[HC/Nemesis] GreatOne's Mega Crit Witch Trapper [Rank 4 in Nemesis 1 Week Race]

Hey guys, I've had a lot of requests during and after the Nemesis One Week Race about this build, so here we are, my very first PoE guide.

I'd like to start things off by making it very clear that this is a Guide, not a rigorous schedule that you have to adhere to. Feel free to grab whatever nodes you need, whether it be more damage or defense. I originally created this build for the Nemesis One Week race, but I have tuned it up and adapted it for hardcore play. This build works great as solo, but I find that it works a lot better in party play due to how much utility a trapper can bring to any team. First off, lets take a look at some of the general strengths and flaws of this build.



Strengths

- Gear independent as traps scale best with levels, support gems and crit chance/multi.
- Able to survive high burst damage via Mind over Matter, as well as be very resilient to small hits through the combination of Iron Reflexes + Arctic Armor.
- High mana regen / mana pool enables you to spam traps without worrying about mana.
- Great for party play with constant freezes, shock stacks and burns.
- Immune to reflect, thorns, corrupting blood, etc. Traps are not counted as "skills used by you".

Flaws

- No leech mechanism. Potions are your only way to heal up after taking a beating.
- Reaction based play. If you take a slew of large hits (i.e blue devourer pack) your mana will be instantly drained and you will be at mercy of your reactions with seething potions/logout skills.
- "1/2 regen" / "No regen" / "Blood magic" map mods are a pain in the ass. "No regen" and "Blood magic" are extremely difficult even with top tier gear as you lose a lot of survivability when doing them.



Skill Tree + Leveling progression

http://tinyurl.com/px7z7cn End game SoTV Build

- Defensively speaking, this build works extremely well due to three important things(2 keystones and 1 buff): Iron Reflexes, Mind over Matter, and Arctic Armor.
- Bandit Rewards : Help oak in normal, kill all in cruel and merciless
- Start off by muling fire trap as Shadow and level with fire trap + freeze pulse or spark until you get ice nova. Use with ice nova + fire trap until level 10 then use lightning trap + fire trap + ice nova. Add support gems(see leveling gems) in order when you can get them either through quests or trade.


General Gameplay

- When playing a crit trapper, once you have all your traps + support gems ready to go, I find that getting into a rotation of traps really helps with efficient clearing and for me, having a lot of fun while playing. For example, during the week race, I would lead with a cold snap trap to ensure the monsters are frozen not only for the safety of my teammates and myself, but also to set up my rotation easier since the monsters can't move while frozen. After the cold snap, I would follow up with a couple well-placed shock nova traps to shock entire mobs, then obliterate them with a few fire traps. IF there were any remaining stragglers or rares then I would finish them with bear trap.
- This build is capable of achieving upwards of 800% Critical Multiplier on Fire Trap, which when linked with Elemental Proliferation, will burn entire screens on crit, especially if the mobs are shock stacked.


Auras

- Run grace + clarity at all times unless you are able to safely leech one/both from reliable party members, preferably with quality auras/increased aura radius nodes.
- By dropping auras, you gain unreserved mana, which transforms into more effective life via Mind over Matter. I played the one week race with only clarity on for 90% of the race and had upwards of 2500 unreserved mana, which boosted my life pool from 4250 hp -> 5500+ effective hp.



Leveling Gems

Leveling as a trapper, you run at a different pace and also have a slightly modified setup as trap gems become really powerful after level 17. So until your gems hit that level, I would recommend using these gems.

- Fire Trap + Multi Trap + Fire Penetration + Concentrated Effect.
- Lightning Trap + Multi Trap + Chain + Increased Critical Strikes/Damage
- Cold snap + Trap(if you don't have deerstalker boots) + Elemental proliferation + Increased AoE
- Bear Trap + Added Fire + Increased Critical Damage



Lightning trap vs Shock Nova trap

- I found that lightning trap is a lot better for leveling as it works really nicely with chain + multi trap. Shock nova trap is excellent for shock-stacking entire screens with Quality Shock Nova + Quality Added Lightning Gems.
- Through rigorous testing, I found that shock nova trap is a lot better for shock stacking entire mobs without dealing a ton of damage. If you want more damage, go for Lightning Trap. If you want to shock more mobs and for longer duration, go for Shock Nova trap.


Level 17+ Gem Setup

Once your main gems hit level 17, you are ready to transition into the full proliferation setup.

- Fire Trap + Fire Penetration + Concentrated Effect + Increased Critical Damage + Elemental Proliferation + Increased Critical Strikes/Empower
- Lightning Trap + Multi Trap + Quality Added Lightning Damage + Elemental Proliferation
OR
- Quality Shock Nova + Trap + Quality Added Lightning Damage + Elemental Proliferation
- Cold Snap + Trap(should not be using deerstalker boots at this point) + Elemental Proliferation + Increased AoE


Gear

- By request, here is my gear from the Nemesis One Week race so you can get an idea of what to look for as a trapper. I have not touched this character's gear since then, so you can see how powerful a trapper can be without GG Gear.
- The only reason I have windscream boots is because I was dual cursing during the week race as my team needed a curser and I stepped up to do it. I think this build works perfectly fine without dual curse.
- Carcass Jack / Divinarius are great additions to this trapper build. I prefer having a rare dagger or wand with high spell damage and crit chance + multiplier over Divinarius, however Carcass Jack would be excellent.
- I do not like Sunblast, the trapper belt. The survivability you gain from a leather belt with life + resist rolls greatly outweigh the minimal dps you gain from Sunblast. Playing in a hardcore league with a belt that has no defensive stats is not advisable.
- For leveling, I recommend using a dual wand or dagger setup to maximize damage through Spell Damage, Spell/Global Crit Chance, and Spell/Global Crit Multiplier


Thank you for reading my very first PoE guide and I hope I covered the right topics. If I have left anything important out or you would like to talk about the build further, please don't hesitate to post here. I would prefer to chat live on my stream @ www.twitch.tv/GreatOnePoE(I stream 8+ hours a day) but I will monitor this post and answer any questions or add any material that needs to be added. See you on the fields of wraeclast, exiles!

Ho good luck with your first guide! Not too shabby! :p

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Invalesco wrote:

Ho good luck with your first guide! Not too shabby! :p

Thanks inva <3

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GreatOnePoE wrote:

- No leech mechanism. Potions are your only way to heal up after taking a beating.

And nonetheless #1 witch / #4 overall in the nemesis race. I'm impressed.

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Bada_Bing wrote:

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GreatOnePoE wrote:

- No leech mechanism. Potions are your only way to heal up after taking a beating.

And nonetheless #1 witch / #4 overall in the nemesis race. I'm impressed.

Spoiler

Thank you, kind sir.

Good build GO. I was watching you and Colby mostly during the 1w and was impressed with the utility of this build.

Additionally I've improved quite a bit racing from watching you. Thanks for that as well!

I'll try this when new league starts ;)

Just one question, isn't it better to start as Scion like Pohx did ? or you see more beneficts from starting as witch ?

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AzuraXIII wrote:

I'll try this when new league starts ;)

Just one question, isn't it better to start as Scion like Pohx did ? or you see more beneficts from starting as witch ?

I prefer the witch trapper because you can get blast radius early which makes leveling a lot nicer as AoE nodes make a world of difference.

Thanks for the updates GreatOne.
I am definitely going to try this out, maybe for one of the upcoming week races.

I think it might be worth it to move 3 points over to get Elemental Dominion since you'll get 16% spell damage on the way and then the additional 20% elemental with spells (i.e Fire trap). But I don't see anything that stands out to drop for those nodes, so maybe it's not really that practical.

How much does this build benefit from elemental equilibrium? I have not used that passive before and I'm thinking of using it with a similar build.