Guide to 100% Mind over Matter

Information Status
Up-to-date 3.27

Introduction

During this content downtime, I've been exploring 100% MoM builds. Achieving 100% was a long term project of mine (and other Mana enthusiasts) and has been possible in Standard for several leagues now. In this post, I wish to compile all relevant information to achieving 100% MoM and building around it. This is not a specific build guide, nor an exhaustive list of information so the guide will be updated over time. Any additional information shared in the comments will be added to the post.



Mind Over Matter

The term Mind over Matter (MoM) comes from the Mind over Matter Keystone and refers to "Damage taken from Mana before Life". The Keystone was buffed to grant 40% in 3.19 but most other sources were made legacy making 100% impossible outside of Standard, until 3.27 with the introduction of Foulborn Uniques.









Why 100% MoM?

This is usually a passion/meme build. Although, there are many better builds at similar costs, if you're interested in trying 100% MoM, you can make a decent build and scale up a fair bit. Fortunately the cost investment for 100% MoM has gone down in 3.27 thanks to Foulborn Uniques, but the gear requirement still heavily limits the build power and diversity in league. In Standard however, the combination of Foulborn Uniques and legacy gear enables any Ascendancy to use 100% MoM and at a much more optimal cost.

With the introduction of Foulborn Uniques, building 100% MoM has drastically changed in some aspects. Foulborn MotC gives much easier access to MoM but requiring converting all Cold and Fire damage taken. It overall isn't a huge downside as when using CI, you can only take Lightning and Physical Damage. This facilitates achieving max all Resistances and avoiding all other elemental Resistance reductions (especially from Altars and Bosses). Combined with Divine Flesh, you can achieve 95% elemental damage reduction almost inherently.
In Standard, these uniques introduce an incredible amount of build diversity by granting access to all Ascendancies and using fewer gear slots.

Personally, I love the mana archetype and achieving 100% MoM is the logical conclusion to mana stacking. It also enables using Chaos Innoculation and Eldritch Battery to walk around with 1/1 Life which is funny (or even The Agnostic for 0/0 ES). The strongest build I've ever made uses 100% MoM but it still pales in comparison to top tier builds (especially in Standard).









Build Diversity

MoM is a "defensive" layer as it redirects incoming damage to an additional pool, increase the EHP. This guide gives a skeleton for defenses on a build and some guidelines for building other parts, but I haven't tested most of it and leave it to you to finish figuring out complete builds.

In Standard, with the access (on merge) to more Ascendancies and gear slots, you can build anything. However, currently in Keepers League, the choices are more limited. It is only viable on a Hierophant with very specific gear. Though, there are still some interesting options. For caster, there is Archmage, Manastorm, and Foulborn Apep's Rage. For wander, there is Kinetic Blast of Clustering and Power Siphon of the Archmage which go well with MotC. I have not seen any viable options for Melee builds.

Mana

With the build constraints, it's expensive to achieve high amounts of Mana but 10k+ is easily attainable, and with Foulborn uniques, 30k+ is also achievable. Gear is an important source of Mana but the majority will come from the passive tree (or Jewels with the Adorned).



Defenses

The main defense with 100% MoM is Chaos Innoculation for chaos immunity and Divine Flesh for 50% elemental damage taken as chaos (ie 50% elemental immunity).

The critical weakness is physical damage as the build gets very little physical mitigation. The main source is physical damage taken as other but it is very limited and only against hits (some exceptions). For physical DoTs, immunity to Bleed and Corrupting Blood is very important, other DoTs can be mitigated with the Pantheon and Tree. There doesn't seem to enough physical mitigation, or at least I have not figured it out, so the recommended solution is to invest in Block and Spell Suppress.

An interesting advantage using CI & DF is being immune to some boss skills. Right now, I've only confirmed Maven's beam but there are apparently other skills (Sirus' balls and Searing Exarch balls are speculated).



Recovery

The main non-legacy sources are mana regen, recoup and recovery on skill use, and, for skill cost, ES leech. With some investment in reduced cost, the build can sustain casting through ES leech (and perma 10% ES recharched /s), and have decent regen (20-30% mana /s). Mana recoup will also help to recover from hits and mana recovery rate will further increase the mana regen and recoup. Recovery on skill use is quite strong but cannot be depended on as sometimes you will not recover for several seconds; it should be used a supplemental layer of recovery. It's recommended to use a combination of all sources.





Damage

Attacks are difficult to scale but possible on some setups. The main skill to build around is Power Siphon of the Archmage as it inherently scales off Mana, either as a wander or with mines. I haven't explored attack builds in-depth yet.

Archmage, as the cornerstone of the Mana archtype, is the best source of damage for spells. It is easier to build with Elemental Overload but crit will have higher damage. There can also be sustain issues but there are solutions, Eldritch Battery and ES leech for example. The best skills "shotgun" (overlapping areas) or hit multiple time, like Ice Nova of Frostbolt, Ball Lightning of Orbiting, Spark, Blazing Salvo.



Mandatory and Recommended Gear/Tree












Build Example

Just want to note: If you use Sublime Vision (30%) and Watcher's Eye (20%), you can not use clarity and need 10% for Phys and lightning. Even if we add a bound by destiny we still miss 10% phys or lighning. Am i missing sth or is Sublime Vision (30%) and Watcher's Eye (20%) just not non-legacy viable.

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JungerIslaender#3798 wrote:

Just want to note: If you use Sublime Vision (30%) and Watcher's Eye (20%), you can not use clarity and need 10% for Phys and lightning. Even if we add a bound by destiny we still miss 10% phys or lighning. Am i missing sth or is Sublime Vision (30%) and Watcher's Eye (20%) just not non-legacy viable.

Yes you are correct, it's only possible with legacy versions, I fixed the mistake. Thanks!