Icicle Mine Deadeye - Path of Exile 3.24

Builds that utilize Mine skill gems in Path of Exile almost always go for either the Saboteur or Trickster, but did you ever wonder if the Deadeye ascendancy class can be a great one to use as well? Yes, it can! In fact, the Icicle Mine skill gem was likely created to utilize the Deadeye to a great extent.

The Icicle Mine Deadeye has been buffed immensely in the previous league and has become a frontrunner when it comes to league starters. If you ask us, we would definitely rank this build as one of the top in terms of being effective on a budget.

While there are some nerfs to mana in Patch 3.24, this build has survived that and still works without any issues whatsoever!

So, if you are interested, read further. This is our comprehensive build guide for the Icicle Mine Deadeye in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

The Icicle Mine is a spell skill gem in Path of Exile that received one huge buff in the previous league. Back then, each detonated mine would only fire a total of four projectiles. Now, the skill fires a total of seven! That is pretty huge considering that you can set up multiple mines at once, which means that populating the screen with highly damaging projectiles is quite easy to do!

What makes this build a good league starter? Well, it can work on a minimal investment. You can use rare pieces of gear that you can craft using any essences you can find. Spam these essences until you get life, elemental resistance, and chaos resistance.

Now, if you are new to the game, Mine skills in PoE actually have an innate aura that is unique to every gem. For the Icicle Mine, in particular, the projectiles the mine produces can gain a 10% increased critical strike chance to hits against nearby enemies, up to a maximum of 500%! To maximize this, you should find as many mods that increase your critical strike multiplier wherever possible.

The chosen ascendancy class for this build is not known for its defense. Thankfully, there are certain items that can help you survive longer on the battlefield. The combo of the Rathpith Globe and Dissolution of the Flesh provides you with a ton of HP. Since you will be using mostly evasion-based gear on this build, you can roll spell suppression as an added layer of defense too!

While this build can function with rare pieces of self-found gear, you can certainly dabble in crafting to get the most out of it. Do not worry, we have a comprehensive guide for all your crafting needs.

Look for the following mods on your equipment to boost the damage of this build:

• Increased Cold Damage
• Increased Spell Damage
• Increased Projectile Damage
• Increased Elemental Damage
• Increased Mine Damage
• Increased Mine Throwing Speed
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier

Playstyle

Since you can no longer bind instant skills or actions on the left click, you have to bind Detonate Mines either on the right mouse button or on a specific hotkey. Alternatively, you can take the new Mine Mastery that says: "Detonate Mines is Triggered While You Are Moving".

That said, use Shield Charge to traverse the map in search of huge packs of monsters. Once you have found some, lay your Icicle Mines down and watch them die due to the deadly projectiles!

If you come across a monster that is tough to beat or if you face one of the pinnacle bosses in Path of Exile, then set a Bear Trap and apply the Arcanist Brand to increase the damage they take from your mines considerably.

Speaking of bosses, you can preemptively fill the area where the boss lands as soon as their entrance animation begins. Once they can be attacked, simply detonate the mines to deal huge amounts of damage right off the bat!

Ascendancy

Since Icicle Mines produce projectiles when detonated, the best ascendancy class for the job is none other than the Deadeye.

Gathering Winds increases your action speed immensely, which translates to vastly improved attack speed and movement speed. This helps you finish the entire PoE campaign so that you can get into maps as quickly as possible.

Ricochet is an amazing notable ascendancy passive skill for projectile-based skills in Path of Exile. With this node, the projectiles that are produced by your Icicle Mines can chain an additional time, causing more monsters to get hit in the process. This aids in your map-clearing speed.

Endless Munitions is a damage boost by way of increasing the mine's projectiles by two each and every time it is detonated. Thanks to this notable ascendancy passive skill, several Icicle Mines can populate the entire screen with icy projectiles in a jiffy.

The last notable ascendancy passive skill for this build is a toss-up between offense and defense. If you want this character to be a bit tanky, then you can go with Wind Ward. However, if you want to effectively kill enemies, especially rare or unique monsters, then Focal Point is a no-brainer.

With the nerf to Sniper's Mark in the 3.24 Necropolis League, however, Focal Point has just become a more appealing node to take.

Gear

A good league starter in Path of Exile is a build that can work on a budget. That is why the Icicle Mine Deadeye is something that we can recommend when it comes to a build that you can use to start a new league.

While you can craft any gear you can find using Essences, there are some unique items that you can wear that can certainly help the build in various ways.

Do not worry, in each subsection, we will provide you with the information about the possible upgrades you can take later down the line if you want to improve the capabilities of the Icicle Mine Deadeye.

Weapon

Early on in the new league, you can use any sceptre you can find. If you can get your hands on the Essence of Woe, then spam the sceptre with the said essence until you can get some good mods, most notably critical strike multiplier.

To complement that, scour the trade website for the Bitterdream. This unique sceptre contains multiple support gems in one, including Bonechill Support, Hypothermia Support, Ice Bite Support, Cold Penetration Support, Added Cold Damage, and Inspiration Support.

If you are able to grab a Bitterdream after a couple of days into the new league, you can use that for a long time. Just socket your Icicle Mine spell skill gem into this weapon along with Charged Mines Support and Minefield Support.

Once you have saved up some currency and would like to improve the damage of the build even further, then you must craft your endgame weapon using an ilvl 82+ Platinum Kris for that increased critical strike chance implicit modifier.

Basically, the idea is you spam the said rune dagger with Deafening Essence of Woe until you get some good prefixes. The rest of the steps can be found in our ultimate crafting guide.

Another weapon you could use for the Icicle Mine Deadeye is The Annihilating Light for vast amounts of elemental damage.

Shield

Early on, you can use any evasion-based shield as the crafting base. Utilize the Screaming/Shrieking Essence of Greed (Life) and spam it on the shield until you get chaos resistance, spell suppression, and elemental resistance.

The Rathpith Globe provides a ton of value to the build. The more life you have while this unique shield is equipped, the more critical strike chance and spell damage you will receive as a result.

While this shield definitely goes a long way, there is a downside wherein each use of Icicle Mine will sacrifice a small portion of your HP. Do not worry, this is fully addressed by one of the jewels that you are going to use for this build.

Body Armor

Grab any evasion-based chest armor you can find and use either Harvest Reforge Life or Essence of Greed until you get elemental resistance, spell suppression, and other useful modifiers.

Spam the body armor with Eldritch Ichors until you get "Hatred Has % Increased Aura Effect" and Eldritch Embers for "% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills".

After a couple of days into the new league, you might be able to scout the trade website for Victario's Influence. This is a cheap body armor that is perfect for Mine skills such as the Icicle Mine. Why? Because it not only grants mana reservation efficiency, but it also increases the AoE and aura effectiveness of your mines!

Ultimately, you will wear the Shroud of the Lightless. The one that comes with a couple of abyssal sockets should be relatively affordable, so you won't have any problems purchasing this body armor.

The main reason why you should transition to the Shroud of the Lightless is that it greatly increases your survivability by giving you more life and mana. This unique effect is unlocked if you put a plethora of abyss jewels on your passive tree.

Helmet

Since the Icicle Mine Deadeye is capable of landing critical strikes without a problem, there is no better helmet for the build than the Heatshiver.

Yes, it got nerfed in the previous league, but it is still the best-in-slot, especially considering that the build can inflict Freeze and Chill consistently and without a hitch.

Heatshiver

Gloves

Any evasion-based gloves will do in the early stages of a new league. Just use Essence of Greed or Harvest Reforge Life until you get elemental resistance, chaos resistance, and spell suppression.

If you can get your hands on some Lesser Eldritch Ichors, spam the gloves until you get cold exposure on hit. For the Lesser Eldritch Embers, the mod that you want is mine-throwing speed.

Bench-craft"28% Increased Damage During Any Flask Effect" to finish the crafting project.

The endgame gloves for this build are those that you can get from the Temple of Atzoatl. The gloves in question have the mod: "50% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies".

Because the endgame gloves will likely have open affix slots, simply use the Crafting Bench and Exalted Orbs to fill them up.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the gloves with Eldritch Ichors for cold exposure and Eldritch Embers for increased mine-throwing speed.

Boots

How about the boots? What can you wear during league start? Well, any evasion-based boots like the Slink Boots or Stealth Boots will do just fine. Just like the other pieces of crafted gear, use Harvest Reforge Life or Essence of Greed until you get some useful modifiers.

Later on, you should wear March of the Legion and socket your Icicle Mine (as well as its support gems) into it for maximum benefit. This is because spell skill gems in Path of Exile perform so much better at higher gem levels.

Amulet

Grab one of those attribute amulets like the Agate Amulet or Onyx Amulet and use Harvest Reforge Cold to obtain the prefix, "+1 to Level of All Cold Skill Gems".

If you have enough PoE currency, you can purchase the Replica Dragonfang's Flight, specifically one that has "+3 to Level of All Icicle Mine Gems". Additionally, this amulet increases your mana reservation efficiency, which makes Icicle Mine more comfortable to use.

Alternatively, grab an ilvl 85+ Focused Amulet and use it as a crafting base. Spam this amulet with Orb of Alteration until you get "+2 to Level of All Skill Gems".

Use a Regal Orb to turn the amulet into a rare one. Then, use an Orb of Annulment and hope that this removes the suffix that was added by the Regal Orb.

After that, bench-craft "Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers" and use Harvest Augment Cold for a 50% chance of obtaining "+2 to Level of All Cold Skill Gems".

Once you have the prefixes sorted out, put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and use Harvest Reforge Critical. Do this until you get the T1 critical strike multiplier.

Don't forget to use Unstable Catalysts to improve the critical strike mod.

No matter which amulet you end up using, do not forget to anoint it with Divine Judgement (Sepia Oil, Teal Oil, Black Oil).

Rings

To begin your PoE journey comfortably when playing the Icicle Mine Deadeye, get a couple of Coral Rings and use Harvest Reforge Life until you get some elemental resistances and attributes (if you need any).

Don't forget to bench-craft the mod, "Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost", especially after the mana nerfs that were implemented in Patch 3.24.

Once you have saved up enough PoE currency, the next ring you should get is the Nimis. The reason why you need to get one is that it makes your Icicle Mine projectiles return to you. This unique effect significantly increases the damage output of the build.

If you want to elevate the damage of the build even more, you can craft the endgame ring for cold damage builds. It uses the Opal Ring as a crafting base mainly because of its “% Increased Elemental Damage” implicit mod.

Belt

Remember the Shroud of the Lightless? It increases your chances of survival the more abyssal jewels you put on your passive tree. And, what better way to complement that than to wear the Stygian Vise?

Spam the Stygian Vise with Essence of Zeal (Mine Throwing Speed) until you get life, elemental resistance, and mana. If you want to take things a step further, get an ilvl 83+ Redeemer-influenced Stygian Vise and spam it with the said essence until you get T1 “% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies.”

The process is the same when crafting the Stygian Vise for the early game. Essence of Zeal is mandatory due to the increased trap and mine-throwing speed. Spam the said essence until you get the stats that you need.

Flasks

• Diamond Flask
• Jade Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Atziri's Promise/Bottled Faith
• Enduring Eternal Mana Flask

The build already has an insanely high critical strike chance. However, you do not want to leave it to chance, right? You want to make sure that each projectile produced by your Icicle Mine lands as critical hits to the enemy. For this reason, you will use the Diamond Flask.

Since you are wearing mostly evasion-based gear, you should boost that specific layer of defense by using a Jade Flask.

Quicksilver Flask is just a means of increasing your movement speed. Although positioning is not really mandatory on this build, having more move speed is still a welcome bonus.

Because mine skills in PoE reserve a portion of your mana while they are deployed on the battlefield, you might run into mana issues as a result. Fortunately, you can use an Eternal Mana Flask with the “Enduring” prefix so that the recovery effect is still active even if unreserved mana is filled.

As for the unique flasks, Atziri's Promise grants extra chaos damage. This is a pretty inexpensive flask that you can purchase even on day one of a new league.

The other viable unique flask for the Icicle Mine Deadeye is the Bottled Faith. This flask creates a Consecrated Ground that makes enemies that step on it take increased damage.

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)
• 55% increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• 14% increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• Corrupted Blood Immunity (Mana Flask)

Jewels

If you are going to equip the Rathpith Globe, you should also use the Dissolution of the Flesh along with it. This unique jewel not only grants you a ton of HP but it addresses the downside of the said shield every time you deploy the Icicle Mine as well.

The Thread of Hope (Small Ring) allows you to take several notable passive skills without spending a lot of points. These passives are:

• Glacial Cage

  • Enemies Permanently Take 1% Increased Damage for Each Second They've Ever Been Chilled by You, Up to a Maximum of 10%

• Winter's Embrace

  • 60% Increased Freeze Duration on Enemies
  • 30% Increased Damage if You've Shattered an Enemy Recently

• Throatseeker

  • +30% to Critical Strike Multiplier

• Arcane Sanctuary

  • 30% Increased Spell Damage While Holding a Shield
  • 30% Reduced Elemental Ailment Duration on You While Holding a Shield

• Whispers of Doom

  • You Can Apply an Additional Curse

Grab a Medium Cluster Jewel (Trap and Mine Damage) and use Harvest Reforge Speed until you get these notable passive skills:

• Expert Sabotage

  • Mines Have 20% Increased Detonation Speed
  • Mines Have a 10% Chance to be Detonated an Additional Time

• Guerilla Tactics

  • 20% Increased Trap/Mine Damage
  • 10% Increased Trap/Mine Throwing Speed
  • 5% Increased Movement Speed if you've Thrown a Trap or Mine Recently

After that, just populate your remaining sockets with abyssal jewels to take advantage of the Shroud of the Lightless' unique effect. Here are some of the mods to look for:

• Adds Cold Damage to Spells
• +% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• + to Maximum Life
• % Increased Global Critical Strike Chance
• +% to Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistances

Gems

The gems that you are going to use for the Icicle Mine Deadeye presupposes that you have March of the Legion equipped. Otherwise, your main skill will be slotted into the body armor.

Boots

• Icicle Mine
• Trap and Mine Damage
• Minefield Support
• Charged Mines Support

Remember what we said about spell skill gems in Path of Exile becoming so much better at higher gem levels? Well, March of the Legion raises the gem level of Icicle Mine by four. It does this because when you look at the gem's advanced info (by pressing the Alt key), you will find that it has the "aura" tag on it.

Anyway, Trap and Mine Damage is pretty self-explanatory. This support gem significantly increases the damage of your Icicle Mine at the cost of a slightly slower mine-throwing speed.

Minefield Support is awesome because you throw up to four additional mines in just a single cast. Although this reduces your mine-throwing speed considerably, you can address that by inserting some base jewels with the said mod on your passive tree.

Charged Mines Support enables you to generate Frenzy and Power Charges when any of the projectiles created by Icicle Mine hits an enemy. What's more, you gain up to 30% increased mine-throwing speed thanks to the Frenzy Charges!

Body Armor (if Using March of the Legion)

• Divine Blessing
• Zealotry
• Frostblink
• Immortal Call (Lvl 2)
• Cast When Damage Taken Support (lvl 1)
• Increased Duration Support

Because the Breaker of Oaths NPC has been removed from the game in Patch 3.24, you no longer have access to the Dark Marionette. This means that you cannot use Guardian's Blessing since there is currently no Spectre you can summon in the game that resurrects itself automatically upon death.

For this reason, instead of using Guardian's Blessing to activate Zealotry, you will replace it with Divine Blessing. This makes it so that any aura you link the support gem to acts as a temporary buff that you can activate anytime. Sure, the buff that you get only lasts for a short duration, but it is more than enough to kill any monster you come across in PoE.

Anyway, the aura that you are going to use here is Zealotry. This aura gives you a boost in spell crit chance, as well as spell damage.

Frostblink has been buffed in the Necropolis League, where its effectiveness of added damage has been increased considerably. That is why we now recommend this over Flame Dash as your secondary travel skill.

Immortal Call is a guard skill that helps you survive enemy attacks. This is done by reducing the physical damage, as well as elemental damage, you take. Immortal Call is linked with CWDT so that it activates automatically after receiving damage.

Body Armor (if NOT Using March of the Legion)

• Icicle Mine
• Hypothermia Support
• Trap and Mine Damage
• Charged Mines Support
• Awakened Cold Penetration
• Inspiration Support

Gloves

• Hatred
• Precision
• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks Support

Hatred is a common aura used in cold damage-dealing builds like the Icicle Mine Deadeye, so its inclusion here is mandatory to get the most out of the build. Precision is another aura that grants more critical strike chance. The level of the Precision gem depends on the mana you have left after reserving your mines, so just adjust accordingly.

Shield Charge linked with Faster Attacks Support is a combo that is typical among shield-wearing builds in PoE. Utilize this skill to traverse the map quickly.

Helmet

• Sniper's Mark
• Tornado
• Arcanist Brand
• Culling Strike Support

Tornado and Sniper's Mark will automatically be cast by Arcanist Brand. Use Arcanist Brand whenever you are fighting tough enemies like bosses or unique monsters.

Despite the heavy nerfs to Sniper's Mark in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, it is still the only Mark skill that is perfect for this build.

In addition, Tornado and your Icicle Mine projectiles can actually interact with each other. You see, Tornado soaks up projectiles and reflects a portion of their total damage back to nearby monsters.

Furthermore, enemies that are below 10% of their maximum life are instantly killed by the Tornado thanks to Culling Strike Support.

Weapon

• Summon Skitterbots
• Unbound Ailments Support
• Bonechill Support

Summon Skitterbots are pretty useful for mine builds in PoE. That is because they can detonate some of your mines for you. Mines that have been detonated this way will be re-armed, so they can be used a second time. Aside from that, the Skitterbots can inflict Shock and Chill on your enemies, causing them to be slowed down and take increased damage from all sources as well.

Now, Unbound Ailments and Bonechill Support effectively increase the chill effectiveness of your Summon Skitterbots. This leads to more Icicle Mine damage simply because of the “% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies” on your gloves and belt (assuming that you have this mod on them).

Shield

• Bear Trap
• Enhance Support
• Detonate Mines

Bear Trap should be used in conjunction with Arcanist Brand, especially against tough enemies and bosses. This is so that they take increased damage from your Icicle Mine projectiles.

Raising the quality of the Bear Trap gem increases its duration by up to one second at 20%. You want to improve that even more, which is why you are slotting in Enhance Support as well.

Tattoos

It is a bummer that GGG did not spare the secondary ascendancy classes from the previous league. Although it is sad to see them go, the good news is that the Tattoos are back; at least, some of them. Anyway, here are the Tattoos that we recommend for the Icicle Mine Deadeye:

• Tattoo of the Arohongui Warrior

  • 5% Increased Cold Damage

• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper

  • 5% Increased Projectile Speed

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout

  • 4% Increased Effect

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller

  • +3% to Chaos Resistance

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot

  • 2% Increased Movement Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

Expensive Setup (with The Annihilating Light)

Final Thoughts

The Icicle Mine Deadeye is an incredible league starter that is capable of dealing huge amounts of damage on a budget. While it can work on self-crafted gear, there are some items that you can purchase later down the line as suitable upgrades.

For example, acquiring the Nimis effectively increases your total damage output due to the returning projectiles. Of course, crafting the endgame items certainly goes a long way. If you need guidance on this matter, we recommend that you bookmark our ultimate crafting guide.

Even though a lot of builds in Path of Exile have been impacted by the mana nerfs implemented in Patch 3.24 Necropolis League, this build has survived without any issues whatsoever!

You can use this build to farm a ton of PoE currency in the first couple of weeks into the new league. Once you have enough, you can start buying the upgrades outlined in the build guide.

Although this is a great mapping build, it is not specifically meant for bossing. This is not to say that it cannot take them down, but what we meant by that statement is that you’ll have to invest in better gear to make this build comfortable to use as a boss killer.

So, if you are looking for a pretty good league starter, then the Icicle Mine Deadeye is definitely a top contender!

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Great league starter

+Used to farm a ton of currency early on

+Can function with self-found gear

+Is able to eliminate enemies on a budget

+You can feel its power as soon as you get the right pieces of gear

+Still works great in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Survivability leaves much to be desired

-Needs a higher investment to turn it into a comfortable boss killer

-Some upgrades are a bit expensive