[3.8] [SC] Blohbloh's Stormblast Miner Build [5M+ Shaper DPS] [Budget Viable]




Introduction

Hi, I'm Blohbloh and this is my Stormblast Miner I created for BSC. This build was originally created on a whim, but I eventually fell in love with the gameplay these mines offered, turning this into a real build. This build seeks to achieve high DPS coupled with moderate defenses in order to create a smooth experience. Although the build scales extremely well with how much money you put into it, a budget variant is possible and still offers a great amount.

Pros
+Easy to get started
+High damage
+Safe gameplay due to offscreening
+Boss killer
+SSF viable

Cons
-Prone to one-shots
-Slow Mapping

Path of Building
https://pastebin.com/3p6xZ0Bm


The build in action


Tree, Gear, and Gems: Concepts and Explanations

Tree

Lvl 96 Skill Tree

The tree is fairly standard. We go around and grab all of the nearby mine nodes and any other damage nodes along the way. We also focus on grabbing all of the life that is within our reach and grabbing extra jewel sockets to stack more damage/life on them. Since this build uses the Charged Mines Support Gem, we also pick up the nearby frenzy and power charge nodes. Since the build can't grab too much life due to its position on the tree, we also go for Phase Acrobatics coupled with Born in the Shadows for the blind.

Ascendancy

We take the Saboteur Ascendancy for this build because of the defense and the mine nodes it provides.
Take Bomb Specialist - Demolitions Specialist for your normal and cruel labs for the humongous boost in damage and clear speed it provides.
For your merc lab, take Pyromaniac for the extra life regen.
For your Uber lab, Born in the Shadows provides an insane amount of defense, helping you stay alive longer in general mapping. Explosives Expert is also a viable option, but since our mines already do extremely high damage, the extra damage this node provides is probably not worth it.

Bandits

We take Alira for the crit multi and extra resistance.



Gear
My current gear


Staff

We use a staff in order to acquire the ability to use a Kaom's Heart with our build to compensate for our low life.
The BEST option for this build would be a multi-modded eclipse staff with the mods +3 to level of all lightning spell skill gems and 20% chance to deal double damage e.g.

Note: I'm poor so my staff is not very good

Preferable mods after these two would be % increased spell damage/gain x% of non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage, crafted % chance to deal double damage, or gain x% of lightning damage as extra chaos damage
If you can't afford something like this yet, a rare staff with similar mods (+2 or +1 to level of lightning spell skill gems) or just a high amount of % increased spell damage would suffice.
You could also use a Tremor Rod.

The re-arming mines will keep you topped off on the maximum mine placement, increasing your min detonation rate and also increasing how much damage the enemy will take due to the aura effect from Stormblast Mine

Chest

A Kaom's Heart is hands-down the best option for this build

If you can't afford one of these yet, a high life rare chest with some extra resistances should be enough.

Helmet

Taking a rare helmet with the enchant Stormblast Mine has 40% increased aura effect or Stormblast Mine deals 40% increased damage, as well as high life and resistances is the best option for this build. Once you get these enchants, you can also try delve crafting to get the mod Nearby enemies have -9% to lightning resistance for even more damage.

If you are looking for a more defensive option, Indigon is an option as well.

The reserved mana for throwing mines counts as spending mana, so you will gain extra damage from the helm, while a hybrid flask or mana flask will provide you a huge constant life regen.

Gloves

A rare pair of gloves with the mod x% increased critical strike chance against shocked enemies and high life is the best option for this build. e.g.


Boots

A pair of rare boots with high life and resists would probably be the best option for this build. Personally, I find Mutewind Whispersteps to be a nice option for the build, although they lack the defense we need.

The best enchant to get for your boots would be Damage penetrates 10% of elemental resistance if you have not killed recently or Regen 2% of life and mana if you have been hit recently for a more defensive option.

Belt

A rare Stygian Vise with high life and resistances is the best option. Even if the belt is mediocre at best, the inclusion of an abyss jewel will more than make up for it, so I can't ever recommend a normal belt for this build.

If you can, you can also craft % increased damage on the belt or any of the flask modifiers to boost your damage.

Amulet

A rare amulet with high life, critical strike multiplier, and resists is a cheap but effective option. For a more expensive option, try to find an amulet with the mod Gain x% of non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage.
For anointing your amulet, I find Serpent Stance to be the most cost-effective option in terms of damage.
Hardened Scars is also an extremely defensive option to use with a hybrid flask and the enduring modifier on it, giving you permanent fortify up-time.

Rings

A Mark of the Shaper is the best ring we can use for this build, giving us % increased life, lightning damage to spells, and over 100% increased damage.

For the elder ring, a normal ring with high life and resists is fine.
If you can't afford a decent Mark of the Shaper, two rare rings with high life and resists should provide equivalent defense.

Flasks
The only item on this build that is absolutely required for it to work is a hybrid/mana flask with the enduring modifier on it.

Since we have very little mana regeneration on our tree and gear, a flask with this mod solves our problem by giving us a practically permanent amount of high mana regeneration. I recommend using an eternal mana flask due to the low amount of charges used, as well as the high amount of mana regen it gives.
The worst mod you could roll for this flask is 50% increased recovery rate, as since the flask normally gives us enough mana regen to cover our expenses, this mod simply lowers our up-time and forces us to click our flask more often.

For damage, a Diamond Flask and a The Wise Oak are the best options.

Keep in mind that The Wise Oak requires your lightning resistance to be the highest in order to give you lightning penetration. You could also try to balance all three of you resistances in order to gain the defensive buff for all elements.

Jewels

Any rare jewels with these mods will work:

Abyss Jewels

+ x to maximum life
Adds x-x lightning damage to spells
+ x% to critical strike multiplier

Normal Jewels

x% increased maximum life
x% increased damage
+ x% to critical strike multiplier

Try to acquire some life on every single jewel to compensate for the low life on our tree!



Gems
Your main links should look something like this:

Staff
Stormblast Mine - Trap and Mine Damage - Concentrated Effect/Increased Area of Effect - Charged Mines - Swift Assembly - Controlled Destruction

We use the gems with the highest 'more' damage multipliers we can find (keep in mind that Swift Assembly is around 60% more damage on average), as well as using Charged Mines in order to generate frenzy charges and give ourselves massively increased mine throwing speed, increasing our clear speed and DPS.


Helmet
Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1) - Wave of Conviction - Curse on Hit - Conductivity

This setup is a quick way to apply both lightning exposure and a high level curse. We can use a lvl 1 CWDT setup to proc Wave of Exposure, which deals majority lightning damage due to our added lightning damage on gear. In addition, the spell will also apply a high level curse at the same time, further lowering the enemies resistances.


Gloves
Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Arcane Surge (lvl 6)

This setup gives you extra mobility as well as some additional damage. You will have an extra slot here, so you can also Vaal Righteous Fire for more damage.


Boots
Precision (lvl 1) - Herald of Ice - Herald of Thunder - Summon Stone Golem

We use Summon Stone Golem for the extra survivability and Herald of Thunder for the damage. Precision is an easy lvl 1 aura you can reserve for nothing to gain a little bit of extra crit chance. The reason I use Herald of Ice is mainly for the shatter explosions, helping to boost our clearspeed. Keep in mind we have to keep a fair amount of our mana unreserved in order to stack to our maximum number of mines.




Leveling

The best part about Stormblast Mine is that we can use it from Lvl 1! I recommend using a Tabula Rasa for your main links and two wands for damage until you are high enough level to equip either a Tremor Rod or your staff of choice.

Level 1-12

Equip Stormblast Mine and use Swift Assembly along with any other support gems you can use. Grab Precision and keep it at lvl 1. Grab Flame Dash and link it to a lvl 1 Arcane Surge.
For the tree, travel to Coldhearted Calculation and take Saboteur as well.


13-31

Equip Trap and Mine Damage and Controlled Destruction in Act 2. Start to level Concentrated Effect in your offhand, using Added Lightning Damage for now. Grab Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice as well. Buy a Faster Casting and link it to your Flame Dash. Make sure that you help Alira for the bandit questline. Do Siosa's questline in Act 3 and start to use Charged Mines.
For the tree, grab Blood Siphon at the start, then travel to Successive Detonations, Doom Cast, and Blast Cascade.
You should also do your normal lab and grab Bomb Specialist


32-55

At lvl 38, replace Added Lightning Damage with Increased Area of Effect. Get a Summon Stone Golem and start to use it for the life regen. Buy a lvl 1 Cast When Damage Taken and link it to a lvl 1 Wave of Conviction, Curse on Hit, and Conductivity.
For the tree, follow the right side of the tree towards High Explosives, Blood Drinker, Phase Acrobatics, Blast Waves, Heartseeker, and Herbalism.
Do you cruel lab and grab Demolitions Specialist.


56-70

Follow the tree to Volatile Mines, Melding, and Arcanist's Dominion. Grab any +30 stat nodes you need to keep your gems equipped. On the right side, grab your power charge node and both your frenzy charge nodes.
For your merc lab, grab Pyromaniac.


71-96

Simply fill out the rest of the tree as you see fit, grabbing any jewel sockets as soon as you can buy jewels to put in them.
Do your Uber lab and grab Born in the Shadows


Tips and Tricks

- Stormblast Mine has a stacking aura effect, increasing the damage nearby enemies take. For the most dps, stack your mines to the max before detonating them.

- You can offscreen monsters with your mines. Throw them as far out as possible and detonate them from far away when engaging dangerous enemies.




Last edited by blohbloh on Oct 14, 2019, 5:16:29 PM
Last bumped on Oct 15, 2019, 5:25:07 PM
Nice to see someone post a Stormblast Mine build. There's nothing wrong with the spell/mine itself but easily overshadowed by the other 2 (pyroclast/icicle) which have the potential to exceeed DPS in both clear and single target sadly enough.

Any idea if Demolitions Specialist raises the cap of SB Mine's aura to 300% from 150%? My guess is no and it only raises the % increased damage taken from 3% to 6% but still capped out at 150%. It would be awesome if not even necessary for DS to double the cap amount that way it's DPS is competitive to the likes of Pyroclast for single target.
"
reciprocate wrote:
Nice to see someone post a Stormblast Mine build. There's nothing wrong with the spell/mine itself but easily overshadowed by the other 2 (pyroclast/icicle) which have the potential to exceeed DPS in both clear and single target sadly enough.

Any idea if Demolitions Specialist raises the cap of SB Mine's aura to 300% from 150%? My guess is no and it only raises the % increased damage taken from 3% to 6% but still capped out at 150%. It would be awesome if not even necessary for DS to double the cap amount that way it's DPS is competitive to the likes of Pyroclast for single target.


Not sure if the increased aura effect would increase the damage taken cap, but I'm not sure it would matter. With 140% aura effect of mines (ascendancy and helm enchant) you're still less than the 150% damage taken cap from stormblast mine, so investing in extra aura effect to raise that number would probably be less valuable than just taking generic damage nodes.
Actually if you have SB Mine equipped on a Victario's Influence chest (max rolled) you can get another 64% of non-curse Aura effect as it comes with a level 30 generosity on it. Add passives onto that, and it's feasible to get to or over 200% of Aura effect. Though it's hard to really tell if that works as intended or if GGG bothered to not have global increased aura effect work with mine auras.

That chest is really good for a Pyroclast mine if it works the way I think it does due to that mine getting flat added damage as it's aura effect.
Last edited by reciprocate on Oct 15, 2019, 5:26:11 PM

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