Home / Build / [3.2] Volatile Dead Poet’s Pen Templar (Inquisitor)

[3.2] Volatile Dead Poet’s Pen Templar (Inquisitor)

Intro & build description

The Poet’s Pen was introduced in the game with 3.1 expansion and ever since it has been very strong and sought after unique wand because of its power. If you miss old days when Cast on Crit was the king or, even better, if you haven’t experienced it – The Poet’s Pen wands imitate gameplay as close as it gets. If running through maps and melting bosses is something you enjoy, give Poet’s Pen Inquisitor a shot.

Build Pros

  • Very fast clear speed
  • Satisfying gameplay
  • Very tanky
  • Insane single target damage
  • Scales very well with currency invested

Build Cons

  • Kaom's Heart is expensive

Passive tree(s) and Path of Building

Leveling [31p]
Leveling [60p]
Leveling [87p]
Full Build

Bandits

Bandits Quest Choice
Help Alira

Ascendancy skill points

LabyrinthsSkill point choice
Labyrinth 1Righteous Providence
Labyrinth 2Inevitable Judgement
Labyrinth 3Instruments of Virtue
Endgame LabyrinthAugury of Penitence

Skill gem setup

Helm


Vaal Haste

Increased Duration


Body Armor



Gloves


Anger

Herald of Ice

Enlighten Support

Summon Ice Golem


Boots


Frenzy

Faster Attacks Support

Culling Strike Support

Power Charge on Critical Support


2h Weapon


None


1h Weapon


Volatile Dead

Increased Critical Strikes Support

Concentrated Effect Support


Offhand weapon / shield


Unearth

Greater Multiple Projectiles Support

Cremation



Build uniques / Example rare gear


Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.trade

Helmet

Lightpoacher

Any rare helmet with life and resistances will do just fine till you can afford Lightpoacher.


Body Armour

Kaom's Heart

Best in slot chest piece for the build. Use any rare chest with life and elemental resistances  till you find/buy Kaom’s.


Gloves

Rare Gloves

Pair of gloves with life and elemental resistances. Fingerless Silk Gloves are the best base, ideally you want to craft gloves with Essence of Insanity for more attack speed and smoother gameplay.


Boots

Darkray Vectors

Darkray Vectors with extra frenzy charge corruption would be best in slot for boots. Grab a pair of regular ones and work on that corruption later since it won’t affect you that much.


Left Ring

Rare Shaper's Ring

Buy or craft ring with Shaper’s mod ”Curse enemies with assassin’s mark on hit”. Life and elemental resistances as well,m if possible.


Right Ring

Rare Ring

Fire damage, maximum life, elemental resistances. Opal Ring or Diamond Ring would be the best base to craft on.


Amulet

Rare Amulet

Maximum life, global critical strike multiplier, elemental resistances and fire/spell damage.


Belt

Stygian Vise or Leather Belt

Use Leather Belt till you get Stygian Vise. Look for 80+ life and at least 70 total elemental resistances.


1Hand Weapon

The Poet's Pen

Build doesn’t work without these wands. Must have.


1Hand Weapon

The Poet's Pen

Jewel

Pure Talent

Some critical strike chance and elemental penetration.


Jewel

Rare Jewels

Stats on rare Abyss jewels:

  1. Fire damage to spells
  2. Fire damage to spells while dual wielding
  3. Global critical strike multiplier
  4. Maximum life

Flask

Flasks

Flasks:

  1. Ample Diamond Flask of Staunching
  2. Experimenter’s Sulphur Flask of Heat
  3. Atziri’s Promise
  4. Experimenter’s Stibnite Flask of Warding
  5. Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline


Feel free to share your thoughts/experiences/tips about the build in comments section below.

About prime

Prime is knowledgeable in everything builds related. Mostly focuses on writing build guides and tutorials on how to play with certain skills.

31 comments

  1. No movement skill?(

  2. What ability should i use to lvl?

    • Firestorm works very well, skill is given as quest reward right before Merveil. If you don’t enjoy firestorm, from level 28 onwards you can level up with Flameblast.

  3. Hi,

    what about Pantheon? Which souls should i choose?

  4. is this a good league starter? poets pen seems to be semi expensive sitting at 20c right now

    • Well, the tree is generic spellcaster tree, it will work without poet’s pen just fine, as well as it will work just as fine once you equip 2x poet’s pens and socket gems into them. Keep in mind you will use dagger or wand with a shield or dual wands or daggers with generic spell damage, spell critical strike chance and cast speed + your spell of choice socketed into chest till you farm enough currency for poet’s pen and kaoms. Is it doable as league starter? Yes, with some minor gear adjustments before you get all the gear you need for this build to work as intended.

  5. playing this build atm, and i love it, but i changed 1 gem with body swap for faster clears, but how do we sustain life? Do we have some kind of leech or what do u recommend?

  6. Love the build so far, but going into mapping I feel very squishy, I don’t see where all the tankiness is coming from. I appreciate if you could enlighten me more, really interrested! love the build nevertheless

    • Hey, do you have at least 60 life on each rare item you are using? Build is indeed tanky given the fact that we use Kaom’s and with jewels slots, we can easily go past 200% increased maximum life on the passive skill tree. If you cannot afford Kaom’s yet, get body armour with at least 100-120 maximum life, they shouldn’t be very expensive. Here are few examples – http://poe.trade/search/yanyugihookuga

    • Take Culling Strike off Frenzy setup and use Life Gain on Hit, then switch out Cremation on 2nd Pen for either Culling Strike or Power Charge on Critical Hit (I recommend PCoC + Diamond Flask)

      🙂

  7. so I’m confused how exctly this works ? its telling me my volatile cant be used?

  8. What gems can i use on chest before i got kaom’s?

  9. i got no problem playing almost every map.. but if something hits me from “hydra” f.e iam almost instantly dead 😡

  10. Is not herald of ash better now since 3.2 with the added spell damage ?

  11. What Pantheon do you use for this build?

    And thanks for the build guide

    • Pantheon powers are used depending on the situation you are facing. There is no 100% right choice of pantheons to use at all times. 🙂

  12. Wait, can someone explain to me about the lightpoacher? Does he not have any support sockets connected to the spell it casts? And is it a 1 or 2 abyss socket helm? I am going to assume 2 socket?

    Thanks for the help, build looks great!

    • Build struggles with gem sockets, if you are willing to sacrifice vaal haste for Spirit Burst support gems, that works too. Yes, 2 abyss socket Lightpoacher, if you are on the budget, 1 abyss jewel lightpoacher will work just fine.

  13. Pantheon?

  14. isnt it possible to swap enlighten support? i dont see the sense 😀

    • What better would you swap it with? It’s reducing the mana reservation from anger and HoI 6% at lvl3 and 9% at lvl 4. so You would reserve 69%, or 66% instead of 75% mana. It’s just quality of life really, or if you wanted to pick up MoM and drop anger.

  15. how i get more attack speed in frenzy? i have 0,34 per second

  16. Hello, I feel like I’m not totally tank, I’m level 83 and I have 5.4k of life, and I have kaom heart too, is there something missing in my build for me to really tank?

  17. Hello, I am a noob and am curious as to why there are 8 unused skill points used in the “Full Build” link. Thanks!

  18. can i use zerphi’s flask in this build?

  19. Cristian Alejandro Marin

    Hi, why my build doesn´t works, i followed your guide, but it doesn´t work, i have same link gems and same gear…

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