[2.0] Blink & Mirror Arrow Scion - Cheap and Effective!

Hey guys, this is my first guide, but I can promise you it will be cheap and effective!
I tried the build first in closed beta, didn't have enough time to completely work it out and decided to redo it in Warbands. It is hardcore viable in the right hands, with the right gear and maybe some tweaks.

Pros:
-Cheap and Effective
-Safe - you can hide behind your clones / hit and run
-Awesome dmg auras
-Two curses
-Elemental Equilibrium
-Additional zombies to protect you!

Cons:
-Getting dex
-Getting 2 dmg aura's running takes some time (act 3/4 merciless)
-Midgame (cruel/merciless) mana
-No real defenses

Anyway, here is the guide:
The main skills you will use are Blink Arrow and Mirror Arrow. Blink Arrow is a quest reward for slaying Brutus in normal, and you can get Mirror Arrow by vendoring Blink Arrow with an Orb of Alteration.
They both have a 75% more modifier, and an increasing minion damage modifier. They will use your bow and quiver, other equipment does not directly effect them (some exceptions). They are considered minions, so 'normal' skillpoints which increase your damage do not work. They also have a duration of only 3.00 seconds and a cooldown of 3.00 seconds.

So how do we scale the damage?
Minion damage, minion attack speed, aura's, duration, curses, elemental equilibrium. And awesome 'more' gems.
We can't scale our damage through bow / phys / ele / attack speed / crit nodes on the tree.
I guess it is time to present my current passive skill tree.

Skill Tree - 111 points




One warning: you need a certain amount of dex to wear some of the better bows. You might need to use a specific dex jewel (like +20 dex/+6 all res), int to dex, the +30 dex node, or just get it all on gear. Since there are close to zero dps mods for you on gear, dex won't be too hard to get.

Bandit Rewards
Normal: Oak for life
Cruel: Skill Point (nothing scales your mirror/blink arrow)
Merciless: Skill Point (We don't use charges)










TL;DR
Look at skill tree, links, get 1.59 aps bow (pref. lioneyes) - less is bad, more isn't better. Get an additional arrow quiver (huge boost), stats don't matter much. Get additional cold on accessory to proc. elemental equilibrium

Please post your questions and/or suggestions!

Edit 1: Cleaned up a bit and updated some links.

Edit 2: Artificial APS cap. Bleh. Added some info on additional arrow quiver and EQ. Zombies!

Edit 3: Got Lioneye's and additional arrow quiver + elemental equilbrium. WOW the build is even better! I think this is the final change.

null's inclination would be good for this build i think? if kill something using this weapon it casts the skills in the weapon (blink arrow and mirror arrow get your bow and quiver) therefor when they kill something it should summon an other? havnt tested it out yet but ive been theorycrafting around it... also it converts dex into minion damage so that would make them even stronger

I was looking at Null's Inclination as well, but stumbled upon this thread. According to their findings it doesn't work. Would be awesome if it did though.

I've been theorycrafting about how to further push this build's damage. The unique '20-25% damage for each magic item equipped' jewel seems very nice. I think I can get away with ~6 blue items, keeping weapon, quiver, boots and gloves rare. Seems pretty doable, as the tree gives a nice amount of resists.

This builds sounds just too random to not give a shot :D

Interesting to see what you'd start levelling with though, since I doubt MA and BA are good damage without any real minion nodes.

I used them for leveling as well, in a 3 link (lmp + added ice/minion dmg). The skill gems themselves give a ton of minion damage. It was fine after I got the duration nodes, which is quite quickly. Other skills will be fine in the beginning, but will fall off since there are no nodes helping them.

Currently lvl 80, slowly increasing my map pool. Lvl 73 maps are very easy and go fast, but I guess that is not really a feat. Lvl 19 aura's soon, which will give a small boost (pls donate Alpha's Howl in Warbands).

I am running a build like this as well only I took a different approach. I went left toward the Templar. The goal is to use Lion'seye fall in the far Jewel Socket. This turns all those melee crit nodes into bow crit nodes. It also turns the Staff crit nodes into bow and then gives endurance charges when you crit. You can then take the -Mana cost nodes to ease the cost of spamming out clones. A Death's Harp unique Bow will then give crit multiplier. The one thing I was curious about is that it says they are clones of you, however it doesn't seem like Heralds work with them.

The biggest thing I have done to help survive is DECOY TOTEM. You drop one of those then spam your copies. I have actually taken Ancestral Bond as well so I can drop a Decoy and then a Searing bond. or Decoy and then Poison Arrow totem, or Barrage Totem. Or the Double Decoy. (you would be surprised how often this saves you)

The main thing that makes this better than SRS imo is that SRS or zombies etc are random in who they attack in that you can't "drop" them next to someone. Minnions as a rule attack the closest thing to them. So if there is a Yellow Immortal mob I can drop a Mirror right next to it and it takes it out. Or a Searing Bond totem etc.

I killed Malachai with only 1000 health in normal. This build has a lot of potential and survivability. Curious to see how our builds differ in the later levels.

BTW with Inc Dur you can actually get 3 mirror and 3 blink clones out.

This thread inspired me to try something similar.
Some changes i'll be making :
1. Cast aura's from this chest -

2. to make up the lack of a 5link in armor, have bilnk arrow in these boots, i'm hoping the trap damage will translate in increased damage for the clones so i can do without slower projectiles.


Tree i plan on having somewhere around lvl 80+ :

http://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwABA-4EBwj0DkgPqxZvFy8YahmKGo8byBzcHRQdqh2-HvAkiySqKPoqTTOHNZI2PTbpOVI6WDrhPydBh0ZxSshMs025TeNRTFXGVdZYB1ltX5hfsGKsZOdqQ2vbbIxtGW1sbqpvnnBRdm99GH1bfrCApILHguSDCYPbhMWFYIqvjxqPRpARm6GbtZ2qplenCKrErEesmLTFtfK3Prd1uJO86r68wFTDOspKzLzPMthU2L3b5-GI42rjhOvu8kX22vfX-ej60vsJ_gr-Sf6P

I'm playing around with this build, what do you think of putting mirror arrow on deerskin boots and multiple traps to summon 3-6 of them at a time with LMP?

Also what do you think of grabbing minion instability since it's right there for bosses that tend to kill them before they can unload much dmg? Maybe drop the multiple traps all in one place with the instability for a small nuke?

Traps can be a good way to utilize them, but I am not a fan of traps myself. Report your findings if you try it out!
My clones almost never die. Only when face tanking very tough (physical) packs / vaal smash, they will die. You can try it out, but I don't think it is good.


I got myself a 5L chest and my gems to lvl 19, which boosted by damage. I replaced the Slower Projectiles gem on my Mirror Arrow for Point Blank. I mostly shoot my mirror close to / in the middle of a pack, so it will get almost full value on that support. I will keep slower projectiles on my Blink Arrow, since it is more difficult with positioning.

Thinking about Chin Sol (100% more damage at close range). That would probably be BiS if Mirror Arrow can get full use out of it. Expensive though.

Currently 17k dps on a single Blink Arrow and 22.7k on a single Mirror Arrow (when fully utilizing Point Blank). ~75k dps. Biggest problem seems to be the defenses - physical projectiles are dangerous. Need more evasion or drop some dmg in favour of the dodge passives.

I'm following your build pretty much to the T, because i'm pretty new and dont know much about the tree, but i'm using different skillsets. I'll let you know how they turn out. right now I use multiple trap/trap/culling strike on mirror arrow. with Herald of Ash and Anger auras.

I also have Vaal clarity so I can drop 12-15 mirrors rapidly and blink away, drop a Vall summon skeleton and then hit flesh offering, so far so good, but i'm still low lvl.

I'm lvling so my gems change pretty regularly with gear. I picked up a doomfletch because it seems to be so elemental-driven, but i'm wondering about stacking pierce with a drillneck and a strong phys dps bow.

Also curious about Curse on hit and poacher's mark or projectile weakness.

Seems like this build would be just as viable if you went more Archer-bow-damage, or even bow-based summoner with zombies etc. It's pretty versatile.