Path of Exile 3.8 Blight - 95 Icicle Mine Endgame Build Update

Path of Exile: Blight made a lot of changes to the original PoE, and among the important ones is the tweaking of mine builds. As the name suggests, rather than directly confront mobs, it uses mines which they step on in order to deal immense damage. There are lots of mine builds that have been brought back to relevance, but the best one to start – and even mainstay – is the Icicle Mine Saboteur.

Mine for the Taking

There are lots of advantages to Path of Exile mine builds. The biggest and also the funniest one would be that it can pre-throw mines on the spot a boss spawns before they do. So when they finally come out, they eat stacks of damage. This one, in particular, can even one-shot certain bosses, giving you an easy way to get POE Orbs.

Another exclusive advantage of Path of Exile mine builds is that mines are technically not a part of you, so their damage can’t be reflected back to you. As for more specific advantages of this particular mine build, it’s also affordable, hardcore-viable, and isn’t difficult to level up at all.

The downside, however, is that it’s not exactly a PoE build that appeals to the vast majority ofplayers due to its very different and less action-oriented play style. Nevertheless, if you’re curious, you should definitely try the Icicle Mine Saboteur build and see for yourself if it suits your taste.

Crystals Other than Ice

For this build, here is the passive skill tree: https://tinyurl.com/y362o5zb.

Next, we go to the skill gems. The core skill gem would be the namesake one linked with Swift Assembly, Hypothermia, Increased Critical Strikes, Added Cold Damage, and Increased Critical Strikes support gems.

For movement, have Smoked Mine and Increased Duration. Also, have Flame Dash as a secondary movement skill.

For debuffs, have Enfeeble with Blasphemy support gem.

For utility, have Detonate Mines with Spell Totem and Faster Casting support. Also, have Bear Trap and Summon Skitterbots. Lastly, have Vaal Clarity with Increased Duration support so that you can save up on mana.

Gearing Up

Now we move on to gear. For Rare gears, here’s the breakdown:

· Armor pieces – bonuses to elemental resistances, life, and can be socketed with Pristine Fossil for even more life bonuses.

· Weapon – any Shaper-based Rare wand for “Damage Penetrates % elemental resistance bonus”.

· Shield –any Rare shield with elemental resistances, maximum life, and spell damage.

· Belt – Stygian Vise with bonuses to elemental resistance, life, flask duration and charges gained, flask charge usage reduction, elemental damage (via Prismatic Fossil) and cold damage.

· Accessories – any Rare opal ring with elemental resistances, life, dexterity/strength, and chaos resistance.

On the other hand, here are the recommended Unique gear:

· Weapon - Tremor Rod for chance to block attack damage while wielding a staff, +2 levels to socketed gems, Blastchain Mine support for socketed gems, increased spell damage, reduced enemy stun threshold, and mines can be detonated again.

· Body – Tabula Rasa for six linked sockets.

· Boots – either Kaom’s Roots for knockback immunity and +150-200HP, or Atziri’s Step for increased evasion, life, movement speed, and chance to dodge spells.

Lastly, for Flasks, make sure to have the following:

· Atziri’s Promise – bonus damage and chaos resistance.

· Divine Life Flask of Staunching – life recovery and bleeding immunity/removal.

· The Wise Oak (Unique) – increased cold penetration for every cold resistance you have.

· Lavianga’s Spirit (Unique) – mana recovery and spells mana cost turned to 0 during flask effect.

Like what’s been said before, mine builds aren’t for everybody. But who knows? Maybe a more patient yet equally deadly play style like this one is perfect for you, and you’d have to try to find out!