Path of Exile Saboteur Build - Utilize the Power of Traps and Crowd Control

PoE Saboteur build 2019

The Saboteur is a trap-focused Path of Exile class, which mainly relies on throwing traps which deal huge damage to the enemies. While playing, you can use two daggers or wand with a spirit shield. The Saboteur class can specialize in boosting utility bonuses like AoE damage, blind synergy, immunity for damage or HP regeneration.

This class is more tanky than Assassin and easier to play, because of the fact that you are throwing your traps and as a result, you do not need to fight with minions in close range. Because of that, you will be able to add a more offensive type of potions and survive more fights with minions and bosses. I recommend this class for beginners since the build is not that expensive and does not require so much skill form player. Whole play style is based on clicking 2 skills, using potions, and dodging attacks from monsters. With proper build, saboteur will be able to clear maps very fast. His most useful passives are:

Saboteur passive skills

Born in the Shadows - a very good passive when you are going to make it to the Delve depths. This passive eliminates the chance of being blinded by minions and adds the chance to cause blind to the enemies with normal attacks. Additionally, it reduces damage from blinded minions by 10% and boosts the damage to blinded enemies by 30%.

Pyromaniac - perfect passive for almost every build. It regenerates up to 20% of life for each trap or mine triggered recently. If you place your mines or traps correctly this passive will greatly boost your survivability. Additionally, you are immune to shock and ignite abilities. The last thing this passive skill offers is a reduction of mana cost for skills used to place mines or throw traps.

Bomb Specialist - this passive skill speeds up the process of mines placing and increases their damage. It adds 2 more remote mines you can place at a time. By t ”remote mines” I mean things which can be detonated whenever you want. You place the mine and have an option to detonate it when minions are close to it. Also, it increases damage by 40% and Laying speed by 20% if you detonated any mine recently.

Explosives Expert - this passive boosts your trap and mines damage. It makes your mines or bombs penetrate 10% of Elemental Resistances. Additionally, it increases by 20% aoe and area damage. Reduction of damage taken from a trap or mine hits is also included.

Demolitions Specialist - interesting passive which has a 20% chance to place an additional mine when casting a mine spell. Also, it increases your aoe damage for each mine you place by 8% and mine arming speed by 100 %. This passive boosts your damage in a specific area. The best idea is to place some mines in a circle to maximize your damage.

Perfect Crime - this passive gives almost the same stats as demolitions specialist but when you are placing traps instead of mines. It increases your AoE damage for each trap you place by 8% and gives you a 20% chance to trigger the trap twice.

Chain Reaction - the best passive for trap builds. It increases trap damage by 30% and cooldown recovery speed to trap skills by 15%. If any placed trap will trigger, the rest nearby traps will trigger as well. Remember to place the traps near each other to maximize the damage.

ARC TRAP Saboteur Build Guide 

You can observe that every build is characterized by different passive skill tree abilities which boost your character with various bonuses to your stats. It is crucial to choose the correct passive skill tree in order to farm efficiently in the Path of Exile world. In this part of the guide I will show you the best and at the same time the most popular build for Saboteur Shadow.

The build is called 3.5 Arc Trap Saboteur Shadow. Such a build is mostly based on placing traps and detonating them at the right time. If you wanna play this build, you should know that it is very easy to play, quite cheap and perfect as a season starter. The main advantage of this build is the fact that you are attacking from range, so you don’t need to be very tanky. What is more, you can do all map mods, so currency farmers will be very happy about that. Below, I will shortly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of such build and then, introduce proper itemization.

Advantages

• Easy to play (the build do not require expensive gear. Playing such build is basically clicking two mouse buttons and avoiding spells and attacks from minions. The only minus of the build is the fact that you will need to understand how to use the spells properly because you are very mana dependent. Anyway, every gamer will enjoy the gameplay)

• Quite tanky - you have massive health regeneration and good resistance caps so you don’t have to be worried about dying a lot

• Can make all maps ( when using such build your main damage source is normal damage so you can complete every map mod).

Disadvantages:

• Need a lot of mana regeneration ( skills consume mana very fast, so you have to look for items that will make skills cost less mana or equipment that will raise your mana regeneration what is the biggest problem)

• No mana and health leech ( you cannot rely on skills or items which will give you mana or health leech. You will have to focus on potions

• Low health pool ( since you will have 5k. health with a full build, there is a possibility to get one shot from stronger bosses and minions like Atziri, Shaper, or Uber Elder. 

Saboteur Equipment

In this part of the guide, proper itemization for Arc Trap build will be presented. Below, links for each item will be provided and also each part of the gear will be shortly described. Every player knows that Path of Exile is made to be a grinding gear game by developers, so you should remember that you will change your gear very often.

a) Weapon

For perfect game starting weapon, you should choose a wand called Lifesprig Driftwood Wand. You can wear it straight from the beginning because it requires level one to equip. Such a wand is a top weapon if you want to speed up your leveling process. It is perfect for a start because it boosts your socketed spell gems with one level. Additionally, it increases your cast. speed by 8% and your spell damage up to 40%. It is a huge boost in the beginning. As an additional advantage of this item, I can mention the price. It is very cheap when we compare the price to the stats it gives. You will use this Wand till early late-game.

At level 66 you will be able to equip two weapons. The first one Shimmeron Tornado Wand and the second Divinarius Imperial Skean. The difference between these two weapons is the price. If you are rich enough to buy Shimmeron with proper sockets, you should do this. If not, Divinarius will be also fine. Shimmeron gives more bonuses when you play with Power Charges when Divinarius is strictly DPS weapon without any additional bonuses.

b) Helmet

In the beginning, you should focus on buying a rare helmet with elemental resistances and some elemental damage with skills. The helmet with 20% of each resistance will be perfect to boost your survivability. Also, there is a very good unique helmet that will give you everything you need like Goldrim Leather Cap. It boosts your resistances by 35%, but it does not make your attacks deal more damage. In the late game, you should search for a rare helmet with more resistances and arc damage boost attribute. It is very hard to loot such a helmet, so I recommend you to buy it from other players on the market service.

c) Belt

In the early game, your belt should have a good amount of elemental resistances and boost to your elemental damage. It is required to have at least 25% increased elemental resistances. Also, you can look for the belt which will give you boost to your attributes. This class is based on dexterity so a simple rare belt with such attribute would do the job.

In the late game, you have to start looking for a belt called Phoenix Clasp Stygian Vise. It is expensive but it gives you an enormous boost to dps and survivability. By wearing such a belt you can increase your elemental damage and elemental resistances up to 50%. Additionally, the belt should boost your damage or have the “faster traps throwing” attribute.

d) Gloves

In order to find the best starting gloves, you should focus on two main stats - elemental resistances and increased evasion. Rare gloves with 25% additional resistances and 300 evasion would be enough for the early game. When you reach 60 level, you should start looking for shaped gloves with even higher elemental resistances and attributes that will boost your trap damage.

The very best attribute is one that boosts your socketed trap gems by adding additional trap when throwing them. To simplify it. When you are throwing, for example, one trap, this skill adds one more, so you will drop two traps in a single throw. If you want to boost your damage, even more, you should search for Spell Critical Multiplier and Supported by level 20 trap attributes. Here are examples of such gloves: Cataclysm Grip Legion Gloves.

e) Boots

The best boots for the early game should give you a boost to your elemental resistances and attributes (in this build dexterity). Also, you can look for the boots which will increase your evasion. Yellow-colored boots with 25% increased elemental resistances and at least 20 points of dexterity should be enough.

Here you have a perfect example of such boots: Dragon Tread Shagreen Boots. There is also another possibility for boots Wanderlust Wool Shoes. Such boots boost your Movement Speed and hardly increase Mana Regeneration Rate which is very important while playing this build. Sadly these boots don’t give you resistances, so in some situations, you may lack survivability. But, if you have Goldrim helmet, and good gloves with a high amount of resistance, you can go for Wanderlust. In the late game just look for rare boots with high elemental resistances around 30% and increased movement speed by 30%. Boots like Corpse Urge Sorcerer Boots will be a very good option.

F) Armor

As in every build, armor with six linked sockets is required in order to start the game with a nice amount of damage. You can invest in rare armor with proper sockets or buy Tabula Rasa Simple Robe. Thanks to tabula rasa you will be able to socket any type of the gems in it and adjust it to your playstyle. The tabula rasa robe is slightly cheap so there would be no problem with getting it in the early game.

In the late game,  there is no better armor than Tinkerskin Sadist Garb. This armor is created for this build since it decreases cooldowns for traps by 15%, gives you 15% to gain frenzy charge if enemy triggers the trap, and boosts your survivability by increasing evasion and life regeneration. And what is more, this armor is cheap, even if you gonna buy it with 6 linked sockets. There is also a possibility to buy Loreweave Elegant Ringmail because it boosts your damage even more, but it is very expensive if you want to find such armor with proper sockets.

f) Shield

As a game starter, you should consider buying a spirit shield with increased spell damage, critical strike chance, and some resistances. You can also use second Lifesprig Driftwood Wand to have more damage. I recommend using one wand and shield with resistances. It is better to have more survivability in the beginning because, anyway, you will one shot most of the enemies.

The situation is similar in the late game. Just try to find a spirit shield with more resistances and more boost to your damage. Higher level shields can increase your spell damage up to 70%. With increased critical strikes on spells, your damage will be literally insane. Here you have a perfect example of such shield Horror Spell Chiming Spirit Shield.

g) Rings

In the beginning, you will need rings with high elemental resistances and elemental damage. You should also focus on attributes which you need to level your gems. If you lack strength you should buy the ring with such an attribute. When you start using warth support gem you will need Essence Worm Unset Ring with a blue socket. This ring is mandatory for this build otherwise, you will have problems with your mana on higher levels. The second ring should be a rare ring that provides a high amount of resistances and reduction of mana costs when using skills. In the situation when you cannot level any of your skills, you should look for the ring with the attribute you lack.

h) Amulet

The best amulet which will be perfect for a league start should boost your survivability and damage. Additionally, the amulet should increase your dexterity to boost your dodge chance. A rare amulet with 25% elemental resistances and 15-20 points of dexterity would be perfect for early game.

In the late game, you should look for Choir of the Storm Lapis Amulet or rare amulet with high resistances and increased damage. The first one is good when you don’t have money. It mostly boosts your damage. Rare amulet with good attributes and damage will be much more expensive, but instead of giving you only damage, it boosts your survivability as well.

i) Potions

Flasks are a very useful part of every build. Some flasks are created to boost your health, others to help you with mana regeneration and the rest to increase your damage. It is very important to select a proper flask set in order to clear maps efficiently. Potions can be very expensive or very cheap. In this build, we will focus on cheap potions which will boost your character damage output. The best way of getting them is the Path of Exile market.

It is always nice to have potion which will regenerate your health. In critical situations, such potion will save your life and experience. It is also crucial to have potion with bleeding immunity attribute. One life regeneration potion will be enough because you will have additional life leech from passives.

Next potion which is recommended for this build is The Wise Oak Bismuth Flask because of its offensive and defensive type. It will reduce elemental damage taken from minions and additionally decrease monsters elemental resistances. I will boost your elemental damage and survivability.

For the third potion, you should have the one which boosts your movement speed. It is very important to have at least one potion with this attribute in order to efficiently clear maps. The potion which gives you at least 60% movement speed would perfectly fit the build. Additionally, remember about flask charge recovery on successful critical hit attribute in your potion. Here you have an example of such potion: Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Adrenaline.

A fourth very good option for this build is Lavianga's Spirit Sanctified Mana Flask. This potion recovers your mana and at the same time, reduces mana skill costs to ZERO during its effect. Since your spells use mana very fast, this potion is mandatory for this build due to the bonuses it gives.

The last potion you should have is Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Reflexes. It increases the chance for a critical strike when using abilities and also evasion rating. Thanks to that it boosts your survivability and damage output at the same time. Mandatory potion for this build. Also, it is important to look at the potion with increased duration attribute.

j) Gems list

First weapon – 3 linked sockets – 2 red sockets and one green: 

• Shield Charge - (a skill which let you charge to the enemy and bash him with your shield)

• Fortify Support (a buff which decreases received damage from normal hits by 20%)

• Faster Attack Support (buff which increases attack speed up to 45% when activated)

Spirit Shield - 3 linked sockets - two green sockets and one red: 

• Bear Trap  ( a skill which deals physical damage and immobilizes enemy when triggered)

• Elemental Hit (boosts you attack skill with a random element in order to increase damage)

• Increased Duration Support (increases duration of linked supported skill).

Helmet – 4 linked sockets are mandatory for this build – three green sockets and one blue: 

• Trap and Mine Damage Support (support gem which boosts trap and mine skills damage but also lowers trap throwing by 10%)

• Lighting Spire Trap (trap skill which deals lighting damage when triggered. Additionally it has a  20% chance to shock enemies)

• Controlled Destruction Support (support gem which in one hand increases spell damage, but on the other hand decreases Critical Strike Chance)

• Concentrated Effect Support (increases area damage of supported skills).

Gloves - 4 linked sockets - three red sockets and one green: 

• Immortal Call (makes you invulnerable for physical attacks when activated, remember to keep it on the 3rd level)

• Increased Duration Support (increases duration of linked supported skill)

• Cast When Damage Taken Support ( activates linked buffs when you receive damage)

• Phase Run (a buff skill which increases your movement speed, physical damage and gives you Phasing. The Phasing gives you an ability to move through enemies).

Boots - 4 lined sockets are mandatory for this build - 3 red sockets and one blue: 

• Molten Shell (makes you invulnerable for phys. attacks when activated) keep it on the 3rd level

• Cast when Damage Taken ( activates linked buffs when you receive damage) keep it on 1st level)

• Increased Duration Support (increases time of activated buffs)

• Enfeeble - (spell which curses minions and lowers their critical strikes, accuracy, and damage).

Body Armor - 6 linked sockets are mandatory for this build 3 blue sockets and three green: 

• Arc - (your main ability. It deals huge Lighting damage and has 10% chance to shock enemies)

• Elemental Focus Support (boosts elemental damage of linked skills by multiplying their dps by 49%)

• Controlled Destruction Support (support gem which in one hand increases spell damage, but on the other hand decreases critical strike chance)

• Trap Support (support gem which imitates the linked skill. If you don’t understand here is the explanation. When you use arc, instead of casting the skill, you will lay a trap. If the enemy will trigger the trap, it will use linked skill, in this case, arc)

• Cluster Trap Support (increases the damage of your traps. Additionally it makes your supported skill throw three traps instead of one)

• Trap and Mine Damage Support (support gem which boosts trap and mine skills damage but also lowers trap throwing by 10%).

k) Skill Tree

Skill tree for Arc Trap Saboteur Shadow with the ascendancy

l) Bandits

If you look for nice damage and survivability boost, you should help Alira. You can also kill all bandits but it will not give you as many benefits as when helping Alira.

m) Pantheon                             

• Soul of Arakaali - The blessing from Arakaali boost your survivability by increasing your life recovery by 50% and decreasing damage taken from minions.

• Soul of Ryslatha - boosts the effect of health recovery from life flasks and helps with their reuse.

n) Jewels

In normal jewels we should look for: 

• spell damage

• lighting damage

• maximum life

• trap throwing speed

• some resistances if you need to reach the required caps.

The abyssal jewel should have the following stats: 

• life

• added lighting or cold to spells

• damage penetrates 2% elemental resistances if you haven't killed recently

• resistances if you need to reach the required caps.