3.15 Comprehensive Guide to Mana Miner Scion (Mom + Agnostic + Indigon)



Hello and welcome to my guide to mana miner.
This guide is a compilation of other takes on this build just to make your life a little bit easier if you want to try this build.

First time I played this build in 3.13 Ritual League and it was at it's peak. Build is not as good as it used to be but still is very reliable in terms of both damage and survivability.

Special thanks to Akane and Remicaster. I'll mention their channels below.

Feel free to ask questions in this thread or PM me.


News
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3.16 Patchnotes
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Unfortunately, the build received a massive nerf coming out of nowhere - The Agnostic has been mover so far we can't take it now, but there is solution - we can use Dance of the Offered, these are unupgraded Omeyocan boots and it looks like the build cannot function without them. Also we might have lost all the dodge. I think the build is still going to be viable and I'll update it as soon as there is some decent tree.

Theorycrafted PoB: https://pastebin.com/K5Rtr3gS




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Pros and Cons

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+ Very tanky - can tank die beam and shaper's ray (can't tank double ray with Maven's presence - I tested it :D)
+ Huge dps - can farm feared
+ Alch and go - there is no "no-no" map mods, only unpleasant ones
+ Fast movement - not as fast as meta lab runner, but still, very fast
+ 100% Flask uptime
+ You can get fortify, immunity to freeze, chill, stun, curses and even to poison

- A lot of buttons - especially on bosses, we have a rotation of skills to maximize our damage, so it is also
- Not a beginner friendly - if you are new to this game I can't recomment this build to you due to complexity of it's mechanics. Now I can't decide for you, but I'd suggest you to pick another build, I'd recommend you to start with Enki's Arc Witch
- Not SSF viable - this build requires multiple uniques which are mandatory for the build


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Core Mechanics Explained

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Mind over Matter (MoM) - this is a keystone saying that 30% of damage is taken from our mana instead of HP. Let's call it MoM effect. We get this keystone from Cloak of Defiance, which also increases MoM effect by 10%. We get another 8% from Hierophant's ascendancy point and up to 10% from Watcher's Eye - so we have 58% MoM effect.
Example:
Spoiler
We have 1000 HP, 1000 mana and just an ordinary MoM. A monster hits us with 1000 damage. We lose 700 hp and 300 mana.


Agnostic - this is a keystone we get from passive tree. When we are not on full life we sacrifice 20% of our mana per second to recover life, it also turns off Energy Shield completely.
This allows us to stack mana instead of HP and not to die. However, HP is important too - 3k HP and 5k mana is tankier than 2k HP and 7k mana. Funny note - if you take Blood Magic, Chaos Inoculation and Agnostic you will have a character with no mana, no es and 1 hp. Nice setup for default auto attack uber elder farmer :^)

Indigon - this is a unique item obtainable from Uber Elder.
Spoiler

It increases out mana, lets our mana flask also recover our HP pool and gives us THE DeePS. We get most of our damage out of Indigon's property:
"
#% increased Spell Damage for each 200 total Mana you have Spent Recently, up to 2000%
which synergies with next core mechanic - Arcane Cloak.

Arcane Cloak - this is a gem, upon using it we spend #% of our current mana and get up to 14% mana transformed to added lightning damage and also give us buff which takes 75% of damage taken from buff before life, this buff is equal to mana spent. Arcane Cloak has no cost, it spends our mana even if we use Vaal Clarity of Lavianga's Spirit unique mana flask.

Summing up two previous mechanics - when we use Arcane Cloak we get A LOT of damage for 4 seconds, if we don't use Arcane Cloak our dps sux. It's still ok on maps, but synergy of Arcane Cloak and Indigon lets us farm all endgame content.

Dodge and Spell Dodge - we get 40% dodge and 30% spell dodge by taking Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics keystones, we also get up to 20% dodge and spell dodge from Omeyocan boots. We can also get additional dodge chance by using Quartz Flask. So with Acro and Phase Acro, Omeyocan and 5000 mana we have 60% chance to dodge attacks and 50% chance to dodge spells, this means each time we receive attack or spell damage we have a chance to completely nullify it's damage. Dodge does not help you against "puddles" like Al Hezmin's DoT puddle in center and also it does not help you if you're inflicted with any kind of Damage Over Time like poison or bleeding. It's also important to note that dodge mechanic is pure RNG quite similar to block and spell block and there's no determinism in it unlike in evasion mechanic.



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Additional defensive mechanics explained

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Stun immunity - we get 28% stun avoidance from Heart of Oak passive point and one small point beneath it. In order to get another 72% we need to use flask with crafted
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50% Chance to avoid being Stunned during Flask Effect
This craft can be obtained by unveiling Cinderswallow Urn. We therefore increase this property with flask effectiveness nodes, we need to get 44% increased flask effect. We get 20% from Natural Remedies node, 5% from Careful Conservationist node, 10% from Primal Spirit node and another 20% from Aqueous Accelerant node, which results in 45% increased flask effectiveness just from passive tree, we also increase our flask effect with Alchemist's Genius from Spiked Concoction node which can be found on Medium Cluster Jewel and we also can use flask with "Alchemist's" prefix which increases flask's effectiveness by 25%. Until you get enough flask effect I'd suggest using Soul of the Brine King pantheon.

Freeze, Chill and Poison immunity - we get Freeze and Chill immunity just by using Dream Fragments unique ring. We can get poison immunity by using corrupted Dream Fragments with "Cannot be poisoned" implicit.

Curse immunity - get medium cluster jewel with Numbing Elixir node, it gives us
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40% reduced Effect of Curses on you during Effect of any Mana Flask
We also can get up to 35% reduced Effect of Curses by using rare rings with Shaper or Crusader influence and increase it up to 42% by using Imbued Catalyst and another 20% by using upgraded Soul of Yugul. So with any mana flask in effect we have 100% reduced effect of curses on you which equals to not being curses. It may also be noted that we are stilled considered "cursed", just the curse does not have any effect on us until the curse's effect is not increased.
Example of such ring:
Spoiler


Fortify - we simply get it by using Vigilant Strike setup mentioned in Gems section below.



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Gearing

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Helmet
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Indigon is completely mandatory for this build. Best in slot enchantment:
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Arcane Cloak Spends an additional 15% of current Mana

Please note that it's important to have 25% roll on this this property:
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#% increased Spell Damage for each 200 total Mana you have Spent Recently, up to 2000%



Body Armour
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Another mandatory unique for this build. Try to get high mana roll on it and get an enchantment of your preference.


Rings
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Costs next to nothing, gives us 20% maximum mana, bunch of cold res and freeze and chill immunity, one of the sweetest uniques for this build. You can also get a corrupted one with implicit of your choice. Upgrade it with Fertile Catalysts to get even more mana.


Essence Worm is very good at the beginning, put Summon Skitterbots there. It is also quite a good option if you have Watcher's Eye with nice properties.

Another option is a rare ring with #% Reduced Curse effect on you, curse on hit or just a lot of life and resists
Example of anti-curse ring:


Example of all-rounder rare ring

(We miss you, old harvest, we truly do).



Amulet
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There's no better amulet. Even if you get a Mirror-tier amulet it is not as good as a good ol' Atziri's Foible. Upgrade it with Fertile Catalysts to get even more mana.
Best in slot annointment: Arcane Capacitor (Verdant Oil, Black Oil, Golden Oil)
Budget alternative - Prodigal Perfection (Clear Oil, Azure Oil, Azure Oil)


Boots
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Best in Slot for mapping, up to 20% increased maximum mana, up to 20% dodge and spell dodge. Omeyocan is obtained by using Dance of the Offered with Vial of Ritual on Apex of Sacrifice, but usually it's cheaper to buy already upgraded version. "Lose 7% of mana per second" property is completely neglected, we can even sustain Righeous Fire with Omeyocans and mana flask up.

Other option for bossing is Skyforth because it provides even more mana and gives us free stun immunity so you can use another utility flask. Note that we don't care about losing life regeneration because we recover out life with Agnostic, not regenerate it. I never got to use them on mana miner, but I felt it's worth to note it as an option.


Gloves
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Rare with life, resists and preferably mana. You also can get an influenced ones with Culling Strike (Warlord's influence), #% to Unnerve enemies on hit (Hunter's influence) or even both, but it's pretty expensive. Best base is of course Fingerless Silk Gloves, do not get Nexus Gloves, these are for another type of mana builds.


Another option is Hands of the High Templar with these implicits:
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+1 Maximum Frenzy Charges
+2 Level of Socketed Duration Gems
+1 Level of Socketed Gems
Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit, with #% increased Effect.

Example:


It is good for this gem link:
Divergent Arcane Cloak - Arcane Surge - Empower - Enhance

Why level of Arcane Cloak is important will be explained in Gems section below.

Curse on hit is worse than simple Sniper's Mark mentioned in Gems section below, but it allows us to use Master of Fear + Wish for Death medium cluster therefore it's the best in terms of damage, but lowers our survivability.


Weapons
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Special thanks to Remicaster on this section


Now this is kinda tricky.
You want to prioritize next properties:
#% increased spell damage, gain #% non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage
+# to Maximum Mana
Adds # to # lightning damage to spells

Other beneficial properties are:
"

- +#% Global Critical Strike Multiplier
- #% Increased Critical Strike Chance to Spells
- +1 to all lightning spell skill gems
- +1 to all spell skill gems

And of course #% increased lightning/cold/fire damage depending on gem you're using in your main gem link, this is also mentioned in Gems section below.

Why is mana on weapons is so good: because weapons provide the biggest mana boost. T1 Mana on weapons gives us from 140 to 159 flat maximum mana which beats even Cloak of Defiance.

Examples of good weapons:


You can learn how to craft your weapons in Crafting section below.

Important note on wands vs melee weapons
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Using melee weapons allows us to use Vigilant Strike in order to get Fortify buff, which is an additional layer of defence (and a pretty strong one), this will also be mentioned in Gems section below. That is why it is recommended to use melee weapons such as sceptres and daggers. However, in terms of damage it is irrelevant and if you want to lose Fortify for a good wand, you're welcome.


Map clearing option: Explody mace. You can get a shaper influenced mace with increased spell damage, elemental penetration and EXPLODES, which is super nice for clearing, but irrelevant on bossing. However do note that your STR is pretty low so prioritize base with as low STR requirement as possible and don't forget that you need to only meet 75% of requirements because of Atizi's Foible.
Example:


Explanation why flat damage is superior to increased spell damage
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"
In this game, flat damage is super strong (flat damage as in adds # to # lightning damage to spells, not #% increase). Due to flat damage being the first line of the equation, it is one of the stats that decides your damage. So here is a quick example of why flat damage are strong.

Assuming you deal 5 lightning damage, and have 2 wands with these stats
Wand 1 : Adds 10 lightning damage to spells, 50% increase spell damage
Wand 2 : 100% Increase spell damage

On paper, wand 2 looks stronger, but with the calculations going on
Wand 1 : (5 + 10) * 0.5 = 7.5
Wand 2 : 5 * 1 = 5

So this is the main reason why flat is super strong, hopefully this will explains why :).





Belt
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Rare with life, mana and resists, preferably with open prefix for crafting #% increased flask effect. Preferably Stygian Vise for abyssal jewel. High-End option would be life, mana, resists, mana or flask mana recovery rate, reduced flask charges used or increased flask charges gained.
Examples:



Jewels
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Next priorities are beneficial for us:
- #% Increased maximum Life
- #% Increased maximum Mana
- #% increased Mine Throwing Speed.
- +#% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
- +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Elemental Skills
- +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Spells
- +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier while Dual Wielding
- +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Cold/Lightning/Fire Skills depending on your main dps gem
and, well resists. Actually resists are quite a problem for this build because we use a lot of uniques so it's ok to fill your resists with jewels or even weapons.
Examples:



Watcher's Eye

We really need only one property - MoM effect while affected by clarity, but you also can get clarity + zealotry/hatred/wrath and use it with Essence Worm.
Usually Watcher's with Clarity is pretty cheap and always try to divine it to 10%.
Example:


Abyss jewel if you use Stygian Vise - just get one with life, mana and crit multi, it's also quite nice to get #% to hinder with spells.

Cluster Jewels:

Large Cluster Jewels

We use 2 Large Cluster Jewels, the only mandatory node is Scintillating Idea. The only real good suffix is Disorienting Display, which gives us YET ANOTHER layer of defense - blind, try to get at least 1 large cluster with it. We also need 3rd node to get 2nd, yeah, that's how large clusters work, you can either use it if you want or just skip it, saving 2 points. Try to get large cluster with up to 8 added skill points, but it's ok to start with 9 point clusters when you're tight on budget.

Medium Cluster Jewels
Make sure to get medium clusters with up to 5 added skill points.
We need next nodes:
- Distilled Perfection
- Liquid Inspiration
- Spiked Concoction (just 1)
- Numbing Elixir (just 1, you may ignore it if you don't want curse immunity)
We also may use one medium cluster with Wish for Death + Master of Fear for free culling strike and unnerve, but remember - they only work if an enemy is cursed.

Small cluster jewels are optional, but it feels like Liquid Inspiration is the only option for them.

Unnatural Instinct

High-End option, gives us 12% increased maximum life, 16% increased maximum mana, +15 life and 4% to all ele resists, put it here:
Spoiler


Healthy Mind


Best option for increasing out mana pool, up to 60% increased maximum mana, but comes with a price of losing 20% increased maximum life, using it or not is your choice, but if you do - put it here.
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Flasks
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Due to nerfs to Enduring Eternal Mana Flask we have to use second mana flask. Also Wise Oak got nerfed so it's not worth to use it anymore, at least no balancing resistances for it anymore :p

Decent option, the biggest mana recovery available right now, but not that far to Catalyzed. I prefer it over Catalyzed, but I don't think it really matters.

Wise Oak got nerfed so it's not worth using it anymore, at least no balancing resistances for it anymore :p
But still a good option, with "Reused at the end of Flask Effect" enchant I can sustain it all the time so it's free ele res and some, unfortunately, small bonuses.
Quick hint on chaos res - just use Atziri's Promise on chaos bosses, enchant it with "Used when Charges reach full" and you get about about 60% chaos res for free with about 10% more dps as a bonus depending on your flask effectivity.




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Gems

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Actually, we can use any elemental spell as our main gem. Usually it is Ball Lightning, but in 3.15 we received Eye of Winter and it's quite good, I've also enjoyed Blazing Salvo, however I'll only talk about Ball Lightning and Eye of Winter.

But, regardless of the gem you choose, most of your damage will be lightning because of 2 large clusters and arcane cloak so keep it in mind.

Ball Lightning
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Ball Lightning - High-Impact Mines - (Awakened) Elemental Focus - Slower Projectiles - Minefield / Swift Assembly - Charged Mines

Swap Slower Projectiles with Trap and Mine Damage when you use Arc on maps.

Ball Lightning mechanics explained (thanks to Remicaster)
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"

Ball Lightning is a Lightning Spell skill gem. This game we have 4 major categories of skill gem, here we will only focus on the majority 2 of them, one is Spell and another one is Attack. To put this in a nutshell, a Spell is an ability that is casted with magic, while Attack is a skill that requires the user to perform an attack. So, almost all Attack modifiers does not interact with Spell skills.

Now back to Ball Lightning. Since Ball Lightning is a Spell, this means we can scale our damage with these common stats found in weapons.
> #% Increased Spell Damage
> Adds # to # (elemental) damage to spells
> +#% Critical Strike Chance for Spells
> +#% Global Critical Strike Multiplier

Do note that these similar stats does not scale our damage
> #% Adds # to # (elemental) damage
> +#% Critical Strike Chance

The reason why these stats can't scale our damage is, these mods are considered "Local mods". To put it into nutshell and simplify it, Local mods only applies to Attack skill gems. Due to Ball Lightning being a Spell, those 2 stats above does not apply, thus it does not increase our damage.

On default, using Ball Lightning will cast small lightning bolt projectile, piercing all targets on its way, then disappear after a short amount of time. Supporting Ball Lightning with Blastchain Mine support will make you throw mines that cast Ball Lightning instead of casting it by yourself. In short, this means that you are a "miner". Supporting a skill with mines opens a new way to scale your damage, and that is through a stat called "Mine Damage". Any modifiers to mines also applies to our Ball Lightning Mines.

There are multiple benefit on making a skill into a mine. Here are some of the reasons
> Canceling the need of cast speed
> Opening a new way to scale damage
> You can no longer take reflected damage

This also brings on some downsides, it includes

> Unable to leech life and mana
> Need to self detonate the mines

When you throw mines, the skill inside the mines doesn't activate by itself, you must manually activate it with your Detonate Key (Default D key).

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Mechanics

Think of Ball Lightning is a small orb of projectile orb that strikes out arcing lighting bolts on enemies. The damage of Ball Lightning only comes from the arcing lightning bolts, not the Ball Lightning itself.

A single cast of Ball Lightning is able to hit the same target multiple times. BUT, the Ball Lightning must not went too far away from the target or else it will not hit the target anymore. Because of this, we will be using Slower Projectile support, not grabbing any projectile speed anywhere (unless it is totally inevitable), to allow Ball Lightning stay close to the target as long as possible, not straying too far away to deal more damage as it hits more. This means that Slower Projectile support almost doubles our damage dealt to a single mob because it hits approximately twice as much as without the support gem.

Ball Lightning CANNOT shotgun. So if you support Ball Lightning with support gems like Lesser Multiple Projectile, Greater Multiple Projectile or Dying Sun, those projectile will not shotgun. This is due to the restriction each Ball Lightning is only able to hit the same target every 0.15 second from the same entity. But, Ball Lightning generated from different mines does shotgun because they are different entities. But do not that multiple projectile fired from the same mine does not shotgun because they fall into the category of same entity.

So here is an example, a single mine fire 3 Ball Lightning, if the monster is caught in between 2 Ball Lightning, only 1 of the Ball Lightning will be able to hit the target.

Ball Lightning does have an AoE gem tag. Although the area of the Ball Lightning strikes radius can be increased by
AoE modifiers, they do not increase the damage provided from it because Ball Lightning does not deal any AoE damage because the main source of damage is the arcing lightning bolt. So, supporting Concentrated Effect does not increase the damage on Ball Lightning, only reduce the area of it.

Ball Lightning also have the projectile tag, however it does not deal any projectile damage, it only deals the arcing lightning bolt. So supporting any projectile behavior gems like Chain does not make Ball Lightning chain.





Eye of Winter
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Eye of Winter - High-Impact Mines - Increased Critical Strikes - Increased Critical Damage - Minefield / Swift Assembly - Charged Mines

Eye of Winter mechanics explained
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Work in progress :p



Minefield vs Swift Assembly
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Minefield has much lower mine throwing speed, but throws 4 mines at once and has +2 maximum mines placed while Swift Assembly has much higher mine throwing speed with just a chance to throw multiple mines at once and does not have +2 maximum mines placed. Choose one of your preference. As far as I'm concerned Swift Assembly is good for Hardcore, but I am a proud softcore pleb so I use Minefield.


High-Impact Mines vs Blastchain Mine
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Blastchain mine is usually better for normal miner setups, but it has this property:
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Supported Skills deal 5% more Damage for each prior Mine in Detonation Sequence

Denotaions take time, not much but still. Since we only have real dps for 4 seconds, it is not as efficient as high-impact mine, but in order to maximize our dps we should place mines closer to an enemy (completely irrelevant on maps).


Unfortunately, Ball Lightning is not the best in terms of clearspeed, and while Eye of Winter is much better in these terms, I'd still suggest using Arc for clear. Just use Arc instead of them on maps since it's sooo good on maps and switch to your main gem on bosses.

Sigil of Power - (Divergent) Vaal Righteous Fire - (Anomalous) Bear Trap - Increased Duration

(Anomalous) Clarity

Don't level it up, it's mana regen is too low for us, we only need it because of watcher's eye.

Flame Dash

Arcane Cloak
(Divergent) Arcane Cloak - (Divergent) Arcane Surge - Enhance (lvl 3/4) - Empower (lvl 4)
Empower and Enhance are not requisite. Why empower is good is explained just below. It is not worth using Enhance until you use Divergent Arcane Cloak because it increases buff effect.

Why is level of Arcane Cloak important?
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Arcane Cloak spends more mana with gem level which results in increase of our damage, buff effect also increases every 4 level starting with lvl 5. Enhance is only important if you use Divergent Arcane Cloak because it increases buff effect.




Vigilant Strike setup

Vigilant Strike - Ancestral Call - (Anomalous) Fortify - Faster Attacks
You get fortify on hit for 18 seconds so you have to use it at least every 18 seconds, this is a quite survivability boost but only available with melee weapons.

Arcanist Brand / Trigger craft
Because trigger craft has been significantly nerfed, if you can't get 4 seconds cooldown trigger, I'd suggest using Arcanist brand
Arcanist Brand - (Divergent) Wave of Conviction - (Divergent) Hydrosphere - Sniper's Mark

Skill rotation on bosses

Sigil of Power -> Arcanist Brand -> Bear Trap -> start spamming mines -> Vaal Righteous Fire -> Arcane Cloak -> Detonate Mines



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Bandits and Pantheon

Spoiler

Bandits - Kill all, we really need these 2 points.

Pantheon
Major Gods
If you don't have stun immunity - use Soul of the Brine King, if you're already stun immune use Lunaris on maps and Solaris on Bosses, don't forget to upgrade them.

Minor Gods
Upgraded Soul of Yugul for curse immunity


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F.A.Q.

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Q: Can this build be played with any other class than Scion?
A: To cut a long story short - no. Unlike any other classes, Scion can have up to 128 passive points at lvl 100 and all the bandits dead and this build relies on these points heavily.

Q: Can I use a rare body armour with MoM effect instead of Cloak of Defiance?
A: Eh, no. Unfortunately, even though it's so temptive, we'll have to spend 8 more points and, well, we can't do that. Of course, you can try, who am I to stop you, but it's not worth it. And if you really want that second curse - spend 3 points on Whispers of Doom, it's really close to our path.

Q: Is this build hardcore viable?
A: Well, I'd suppose any build that can tank die beam is hardcore viable, but keep in mind that our phys mitigation is very low and don't forget to invest into chaos res. With enough investment this build can do all the content on HC too.

Q: Can I league start with this build?
A: Well, it depends on your ability to make currency fast in league start scenario because it requires a lot of uniques that are pretty expensive in league start scenario, I am not stopping you, but I'd rather suggest starting with another scion build and rerolling later.

Q: Can I use HH with this build?
A: I tried using HH in 3.13 but this build doesn't scale well enough with it, I'd suggest using other build if you want to run HH.

Q: Can I farm 100% delirious maps with this build?
A: Yes, you can, but it's not the best build for it. Usually 100% deli is carried by HH and it's not the best build for HH.

Q: Sometimes my Sigil of Power doesn't cast, what's the problem?
A: It's pretty common for me too :p Sigil of Power is not instant, it has cast time of 0.5 sec and pretty big cooldown, sometimes you can interrupt casting by throwing mines or some other stuff and you don't get Sigil of Power (which is pretty important on bosses)

You can find other frequently asked questions about the build in the Akane's video




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PoB and Leveling

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Akane's video on leveling

Leveling PoB: https://pastebin.com/DWVVQXVY (made by Solari)

Lvl 86 before using clusters PoB: https://pastebin.com/hShFeuNP (made by Akane)

My current lvl 95 PoB: https://pastebin.com/CnTMr7Qc



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Crafting your own gear

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Disclaimer:
I am not a pro crafter and most of my crafting guides are based either on someone's guide on how to craft stuff (Elesshar, Akane, Path of Matth, etc.), or my own experience which might not be that efficient, but that's how I came up with it. So in case you find a better way to craft something - don't blame me :P But please, feel free to share your crafting guides here so other people could craft their stuff (including myself) :)

Explodey mace
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Get a mace with shaper's influence ilvl 83+. The base itself does not matter, just make sure you have another STR to use it (don't forget you have Atziri's Foible).
You may use perfect fossils for 30% quality, but it does not really matter, it is only for alt quality. Now you need to buy essences. We need only the prefix ones, I'd suggest using Torment or Woe, preferably Deafening, but you won't lose much with Shrieking too. Now spam essences of your choice until you get "Damage penetrates #% elemental resistances". Basically that's the only beneficial mod we can roll. Now you need to open a suffix. You may keep prefixes, annul or just use Farric Wolf Alpha if you have an open suffix. Now you need to craft "prefixes cannot be changed". Next step - using reroll+ fire, this is a harvest craft and a pretty common one.
Spoiler

It is very preferable to use exactly reroll+ and not just a reroll because there's only 2 suffixes with fire tag - fire res and explodes, reroll+ has a big chance to spawn both of them and a little bit of fire res won't ruin the item. Now just do this again and again until you finally hit explodes. Yeah, this craft can be quite expensive, but you also might get lucky and get it in 1st try.


Anti-curse ring
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Actually I think it would be cheaper to buy the one meeting your requirements, but still I'll tell you how to make it, it's pretty easy. You need ilvl 75+ base of your choice with shaper's or crusader's inlfuence. Just use reroll caster when you see one or use Aetheric Fossils. You may also get anti-curse + curse on hit with these.


Dagger or Sceptre
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Now this is a pretty expensive craft because it will need a fractured base. It is also important that Runic Dagger is much better for this craft because it doesn't have local critical strike.
Step 1.
Get a base with fractured mana, as much mana as you can, base can be pretty expensive, I think at least 10 ex or so. You can also fracture it yourself but with prices for fractures...
Step 2.
Chaos roll it until you get +1 to all spell skills or at least +1 to all lightning spell skills (most of our core skills have lightning tag). Yes, we really have to spend our c because item is always at least magic since it always has a prefix and alt spamming would also require regaling it all the time, chaos spam is just more efficient. If you got +1 to all spell skills and an open prefix you're pretty much done. Just get rid of suffixes and multimod it. Base now should look like this:
Spoiler




Well, you're basically done. Now if you want you can YOLO aug crit to get random spell crit chance, but keep in mind that it is only 100% if you use a rune dagger as a base, if you use sceptre you may also get local crit chance. Good luck.

Another option is to get fractured "#% increased spell damage, gain #% of your non-chaos damage as chaos damage", but that is for rich boyz. Process is about the same. I wouldn't recommend getting base with fractured "+1 to All Spell Skill Gems" because the base itself will probably be way too expensive or you'll even have to fracture it yourself, also it probably would be cheaper to chaos roll this mod.







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Painseeker Eye of Winter mana miner

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This is a new version of the build, thanks again to Remicaster1 on explaining stuff to me.

Core of the build is almost the same, but it combines several uniques to get ridiculous amount of damage at cost of losing some defence. Also we almost have to run Elementalist ascendancy instead of Hierophant because that's a significant boost of damage.


Painseeker + Leadership's price interaction explained
Spoiler

Leadership's Price is very similar to Secrets of Suffering granted by The Interrogation unique small cluster jewel and using just Secrets of Suffering would be good, but unfortunately we also use Painseeker gloves which say that our critical strikes do not inherently inflict ailments. Leadership's Price outmatches Secrets of Suffering here because all of our damage will 100% inflict Scorch, Brittle and Sap at the same time. Now back to Painseeker: Inflict non-damaging ailments as though dealing up to 200% MORE damage. This property provides us with just ridiculous amount of damage. I oneshotted Sirus in last phase and I couldn't do it before.


Scorch, Brittle and Sap explained
Spoiler

Scorch - lowers enemy's elemental resistances up to -30%
Sap - lowers damage incoming from enemy to 20% (so basically it's another fortify)
Brittle - every stack of brittle increases critical chance by 1%, enemy can have up to 15 stacks of Brittle. That is a FLAT critical chance which is huge. We can even drop Increased Critical Strikes from our main gem link and replace it with Increased Trap and Mine Damage which is another almost 50% more damage and still have 100% crit chance.


Unfortunately, getting your attributes to match is a big pain and that is also why we use Elementalist ascendancy - our path also starts from Witch and we have a lot of int there. Since most of our passive points are from Ranger area we have a lot of dex. Personaly, I couldn't find better solution for that problem than benchcrafting int on gear, in my case it was a weapon.

Another unique that helps to deal a lot of damage is unique Snakepit ring combined with Hydrosphere.

Mechanics explained: your projectiles from Eye of Winter chain from Hydrosphere to the boss (or mob) and Eye of Winter has a lot of projectiles.

I would be very glad if somebody could provide better explanation of this mechanic since I don't understand it completely so feel free to correct me.

I personally do not use Snakepit on maps because it says "Projectiles from your spells cannot pierce" and pierce feels very good for EoW on maps, also I love freeze and chill immunity from Dream Fragments so I use it on maps.

I would not recommend to start with this build because it's even harder to make all the gears work so I'd play usual mana miner until about level 91 or so.

My current PoB:
https://pastebin.com/euMg8Y0h

Quick FAQ:
Spoiler

Q: Can I use Secrets of Suffering granted by The Interrogation or Alternating Sceptre instead of Leadership's Price?
A: Unfortunately, Painseeker gloves say our critical strikes do not inherently inflict ailments, but Leadership's Price solves this problem because we inflict 3 ailments at the same time with each hit 100%, while with having Secrets of Suffering only you only have some chance to inflict them. I can't say it's impossible to use Secrets of Suffering, but it probably will result in losing a lot of DPS and the only positive point is that we get to keep Atziri's Foible, which is both a survivability boost and damage boost. But Leadership's Price boosts both of them too because you have +#$ to max ele res (if you got yourself a good one, of course) and constant damage boost. Still, you can experiment with SoS, please tell me about your results, I'm actually very interested in it.

Q: Can I use Unnatural Instinct in this variant?
A: If you can figure out how to use it and still make attributes match - yes, unfortunately, I couldn't so I dropped it.

Q: Why don't you take mine wheel nodes in the tree? It's such a good damage boost
A: Yes, it is, but I couldn't take them because I simply did not have enough passive points for both the mine wheel and making dex and int match. Matching them is a pain indeed.





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Special thanks and other resources

Spoiler

Thanks to Remicaster1 for making previous guide on this build. It helped me a lot when I started playing this build because, well, I was very confused :D
Unfortunately, Remi archived his guide, but make sure to look into it if my is not enough for you, however I'll try my best to update it to this level of quality. Remi also has a youtube channel and a twitch channel

Thanks to Akane for making a ton of videos on this build. To help you understand amount of Akane's impact - this build is also often called Akane miner :D
Here's link to Akane's channel, you can find a lot of info there

Also thanks to SKCloudy for making a video on his version of Mana miner


Last edited by kucjlopo2d on Oct 18, 2021, 5:15:50 PM
Last bumped on Dec 12, 2021, 7:41:46 PM
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Finally a guide on this build, look forward to the weapon craft!
This dude, has been playing Mana Miner before mana was even a thing...
Highly recommend, looks amazing pal, great work.
flask nerfs hit this build very hard, is it worth the currency to do this build league after league? idk
bitch about a niche game? lol.
each new league is a circus of nerfs and buffs.
where is the element of fun in discovering the unknown in this game?
"

flask nerfs hit this build very hard, is it worth the currency to do this build league after league? idk


Well, we only lost wise oak and replaced with second mana flask, other flask changes didn't really hit hard and "of warding" can be replaced with reduced curse effectivity.
The build does not rly cost that much, I did mine for about 20-25 ex this league, for me it is not expensive, but if it is expensive for you - I can't really answer that question.
If the gems don't get nerfed next league and flask changes will be reverted (which is supposed to happen according to interviews) - build will feel just fine next league, but is a little bit scuffed for now.
I dunno much bout building around mana, but isnt skyforth is BiS for mana build?
"
chubin222 wrote:
I dunno much bout building around mana, but isnt skyforth is BiS for mana build?


I explained the difference between Skyforth and Omeyocan in gear section.
To cut it shortly:
Skyforth - more mana, free antistun
Omeyocan - onslaught, up to 30% res, free 20% dodge and spell dodge.
This build uses Acro + Phase Acro so Omeyocan is awesome option, but final decision is up to you.
"
komachung wrote:
Finally a guide on this build, look forward to the weapon craft!


Weapon craft added, u also may look for Elesshar's crafting guide, he did it as well.
Worth mentioning is also Phantasmal frostbolt, with double damage, 220% damage effectiveness (we have high flat lightning damage to spells from arcane cloak, sigil of power, and weapons), and there is the option to use Alternating scepter for secret of suffering (you need a big hit to trigger brittle and sap, rather than a lot of small hits).
Also I would say, Skyforth is probably BIS (better than Omeyocan), as we no longer need to use a flask with useless suffix (stun avoidance), and we can comfortably switch the enduring mana flask with a foreboding hybrid flask for 80% reduced ailment effect (without having to suffer the annoying 7% negative mana regen).

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