3.0 | The Shadow Clone Ninjutsu [SC/HC]
  Introduction What's going on everyone! It's Morphyne here back with another amazing build guide. This will be the first build guide in 3.0 and I've got to say, this one has literally made me some currency this league! It's a hell of a good time, it makes mapping a joke, and I literally just watch a bunch of clones beat up everything on and off screen! The name definitely gives it away on this one;I'm a serious Naruto fan! ;) In all seriousness, this is my rendition of a Mirror Arrow Trapper build. Yes, I know there is a few of them poking around out there, one even making Build Guide of The Week a long time ago. This however, is Mirror Arrow updated for 3.0 and all it's glory! There's so many ways to make a mirror arrow build. Trying every single class even down to playing a Scion, there's nothing that can touch the power of a Saboteur. There's so many elements of this build that make it so amazing! It's style of play makes it unique and continuously progresses throughout maps, making it by far one of my all time favorite builds! Video(s)
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T6 Strand - https://youtu.be/VJmbrAbq-L4(Sorry no sound!)
Trap Demonstration - https://youtu.be/YAYP8euFQGU This video is just a quick demonstration of how Mirror Arrow traps still are proven useful without using clever Construction against bosses that use AoE's. Mechanics We have to ask ourselves, what makes this build tick? Well for starters, we are not a tank. When we get hit, it hurts... A lot. Good thing is, I've been testing this build out in Hardcore like I do with all my builds, and It's been handling great so far! So how do we protect ourselves from damage? Mind Over Matter for starters is one of our best mechanics for staying alive, that and being paired with a Tinkerskin, it's an unstoppable combo! Our clones are a defensive mechanic all on it own. Since our clones are considered well, ourselves, the enemy thinks that's us. So with 40+ of us strolling around, the enemy has no clue who to hit. The only drawback to this build is when we initiate fights. When we have a gap of time when there's no clones out on the field. That's when we rely on our flasks, generally a Jade and Granite Flask. This will help us take a few hits comfortably without spamming our life flasks. So once we have our clones out on the field, we want to make sure that we are continuously throwing our traps over enemies to replenish our mana pool and giving us life back for each trap triggered. This will keep us alive a lot longer. *NOTE* If you do not throw traps on your enemies while taking damage, this will sever your mana pool and eventually leave you a sitting duck without anything to protect you with. So make sure you are using your traps directly to spawn more clones! Once our clones are doing damage, we occasionally shoot out our double curse to help our clones deal increasingly more damage.   -We have a lot of defensive mechanics to help us survive in terrible situations. -We have 190% of life from the passive tree so we are decently healthy. -Can do any map mode without any issues! If doing phys reflect, just let your clones do all the work! -Very cheap build to make! about 12c for everything without links. -No mana issues, just moar clones! -Clear speed is amazing, We can chain from pack to another very quickly and we have amazing solo damage for bosses!   -Mind Over Matter although very useful, can be the death of us. If we take too much damage, we will run out of mana and leave us without any clones to deal damage. We must keep traps out on the field to make this not an issue. -Leveling can be tedious. Especially around level 30 when we really aren't getting much minion damage nodes and we can't run two auras until we have our Tinkerskin. Generally the build picks back up around lvl 50. -Chaining projectiles can be a bit dangerous when you're running maps. Just stay clear of your clones and you'll be okay!   In this section I generally talk about Mandatory unique's and a section for Recommended unique's, but since this build pretty much requires you to take a specific set of uniques in order to make it work, I will only be posting a section of mandatory unique's. Mandatory Unique's
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Tinkerskin is such a life saver when it comes to trap builds. Each time a trap is triggered, it replenishes our life pool and energy shield or mana pool and keeps us alive in bad situations. On top of giving us Frenzy charges for split arrow cursing and having trap cooldown to allow us to throw traps faster, it really is our BiS chest piece for sure! Lioneye's Glare is by far the best weapon for this build. Since our clones take the damage from our bow and quiver, it does a hefty amount of damage as well as giving our clones Far Shot and 100% accuracy from hits not being evaded. It is definitely required for this build to work! Drillneck is just a damn good quiver. Giving our minions and ourselves flat phys damage and dealing 50% increased damage when we pierce, it makes it such a strong component to this build. Alpha's Howl is great for our Aura Setup. Since we are using Generosity, we are giving our clones the full effect of our auras. So running an Alpha's Howl gives our auras +2 which in turn means more damage. Also, not being frozen is amazing in late game maps when we take big hits from cold damage. Just another amazing combo for this build. Grip of The Council is another great source of damage. Since we are running both physical and elemental damage, it gives us a decent amount of extra damage making it the BiS gloves for the build. The restriction on minion movement speed doesn't apply to us since our clones don't move! :D   As a Saboteur we take ascendancy passives as follows: Bomb Specialist > Chain Reaction > Blinding Assault > Born In The Shadows The order that we take our ascendancy passives are pretty self-explanatory. We take Bomb Specialist first since it's on our way to Chain Reaction which allows us to trigger multiple traps at once from just one being triggered. We then take Blinding Assault as our Merc Lab ascendancy for chance to blind on hit when we shoot enemies with our curse on hit setup. It gives us that extra defense mechanism that really helps us survive longer. Lastly, we'll take Born In The Shadows to reduce damage taken from those blinded enemies making blind that much better. PoB Link
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https://pastebin.com/SAEBcQLi
Passive Tree While leveling the passive tree, I would recommend you getting dexterity nodes as you progress through the game since you will need a lot to equip certain pieces of gear.
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Starting off - http://poeurl.com/bza6
Getting into Mid Game - http://poeurl.com/bza7 Maps - http://poeurl.com/bza8 Final Build - http://poeurl.com/bza9 In the final setup we work at getting double curses and grabbing every Increased curse effect and Aura effect to give our minions that extra bit of damage they need. Bandits
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Kill all
Pantheon
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This is my personal recommendation for my pantheon setup. There are other good options, but I feel these two are almost required. Major Soul of The Brine King - Not being stunned after getting hit by a stunning blow recently is just too good to pass up. It will save a life in those bad situations. Minor Soul of Garukhan - Having extra chance to evade after taking a savage hit will help further evade big hits when we are taking multiple strikes from melee or ranged. It helps stack with our Jade Flask as well.   Mirror Arrow and Blink Arrow Mirror Arrow/Blink Arrow > Trap Support > Cluster Trap > Minion Damage > Elemental Damage With Attacks > Elemental Focus Aura Setup Generosity > Anger > Wrath > Vaal Haste Curse Setup Split Arrow > Curse On Hit > Elemental Weakness > Projectile Weakness Defensive Setup Cast When Damage Taken > Immortal Call > Increased Duration > Vaal Clarity *NOTE* I use Vaal Clarity as a panic button. If you're taking big hits and MoM is depleting all your ES mana pool, us this to cast for free and regain life and our ES to better survive in those tough situations.  
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Changelog - Switched Vaal Summon Skeleton to Vaal Clarity as it is a better choice for survival as a panic button in tough situations. Our main focus when gearing ourselves is getting our uniques, obviously! All our rares are self-explanatory. Life, dual resists, and maybe some energy shield here and there to help our mana pool when using Mind Over Matter. Keep in mind, you will need to get dexterity on gear in order to equip our bow and use most of our dexterity based gems. My next goal with this build is getting my 6-link setup so I can feel the true damage of this build! Jewel Setup
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 We will be using all of our jewel sockets to increase the total % of traps triggering an additional time to over 60%. Meaning the majority of our traps that are triggered should be placing an additional clone out onto the field. So try to aim for an Unstable Payload with 10% or more.  
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As noted in the Cons section, this build can be very tedious when it comes to leveling.
This build starts off quick and does very good damage. It's when we start traveling through the passive tree we don't come across any nodes that help our damage and it can get a little slow around level 30. It doesn't usually pick up damage till level 50 when we start grabbing more minion damage nodes. Below I'll give a step-by-step description of how I leveled to make it easier for everyone to understand how I got to end game. Starting Off At level 2 when entering Lioneye's Watch from the strand, I used a 3-link setup with Split Arrow > Pierce > Lesser Poison and used unique's such as: Level 10 Grab Mirror Arrow and Blink Arrow. If you don't have Mirror Arrow use the vender recipe, Blink Arrow + Orb of Alteration, and make one. Use two of following link setups for both Blink and Mirror Arrow, Blink/Mirror Arrow > Trap > Multi-Trap > Minion Damage. You'll be using this setup for awhile while you level. Once you hit level 10, you'll want to grab a Storm Cloud Bow Your damage at this point will be damn good and It'll carry you for awhile. Level 30-38 This is where the leveling gets a bit complicated. You'll still do decent damage, but our passive tree won't have any nodes in it giving you some increased damage. We will drop Multi-Trap and switch over to Cluster Traps to get more clones out onto the field. We should also have one of our main auras either Wrath or Anger and link it with Generosity. We should have a Drillneck Quiver too, to give us bigger damage and allowing our clones to pierce making content easier to clear. Once we have done all of this, we can do Normal Lab and get Bomb Specialist. I also bought a rare bow since around these levels, it's hard to find a good unique bow that does good damage without paying more money than necessary. Level 39-60 We are finally grabbing minion damage nodes and starting to feel some of the power of the build. Make sure to keep upgrading your bow as you level since this will increase the damage of your clones as well. Once we hit level 60, you'll be able to equip your Grip Of The Council: to further increase your damage. We should also be able to do Cruel Lab and grab Chain Reaction making leveling so much faster. You can also grab a cheap 5-link base bow and chest piece to craft. If you've done so, pick up Elemental Damage With Attacks to help leveling go that much faster. Level 61+ As we get closer to end game, we can pick up all the necessary unique's that will help us gear towards maps. Once we get our Tinkerskin, we can grab Eldritch Battery on our passive nodes and start using our dual aura setup. Make sure to build your rare items to fit the resistances you'll need to survive maps.   The Shadow Clone Ninjutsu is such a unique build of it's own. It uses minion specific nodes to buff our clones, Traps to bring out as many clones as possible, and a defensive setup that not only gives us mana, but helps us take big hits! It's by far my favorite build in the new expansion and I would definitely recommend this build as a league starter. It technically was my first build of the league, but it took a lot of tweaking and playing around with different classes to understand that the Saboteur was the best option for it. I mean, it fits in the name, what more can you ask for? ;) If you enjoyed this build guide as much as I did, leave a comment below and let me know how well it's doing for you! Or if you have any regards, questions, or concerns, please feel free to leave them below and I will get back with you as quickly as I can. Oh, and stay safe out there Exiles! :) F.A.Q's "Why play a Saboteur and not the more powerful option, a Necromancer?"
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The Saboteur isn't an option for damage, more for the sake of functionality. For instance, when we allocated the passive Bomb Specialist, in the Saboteur ascendancy, It gives us a 10% chance to trigger another trap, meaning we gain an additional clone out on the field which in reality means adding more numbers to our overall damage. Toppling this with the Unstable Payload Jewel, we can eventually get that number to over 50% comfortably. But the biggest reason for playing Saboteur, is for the Chain Reaction passive node, which allows us to detonate all traps in an area just by a single trap being triggered. This makes map clearing extremely fast, not to mention making boss fights a lot faster. In a single boss fight, we can have nearly 40 clones out at once. That's a lot of damage!
"We have two auras reserving all our mana. How do we cast our traps? And will we have mana issues?"
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There's a wonderful mechanic that has breached in 3.0. It all starts when we get a wonderful little item called Tinkerskin. This body armour allows us to gain energy shield and life back when our traps are triggered. Nifty right? But what does this have to do with mana? In our passive tree, we take the Eldritch Battery passive node, which essentially uses energy shield as our mana pool. It doesn't stop there though. We then grab the Mind Over Matter passive node, which strikes our mana pool which in turn is our energy shield. As we throw traps, our traps get triggered and for each trap that is triggered, we get a huge amount of energy shield back. Which means as we deal damage, we are negating damage by restoring our energy shield faster and never running out of a mana pool.
"Is this build cheap?"
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I would say, probably one of the cheapest builds out there! It doesn't require much to get started, and all of the end game items are just around a chaos or so without the 5-links of course!
"How does it handle breaches?"
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In all my years of playing PoE, which is a lot, I've never seen a build more comfortable with breaches. Our clones are all considered to be exact copies of ourselves, so the enemy has no clue who to target. We can sit in the middle of the breach and sip lemonade for all I care and nothing should harm you. :)
"You're a Saboteur and you didn't grab Clever Construction, are you mad?!"
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Ah yes, I've heard this one a little too many times. I indeed do know that Clever Construction is what makes Saboteur worth while when you pair it with Chain Reaction. Here's a few good reasons why I just couldn't make the trip over there to allocate it: 1.) Travel. It's so damn far away!!! It's a whole 11 passives to get it. And within those 11 passives, we would be missing out on a lot of life nodes and damage nodes. And in the end, it just wasn't worth it. 2.) Trap damage doesn't increase the damage of Mirror Arrow when linked with Trap Support. A shame it is because pathing to it would make sense at that point, but it's been tested and doesn't do a thing to Mirror Arrow's damage. 3.) Chain Reaction is good on it's own in our case. Even when messing with bosses like Oak who jumps around all over the place destroying our traps, it still does very well on it's own. We have to think about Trap placement and kiting is essential, but it really does a great job!
 Arctic Breath Elementalist https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1832063 Last edited by Morphyne123 on Oct 12, 2017, 8:26:22 PM Last bumped on Aug 25, 2018, 5:45:50 AM
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Bump ;)
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Reserved for future changes.
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Looking good!!
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This looks seriously fun, i must give it a try, no choice.
Thanks for sharing. | |
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Video has been posted! :D
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At what point do you transition over to traps? I'm assuming that you need chain reaction before doing so. Leveling up is exceedingly frustrating as all you points are use to traverse the tree and taking some life nodes along the way, all the damage is solely from the support gems. I've been using tornado shot on a Tabula and against bosses I might as well be throwing rocks at them. I'm currently at level 54 and failed both times at the first izaro fight (Cruel). No defense and no Dps.
Can you expand on the leveling process please. Edit: The OP just updated the leveling section, I made some false assumptions as to the usefulness of using Mirror/Blink arrow with traps early on. Last edited by IchiMorghulis on Sep 25, 2017, 12:58:25 PM
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" Hello IchiMorghulis! I'm sorry to hear you're having issues with leveling. I just posted a whole section on the build called "Leveling Process" to help you level the best way possible. Hope this helps! :) |
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" Nice write up. I didn't even think that the traps would be useful without chain reaction. Anyway, I got chain reaction now and the build feels quite strong. I can't wait to hit level 60+ and equip all the other uniques. |
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" Nice! Yes keep pushing on through and I assure you, maps feel really fun when you got all your items and links in a row! :D |
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