Ball Lightning Miner Shadow Saboteur Build Guide - PoE 3.24

Table of contents:

> Basics

> Mechanics

> Playstyle

> Class, Tree, Pantheon, Masteries

> Equipment

> Flasks

> Skill Gems

Miner is one of the most unique play styles in PoE. We lay down our mines, which reserve a part of our mana instead of just consuming it (in turn debuffing enemies around them), which is removed when we detonate the mines - activating a chain reaction of explosions with increasing damage. Because of that, miners (and their close cousins, trappers) have been some of the most popular boss killers in the history of the game

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Basics

Ball Lightning creates a slow-moving orb on cast. This orb will continue to zap enemies around it every 0.15 sec, letting it hit a single enemy multiple times over the time it passes through them. Because of that, we want to lower the speed of the orb as much as possible by using the appropriate tree passives and the Slower Projectiles support gem. Normally, multiple Ball Lightnings from a single cast cannot damage the same enemy - which may lower the DPS. To offset that, instead of stacking projectiles we opt into using mines.

Pros and Cons

+ High single target damage

+ Being able to frontload all of our mines

+ Scales really well with investment

- Mines have delayed damage

- Squishy

Mechanics Used

• Conversion - In Path of Exile, converting damage is one of the main ways of benefiting from the "Gain x% of Elemental Damage as extra Chaos Damage" modifiers, as they apply on every step of the conversion. So, if we convert all of our damage from lightning to cold using unique rings, we'll be able to benefit from "Gain 20% of Elemental Damage as extra Chaos Damage" twice, meaning we'll get a grand total of 40% extra chaos damage.

• Cluster Jewels - these items are core to this build. They're special jewels that you can put on the outer sockets of your passive tree (as evident in the passive tree picture in the Tree section) to create special, tailor-made passives for you. You can drop these from Act 6 onwards or buy them from players. If you want to save some money (but lose some passive points!) buy cluster jewels which add more passive nodes.

• Exposure - This is basically "elemental resistance shred" in PoE - the catch is, only the highest source of Exposure can apply at the same time. Our main ways of applying Exposure are eldritch implicits (gloves) or the Wave of Conviction mine setup we're using.

Useful Links and Path of Building

Path of Building: A powerful tool for planning/sharing builds. To have all info from this build compressed into one simple character sheet, use this link in the 'import' section.

https://pastebin.com/cnstxLj0

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Playstyle and Leveling

Leveling

At the start of the game, use Explosive trap, as its damage is unrivaled early into your progression. Once you have more links available (at least four) switch to a Purifying Flame + Mine support setup, which will carry you all the way to the end of the campaign, which is when we switch to Ball Lightning.

Playstyle

If you dislike pressing D constantly to detonate your mines, remember to rebind the button to something else, like Space!

For clear, we might want to swap out the Slower Projectiles support, as it is detrimental to our clear. Instead, you can use the Greater Multiple Projectiles support, which will make our AoE coverage MUCH better. Don't use the Minefield Support, as it has a huge penalty to mine throwing speed, making us stand in one place for way too long.

For bosses, just lay down all of the mines you can and start the detonation sequence whenever the boss starts being vulnerable to damage. Remember to lay down the Wave of Conviction mine and pop the Zealotry Blessing and Vaal Righteous Fire

Map Mods

No mods are scary for this build, except maybe for less effect of auras from our skills.

Class, Tree, Pantheon

Passive Points

Tree for level 100

The main version of the build

https://pastebin.com/cnstxLj0

Import this link to Path of Building.

Masteries

+12% to all Elemental Resistances, +7% to Chaos Resistance

+25% to Critical Strike Multiplier against Unique Enemies

10% increased maximum Life, 10% reduced Life Recovery rate

Auras from your Skills have 15% increased Effect on you

Mines cannot be Damaged

Class

Pyromaniac (Normal): We really want to take this node as fast as possible. It's our main source of life recovery, making us recover about 10% of our maximum life every second, all the time. On top of that, we are also immune to shock and ignite - meaning we just have to get freeze immunity to be unaffected by all of the most annoying ailments.

Bomb Specialist (Cruel): More speed, more AoE - nothing to write poems about, but we have to take it to get access to the next notable.

Demolitions Specialist (Merciless): This is undoubtedly the best passive for mines. Doubling the aura effect of our mines makes the chance to deal double damage per mine near the enemy go from 2 to 5, which will make us have a 100% chance to deal twice the amount of damage if we have 20 mines up at the same time.

Born in the Shadows (Eternal): Blinds enemies nearby and on hit, making them 30% less likely to hit us, while also lowering their damage against us. Because of the way this notable works, it's active against bosses nearly all the time, making us a tad bit tankier against oneshots.

Pantheon

Soul of the Brine King: We want it solely for the Cannot be Frozen upgrade, as we are already ignite/shock immune.

Soul of Shakari: Lowers damage taken from poison, while also limiting the maximum amount of poisons on us at the same time. Must take!

Anointment

The most basic anointment for this build is the Charisma notable, as it brings us a lot of mana reservation efficiency, which we need to squeeze in an extra aura (Hatred). If you cannot afford it, drop Hatred and anoint Adjacent Animosity, which increases our damage by a lot.

Equipment

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Helmets

Crown of the Inward Eye is both the cheapest and the best option for this build. It comes with a whopping 21% increased maximum life, mana and energy shield, which are all super useful for us, as we make use of all of these stats. On top of that, it makes all increases to these three stats apply to damage at ⅓ of their value, making it a great DPS option. Furthermore, it's one of the most commonly enchanted items in the game, which makes getting a proper Ball Lightning enchant cheaper than on a rare base.

Boots

Rare Boots - For the endgame you want rare boots. There are no real other options.

Mods you should look for on rare boots are:

- + to movement speed

- + or higher to Maximum Life

- +% to one elemental resistance

- +% to another elemental resistance

- +% chance to suppress spell damage

Get the action speed implicit by using the eldritch currency.

Since Mines don't count as us killing stuff, we can make great use of two enchantments:

- Damage penetrates 10% of Elemental Resistance if you haven't killed recently

- Adds 1 to 160 Lightning damage if you haven't killed recently

Gloves

Machina Mitts are a pretty unique choice for this build, in case you feel like you're lacking in the life recovery department. These gloves let us leech damage dealt by our mines, and they're the only source of that in the game. To use them, invest into maximum Power charges.

Rare Gloves - This build can't really make use of any of the unique gloves in the game, that's why we want to focus on rares.

Mods you should look for are:

- +70 or higher to Maximum Life

- +35% to one elemental resistance

- +35% to another elemental resistance

- %increased damage against Chilled Enemies

Get the Unnerve and Cold Exposure implicits on your gloves.

Body Armour

Carcass Jack is the cheapest option for this slot. It increases our damage quite a bit by buffing the AoE and area damage. It also comes with a small amount of life and elemental resistance.

Incandescent Heart - this is the best body armor for this build. It has a large amount of armor rating, energy shield and maximum life - but most importantly, it makes us gain 20% of elemental damage as extra chaos damage, which gives us approximately forty percent more damage.

Weapons

Shimmeron - Use this wand in conjunction with Machina Mitts and maximum Power Charge investment, as it offers a lot of damage - at the price of us having a rather high degen, which we offset by getting life regeneration (we use leech from Machina Mitts as our main source of recovery in that scenario). Dual Wield these.

Divinarius - This is the cheapest option, which grants us permanent critical strike multiplier, area of effect and spell damage. Overall a solid option, although lacking in the damage department.

Rare Wand - this is the best choice for this build, although the most expensive one too. Mods we care about are:

- +1 to Level of All Lightning Spell Skill Gems

- Adds Lightning Damage to Spells

- Increased Spell Damage

- Global Critical Strike Multiplier

- Critical Strike Chance with Spells

Rings

Call of the Brotherhood is the only option for this build due to its unique cold to lightning conversion. It's important to use the Turbulent catalysts on these, as they increase the amount of damage conversion (from 40 to 48, letting us convert 96% of our cold damage into lightning while using two). Don't use other rings, unless you're too poor to afford CotBs.

Belts

Rare belt - this is the cheaper option.

- + to Maximum Life

- +% to one Elemental Resistance

- +% to another Elemental Resistance

- + to Strength

Headhunter - although expensive, this is by far the best belt we can get. High maximum life and strength are only a cherry on the top. It is an exception to the rule of mines not counting as us killing stuff - as this item has been specifically coded to make the buffs still apply to us instead of the mines (which would make no sense).

Amulets

Rare Amulet is the best option for this build. The most important mod you should search for is the "Hatred/Wrath has 60% increased mana reservation efficiency" modifier.

Other mods to look for:

- +70 or higher to Maximum Life

- +1 to level of all Lightning skill gems

Optionally:

- Any extra resistances or attributes we need.

Flasks

Flasks in Path of Exile are different from other games. Not all of them are made for regaining life and mana - a lot of them are more offensively oriented. This build's setup looks like this:

Life Flask of Staunching - Remember to use either the Eternal or Divine life flasks - as these are the highest tier flasks in the game. It's important to get any of the bleed removal mods on these, as it's our only way of dealing with it - and it tends to deal INSANE amounts of damage.

Bottled Faith - our main DPS flask, which grants our enemies increased damage taken while they are on Consecrated Ground, which this flask spreads on nearly the entire screen on use. It also reduces the effect of curses on us and gives us life regeneration.

Granite Flask - is a flask giving us a huge amount of flat bonus armor. We want to roll the %increased armor during flask effect mod on it and some increased duration.

Enduring Mana Flask - this is REALLY important! Since it is our main source of mana recovery, we want to make sure we have this flask active as often as possible - which is why we really want to roll the Enduring mod on it, which will make its uptime really high.

Quicksilver Flask - this is the flask used most commonly in all of PoE. It grants us the most important stuff of all - speed :)

Jewels

Jewels are items socketable in Jewel Sockets found on the passive tree.

Rare Jewels - try to get maximum life, critical strike multiplier and maybe some missing resistances if needed.

On Cluster jewels, look for:

Large - Blanketed Snow/Disorienting Display/Snowstorm/Prismatic Heart/Widespread Destruction

Medium - Guerilla Tactics/Surprise Sabotage/Arcane Pyrotechnics (only one)

Watcher's Eye - this jewel can roll multiple modifiers connected to the auras we use. Look for ones with Wrath, Hatred, Determination or Zealotry, as these are the auras we use.

Gems

Body

Ball Lightning = High-Impact Mine = Slower Projectiles = Swift Assembly = Trap and Mine Damage = Added Lightning Damage

The most important links are Ball Lightning and High-Impact Mine, as they are the crux of our build. Slower Projectiles is the best DPS boost in the game, as it slows our spells greatly. Swift Assembly will be, on average, better than Minefield, as it grants us a high chance to throw down additional mines.

Weapon 1

Bear Trap = Increased Duration = Advanced Traps

This is an optional pre boss setup. Bear Trap is a skill that immobilizes enemies (or greatly slows their movement speed, in the case of endgame bosses) - also increasing the damage they take during that effect, which is why we link it to Increased Duration and Advanced Traps, which make it last up to 6 seconds.

Weapon 2

Wave of Conviction = Culling Strike = High-Impact Mine

This is the mine we want to use at the end of setting up mines for bosses, as it will always ensure our enemies have Cold Exposure on them

Helmet

Whirling Blades = Faster Attacks || Defiance Banner = Vaal Righteous Fire

Whirling Blades is our skill of choice if we're wielding daggers, as faster attacks increase its speed immensely. If using wands, switch to Flame Dash and Faster Casting. Defiance Banner provides us with a defensive buff, we don't really care about laying it down. Use Vaal Righteous Fire only, do not use the regular part! The Vaal version will consume a part of our life to grant us a temporary more spell damage buff.

Boots

Assassin's Mark = Cast When Damage Taken (level 11) = Vaal Molten Shell (level 16) = Portal

Assassin's Mark is a permanent curse we can apply onto bosses, making them much more likely to be critically struck. Vaal Molten Shell is our main defensive skill, which gives us a shield protecting our HP, which scales with the amount of armor we have. Remember to keep your Cast When Damage taken at level 11 and VMS at level 16, as that will ensure they are triggered automatically whenever we get hit. Portal linked to CWDT helps us to come back in case we die :)

Gloves

Wrath = Determination = Hatred = Enlighten

This is our mana reservation setup. If you cannot afford to use all three auras and lay down a lot of mines, I'd suggest turning off Hatred and instead grabbing something like the Herald of Ice. Since we convert all of our damage from lightning to cold, we benefit from both the More Lightning Spell damage from Wrath and More Cold Damage from Hatred. Enlighten linked to all of these will lower their reservation greatly.