[3.7]⚡️⚡️⚡️Frostbolt Mine Saboteur | 1.61M shaper DPS 6.9K EHP with 3ex | Beginner/Budget Friendly!⚡️⚡️⚡️

3.7 NOTE
Spoiler
Nothing changed to this build. All of the gears and passives are non-league-specific so there won't be big changes. Enjoy it for a new league! :D


Hi, guys :D This is my second build post here. I am not an English speaker so apologize for any confusing expression.



This is my league starter in Synthesis league, a Frostbolt Mine Saboteur. So far so good with both clear speed and single target damage. You can refer to the videos below for some general knowledge of it first.

VIDEO (will add more in the future)
Spoiler

https://youtu.be/eCs7_TbH_9s T4 Lookout Map
https://youtu.be/hMV3D1zr178 T7 Bone Crypt
https://youtu.be/FZ0Fc16QjFo T10 Overgrown Ruin
https://youtu.be/TBiWvfjS8xY T11 Desert Spring Map
https://youtu.be/BsK-gpBu2W8 T13 Crimson Temple Map


Path of Building
Spoiler

https://pastebin.com/i2J282qb (updated until 03/19/2019 in my region)



Simple Math: 4 mines + 0.32s laying time,
DPS = 129027 * 4 * (1 / 0.32) = 1612837
No Vaal Righteous Fire. With lv.7 Arcane Surge.

Note: PoB seems to ignore the Consecrated Ground effect on enemies (100% increased critical strike chance against enemies on Consecrated Ground) so the number may not be very reliable. It’s only for reference.


Passive Tree Overview


Gear (updated until 03/19/2019 in my region)
Spoiler




Price of my gears
Spoiler

Weapon = 2c+3c
Actually, they got updated from previous "spell crit chance+ crit multi + increased damage" version. Looking for "Adds # to # cold damage to spells", which grants far more damage than 60~80% spell crit chance (the reason of which is, our Frostbolt's base crit chance is only 5%)

Body Armour = 19c

Helmet = 120c
yea I know this is not cheap enough but it is not necessary either :D You can use any helmet with life/mana/resistance.

Rings = 8c + 48c

Amulet = 25c + 4c (crafting cost)

Boots = 50c

Belt = 13c

Mana Flask = 11c

Jewel = 20c

lv.21 Frostbolt gem = 35c


Recommended budget items
Spoiler





Gem links
Spoiler

Frostbolt - Remote Mine - Minefield - Trap and Mine Damage - Cold Penetration - Hypothermia/Increased Critical Strike

Cast when Damage Taken(lv.1) - Bladefall(lv.1) - Curse On Hit - Projectile Weakness
This setup allows you to keep Projectile Weakness curse on your target almost all the time like a Blasphemy aura. Because MoM we cant afford the cost of a real curse aura(35% mana reserved)

Cast when Damage Taken(lv.1) - Immortal Call(lv.1) - Purifying Flame(lv.1) - Increased Duration
Purifying Flame is used to create Consecrated Ground for 100% increased critical strike chance against enemies on it, and 6% life regeneration when your character is on it.

Cast when Damage Taken(lv.1) - Wave of Conviction(lv.1) - Added Cold Damage
Wave of Conviction causes exposure that reduces the target's resistance of one element, which is determined by the element type of the highest damage it deals to the target. We use lv.1 Wave of Conviction and high level Added Cold Damage to confirm it reducing cold resistance of enemies.

Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Arcane Surge(lv. 7)
Be sure you can proc Arcane Surge every time you cast Flame Dash via controlling the level of Arcane Surge Support.

Summon Flame Golem

Zealotry (put in Essence Worm Unset Ring)


Vaal Righteous Fire - Increased Duration - Frost Bomb
Frost Bomb is simply for manually applying cold exposure in tough situations that you can't afford to be hit to proc Cast When Damage Taken + Wave of Conviction.

Use Vaal Clarity in tough situations if you can't afford Lavianga's Spirit.



Playstyle
Spoiler

Play it with rhythm. Hold your left mouse button to walk around, and press right button while still holding the left button to place mines when you want to. Your character will stop a bit to act for placing mines and then continue walking, leaving mines behind. Then press Detonate Mine button and go together with your frostbolts!


Leveling
Spoiler

Use Freezing Pulse from lv.1 until you can get Frostbolt. I kept self-casting until I picked up the passive Volatile Mines, which allows Detonate Mine skill to be instant.

Rush to a jewel socket to place your first Frozen Trail, the threshold jewel of Frostbolt (I bought one for 1 chaos at Day1). You can get another Frozen Trail from Act5 quests.

Upon socketing 2* Frozen Trail this build is ready to work. Other things are just fixing your resistance and grabbing as much life as possible from your gears and passives. I didn’t pick Mind over Matter until lv.75 (because I want to pick enough offensive passives first and have no spare points until lv.75). I began to do maps with about 3k life and it proved totally safe enough with the super long travel distance of my frostbolts and blinding aura of Saboteur ascendancy.


Mechanics Explanation & FAQ
Spoiler

1. Mind over Matter: Why I need this specific amount of life/mana instead of other values?
Spoiler

Conclusion: When your life “exceeds”, 1 mana = 1 effective life (EHP, which means the actual total damage you can take before you die) at a specific ratio of life/mana. This is the most effective way to scale EHP.

Let’s do some math if you have the interests.
Suppose you have in total “X% of damage is taken from mana before life”.
Case 1: You take damage. Your mana drains but life has some remain.
Spoiler

In Case 1, your EHP consists of 2 parts: #1 is contributed by both a part of life and all of the mana.
#1 EHP = Max Mana/X%
While the corresponding life co-works with mana is
Max Mana/X%*(1-X%)

#2 is exactly your remaining life after the incoming damage drains your mana.
#2 EHP = Max Life - Max Mana/X%*(1-X%)

EHP = #1 + #2 = Max Mana/X% + Max Life - Max Mana/X%*(1-X%) = Max Life + Max Mana
In other words, 1 Mana = 1 EHP in this case.

Case 2: You take damage. Your mana has some remain but your life drains. You die.
Spoiler

In Case 2, because you have some mana remains all the time even on death, the Life co-works with mana to contribute to EHP all the time.

EHP = Max Life/(1-X%)

In this case, part of your mana do nothing to increasing your EHP.

Discussion
Spoiler

Suppose you don’t have issues with skill mana cost. Therefore, your mana is only valuable when it actually contributes to EHP. In this ideal case no doubt we want Case 1 on us that life exceeds the amount mana can “cover”,
But another fact is, stacking mana is easier than life (mainly because of the numerical design of passive life and mana nodes) which indicates that scale mana instead of life is way more effective to scale EHP.
With the 2 facts above, we now have the balance of life and mana at this specific ratio: when your life drains (die) your mana is also drained.

Balanced ratio = Life/Mana = (1-X%)/X%


At this ratio, no mana is wasted (not contribute to EHP), and every point of your life has some mana to spare the damage.

BUT… We still need to modify this ratio in practice. After all the discussion above is an ideal situation, right?

Sadly, things become too complicated and the result heavily depends on different player preference. I can’t give a general fixed conclusion here.

The only possible way is to test it out in practice by yourself. Still, the discussion is helpful to offer a general optimization reference for you.

Thank you for reading this completely till here. Thanks for the patient.


2. Can I use this/that gear instead of yours?
Spoiler

Use anything you like as long as it doesn’t ruin your gameplay. Mine builds require nothing mandatory.

3. Why use +1 mine helmet + Minefield?
Spoiler

Controlled Destruction instead of Minefield gives the highest damage except for Elemental Focus (I don’t use Elemental Focus cuz I want to freeze mobs). But Minefield enhances the number of mines placed thus enhances the life regen we get from that (ascendancy, 1% of max life regenerated for each mine placed recently). I feel my damage is enough to handle red maps so choose this defense-preferred choice.

Feel free to change gems to meet your preference.

4. Why not use Detonate Mines gem + Cast when Damage Taken/Spell Totem?
Spoiler

We have instant Detonate Mines skill already. I feel just fine to detonate mines manually all the way until today so save the sockets for other utilities.

Feel free to change gems to meet your preference.

Last edited by zhang8218923 on Jun 7, 2019, 9:29:58 AM
Last bumped on Jun 11, 2019, 11:10:57 AM
hanlaoniubi
been using this - lots of fun ^_^
"
jaJanken wrote:
been using this - lots of fun ^_^


Thanks for dropping some love in my post :D
Last edited by zhang8218923 on Mar 22, 2019, 10:23:55 PM
hanlaoniubi
Spoiler
https://youtu.be/LuhRoWn6KqM

Shaper kill by this build. Couldve been deathless but I love shaper balls btw
"
BastionMain wrote:
Spoiler
https://youtu.be/LuhRoWn6KqM

Shaper kill by this build. Couldve been deathless but I love shaper balls btw


very glad to know :D thx for ur love for this build
Spoiler

Uber elder is doable as well. The main problem is fps drops lmao. Im playing at 144hz and have rtx2070 with 9700k and when I detonate like 5 mines in a row fps is dropping from 144 to 70
"
BastionMain wrote:
Spoiler

Uber elder is doable as well. The main problem is fps drops lmao. Im playing at 144hz and have rtx2070 with 9700k and when I detonate like 5 mines in a row fps is dropping from 144 to 70


lol sad to hear that but that's what mines like. maybe drop minefield and use increased critical strike/elemental focus instead to reduce the number of frostbolts.

btw 70hz sounds still ok :/
Hi, can i play this build in 3.7?

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info