[3.13] HC/SC/SSF All Content Miner - Any Mine Skill - LL/CI - 12k ES w/ Videos!

Leveling: https://pastebin.com/TkXG0e8R

CI Tree: https://pastebin.com/1skekEpY

LL Transition: https://pastebin.com/UhebBWJe

BL Endgame: https://pastebin.com/wWH9BTPq

Pyroclast Endgame: https://pastebin.com/DWm6EZ8w

GC Endgame: https://pastebin.com/Xw6R5yDG

3.13 Suggestion - Ball Lightning or Pyroclast

BL did see a pretty huge nerf this patch losing nearly 40% of its damage (39%), but it still a very powerful skill. HOWEVER, IF we anoint Adjacent Animosity and spec an AoE cluster, it can still hit 13 ticks and will only lose 25% total dps bringing it back down to 3.10 patch (so still insane)

Glacial Cascade is super interesting. It had its damage nerfed, but we are unsure at the moment how many times the skill can hit. If it still has a 3 hit cap its going to be pretty bad, but if it can now hit 5-6 times it will be extremely strong with the native AoE that sab gets. I am going to be starting GC, but without knowing how the hits will work it is hard to say how it will pan out. I'll update a few days into the league.

For each league this answer will be different and it will depend on the patch notes which we pick for our build.

On a side note, most of the gearing is very generic so you should be able to swap skill out if you would like to try other skills on your setup. Some of the supports may change along with the weapon, but the tree largely remains the same.

To understand the damage calculations you need to understand how spells work in conjunction with mines or mine skills in general.

For that, you can check out https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Spell to see the damage coefficients of each skill.

Generally speaking the spells that work best do not have the duration or channeling tag as mines dont work well with most of them AND skills that have high base damage and a lower damage coefficient since we dont stack flat damage.

Also, factor in that we throw 7.5 mines per second on average and that we usually have 100 average flat damage and you should come up with good numbers for each skill.

Here is a dps list of some you may consider:

Ball Lightning: 246 average damage hit at level 22 with a 50% damage effectiveness giving us 306 average hit.

Ball Lightning hits 10 times for a total dps of 22,950 (base before multipliers)

Glacial Cascade: 259 average damage hit at level 22 with a 60% damage effectiveness giving us a 339 average hit.

Glacial Cascade hits ? times - we need to wait and see in game how many times it is hitting.

Fireball: 1,690 average damage hit at level 22 with a 240% damage effectiveness giving us a 1,882 average hit.

Fireball hits once for a total dps of 14,115 (base before multipliers)

Frost Bolt: 1,491 average damage hit at level 22 with a 220% damage effectiveness giving us a 1,593 average hit.

Frost Bolt hits once for a total dps of 11,947 (base before multipliers)

Purifying Flame: 1,237 average damage hit at level 22 with a 180% damage effectiveness giving us a 1,417 average hit

Purifying Flame hits once for a total dps of 10,627 (base before multipliers)

Arc: 630 average damage hit at level 22 with 80% damage effectiveness giving us an average 710 hit.

Arc hits once for a total dps of 5,325 (base before multipliers)

Icicle Mine: 784 average damage hit at level 22 with a 110% damage effectiveness giving us an average 894 hit.

Icicle hits once for a total dps of 6,705 (base before multipliers)

Stormblast Mine: 833 average damage hit at level 22 with a 110% damage effectiveness giving us a 943 average hit.

Stormblast hits once for a total dps of 7,072 (base before multipliers)

Pyroclast Mine: 364 average damage hit at level 22 with a 80% damage effectiveness giving us a 444 damage hit.

Pyroclast hits (on average) 6 times for a total dps of 19,980 (base before multipliers) - this is a deceptive number though because it adds additional damage per mine. Against bosses this is much higher.

These numbers tell most of the story against bosses, but doesn't always allow us to know exactly how a mine skill with function in the real world, or how their multipliers stack up against one another.

For that, we need to look at clear speed, ease of gearing and boss killing all together. I'll give each skill a ranking C - S for each category.

Ball Lightning:

Clear: B

Bossing: A

Ease of Gearing: A - no special gearing required, but having an additional source of projectile is quite nice.

Glacial Cascade:

Clear: B

Bossing: A

Ease of Gearing: B - GC has an extremely high ceiling due to it being a physical conversation spell. That generally means that top end weapons are more expensive.

Fireball:

Clear: B

Bossing: B

Ease of Gearing: S - nothing special required at all

Frost Bolt:

Clear: A - due to freeze

Bossing: B

Ease of Gearing: S - nothing special required at all

Purifying Flame:

Clear: B

Bossing: B

Ease of Gearing: B - can make use of the base gear, but scales better with % fire damage mods than some of the other skills.

Arc:

Clear: A

Bossing: C - worst of the bunch

Ease of Gearing: B - nothing special required, but will very difficult to clear high level content with due to poor scaling.

Icicle Mine:

Clear: A

Bossing: C - was heavily nerfed.

Ease of Gearing: A - easy to gear for, but hard to get enough damage to make end game feel comfortable.

Stormblast Mine:

Clear: C - AoE is too small

Bossing: A - good mechanic for extra boss damage

Ease of Gearing: A - nothing special required, but not great scaling.

Pyroclast Mine:

Clear: C - worst clear of the bunch on its own

Bossing: S - unmatched bossing if you gear for it with flat fire damage

Ease of Gearing: C - very dependent on having an astral projector for clear (expensive) and has different wants than some of the other skills with flat damage being a huge part of its kit.

3.13 Brought quite a few different changes to the build, mostly in the form of nerfs, but not making the build unplayable at all and actually balancing out some of the different mine skills.

As per usual, nearly any spell is viable in a mine build, but some are going to allow for much earlier boss kills on a cheaper budget.

The Big Changes:


Biggest change to the class was losing the 30% area of effect from explosive expert. This makes it much harder to hit 13 ticks on Ball Lightning and makes GC feel much worse.

Overall, the two most powerful mine skills were affected while everything else saw a slight buff in damage.

The second biggest change is to the reservation on mines, which was removed from the ascendency. While it is possible to fix this by pathing to, or anointing efficient explosives, other anoints are stronger and the pathing to get down to the node is extremely terrible.

This does make it so you will not be able to use all of the auras (I would drop aspect of the spider) until you have an enlighten level 4.

Last, the way that damage was moved around in the ascendency pretty much makes Demolition Specialist mandatory, which means dropping born in the shadows - a very large loss on the defensive end. Thus, I would recommend dropping aspect of the spider for Flesh and Stone (stone stance).

What skill should we play for 3.13?

Unfortunately, for spell based miners, it is still Ball Lightning (5th league in a row now). While some of the other spells are closer now, they still aren't able to do what BL can do on a lower end budget.

One caveat here, if you dont mind the clunky playstyle, or Astral Projector ends up being cheap this league, Pyroclast is in a great spot with the buff to Demolitions Specialist.

GC ended up being a pretty big letdown last league and was unchanged this league minus the AoE nerf, which is pretty big for it as well.

So, best 1 and 2 in no particular order are Pyroclast and Ball Lightning for 3.13.

Pyroclast is pretty straightforward and the below guide gearing is still correct. BL has however changed quite a bit and I will detail that in the section below.

> GC - https://pastebin.com/d8mwqi5d
>
> BL - https://pastebin.com/Fct7BbTG
>
> Fireball - https://pastebin.com/6TWFE8Bv
>
> Blazing Salvo - https://pastebin.com/hr69v5YZ
>
> Stormblast - https://pastebin.com/kmWhyXQN
>
> Pyroclast - https://pastebin.com/jqEwMyAB

These are all running on the community fork - download here:

https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding/releases

With the nerf to AoE from the ascendency, it isn't a great idea to go for 13 ticks (maximum) any longer. Rather we are looking for ways to get 11 ticks of Ball Lightning.

There are a few options here:

1. Anointing Adjacent Animosity and using a tree like this: https://pastebin.com/MyTGJhTB

In this tree, we dont take much AoE, but are still able to hit 11 ticks on BL. We do lose out on the better anoints and the ability to use aspect of the spider or flesh and stone until we get an enlighten level 4.

2. Anointing Efficient Explosives' and using a tree like this: https://pastebin.com/fwqmBA4c

This tree loads up on the AoE and is able to hit 11 ticks on BL. It also is able to use aspect of the spider with an enlighten level 2/3. It does give up some defensives in the form of ES however.

Personally, I would go with #1, but there are a few options.

If you want to go all in to hit 13 ticks, it is possible with a total of 128% increased AoE AND Adjacent Animosity.

Pros:

Incredible Boss killer - even on a budget
Quick Mapping Speed
Can do any map mod without worry
Has insane gear scaling
Very high survival with multiple defensive layers
Very good at clearing league mechanics

Cons:
Mines may not be a playstyle for everyone
TOO strong. No seriously, if you gear this out you will feel every other build is incredibly weak.

Videos

GC Gearing - 3.12

https://youtu.be/OsvLyT1F9xM

3.12 GC Bossing

https://youtu.be/pJN3sgRH4Ds

3.11 Gearing

https://youtu.be/AnZCROaNdFI

Ring and Belt Crafting- HARVEST ONLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjFQ7eYfHzc

Leveling walk-through for PoB

https://youtu.be/ousP0b0a4Z0

Crafting:

https://youtu.be/LHR0oH4OZPA

Deathless Simulacrum run

https://youtu.be/sAFC4ugC-5E

A8 Drox

https://youtu.be/-0EcPnKSZFE

A8 Purifier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRLmIvTYXWk

Constrictor A8

https://youtu.be/Ep_P09bzCTA

Shaper A8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d802VRuAB0E

Sirus A8 Deathless

https://youtu.be/R22pT15lsEA

t16 Blight Map

https://youtu.be/H4kxPG52X64

Random clear videos from 3.10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj3vOtPe-J4&feature=youtu.be

Atlas Guide

https://youtu.be/_PDX1JDtzT4

Older Vods (Icicle)

Pyroclast (body):

This is the setup that you will want to use at league start until you get your gear up and running for Icicle. The clear on Pyro is sub par, but the single target is second to none and it will help you get over the boss hump early on.

Pyroclast Mine > Trap and Mine Support > Swift Assembly > Conc Effect > Combustion > Fire Pen

Icicle Links (body):

Icicle Mine > Trap and Mine Support > Swift Assembly > Pierce Support OR Chain / Hypothermia > Controlled Destruction > Empower/Inspiration

Hypothermia is for single target, Pierce/Chain for clear speed - try out both and see which you prefer. Use Empower if and only if you can afford a lvl4, otherwise use Inspiration.

Ball Lightning:

Ball Lightning > High Impact Mine > Swift Assembly > Slower Proj > Trap and Mine > Controlled Destruction/Inspiration/Light Pen/ Woke Added Lightning

Cast When Damage Taken
CWDT > Immortal Call

Golem + Portal

Chaos Golem > Portal

The minion is pretty worthless IMO, and can be other things, but does provide another target for things to hit from time to time.

Movement Setup (boots/helm/gloves)

Flash Dash > Faster Casting > Arcane Surge > Second Wind

Low Life Auras (shield and weapon)

Blood Magic > Clarity> Precision >

Blood Magic will be as high as you can get it, probably 16-17 and clarity will be level 4-5 and precision will be level 1.

In your shield (prism guardian) you will want to run

Disciple > Wrath/Hatred/Anger > Zealotry

In your boots/gloves or helm you will want to reserve the following on mana:

Blasphemy Support > Enfeeble > Skitterbots > Enlighten level 3

Also on mana, you will want to reserve:
Aspect of the Spider (ring/boots/belt)

A few notes here:

The reservation wheel is needed to get to the 12% reduced. If you have it on gear (helm/boots) then you can drop a node or two.

CI Auras:

Blasphemy Support > Enfeeble > Skitterbots > Enlighten level 3/4

Aspect of the Spider (ring/boots)

Free CWDT additional setup with blind. Make sure to socket clarity level 1 if using a clarity watchers eye.

For Ascendancy - Pyromaniac, Bomb Specialist, Born in the shadows, Explosives Specialist If you are playing BL or GC, you will want Demolitions Specialist instead of born in the shadows to go with high impact mine support. With that said, both are viable options. Born in the shadows is more defensive while Demo Specialist provides more DPS.

For Bandits - Help Allira or Kill All (league start help, then switch to kill all after you get your res.

For Pantheon - Soul of Lunaris, Soul of Tukohama - if you do not yet have presence of chayula, brine king is mandatory.

There are actually quite a few good options here for the build, and none that are mandatory. Depending on the direction that you would like to take the build, it is quite possible to anoint a few different points to either gain some damage, survival or save a few points on the tree.

IF YOU ARE PLAYING BL AFTER 3.12 - Adjacent Animosity is the only choice if you stick with the main tree.

Otherwise, Tranquility is probably the best all around option as it will provide you with a node of ES as well as 70-80% spell damage netting a nice dps boost.


You then have utility nodes like Whispers of Doom (which I would use for HC to slot temp chains in addition to enfeeble).

Finally worth mentioning is the mana reduction node Charisma. You will need 12% reduction in total to slot all of the auras. If you want to take the 4% node next to Influence, you can save 2 points by taking Charisma as your anoint. Alternatively, if you have % reduction on a piece of gear, you can also use the anoint here to save 3 total points, which would be very worthwhile.

League Start


CI Transition


LL Transition Build


End Game Upgrades

In Depth Discussion on Each Slot

First of all, this is not a life build, so you have to get it out of your head that a 6-7k HP pool is good enough. It isnt. You really want to have 8-9k ES at a bare minimum for this build to feel good in end game content. With that said, its easy to achieve, but you need to keep in mind the rolls you are looking for.

Step 1: Getting to 8k ES

100c can buy you all the gear you need to get here (barring shavs and amulet). You are looking for the following:

2x Moonstone rings with T1 ES rolls - dont craft these, buy them. they are cheap

Boots with 150+ ES - Sin Trek or Doryanis are great budget options here.

Helm with 280+ ES - Easy to craft with dense fossils.

Crystal belt with T1 ES roll - easy to craft w/ alt + aug + regal

Energy from Naught cluster jewel.

at level 90 that should put you around 8,500ES. Each level also nets you another 150 ES or so from passive ES nodes.

Step 2: Getting to 10k ES

For this you are probably looking at 4ex or so (league dependent)

You will need:

80 Defense Catalysts - apply these to your belt, amulet and rings for a nice boost.

An aura effect cluster jewel with first among equals and stalwart commander

1-2 (depending on level) %ES rolls on rings or belt. These can get expensive. With rings, spamming dense fossils is the best way to craft, but buying can often be cheaper.

That will net you 10,500 or so.

Step 3: Getting to 12k ES

Generally this is not worth the investment, but its possible for sure.

You will need:

320+ ES Helm

%ES rolls on each ring and belt

%Mana as extra ES Watchers Eye (these get pricy)

Want to push it further? 14k is possible

You will need to swap off of Prism Guardian, pick up the arcane warding wheel and get a 400+ ES Shield.

Often times this is not worth the DPS trade off without having mirror tier gear, but you can reach 14 or even 15k ES w/o legacy gear.

Gloves

Honestly it doesn't matter - none are great and +% crit chance for spells as a corruption is always going to reign supreme.

Helm

Both of the good enchants for icicle (throw speed and crit multi) are very good, but not really worth breaking the bank for if you cant afford it. Personally, between the two I prefer throw speed as it feels a little cleaner, and plays to my playstyle a little better as I really like to jump into packs, drop mines and set them off.

For Ball Lightning, additional Ball Lightning is best for clear while slower speed is best for bossing.

For GC, the 40% conversion is mandatory.

For Pyro, you will want to pick up the extra projectile.

Boots

Penetration, Crit Chance and move speed are all top tier here, it just depends on what you are trying to do and what your other gear looks like. It's worth popping in both the pen and crit chance in pob to see which is stronger for you.

Other notable corruptions

Body armor looking for +spells, +mines, +aura, +all gems, +projectiles. In terms of ranking, +all gems is best, followed closely by +mines.

Amulet +max res, +curse are the only really game changing ones, +all res, %stats are useful, but not amazing.

Keep in mind, with leveling gear a lot of this can get thrown out of the window as mines does trivialize early game content pretty badly and with a 6 link setup from tabula, some move speed and resists you can just steamroll everything until mid level maps.

As far as a general, act to act progression guide - PoE Vault put together a pretty spot on, if extremely detailed, one so I won't reinvent the wheel there.
It can be found at https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/quick-reference-leveling-guide-for-path-of-exile

For us miners, very little actually changes throughout the 1-10 acts and into early maps.

Pick up Stormblast Mine at level 1 and link it with pierce and arcane surge if you have a 3 link.

At level 8 pick up added cold (also added lighting if you have a tabula). Swift Assembly and Skitterbots are also available here.

At level 12, replace stormblast mine with Icicle Mine and start using the movement skill of your choice - I prefer flash dash with this build (adding in phase run later). Link Arcane Surge with Flash Dash and get faster casting to go with it at 18.

In act 2 and level 16 you can get both Herald of Ice and Herald of Lightning to boost your damage.

Also in act 2, trap and mine support and controlled destruction become available. An ideal 4 link at this point would be Icicle Mine > Trap and Mine Support > Swift Assembly > Added Lightning (if you have a tabula, throw in Added Cold and Controlled Destruction)

Inspiration becomes available at 31 and Chain at 38, at that point you are pretty much full build.

Personally, I like to run Skitterbots and Blasphemy linked with Enfeeble until I am able to get LL running to add in the additional auras.

Here is a leveling tree until mid way through act 6-7 or so:

https://pastebin.com/7LFx6mL2

Once you get to early maps you may feel that Icicle's damage isnt that great on single target, at that point, until you have better gear, it is probably worth using Pyroclast (or ball lightning) as your primary boss killer (or just in general) until you find yourself with enough DPS to take down bosses comfortably with Icicle alone.

Aside from the leveling guide, the general guide to getting started with mines in a new league is very simple.

The build gets most of it's power from gem levels and you are really looking at just grabbing any hybrid rares until you hit maps - those rares can last you until red maps in SC.

The tree should not be any different than the tree listed in in the PoB links - just focus on taking the right side of the tree first, followed by the section above scion, finishing up with the middle section above witch. Nearly all of the damage comes from the right side of the tree and that should carry you as nothing should even come close to touching you with the amount of damage the build has while leveling.

Generally speaking the first few purchases for the build are going to be high ES rares and a unique or two - both Sink Trek and a variety of unique weapons are my go-tos early on in leagues.

Your first big purchase will probably be Shav's followed by Presence. After that you are just looking to improve gear slots and level.

All of this above is assuming a SC league start. In HC, this is not a great league start character without planning out a different tree - one heavily invested in life, or having good leveling gear ready for you.

In SC, I would probably expect to die once or twice just speed running to maps - although I have used this build in the past few leagues to get to maps wearing mostly level 30 gear without deaths, so it is certainly possible.

One final note on league starts - often times it is best just to skip league content until maps unless league content gives good leveling loot and is fast to complete. In that case, just run the league content every other zone and skip all other mobs.