[GUIDE] The Tri-nuke -version1.3

I opted to spec into EE for the first few levels. Lightning warp trap + Fire Trap + Cold Snap Trap is easy mode for levelling!

Videos have been uploaded. Sorry for quality / any other issues. I am not a professional film maker.

Interesting build idea. A few questions:

1. what are your thoughts about going through the Scion mana nodes to pick up Shaper and then EE? If you rotated Fire Trap/Increased AOE + the LW trap, you should be able to hit most mobs at -50% lightning and of course EE works on curse immune mobs and has full effect vs bosses (unlike the nerfed curses). With the added damage, might be possible to swap out a few DPS nodes for survivability. Also put you very close to the Scion HP wheel if you need to grab HP.

2. What was the rough path you followed for leveling? I haven't made a trapper post trap buff so am wondering what the most efficient path is.

For standard game content, EE is probably a decent or good option. I avoided it for two reasons: 1. My character's name is LightxGoddess. It would feel wrong to use non-lightning techniques to kill things and 2. I want this character to be PVP oriented, so I'm anticipating situations where I may only get 1 hit in on the enemy while I am running around trying to avoid death. In that case, I want that single hit to be as powerful as possible. Not only that, but as you can see, most mobs die in one throw of a trap so its hard to justify taking the time to throw a primary trap just to make the main trap more powerful.

As for the mana -> Shaper route. I've been considering it. It is certainly feasible to anticipate adding 5-10 additional nodes onto the build I have posted. More mana, mana regen and a bit of life regen are very tempting for four points. If you are heading for EE, of course this is a great route to choose; however, for this build it is optional.


___

Regarding leveling:

I didn't actually anticipate using this build as I leveled up. My original goal was to be a lightning-based caster. I leveled through normal and most of cruel using freezing pulse, cold snap, and lightning trap - planning to transition into a LW + Shock nova build in my 60's. I must say though that my original plans left much to be desired, so I ended up experimenting and ended up with this.

Looking back, I would say that one thing I wish I had gotten sooner (especially fighting enemies such as Oak, Dominus, or that one Whirling Blade exile) was the notable Clever Construction. This prevents enemies from destroying your LW traps long enough for them to activate. I put it off as one of the last passives I got- thinking that it would mostly be useful for PVP, but I regret not getting it sooner.

My advice for players seeking to play this build from level 1 would be to gun it for EB and mana/life nodes early on. Try to reach ondor's guile by mid-cruel when you hopefully have enough mana to activate grace and still cast two rounds of traps. The trap nodes are icing on the cake after that (with the exception of Clever Construction of course. The trap notable in shadow area for +1 trap to set is also helpful if you are supporting LW multitrap with an additional trap type).

How about:

Trap-Coldsnap-Cast on Crit-Conductivity/Elemental Weakness

With so much crit chance/Inc. AoE on your build you get:
1. A decent amount of freeze time/Crowd control
2. Auto Curse
3. EE Proc

*Instead of casting just the curse, as seen on the video

That could be sweet, but Cast on Crit only works with attacks.

Besides, another reason why its hard to justify EE is because the tri-nuke is composed of 6 hits, only the first of which would reap this benefit. Look closely at the video and you can see that for every nuke thrown, 6 light beacons can be activated. As far as the damage calculation is concerned, this is not instantaneous.

All in all, I'd say EE is not practical for this build. If you want to go for it, that's fine, no one is stopping you. But since the nuke is broken up into 6 different hits, it is not as helpful as you'd think.

Seeing it in action, it looks quite sick. But I'm worried about the fragility, especially if one doesn't have the necessary gear you listed. Do you usually feel you could use more life?

Have you considered going for IR and/or mind over matter?

"

deimoss wrote:

Seeing it in action, it looks quite sick. But I'm worried about the fragility, especially if one doesn't have the necessary gear you listed. Do you usually feel you could use more life?

Have you considered going for IR and/or mind over matter?

I would avoid Mind of Matter. The tri-nuke costs 300+ mana per use, and often times, throwing it at the mobs around you is a much better way to prevent more damage from occuring. IR is an option that I will probably experiment with more in the future. Evasion works quite well for me most of the time ever since I added Grace. Since you only need to stand still for .5-.6 seconds at a time to lay traps, you shouldn't be exposed to heavy-hitting physical attacks very often.

Of course, more life would be desirable. If you are planning to take a similar build into HC, I would certainly shooting for at least 50% more increased life than the provided build - sacrificing damage nodes to obtain it.

EDIT: nevermind

"

dessloc wrote:

As suggested above, EE would provide a nice damage bump in PvE content.

This is actually not true. Refer to my post above where I explain why.