Hexblast Miner
Trickster Build

Updated for Patch 3.25

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

Hexblast is a Spell that deals Chaos Damage. If the enemy is Hexed (Cursed with a Hex) it deals more of it and damages all enemies around the target, but removes the Hex as it does. The plan is to always Hit a Hexed enemy. By casting Hexblast via Mines your cast rate is much higher, especially with Minefield and Charged Mines. Mines are auto-targeting your enemies and that's another big advantage. They will Hit the same enemy that your Skitterbots are seeking, which is the nearest one. That's a big upside because you're wearing the Profane Proxy that causes one of your Skitterbots to radiate with a Hex Aura. Even as Hexbalst removes Curse on Hit, the Skitterbot will re-apply it almost instantly. There is a slight delay there, but you're also sporting a second Curse that is applied on Hit, so even the Hex-removing Hexblast applies another Hex. This all will happen too fast to register, but the enemy is always Hexed - before and after it gets Hit.

Hexblast has another property - it seeks the lowest Resistance of an enemy and treats it as the Resistance for its Chaos Damage. It's generally easier to penetrate Elemental Resistance than Chaos Resistance because there are two Curses for that - one for a specific Element and another for all Elements. It's especially easy with Fire Resistance. On top of Elemental Weakness and Flammability, you can hook one of your Skills to Combustion and get another -10% to Fire Resistance. Add to that Fire Exposure and some penetration from a Skill Tree, Cluster Jewels, or Watcher's Eye, and you're looking at around -100% to Fire Resistance. You can still take advantage of Withered Debuff because it's Chaos Damage you're dealing. That's again over 150% increased Damage taken with Shock (Hexblast can inherently Shock with Chaos Damage) Unnerve from Touch of Cruelty and a Mine Mastery. You're not only crippling the enemy but boosting your own damage. It's a Crit build with 100% Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier at around 500%, which is high. The damage is great.

The only severe downside of Hexblast seems to be its very low base Crit Chance and long Cast Time - it's fixed with Sandstorm Visage and a good Wand with Mines instead of self-casting. That leaves you with a problem of survivability. A lot of players tend to pay no mind to it and just call it a boss-killer or glass-canon, but we can do better. Not by a lot, but it doesn't have to be a dedicated boss-killer. Cap your Spell Suppression at 100%. With Spellbreaker and Inveterate you prevent 63% of Spell Damage. To protect yourself from Attacks just get Evasion. Here we have used Grace with Rare Evasion-based gear pieces (it's where you acquire Suppression anyway), and Blind. It's hard to Blind with Spells but don't ignore it, it's a big boost to your Survivability. You're relying mostly on Maximum Life and Energy Shield, recovered on Suppression and with Ghost Dance. Life Regeneration is gained mostly from The Restless Ward. You can still die to big Hits, your best course of action is to minimize your chances of getting Hit at all.

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1. Gameplay

Throw Mines to kill enemies. They will only activate if there is something to Hit so don't throw them in stupid places to keep your Mana Reserved. To move around faster use Shield Charge. If you have the right Balance of Terrors, cast Despair. Your damage is high without Withered Stacks, so cast it only before fighting a tough enemy. More importantly, throw one or two Bear Traps on a boss to lower their Resistance with Combustion, immobilize them, and increase your DPS. Mines are Detonated Automatically. Other Automated Skills are Steelskin and Withering Step. Once every 50 seconds cast Enduring Cry to gain Endurance Charges, or just to regenerate Life. Your passive Skills are Skitterbots, Grace, and Zealotry.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

We have already made a very similar build but for a Saboteur - a class we recommend starting as if you don't mind re-specializing at your fourth lab. It has a good leveling section which you should check for reference.

Bandits:

Two Additional Passive Skill Points seem like the best option for this build

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

94 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster or Unique Jewels)
123 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Polymath
2. Swift Killer
3. Escape Artist
4. Spellbreaker

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of the Brine King: You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds

Minor God: Soul of Abberath: 60% less Duration of Ignite on You

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Hexblast setup
	Hexblast - Deals Chaos Damage. If the enemy is Hexed it deals Area Damage and removes the Hex. We'll need a Hex on Hit and Hex as an Aura from Profane Proxy. These Hexes will both lower Fire Resistance, which affects Chaos Damage received from the Hexblast.
	Minefield Support - You will throw 4 additional Mines per throw, making it 5. It lowers your damage per Mine, but overall it's a net positive.
	High-Impact Mines Support - Turns Hexblast into a Mine Spell.
	Charged Mines Support - Mines grant Power and Frenzy Charges. Increases Mine Throwing Speed per Frenzy Charge and Crit Chance per Power Charge.
	Trap and Mine Damage Support - More Mine Damage.
	Void Manipulation Support - More Chaos Damage.

[UTLITY] Mana Reservation setup
	Summon Skitterbots - Skitterobts apply Curse with Profane Proxy, re-arm Mines, and grant more Mine Damage.
	Zealotry - More Spell Damage and Critical Strike Chance.
	Grace - More and Added Evasion Rating.
	Enlighten Support - Linked Spells Reserve less Mana.

[UTILITY] Automation setup
	Automation - Linked instant Spells are Triggered automatically whenever it's possible.
	Enhance Support - Increases Cooldown Recovery Rate for Automation, adds 2 extra Withered stacks for Withering Step, and Detonation Speed for Detonate Mines.
	Withering Step - Grants Phasing, Elusive, and instantly applies 11 Withered Debuffs (with level 4 Enhance) on any enemy that gets close to you.
	Detonate Mines - Detonates Mines.

[UTILITY] another Automation setup
	Automation
	Steelskin - Removes Bleeding and creates a barrier that absorbs some of the incoming Hit Damage.

[UTILITY] Bear Trap setup
	Bear Trap - The trapped enemy will take increased Mine Damage and be immobilized.
	Combustion Support - Bear Trap has a 50% chance to Ignite, and if it does, it lowers enemies' Fire Resistance by 10%.

[UTILITY] Enduring Cry setup
	Enduring Cry - Regenerates Life and generates Endurance Charges. With Restless Ward and Swift Killer, these Charges will last a very long time.
	Urgent Orders Support - Increases Enduring Cry Warcry Speed.

[MOBILITY] Shield Charge setup
	Shield Charge - Use it to move faster in a straight line through flat terrain.
	Faster Attacks Support - Attack with Shicled Charge faster, it affects Movement Speed.
	Momentum Support - Slightly more Movement Speed for Shield Charge. You can also use  Blind Support if you feel like it's not much of a difference.

[UTILITY] Despair
	Despair - Don't use it on enemies. We have included it here to apply Withered, but only if you have a matching Balance of Terror. Otherwise, you will have to use Wither Skill combined with Spell Totems.

[UTILITY] Flammability as a Warlord Ring's Suffix
	Flammability - We plan to reduce only Fire Resistance and because of the Hexblast's properties I will work on Chaos Damage. Flammability can be found on Warlord-influenced Rings but you can also socket it in a Skill  Gem form in Profane Proxy if your Elemental Weakness is from the Ring' Suffix instead.

[UTILITY] Elemental Weakness socketed in Profane Proxy
	Elemental Weakness - Elemental Weakness will lower Fire Resistance. Here we socketed it in Profane Proxy, but this Curse can also be found as a Hunter's Suffix in which case you will switch its place with Flammability.

5. Gear Setup

It's mostly a Life build but even with no thought put into it you will reach over 2000 Energy Shield. Your primary defensive layers are Spell Suppression and Evasion. Reaching 100% Spell Suppression Chance is hard, but possible if you have the right Shield and a Watcher's Eye. Evasion is gathered from Rare Items, and to make it more useful look for a source of Blind - a Stibnite Flask or a Watcher's Eye will work well. Damage over time is overcome with high Life Regen from The Restless Ward and Enduring Cry. For more Damage you will have to cap your Crit Chance, which is easy, and get some Crit Multiplier. You're dealing Chaos Spell Damage that will look at the lowest Resistance of an enemy, which is Fire Resistance in this case - find a source of Fire Exposure on your Gloves and Fire/Elemental Penetration on a Watcher's Eye and Cluster Jewels. A good Wand will require you to seek extra Intelligence, but Strength and Dexterity will be needed too if you want to use Red Skill Gems and wear high-end Evasion-based Rare Gloves and Boots. You should get some Mana Reservation on Jewels and such if you want to have more than 17 Mines (19 with Level 4 Enlighten) placed at once. On top of that, you need to Reduce their Mana Cost to match their Reservation Cost, which is already lowered because of the Reservation Efficiency from the Skill Tree. Mana Regeneration is quite important too if you don't want to use Mana Flask.

(Helmet) Sandstorm Visage - Hexblast has a base Crit Chance of 4%, and with this Helmet, and a good Wand, it's more than thrice as high.

(8-10)% increased Cast Speed (200-250)% increased Energy Shield Ignore Stuns while Casting Base Spell Critical Strike Chance of Spells is equal to that of Main Hand Weapon Cannot deal Critical Strikes with Attacks

(Helmet) Archdemon Crown - Hexbalst can be socketed here if you have a very specific Helmet with Shaper's influence and mods that enhance local setup. Despite making it a 5-link, 30% more damage and 3 levels to Hexbalst will keep the damage high. It's an expensive option and alters the rest of the Skill and Item setups.

Min. requirements: Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Hypothermia (Shaper's Suffix) Socketed Gems deal 30% more Elemental Damage (Essence) +1 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems; #% increased Area of Effect (crafted) Socketed Spells have +#% to Critical Strike Chance (Shaper's Suffix) Optional affixes:  Maximum Life Resistances

(Body Armour) The Restless Ward - Restless Ward increases Movement Speed by 28% and Regenerates 225 Life per second. it has some Maximum Life and increases Charge Duration by up to 200%. This way, your Charges will last almost a minute.

+(20-25) to maximum Mana (220-250)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield +(60-80) to maximum Life 4% increased Movement Speed per Frenzy Charge Regenerate 75 Life per second per Endurance Charge (100-200)% increased Endurance, Frenzy and Power Charge Duration

(Body Armour) Kaom's Heart - If you have a specific Archdemon Crown with built-in Hypothermia and such, you may equip Kaom's Heart for 1000 Maximum Life.

Has no Sockets +1000 to maximum Life

(Body Armour) Rare Body Armour - If you're using a Rare Armour it means you want Resistances, Suppression, and a lot of defences like Evasion or Energy Shield, boosted by the Escape Artist passive. Unique Armour is often better than this. For the Eldritch mods get increased Effect of Auras and Zealotry specifically.

Min. requirements: +130 maximum Life +40% to Total Resistances Chance to Suppress Spell Damage Optional affixes: increased Armour and Evasion Evasion Rating Chaos Resistance

(Weapon) Rare Wand - Prophecy Wand is the best weapon on account of its high base Crit Chane. Increase it further with local Crit Chance (not Spell Crit Chance) as a Suffix, and add to that Critical Strike Multiplier. Spell Damage, Levels to Hexblast, and Mana Regeneration will be useful.

Min. requirements: 13% base Crit Chance +1 to Level of all Chaos Chaos Gems 60% increased Spell Damage (can be crafted) Optional affixes: Critical Strike Multiplier +1 to Level of all Spell Skill Gems Mana regeneration Rate Resistances

(Off-hand) Rare Shield - You can either use a Shield with Evasion where you can naturally find Spell Suppression Chance, or a pure-ES Shield with modifiers to Level of Chaos Skill Gems and Spell Damage. We recommend the latter, although it makes capping Spell Suppression Chance harder.

Min. requirements: +100 Maximum Life +1 to Level of all Chaos Skill Gems increased Spell Damage Optional affixes: increased Mana Regeneration Rate (Crafted) Resistances increased Spell Critical Strike Chance

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - On the Gloves, you can find Dexterity, Resistances, Maximum Life, and Spell Suppression. A bit of Mana Regeneration with Maximum Life can be crafted, but a high-tier Maximum Life is better. For the Eldritch mods get Fire Exposure and chance to Unnerve.

Min. requirements: +45 Dexterity +40% to Total Resistances +12% Spell Suppression Chance Optional affixes:  Mana Regeneration (can be crafted) Evasion Rating Maximum Life Chaos Resistance

(Boots) Rare Boots - Here you will need Spell Suppression, Maximum Life, Resistancse, and Movement Speed. The Eldritch mods should get you some Action Speed and either Cooldown Recovery Rate for Enduring Cry, Chance to avoid an Ailment, or increased Life Regeneration Rate.

Min. requirements: +90 to maximum Life 30% increased Movement Speed +40% to Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes:  Life Regeneration 100% Chance to Avoid being Frozen (crafted Prefix) Chaos Resistance

(Belt) Rare Belt - On a Belt you may find a lot of Maximum Life, Resistances, and Strength. Other Attributes can be crafted. Maximum Mana can be good too because your Mines Reserve flat Mana.

Min. requirements: +120 to maximum Life +40% to Total Elemental Resistances Chaos Resistance +50 Strength Optional affixes:  increased Maximum Life (Hunter's Prefix) Maximum Mana Life Regeneration Chaos Resistance Attributes (crafted)

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - The Amulet will get you Maximum Life, Elemental Resistance, Gem Level to Hexblast, Global Crit Multiplier, and reduced Mana Cost of Skills. Mines have Mana Cost and Reservation Cost, so reducing Mana Cost will make them more or less match.

Min. requirements: +90 to maximum Life +40% to Total Elemental Resistances +1 Level of All Chaos Spell Skill Gems Global Critical Strike Multiplier Non-Channelling Skills have -7 to Total Mana Cost (crafted) Optional affixes: Attributes Chaos Resistance

(Amulet) Replica Dragonfang's Flight - It lacks Maximum Life, Crit Multiplier, and reduction to Mana Cost, but grants more damage compared to a Rare Amulet, so it can be good too.

+(10-16) to all Attributes +3 to Level of all <Random Skill> Gems +(5-10)% to all Elemental Resistances (5-10)% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills Items and Gems have (10-5)% reduced Attribute Requirements

Recommended Anointments: Skittering Runes

(Ring) Profane Proxy - Socket one of your Curses here. The Hex-aura will cause your first Hit with Hexblast to be already upgraded, and it will be almost instantly re-applied once it's removed. Be sure your Curse limit is higher than 1.

Has 1 Socket +3 to Level of Socketed Curse Gems +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance +(20-30)% to Lightning Resistance Left Ring Slot: Your Chilling Skitterbot's Aura applies Socketed Hex Curse instead Right Ring Slot: Your Shocking Skitterbot's Aura applies Socketed Hex Curse instead

(Ring) Rare Ring - Your Rare Ring will apply a Curse on Hit. If your Profane Proxy does Flammability, get Hunter's Elemental Weakness. If Profane Proxy does Elemental Weakness, get Warlord's Flammability. It should also get Maximum Life and Resistances, especially Chaos Resistance.

Min. requirements: +40% to Elemental Resistances +80 to Maximum Life Curse Enemies with Flammability/Elemental Weakness on Hit Non-Channelling Skills have -7 to Total Mana Cost (crafted) Optional affixes: Attributes Chaos Resistance Global Critical Strike Multiplier

(Jewel) The Balance of Terror - The Balance of Terror with Withered on Hit is very powerful. You have to apply Withered one way or another, and this option is the best of them all.

Inflict Withered for 2 seconds on Hit if you've cast Despair in the past 10 seconds

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - If you're all geared up you need only Crii Multiplier and Maximum Life. Spell Damage, Resistances, Attributes, and even Reservation Efficiency are good. Abyss Jewels can roll Blind Chance for Attack Hits.

Recommended affixes: increased maximum Life Critical Strike Multiplier Attributes Resistances Mana Reservation Efficiency

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - You're using Zealotry and Grace. Spell Suppression or Blind Chance from Grace and Elemental Penetration from Zealotry are the best options. Penetration works with Hexblast's ability to only account for the lowest Resistance.

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers>

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - You're looking for two Chaos Damage Large Cluster Jewels with Unholy Grace, Wicked Pall, Unwaveringly Evil, and one Touch of Cruelty.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Unholy Grace 1 Added Passive Skill is Wicked Pall 1 Added Passive Skill is Unwaveringly Evil 1 Added Passive Skill is Touch of Cruelty

(Jewel) Medium Cluster Jewel - Here seek Guerilla Tactics and Suprise Sabotage. You should be able to fit three of these into the build, but we've skimmed the Skill Tree to achieve it.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Guerilla Tactics 1 Added Passive Skill is Suprise Sabotage

(Jewel) Small Cluster Jewel - One Reservation Small Cluster Jewel that reduces the cost of Grace or Zealotry will be useful if not needed.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Righteous Path 1 Added Passive Skill is Sublime Form

Other suggested Flasks and Tinctures: Life Flask with Bleed removal Quicksilver Flask with increased Movement Speed Quartz Flask with crafted Life Regeneration Jade Flask with increased Evasion Rating Stibnite or Diamond Flask with increased Crit Chance or Shock immunity

If you have any other build requests, please leave that in the comments below.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.