[3.8] Hanarashi's SSF Pyroclast Miner! Kill Uber Elder with a 5-link! Perfect SSF league starter :D

Hello everyone! I made this build in the SSF Blight league. This was one of my most successful SSF characters, so I thought I'd share :D



PoB Link: https://pastebin.com/Xpc8MqX7

Passive tree:
Spoiler


Current skill tree at level 94:
http://poeurl.com/cCZ8

What points you add beyond level 94 will mostly depend on preference, but I would say the main two choices are adding the rest of the life nodes on the Written in Blood cluster if you want extra defense, and adding the Efficient Explosives cluster if you want more damage.

I chose to kill all the bandits for the 2 passive skill points. Extra skill points are always nice :)



Ascendancy:

Spoiler
Saboteur (there are actually a few valid combinations)

Here is the order I got the ascendancy in while leveling

Bomb Specialist-->Demolitions Specialist-->Explosives Expert-->Born in the Shadows

However, I would only recommend running this same ascendancy path endgame if you don't mind dying once in a while, since you lose out on a significant amount of surviveability without Pyromaniac.

Around level 90, I switched from Explosives Expert to Pyromaniac since I didn't feel like I needed the extra damage, and I was dying more than I would like to.

At level 93, when I was optimizing my character for Uber Elder, I switched from Demolitions Specialist to Explosives Expert.

So my current ascendancy is:

Bomb Specialist, Pyromaniac, Explosives Expert, Born in the Shadows



Gear:

Spoiler


Weapons: The main stat to look out for is "+1 to level of all spell/fire spell skill gems"

Current Weapons:

Spoiler

If you have the +1 stat on both weapons, those weapons will carry you all the way to late endgame (I killed shaper guardians, shaper, and red elder all with weapons with just the +1 stat.) To kill Uber Elder, you'll need a little more damage, so look out for weapons that have added spell damage, spell/fire damage, crit multi, or crit chance on top of a +1 (I would still say the +1 is the most important stat.) Having the "Trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill" craft is nice because it gives us a curse, but not required (you can do similar with a CWDT setup)


Possible Chest Armors: Kintsugi, Belly of the Beast, Carcass Jack, Loreweave, Kaom's Heart, well-rolled evasion rare (see below)
Spoiler

Kintsugi (this is my current chest armor):


I switched to this chest armor when I started optimizing for Uber Elder. the "20% less damage taken if you have not been hit recently" is super nice during the Uber Elder/Atziri fight where you are not getting hit very often. The 20% less damage will often save you from getting oneshot when something does hit you. Not the best option for mapping, but it will be fine in maps too if you don't have a second chest piece to switch to.

Belly of the Beast: (my old chestpiece)

The high %life is pretty amazing. The most well-rounded chestpiece for mapping/bossing defense on this build. Not optimal for Uber Elder, but should work fine for everything else.

Carcass Jack:

If dying once in a while isn't a concern for you, and you love damage, this is probably the chest for you. I personally would have picked this chestpiece for mapping if I found one during the SSF league. Great chest for speedy mapping.

Loreweave:

I considered this chest for Uber Elder, but I ended up going for Kintsugi instead, since the 20% less damage taken I think is better than the max res (I was also running low on divines, so I didn't think I could roll a loreweave with a prefect max res and high life roll.) If you are in SSF and haven't found the Kintsugi prophecy chain, or happen to have a near perfect roll Loreweave, I would recommend.

Kaom's Heart:

I've never actually gotten this unique to drop before :( The fire damage and life are pretty amazing, but having no sockets is pretty difficult to work around with this build. Some ways you could use this chestpiece with this build are to use a staff instead of one-handed weapons to get the 5L or 6L in the staff, or to use a shaper/elder helmet with a pseudo 6L (gems supported by... mods on the helmet.) This option will probably change the build pretty significantly, but is worth considering.

Well-rolled evasion rare:

We all know that SSF can be mean sometimes, and you may not be able to find any of the uniques listed above. In that case, use a rare with high life (life % with flat life if possible), evasion, and whatever resistances you end up needing (depends on your other rare gear.) It is also probably possible to role a super shaper rare that is better than the uniques listed above, but won't really go into that here, since this build guide is focused on how to make the build cheap and SSF friendly.

There are probably other options I am missing, feel free to leave a question in the comments if there is different unique you are considering for the build :)




Helmet: Rare with high life, evasion, and resists

My current helmet:


Spoiler



The 9% of physical damage from hits taken as fire damage is nice, but not required. (Ideally, I would have one of the enchantments for Pyroclast Mine)


Boots: Atziri's step

Spoiler


Spell dodge chance, life, and evasion! If you are in SSF, I recommend running every Atziri set you find until you get these boots (especially since Atziri is so easy with this build.) Until you get these boots, you can use a rare with high life, evasion, and movement speed (I was still able to kill shaper deathless with rare boots)


Gloves: Rare with high life, evasion and resists

My current gloves:

Spoiler


The "Added fire against burning enemies" temple mod would be pretty nice if you are able to get it. I would prioritize high life though.


Belt: Rare with high life and resistances

My current belt:


Spoiler



Doesn't have to be a Stygian Vise. A leather belt will be fine as well. You will need strength on some of your jewelry for gem requirements (about 80 strength), but doesn't need to be on your belt. Strength is always a good stat since it adds a bit of life though.


Amulet: Rare with high life and resistances

My current amulet:


Spoiler

Prioritize the flat life+%life roll if you are lucky enough to get one from the temple. You can get a similar amount of life by getting a high life roll+high strength roll on your amulet.


Rings: Rares with high life, strength, and any res you need

My current rings:

Spoiler


Again, try to get as much life as possible! Opal ring bases with high life would be amazing if you can get them.


Flasks:

My current flasks:


Spoiler


Blood of the Karui is nice since with all our dodge chance, instant flasks are not as important (we usually don't get hit twice in a row in quick succession.)

Dying Sun is perfect for our build since the additional projectiles and increased area of effect both help our mines. This flask is pretty difficult to get SSF though. An alternative is to use an extra life flask instead.

Diamond flask for the crit, quartz flask for the extra dodge, and quicksilver for the movement speed while mapping (switch this out for a sapphire flask for Uber Elder.


Jewels: Life is most important (Again :))
Spoiler


Flat life abyss jewels if you are using Belly of the Beast, life % jewels if you are using any other chest. Mine damage, mine throwing speed, fire damage, spell damage, added fire damage to spells (abyss,) Crit multi, are all solid other mods to look out for





Gems:

Spoiler

5L (in chest) Pyroclast Mines - Inspiration - Swift Assembly - Trap and Mine Damage - Combustion

Probably drop Combustion while you are leveling and only have a 4-link

If you have a 6L, you can add Fire Penetration or Hypothermia (the Skitterbots chill so we get the damage from Hypo)

In your "trigger a socketed spell" weapon (if you have one): Summon stone golem, steelskin, enfeeble (or possibly flammability for a higher damage, less defense option) If you don't have the weapon craft, you can put these skills on CWDT (probably use immortal call instead of steelskin, and you may want to just summon the golem rather than having it on CWDT)

Auras/Mana reservation buffs: Clarity, Summon Skitterbots, Dread Banner

Movement: I like to use Smoke Mine for general mapping and Dash for Uber Elder, but this really comes down to personal preference

Other: Quality Detonate Mines if you have one, Portal

Lots of open sockets left, so you can do an additional utility setup of your choice (although I can't really think of anything the will improve the build significantly) I'm open to suggestions on this point :)




Leveling:

Spoiler
Use Stormblast mines until you get Icicle mines at level 12. You can use that until level 28 when you get Pyroclast mine. Remember to ID all rare scepters/rune daggers/wands/spirit shields for the chance of getting +1 to all spell/fire spell skill gems. Once you are dual wielding +1s, you are set for weapons until endgame. Note that Minefield might feel better than Swift assembly while leveling. I think I switched to Swift assembly around level 60.



Thank you for reading the guide! Sorry if it's a bit messy XD Please comment if you have any questions, or you can ask my directly on my stream at www.twitch.tv/hanarashi if I am live. I plan to put up videos of the build soon as well :) Special thanks to Donutknol and Tenkei for some build tips for optimizing the character for Uber Elder.
www.twitch.tv/hanarashi
Last edited by hannarashi on Oct 25, 2020, 9:09:00 PM
Last bumped on Dec 20, 2019, 3:35:54 AM
Very insightful guide, and having seen it in action it was actually surprisingly powerful for the fairly low level of gear you had.
Thanks! Still looking for a 3.9 SSF starter, doesn't look like much changes for this build in 3.9?
"
Thanks! Still looking for a 3.9 SSF starter, doesn't look like much changes for this build in 3.9?


Surprisingly, they haven't nerfed any of the mine skills or mines in general. :)
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/artcrusader
"
ArtCrusade wrote:
"
Thanks! Still looking for a 3.9 SSF starter, doesn't look like much changes for this build in 3.9?


Surprisingly, they haven't nerfed any of the mine skills or mines in general. :)


Icicle Mine got nerfed pretty badly imho.

Also:
"
Many bosses with lengthy introductions (such as the Brine King) now take reduced damage for a short period immediately after becoming targetable.

This is mainly nerf to mines - you can't insta delete bosses ;P Its more QOL thing, but it will be annoying.
I've seen alot of people calling this mine skill OP, but yet not many tend to play it, maybe its because its a laggy skill?. It seems to have relatively good clear speed and insane bossing. Good league starter imo? right?
"
Pjey wrote:
I've seen alot of people calling this mine skill OP, but yet not many tend to play it, maybe its because its a laggy skill?. It seems to have relatively good clear speed and insane bossing. Good league starter imo? right?


Been my main character in Blight league and it's done great imo. Very flexible between clearing and bossing
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/artcrusader
Hi there! Looking forward to playing this as my first character in Meta.

Any chance of a PoB update?
Wow, thanks for all the replies! I’m going to be away from my PC for a few days traveling, so I won’t be able to give the updated PoB link yet, but I’ll try my best to answer any other questions from my phone.
www.twitch.tv/hanarashi
"
Thanks! Still looking for a 3.9 SSF starter, doesn't look like much changes for this build in 3.9?


Other than what was already mentioned in the comment thread, I noticed that Inspiration support received a slight nerf (I still think it’s worth using as one of our core supports.) Also, bosses having more HP and more ele res might make boss fights like Uber Elder and Uber Atziri feel a bit slower, but that is more of a general change rather than just for mines.
www.twitch.tv/hanarashi

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info