[2.4] Mines over Matter - Lightning Warp Finally Viable!

Well, we have to be very close to an enemy to hit the sweet spot, but in that case the damage is indeed very high. I'd say very good single target, bit slower than most FotM-builds in AoE clear simply due to the mine mechanic.

As staff-alternative for Tremor Rod I was considering Agnerod West, +1 to lightning skills, 20% resistance penetration, added damage and some increased damage. Overall some nice bonuses, unfortunately the increased strenght requirements are a bit annoying.

For recording I hear OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is pretty popular.

Hello,
Just to throw in an idea, what about replacing your staff with 2 apep's rage wands ? Wouldn't the added chaos damage improve your DPS ?

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Lord_of_Error wrote:

As staff-alternative for Tremor Rod I was considering Agnerod West, +1 to lightning skills, 20% resistance penetration, added damage and some increased damage. Overall some nice bonuses, unfortunately the increased strenght requirements are a bit annoying.

First off, thanks for suggesting OBS, I will look into it. Secondly, I actually mentioned Agnerod West in the thread, its about equal to Tremor Rod in damage output, while also having that pesky strength requirement. In my personal opinion its not worth it with the extra utility of Tremor Rod.

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nougatt wrote:

Hello,
Just to throw in an idea, what about replacing your staff with 2 apep's rage wands ? Wouldn't the added chaos damage improve your DPS ?

For a similar reason as why I don't use Added Lightning Damage in the skill linkage. Lighting Warp has a 60% damage effectiveness modifier, and 2x Apep's Rage adds about as much chaos damage per cast as a single level 20 Added Lightning Damage, and believe me when I say Added Lightning really does not do much. Dual increased spell damage rares would be better.

The second reason is that Apeps does not work with the curse setup. This build uses the extra links a staff opens up in order to run 2-3 curses on Orb of Storms, and without a staff we are limited to 2 curse at the absolute max. As an extension of this, the added chaos damage doesn't get buffed by elemental weakness or conductivity.

Dual wand, or wand + shield can work and could definitely be built around, but Apep's Rage isn't the wand to use. Even a Moonsorrow would outperform it in this scenario.

I had this shadow on the way to being an ED character which I wasn't enjoying, so I decided to switch over to this. At 44 I have LW/mine/reduced duration/minefield, still using a lifesprig/shield.

The damage is... well, it ranges from "wtf are these traps actually doing anything" to "spectacular, that screen just blew up".

Mainly because I cannot work out the targeting.... why do half the mines teleport into the middle of nowhere and hit nothing, while others teleport directly to the target?

Also, what is the targeting system of the spell totem? It seems like if I place it off in the middle of nowhere, it will never activate, even if the mines are in range of enemies. If it is in range of an emeny, it will start spamming detonate, and continue to do so regardless of whether there is anything left in range. Is that about the gist of it? Mechanically it is a very strange style of gameplay I feel. It works, and the damage is there.. mostly. Im guessing it will get a lot stronger as my level goes up, the aoe goes up and some more base mechanics kick in.

that one night I corrupted all my 20/20 gems out of boredom and only one hit lvl.21 and I thought to myself: why this one? out of all that could have hit lvl.21 why this little piece of shit? well, maybe it'll turn out to be good for something.

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Pathological wrote:

The damage is... well, it ranges from "wtf are these traps actually doing anything" to "spectacular, that screen just blew up".

Mainly because I cannot work out the targeting.... why do half the mines teleport into the middle of nowhere and hit nothing, while others teleport directly to the target?

Also, what is the targeting system of the spell totem? It seems like if I place it off in the middle of nowhere, it will never activate, even if the mines are in range of enemies. If it is in range of an emeny, it will start spamming detonate, and continue to do so regardless of whether there is anything left in range. Is that about the gist of it? Mechanically it is a very strange style of gameplay I feel. It works, and the damage is there.. mostly. Im guessing it will get a lot stronger as my level goes up, the aoe goes up and some more base mechanics kick in.

The relationship between the mines and their totem has a little bit of a learning curve.

First off, the spell totems detection radius and the mine's detection radii are different, and completely separate.
This means that if you have mines on the other side of the map, and a detonate mines totem right next to you, if a monster walks over the mines, nothing happens.
If a monster wanders into the detection radius of the totem, the mines on the opposite end of the map go off.

When the mines go off, they will check their own detection radius to see if they can see any targets. What the totem can or cannot see makes zero difference to the mines. If a mine can detect a target within its radius, it will warp towards that target. If that mine cannot see a target, it will warp in a random direction.

It is very important to note that in this build, the mines detection radius is actually larger than the totems detection radius. This is why the mine detonation radius passives between Clever Construction and High Explosives are important, they increase the range your mines seek out targets. A mine dropped at your feet can target pretty much the entire screen, including a fair amount that is off screen.

Continuing the example from earlier, lets say you have a totem on the other side of the map, surrounded by monsters, and you have a pile of mines at your feet. The totem will be hammering the detonate mines button, and the mines will go off. If there are no enemies where you are you can just stand there and dump mines watching them go off in completely random directions.

So what does this all mean?
You need to have your totem somewhere in the vicinity of the thing or things you want to kill. Your want to have your mine targeting radius also in range of that thing you want dead. Your mine targeting radius is larger than your totem targeting radius, so you can be farther away from the target than your totem is.

What all this boils down to:
For dangerous targets, put your totem between you and your target.
For safer targets, as long as your totem can see a monster, your mines will go off. So get the totem close and be aggressive to utilize both halves of the warp.

Sorry I didn't reply earlier.

So I've gotten into cruel, bought a tremor rod, and started giggling at the idea that I'm ordering orbital bombardments about ten feet away from my person - this is fun stuff, thanks so much for writing it up.

Quickie question, though - what's the value of Weave the Arcane when our main ability costs nothing? Is the 25% mana so good for Mind over Matter that it outweighs Shade Form? I'd think the evasion and energy shield would be a stronger defensive consideration --- but then I'm not even in Merciless yet, so I don't really know what is going to be important later on. Just hoping you could go into a little more detail on that decision?

Thanks!

I just wanted to pop in and thank you. This build is the most unique and hilarious fun I have ever had in PoE. It gets many "WTF!?" remarks in parties while being affordable to build and effective at clearing.

Could you post your gear? Want to see defense requirement.

Really interesting. Just a quick question about Ascendancy Node.

I get you take the Weave the Arcane for MoM, but Shade form is also really great (+20% MORE chance allow you to go from 70% evade chance (easily achievable under jade flask) to 84%, nearly dividing by 2 the damage taken). Am i missing something, or maybe MoM is not really sustainable without Weave the arcane?

If you are using a 20% enfeeble on top of that, I think it would be far better.

Also, if you are running controlled destruction, how are you getting elemental overload? Orb of storm is enough?

Edit: Warped timepiece could be good? Movement speed + reduced skill duration?