I found the Vile Chemist to be quite weak, any help?

[MacGyver]

Returning player.
Played on release, then for many years before burning out from duping exploits and the economy failure......
Came back after 8+ years
Started a few 1st life builds to see how mechanics worked and learning the ropes again.
Bloody great game I will add, still amazing, so........ well done devs.
The playing community, still fantastic as always.

1st life Level 20 Storm Singer
1st life 2 artificer / 18 Alchemist ( Vile chemist / Inquisitor )

Bard was straight forward, no gear , hitting for 5K crits on R1 , 2 button win cake walk
Vile chemist was fun but soooooooooooooooooooooo weak
My VC had the poison Sharn light crossbow and some nice gear ( Raven Loft , Feywild etc ) ... my biggest crit was 570 damage

Dont get me wrong, Alchemist was an absolute riot to play but always felt like a carry in R1 groups, my Bard was at the front 1 shotting trash mobs and 3 shotting bosses.

Vile Alchemist if I ran into mobs was a very stressful play of jump back kiting and spamming the AoE shot ( the poison waves were absolutely pathetic and would lock you into a slow animation )
Vile alchemist felt like " please dont come for me "
Bard felt like " come at me bro and bring all your mates "

How do I squeeze more crits out of my Vile Chemist Inquisitor? ( Feats are all the usual suspects , I did take PS , I did not take IPS as I saw no value in it due to the Inquisitor AoE usage and high movement play style

I have access to many Iconic and most skill trees ( was a VIP for years but did buy many packs as well )
I really liked the idea of the dual light xbow Inquisitor and I really love the Alchemist mechanics and quirky spells/potions
Please dont tell me I need a bunch of past lifes

 

[TheStranger]

hey Mac - i know you said you wanted an inquisitive, but if it's vile chemist you want, i would recommend exploring pure alchemist, using throwing daggers. I made a first lifer (with +8 tomes) that did ok in R4 with a few hires. ~190% DS standing still boosting to almost ~350%, 27 imbue die, and ~110 Trans DC, 30% dodge, ~900 poison spell power, 45/65 crit chance/damage, 16-20x4 weapon profile...Vile Chemist tree, with a little into Vistani...rest into Harper and racial...though you have options. avoid taking 2 enhancements that do the same thing....looking at t5 VC and core 4 in Vistani...

take quicken to help the waves go faster...flash freeze is good (when things get close and helps with the spiking), but you got to build/gear for it (it has spell resistance check on top of DC) I parted from the flash freeze in higher reaper because i couldn't get close enough without getting hit a few times...but glue bomb would replace...i like to spike the purple stance for the PRR, saves etc...lower reapers this would work great...higher reapers, i use pin and salt things with the wave and run backwards tossing daggers. i solo a lot so IPS is helpful with salting more...

if you are interested, i can share more details/feats/gear...again, it's not what you asked about...but thought i would at least share...i do play this build on my main, with past lives and all that, and it does great in R6 solo no hires, R8 with hires, and R10 in a group is no problem. The first lifer, does OK in a group in R10, but shines brighter in lower reapers...

 

[kemton]

Your split isn’t optimal but it’s not the end of the world. People do inquis builds for DPS and you need to have the gear and lives to get it to a point where you are 1 or 2 shotting the r level you run or the build feels awful. Bard and other spellcasters generally feel better in low r quests because they are easier to gear and have much superior aoe.

I definitely wouldn’t do the thrower build if you like to solo/carry on quests. Endless kiting due to even worse AoE.

 

[1Th13rteen3]

Your split isn’t optimal but it’s not the end of the world. People do inquis builds for DPS and you need to have the gear and lives to get it to a point where you are 1 or 2 shotting the r level you run or the build feels awful. Bard and other spellcasters generally feel better in low r quests because they are easier to gear and have much superior aoe.

I definitely wouldn’t do the thrower build if you like to solo/carry on quests. Endless kiting due to even worse AoE.

Leveling as thrower is super-gross. As a first lifer ive ran several thrower builds and I hated my life every time at around 15-16 when it took forever for me to kill stuff or i couldnt get decent gear drops to kill stuff. Almost permaquit on that fact alone, it literally felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall hoping for something good to happen that never did.

I shoulda listened to 90% of the community (including Strimtom) that leveling as a thrower build at any point will result in sheer sadness.

 

[YTSESoldier]

I've played 2 rog/3 art/15 alch inquis for a few lives, or 2 rog/3DH/15 alch (will need to use MT destiny for rune arms. You can get a silly amount of imbue dice with either of these and they do quite well. 41 inq 8 Harper 9 ass 6 or 11 VC, rest to flavor. I want to say I had somewhere in the realm of 35 imbue dice. The biggest problem with VCh in newer content is int trance does not grant to hit and some of the newer stuff has silly AC so you will want to stack AC debuffs. Quite fun however.

 

[Arkat]

The biggest problem with VCh in newer content is int trance does not grant to hit...

Try taking the Alchemist-only feat "Battallion Brew." It gives INT to both To Hit and to Damage while using Simple Weapons.

 

[YTSESoldier]

Try taking the Alchemist-only feat "Battallion Brew." It gives INT to both To Hit and to Damage while using Simple Weapons.

Im speaking of the trance KTA whcih only gives insightful dmg and tactics vs class based such as divine might which gives attack dmg and tactics. Battalion Brew is standard on alchy inquis