[2.4] Crit Chin Sol BR Traps - T15/Atziri/Uber Lab/Pale Court on 25c budget! Uber Atziri on 6-L

Prophecy Update: In Prophecy we've gained a decent buff with the new ascendancy points that allow us either to go for the added blind damage and damage reduction or the elemental penetration and fire damage gain. I opted for the latter and I also specced out of a few trap damage nodes and crit nodes to go for the rest of the elemental penetration on the tree, giving us a base 26% chance which has increased our damage tremendously (although not on tooltip). I would highly recommend going this route as you melt things even quicker than before :) Tooltip damage remains about the same at end-game!

Let's start with what everybody always looks for first, the DPS! Though I'm no mathematician, I once wrote boobies on a calculator through extreme perseverance and determination so I believe that qualifies me to explain this.

Our main attack is Blast Rain on the Deerstalker boots which provide a free Trap support gem.
Links: Blast Rain - Cluster Traps - WED - Increased Critical Strikes/Concentrated Effect

We are specced into the Saboteur ascendancy and are using the Bomb Specialist node - 8% increased damage per trap so our damage increases by quite a bit per set of traps thrown. We are also using Ice Golem. On top of that you can run either Assassin's Mark or Elemental Weakness depending on which map mods you're running. You have a perfect window of timing between when the trap goes off and blast rain actually lands to throw down a curse on the group of enemies. All of the damage calculated below is WITHOUT a blast rain enchant on our helmet and without the added damage from curse usage.

You'll throw on concentrated effect during bosses due to the fact that I demand it. Assuming your tree and items are similar to mine (I spent a maximum of 3c on each item except for Belly which is 5c), you will be throwing down numbers similar to these but not quite as good because my dad works at GGG and gives me free dps. (He also works at Neopets so if you send me your username and password I can get you free neopoints. And if you make fun of me he will ban your ip from the internet because he works at the internet too.)


Using Increased Critical Strikes

With 1 sets thrown - 5,260 tooltip per explosion * 4 (four explosions) * 4 (four traps per cluster) * 2 (Chin Sol bonus) * 1.5 (Point Blank keystone)
= 252,523 average damage

With 3 sets thrown - 5,751 tooltip
= 276,048 average damage for each cluster of 4

With 3 sets thrown, 4 power charges, 3 frenzy charges - 7,578 tooltip
= 363,744 average damage for each cluster of 4

While clearing maps you'll find you have your frenzy and power charges up mostly all of the time, this will result in having just about 1 million damage when you throw down all three sets of traps on a group with increased critical strikes. That being said, I have rarely had to throw down more than one set of traps to take out a group of enemies.


Using Concentrated Effect

With 1 sets thrown - 6,408 tooltip per explosion * 4 (four explosions) * 4 (four traps per cluster) * 2 (Chin Sol bonus) * 1.5 (Point Blank keystone)
= 307,589 average damage

With 3 sets thrown - 7,002 tooltip
= 336,139 average damage for each cluster of 4

With 3 sets thrown, 4 power charges, 3 frenzy charges - 7,578 tooltip
= 447,360 average damage for each cluster of 4

With any boss that has a start-up animation, you're pretty much guaranteed to get three sets of traps down underneath them, and it absolutely melts bosses. You will likely not get the 4 power and 3 frenzy charges up during boss fights that are in separate areas of the maps or have animations. This means that your damage will be between the second calculation and the third depending on how lucky you get with your charge generation.

All of this damage is excluding the added damage from Elemental Weakness or Assassin's Mark, which is substantial.

6-Link Update!
With the additional 'trap and mine damage' gem we get:

Using Increased Critical Strikes

With 1 sets thrown - 7,680 tooltip per explosion * 4 (four explosions) * 4 (four traps per cluster) * 2 (Chin Sol bonus) * 1.5 (Point Blank keystone)
= 368,640 average damage

With 3 sets thrown - 8,418 tooltip
= 404,064 average damage for each cluster of 4


Using Concentrated Effect

With 1 sets thrown - 9,318 tooltip per explosion * 4 (four explosions) * 4 (four traps per cluster) * 2 (Chin Sol bonus) * 1.5 (Point Blank keystone)
= 447,264 average damage

With 3 sets thrown - 10,206 tooltip
= 489,888 average damage for each cluster of 4


As you can see the damage jump is gigantic from a 4 or 5-l to a 6-l as is expected. We absolutely melt almost anything in the game with this setup!

Prophecy Update: The only real difference here is that we got Arrow Dancing. This is actually a huge change though as I had noticed most of the dangerous situations I got into were purely because of ranged damage since we're too fast to be caught melee and most things are already dead if they do manage to get to us. Arrow Dancing gives us a much higher chance to dodge ranged attacks and has saved my life on numerous occasions. We get this by opting for the skill point instead of the power charge on Merc bandits as we honestly don't need a power charge for clearing and we don't have more than 1 or 2 up for bosses anyways.


This is a life and evasion build and as such, much of your defense comes from manual dodging (to my dismay as I suck at this game). Outside of that, depending on your items you should have between 20-25% evade chance, 40% dodge chance from acrobatics, 30% spell dodge from phase acrobatics, and max elemental resistances. We also utilize Vaal grace to bring us to 7x% dodge change and 6x% spell dodge.

If you upgrade from the 4-links to a 5-link item and Atziri’s step, you will gain another 16% spell dodge and some life which is fantastic. At this point Vaal grace will bring you do 7x% dodge chance as well.

If you are playing in HC or just want as much survivability as possible, throw in a Chill of Corruption Jewel in place of one of the damage jewels and you will have Vaal grace up pretty much all the time due to how one trap will almost always freeze and shatter a group of enemies.

We also have the Blinding Assault ascendancy giving us some nice smoke on hit and we are running a Stibnite flask as well for when you really freak the fuck out.

That’s all for defenses!

6-Link Update!
So using the items outlined in the 6-link update area, we get to 5,300 hp. This increases our survivability dramatically. It is of note that this HP is obtainable with a 5-l and just about 5200 with a 4-l! The budget will no longer be 25c, but as you gain currency the build's hp explodes upwards with HP jewels, a higher rolled belly, and making sure all of your jewelry has life on it.

Here are the items I'm using again for reference, and note that the 6-link does not affect the HP of the build, you can get this HP without the 6-link (making it progressively more powerful the more you put into it):

Skill Tree

Prophecy Update: We spec out of a few trap damage and trap nodes to get elemental penetration as well as heading upwards towards the accuracy and life in duelist given the change to blast rain that makes it actually care about accuracy now. With this we have 26% elemental penetration (including the two new ascendancy points) and Arrow Dancing which increases our survivability tremendously.

Prophecy Skill Tree (level 84): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYDAAUtBbUHHgjUDkgPxBGBEZYUdRqBG-AhdiP2JP0qCy5TL28wcTB8MbMx-jIYNxc31DnUOkI7fEIsQzFFfEcGSVFLeEz_TZJOKlFHUXRTMVVLVvpX2FuvXfJh4mJPYqxjp2SqZ05qNmwIbIxvd3BRcFJwu3NtdO12b3b3d9d-sH8rf8aGzonTjDaNfY1-jb-P-pANlS6Xl5uGnaqgeaCfoqOkwqaZswO0OLTFt3W4ysEzwfPC7MkGzZjQ0NNv1CPWithU2RPawdvn3UbdqOUZ51TqYuwY7T_uFfDV8Pnxivaf-_X_3g==

Level 90 skill tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYDAAUtBbUHHgjUDkgPxBGBEZYUdRqBG-AhdiP2JP0mlSoLLlMvbzBxMHwxszH6Mhg3FzfUOdQ6Qjt8QixDMUV8RwZJUUt4TP9Nkk4qUUdRdFMxVUtW-lfYW69d8mHiYk9irGOnZKplTWdOajZsCGyMb3dwUXBScLtzbXTtdct2b3b3d9d6736wfyt_xobOidOMNo19jX6Nv4_6kA2VLpeXm4adqqB5oJ-io6TCppmzA7Q4tMW3dbjKvTa-p8EzwfPC7MkGzZjQ0NNv1CPWithU2RPawdvn3UbdqOUZ51TqYuwY7T_uFfDV8Pnxivaf-_X_3g==

Level 100 skill tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYDAAUtBbUHHgjUDY0OSA_EEYERlhR1GoEb4CF2I_Yk_SaVKgsuUy9vMHEwfDGzMfoyGDN4Nxc31DnUOkI7fEIsQzFFfEcGR35JUUp9S3hM_02STipRR1F0UzFVS1b6V9hbr13yYeJiT2KsY6dkqmVNZ05noGo2bAhsjG93b_JwUXBScLtzbXTtdct2b3b3d9d6736wfyt_xobOh3aJ04oGjDaNfY1-jb-P-pANlS6Xl5uGnaqgeaCfoqOkwqaZswO0OLTFt3W4yr02vqfBM8HzwuzJBs2Y0NDTb9Qj1orYVNkT2sHb591G3ajjn-UZ5zrnVOpi7BjtP-4V8NXw-fGK9p_79f_e

Bandits: Oak/None/None
Reasoning: We don't need the power charge for clearing as we massacre everything anyways, and during bosses we at max have 1 or 2 charges up so having an extra maximum does not help out as much as you would hope. Instead we take that point and get Arrow Dancing which increases our survivability by a lot given most of the damage we take is ranged.

Leveling: I leveled in Prophecy using Vortex traps and Fire trap/ firestorm trap until then. Vortex traps are amazing for leveling all the way through when you get Chin Sol.


Perandus stuff. Still valid
I'm currently at level 88 and here is what my tree looks like.

I'll likely be grabbing the health node outliers as well as the Projectile damage, accuracy, and health nodes in the duelist area in the coming levels. This build's tree has been adjusted several times and this is the most efficient I've found in terms of survivability/damage. We make up for the low % health with a Belly of the Beast and at 4300, even Malachai's attacks in core didn't one-shot me. With proper preparation and knowledge of the fights I have no doubt that will be a possible encounter, though not one I'd recommend doing without upgrading to the 5-link Chin Sol/Belly and Atziri's step in Hardcore. I'd actually probably refrain from doing Core altogether in HC because I’m a pussy.

Ascendancy
Ascendancy wise we go with Saboteur and that's pretty much the only real option. Getting Chain Reaction is a necessity and I decided to go for Blinding Assault for the other two points for the added survivability from both the smoke trail and the movement speed.

Leveling/Bandits
During leveling I used Stormcloud for a good chunk of the process and it can honestly take you the entire way. I used whatever bow skills I could find until I got blast rain and leveled with that until I could use Chin Sol. I would leave the trap nodes and the Point Blank notable for the last chunk of levels before getting Chin Sol as they aren't especially useful before you translate into that. I also didn’t grab my ascendancy points until I switched to Chin Sol. They might be slightly useful before then, but I just wanted to level as quickly as possible.

For bandits I originally chose Oak - Skill - Alira, but since the build one-shots most mobs with 1-2 power charges up and for bosses we don't usually have them up at all, I believe the skill point to be more beneficial for us.

So in prophecy I'm running Oak - Skill - Skill

Before I explain everything, here are my current items:

Other than the uniques, what you want to prioritize on your items is:

Life/Resistances > Accuracy > Flat Elemental Damage > Crit Multiplier > Critical Strike > Elemental Damage with Weapons

Jewels are also important and elemental multiplier and trap damage are the biggest additions you can get. Elemental multiplier triple dips due to us dealing fire, cold and lightning and trap damage is just about as amazing as the man I see in the mirror every morning. Life is also nice, but I only have that on one of my jewels due to the budget of the build.

I did not spend more than 3c on any of the rare items and a Belly, Chin Sol, and Deerstalkers should run you about 7c. Several of the rare items were 1c and my jewels were between 1 alc to 1 chaos each (though I did Regal two of them after). The total cost of all the items in this build for me were just under 25 chaos. That's 25 chaos for a build that almost took down Core Malachai, melted twinned palace, and trivialized normal Atziri. It is of note that you will get worse items near the beginning of the league as everything is more expensive, but within a couple of weeks you will see stuff near this price.

Gems/Links
Deerstalker: Blast Rain – Cluster Traps – Weapon Elemental Damage – Increased Critical Strikes/Concentrated Effect

4-Link: Vaal Burning Arrow – Greater Multiple Projectiles – Trap – Weapon Elemental Damage
2-link: Clarity – Increased Duration

2-link: Immortal Call (lvl 3) – Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 1)

2-link: Blink Arrow – Faster Attacks

Singles: Wrath, Clarity, Summon Ice Golem, Rallying Cry

That's honestly pretty much all there is to it. You'll notice I don't have any blast rain enchant on my helmet or anything that's adding damage, though that would add quite a bit so I would try for it when you can.

Here are the items I'm running with a 6-link. Price of the items is all increased, this is the upgrade path once you have more currency and it allows you to do much more.:

The jewels I had have been updated with slightly more expensive ones that have some maximum health. Wrath and Herald of Ice have also leveled to 20 (finally) so the damage that we would lose from that has been offset. Getting health one just one of those rings and upgrading the jewels resulted in a jump from 4300-5088 health. That's a huge jump and it takes the survivability of the build much farther.

From there, I upgraded my Belly of the Beast to a 40% and the health goes even higher to just over 5300 along with a 20hp upgrade on my gloves. And that's all there is to it! 5300 hp is possible without the 6-L, with just a 5-L and some more currency you can take the survivability up by another 1k hp!

Now the 6-Link adds the gem "Trap and Mine Damage". This gives us another more multiplier and surpasses the damage we had with Conc Effect using the 4 or 5-link while we're using Increased Crit. Specific calculations for the damage and effective hp have been added to the appropriate sections of the guide and videos showcasing the 6-Link effectiveness have been added to the videos section. These include: twinned shrine, twinned colosseum, twinned abyss, uber atziri, and an attempted but failed twinned core.

Prophecy Updates (4-Link, 25c budget, level 84):
Uber Lab

Pale Court

Perandus 4-Link

Gorge

Village Ruin (EZ PZ squeeze the lemons)

Excavation (just went straight to boss, had to head out)

Twinned Palace (EZer PZer squeezier the lemons)

Colosseum (only one stupid, drunken death)

Core (EZ P-oh no wait I died a lot at the end and didn’t finish his second form)

Merc Lab Run

Atziri (absolutely trivial. Confession: if I found answers for math problems online without steps, I would write the final answer and put “trivially this is the answer” and it worked about 90% of the time.)

6-Link Update!

Uber Atziri (not deathless, but I believe it is doable deathless)

Twinned Abyss (deathless, sub-10 second boss)

Twinned Core Attempt (don't do this shit on this build. It doesn't work.)

Twinned Shrine (randomly alched)

Twinned Colosseum

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYDAAUtBbUHHgjUDY0OSA_EEZYUdRqBG8gb4CF2I_Yk_SaVKgsuUy9vMHEwfDGzMfoyGDN4N9Q51DpCO3xCLEMxRXxJUUp9S3hM_02STipRR1F0VUtW-lfYW69d8mHiYk9irGSqZ05qNmwIbIxvd2_ycFFwUnC7dO12b3b3d9d6736wfyt_xobOh3aJ04oGjDaNfY2_j_qQDZUul5ebhp2qoHmgn6KjpMKmmbMDtDi0xbd1uMrBM8HzwuzJBs_d02_UI9hU2RPawdvn3ajjhOOf5RnnOudU7BjtP-4V8NXw-fGK-_X_3gAAAAA=