Traps and mine playstyle while usually reserved for Saboteur Exile, but now you can play it with the Inquisitor with the help of Eye of the Winter Skill Gem. This skill casts mines that fire slow projectiles to kill their enemies. The Inquisitor can cast mines to let them fire projectiles while they can run around letting the projectiles do all their work, similar to Ball Lightening Skill Gem.
The best thing about these skill mines is that at the end of their cycle, they burst out a wave of extra shards giving you a massive burst of damage to kill even bosses. Start your best start today with this build to earn the fastest early-game orbs.
Overview of the Build
Budget – Medium
Defenses – Low
Damage to Bosses – Extreme
AoE Damage – Great
Gameplay Basic Mechanics
The gameplay for this build is kiting enemies while you lay traps and mines and let them deal massive damage giving you a run-and-gun smooth play. Though this build is the end game, keep in mind that you can swap some supportive gems for faster projectile throw and a larger area of damage for faster map clears in the early game for faster XP. Read further to learn more about the build's early and end game deviations for optimum effects.
Pros and Cons of the Build
Pros
● Freezes all enemies your projectiles hit and deals tons of damage
● Adding ignite enhances the clear speed of this build due to explosions
● Considered very cheap for the potential, it has to kill tons of enemies
Cons
● Expensive in the end game
● If you are not careful or don't get good rolls on your gear, you might run into mana management
● Low defense, so kiting is a must
Essential Tips and Guidance When Levelling
Templars have it best for this kind of build as right out the gate; you get a lot of nodes that cater to Lightning Damage, so you should pick them all. Even in the end game, this investment is required as you will add Cluster Jewels for more elemental damage. Adding Life passives along with lightning nodes is excellent to get you to yellow maps early on. You can switch to your end-game setup when you are level 68; you can use The Annihilating Light and focus on Cold Damage, having at least two nodes into Mine Clusters. Let's investigate early game setups in detail.
Important Skill Gems Setups
The main focus of gems for the early build is to do lighting damage with mana support
Arc Skill Gems Setup
● Arc – Lightening Spell that arcs multiple enemies
● Added Lightning Damage Support – To add lightening damage to the Arc Skill Gem
● Added Lightning Damage Support – Helps sustain Arc spells by lowering the costs while giving you crit chance and more elemental damage
● Arcane Surge Support – Enhances your Arcane Surge buff for damage and mana regeneration
● Spell Echo Support – For the repetition of your spells, increasing speed
Mana Reservation Skill Gems Setup
● Wrath – Giving you more Spell Damage
● Purity of Elements – enhancing your elemental resistances
● Clarity – Enhances Mana Regen
Other Skill Gems
Conductivity – Gives the enemies curse that lowers their Lightening Resistance
Important Passives Early Game
● Spell Damage
● Lightening Damage
● Cast Speed
● Max Life
● Mana Reservation Efficiency
Good Gear for Early Game
Following are some gear options for the best start game
● Le Heup of All – Ring – Gives generic defenses and damage with elemental resistances.
● Goldrim – Helmet – Best helm for capping Resistances
● Praxis – Rings – One of the best rings in the early game due to its Max Mana and Mana Regen stats
● Lifesprig – Wand – Perfect early weapon for spell caster Exiles as you can wield it at level 1, enhancing spell damage and cast speeds
● Atziri's Foible – Amulet – More Mana management support, especially if you are using Tabula Rasa armor
● Tabula Rasa – Armor – the Best in Slot armor for all exiles leveling up as it has a 6-linked socket option
End Game Priorities
To fully realize the potential of this build, we recommend you add the following setups to your builds
Vital Skill Gems and Links
Most are essential but not all of them. You can also mix and match based on what you like.
Eye of Winter Skill Gems Setup for DPS
● Eye of Winter – To add more projectiles to your mines, plus add an extra wave of shards at the end of their firing cycle
● Empower – Increases the final level of Eye of Winter Gem
● Trap and Mine Damage Support – Increases mine damage by 50% while reducing the projectile speed
● Blastchain Mine Support – Eye of the winter is now cast as a mine causing more damage with each cast mine
● Swift Assembly Support – Reduces the damage of your mines, but you can now throw more mines
● Slower Projectiles Support – With the speed of the projectiles slower now, you can have a chance to damage the enemy multiple times for a single projectile dealing more damage
Aracanist Brand Skill Gems Setup for Utility
● Arcanist Brand – This Skill gem casts all of your link spells every second while attacking or attached to enemies
● Sniper's Mark – Increases your damage against your mark curse
● Flame Wall – Enhances the skill damage of your projectiles after they pass the Fire Wall
● Bear Trap – Increases damage taken from mines and immobilizes enemies for damage
Vitality Skill Gems Setup for Utility
● Vitality – increase life and its regen, which is a must for Righteous Fire Degen
● Arrogance Support – Your Vitality will reserve the Life pool instead of the Mana pool
Zealotry Skill Gems Setup for Utility
● Zealotry – Enhanced Crit chance that will bag you more damage the more you crit
● Divine Blessing Support – This allows your Zealotry to cast once using mana but won't reserve from the pool
● Inspiration Support – To lower your mana cost
Mana-reserving Skill Gems Spells Setup for Utility
● Hatred – Cold Damage granted with this Aura
● Purity of Elements – Enhances your resistance, so some defenses are a reprieve
● Summon Skitterbots – These bots can activate your mines and can rearm them, giving you more damage while chilling and shocking enemies
● Enlighten Support – To enhance your mana efficiency
Gear Setup
The following are Vital gear for this setup
● Heatshiver – Helmet – Perfect for this build as the projectiles freeze your enemies, and this helm allows more damage to enemies who are frozen. Don't forget to add Eye of the Winter enchantment to this helm
● The Annihilating Light – Weapon – Cheap weapon if you are not using its 6-links and enhances your Elemental damage but reduces your resistance
● Skin of the Lords – Body Armor – Best Armor in Slot as it enhances the Skill levels of your gems by two though you can always use The Skin of the Loyal, especially if you want to enhance further the level of your Eye of the Winter skill gem
● Coward's Legacy – Belt – Enhances curse duration, so you have vulnerability when low on life
● Uul-Netol's Vow – Amulet – Best in Slot Amulet if you get high resistances rolls and allows you to add one additional gem
● Watcher's Eye – Jewel – Good if you are using Hatred and Purity of Elements along with Vitality and if you can find Zealotry. It is highly recommended to get extra Chaos resistances from either Purity of Elements or Crit chance from Hatred
Summary – Conclusion
This build is a significant gameplay enhancement for those who don't want to skill shots or cast multiple spells and want a straightforward playstyle without investment. You can focus on finding the unique while enjoying blasting enemies all around. For further information, visit our PoE webpage for in-depth builds and info.