Detonate Dead Blood Mage Build Guide
The Detonate Dead Blood Mage build is a beginner friendly endgame build that works straight out of the campaign with very little gear but scales well into endgame waystones and pinnacle bosses. You detonate your allies and enemies to fill the screen with massive explosions while being very tanky at the same time.
You use Detonate Dead to turn the corpses of your enemies into nukes. Sacrifice then allows you to do the same to your own Minions. Skeletal Brutes are the best targets as they have the most life.
The showcased gear features optimal affixes. Aim for these while maintaining 75% resistance caps and attribute requirements.
Path of Exile 2 is currently in early access, this means rapid development including frequent changes to builds as there are balance fixes and we learn more. Pin this page to be notified of any updates.
This guide assumes you are at least level 68 and have completed Act 3 Cruel, to learn more about the leveling process check out our Minion Army Leveling Guide. Do not ascend during leveling, do your trials after you have switched to Detonate Dead.
Skills
- Detonate Dead is your primary skill. It explodes your Minions and enemy corpses.
- Sacrifice allows you to target Detonate Dead on your Minions.
- Skeletal Brutes are the highest health Minions, exploding them causes your Detonate Dead to deal a lot of damage.
- Skeletal Cleric is a support Minion that revives other fallen Skeletons, you should run 1 or 2 of them depending on your Spirit.
- Grim Feast provides recovery for your Energy Shield and overflows it, allowing you to have up to double your usual maximum Energy Shield.
- Use Soul Offering on bosses to sacrifice a Skeleton for a Spell damage buff.
- Drop Mana Tempest on bosses to get extra Lightning damage, which also allows you to Shock.
Keep your Detonate Dead at level 7 to keep Mana and Life costs low as the damage does not increase with levels.
Skill Rotation
- Cast Soul Offering on one of your Skeletal Brutes.
- Cast Mana Tempest and stand under it.
- Spam Detonate Dead.
- If you run out of Minions and the boss is still alive, wait for them to respawn and repeat the process.
For clear maintain distance from packs and fire Detonate Dead, ideally targeting enemy corpses. If there are no enemy corpses to detonate, make sure to direct your Minions to a place where you want them to be with the Direct Minions keybind.
For Pinnacle Bosses use Concentrated Effect and Considered Casting instead of Magnified Effect and Ambush.
Skill Leveling Priority
Passives
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- You can change any travel node to an Attribute you need to equip an item/gem. Otherwise, prioritize Strength.
- The Meat Recycling cluster is a must-have for the chance to not destroy corpses.
- Make sure to check the Gear section of the guide for information on what kind of Jewels to place in your Jewel Sockets.
Ascendancy
Learn how to complete the Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos to earn your first 2 Ascensions with our Ascension Guide!
- Sanguimancy provides Life recovery on kill and on Critical Strikes by spawning Life Remnants, Life granted this way can also overflow up to double the usual maximum. It also causes all spells to cost Life as well as Mana and drain your Life and Mana while casting under Mana Tempest. The extra costs are not very noticeable for this build as Detonate Dead is kept at level 7.
- Gore Spike grants extra damage in the form of a Critical Damage Bonus based on Life, including overflowed Life.
- Sunder the Flesh almost doubles your total Critical Chance, it is the reason this build is Blood Mage.
- Blood Barbs is taken last and provides extra damage and allows the Lightning damage from Mana Tempest to contribute to Bleed damage.
Gearing
Offensive Scaling
- Minion Skill Gem levels provide the biggest single target damage increase.
- Spirit allows for more Skeletal Brutes and Skeletal Clerics increasing your damage uptime on bosses.
- % increased Critical Hit Chance and % Increased Critical Hit Chance for Spells up to 50% Critical Hit Chance on Detonate Dead.
- % increased Critical Damage Bonus.
- Minions have % increased maximum Life.
- Prioritize % Damage and % Spell Damage over % Physical Damage if they are the same value, but all increase your damage.
- Cast Speed for smoother gameplay.
Defensive Scaling
- Sufficient +#% to Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos Resistance to cap your Resistances.
- Atziri's Disdain grants % Energy Shield based on your Life.
- +# to Energy Shield
- +# to Maximum Life
- If you are still struggling, check out our Survival Guide for additional useful information!
Here's how you should gear your Detonate Dead Blood Mage. Sorted in order of importance.
Weapons
The main hand weapon is Enezun's Charge. This is a cheap weapon that provides solid Spell damage and a Critical Hit Chance increase. It also provides the unique stat of a 25% chance to not destroy corpses when consuming corpses, leading to 75% total chance in combination with Corpse Conservation support gem and Meat Recycling cluster.
For your offhand Omen Sceptre is the best base.
- +# to level of all Minion Skills
- % increased Spirit
- Minions have % increased maximum Life
- +# to Strength or +# to Intelligence
Amulet
Body Armour
Helmet
Gloves
Boots
Rings
Belt
Jewels
Atlas Passives
Click the arrows to open the full tree in a new tab.
- This build is amazing for Ritual as you hit everything that spawns at the same time and very solid for Breach, Expedition and Trial of Chaos.
- You can run any Waystone modifier although Burning Ground can be frustrating.
- It doesn't struggle in Trial of Sekhemas but the runs are not fast.
Learn about the endgame activities available to you in Path of Exile 2 with our guide!
FAQ
Why am I running out of Life/Mana when casting?
Make sure your Detonate Dead is level 7, that way it costs very little Life and Mana. Other spells don't cost enough Mana even for a high level skill to cause issues.
How does this build perform on a budget?
How do I control my Minions?
I struggle with my attributes, what should I do?
What bonuses should I choose from relics in Act 2 and venom drought in Act 3?
Video
Summary
- Detonate Dead is a ranged spellcaster that utilizes enemy corpses against them by exploding them and annihilating the screen with devastating physical damage.
- Sacrifice enables exploding Skeletal Brutes, turning this build into a solid bosser.
- The build has excellent defense due to overflowing both Life and Energy Shield.
Credits
Written by: Ventrua
Content Reviewed by: CrouchingTuna
Language Reviewed by: Tenkiei