Shadow - [2.1] Hipster Nova Mine or the Call of Cthulhu - Forum

Tired of trap firestorm ? Feeling edgy but tired of those mainstream Rottenstorm and Rotten Pizza (lame)Blast ? Want to blow entire screens away with the satisfying noise of a crit without actually critting ? Efficiency is so yesterday and you are SO done with this league. No ! What you want to do is have fun and mines are fun, inefficient and completely INDIE. You can be the annoying bracelet wearing hipster in the bar and roll your eyes at practically anything. Nobody's playing mines. We're like litteraly two playing mines in TSC, bruh. Only one person took mine nodes in the ladder and that's me. Check mate, normies.

SooooooOOooo... What's the idea behind the build ? It's more or less a variation on your typical mainstream-420-blaze-it-chaos-goer's passive skill tree, exploiting the now infamous 75+25%=81N0 roxor combo. It brings poison without the support gems, amazing life regen and great boss clear. No, what's a bit different are the skill's we'll be using : Fire Nova Mine, Smoke Mine, Phase Run and of course, Abyssal Cry. The idea was to test how far I could go with mines to test their potential. I'm quite pleased with the results but there's plenty more to test. Note that this guide will be evolving and is actually incomplete.

So why Fire Nova Mine ?

Spoiler

Fire Nova Mine releases three fire nova in a large AoE, each fire nova dealing 29% (up to 31% in the build) more damage than the last one. That means it's a perfect candidate for poison :
1. there's the word "more" somewhere which means it's broken.
2. it procs three times meaning it will stack three powerful DoTs per mine on targets and we all know what poison do to bosses.
3. the AoE can cover an entire screen in a regular pack clearing setup and keeps on spreading when in range.
4. mines, like traps, add another layer of more multipliers.
5. It's fire meaning we can convert it entirely to Chaos and exploit those juicy double dipping chaos nodes.
And nobody's playing FNM after lvl. 50 or so.

Before I go into more details about the build, here's a list of pros and cons.

Pros :
- Immune to reflect.
- Very mobile (Quicksilver, whirling/flame fash/ huge MS boosts from Smoke Mine and Phase run)
- Great versatility (can do BM/Reflect/No Regen/No Leech)
- Very good clear speed (can blow multiple screens in a single detonation).
- Can oneshot a lot of bosses, even some red tier bosses.
- "Good" survivability (Smoke Mine, Phase Run, Acrobatics, Arctic Armor, Bino's insane regeneration, mobile and 5k hp XD)
- A very active combo style gameplay.
- Strongboxe immune.
- Instant Talisman Altar clean-up.

Cons :
- Not the best party build. While damage and AoE clear are good, it relies on punctual burst and a rythm. So groups might upset this rythm. In general, lags spikes and screen clutter is dangerous for a build that mainly relies on being active to survive.
- Not a "great" survibility : no leech, no overcapped elemental resistance, somewhat weak to flicker mobs (a decoy totem solves this problem but it slows down clears on certain maps). Not a true facetank build.
- Stuns can be a problem in t13+ damage loaded map rolls (trigger gem setups and smoke mine help but you must be able to adapt).
- Probably not a lvl100 build (at least for now) and not HC viable.
- Mines are layed at your feet.

Ok, we're going to start with the passive tree.

"

PASSIVE TREE

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYBBAcEswW1BnAHHgj0DkgRLxGWEcIWbxa_Fy8abB8CIvQjXyP2JKomlSsKMHwy0TY9NsU26TwFPV9FR0W5SVFMs02STp9RR1JTVGJVS1XGVdZcQF3yYeJirGTnakNqjGwIbAtsjG0ZcFF1nnZvdoJ6f36wf8aApIIeg9uEd4fLiEKNfY2_j_qTJ5Uul5WX9J2qna6d2aBDoS-iAKLZpwinm7DYtAy0xbTRtUi3db6KwFTAZsHFwuzIDMgUytPPFdQj2CTYVNsL2-fjautj6-7uFe988B_w1fGK9W_60g==

We take most mines nodes (mine laying speed is vital). With Eldricht Battery, we can take advantage of our ES pool to cast and reserve auras (Anger and Arctic Armor) without ever going low mana(14%mana reserved). You need enlighten 3 on top of it so if you don't have it, skip Anger. Acrobatics = 30% less damage taken from attacks. AoE nodes allow us to cover the screen in purple flames. We get as much life and chaos damage as possible. The tree has up to 5 jewels possible.

Here's a variation which has better synergy with Jade Flask but lower damage and less potential I feel. Has yet to be tested. You also have to drop an aura

Spoiler

http://poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYABAcFtQZwBx4I9A5IES8RlhHCE4MWvx7wIvQjXyP2JpUrCjB8MgEyGDY9N9Q6WD1fRblJUUmxTLNNkk6fUUdSU1RiVUtVxlxAXfJh4mHrYqxqQ2qMbAhsC2yMbRlwUXC7dZ52b3aCelN6f36wf8aCHoPbhHeHy4hCjDaNfY2_j_qTJ5Uul5WX9Jsmnaqd2aBDoS-i2aebsNiyGbMDtAy0xbTRtUi3dbzqvorAVMHFwuzIDMgUytPPFc960B_UI9fP2FTbC9vn6NbrY-wY7T_uFe-I7-vw1fGK9W_5Nw==

The Sion Life wheel, while attractive at first glance, has less dex and strength, lower AoE, less chaos res and damage so I don't recommend it. You gain 10% HP but you'll lose a ton of other stats and requirements.

"

ABOUT THE GEAR

This is the gosu combo that will make every Korean shoutcaster wet his pants. We must not go under 35% mana (Eldricht Battery is there for that), get a ton regen, all our chaos poisons (FNM and Abyssal Cry) and all our fire is chaos. Note that we get no health from these bad boys and it really sucks. Now go hug a sad panda.

You need GG HP rolls, resistances, strength and some ES to offset the huge cost of mines (140 mana).

Same idea but the GG leather belt would have %Mine Damage instead of strength.

Again, GG HP rolls, resistances. The ideal rings are two Unset Rings where we can put smoke mine and Flame dash/fire golem. Other GG stat if you find it : %Fire Damage. Cast speed is nice as reduces the delay between novas but it's far from essential.

Natural Hierachy adds a great deal of damage but has no HP.If you're smarter than me, you can go with a %chaos damage implicit talisman with HP instead. Good stats to have are Spell Damage and Fire Damage. Again, Cast Speed is the least of our concerns but appreciated.

"

GEM SETUP

In our 5L/6L

Concentrated effect + Increased Area of Effect are supringsingly versatile. When you have enough damage, you can run Increased AoE with Added Chaos Damage to burn half of Wraeclast in a detonation. For bosses, you can switch to Added Chaos + Conc effect.

The other start of the build is ofc Abyssal Cry :

Blood Magic is essential if you're running Acrobatics as it cuts our ES in half. Else you can replace it with Culling Strike. I find Life Leech to be quite gadget : it's gated by our low leech rate and Bino already puts us back to full life when a pack implodes.

Anger should be put on your Consuming Dark dagger for that sweet +1lvl.

Here's my CWDT :

You should OFC make sure all gems are leveled according to your CWDT. It's better to have lvl 10-15 CWDT. You can replace Molten Shell by a fire golem.
On Another setup, I have CWDT with Enfeeble.

The aura setup if you're going for it :

Anger has to be in the Consuming Dark. Combine with enlighten 3/4 and Arctic armor.

Phase Run is linked with Blood Magic and Increase duration.

As a side note, i'm always testing stuff so don't mind my character page.

"

How to mine 101

You can run around mobs, activating phase run+quicksilver and a Jade/granite flask and pop mines in between packs. Lay the mine, press D and right after, cast Abyssal Cry. Try to use Abyssal Cry as a way to extend the range of your mines. Suicidal mobs can also destroy whole packs by themselves if you just pop Abyssal Cry and trigger those maniacs. In general, you should abuse your very high movespeed to bait projectiles as you arrive by a pack by running a circle around them.

The Smoke Mine combo :
Put the smoke mine outside of the pack, pop phase run, quiksilver and defense flasks and run through the pack. Lay a mine, use Abyssal Cry and as you're casting, press Detonate (D). It will teleport you outside of the pack as well blinding survivors. The CWDT is very useful in those situations as it will detonate automatically if you get spiked. Sometimes I still close my eyes while doing this one, I'll admit. YOU HAVE TO BE IN LINE OF SIGHT OF THE MINE TO BE TELEPORTED OUT. Work that geometry.

Decoy :
Use a decoy in maps with Flicker mobs. Position on the side of your totem, place your mines, pop Abyssal and move on. Very useful on Gorge. Between Smoke Mine and Decoy, you'll manage him just fine.

Bosses :
You can use a standard Smoke Mine Combo, except you keep on laying mine in a circle, aggroing everything you can. This will pop lots of bosses instantly (or poison finishes them off).

Boxes :
Smoke Mine outside of Ice Nova range, stack a few mines, pop your antifreeze, open the box and use abyssal cry and detonate right away. Everything will die, Exiles Includes. For extra safety, you can also pop a Decoy Totem.

notes about mines

1. they die to AoE, even reflect, but we can fix that for the first 5s (clever construction).
2. you lay them at your feet. You can use shift to lay them without having to aim. It helps a lot when surrounded and in confined areas.
3. you can stack up to 7 mines (the build only uses 6 stacks).
4. you're immune to reflect but not to corrupting blood. The stacks carry over.
5. you can detonate them with a trigger support such as CWDT and CWS.
6. the default key to detonate them is D and you don't need a detonate mine gem to access this ability.

I'll update the guide/manifest as testing goes by. Hardest content I've cleaned with this build so far was a double boss Excavation map with -player resist but it wasn't that pretty. Had to use smooth TPs to refill pots spend a lot of time closing my eyes while pressing random keys.
I hope other happy miners will come and share their experiences with these uncanny contraptions.

Last edited by Bubonlubrique on Feb 11, 2016, 1:23:46 PM