[HC] Shadow Fire Trap In-Depth Guide: By Righteous Fire

Hey guys, I just wanted to throw out a HC Fire Trap guide for all those looking for one. I've been searching the forums looking for a nice Hardcore Fire Trap build but found it difficult to find a solid one. Below will be my build and an explanation/methodology of its components. I don't claim I am an expert to this build nor this game, so I will be updating this guide while I learn new things.

Here is the 94-point Passive Skill Tree

Please note this is the bare-bones of the full build. Passive-bonus summary, explanation, and possible branch-offs of the tree will be discussed further in the guide.


Guide Updated 2/27/2013
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Guide Index:

(I) FAQ
(II) About the Build
(III) Skill Gems Rundown
(IV) List of Gems
(V) Equipment
(VI) Gem Links
(VII) Combat: How to Play
(VIII) Passive Skill Tree Progression
(IX) Changelog
(X) Conclusion



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(I) FAQ:

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Can you use multiple Fire Traps on your active skill bar?

Yes, also with Bear Traps. You can only have 3 traps active on the ground but you can have more than 3 traps in reserve if you have more than one Fire Trap or Bear Trap equipped.

"

How difficult is this build to level/execute?

Leveling with three to four Fire Traps and the Ethereal Knives spell makes this build very effective when it comes to AoE and weaving through combat. By utilizing Bear Traps to knock down high HP and high priority targets, this build is very easy to level solo with.

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Is this build gear dependent?

No, this build can actually be made from scratch. The only equipment requirement that may be needed later on would be 4 slots which are easily attainable via trade/farming.

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Does this build rely on Critical Strikes to do damage?

No. The damage from the Fire Trap will come from its burn damage and Chance to Ignite support gem which is triggered from the initial burst.

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Why start as a Shadow and not Templar or Witch?

The Shadow has access to multiple Dexterity nodes early on which are necessary for leveling Bear Traps which require 151 Dexterity at level 68. If you want to level your key skills smoothly without Dex equipment, you'd best start Shadow.

"

Why pick up Eldtritch Battery? Won't that just lower your survivability?

Yes, you pick up Eldtritch Battery and it is very important in this build. With EB, you obtain a large mana pool which will allow you to run many more Auras that will increase your overall survivability more than energy shield would ever do.

"

Which Gems should I level

Level all of them as soon as possible, including Clarity.


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(II) About the Build

The Fire Trap Shadow is a very fun character that is highly mobile. Because you don't have to actively channel Fire Traps to do damage, you can move about the battle field in order to run away from melee enemies or dodge ranged attacks and spells. You will be able to destroy groups of enemies at a time as well as take down high-priority targets (Necromancers, Elite Monsters, etc) with ease through Bear Traps.

This build focuses on the damage, mobility, and accessibility of multiple Fire Trap (FT) Spells coupled with Bear Trap (BT), Ethereal Knives(EK), and Auras in order to make an all-around character that can solo really well as well as be a benefit to team play.

The damage of the Fire Trap comes from its burn damage as well as the igniting capabilities of the initial burst when the trap is triggered. When an enemy is ignited by the initial explosion, it will take damage from the DoT that is laid on the ground PLUS ignite damage, creating a devastating combo that can destroy groups of enemies at a time.

Critical Strikes are not necessary for the build specifically because of the support gem, Chance to Ignite. This allows for less gear-dependency and the ability to pick and choose equipment more easily without losing a lot of DPS.

Survivability of the build comes from Spell Totem: Summon Skeletons as well as taking as many +Maximum Life nodes in the Passive tree without straying from the main path.

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(III) Skill Gems Rundown


Here's the list of skills/auras that will be used and the reasoning behind it.

Fire Trap - Mobile AoE. Allows for cast-and-move gameplay for higher survivability
Ethereal Knives - Strong cone-AoE, helps clean up after placing Fire Traps and used as a standby when all traps are on cooldown
Bear Trap - Single Target DPS
Raise Skeleton - Coupled with Spell Totem, this is your wall of defense and keeps enemies still

Enfeeble/Flammability - Mitigate damage taken or increase damage done, the choice is up to you.

Clarity - Allows spell spamability
Determination - Increases Armour value to increase survivability
Grace or Haste - Increases Evasion for more survivability or Increases Spell Casting speed for your slow Ethereal Knives
Discipline - Coupled with Eldritch Battery, this spell will increase your available mana

NOTE: You will not be able to wear all these auras at once in the early levels. you will have to wait til later in the game (40s-60s) when Eldritch Battery is taken in the skill tree and Reduced Mana is linked with these spells to utilize everything.


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(IV) List of Gems

Here is the list of Skill and Support Gems required for this build. It is suggested that you equip all these gems as soon as you can in order to level them right away.

Actives:
Fire Trap x3-4*
Bear Trap x3-4*
Ethereal Knives
Summon Skeleton
Flammability and/or Enfeeble (I suggested Enfeeble for more survivability)

Auras:
Clarity
Determination
Discipline
Grace or Haste

Supports:
Added Fire Damage x2
Faster Casting x2
Fire Penetration
Chance to Ignite
Concentrated Effect**
Spell Totem
Minion Life
Reduced Mana
Life Leech


For a total of 26 gems. It may seem impossible to hold this many gems, but you can hold to a maximum of 30 gems including swapped-weapons, so this is completely doable.

*Obtaining Fire/Bear Traps: Getting multiple amounts of Fire and Bear traps is easy. You just have to create 3-4 Shadow characters. Getting to Lioneye's Watch grants you Fire Trap and the quest "Breaking Some Eggs" where you have to find artifacts from the Rhoa's nests grants you Bear Trap or Ethereal Knives.

**About Concentrated Effect: Concentrated effect gives 50% increased area damage for the exchange of 30% reduced radius. This gem should be used in the late-game phase of your character when "Increased Radius of Area Skills" Passives are acquired which will negate the bad trade-off for your Fire Traps. You can always link this gem instead of Chance to Ignite if you are comfortable with the smaller blast radius.


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(V) Equipment

Because this build suggests having 3-4 Fire Traps and 3-4 Bear traps constantly equipped, it is recommended that you obtain three or four-linked equipment as soon as you can. You can settle for non-linked gear early on, but in order for the Active skills to be potent, you must be able to link all gems on each equipment piece.

Colors of gems that are rolled on equipment rely on the class-type that usually wear them. Because of this, you will want to be looking for mainly Shadow (Evasion/Energy Shield) and Templar (Armour/Energy Shield) gear to make it easier to roll the required gem-slot colors.

In general, you want to find equipment with:
3-4 slots
HP
Resistances
Spell Damage
Mana Regeneration
Mana
in that rough order of importance.

Always remember to upgrade the quality of your equipment via Armour Scraps for more survivability


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(VI) Gem Links

Below is the list of suggested equipment type and gems attached to it.

The gems are listed in the amount of link-priority from highest to lowest:

Helmet (BRBB):
Armour/Energy Shield with possibly +1-2 skills to minion gems
Summon Skeleton
Spell Totem
Faster Casting
Minion Life

Chest (GGGB necessary linked and RB in mid-late game):
Evasion/Energy Shield
Fire Trap x3
Chance to Ignite
Fire Penetration
Concentrated Effect

Main Hand (GR_, last gem slot can be for "Floater" skills that are not required to be linked:)
Wand/Scepter with High percentage of % Spell Damage
Bear Trap
Added Fire Damage

Off-Hand (GR_, last gem slot can be for "Floater" skills that are not required to be linked:)
High-Armour Shield with good Elemental Resistances
Bear Trap
Added Fire Damage

Gloves (GRBG):
Evasion/Energy Shield or Armour/Energy Shield
Ethereal Knives
Life Leech
Faster Casting
Faster Projectiles

Boots (BRRG):
Armour/Energy Shield
Clarity
Reduced Mana
Determination
Grace

Secondary Main/Off-hand (GGG_ _ _)
Bear Trap x2
Fire Trap

You can use the unassigned _ to put gems you are not currently using in so that you can level them up.

Discipline and Enfeeble/Flammability do not need to be linked to other skills, so you can put them wherever you can.


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(VII) Combat: How to Play

There are many variations to your action bar load-out that you can use depending on the combat situation:

Left Click: Move (Do not set it to attack because it can kill you more than you actually want to use it)

Middle Mouse: Summon Skeleton

Right Click: Ethereal Knives

QWERT:

(Standard):
3x Fire Trap, Bear Trap, and Enfeeble/Flammability

(Double Curse):
2x Fire Trap, Bear Trap, Enfeeble, Flammability

(Easy Trash Clearing):
4x Fire Trap, Enfeeble/Flammability

(Boss Fights):
Fire Trap, 3 Bear Trap, Enfeeble/Flammability
or
4x Bear Trap, Enfeeble/Flammability for bosses with no extra enemies (Merveil Phase 1, Brutus, Kole, etc)


The main idea of the Fire Trap Shadow is to use his mobility with the skills available to stay away from Melee enemies and dodge ranged attacks. In general, you would coat the floor with triggered Fire Traps, cast Ethereal Knives to damage enemies and clean up those that run out of the Fire Trap AoE, and use Bear Trap to kill High-Priority Targets (Necromancers, Totems, elite named enemies, etc). The combo of the Damage over time from the Fire trap as well as the Ignite from the explosion will cause massive amounts of damage to multiple enemies. Always remember to cast Enfeeble/Flammability and Summon Skeletons totem during tough situations.

Life Leech:
Be sure to cast Ethereal Knives as your form of sustain with its Life Leech support gem.

Full Melee Packs:
Kite the enemies and plant Fire Traps right in front of the direction you are running. You will leave a trail of fire which the melee enemies will follow and you can clean them up by throwing Ethereal Knives.

Large Ranged Pack:
Drop FTs in the center of the pack, move. Drop FTs in the center of the other pack, move. Rinse and repeat until they are all gone or throw EKs to finish them off.

Mixed Pack with High-Priority Targets (Necros, Elite monsters, etc):
Cast Summon Skeletons totem to provide cover. If possible, drop Bear Traps under the high priority target to kill them quickly. First drop fire traps under the Ranged enemies and then under the melee enemies while you kite them around.

Highly Mobile and Spread-Out Enemies:
In situations like fighting against highly mobile and spread out targets, I would revert from trying to use Bear/Fire Traps to get rid of them and use Ethereal Knives instead.

It may be difficult at times to land traps on highly mobile targets such as leapers and snakes from Act 3. Having skeletons up to keep the enemies busy is a good idea and getting the passive increased Trap Trigger Radius is always an option.

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(VIII) Passive Skill Tree Progression

This is a guide for the progression of the Passive Skill tree. The progression starts off at the Shadow tree to get the Dexterity nodes, then Eldritch Battery. You will then follow along the Witch tree in order to get increased Fire damage, and round off the build by getting resistances and Life nodes in the Templar tree.

1-15 Points: Grab Dexterity and Life Nodes in Shadow Tree in order to be able to level your Traps smoothly.

16-30 Points: Get Blaze, Fitness, then Eldtritch Battery

31-42 Points: Get Deep Wisdom, the 4 remaining Life nodes, Elemental Resistance, then Fire Walker

43-57 Points: Get Might, Inner Force, Fitness, then Elemental Resistance

58-73 Points: Get Pyromaniac, Immolation, Fitness, Body and Soul, then Elementalist

74-94 Points: Get Discipline and Training, Amplify, Celestial Walker, Blast Radius, the two Burn Damage nodes, then finish off the Templar Tree

Summary of Notable Passive Bonuses:
272 Intelligence
184 Strength
102 Dexterity

184% Increased Maximum Life
32% Additional Elemental Resistance
30% Increased Buff Effectiveness

80% Increased Burn Damage
19% Spell Damage
56% Increased Elemental Damage

Tree Branch-Offs:
If you need more Dexterity at any time during your leveling, you can always get the two +30 Dexterity "Agility" nodes to satisfy any stat requirement for your gear/gems.

There are many nice passives in and around this skill-tree progression that you can pick up in order to add more variation which you can cater to your playstyle.

If you would like more Elemental Resistances, you can get Nullification in the Shadow tree for 10% more elemental resistance and energy shield. There are also element-specific resistances that branch of the 6% "Elemental Resistance" nodes picked up from the main progression.

Finding it hard to get your traps to trigger? You can get the "Trap Trigger Radius" and along with 3 +8% Maximum Life nodes near the Shadow starting point. You can couple getting these passives with "Nullification" to make the points getting to those nodes worth more.

If you would like to get more critical strikes in your build, there are plenty within the Shadow tree, namely the "Assassination" hub with all critical strike chances around it as well as the two "Bloodthirst" hubs on the left and right of the Witch tree which are both one point away from the main tree-progression. You can also get "Arcane Potency" in the Templar tree for more Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier

If you would like your Summon Skeletons to explode when they are low life, you can pick up Minion Instability as well as the life nodes on the way for more survivability.

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(IX) Changelog

2/27/2013 - Added Changelog to Guide
2/27/2013 - Moved the Life Leech support to link with Ethereal Knives and removed 1 Added Fire Damage from the required Gem List.
2/27/2013 - Added "Highly Mobile and Spread-Out Enemies" to the "(VII) Combat: How to Play" section

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(X) Conclusion

I hope you found this Fire Trap Shadow build useful. If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback about the build, guide, or anything regarding this post, feel free to comment or message me in game (By_Righteous_Fire).

Thanks for reading and good luck. Don't die!

Interesting build. Kinda long but thanks for putting all that info up.

Quick question; will the Life leech support gem work on the dot or just the explosion?

I've started working on a trap shadow and am glad to see my plan lines up with yours.

So far i'm only level 12 but I've been running 4 fire traps and 1 bear on QWERT and its worked really well so far. Do you find that it is better to have more bear traps in the long run? I've got spare gems, but my gear at the moment lacks the sockets to add them in.
I'm not a big fan of shuffling skills around, so I'll probably stick with the 5 spells on QWERT, leaving me with either a 4/1 or 3/2 setup as options. When I get it, I'll probably put my curse on right click.

I also notice you decided not to pick up any of the trap passives. Do you not generally find having +1 trap or larger trigger radius to be helpful?

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Fourzerofour_LV wrote:

Interesting build. Kinda long but thanks for putting all that info up.

Quick question; will the Life leech support gem work on the dot or just the explosion?

I just tested the Life Leech support gem and it apparently does not work on Fire Traps. This is due to the trap being the one that receives the life leeching but it is also destroyed in the process.

I switched the skill gem links around to make-up for this by attaching Life Leech to Ethereal Knives. Sorry about the mix-up.

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Do you find that it is better to have more bear traps in the long run?

I posted many different variations of the QWERT setup above. I believe that later on in higher difficulties you will need more Bear Traps to do good damage against all the Act Bosses. So having 2-3 Bear Traps on you at all times to level them is always a good idea.

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I also notice you decided not to pick up any of the trap passives. Do you not generally find having +1 trap or larger trigger radius to be helpful?

First off, I find having 3 active traps on the ground is more than enough and having an additional possible active trap may not be worth the skill point.

It may be difficult at times to land traps on highly mobile targets such as leapers and snakes. Getting the passive increased Trap Trigger Radius is always an option.

In situations like fighting against highly mobile and spread out targets, I would revert from trying to use Bear/Fire Traps to get rid of them and use Ethereal Knives instead.

I added this information in the "Combat" section of the guide. Thanks for the question.

well written gj

Thanks for this very nice and detailled guide.

I leveled a ranger to 60 and I had so much fun with traps I wanted to roll a pure trap build, you just inspired me to do it now!

Thanks again! :)

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'll be updating the guide as I learn/correct more information.

do you think you could just add dual totems to this build?

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Aurious wrote:

do you think you could just add dual totems to this build?

I've heard of the build. I'll add a different section for that once I learn more about it.