Hexblast Mines Saboteur Build Guide - Path of Exile 3.24

The Hexblast Mines Saboteur is one of the builds in Path of Exile that you can actually start a new league with. Its main attraction is that it can deal huge amounts of damage with very little investment. What's more, the endgame weapon can be crafted easily by utilizing a few fossils.

In this build guide, you will learn how to create a competent Hexblast Mines Saboteur! You'll also be taught how to craft certain pieces of gear so that you can have a fun time playing this build in PoE!

Basics

As you can tell by the name, this build utilizes Hexblast as its main damaging skill. By itself, Hexblast consumes the hex curse on the enemy to cause a massive explosion that deals chaos damage.

Although Hexblast gained two Transfigured Gems in Patch 3.23 Affliction League, the base version is still the best among all of them.

Hexblast is a clunky spell to use. Fortunately, it can be linked to High-Impact Mine Support to essentially make it a Mine Skill. There are a couple of advantages to doing this.

First, linking Hexblast to High-Impact Mine allows you to bypass the inherent 1-second cast time of the said spell. Second, because Hexblast has now become a Mine Skill, you can actually set up to 23 mines (minimum of 15 at a time) before detonating, causing a chain of damaging explosions that can destroy even the toughest bosses in Path of Exile!

In addition, when you press the Alt key on High-Impact Mine, you will find that it has an "aura" tag on it. Well, the aura portion of this support gem refers to the line, "Each mine from supported skills applies a 2% chance to deal double damage to hits against enemies near it, up to a maximum of 100%". It has a base radius of 35 units, though you can scale this with "increased area of effect" mods.

In 3.24 Necropolis League, High-Impact Mine Support remained unchanged. This means that the gem still does not provide you with more mine-throwing speed, but it gives your Hexblast Mines a bit more damage instead. This can easily be rectified by adding more mine-throwing speed mods via base jewels or by removing Trap and Mine Damage Support if you are using this support gem.

While it is a fun concept, High-Impact Mine Support has a notable downside in that each mine you deploy on the battlefield has a base mana reservation requirement. Fortunately, you can deal with this by adding more mana modifiers on your gear and passive tree.

Anyway, there's something interesting about Hexblast that you need to know about. This skill deals chaos damage, right? However, the way it scales damage is calculated by the lowest resistance the enemy has instead of its inherent chaos resistance. For this reason, you'd want to use curses that reduce the target's elemental resistance.

You could use Frostbite or Flammability to reduce the monster's cold and fire resistance, respectively. Furthermore, you'd want to include Exposure into the build that matches the hex curse you have chosen to further decrease the target's elemental resistance. For instance, if you use Frostbite, you have to pair it with Cold Exposure as well.

The damage of this build can be improved with these modifiers:

• Increased Chaos Damage
• Increased Mine Damage
• Increased Spell Damage
• Increased Damage
• Increased Area Damage
• Increased Critical Strike Multiplier
• Spell Critical Strike Chance
• Elemental Exposure (Must be the same as your chosen curse spell)

Put "increased mine throwing speed" mods on your equipment wherever possible. This is not only to improve quality of life, but it also helps you lay out the Mines faster. In the endgame, raise your critical strike chance for more damage. This can be done through the mods on your gear, Power Charges, and the unique helmet Sandstorm Visage.

Spell skill gems in the game, such as Hexblast, scale really well with gem levels. That's why you should aim to corrupt a level 20 Hexblast gem with a Vaal Orb for a chance to increase it to level 21. Items that have "+1 to level of Chaos Spell Skill Gems" and "+1 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems" are highly desirable too!

When you have enough currency, purchase the Rathpith Globe unique spirit shield and Dissolution of the Flesh jewel for insane damage and survivability. But, a budget spirit shield that you craft using essences can be used in the meantime.

Playstyle

Now, it is worth noting that there is a slight change in the playstyle of this build in Patch 3.24. Since you can no longer bind instant actions on the left click, it means that you'd have to press the right mouse button or any other hotkey to detonate your mines.

If that is a bit cumbersome for you, you could take the new Mine Mastery that reads: "Detonate Mines is Triggered While You are Moving".

In Path of Exile, the Mines that you have deployed will explode in a sequence, so long as they're in close proximity to each other. Therefore, to deal immense damage to your enemies, you can bunch the Mines up together before detonating.

To make this build feel more comfortable to play, you have to stack as many mods that increase your mine-throwing speed as possible. This can be in the form of support gems, jewels, and some pieces of gear.

Ascendancy

To utilize Hexblast Mines in the best way possible, the ascendancy class of choice is the Saboteur. This class got reworked in Patch 3.21 and many players love the changes GGG has made to it. For example, you can now take Demolitions Specialist after completing the first labyrinth as it no longer requires you to path through Bomb Specialist.

Speaking of which, Demolitions Specialist increases the aura effect of your Hexblast Mines by 150%. On top of that, your Mines are granted the ability to hinder nearby enemies, reducing the movement speed of those that are affected by 30%. This is quite huge because you can see how insane this build is in terms of damage output as early as level 33! 

For your second ascendancy passive, you will take Born in the Shadows during league start. This enables you to blind nearby enemies, which helps you survive through the campaign. Not only that but Born in the Shadows toughens you up, making you take 15% reduced damage from blinded foes. In the endgame, you should replace this with Bomb Specialist for more area damage. Only do this if you are comfortable enough with your current level of survivability.

Upon completion of the third labyrinth, you can take Pyromaniac. This allows you to regenerate up to 10% of your life per second so long as you're detonating Mines. Furthermore, taking this makes you immune to Shock and Ignite. Being immune to these elemental ailments helps you last longer on the battlefield because they can be quite dangerous, especially in red maps.

The final ascendancy passive you should take is Explosives Expert. This gives you the following bonuses:

• Damage Penetrates 10% Elemental Resistances against Chilled Enemies
• +40% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Burning Enemies
• 80% increased Critical Strike Chance against Shocked Enemies

Do not worry, Hexblast allows you to consistently inflict chill, shock, and ignite to your enemies, meaning you always take advantage of the benefits this ascendancy notable passive provides!

As you can see, the Saboteur is the perfect ascendancy class to choose if you want to maximize your Hexblast Mines. You get good damage bonuses with Demolitions Expert and Explosives Expert. You also gain some tankiness thanks to Born in the Shadows and Pyromaniac. If you want more damage, you have the option of replacing Born in the Shadows with Bomb Specialist later down the line. Additionally, the small nodes that connect to the notable passives just mentioned improve your mine-throwing speed and your Mines’ area of effect.

Gear

The Hexblast Mines Saboteur is appealing to use in Path of Exile mainly because the pieces of gear necessary for this build to work are very affordable. Besides that, you can craft some of them, allowing you to make something special.

Weapon

The main weapon of choice for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur is a rare Prophecy Wand with an item level of 82. The reason why you want it to only be at that level is so that certain mods do not appear during crafting. An ilvl 82 wand can only roll three prefixes when you use a special combination of fossils: "% Increased Spell Damage", "+1 to Level of all Chaos Spell Skill Gems" and "+1 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems". You only need to concern yourself with the last two. You can farm ilvl 82 wands from T13 maps.

Anyway, the fossils you're going to use to craft the wand are Metallic, Shuddering, and Corroded. With this combination, you effectively eliminate physical, elemental, and other modifiers that do not benefit the build from ever appearing. Insert these three into a Powerful Chaotic Resonator. All of these can be purchased from Niko for some Azurite. Alternatively, you can buy them from players at the cost of some Chaos Orbs (or Divine Orbs if you intend to buy them in bulk).

If you want to have an easy time crafting the endgame wand, you can purchase the base weapon from the trade website with a fractured suffix on it, preferably a Tier 1 (T1) or Tier 2 (T2) "% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier".

When you have the necessary items, here are the steps to crafting the wand:

1. Increase the quality of the wand to 20% using Blacksmith's Whetstones. If you have the currency, you can apply Perfect Fossils (inserted into a Primitive Chaotic Resonator) to increase its quality to 28% or above
2. Next, spam the wand with the combination of Metallic, Shuddering, and Corroded Fossils until you get +1 to Level of All Chaos Spell Skill Gems and "+1 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems" You can go a step further by using this combination to obtain a "% Increased Spell Damage" mod, preferably Tier 2
3. Once you get the desired affixes, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" followed by an Orb of Scouring. This is to remove any suffixes that pop up during Fossil Crafting. Once this is done, relock the prefixes again and proceed with the next step
4. For the next step, use Harvest Augment Critical until you get T1 "+% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier". Lock the prefixes again after doing this
5. Use a Veiled Orb so that you will get a veiled suffix. This is a new PoE currency that replaces the Aisling veiled mod in the previous leagues
6. Now, before you go to Jun to unveil the mod, head to your Crafting Bench and put "3% Increased Damage per Power/Frenzy/Endurance Charge" This is so that you can block some modifiers from appearing during the unveiling process
7. With that out of the way, head to Jun and unveil the suffix mod. The modifier you're aiming for is "+ to Strength and Intelligence/% Increased Critical Strike Chance."
8. To finish the wand, go back to the Crafting Bench and put "15% Mine Throwing Speed"

Crafting the endgame weapon is quite easy because the plus one to level of spell skill gems prefix has a 1-in-12 chance of appearing when using the specific combination of fossils mentioned above.

The Prophecy Wand is the perfect wand to use for your endgame weapon because of its high spell damage implicit. But more importantly, the wand's 8% base critical strike chance scales really well with Sandstorm Visage, which will be discussed later in the build guide.

If you don't want to do crafting, you can use the Void Battery instead. Do not be discouraged by its "80% Reduced Spell Damage" mod because you can actually circumvent that by stacking as many Power Charges in the build as you can.

Speaking of which, this unique Prophecy Wand raises your Power Charge limit by one. Furthermore, you gain 25% increased spell damage per Power Charge, so if you go beyond six, then you have effectively resolved the weapon's downside.

Additionally, the "(50-65)% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance" mod it provides is just too hard to pass up, especially considering that the wand is relatively inexpensive to get. You can even buy one in the first couple of weeks into the league!

Shield

When you are still putting all of the pieces together, you can use your Harvest Bench (Horticrafting Station) to create your starter shield for this build. Basically, get a Chiming Spirit Shield or Titanium Spirit Shield and use Harvest Reforge Chaos until you get “+1 to Level of All Chaos Spell Skill Gems.” If you have a lot of Vivid Crystallized Lifeforce (yellow), you can continue rolling the shield until you get a decent “% Increased Spell Damage” roll and some life.

The Rathpith Globe unique Titanium Spirit Shield provides a ton of good mods, though this is only best when paired with Dissolution of the Flesh. Until you can get your hands on the said jewel, you should be using a self-crafted shield that should take you well into the endgame. In fact, if you do not like the Rathpith Globe, this crafted shield is a viable alternative indeed.

To craft it, get an item level 85+ Titanium Spirit Shield with a Tier 1 or Tier 2 fractured "% Increased Spell Damage" prefix. Then, spam it with Deafening Essence of Greed until you get at least Tier 2 "% Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells". Other desirable mods that you'd want on the shield are:

• + to Maximum Mana
• + to Intelligence
• Chaos Resistance
• Elemental Resistance
• Chance to Block

If you have an open prefix, put "+ to Maximum Life" from the Crafting Bench. If you have an open suffix, insert any resistances you have trouble capping to 75%, and be done with it.

Another interesting spirit shield you can use is Malachai's Loop. This unique Harmonic Spirit Shield increases your maximum Power Charges by two, effectively raising your critical strike chance. However, what makes it quite appealing is its unique effect, where you gain up to 16% increased spell damage per Power Charge. This means that if you have a total of six, you will get a 96% boost!

Now, you might have shied away from using this shield in the past because of its downside, where you lose all Power Charges once you reach your limit. But, this can be circumvented by the newly updated Ralakesh's Impatience. These particular boots and their interaction with Malachai's Loop will be discussed later in the build guide.

Body Armor

The body armor for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur is pretty flexible. There are several unique armors that you can use for this build. They are Cloak of Flame, Dialla's Malefaction, Icetomb, and The Covenant.

Cloak of Flame is a unique Scholar's Robethat is great as a defensive option. That's because of its unique effect where 40% of the physical damage you take is converted to fire. This is compensated by the armor's high fire resistance roll. Other goodies that the Cloak of Flame provides include increased ignite duration on enemies and melee attackers taking 100 fire damage when they hit you.

Dialla's Malefaction is another viable armor for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur. The main draw of this unique Sage's Robe is that you can insert any gems without worrying about having blue sockets. This is a great choice early on because you do not need Chromatic Orbs just to get the right colors. If anything, gems that are inserted here are granted bonuses depending on what colored socket you put them into. Ideally, you'd want to have as many red-colored sockets as possible for that +2 to gem level. Green sockets are also desirable for their +30% to quality of socketed gems.

Icetomb is a unique Latticed Ringmail that gives up to 40 STR and INT, which is very helpful considering that most of your gems have a high INT requirement. This is more of a defensive body armor because you are immune to being chilled when you wear it. On top of that, the Icetomb grants you the ability to reliably freeze enemies when they hit you. Although the freeze duration is just one second, this is still a very good thing in terms of survivability.

The Covenant, while viable for this build, is kind of a double-edged sword. You see, the gems socketed into this unique Spidersilk Robe are supported by level 29 Added Chaos Damage. With this mod, you have a huge boost in damage! However, there is a downside to this in that your Hexblast Mines cost HP to cast, which is equal to 100% of their base mana cost. In other words, you take damage when using your main attack skill. To counter this, you may use the Dissolution of the Flesh, but then it would make the build more expensive as a result.

These unique armors are so cheap that you can try and corrupt them with Vaal Orbs for some really amazing implicit modifiers. Here are the corrupted mods worth getting:

• +1 to Level of Socketed Gems
• +2 to Level of Trap/Mine Gems
• +2 to level of AoE Gems
• 40-50% Damage

If you don't mind crafting your own, you can use a Sacrificial Garb as a base. This can be acquired from Atziri, Queen of the Vaal. You can face her by putting all four Sacrifice Fragments on your map device (Sacrifice at Dusk, Sacrifice at Noon, Sacrifice at Dawn, Sacrifice at Midnight).

The Sacrificial Garb is a good crafting base because it grants all three defensive layers: armor, evasion, and energy shield. Want to roll spell suppression chance? That is possible with this body armor as well!

Having said that, here are the steps to crafting this rare body armor:

1. Acquire a Sacrificial Garb with an item level of 86+ to roll Tier 1 Spell Suppression
2. Next, spam it with your favorite essences until you get T1 Spell Suppression. Our recommendation would be the Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance), but you can use any other Essence so long as it guarantees suffixes
3. When you're happy with the mods and you have an open prefix, head to your Crafting Bench and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" followed by an Orb of Scouring to clean the prefixes. Lock the suffixes again after doing so and proceed with the next step
4. Bench-craft Chance to Block Attack Damage and head to Jun to unveil. You are looking for the mod "10% Increased Maximum Life/Mana"
5. Go to the Crafting Bench again and put "6% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Lightning Damage"
6. If you have any open slots left, you can use an Exalted Orb to fill them up

Helmet

One of the best helmets for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur is the Sandstorm Visage. This thing has a unique effect where the base critical strike chance of your Hexblast is equal to that of your main hand weapon.

Remember the crafted weapon earlier? The Prophecy Wand has a base crit of 8%, which scales mightily with Sandstorm Visage. That is why you need to craft it as soon as you can. When you have other sources that scale critical strike chance, you will reach 100% without a hitch!

With the Forbidden Sanctum now part of the core game, you can slay Lycia, Herald of the Scourge for a chance to obtain the Sandstorm Visage. If you want to take it a step further, you can get a corrupted one with "+1 to Maximum Power Charges" as the said mod will really help the build immensely.

The Sandstorm Visage is actually enough for the build to work well. However, if you want to take things up a notch, you can go for a crafted helmet that further improves your spell critical strike chance. To craft it, you must do the following:

1. Get a Shaper-influenced Royal Burgonet (Armor) or Praetor Crown (Armor/Energy Shield) with an item level of 84+. You'll also need some Essence of Hysteria to guarantee the mod, "Socketed Gems Deal 30% More Damage While on Low Life"
2. Spam the helmet with Essence of Hysteria until you get "Socketed Gems are Supported by (Level 16/18/20) Hypothermia/(8-12%) Increased Effect of Cold Ailments"
3. You need to have one open prefix and suffix, so may have to use an Orb of Annulment to remove some extra modifiers. If you get unlucky and you've annulled the Hypothermia mod, repeat step 2
4. When you have both slots open, head to your Crafting Bench and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed"
5. After that, go to your Harvest Bench and select the Reforge Crit option. Doing this guarantees a crit mod on the suffix. The modifier that you want to get is "Socketed Spells Have +3% to Critical Strike Chance". If all goes well, proceed to the next step. If not, repeat step 4
6. When you have all of the suffixes mentioned above, it is now time to put a veiled mod. To do this, put Suffixes Cannot Be Changed from your Crafting Bench and use a Veiled Orb
7. Before you unveil the mod, head to the Crafting Bench again to put "% Additional Physical Damage Reduction While Focused". This is done to block the said mod from appearing on the list
8. Then, the moment of truth! Go to Jun to unveil the mod. You're hoping to get the "+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems/10% increased Area of Effect" suffix. If it doesn't appear when you unveil the helmet, repeat step 6
9. If all goes according to plan, go back to your Crafting Bench once more then craft "+70 to Maximum Life"
10. You still have an open prefix, so you use an Exalted Orb for that. Who knows, you may even get another Shaper mod, such as "Socketed Gems Are Supported by (Level 16/18/20) Increased Area of Effect/(10-12%) Increased Area of Effect"

After completing all of the steps, you should have something like this:

Take note that if you have crafted the rare helmet successfully, your Hexblast setup will be inserted into this particular piece of gear instead of the body armor. More on this in the gems section of the build guide.

During league start, you can use whatever essences you can grab your hands on and use a DEX or DEX/INT-based helmet as a crafting base. Prioritize elemental resistance, life, mana, spell suppression, and chaos resistance.

Gloves

Because Kaom's Spirit got nerfed heavily in 3.23 Affliction League, especially for builds that do not put a heavy investment on life regeneration, these unique Titan Gauntlets are no longer great to use for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur. For this reason, you will have to equip a self-crafted pair of gloves.

That said, for the budget option, you can craft your starter gloves by using any essences of your choosing. Use Dragonscale Gauntlets if you want a pure evasion base or the Murder Mitts if you want an energy shield/evasion hybrid. Either way, you need a pair of DEX gloves in order to roll the spell suppression suffix.

For the essence, you can use Screaming/Shrieking Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) or Essence of Greed (Life). Spam these on the gloves until you get some resistances and some evasion/energy shield. Leave a prefix open so that you can put either life (if the gloves don't have it yet) or "28% Increased Damage During Flask Effect"

When it comes to the implicit modifiers, this is where you will use Eldritch Currencies to get fire/cold exposure, as well as unnerve. Spam the gloves with Eldritch Ichors for the exposure mod and use Eldritch Embers for the unnerve implicit.

When you have the currency, you can replace your starter gloves with a pair of rare gloves that have the suffix, "% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies/% Cold Resistance". This is what most players would go for, especially when it comes to the endgame gear.

That being said, how do you craft this pair of gloves? Follow these steps:

1. Get a pair of rare gloves from The Temple of Atzoatl with the aforementioned mod, preferably something evasion-based like the Dragonscale Gauntlets or Stealth Gloves, though Murder Mitts works if you want some energy shield as well. This is so that you have a chance of obtaining the suffix, "% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage"
2. After acquiring one and you're happy with the suffixes, you can go to the Crafting Bench to put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed". This presupposes that you have an open prefix slot. If not, use an Orb of Annulment until you get one
3. Then, use a Veiled Orb on it. Before you unveil, go to your Crafting Bench and put "% Additional Physical Damage Reduction While Focused"
4. Unveil the gloves and hope that you get the prefix, "+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems/10% Increased Area of Effect". If unsuccessful, repeat steps 2 and 3
5. If you've successfully acquired the said mod, go to your Crafting Bench and put "+70 to Maximum Life"
6. You still have an open prefix at this point, so use an Exalted Orb to fill it up. You just have to settle with whatever pops up because you already have the mods that you need
7. The final step requires you to use Eldritch Ichors for "Inflict Fire/Cold Exposure on Hit, Applying -% to Fire/Cold Resistance". Spam the gloves with Eldritch Embers for "% Chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit" or "% Increased Mine Throwing Speed"

Keep in mind that the elemental exposure you're going to settle with has to match your preferred hex curse. So, if you have Frostbite in your setup, get Cold Exposure. Conversely, obtain Fire Exposure when you use Flammability.

Now, if you've managed to fracture the chilled mod using a Fractured Orb, you can utilize Deafening Essence of Greed (HP) or Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) instead. Spam this on the gloves until you get a T1/T2 chance to suppress spell damage and other useful mods, including:

• Fire/Lightning Resistance
• Regenerate Life per Second
• Increased Armor/Evasion/Energy Shield (depends on the base gloves)
• Chaos Resistance (if using Deafening Essence of Greed)
• 28% Increased Damage During Any Flask Effect (Bench Craft)
• +1 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems/% Increased Area of Effect (Bench Craft)

Boots

Spell suppression is a defensive layer that you want to include in the build. If you have a 100% chance to suppress spell damage, you only take 50% damage from spells. One of the pieces of gear that you can get that mod from is the boots. Hence, you'll have to craft them yourself.

The easiest way is to get a pair of rare Slink Boots (pure evasion) or Murder Boots (Evasion/Energy Shield) with an item level of 85+. Then, use Essence of Envy for that guaranteed chaos resistance suffix until you get T1 spell suppression. If the resulting pair of boots does not have a movement speed mod, you can go to your Crafting Bench to put "20% Movement Speed/% Increased Movement Speed if You Haven't Been Hit Recently" and call it a day.

However, if you want to craft your endgame pair of boots, be sure to follow these instructions to the tee:

1. Spam the boots with Deafening Essence of Envy until you get T1 spell suppression
2. If you're happy with the suffixes, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed"
3. Make sure that there is an open prefix because you will be adding a veiled modifier. Now, if you are happy with your other prefixes, you can proceed with the Veiled Orb. Otherwise, use an Orb of Scouring first then relock your suffixes after
4. Before unveiling the mod, head back to your Crafting Bench and put "+ to Maximum Mana"
5. Then, go to Jun and hope that you get the elevated version of the movement speed mod mentioned earlier
6. After that, return to the Crafting Bench and put "+70 to Maximum Life"
7. If you still have an open prefix, use an Exalted Orb
8. For implicit modifiers, use Eldritch Ichors to obtain "% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments" and Eldritch Embers for "% Increased Action Speed"

Now, if you have read the "Shield" section of this build guide, you will know that Ralakesh's Impatience is a very good substitute for the self-crafted boots, particularly when using Malachai's Loop.

That is because when you equip this unique pair of Riveted Boots, you count as having your maximum number of Endurance/Frenzy/Power Charges. This means that the boots effectively remove the downside of Malachai's Loop since you always have the effect of your maximum Power Charges. Because of this, you gain a significant boost in spell damage at all times, so long as you're wearing the combo of Ralakesh's Impatience and Malachai's Loop.

Even though Ralakesh's Impatience got a movement speed nerf in Patch 3.24, it is still an amazing pair of boots for what they provide.

Rings

To make sure that you deal the most amount of damage with your Hexblast Mines, you need to have a reliable way to put curses on enemies. That is why you need to craft a rare ring with the mod, "Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit". This is actually easy to do.

Get yourself an item level 80+ Hunter-influenced ring. This allows you to roll the particular mod mentioned above. As to what ring you'll use as a crafting base, the choice is entirely up to you. Some suggestions include the Amethyst Ring (Chaos Resistance), Iolite Ring (Chaos Damage), Two-Stone Ring (elemental resistance), and the Vermillion Ring (for % to maximum life).

Once you've chosen a ring as a crafting base, there are two ways to get the said mod. The first and easiest is to go to your Harvest Bench and then select Reforge Caster. You just do this several times until "Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit" appears.

The second is a bit harder as it requires more RNG. However, the good thing about this next method is that you can use it to get better mods along with the curse suffix. Basically, you spam the ring with your favorite essence until you get the curse on hit mod. Since you'll need a lot of INT to equip the support gems for this build, you may want to use Deafening Essence of Spite to guarantee an INT roll on the ring. No matter what essence you're going to use, just make sure to leave a prefix slot open. That is so you can put the mod, "Non-Channeling Skills have a -7 to Total Mana Cost".

The other affixes that you can add to your crafted rare ring are:

• + to Maximum Life
• + to Maximum Mana
• % Chaos Resistance
• + to Strength

To finish the craft, you can use Fertile Catalysts to improve the mana cost reduction of non-channelling skills to 8%.

For the other ring slot, you will need the Profane Proxy unique Unset Ring. This thing provides you with a hefty boost to your cold and lightning resistance. But, the main reason why you'd want to wear it is that if you put it in the right ring slot, your Shocking Skitterbot’s aura is replaced by any hex curse of your choosing. On top of that, the socketed curse gem gains three levels, making it more potent than putting it elsewhere in your gear.

Since you already have Elemental Weakness on your self-crafted ring, you should use either Frostbite or Flammability on Profane Proxy with its matching Exposure debuff on the gloves.

If you're finding it hard to cap your resistances, you can use 20 Prismatic Catalysts on Profane Proxy to raise its cold and lightning resistance values.

Amulet

There are two great amulets that you can equip for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur. The first is the Replica Dragonfang's Flight, specifically one that increases the level of all Hexblast Gems by three. With the nerf to Ashes of the Stars, this is the best unique amulet that you can use for the build primarily because of its increased mana reservation efficiency of skills.

The second-best amulet is a crafted rare amulet with the mods, "+1 to level of All Skill Gems" and "+1 to Level of all Chaos Skill Gems". The crafting process is a bit lengthy, but just follow these instructions step-by-step and you should be able to create one yourself:

1. Acquire an ilvl 83+ Agate Amulet for that Strength and Intelligence implicit modifier
2. Next, use an Orb of Scouring to turn the amulet into a white (normal) item, and then an Orb of Transmutation to transform it into a blue (magic) amulet
3. At this point, you want to spam the amulet with Orb of Alteration until you get "+1 to Level of All Skill Gems". The odds of obtaining this is 1 in 2,000.
4. Once you've rolled the said mod on the amulet, make sure that there is no other affix present. Next, use a Regal Orb to turn the blue item into a yellow (rare) one. This results in a suffix, use an Orb of Annulment to remove it
5. After that, head to the Crafting Bench and put these mods in the exact order: Can Have up to 3 Modifiers (aka multi-mod), Prefixes Cannot Be Changed, and Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers
6. Next, go to your Harvest Bench and then choose the "Add a new Chaos modifier - " option. Doing this guarantees the mod "+1 to Level of All Chaos Skill Gems"
7. Now, if "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" or "Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers" have been removed, then all you need to do is add the other mods that you want. You can put any of these:
   1. % Increased Chaos Damage
   2. % Increased Mine Throwing Speed
   3. Chaos/Elemental Resistance
   4. % to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
   5. + to Maximum Life
   6. + to Maximum Mana
8. If "Can Have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers" was deleted during the augment, you can remove all crafted modifiers first and then add multi-mod again. Then, put the affixes you want from the Crafting Bench as stated above
9. Any open affixes you have left can be filled with Exalted Orbs

When you equip Ralakesh's Impatience, you could also opt for the Badge of Brotherhood for the Hexblast Mines Saboteur. This unique Turquoise Amulet makes your maximum Frenzy Charges equal to your maximum Power Charges. This is actually a huge boost in damage, especially if you stack as many Power Charges as you can.

No matter which amulet you choose, you should always put a suitable anointment to make it even better. Here are our recommendations:

• Whispers of Doom

  • You Can Apply an Additional Curse
  • Only get this if you did not allocate it on the passive tree
  • Requires 3x Golden Oils

• Prodigal Perfection

  • 20% Increased Maximum Mana
  • 2% Increased Spell Damage per 100 Maximum Mana, up to 40%
  • Requires Clear Oil and 2x Azure Oils

• Overcharge

  • +1 to Maximum Power Charges
  • Requires Crimson Oil, Black Oil, and Silver Oil

• Charisma

  • 16% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
  • 6% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills
  • Requires Opalescent Oil and 2x Golden Oils

• Heart of Darkness

  • 27% Increased Chaos Damage
  <li >Damage Penetrates 7% Chaos Resistance
• Requires Opalescent Oil and 2x Azure Oils

Belt

When you use the Minefield Support Gem on your Hexblast, you gain the ability to throw four additional mines per cast. However, this comes at the cost of significantly reduced mine throwing speed. To address this, you can equip a Stygian Vise that is crafted using Deafening Essence of Zeal. Here are the steps:

1. Get an ilvl 82+ Hunter-influenced Stygian Vise
2. Spam it with Deafening Essence of Zeal until you get Tier 1 or Tier 2 "% Chaos Damage"
3. The belt slot is also a great way to add more mana, life, and resistances to your build, so spam it with essences until you have everything that you need
4. If you have an open suffix, craft "% Fire/Cold/Lightning and Chaos Resistances"
5. If you have an open prefix, put "+ to Maximum Life" or "+ to Maximum Mana", whichever you nee

Alternatively, you can get a non-influenced ilvl 85+ Stygian Vise and use Deafening Essence of Zeal until you get all of the mods that you need. Just make sure that you have an open prefix so that you can use a Hunter Exalted Orb. Now, there are three possible outcomes here: you can either get “% Increased Maximum Life,” “% Increased Chaos Damage,” or “Gain a Flash Charge When You Deal a Critical Strike.” You only need to concern yourself with the first two. Settle with the one that you need, of course.

Later down the line, when you have enough currency, you can replace the self-crafted Stygian Vise with a Mageblood. Going for a Mageblood helps increase your evasion rating, elemental resistances, and movement speed.

It is important to note that in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, you can no longer roll "25% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills During Effect" on flasks because Grinding Gear Games has removed it. You will have to make the necessary changes to your passive tree in order to resolve your mana issues. For instance, you can take Mind Drinker and the Mana Mastery, "10% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills" or "10% of Damage Taken Recouped as Mana".

Flasks

• Quicksilver Flask
• Bismuth Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Diamond Flask
• Life Flask

Other than the Bismuth and Diamond Flasks, this build is pretty flexible when it comes to the flasks that you can use. Quicksilver Flask is primarily there as a means of moving through the map quickly. But, you can replace it with a Granite Flask for more armor or a Silver Flask for permanent Onslaught.

If you're comfortable not using a Life Flask, you can opt for unique flasks instead. Bottled Faith is a popular choice as it increases your critical strike chance when you stand on Consecrated Ground. Progenesis is not bad at all. It acts similarly to the Petrified Blood buff during the flask's effect.

Remember that you will be struggling to deal with mana early on, especially if you don't have all of the gear mentioned above. For this reason, you can swap one of your utility flasks for a mana flask with an "Enduring" prefix. With this mod, you continually recover mana even if your unreserved mana is already filled.

For flask mods, be sure to put these on any of your flasks:

• Immunity to Bleeding and Corrupted Blood During Effect (Life or Mana Flask)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• 40% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)

Jewels

The Hexblast Mines Saboteur uses quite a number of unique jewels to make the build shine. For instance, the Watcher's Eye Prismatic Jewel, with "% to Critical Strike Multiplier While Affected by Precision" and "Critical Strikes Penetrate % of Enemy Elemental Resistances While Affected by Zealotry" are highly desirable mods.

Because Mines have their own mana reservation requirement, reducing the mana cost of skills is a must. One way to help you with that is by using the Militant Faith. Obtain one that has the following line: "Carved to Glorify New Faithful Converted by High Templar Dominus". Putting this on a jewel socket transforms the nearest Keystone passive into Inner Conviction. Allocating a point to this particular Keystone grants you 3% more spell damage per Power Charge. The Militant Faith can roll with "1% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills per 10 Devotion" as well. Although this particular Militant Faith is a bit expensive, it is definitely worth it!

Now, if you're using the Rathpith Globe, you should always pair it with Dissolution of the Flesh. This unique Crimson Jewel directly counters the negative effects of Rathpith Globe, basically giving you more spell damage and spell critical strike chance in the process. This jewel gives a huge boost to your maximum life. If you are lucky, you can get up to 30% more HP! The main attraction of this jewel, however, is its unique effect.

You see, any damage you take while you have this gem equipped will be reserved instead. This gives you time to replenish your HP by using a Life Flask or through other means. The downside of Dissolution of the Flesh is that it removes all of your energy shield. So, if you have any increased energy shield mods on your gear, you can substitute those for something else.

Another unique jewel that you might want to include in your build is the Impossible Escape. Get one with ";Passives in Radius of Ghost Reaver can be allocated without being connected to your tree". This jewel allows you to take a few good notables, including Devastating Devices, Volatile Mines, and Doom Cast without wasting too many passive points to do so.

The endgame version of the build utilizes two large cluster jewels and three medium cluster jewels. For the Large Cluster Jewels, acquire two "12% Increased Chaos Damage" bases and roll any of the following notable passives using Harvest Reforge Chaos:

• Touch of Cruelty

  • Chaos Spells Have 10% Chance to Hinder Enemies on Hit
  • Enemies Hindered by You Take 10% Increased Chaos Damage

• Unholy Grace

  • 30% Increased Chaos Damage
  • 10% Increased Attack and Cast Speed

• Wicked Pall

  • 30% Increased Chaos Damage
  • 5% Increased Skill Effect Duration

• Unwaveringly Evil

  • 30% Increased Chaos Damage
  • Chaos Skills Ignore Interruption from Stuns

• Dark Ideation

  • 2% Increased Chaos Damage per 100 Maximum Mana, up to a Maximum of 80%

The Medium Cluster Jewels you're going for require "12% Increased Trap/Mine Damage" as bases. Ideally, you'd want to get at least three of them, but two is fine if you don't have enough skill points. Anyway, the notables you're interested in are:

• Guerilla Tactics

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

• Surprise Sabotage

  • 8% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Traps/Mines
  • Trap/Mine Damage Penetrates 4% Elemental Resistances

To craft the Medium Cluster Jewel, you simply use Prismatic and Shuddering Fossils together to get the best possible chance of obtaining Guerilla Tactics and Surprise Sabotage.

Because of the nerf to High-Impact Mines in the previous league, you can also roll for the Expendability notable passive skill on the Medium Cluster Jewel. This gives you a 10% chance to throw an additional mine when using your main attack skill.

Unfortunately, because there is no other tag on Expendability, you'll have to roll a magic medium cluster with Orb of Alteration until you obtain it. Then, use a Regal Orb plus an Exalted Orb and hope to get either Surprise Sabotage or Guerilla Tactics.

You can populate the remaining jewel slots on your passive tree with Base Jewels or Abyss Jewels to resolve any issues you may have. Some of the good mods you can go for include:

• % to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• % to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage
• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Increased Mine Throwing Speed
• + to Maximum Life
• Attributes (STR or INT)
• Chaos Resistance
• Elemental Resistances
• % Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency

When you've reached the endgame, you can purchase the Forbidden Jewel Set. These allow you to obtain another notable ascendancy passive skill that can be of great benefit to the build. As to which matching modifiers you should get, here are some of the ones we recommend:

• Deadly Infusion

  • +5% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge
  • +1.5% Critical Strike Chance While at Maximum Power Charges

• Opportunistic

  • 25% More Damage While There is at Most One Rare or Unique Enemy Nearby
  • 20% Reduced Damage Taken While There Are at least Two Rare or Unique Enemies Nearby

• Unstable Infusion

  • +1 to Maximum Power Charges
  • 10% Chance to Gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike
  • 20% chance to Gain a Power Charge on a Non-Critical Strike

• Ambush and Assassinate

  • 15% More Damage with Hits and Ailments against Enemies That Are on Low Life
  • +40% to Critical Strike Multiplier Against Enemies That Are on Full Life
  • 100% More Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies That Are on Full Life
  • 100% More Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies That Are on Low Life
  • Critical Strikes Have Culling Strike

• Polymath

  • 3% More Damage for Each Different Type of Mastery You Have Allocated
  • Recover 1% of Life/Mana/Energy Shield on Kill for Each Different Type of Mastery You Have

If currency is not an issue, you can replace regular jewels with Grand Spectrum Jewels. Aim for the following mods:

• 5% Increased Maximum Life per Grand Spectrum
• +1 to Minimum Power Charges
• 25% Increased Critical Strike Chance per Grand Spectrum
• 15% Increased Elemental Damage per Grand Spectrum

Gems

So, what gems should you put in your Hexblast Mines Saboteur? Let's start with your main six-link, the body armor.

Body Armor

• Hexblast (Lvl 21)
• High-Impact Mine
• Minefield Support
• Charged Mines
• Awakened Void Manipulation
• Empower (Lvl 4)

Hexblast and High-Impact Mine are the two mandatory gems in your six-linked body armor. They enable you to throw Mines that hit enemies with damaging Hexblasts, effectively bypassing the spell’s slow 1-second cast time. Hexblast should be leveled up to 21 for best results. You can do this by corrupting a Level 20 Hexblast gem with a Vaal Orb.

Minefield is a support gem that allows you to throw five Mines at a time, though this comes at the cost of significantly reduced mine-throwing speed. This gem’s downside can be mitigated by putting as many increased mine-throwing speed mods on your gear. However, if you don’t like the low speed, you can replace this with other support gems like the Awakened Added Chaos Damage Support.

Because of the removal of increased mine-throwing speed from High-Impact Mine Support in 3.23, you should replace Increased Critical Strikes with Charged Mines. This particular support gem actually increases your mine-throwing speed by 10% per Frenzy Charge. At max level, you get a 30% increase in mine-throwing speed, which effectively circumvents the slight nerf to High-Impact Mine Support in this department. What’s more, you will gain even greater benefits if you use the Badge of Brotherhood while you stack Power Charges. If you can bump your maximum Power Charges to six, that’s a whopping 60% increase in mine-throwing speed!

Next up is Awakened Void Manipulation. At max level, this particular support gem raises the level of your Hexblast by one. It also increases your chaos damage!

The Level 4 Empower gem is added to Hexblast to increase its level by two. The effect of this gem is improved even more when you use Dialla’s Malefaction and insert this into a red socket.

Helmet

• Raise Spectre
• Meat Shield Support
• Minion Life Support
• Empower Support

A lot of Hexblast Mines Saboteurs nowadays make use of spectres created by the spell skill gem, Raise Spectre. This allows you to raise a fallen enemy and make them your ally. You can raise the Ash Prophet from the Crematorium or the Death Bishop from The Catacombs as spectres so that you have a minion that can inflict Flammability or Frostbite, respectively. Choose one that is different from your “Curse on Hit” rings.

Meat Shield Support and Minion Life Support just grant your spectres the ability to taunt enemies, as well as gain a huge amount of HP to make them tanky.

Empower Support is included as a means of improving the stats of your raised spectre.

Gloves

• Wither
• Spell Totem Support
• Multiple Totems Support
• Faster Casting Support

These gems aid you in eliminating tougher opponents. Wither makes affected enemies take more chaos damage. Spell Totem is a support gem that uses Wither automatically so you don't have to. Multiple Totems Support enables you to put up to three Spell Totems at a time. Faster Casting increases your cast speed by up to 39% at level 20.

Now, the above gem setup presupposes that you use the Sandstorm Visage. But, if you use the self-crafted helmet with the Hypothermia mod, your setup changes dramatically. Here are the gems that you should put in your Hypothermia helmet:

• Hexblast
• High-Impact Mine
• Minefield Support
• Awakened Void Manipulation Support or Charged Mines

Keep in mind that if you're using the Hypothermia Helmet, your body armor should change as well. Some great alternatives to Dialla's Malefaction or Cloak of Flame are Kaom's Heart, Belly of the Beast, or Shroud of the Lightless.

Boots

• Summon Skitterbots (lvl 21)
• Flame Dash/Frostblink
• Cast When Damage Taken Support (Lvl 1)
• Immortal Call (Lvl 2)

Summon Skitterbots gives a 10% "more" damage multiplier to your Mines. Not only that but the Skitterbots reliably inflict chill and shock on your enemies. When you wear the Profane Proxy Ring, your shocking skitterbot applies a socketed hex curse instead. That's why Summon Skitterbots is mandatory for the build.

Flame Dash is your primary movement skill in this game. If you use Ralakesh's Impatience, the three charges you get will be helpful in improving your map-clearing times. However, the newly buffed Frostblink is not bad at all, especially when you consider that its effectiveness of added damage has been increased considerably.

Immortal Call is the preferred guard skill for this build to help bolster your physical damage and elemental damage mitigation when activated. It is linked with Cast When Damage Taken Support so that it is automatically used whenever you receive a small amount of damage.

Weapon

• Zealotry
• Divine Blessing Support
• Increased Duration Support

Zealotry increases your spell critical strike chance and spell damage. When you link it to Divine Blessing, it turns into a 9-second buff that you can activate when you encounter more challenging foes. The beauty of this combo is that Zealotry no longer requires you to reserve mana. Instead, you use mana upfront to activate it. For this reason, including Inspiration Support in the setup allows you to reduce the mana cost of Zealotry by a considerable degree.

Shield

• Bear Trap
• Enhance Support
• Detonate Mines

Bear Trap is a type of trap that locks enemies in place, making them take 25% increased damage from your Hexblast Mines. Only level this gem up to what your current DEX attribute allows. Still, it does its job really well despite it not being at max level. You do not need to set them up while you are mapping, but you definitely need to deploy them when you are facing pinnacle bosses in Path of Exile.

When you raise the Bear Trap's gem quality, the duration of the said trap is increased as a result. Hence, you will put Enhance Support in this setup just so that the trap lasts longer.

With the change in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, Detonate Mines can no longer be bound on the left mouse button. You can address this by putting it on the right mouse button or another dedicated hotkey, but you'd have to manually press it whenever you want to initiate a detonation sequence.

Ring

• Frostbite OR Flammability

In your Profane Proxy ring, you should put Frostbite or Flammability, whichever you prefer between the two. Just make sure that you accompany it with the same elemental exposure mod on the gloves for maximum benefit.

Tattoos

Yes, GGG has finally re-introduced tattoos into the game in Patch 3.24. However, some of the overpowered ones in the last couple of leagues have been re-adjusted. Here are some of the tattoos that you can use on the Hexblast Mines Saboteur:

• Tattoo of the Tawhoa Warrior

  • 5% Increased Chaos Damage

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller

  • +3% to Chaos Resistance

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Shaman

  • 8% Increased Mana Regeneration Rate

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

With Mageblood

Final Thoughts

The Hexblast Mines Saboteur is a solid league starter that can be taken to new heights with enough investment. This build is quite appealing to use mainly because you can start a new league with it. It doesn't require expensive pieces of gear to work, though there are some unique items that you should get your hands on ASAP.

You can use essences to craft certain pieces of gear at the beginning, including the body armor, the helmet, boots, and gloves. If you're patient and do not have the currency to buy some items upfront, you can resort to crafting them yourself. Our very own ultimate crafting guide provides you with all of the information you need, all in one convenient place!

There you have it! We hope that this build guide serves you well. Be sure to bookmark this so that you can refer to it at any time. So, will you be playing the Hexblast Mines Saboteur in the future?

PROS

+Viable league-starter

+Can work with minimal investment

+Scales really well the more currency you spend on it

+This build is quite flexible in terms of the items that you can equip

+Pretty damaging explosions even in early red maps

+Great bossing build due to its high damage potential

CONS

-Mine playstyle might not be for everyone

-Slower than projectile-based builds in terms of mapping

-Requires a lot of crafting, especially for endgame gear