Earlier, I decided to test a build fully focusing on buffed Cold Thermite Mine as a main (or one of main) damage skills. I picked Saboteur (Demolitionist + Nightblade) class combo, since it’s actually possible to combine maxed-out Thermite Mine with maxed out Blade Spirit (another high-damage skill).
Tested the build in Crucible (patch 1.2.1.6). The damage is surprisingly high, BUT the build requires lots of double rare to be this strong. However, Crucible was cleared in 7:33 mins (probably down to around 6 mins with good piloting), meaning that damage is not even overpowered (and I don’t think that the damage can be improved much more than this without sacrificing tankiness). Build killed Lokarr in more than 30 seconds or so (can only tank for 3 seconds then kite with Frostburn).
And now, Destructive Whisper amulet got its Cold Thermite Mine buff reverted, damage would be even lower. I’m not sure if the future loss of buff is justified, but not much complain from me, since this Saboteur build is somewhat mediocre since okay-ish damage is dragged down by medium tankiness.
If Thermite Mine is mainly intended for debuffing instead of dealing damage, then so be it. Build demonstration below:
chillflame evoker sabo is literally one of best builds currently. if you want to minmax the build you don’t want to focus on damage for thermite, several mines hitting the same target don’t stack damage. and trust me, i know how tempting it is. what could use a buff there is the chosen mask thermite mod tbh.
Honestly, they buffed Thermite mine’s damage SO MUCH that I had to test it, same thing with Word of Pain. I’m now convinced that WoP is mostly just for debuffing, even after Crate buffs it more. Then I tested Thermite Mine, damage turns out to be surprisingly OK, but not OP. And now Crate wants to tone the damage down a little. Guess damage is not that OK anymore. Oh well, back to just debuffing then.
chillflame evoker sabo is literally one of best builds currently . if you want to minmax the build you don’t want to focus on damage for thermite, several mines hitting the same target don’t stack damage. and trust me, i know how tempting it is. what could use a buff there is the chosen mask thermite mod tbh.
wait, Thermite Mine’s damage don’t stack with each other? Not even non-DOT damage? Have you tested it?
the dmg mod change is basically inconsequential
i’m unsure if you even realize how thermite mines work, in terms of being aware of what you gained/lost?
Thermite mines does not stack dmg on targets from itself, it’s a debuff, so you get a singular instance of that dmg
Your build, “lost” 140 base mine dmg, that’s it (and that’s if we even dare call it lost since it was never “there” in the first place),
your build has 3400% bonus dmg, so that’s 1x 140*35 or 4900 non stacking dmg once per second/tick it lost
hardly game or build breaking
OK, I actually don’t know how Thermite Mine damage works. So, as you said, if I drop either 3 or 7 mines at once, damage wouldn’t even stack (the ONLY benefit is that spawning more mines only means wider ground coverage). So, no matter how much Thermite Mines I can spawn, the number of damage instance would still be counted as one?
yes and no
thermite mines direct dmg doesn’t stack, because it’s debuff class (mines are basically just a box with aura of censure)
What can stack is procs like attached devos, because each mine is counted as their own/trigger devos on themselves, if that devo has dot, like Ultos, you get stacking dots from that. That’s how mines can shine a bit.
What’s good about cold conduit is you get massive aoe coverage, “WoP but for mines”, dmg stacking directly it’s not anything we care about, but aoe wise it’s useful, and then in this case also gets extra devo dot stacking potential from extra mines on the conduit
*it’s the exact same thing for Wind Devils 1st and 2nd skill node btw
reckless tempest actually has an additional potential complication; it’s an actual buff/aura
that means it get put on the mines (like if you slap phoenix fire on totems/wind devils)
but that also means, since the buff is directly on the mines, if the mines “move”(you recast) or just time out, that buff disappears instantly
It’s why i don’t like having tempest on totems or mines or mortars/non perma pets, since there is some degree of potential of simply cancelling the proc early
for endgame yes
it’s a debuff, so it does debuff stuff
similar reason why if you make a build purely around pox, or swarm, or wop, or aura of censure with no other support skills, those builds will never truly be great dmg wise, because debuff class dmg never stack on itself/same target, so is kinda always intended to be a support skill and not your main, or at minimum have strong support skills like how pox builds might use totems or sigils(actual stacking dmg)
*keep in mind just because we don’t intend it do be a main skill/build centre piece, doesn’t mean the dmg is completely meaningless. Aoe and screen clear dmg is still appreciated, debuffs on their own will just simply tickle harder targets like bosses ofc
comparison on that front might be a sigil spam build vs your mines build, sigils stack, dmg so there you can witness things getting impacted by more than a fixed 1x/second dmg duration, be it trash/heroes or bosses
debuff devos like wendigo/maul you can’t really know without knowing the direct skill i think, so that simply requires checking with others or the files.
Buff devos are easy; they appear as a buff on you and your buff bar or will appear as a buff on your pet, visual fx and all
Whether it’s an aura or not then simply depends on if it has “aoe” effect, or only affect you/the targeted stats. Ulzaad’s decree when it triggers doesnt’ affect anything around you; it has no meter range/radius in tooltip so this makes sense. Phoenix fire starts damaging stuff when we get near it, and has 5 meter area in description, so we know that’s an attack buff aura
well, sadly enough, in Thermite Mine’s case (and other player-scaling pets), they don’t have a buff/debuff bar, so it’s harder to tell when devos they proc are aura/buff or not. STILL, in this case, you can just bind devos to non-pet skills and check your buff bar to determine the proc type.
