[3.3, Build-of-the-week] Stored Lightning Bolt - CantripN's Lightning Trapper.

You don't need an Elder Essence Worm + Mark of the Shaper, or a chest with +2 gems, or even an amulet like mine to make it work. Those are just things you can get if you want to heavily invest.

Jewels:


Flasks:


PoB: https://pastebin.com/ycsqtJaf

Stats (while using Shimmerons):
Life: 5309 (1267 Regen)
Mana: 2591 (90 Regen)
ES: 650
Acrobatics: 40/41%
Block: 11/28%
Blind: 50%
Evasion: 2128
Arc Tooltip in h/o: 16405 (no buffs other than Wrath)
Throwing Speed: +63%

Pantheon:
Brine King / Solaris / Arakaali (if not MoM)
Ryslatha

Bandit:
Alira

Flasks:


Jewels:
On gear -
On tree -

Abyssal jewels are more or less the same as normal jewels, it just depends what you can get.

Gear Explained:
Shimmeron x 2 is by far the highest DPS caster weapon in the game if you're not a physical caster and don't need cast speed. Trappers never deal critical strikes themselves, so the downside doesn't apply. Prioritise Critical Strike Multiplier 10%, Flat Lightning, Spell Damage (in that order).

Brightbeak + Jaws of Agony serve you to clear faster, and get Power Charges before bosses. Not a must at all, but at some point you have enough DPS to clear fine with this.

Lightpoacher is, as usual, the best helmet if you have good jewels. Tempest's Binding is even better, but good luck with that and also having the enchant (the enchant matters more than the head!).
*EDIT: Since people can't think for themselves - No, you don't ever get Charges for Lightpoacher, since YOU never kill. Nevertheless, this is the BiS helmet for this and many other builds. Jewels are just that good.*

Tinkerskin is a build-maker for Trappers, letting you spam traps with ease (faster, recovers ES and Life per throw, which you use as Mana since you're Eldritch Battery). Don't leave home without it. Another option is Fenumus' Shroud, which would allow to regenerate Energy Shield, deal more damage, and take less damage. Shroud doesn't let you do slower or no regen maps, though, and doesn't heal you.

Gloves are where your single target resides. You want "Supported by level X Trap + Throw an Additional Trap", "Supported by level X Slower Projectiles", and if possible 30/50/70% Critical Strike Multiplier. Life and Res are great, but less important here.

Boots are the one slot where you can grab a lot of resists without any major competing mod. Do that. Cooldown Recovery is possible here, but not very realistic.

Darkness Enthroned is the best belt in the game for a crit caster. Period. Just get ok jewels and go. Mine is giving me a whooping 17% MORE damage, and 100 Flat Life! Sunblast is amazing for leveling, though.

Rings should be either Opal rings with Lightning Damage / Crit Multi, or (Shaper) Diamond Rings with Flat Lightning to Spells / Spell Damage / Lightning Damage, or other rings with several damage mods. Also, you'll need to grab some resists here, but do try to squeeze in some DPS.

On an amulet you'll want Crit Multi, Elemental Penetration, and this is probably where you'll find a free Suffix to craft Aspect of the Spider. Aspect of the Spider can be crafted using Fenumus (the boss), just buy one if you don't have it, it's not expensive.
Another option for your amulet is a Lightning Impresence - it's downside is losing Temp Chain unless you have one with +1 Curse (even then, an amulet like mine is more DPS by far, but Impresence has Life and decent Res). Might do for early on in the league.

Jewels should be either regular ones with Life + Multiplier (Spell/Elemental/Lightning/Dual-wielding), or Abyssal with Life + Multiplier / Critical Strike Chance if haven't Crit Recently / Flat Lightning / Flat Lightning while Dual Wielding. When you can afford a Watcher's Eye, Lightning Penetration with Wrath is BiS, and anything else is nice to have on top if possible (if you're super rich).

Flask-wise, you want 2 Life flasks for high-content (one instant, one not), a Diamond Flask, a Sulphur Flask (put Warding here for map mods), and eventually a Dying Sun for a major boost to Ball Lightning damage-per-throw. Quicksilver is also an option.

Leveling Gear of note:
Lifesprig / Axiom Perpetuum x 2
Mirebough / Deerstalker
Sunblast
Doedre's Tenure
Goldrim
Tabula Rasa

Notes on Skills:
Added Cold on Lightning Trap is to freeze/shatter mobs, which makes for safer clearing. It's not a must, you can use Elemental Focus and/or Lightning Penetration instead of that and Critical Strikes for pure DPS.
Phase Run can be used along with a Quicksilver to just clear with the wands. It works fine, just costs you a flask.
Single-target options also include other spells, like Cremation / Volatile Dead / Magma Orb. Those all work, but in my opinion Ball Lightning feels best. Cremation is likely the most DPS for things like Shaper, but I kill Shaper with 1-2 trap-sets per Phase anyhow.
Frost Wall or Conversion Trap are usable with this build, just clunky to use.
Vaal Grace is amazing for this build, if you want to give up either a reliable Golem, or CwDT/Immortal Call combo. I find that I do fine without it, and I forget to use it in any case.
Wise Oak is certainly an option if you want to give up a Life Flask and can balance the resists right.
It's technically possible to get Shaper weapons that equal or best Shimmeron if you have a 50 ex Budget. Best of luck with that.

"

souljaboi25 wrote:

Here's how things are currently looking at 85:

"

- Cleared all shaper guardians -- mino wasn't deathless but everything else was
- Ball lightning DPS is extremely real, given that the opponent isn't moving. Stationary targets get crunched very hard. Fast moving targets like Shaped Bog t15 are pretty annoying
- Ball lightning is extremely good at clearing Harb / Beast packs
- Lightning trap is amazing to map with, clearing screens upon screens of enemies with a single toss
- Defenses are not bad. Spider / Temp Chains / Blind along with acro/arrow dancing is super solid. I'm only at 4.5k HP though, not sure how you hit 6k although OP does have ten levels on me. A lot of manual dodging is required, which is totally fine with me
- Will attempt Uber Elder once I hit 90. I've cleared it on my moltenstrike character so I know how the fight works. I'll likely swap out one of my rings for Dream Fragments specifically for the Uber Elder fight
- Not sure how viable this is as a (comfortable) starter. Build is very mana-intensive without Tinkerskin/Energy Battery combo, and defenses can be pretty lacking until later. Traps are being heavily buffed next league, but Tinkerskin is typically cheap -- not sure how prices will work out next league
- I bought a few 6-link Tinkerskins to corrupt to try and get +1 socketed gems but no luck yet lol