[HC Assassin] 2.6 Arc Miner build - Fast Clear + Very Low Budget!
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Introduction
Tired of trying the same old builds, or looking through a 'budget' guide only to realise it is not as budget as you thought? Want a build instead that can run almost all map mods, while still instagibbing screens with almost total freedom over gear selection? Want to be the carry in a group? Then look no further! This arc miner build is something I have been playing around with for the past two leagues or so, but really came into power with the introduction of the Assassin ascendency class. It is incredibly cheap (basically put anything on that you want except for the Tremor Rod), and has a high clear speed for the investment. Keep in mind though that it is a build that you need to pay attention for - you defence is mainly your own movement & instagibbing things. It is also easy to do Atziri with this build (although not sure about uber).
Videos
Prophecy Character (6l with blasphemy temporal chains) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BybANi69ug8 (Dead Prophecy HC char on a 6l) Plateau clear, simple enough mods. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-iB98H5cf8 (Dead Prophecy HC char on a 6l) Normal Atziri clear. Uber is possible, although the trio is very rippy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3CDPyCnzCY (Dead Prophecy HC char on a 6l) You can run a second tremor rod on weapon swap with a bladefall setup to improve dps against the tankier bosses. (each map has one damage reducing mod, the bladefall's map is more significant) Perandus Character (5l with herald of ice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBI71uh5RBI (Perandus on a 5l) Twinned Gorge map with some mods - Wasn't paying attention when I found the bosses :P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGNPssbASTA (Perandus on a 5l) Vuln + -max + light damage + chain T12 Strengths Quick clear + quite good single target damage Reflect/corrupting blood immune Extremely cheap Pretty unique playstyle Able to run all map mods easily except no regen/blood magic (but all are doable) Atziri is simple to do Weaknesses Not much defence Porcupines offscreen Can't do many auras :( No whirling blades
Defences
This is not a build where you can just facetank everything - your primary defence is killing everything quickly enough while they are distracted, although this is more than consistent enough to be hardcore viable (have gone over level 90 several times now in different leagues with this). Using a tremor rod means no shield so we can't invest into block, and as we are a miner we have no leech. Primarily we will be using a high effective health pool (HP + ES + MoM), and a decoy totem if particularly scared. Running a blasphemy with enfeeble or temp chains is also very useful. It is important to pay attention to the mobs when you are playing this build or you will die! 
Offences
Currently I can place up to 9 mines at a time and place 3 at a time due to minefield, although usually 3 mines is good enough for whites/easy blues, and 6 mines are enough for blues/rares. If any mobs are left over, then we just use the re-arm of the mines from tremor rod to finish them off. The damage below is the average damage for a single arc hit.
0 Power Charges
7 Power Charges
Build Mechanics
For this build we use the quick mine-laying speed from Tremor rod with high damage arc mines to clear screens at a time. We also detonate mines manually by pressing 'd' rather than use a totem to give better control of damage. The passive node 'Blast Cascade' allows us to easily keep full power charges, while the passive node 'Volatile Mines' allows us to stop for far less time when detonating (but there is still a small stutter). 'Clever Construction' is also used as you would expect for any mine/trap build. As we use 'Mind over Matter' we want as much unreserved mana as possible, although we will need to run Clarity at least. There are several options to run something on mana but for hardcore I would consider either Herald of Ice to shatter mobs (in particular porcupines), a blasphemy curse or purity of elements (if you are low on resists). It is possible, but much less safe, to run this without MoM and instead use Wrath as well to give a big damage boost. Skill Gem Setups
Mandatory
There are only 4 'setups' I would consider mandatory for this; Arc - Minefield - Trap and Mine Damage - Lightning Pen - Controlled Destruction ( - Added Chaos Damage) CWDT - Immortal Call - Phase Run - Increased Duration I use Phase Run in my CWDT set-up because of how infrequently we use abilities/place mines in comparison to other builds. We often get a second or two of the movement speed buff plus it can help get out of bad situation by phasing through mobs. Make sure phase run occurs after immortal call in the proc order, else you will not get the phasing buff. Lightning Warp - Less Duration - Faster Casting ( - Rapid Decay) Clarity (standalone)
Optional
Other links are up to your preference entirely. I have used; Stone Golem - things that help it survive Herald of Ice/whatever aura you want Assassin's Mark/Enfeeble - Faster Casting - Decoy Totem
Single Target
For the vast majority of the time using your standard Arc setup will be high enough single target, however it can be useful to have a different skill that you can swap to for those particularly tanky enemies that do not die with 2 mine detonates or so. During Prophecy league I tended to use bladefall mines for this purpose on a weapon swap with another tremor rod. Everyone should know how good bladefall mines are for single target so this was no surprise. The setup I ran was : Bladefall - Minefield - Poison - Concentrated Effect - Added Chaos Damage ( - Trap and Mine Damage) Everyone should know how good bladefall mines are for single target so this was no surprise. However given the changes in 2.4, bladefall mines will become more awkward to use (although still be very good if you are comfortable enough around the bosses - easy enough with a decoy totem). I will be exploring a few other options for single target in 2.4 to see if something feels a little better at the trade off of some of the damage. Options I am currently considering are: Fireball - Minefield - Fire pen - Trap and Mine Damage - Controlled Destruction Ethereal Knives - Minefield - Pierce - Trap and Mine Damage - Controlled Destruction I will update this section if I find one of these options to be particularly good. Passive Tree
Current Tree
This is the main goal of the build, I have not included the jewels as they are dependent on when you want to pick them up, or leave them until after completing the tree. It could also be possible to go into templar for discipline for some more HP if you wanted later on. https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAAQHBUIHHgjUCPQOSA6OEJIRLRGWEcITcRZAFm8XsBo4HRQgbiM2I18kqiaVJy8qCyycLR8yGDIyNuk6WD7xQXJBlkV8RZ1HBklPSVFKLkqLTLNQMFMQUzFTUlVLVcZYrlnzXfJepV8qYeJirGNDZJ1mnmpDaxdsjHBRcFJyD3Ntdm98g36wf8aD24UyhX2J04w2jmSPRo_6kFWVIJUuly2Xl5rgm1Gdqp3ZoEOio6cIp6Wus7MDtDi0xbb6t3W8b7yqvOrAVMHFwfPQ0ND11YvYVNmG2t3bXtvn42rlGevk6-7r9e4V8NXw-fId8uH3pvrS-_U=
Ascendency - Assassin
Unstable Infusion (normal) - Deadly Infusion (cruel) Ambush (merciless) - Assassinate (maps) Assassin improves the damage of this build drastically due to buffing the base crit chance of arc. At the moment I have ~73% crit chance and ~470% crit multi with all my charges up. I would suggest going for the cruel lab as soon as you feel safe enough to do it to get those last two points for 'Deadly Infusion'. As for the last four points of Assassin, head towards Assasinate for a pretty nice damage boost + culling strike (Ambush also gives minor damage increase). With the 2.3 ascendancy changes, saboteur may be more viable as 100% mine arming speed was added, which is great for tremor rod builds in particular. I may try this out later in the league.
Tree at lvl 80
Your tree should have most of the important parts by now, and damage will start consistently increasing with every level. Make sure you pick up the power charges, health and mana nodes first, and get Mind over Matter by the time you start mapping. After this get 'Volatile Mines' -> 'High Explosives' -> Serpent Stance -> Arcane Potency -> Other crit + damage nodes. https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAAQHBUIHHgjUCPQOSBCSES0RlhHCE3EWQBZvF7AaOB0UIG4jNiNfJpUnLyoLLJwtHzIYMjI6WD7xQZZFfEWdRwZJT0lRSotMs1AwUxBTMVNSVUtVxliuWfNd8l6lXyph4mKsY0NmnmpDaxdsjHBRcFJyD3Ntdm98g35ZfrB_xoPbhTKFfYnTjDaOZI9Gj_qQVZUglS6XLZeXmuCdqp3ZoEOio6cIrrOzA7Q4tMW2-rxvvKq86sBUwcXB89DQ0PXYVNmG2t3bXtvn42rlGevk6-7w1fD58uH3pvrS-_U=
Tree at lvl 48
Once you have Clever Construction, you want to start working your way towards templer, picking up some health along the way. I suggest switching into arc at level 48 to increase your clear speed a bit, but the mana cost will be a bit too high so keep an up-to-date mana potion, especially if you are already using a 5l (although this is not needed - I didn't get a 5l until after level 80). You will also probably need to take the 30 str and dex nodes that are pathed next to. These can be taken out if you have enough stats on your gear. https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAAQHBLMFQgceCNQOSBEtEZYqCyycLR8y0UGWRUdFfEWdRwZJUUyzU1JVS1XGXfJh4mKsbIxwUXBSc212b3yDfrB_xoPbidOMNo_6lSCVLpeXmuCiAKKjrrO0OLTFwGbB89DQ0PXYVNvn5Rnr7vDV8Pn79Q==
Tree at lvl 24
Around level 24 is where you can start using mines a bit more practically, as that is when we pick up 'Clever Construction', making your mines invulnerable for 5s once placed. Up until this point you can use fire nova mine + minefield (although you will hate perandus mobs), or whatever levelling skill you want to use. https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAAceDkgRlioLRXxHBklRVUtd8mHicFFwUnZvfrCJ04w2j_qVLpeXtDjQ0NhU2-flGfDV-_U=
Bandits
Bandit choices are quite easy for this build. We choose Oak over Alira in normal as we scale health far more than mana. Normal - Help Oak Cruel - Kill all Merciless - Help Alira Edit for 2.6: The passive tree has been unchanged for this build with one exception - you should take the 3 mana nodes that were introduced behind Mind over Matter. They are quite efficient, but keep in mind the other mana nodes that were previously suggested are also efficient and provide some additional benefits. I will be taking all 3 pure mana clusters. Gearing Armor + Jewellery The only item you need for this build is a Tremor Rod Military Staff, these are about an alc for a well rolled one. This is important as it gives you a big boost to mine-laying speed, has an in-built remote mine support and effectively gives your mines echo. Other than that, the +2 chains enchant on your helm is great (I just bought a white one and rolled for some life), but is not mandatory at all. All my current gear was either self found or bought for a couple of chaos, and you should look for life + mana + ES on armor and mana regen on jewellery if possible. Flasks As we use Mind over Matter, we will use a seething or bubbling mana flask and two seething life flasks. This leaves 2 utility flasks of your choice, I tend to use a Quicksilver and a Basalt flask. Make sure you have Curse Immune/Bleed removal/Freeze removal somewhere on your flasks at the very least. Enchantments Clearly for your helm enchantment you want the +2 arc chains. For the boot enchant, either go for elemental penetration (best), or movement speed/life and mana regen if you can't get it. Don't bother with a glove enchant.
Current Gear
A note on power charge generation: Ever since 2.5.0 Blast Cascade has worked far less consistently for building power charges (although maintaining current level is usually ok). Because of this, I would strongly suggest using orb of storms + pcoc to build charges at the start of a map, or whenever you run out due to low mob density. Last edited by Adblax#2772 on Mar 3, 2017, 11:34:19 AM Last bumped on Dec 19, 2017, 11:59:18 AM
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Will try it out ! Looks pretty neat
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Nice build, seems like a great starting character!
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Arc mine is extremely fun and the DPS is crazy when done right. It's really nice in PvP as well. I have not played my character since ascendancy came out but I like that you decided to go assassin. I was contemplating saboteur for the lay speed, extra mine and smoke. I'll have to play around again.
My gear utilizing crit is: I found out that when it comes down to it the most important thing with mine's is your defensive abilities and having a lot of options to switch in an out of. Flasks are extremely important. Before Ascendancy I hit around 30Kish average damage per mine with 60-70 laying speed. |
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Yes the limits of this build for damage are very high with top-tier gear. Assassin is just a clearly better choice in my opinion for this build if you keep using a Tremor Rod for the additional link & mine-laying speed (but with a 6l another setup would probably be better).
The damage boost you get from Deadly Infusion is pretty insane, but it would be less important if you already have very good gear I guess (with basically no crit on my gear I get roughly 73% crit chance with controlled destruction), but at the very least it would cap your crit and give a hefty amount of crit multi :) |
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Nice build! Thanks for sharing.
IGN: Scordalia_
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Cool build.
May I ask why do you need ES on the chest?????????????????????? Thanks. Problemas Conocidos / Preguntas Frecuentes - ¡Por favor lee antes de publicar!
Cómo publicar una imagen Guía de soporte técnico MTR y el Manual de Problemas de Conectividad "Una pulga no puede picar a una locomotora, pero puede llenar de ronchas al maquinista." (Libertad) IGN: @Copied_to_clipboard |
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Ideally I would want a good amount of ES on all pieces to go a little bit more hybrid. Apart from just giving you more EHP, the ES is also great for protecting your mana so you are not always chugging mana pots :)
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" Yes laying speed is super important but I ended up getting most of my laying speed from Jewels I think I have 5x with 8% laying speed each. Pretty insane. I'll have to make a bunch of ascendancy characters to play around with dps and defenses. |
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Ive got this build up to level 60 now, the damage is really amping up with cruel labs under my belt, but my god do I feel squishy.
I actually just took MoM off, because every mob I walk past would dump my whole mana pool. Maybe I'm just playing too aggressively, but the time between dropping mines and having them arm seems to be a scary time for me! |
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