[2.2] [PSC] Lowlife Crit Shock Nova CotB traps (It looks pretty I promise)

Pros
-Good aoe coverage
-Surprisingly good clear
-Enfeeble+Grace+Flasks makes it not die that easily
-Whirling Blades is a usefull skill
-No real build killing map mods (Beyond can catch you off guard though)
-Looks rad as heck

Cons
-It's not chaos, and I refuse to throw on a Voltaxic out of principle
-No leech mechanics, no ZO, basically the only way to regain ES outside of the normal recharge is Vaal Discipline. Therefore requires good position and that kind of junk
-Single target can be bad if you mess up
-Traps have a buzzkilling cooldown
-SPAM THE MANA POT

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYAAAceCNQNfA5ID8QRLxFQEZYbJR2DIG4i9CepKgsrCiymLagwWzIYNAo1uTdmO3w9X0GWRXxGcUcGSVFJsUuuTLNQMFJTUzFcil3yY0NknWSqajZsCGwLbRlvnnBRcFJwu3Ntdm93B3vXfrB_xoMJhxOJ04oGjDaP-pDWkyeVLpWHl5WXl5f0m4acpJ7EoS-io6a-pyusl66zsZCzA7QMtDi4yrmTvoC-isHzwwnKSsrT0B_Q0ND11S7WvtfP2FTZW9te2-flGejV6QLquuv17BjviO_r8NXw-fGK8h3y4fk3-_U=

Tree is kinda flexible, but this is a rough outline, get crit and crit multi and all that good stuff, together with the mandatory trap nodes like Clever Contruction. Completely open to improvements.

Leveling was a pain. I'd advice you to get Heart and Soul, Cruel Preparation, Blood Siphon and Blood Drinker and hope for the best. Ice trap is certainly a good way to go about it, but Shock Nova traps... never again! Probably the worst leveling I've had until Cruel Lab. You reaaaaalllyyy need Chain Reaction, not only cause of the Cluster trap aoe overlap, but a large portion of it is the cooldown recovery. Feels like night and day.

Main link
We are quite link starved for our main setup, but there are a few mandatory ones

- Shock Nova
- Trap
- Cluster Trap
- Trap and Mine Damage

This is the absolute core of the build, not debatable.
After this we have choices:

- AoE / Conc
- Inc crit
- Controlled Destruction
- Crit multi (maybe? Haven't tried this yet!)

The goal with a trap build like this is always to one shot white packs, preferably blues and possibly rares aswell. With that in mind, for a 5 link you make sure you do that, meaning that if your damage is too low to one shot, you pick a damage support, aka Inc crit or Controlled Destruction, and if you already do enough damage, you always go for the aoe gem.
For a 6 link you always go for Inc Aoe + one damage support. Depending on how high your crit multi is, Inc Crit is probably better than Controlled Destruction. While the 100% reduced crit isn't that much, we really look for the consitency in freezing and shocking.
One extra note is that you can swap out Inc AoE for certain map layouts, like Catacombs, Torture Chamber and all the other awful maps with narrow corridors!

Single target
Shock Nova traps are as expected a little bit underwhelming for single target. Therefore, we add another trap to the mix!

- Vaal Storm Call
- Trap
- Trap and Mine Damage
- Conc Effect

I was sad that this does not work with Cluster trap, but also pleased with the damage it can deal. If it crits, it freezes. Period. Always have this available for bosses, and use for pesky resist rares and so on!

The rest!

With Prism Guardian:

In the shield: Grace, Wrath, Discipline

4L: 3x Vaal Discipline + Inc duration

4L: Herald of Ice - Herald of Thunder - Blasphemy - Enfeeble

3L(Dagger): Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Without Prism Guardian

3L: Wrath - Discipline - Enlighten

3/4L: Herald of Ice - Herald of Thunder - Blood magic (Level 16+) - (Enlighten if you feel like it)

The rest is the same

Required

Self explanatory, it's lowlife, we have a Shavs, we want to freeze and shatter, so we use a Call of the Brotherhood

Optional

Divinarius is a decent dagger, while it won't offer the same damage as a good rare one, the aoe is such a nice stat to have. I would probably swap to a better rare in the end, but Divinarius will probably carry you almost as far.
Prism Guardian allows for more defensive stuff and junk. Basically gives us Grace + one Blasphemy curse in this case. Gives less damage and less ES than a rare shield, but overall I felt a big difference in survivability using this instead.

Rares

Worth noting all the rares below are either selffound, crafted or bought for a few chaos each.

Helm

High ES, resists, whatever floats your boat. Preferably one that doesn't exalt thorns ;_; Heretic's Veil might be possible, but then you're probably changing up the build a fair bit.

Gloves

Same as above, ES and resists. Possible to squeeze in a dex roll to make stat requirements easier, or if you feel like your ES enough you can use one of the numerous crit gloves, like Shadows and Dust (Rampage is baller incase you didn't know that yet)

Boots

Movespeed and ES, don't be lazy like me, get 30% move speed. These are self found and I'm a cheap bastard. If you don't need the resists here, Steppan Erd are a great alternative!

Amulet

Fill out stat requirements, get flat ES, get resists, and most importantly get a good crit multi roll.

Ring/Belt

Straight forward, ES, resists and so on. Worth noting that you most likely will need a good strength roll on either the ring or the amulet. Also worth noting that flask mods on belts are pretty sweet. I would argue the most important part of these two slots is getting the Maligaro's Restraint skin transfer.

The bubble is roughly a 100% more multiplier to every single aspect of your character according to my testing. Completely and utterly mandatory No Kappa

Shock Nova 5L level 19 gem
No charges:

Charges:


Vaal Storm Call level 19
No charges:

Charges:




Tooltip isn't really important in this build, nor is it optimized in any sense, but I figured that I should add it regardless!

As for the playstyle of this build, it's a little bit of a hassle:

- Throw trap at enemies
- Use flasks (one mana pot after each trap usually, thankfully it clears a lot of the screens so doesn't require that much of a spamfest.)
- Whirl for Fortify and movement
- Vaal Discipline when you dip and aren't safe. More often in ground degen maps!
- Vaal Storm Call trap for single target, preferably on literally one target.
- Stare at pretty explosions

Flasks

Open to interpitation! I chose the Jade and Stibnite to synergize with Grace and Enfeeble, Diamond for more reliable crit (you could arguably run an Atziri's Promise here)
Mana flask is an absolute must unless you change up the build considerably. And even then, traps have a gigantic mana cost.
Adrenaline Quicksilver, what's not to like?!

Jewels
One Energy from Within by Melding as per usual in most ES based builds.

You have quite a few stats to choose from when it comes to the other jewels, and they are quite impactful on your damage. Here are a few stats to aim for:

-Crit multi (global and for spells)
-Lightning Damage
-Area Damage
-Spell damage (generic or with shield)
-Trap damage
-Increased Energy shield

Probably forgetting a few, but it's a good start