Inquisitor Deep Dive!

Alanna

56 inq here, waited for the rework to finish leveling.

To echo what others have said, the two main issues are aggro and mana sustain. These weren't problems before.

Unlinking the martial abilities and the flat threat is a good direction. But we now have three aggro tools now:

Taunt, which isn't effective if we don't have anything to effectively follow it up. Being able to Taunt into Slam into purifying blow gave a serviceable threat buffer that allowed for fluid tanking. Now it rips it off of casters, but any kind of sustained DPS will rip it back very quickly.
Mez and Distress have our flat threat now, but aren't sustainable solutions. The mana costs are too high and the threat is lower than we had previously with the martial abilities.

One solution would be to just give mez and distress lines all equal and meaningful across the spell ranks threat that scales with level, while keeping the effectiveness of the debuffs themselves tied to the spell rank. Another solution would be to de-hybridize the scintillation line and give it a meaningful threat component without also increasing its mana cost prohibitively.

The rune is a good addition, no notes. It's something to use on named mobs which we desperately needed.

The charm cooldown is still terrible. Paladins and SKs have much more useful abilities that are tied closely to their class identity and their play patterns. Please consider changing this to something that is more in line with our kit and our two main roles in a group.

Mez itself is worse. We don't have AE mez, I don't see why the ranks of mez need to be shorter than before. The one that we can realistically use in a grind is 15s shorter than before. Our highest tier of mez that was used more in situations where you were planning to keep several mobs CC'd is 50% shorter than before. There are very few effective CC classes in this game. Reducing one of their effectiveness so substantially is very frustrating.

I'm holding out hope, the core of the class is still good. The direction of the changes is good. But gameplay feels worse than before the rework. Playing an inquisitor in this game has been some of the most fun i've had in an MMO.

Thanks.

Edit: Fixed a couple typos

Guylove

TL;DR = INQ feels great, still #1 on my list of potential classes to Main for EA

Level 24 INQ. Had just hit 22 at the time of rework.

--OVERALL--
I feel like an authoritarian plate-wearing cowled wizard from Baldur's Gate 2, the ones that appear when unsanctioned magic is used in town. I love this theme.
We are the best 'control' tanks. We are the best purger class. Our ability to purge enemy buffs cannot be overstated. Removing damage shields, which become a particularly big hindrance at higher levels, is very desirable, but also stripping haste, stat buffs, even raw +HP buffs make a BIG impact. Purging a +HP buff is effectively equivalent to dealing hundreds of damage. We lock down casters and harvest their mana for ourselves and our allies, all while providing the most moment-to-moment party safety of any tank with our AoE Stun and Mez. Inquisitor is badass.
New purple icons look great. Ability names are cool. I'm excited for future class-specific lore items and epic quests!
P.S. Nickademus please consider adding purple dye as an option for your Laundry Day quest so I can wear a purple robe in my shirt slot! 😉

--ABILITIES--
Pillage Mana Spell Line
Rank 1 was junk and only restored 13 mana when I got it at level 22 the day of the rework, but once I hit 23 and got the version that restores 115 mana... fellas let me tell you what, this is SO FUN.
This is our bread and butter. This is why we're here. 115 mana per person x 6 people at this level is a solid chunk. My party was noticing and appreciating it.
I crave to use Plunder Mana as much as possible. I want mana mobs. Bring me more. I'm disappointed when a camp is all physical damage dealers. We want to use this on cooldown. This is where we shine. I started to feel like the anti-magic tyrant our archetype depicts, thirsting for casters!
We even started keeping a mob near the party mez'd as mana cattle until it was oom. Like vampires. Then we thought what if we charm it to give it Clarity... THIS is the type of stuff that makes this game so special. I love this. I wonder if it scales off INT...
At first I was sad to lose Aura of the Inquisitive, but converting our haste buff into an aura, especially one that's useful even with a shaman and enchanter buff, and making us work for our mana regen makes a very interesting dynamic that is much more engaging. Bold choice, but it paid off.

Distress Spell Line (Magic Debuff)
Mana intensive now, cast time now 1.5sec (formerly 1sec) and debuff only 30sec (formerly 5min) but now does damage and additional threat. Previously I was magic debuffing all mobs I was fighting, even casting this while mobs were mez'd since this formerly wouldn't break mez. I'm forced to be somewhat more selective now with the increased mana cost, although I'm able to get it onto most targets, just not all, depending on TTK. It's now a handy way to intentionally break mez as needed, which I'm starting to appreciate. The threat on this feels really strong. If I am struggling with threat, it's because I haven't used this yet.

Censuring Strike
Decreasing enemy cast speed as just baseline to one of our core strikes feel fantastic. The higher level we go, the stronger the decrease becomes. Love this.

Purifying Blow
Noticeably hits harder and I appreciate how it might still purge even without our magic debuff, but we can choose to make the purge a guarantee by using magic debuff first. This change feels right now that our magic debuff is comparatively expensive. I appreciate these types of mid-combat gameplay decisions.

Interdiction (Mez) Spell Line
1.5sec cast AND generates additional threat? Wow, fantastic. This makes us faster mezzers than bard or enchanter. Feels great to quickly weave in during combat, the fast cast time means it's rarely interrupted. Even works as an interrupt in a pinch. Will INQ be accepted as mezzer/support if groups already have a tank? I think so. This is so nice that I fear it will be nerfed.

Reflecting Bash
Yes, I miss Kick. This cooldown is longer (15sec vs Kick's 10sec). Requiring a shield to interrupt feels bad. HOWEVER, the damage from this ability can be substantial depending on the spells you interrupt (saw 180dmg at level 23) making this situationally my hardest hitting ability. Also the visual and audio FX are very satisfying. And realistically we have so many interrupt tools that I'm still successful in preventing casts with just Mez, Scintillation, and Silence (and Psychic Choke once it works again).

Arcane Tyrant
Bundling our STR, Sense Magic, See Invis, and Magic Resistance buffs all into one 1h buff is a godsend. With an efficient groups where the pulls are flowing, being able to quickly rebuff and get back to tanking feels right.
Love that we keep Spellshield. RIP Weapon Shield.

Ward of Suspicion Spell Line
I find myself only using rank 1 to pop it easily and often. This may be more impactful at higher levels when mobs hit harder and the attack speed reduction is 20%. That being said, the debuff only lasting 15 seconds is a little underwhelming, but I'll take what we can get, and recognize we're not specialists against melee.

Psychic Choke
It's not working at all. No stun, no damage, channel stops after a second or two. I'm sure this is a known issue at this point. Bug report submitted, even after Patch 0.28.1.0 today. I'm sure it will work again soon TM.

Other Abilities
Very happy we retained Invis, Memblur, Dispel Magic, and our instant cast Purge. I feared these general utility spells were on the chopping block. These add so much depth to the class, and I miss that depth when I'm playing Fighter.
I acknowledge I didn't even mention our long cooldowns. I tend to focus on what a typical fight feels like. Cooldowns longer than 10 minutes, while very impactful and bring cool situational flavor, do not represent 99% of gameplay.

--THREAT--
I have seen other INQs mention post-rework threat is bad. I've not experienced this, but I'm fairly twinked. This could be a big deal that I'm totally ignorant to. Shockingly, melee cleric was the most likely to pull off me, with their massive proc. 🙂

--CONCLUSION--
I'm continuing to enjoy this class both before and after the rework. If EA started tomorrow, Inquisitor is my top pick for my main. Unless Paladin or Shadow Knight reworks give me an even more compelling reason to switch, I'm exerting my control on the mana users of Aêthoril as an Inquisitor.
Thank you for reading! <3

-Guylove

Kingsized

I am not super deep into the inquistor changes yet, but I think reflecting bash sharing the CD with censuring strike is pretty rough. I keep missing key moments to kick because it shares. If that was castable at anytime something was casting I think it'd be a great QoL. Other than that so far it feels good, the damage from hitting high cost spells with reflecting bash is rewarding.

snagason

Let me state this clearly. If basic tanking requires us to spend mana on every single mob to keep aggro, that makes us bad at tanking. Plain and simple. We are just the worst tank right now. As the class is now it's taking the same path hybrids were taking in EQ. Sub par tanks that no one will wanna use.

Mesh

snagason
This is the central problem. Everything else is just a matter of tuning and bug fixes.

Ignoring that it now costs half our mana bar to deplete a single mobs mana, our normal rotation still requires considerable spell use even if we're being conservative which results in us ending every pull with a mana deficit.

Because we're a tank and can't meditate during combat, our group then has to twiddle their thumbs and wait for us to meditate while they're all ready to go. Inquisitor is in desperate need of a mana sustain mechanic. Tanks should not be causing more downtime than their healers IMO.

Denerik

[unknown] to your comment about pillage mana, it doesn't restore 115 to every member of the party. Your group mates only receive 45 mana per cast, you get 115 because it also refunds the 70 mana cost to cast it.

Guylove

Denerik
I thought this as well, but when I asked them specifically how much they received, multiple said 115 mana. Maybe it's a bug? (oh no!)

Xilith

There might be a bug with the display of the returned mana, I'll investigate. The Inquisitor themself gets the drained portion plus the refund, like Denerik mentioned, and that value may be displaying to the group.

Nothing was changed with Psychic Choke other than the damage increase, so the bug with this is likely tied to some other system changes that went in (like the instant cast/moving issue).

We'll continue to evaluate and tweak mana costs, threat, and mana regen, but you should expect to struggle a bit with threat if you aren't using any mana, and you shouldn't expect to be net positive or even break even on mana if you are pulling as fast as possible. You should expect to struggle with mana if you are fighting mostly melee mobs, and have an easier time with it when you can Pillage.

Kobb

Xilith thanks for the update!

Mesh

Xilith
Cheers.

I really like the new design and I think after some more tuning INQ will be in a great spot.

I'm just concerned about Fighter becoming the default pick for groups since there's a noticeable difference in downtime. Nothing Inquisitor brings to a group, even a group stacked with casters, is worth having to spend a couple of minutes every few mobs waiting for your tank to med.

snagason

"you should expect to struggle a bit with threat if you aren't using any mana"...
If threat costs mana I'm out. Won't main inq in EA, that's clear as day to me. Fighter clearly becomes the one tank to play then. I believe you're making a huge mistake there. I already mourn this class. I really enjoyed it while it lasted , I had an absolute blast with it and it was not overpowered at all. the use of AE stun alone is a drag on mana and does not add any threat, there's no way I'm using manaburn or tyrannize on anything but a boss and still find the class viable.

"You should expect to struggle with mana if you are fighting mostly melee mobs, and have an easier time with it when you can Pillage."
This just tells me everything I needed to know, the idea that you want one of 3 tank classes to be sub par versus 80% of the mobs in the game seems like major design flaw to me. Pillage at the moment literally brings nothing back in the vast majority of the 50+ popular camps. I always worried the class designers would take the caster specialist angle too seriously and it looks like I was right. I'll test the fixes that come in beta but if I'm not convinced by the end of it I will not have an inquisitor to play with in the early access I'm afraid.

Guylove

There might be a bug with the display of the returned mana, I'll investigate. The Inquisitor themself gets the drained portion plus the refund, like Denerik mentioned, and that value may be displaying to the group.

You and Denerik are right, I am mistaken.

Did more testing. Plunder Mana correctly restores 45 mana to INQ and each party member as the tooltip implies (180 x 0.25 = 45).
I was getting ahead of myself just reading the Combat Log (+115 mana) whereas my character sheet mana value goes up by +45 after a successful Plunder.

Good catch!

Mesh

Guylove
You had me thinking I might be doing something wrong.

If it Plunder was returning 115 mana to each party member at level 24 I wouldn't be complaining about mana issues!

Mesh

Our weapon DPS is too low to generate enough TPS, especially since our kit encourages us to wear a shield.

The only way to hold aggro against even moderate DPS is to spam Distress which, again, is a problem mana-wise. Casting Distress a couple times to get a mobs attention feels fine but having to spam it constantly throughout the fight doesn't. I feel like once we've got the mobs attention and it's in melee range, we shouldn't have to continue spending mana to retain aggro.

The tools are already there. Just needs tuning.

Increase the threat values of Purifying Blow and Censuring Strike. Maybe also reduce Purifying Blow's cooldown?
Significantly reduce the cooldown of Pillage Mana.

Fidric

Guylove but as one of the BTB party guinea pigs, can confirm it did incorrectly display "115" mana to party members in their logs too.

Gakamor

Level 23
Group size: solo, duo, and occasional 4-5 person group
Locations: EW, KB, and FP
Created my INQ a few days before the rework

Things that I like:

Merging of abilities - Things that were previously 2+ abilities are now 1 ability.
Interdiction - The additional threat is a fantastic change.
Reflecting Bash - Love the upgraded Kick. Once it is no longer affected by GCD, I think it will be in a good spot. This may be an unpopular opinion but I'm fine with the longer cooldown because INQ have so many other ways to interrupt casting.

Things that I don't like:

Threat - I feel it could be a little better. If I pull with Distress x2 and land my first Purifying Blow, I can usually keep aggro without taunting off the dps classes (but not always). I certainly have to work harder at maintaining aggro than I did on a similar level fighter with worse weaponry.
Pillage Mana line - The cooldown is way too long and the effect way too weak. This needs a major improvement to earn a spot on my spell bar.
Mana Burn - Getting your first evocation spell at 18 with a 60 mana cost is rather brutal for skillups. Once I got evocation up to where I wasn't fizzling too often, it still wasn't worth it. It costs too much mana to be useful. I would only consider it useful if I can completely drain a particularly dangerous caster without going oom myself. Otherwise, I'm just going to use interrupts.
Ward of Suspicion line - This ability is only seems useful when soloing or grouping without a healer. Is that the intent? Additionally, when soloing, I find that I often miss out on the slow component because the mob can't eat through the ward fast enough (I'm moderately twinked). Maybe the duration of the buff could be increased a little?
Dominate the Mind - I don't like long cooldown abilities eating up a spell slot. If I had a Paladin or Shadow Knight, I would likely have the same opinion of their 30min cooldowns. I haven't really tested the ability due to the cooldown.
Mana cost in general - Looking ahead at future spell ranks, I can see myself down-ranking spells frequently to conserve mana. I'm already doing this with the Distress line.

Overall I'm still loving the class and I like the direction of the rework. Once some numbers are tweaked, INQ will be a really great class and a strong contender for my main.

defixio

has anyone done the math about the threat per mana on skills as the inquisitor levels? i don't have the skill numbers in front of me, but i am suspicious we may end up in a state where the agro per mana on low level spells is way better than high level, and thus the correct way to play is chain casting very low level things.

Mesh

Just re-read Censuring Strike's tooltip and realized it doesn't mention any bonus threat value.

Adding some would improve our ability to hold aggro without spending mana.

Denerik

[unknown] agreed. This is supposed to be the slam replacement, but they removed the threat that slam provided. That should absolutely be on our fast strike ability, not the slow one. That CD difference between the two is causing a ton of threat problems.

JankyJux

[unknown]
[unknown]
I like having the design philosophy straight from the devs: Thank you @!

Question: On itemization, do INQ need to prioritize INT higher now?
Question: Ranked with tanks and off-tanks, where is the INQ's intended position for effectiveness versus non-caster mobs - 4th at the end of the tanks, or 6th after the off-tanks?
Question: If the intention is for INQ to pause for mana, is the design intention for all groups to pause for mana/HP/etc., or is this only going to happen when an INQ is main tank?
Concern: Are there enough casters at all levels to make the INQ desired? Some camps have consistent caster spawns, and for others it randomly pulls from a pool.
Concern: INQ already has the lowest population, and pushed this much further into such a niche may make it smaller.
Concern: Removing damage shield (DS) can take up to 36 seconds to remove when it's the 6th buff in, like ashira naturalists in Tel Ekir. That can be between 50%-100% of the fight duration. In testing, it seemed to randomly take 2-5 uses of Purge and/or Purifying Blow (with Excruciate) to remove it.

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