[1.3.1] Tri-Element Equilibrium Trapper (budget atziri's killer)

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joaopcl wrote:

Can I replace arc with Vaal arc?

You can use Vaal Arc with traps, but since you would depend on getting souls to use it, you end up with one less element that you can switch over to increase the damage.

Since the build is stretched on sockets, you probably won't be able to run both Arc and Vaal Arc traps. UNLESS, you use the Deerskin unique boots, that provide the trap gem support gem, and then put both Arc and Vaal Arc on the same 4-link.

But if you have access to Atziri boots, they are really nice defensive wise.

Hey! Could you update your tree? Thanks :)!

"

gabriella88 wrote:

Hey! Could you update your tree? Thanks :)!

I'm planning to do it next week once I have a bit more time. For the moment here are some trees based on the old one.

Up to 53 points: bit.ly/1Mmwuel
Up to 108 points: bit.ly/1HuhLK0

Take only Eldritch + Mind over Matter + Zealot's when you have a bit of energy shield (>400), it will allow you to use Enduring Cry to recharge the energy shield after throwing the traps.

What do you think about the change to Proliferation and the buff to lightning trap? I feel like Prolif is pretty dead on cold snap.

"

szym3n wrote:

What do you think about the change to Proliferation and the buff to lightning trap? I feel like Prolif is pretty dead on cold snap.

I don't like lightning trap, most of the time it ends up not hitting almost anything. It's more a mechanical issue for me then anything else. On the lightning skills though I have to say that I'm tempted to use lightning nova instead of arc, now that the shock chance is built in and it no longer has the dead zone.

Prolif got hammered more because of it's range then anything else. It's still really good with this build for the flame and lightning though because it will average the damage on large packs. And if you use fire trap and lightning nova traps you can switch it for conc effect without changing the sockets for bosses.

I won't use prolif on cold snap trap anymore, but you don't actually need it has much since cold snap actually got buffed.

Anyway this are my views about those skills for now, from what I tested on beta. But only once I have time to rebuild this trapper I will be able to reevaluate everything properly. I think the hardest nerf is that to reach certain things we now need a lot more points then before and the ondar's guile now makes melee enemies even more scary then ever.

Per our convo, I'm posting this reply in your thread.

I remember grouping with a crit trapper a couple seasons ago and always wanted to try one as I loved watching rooms explode after he tossed a few traps in.

I suppose I'm a bit of a masochist as I like to experiment with builds through trial and error rather than copy and paste what others have already done-- so I tried my hand at a tri-ele crit trapper. My thought was to utilize EE and shoot for massive crits. I figured if I picked up enough crit nodes and utilize the new node "chance to acquire power charges on trap trigger" that I'd be hitting hard enough and often enough to clear before I took too much damage. I knew traps were mana intensive so I planned accordingly and grabbed as much +mana and mana regen as I could.

As far as defensively--I wasn't sure with the expansion how I'd choose to build so I started out pure life and ES. Once I started getting hit pretty hard (can't remember if it was late Cruel or Merciless) I tried Mind Over Matter and moved up to snag Eldritch Battery. It didn't seem to matter. I just wasn't clearing fast enough as I pushed on through Merciless...and certainly not as fast as I remember seeing that crit trapper I grouped with a year ago.

I will freely admit when I'm wrong. The path I chose on the skill tree was probably unwise. My rational was to start at witch tree so I could bounce down to EE easily while picking up lots of spell crit.
Here's the setup as of right now:

Skill Tree
Gear

Defensive approach has been hybrid evasion/ES since lots of evasion/ES nodes are conveniently placed in the shadow area near trap nodes.
2,500 life (need more)
1,300 ES (need more)
Evasion sits at 20% w/o Grace. I use a shield so 24% block.
I have MoM to reduce the chunking (I've tried it with and without EB and without seems to give more survivability with such a low life pool).

Offensively, I've tried every conceivable trap combo. Currently I rest here but obviously willing to change it up. I will say this, trap setup changes yield little variability in dps. I've tried multi-traps, various support damage gems, different skill gems + trap...I think my issue is gear and skill tree. The hightest dps tooltip remains fire trap around 3.5k- I know, tooltips are misleading but it's just a reference point. The real proof is in pack clearing speed and you can generally feel when it's good or lacking. Right now I'm lacking.

Cold snap/trap/Ele prolif/Increased crit strikes/ (to freeze packs)
Arc/trap/increased crit strikes/chain (to shock)
Fire trap/increased crit strikes/increased Aoe/conc AoE/Hypothermia (Hypothermia gives extra damage + chance to freeze chilled enemies)

Packs of white mobs in Act 4 go down in usually one rotation of traps. Blues require at least 2 rotations.

1. Some of the changes in Awakening have really taken a toll. No more auras+ reduced mana, change in shock status (no more stacks), no more CoDT+ totems, etc. But I'm willing to work around them.

2. I think I'm missing a good deal of spell damage or ele damage. As far as ele trappers go I think spell damage and ele damage are one in the same? However, I thought* I'd make up for it with nodes in trap damage and pushing my crit multiplier up high enough (fire trap has crit mult of roughly 400%).

3. Survivability is an issue, some due to low life pool and some due to dps issues. I've learned to bob and weave and utilize lightning warp/reduced duration to escape bad situations from packs -but some Act 4 bosses just murder me. I tried running Grace but my mana pool was just too low to sustain it while using MoM. 50% mana reserve proved to be too much at my current mana pool which is 1,100 and regen with Clarity is 102/sec. If I get chunked, I chug potions like anybody else would.

I realize gear is perhaps an issue. I have no trapper specific uniques or ele damage uniques. I can fix that. I'm up to 2 exas worth of currency. I've been saving up to try and figure out which direction I'll go before spending anymore on more gear and enchants. I'm sorta stubborn in that I like to not give up, but if I have to reroll I will. :/

Any and all suggestions welcome!

"

Biscuit57 wrote:

Per our convo, I'm posting this reply in your thread.

Spoiler

I remember grouping with a crit trapper a couple seasons ago and always wanted to try one as I loved watching rooms explode after he tossed a few traps in.

I suppose I'm a bit of a masochist as I like to experiment with builds through trial and error rather than copy and paste what others have already done-- so I tried my hand at a tri-ele crit trapper. My thought was to utilize EE and shoot for massive crits. I figured if I picked up enough crit nodes and utilize the new node "chance to acquire power charges on trap trigger" that I'd be hitting hard enough and often enough to clear before I took too much damage. I knew traps were mana intensive so I planned accordingly and grabbed as much +mana and mana regen as I could.

As far as defensively--I wasn't sure with the expansion how I'd choose to build so I started out pure life and ES. Once I started getting hit pretty hard (can't remember if it was late Cruel or Merciless) I tried Mind Over Matter and moved up to snag Eldritch Battery. It didn't seem to matter. I just wasn't clearing fast enough as I pushed on through Merciless...and certainly not as fast as I remember seeing that crit trapper I grouped with a year ago.

I will freely admit when I'm wrong. The path I chose on the skill tree was probably unwise. My rational was to start at witch tree so I could bounce down to EE easily while picking up lots of spell crit.
Here's the setup as of right now:

Skill Tree

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMABUIFtQceCNQI9A3RDkgQexEtES8RUBGWHNwe8B_HIvQnqSj6KgsrCit4LJwtizIYNblBlkLDRKtFnUcGSVFJsVMxU1JVrl3yY0NknWpDbAhsC20ZcFFwUnDVc212b3yDfjN-WX6wf8aCEIUyidOKBo8aj6aP-pMnlS6YrZrgnWOhL6SRpyuus7MDtMW297d1uJO5k7zqvjq-isBUwuzDCdD118_YVNsa2-ffhN-w5Y7ndOjW6-7r9e4V74jw1fD58YryHfLh8-r1S_k3

Gear

Spoiler

Defensive approach has been hybrid evasion/ES since lots of evasion/ES nodes are conveniently placed in the shadow area near trap nodes.
2,500 life (need more)
1,300 ES (need more)
Evasion sits at 20% w/o Grace. I use a shield so 24% block.
I have MoM to reduce the chunking (I've tried it with and without EB and without seems to give more survivability with such a low life pool).

Offensively, I've tried every conceivable trap combo. Currently I rest here but obviously willing to change it up. I will say this, trap setup changes yield little variability in dps. I've tried multi-traps, various support damage gems, different skill gems + trap...I think my issue is gear and skill tree. The hightest dps tooltip remains fire trap around 3.5k- I know, tooltips are misleading but it's just a reference point. The real proof is in pack clearing speed and you can generally feel when it's good or lacking. Right now I'm lacking.

Cold snap/trap/Ele prolif/Increased crit strikes/ (to freeze packs)
Arc/trap/increased crit strikes/chain (to shock)
Fire trap/increased crit strikes/increased Aoe/conc AoE/Hypothermia (Hypothermia gives extra damage + chance to freeze chilled enemies)

Packs of white mobs in Act 4 go down in usually one rotation of traps. Blues require at least 2 rotations.

1. Some of the changes in Awakening have really taken a toll. No more auras+ reduced mana, change in shock status (no more stacks), no more CoDT+ totems, etc. But I'm willing to work around them.

2. I think I'm missing a good deal of spell damage or ele damage. As far as ele trappers go I think spell damage and ele damage are one in the same? However, I thought* I'd make up for it with nodes in trap damage and pushing my crit multiplier up high enough (fire trap has crit mult of roughly 400%).

3. Survivability is an issue, some due to low life pool and some due to dps issues. I've learned to bob and weave and utilize lightning warp/reduced duration to escape bad situations from packs -but some Act 4 bosses just murder me. I tried running Grace but my mana pool was just too low to sustain it while using MoM. 50% mana reserve proved to be too much at my current mana pool which is 1,100 and regen with Clarity is 102/sec. If I get chunked, I chug potions like anybody else would.

I realize gear is perhaps an issue. I have no trapper specific uniques or ele damage uniques. I can fix that. I'm up to 2 exas worth of currency. I've been saving up to try and figure out which direction I'll go before spending anymore on more gear and enchants. I'm sorta stubborn in that I like to not give up, but if I have to reroll I will. :/

Any and all suggestions welcome!

I've always tried crit traps or EE traps in PoE over the past 2 years, and in 2.0 I tried a crit Fire Nova Mine build that reached lvl65 act4 merc, but let's face it, that stuff is not for Malachai.
As for your skill tree, I tried editing it a bit, skipping Evasion nodes, and went to Acrobatics instead, plus it opens up 20% HP cluster and 50% crit chance and 25% multi south of it, you can check it out and tell me what you think, my advice is to not invest heavily into ES nodes


Problem with EE crits, is your tree will be too spread, so either go for crit traps without EE and focus on more defenses if you like in the shadow/witch area, or go non-crit EE traps and invest more into the Templar area for AoE and E-Dmg nodes.

And for dmg increases, as far as my noobish knowledge goes, E-dmg = Trap dmg = fire/cold/light dmg = spell dmg, unless you're running added chaos gem someplace, then E-dmg falls behind.

No uniques are needed, but the trap boots is cheap and it offers a nice 5L plus MS which this builds likes.

Hope this helps.

[Edit]: For gems, I've been messing with the new Shock Nova, and tbh it shows great potential, maybe switch to Shock Nova + Inc.AoE instead of Arc + Chain (not to mention it's 6% base crit with better Dmg Effectiveness)

"

dpchaos wrote:

"

Biscuit57 wrote:

Per our convo, I'm posting this reply in your thread.

Spoiler

I remember grouping with a crit trapper a couple seasons ago and always wanted to try one as I loved watching rooms explode after he tossed a few traps in.

I suppose I'm a bit of a masochist as I like to experiment with builds through trial and error rather than copy and paste what others have already done-- so I tried my hand at a tri-ele crit trapper. My thought was to utilize EE and shoot for massive crits. I figured if I picked up enough crit nodes and utilize the new node "chance to acquire power charges on trap trigger" that I'd be hitting hard enough and often enough to clear before I took too much damage. I knew traps were mana intensive so I planned accordingly and grabbed as much +mana and mana regen as I could.

As far as defensively--I wasn't sure with the expansion how I'd choose to build so I started out pure life and ES. Once I started getting hit pretty hard (can't remember if it was late Cruel or Merciless) I tried Mind Over Matter and moved up to snag Eldritch Battery. It didn't seem to matter. I just wasn't clearing fast enough as I pushed on through Merciless...and certainly not as fast as I remember seeing that crit trapper I grouped with a year ago.

I will freely admit when I'm wrong. The path I chose on the skill tree was probably unwise. My rational was to start at witch tree so I could bounce down to EE easily while picking up lots of spell crit.
Here's the setup as of right now:

Skill Tree

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMABUIFtQceCNQI9A3RDkgQexEtES8RUBGWHNwe8B_HIvQnqSj6KgsrCit4LJwtizIYNblBlkLDRKtFnUcGSVFJsVMxU1JVrl3yY0NknWpDbAhsC20ZcFFwUnDVc212b3yDfjN-WX6wf8aCEIUyidOKBo8aj6aP-pMnlS6YrZrgnWOhL6SRpyuus7MDtMW297d1uJO5k7zqvjq-isBUwuzDCdD118_YVNsa2-ffhN-w5Y7ndOjW6-7r9e4V74jw1fD58YryHfLh8-r1S_k3

Gear

Spoiler

Defensive approach has been hybrid evasion/ES since lots of evasion/ES nodes are conveniently placed in the shadow area near trap nodes.
2,500 life (need more)
1,300 ES (need more)
Evasion sits at 20% w/o Grace. I use a shield so 24% block.
I have MoM to reduce the chunking (I've tried it with and without EB and without seems to give more survivability with such a low life pool).

Offensively, I've tried every conceivable trap combo. Currently I rest here but obviously willing to change it up. I will say this, trap setup changes yield little variability in dps. I've tried multi-traps, various support damage gems, different skill gems + trap...I think my issue is gear and skill tree. The hightest dps tooltip remains fire trap around 3.5k- I know, tooltips are misleading but it's just a reference point. The real proof is in pack clearing speed and you can generally feel when it's good or lacking. Right now I'm lacking.

Cold snap/trap/Ele prolif/Increased crit strikes/ (to freeze packs)
Arc/trap/increased crit strikes/chain (to shock)
Fire trap/increased crit strikes/increased Aoe/conc AoE/Hypothermia (Hypothermia gives extra damage + chance to freeze chilled enemies)

Packs of white mobs in Act 4 go down in usually one rotation of traps. Blues require at least 2 rotations.

1. Some of the changes in Awakening have really taken a toll. No more auras+ reduced mana, change in shock status (no more stacks), no more CoDT+ totems, etc. But I'm willing to work around them.

2. I think I'm missing a good deal of spell damage or ele damage. As far as ele trappers go I think spell damage and ele damage are one in the same? However, I thought* I'd make up for it with nodes in trap damage and pushing my crit multiplier up high enough (fire trap has crit mult of roughly 400%).

3. Survivability is an issue, some due to low life pool and some due to dps issues. I've learned to bob and weave and utilize lightning warp/reduced duration to escape bad situations from packs -but some Act 4 bosses just murder me. I tried running Grace but my mana pool was just too low to sustain it while using MoM. 50% mana reserve proved to be too much at my current mana pool which is 1,100 and regen with Clarity is 102/sec. If I get chunked, I chug potions like anybody else would.

I realize gear is perhaps an issue. I have no trapper specific uniques or ele damage uniques. I can fix that. I'm up to 2 exas worth of currency. I've been saving up to try and figure out which direction I'll go before spending anymore on more gear and enchants. I'm sorta stubborn in that I like to not give up, but if I have to reroll I will. :/

Any and all suggestions welcome!

I've always tried crit traps or EE traps in PoE over the past 2 years, and in 2.0 I tried a crit Fire Nova Mine build that reached lvl65 act4 merc, but let's face it, that stuff is not for Malachai.
As for your skill tree, I tried editing it a bit, skipping Evasion nodes, and went to Acrobatics instead, plus it opens up 20% HP cluster and 50% crit chance and 25% multi south of it, you can check it out and tell me what you think, my advice is to not invest heavily into ES nodes

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMABAcFQgW1Bx4I1Aj0DdEOSBEtEVARlhqBHNwj9iT9JpUo-iycMHEwfDIYNbk6QjpYPV9BlkSrRZ1HBklRS3hMs02SUUdRdFJTUzFTUlVLVa5Vxl3yXyph4mKsY0NknWpDaxdsjG0ZcFFwUnDVc212b3yDfrB_xoIQgseD24UyidOKBow2jX2Nv4-mj_qVIJUul5WX9JitmuCdY52qoqOksaaZpyuus7MDtMW4k7zqwFTB88Ls0PXUI9hU2-fdqN-K37DljudU6-Tr7uv18NXw-fId8uH56P_e

Problem with EE crits, is your tree will be too spread, so either go for crit traps without EE and focus on more defenses if you like in the shadow/witch area, or go non-crit EE traps and invest more into the Templar area for AoE and E-Dmg nodes.

And for dmg increases, as far as my noobish knowledge goes, E-dmg = Trap dmg = fire/cold/light dmg = spell dmg, unless you're running added chaos gem someplace, then E-dmg falls behind.

No uniques are needed, but the trap boots is cheap and it offers a nice 5L plus MS which this builds likes.

Hope this helps.

[Edit]: For gems, I've been messing with the new Shock Nova, and tbh it shows great potential, maybe switch to Shock Nova + Inc.AoE instead of Arc + Chain (not to mention it's 6% base crit with better Dmg Effectiveness)

Wow, I appreciate the feedback! This is exactly what I was looking for. It never occurred to me that EE would be spreading me too thin on the tree until you brought it up. But after looking at the my tree now I can see how you'd think that. I suppose my thought was to make the initial trap hits crit so hard that I'd be able to avoid collecting tons of ele/spell damage nodes.

I'm curious why you prefer acrobatics over the evasion/es route? Is it the keystone nodes themselves (Acrobatics+Phase) just outperform ES/evasion as a trapper? Or are they relatively equal in gameplay-- it was just that the tiebreaker for you were the nodes that open up for me nearby (HP and crit)?

I used acro/phase on my 92 shadow dual claw character...but he also had an unholy amount of evasion. Then again, we all remember melee with desync. You needed every survival trick in the book ;)

There are several issues with the build you posted, personally its not a case of trying to cover too much but more a case of certain key aspects. For example, you only have +69% increased maximum life at 102 points, at this point level you should aim at least for 130%.

Another thing for example is your belt doesn't have trap damage, you can either buy Sunblast (usually isn't expensive) or craft trap damage to a belt of your choice from Tora.

I think you can also craft spell damage on your dagger now, that will boost your damage again. Traps are spells, so spell damage will boost it up by alot. The burning ground and ignite from fire trap will be double improved by increased elemental or fire damage, but regular spell damage still builds up the initial hit.

Regarding your links, Awakening changed a lot of things, personally using your link layout I would use:
- Fire Trap - Conc Effect - Fire Pen - Trap and mines damage (act 2 vendor) - Inc Crit chance ( - Burning Damage on 6-link )
- Cold snap - Conc Effect - Multi Trap - Trap and mines damage
- Shock Nova (6% crit base, no dead zone now! and built in shock chance) - Trap - Trap and mines Damage - Multitrap

You may ask why multitrap, 2 reasons more traps triggered = faster load up on power charges and additionally each level reduces the penalty on the gem!

On both Cold Snap and Shock Nova, more traps mean more chances to shock and freeze enemies as they are trying to reach you, since the traps are launched from your current position. And at the same time it's a "hidden" increase AOE since the multiple traps have the same AOE as a single trap.

I hadn't started the trapper for Awakening but I'm planning this time around to go crit, due to all the skill changes. Once I manage to figure out the path on the tree, since there are more travel points now.

I'm thinking on a tree like: http://poeurl.com/ztlXtLM

Taking any crit related nodes only after grabbing everything else (first flat crit and then power charges, witch power charge 1st). Arrow dancing will only be around lvl 90 when I'm confident that I have enough evasion and control over the fights so that melee enemies aren't an issue as much.

Auras wise, it will be Grace and Discipline (the last one only while my gear doesn't have enough energy shield). I will be using Enduring Warcry + Inc Duration to regenerate the mind over matter eldritch buffer and have a hybrid flask for emergencies to refill any mana, since I don't have mana regen from tree (if I get hit so hard that the energy shield and mana are all gone).

Hope this helps you m8, but really you need more life just in case something stares at you the wrong way :)

edit: updated the skill tree, was missing the power charge nodes from traps

(don't forget to check my previous post, more generic answer to your entire build and then here are some specific answers to your more recent post)

"

I suppose my thought was to make the initial trap hits crit so hard that I'd be able to avoid collecting tons of ele/spell damage nodes.

If you don't have elemental you have to overcome with at least alot of spell damage, though elemental is better. The thing is, the status effect applied will last depending on the damage dealt, if you don't have enough spell damage, elemental and so on, it will last almost no time.

"

I'm curious why you prefer acrobatics over the evasion/es route? Is it the keystone nodes themselves (Acrobatics+Phase) just outperform ES/evasion as a trapper? Or are they relatively equal in gameplay-- it was just that the tiebreaker for you were the nodes that open up for me nearby (HP and crit)?

For an ES/Evasion build, acrobatics only gives penalty to the energy shield, getting a big enough energy shield is alot easier then getting high evasion ratting, so in the end Acrob averages out the damage you receive by a lot.

"

I used acro/phase on my 92 shadow dual claw character...but he also had an unholy amount of evasion. Then again, we all remember melee with desync. You needed every survival trick in the book ;)

That's the trick, you only need a certain amount of energy shield, after that it's evasion all the way! :)

Level 75 gear can have on top of the base +100 energy shield and then 100% increased energy shield and evasion. So see how much potential is there after you cover your resists and life requirements.