Path of Exile

Been playing Exsanguinate Mines. I would recommend, especially as a starter as it sidesteps most of the mana issues since it spends and reserves life.

I must apologize to dizzie , I was too harsh on Tremor Rod earlier. I think was assuming if you used Tremor Rod, you had to use Minefield and chain detonations. If you treat "additional detonation" as 100% more damage, Tremor Rod is a pretty good starter. I think it's still outclassed by good rares and I think the additional detonation is a bit clunky under sustained throwing.

Eye of Winter has some interesting mechanics. I think it's dogshit as selfcast(surprise!) since it doesn't travel that far. But if you stick it in a mine or trap, you lessen that downside. Stick a Hydrosphere next to the boss and get at least one chain(support, Snakepit, Deadeye, Gloomfang). Any projectile that hits the Hydrosphere will chain to the boss. Put Sniper's Mark on the boss, any projectile that hits the boss will split towards the Hydrosphere and then chain back to the boss. I'm not 100% sure on that last one, I know you can't chain to the Hydrosphere since it's not an enemy. But last league, Archmage Orb of Storm players seemed confident you could split to it.

If accurate, Sniper's Mark + Snakepit + Hydrosphere = 3x single target. On top of that, the extra bouncing counts towards overall projectile travel distance, so you get more of that 200% more damage bonus. What I have no idea how to estimate is how many projectiles hit the hydrosphere and boss per cast.

Fury Valve also has some interesting possibilities here but I haven't sat down to really think that one through. The person that reported it on Reddit seemed to imply the splitting was very finnicky.

Kythik said:

DW's exsanguinate mines build is one of the best league starters I've played in a while. It was cheap to gear going into red maps. The high strength and int requirements were the only slight pain. The damage is starting to look low but I'll see how it feels once I get my first Sirus.

The league mechanic feels better in logbooks. Placing the explosive is still the worst part. I wasn't paying attention and bricked a logbook by making it immune to my dmg, which was fun.

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I was toying around with Tremor Rod and Kaom's Heart instead of wand, shield, and corrupted tabula. Damage is a bit better on the former, obviously HP is much better, and I might be underestimating how much a good 3 T3 affix wand and shield cost.

Either way, damage will drop off basically due to the Chain support. Obviously, you only swap that out for meaningful bosses. But if map bosses are testing the limits of your gearing, it's not going to feel good knowing a gem swap would get you ~50% more damage. Maybe my starter PoBs should have mapping supports instead of bossing supports to be more accurate. I'm not really sure they accomplished their goal of encouraging "interesting" supports.

It's part of the reason I'm interested in EoW. Clear is not as good since it takes time to travel. But no gem swapping(spell projectiles have cheap access to chain) and you get reliable chilling and freezing. Really wish HoI applied to mine/totem/trap kills. Single target can be nutty too depending on reliability of certain mechanics.

dizzie said:

Is this suitable for SSF? Do you have a pob? I'm probably rerolling in SSF as I don't have a lot of time at the moment and ssf is just generally more chilled.

Thanks!

Edit: Dont' mind farming for stuff in SSF so if it needs certain uniques that's perfectly OK.

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No required uniques, but I think Tremor Rod and Kaom's Heart will go a long way towards making the overall power level of the build feel better. Machina Mitts help a lot too since Exsanguinate will be cutting into your Sabo regen.

I do starter PoBs a bit differently, just filling into slots and affixes that I think required or important to the build. The rest of the affixes go to attributes, EHP, and resists. I still haven't figured out flasks.

Traps with 0 duration are fine, you don't have to deal with arming time. Similarly, don't play mines with Minefield support, it's horridly slow. Also, don't play mines like you care about chaining detonation, takes too much attention.

I went with mines because you can get a Tremor Rod and free your chest slot up for more HP.

Do you think Kythik would play it if it was annoying?

Yeah, I tried forbidden rite with mines. The single target was promising. Clear was bad for the reasons you listed.

I tried Frozen Orb too. Stuff snipers mark, hydrosphere, and flame wall on an arcanist brand and the single target is quite stupid. The clear was lacking though. I don't know if it's the random targeting of the mines, really going to suck if you need precise aiming for the skill. I'm hoping fury valve will fix clear. Fucking metamorph uniques being so rare.