shock upon your enemies. As you can see, Zealotry is linked to Divine Blessing Support, which essentially turns it from a permanent aura to a temporary buff. Activate it only if you need a big boost to your damage, such as when fighting tough monsters or bosses, for example.

On the boots, you will find Vaal Haste and Frost Shield. Always use these skills every time you come across huge packs of monsters. Frost Shield should provide you with a barrier, which allows you to cast Spark in peace. Vaal Haste increases your cast speed temporarily but it should be enough to populate the screen with your Spark projectiles.

Heatshiver

Body Armor

• Spark
• Spell Echo Support (or Awakened Spell Echo)
• Inspiration Support
• Pinpoint Support
• Pierce Support/Faster Projectiles Support
• Increased Critical Strike Damage Support

Helmet

• Zealotry
• Divine Blessing Support
• Precision
• Determination/Grace

Gloves

• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks
• Molten Shell (lvl 10)
• Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 2)

Boots

• Smite
• Wrath
• Inspiration Support
• Empower (lvl 4)

Weapon

• Arrogance Support
• Vitality
• Righteous Fire

Off-hand

• Sniper's Mark/Assassin's Mark
• Lifetap
• Mark on Hit Support

Spark is your main skill. Always increase the gem's quality to 20% as soon as possible to get those two additional projectiles.

When you have the "Projectiles Pierce # Additional Targets" mod on your gloves, you can replace Pierce Support with Faster Projectiles Support to gain a huge boost to projectile speed. This is to make up for the loss in projectile speed because of the nerfs implemented to Spark's base gem in the Affliction League.

If you are able to get your hands on the Transfigured versions, the Spark of Unpredictability is a great replacement because it alleviates the need for Faster Projectiles Support. You can swap the said support gem for something else. You even have the option of putting back Pierce Support if you desire.

Spark of the Nova is also good, provided that you're okay with the way the projectiles are fired in a circle. In most cases, you can stick with the base version of the gem or Spark of Unpredictability depending on your preference.

On the helmet, you will find your main aura setup. Because you want to freeze your enemies consistently to take advantage of Heatshiver's unique effect, you will use Zealotry to give you some spell critical strike chance and a bit of spell damage as well. This is linked to Divine Blessing Support so that it turns into a temporary buff you can activate whenever you're facing tougher monsters.

Precision is a way to help you cap your accuracy, as well as give you a sizable increase in your chance to land critical hits. Determination grants more armor when activated. If you want, you can replace Determination with Tempest Shield for a higher chance of blocking spell damage. Grace is also a nice aura that you can use rather than Determination, especially when you have the Ghost Dance keystone passive allocated.

The gems in the gloves are composed of your movement and defensive gems. Shield Charge linked to Faster Attacks Support enables you to move around the map with ease. Molten Shell and Cast When Damage Taken should be kept at level 10 and level 2, respectively, so the guard skill is triggered whenever your HP falls to a certain threshold. It's important to note that you should never link all of the skill gems together. Just like it to the appropriate support gems outlined in this section.

Since you'll be using March of the Legion on this build variant, you can put Smite and Wrath on the boots. Whack enemies with Smite to gain a considerable amount of flat lightning damage for several seconds. Thanks to the level 25 Divine Blessing from the boots, you can activate Wrath when it's off cooldown to get even more flat lightning damage!

On the weapon, Vitality is activated to provide a huge boost to the amount of life you regenerate per second to sustain Righteous Fire. It is linked to Arrogance Support so that it reserves life instead of mana when activated. Righteous Fire is included in the setup just to get the more spell damage multiplier.

Sniper's Mark has been nerfed in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League in that it now only splits to two additional targets instead of four. If you are unhappy with this, you can swap it with Assassin's Mark to give you a higher crit chance and critical strike damage. Sigil of Power grants added lightning damage per stage (maximum of four). What's more, it got buffed in the previous league where gem quality makes nearby enemies deal 4% less damage. Lifetap Support just makes it so that you can cast these without worrying about mana.

Self-Chill

Body Armor

• Spark
• Increased Critical Strike Damage
• Pinpoint Support
• Awakened Spell Echo
• Inspiration Support
• Awakened Added Lightning Damage

Helmet

• Flame Dash
• Frost Shield
• Shield Charge
• Molten Shell

Gloves

• Vaal Haste
• Divine Blessing
• Inspiration
• Righteous Fire

Boots

• Enlighten Support (Lvl 4)
• Determination
• Wrath
• Zealotry

Weapon

• Vaal Cold Snap
• Forbidden Rite
• Sniper's Mark

Off-hand

• Tornado (Lvl 1 only)
• Arcane Surge Support (Lvl 1 only)
• Cast when Damage Taken Support ((Lvl 1 only)

The self-chill variant has some nice synergy with the items and gems you have equipped. As mentioned earlier, you will need a self-crafted wand for this because of the veiled modifier that triggers the gems socketed into the weapon every four seconds. Here, you will put Forbidden Rite as it is the self-damaging component required for the self-chill mechanic to work.

In the helmet, Frost Shield helps you with defense when dealing with tougher enemies. Since you stay in place when casting Spark, Frost Shield provides an extra layer of defense, which is quite handy when tackling harder foes. This is complemented by Molten Shell, which you can activate for more damage mitigation. Since you can no longer put instant skills on the left click in Patch 3.24, you'll have to manually activate Molten Shell whenever you need to. On the other hand, Shield Charge and Flame Dash are mainly for movement. Use Shield Charge often as it is supercharged by the reverse chill.

The self-chill variant can utilize the Righteous Fire gem too. And no, you don't need the fire damage over time that the said gem provides. You just use Righteous Fire for its spell damage bonus. Activate this only if you're dealing with tough bosses. You can have this enabled all the time, but you need to put "Regenerate Life per Second" mods on your gear to circumvent Righteous Fire's self-damaging mechanic.

Anyway, Divine Blessing is paired with Vaal Haste. This combo transforms Haste into a buff that you can activate to give you a boost in cast speed when needed. Activate Haste to launch a bevy of Spark projectiles to slay the enemy. The "Vaal" version of the skill is best used on more challenging foes since it gives more cast speed than the regular version.

The gems on the off-hand are just for quality of life. Tornado is cast automatically when you take damage thanks to CWDT. Enemies hit with Tornado activate Arcane Surge Support, giving you increased cast speed and mana regeneration rate.

Aura Stacker

This is the most expensive build for the Spark Inquisitor. It got its name due to the many auras that you have active at once. Here’s a rundown of all the gems you can put into this setup:

Body Armor

• Haste
• Determination
• Petrified Blood
• Hatred
• Zealotry
• Enlighten Support (Lvl 4)

Helmet

• Smite
• Sniper's Mark
• Righteous Fire
• Empower Support (Lvl 4)

Gloves

• Spark
• Awakened Spell Echo Support
• Inspiration Support
• Increased Critical Damage Support

Boots

• Wrath
• Divine Blessing Support
• Arcane Surge Support
• Inspiration Support

Weapon

• Flame Dash
• Tempest Shield
• Molten Shell

Shield

• Purity of Ice
• Arrogance Support
• Vitality

In order to activate all of the auras, you will need to have as much mana reservation efficiency of skills wherever possible. This includes cluster jewels, base jewels, Enlighten level 4, helmet, body armor, and Replica Dragonfang's Flight.

For the gloves, you can actually craft one yourself. However, it will take some luck and resources. If currency is not an issue, you can just buy it from someone on the trade website.

However, if you really want to know how to craft the gloves, follow these steps:

1. Get two ilvl 84+ Fingerless Silk Gloves - one with a Shaper influence and the other with an Elder Influence. Use Awakener's Orb to combine the two. You can also purchase the double-influenced gloves (just the base) on the trade website.
2. Next, get some Essence of Horror to guarantee the mod, "Socketed Gems Have +3.5% Critical Strike Chance"
3. Spam the gloves with essences until you get "Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Faster Casting". If you get another influenced mod, specifically on the prefix slot, you can use an Orb of Dominance in an attempt to elevate the faster casting mod. If it fails, just spam Essence of Horror again. But if it succeeds, then proceed to the next step.
4. Make sure that you have an open prefix so that you can put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench.
5. Then, go to Horticrafting Station and use Harvest Reforge Caster. Doing this gives you "Socketed Spells Have +% to Critical Strike Multiplier".
6. Once that is done, head back to your Crafting Bench and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" again
7. After that, go to Horticrafting Station once again. This time, you will use Harvest Reforge Speed to acquire the "Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level # Faster Projectiles". Now, this step may fill your prefixes with a couple of unwanted mods, so use the Orb of Annulment to remove them. Take note that this is quite risky because there is a chance that you can annul off the influenced modifiers. If that happens, you will have to go back and spam Essences again.
8. If the previous step is a success, the next thing you need to do is use a Veiled Orb to get a veiled prefix.
9. When you have successfully obtained the veiled prefix without removing the faster projectiles mod, you can proceed to your Crafting Bench once more and put "Physical Damage Converted to Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage". This blocks only one of those modifiers from appearing during the unveiling, but that is still useful since they have the most weight. What you're hoping to get from this step of the crafting project is the mod, "+2 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems".
10. After successfully acquiring the mod, you can put the finishing touch by heading to your Crafting Bench one last time and putting "28% Increased Damage During Any Flask Effect".

The Aura Stacker variant is the best build for the Spark Inquisitor. If you run into issues with mana due to the Ashes of the Stars nerf, you can deactivate Petrified Blood until you're able to somehow get more mana reservation efficiency.

Tattoos

We are still bummed out by the removal of the secondary ascendancy classes in the 3.24 Necropolis League. Fortunately, Grinding Gear Games has brought back the Tattoos from a couple of leagues ago. That said, here are our recommendations:

• Tattoo of the Valako Shaman

  • 5% Increased Lightning Damage

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Warrior

  • 3% Increased Maximum Energy Shield

• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper

  • 5% Increased Projectile Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller

  • +3% to Chaos Resistance
  • Only take this if you do not have Chaos Inoculation allocated

Passive Tree

POB

Budget Version

Heatshiver Variant

Self-chill Version

Aura Stacker

Final Thoughts

The Spark Inquisitor is not only a great league starter, but you can also invest a lot of PoE currency to take it up a notch. It is fun to use and easy to master. You cast projectiles so quickly because of the insane amount of cast speed you get from the passive tree, as well as the items you have equipped.

The Heatshiver variant is enough as a league starter, though you can use some pieces of gear that are crafted using essences to begin your journey as a Spark Inquisitor. If you just want to have a build that you can use comfortably to farm currency early on, the Budget and Heatshiver variants won't disappoint.

When you have 50 to 80 Divine Orbs, you can transition to the self-chill variant for insane speed. This is a highly mobile character that can zoom in and out of maps in just a few minutes. While it is not the best in terms of handling fully juiced maps, it can take on nearly all types of content with the right mods.

And finally, the Aura Stacker is the pinnacle build for the Spark Inquisitor. It has auras that complement the build really well. It has defensive layers that ensure no enemy or boss can kill you. However, you need to be ok with spending boatloads of currency as it is easily one of the most expensive builds in the game.

Although Spark and its support gems have been nerfed in the previous league, we are happy that GGG did not make any substantial changes to this build's gem setups in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. If anything, only Spark of Unpredictability received adjustments, and some positive ones at that.

Once again, if you're looking for a character that can handle all types of content with the right investment, you should try the Spark Inquisitor without a doubt!

PROS

+Viable league starter

+Scales really well with heavy investment

+One of the only builds in the game with many variations to choose from

+Populate the screen with damaging projectiles quickly and easily

+Can take on Uber Bosses without a problem

+Still awesome in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Some upgrades require a ton of currency

-Crafting is a necessary part of endgame gearing

-Has to cast Spark while stationary to get the most out of the spell