Dear Exiles, welcome to FearlessDumb0's Exsanguinate Reap Miner build guide for PoE 3.28 league. This build was one of the best League starters in 3.27 and has a very smooth progression all the way through to Uber bosses. It's an S-tier mapping build with a screen-wide freeze that can be played in SSF and is truly a well-rounded softcore build.
Now, I would go through this whole guide on how the build feels to play, the mechanical bits, and how to get the most damage. But for this post, I'm going to focus on the changes first, then get to how to play the build later.
Patch Notes
I'm going to start with patch notes. And thankfully, there's not a lot to talk about. The only change that impacts this build is the modification to the Runegraft of Refraction, which means our mastery trade last league for a bonus chain no longer works. It's fine. I've played this build many times without it.
In this league, you'll have to choose if you want to gem swap trap mine damage for chain. Generally speaking, I would keep trap mine damage and forgo adding chain unless you are running legion strats, in which case chain will likely be better. That's it. Like I said, thankfully, not a lot to talk about. It dodged all meaningful nerfs.
Imbued Supports
The next thing I want to talk about is potential imbued options for Exsanguinate and Reap. If you missed the league reveal, mechanics will drop Coins of various colors to allow you to imbue and corrupt a skill gem. These tack on a level one support to the gem itself, giving you a free link without requiring a socket. However, it means the gem cannot be corrupted for plus one level, which is below level 30 for Spell Casters, which includes this build, meaning a trade-off of about 12.9% damage. The way the mechanic adds a support gem is only if the support gem appropriately matches a skill gem. Watch when I hover over this, you'll see a check mark to Exsanguinate.
(picture resource: the YouTuber FearlessDumb0)
This means that for Exsanguinate, for example, we can't tack on supports like trap and mine damage because it needs a secondary support gem for that to work. Things that will work are supports like flat damage, cast speed, crit, etc. But again, you're making the trade-off of losing 12.9% more damage because you can't corrupt it.
Let's look at some examples. A level one added cold damage is going to basically be a brick because you get a tiny amount of added flap. Added fire damage isn't a brick, but it probably isn't worth it. You get about the same damage a level would give you, but it also carries forward the life cost penalty. In my opinion, the best options are Critical Multi, Cold Penetration, and Hypothermia. All of which provides substantial damage upside to offset the loss of a level. Which one will be best depends a little on how your build is currently set up, but all three look worth it in my opinion. In my PoBs from the last league, I was getting between 7 and 13% more damage versus an extra level.
High-Impact Mines
It's also worth getting one with High-Impact Mines on the gem. This is what makes it a mine gem. While you lose 6% damage between a level one and a level 20, High-Impact Mines has the upside that a support of your choice can replace it, which could be roughly 30% more damage and would more than offset the downside.
QoL Supports
You could also potentially reduce some of your socket pressure by adding things like faster casting to Archinist Brand, or maybe faster casting or inspiration to Frostblink or elemental weakness. All those things can improve the build's QoL.
Build Guide
Now, I would talk about the build at the end. This is a short post because it didn't make sense to rewrite all the same things from 3.27. The build is exactly the same, other than what I've covered. I've included some updated PoBs as well as a link to the 3.27 Exsanguinate Reap Minor build guide.
Final Thoughts
Thanks, everyone. I hope you have a great league start. If you need more league starters, please stay tuned to MmoGah.
https://www.mmogah.com/news/poe/poe-328-holy-absolution-guardian-build-the-best-deep-league-starter
