[Onslaught 0.11.6b] Trapmaster Shadow – CI Perma-Freeze Versatile Warper Trapper [V 2]

The build is meant to be a safe one, playing ranged, not dealing damage by yourself, so we can be safe from reflect mods, and when needed to convert or freeze enemies when things turn to be worse.

Damage is dealed mostly from Fire Traps and Bear Traps
Fire Trap deals damage from the explosion when triggered, from the ignited ground where mobs walks/stands on and from the dot that comes from the igniting chance. So fire/burn dmg nodes will be taken here and there, those nodes will come useful because will also increase the damage output from Bear Trap, the single target attack, which will be supported by Added Fire Damage.

Cold Snap + Trap + Elemental Proliferation + Cold Penetration is an usefull tool to throw to freeze enemy,while Freeze Mine + Elemental Proliferation + Cold Penetration will let you freeze everything on the screen for a long time, making the fight safer both in solo and in party.

The curse used are Enfeeble and Temporal Chain, Enfeeble is useful to reduce the dmg taken and consequently the duration of status ailments (CI means everlasting stun, freeze, schock and so on), slowed enemis are also easy to deal with, that’s why second curse is temporal chain.

Aura are mostly Discipline, to increase ES, and Clarity, ‘cause mana will be your worst enemy…

One last thing to take in consideration is movement speed, I find high movement speed very very helpful with this build in terms of safeness: high movement speed (80% or more, which is easy to reach if you use ) will let you physically avoid enemy attacks and teleport fast in the middle of a mobs’pack, set a freeze mine, run away detonating it, freezing the pack and throwing traps or whatever if you prefer the thrill. If they will ever put Phase Run back in the game, this will be a lot more funny and safe!

Just sperimenting Smoke Mine as an escape method and it works pretty well, if you remember that you don't have to lost the visual of the mine in order to use it


Pros & Cons

30 points used, approx. lvl 25


Firstly you need to get hp nodes and a few dexterity nodes in order to be able to level up your gem when they’re ready.
The Nullification nodes, which is just 3 nodes away, can be taken now mostly for it’s 8% to all the ele resistance, which can be usefull if you’re not well geared. Also the Haste notable can be taken if dexterity is need for your skill gem

48 points used, approx. lvl 40


Right in the witch tree! Take first the three 6% hp nodes, then follow it till the Fire Walker notable (that also provides 15% to fire resistance). Here the few fire dmg nodes will be increase your damage output!

60 points used, approx. lvl 50

At this point you can start keep an eye out for hybrid Armor/Es gears, ‘cause you ‘ll start taking the increased Armor/Es nodes. Celestial Walker will both increase your ele damage and resistance and you’ll the last hp nodes of the transition build! If needed you can take the Agility notable for a +30 dex.

79 points taken, approx. lvl 65:

All the Armor/Es nodes are taken, and your ES will get a significant increment! No damage node are taken, focus on a nice dagger or wand with %increased spell damage to support your attack, but I sincerely prefer to focus on survivability rather then on damage output.

The Chaos Inoculation transition

Beware!! Before you turn CI, which I suggest you to do around lvl 68-70 with about 83-85 skill points used in act2 merciless, be sure you have enough ES! Don’t go to Vaal before you have at least 3,5k ES

96 points taken, approx. lvl 80

All the defensive nodes are already taken, we can focus on the bare damage!

103 points taken , appox. Lvl 87

The most relevant thing is the increased freeze duration which will make the freeze duration from Freeze Mine last 30% more

Bandits Rewards

As we’ll take the Chaos Inoculation, and all the ES nodes, our defense will be based on Energy Shield, Armor is provided by granite flasks. What you’ll be focused on is (in order of priority):

Chest/Gloves/Helm: + ES, %Increased ES, %Increased Elemental Resistance, + mana, +Intelligence
Boots: +ES, % increased Movement Speed, %Increased Elemental Resistance, + Intelligence
Rings: +Elemental resistance, %Increased spell damage, %Increased Maximum ES, + Mana , %Increased Mana Regeneration Rate, +Int/Dex/Str when needed
Belt: %Increased Physical Damage + ES +anything else will help the build (increased spell/fire damage, resistances, mana)
Weapon: +# to cold skill (depends on what will you link), %Increased Spell Damage, %Increased Fire Damage, +# to maximum mana, %Increased Mana Regeneration Rate
Shield: +ES, %Increased ES, %Increased Spell Damage, %Increased Elemental Resistance, + Mana

Suggested links on gears
Weapon: Freeze Mine + Elemental Proliferation + Cold Penetration (or Increased Area of Effect)
Shield: Smoke Mine + Enfeeble/Temporal Chain + Increased Duration
Chest: Fire Trap + Increased Burning Damage + Chance to Ignite + Concentrated Effect + Fire Penetration
Helm: Reduced Mana + Clarity + Discipline + Purity/Hatred
Gloves: Cold Snap + Trap + Elemental Proliferation + Concentrated Effect/Cold Penetration
Boots: Bear Trap + Added Fire Damage + Culling Strike + Added Chaos Damage

Normal:
Start picking up Fire Trap from killing Hillock and from the Medicine Chest quest; secondly Bear Trap from Breaking Some Eggs. If you can get a Fireball, it’d be perfect starting leveling it right now, and also using ti. Choose Clarity from Brutus. Act 2 is very easy with mana flasks suited to your level. Take Lesser Multiple Projectiles from the Weaver. If you can obtain somehow an added fire damage to link a bear trap with, you can 1shot everything (except vaal, of course).
From the Lost in Love quest you can choose between Enfeeble and Conversion Trap, pick up one and buy the other. You can take the Cold Penetration from Gravicious to support your Freeze Mine, that you should buy soon and start to level up
During all normal difficulty there is no need to worry about armour/es and ele resistance from gears (well it’s always better not to have them at 0%), especially if you’re I a nice party, just wear gears which are an improvement of your previous one, especially in the amount of +hp given. If you play solo focus on a movement speed boots and craft a Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline, both will make you fast enough to avoid most of the attack while throwing traps at your enemies.

Cruel:
As soon as you kill Hillock, grab the Discipline gem and start to level it up! In the mean while re-gear yourself, trying to cap the elemental resistances. Leave behind the Medicine Chest and the Dweller of the Deep quests, you will complete them when you’ll be higher in level. Lightining Warp is a nice gem you can take for killing Brutus and the Remote Mine from Merveil: beware of the Shipgraveyard Cave, flicking mobs starts to hit hard from now on. If you can, buy a Concentrated Effect and a Chance to Ignite gems, act2 Cruel is the right place to start use a well linked Fire Trap. You can take a Mana Leech from the Weaver and link Fireball + LMP + Mana Leech, which is a nice combination while you’re waiting for the traps cooldown, and help Oak for the increased dmg that Bear Trap will gain. In act 3 try to achieve 75% to all the resistance, just be sure to pick Culling Strike for your Bear Trap from Gravicious and go to Piety!
Ethereal Knives is a Physical Spell which will be augmented by Oak’s reward, spell modifiers and added fire damage, it can be a viable replacement for the fireball, choose what you prefer!

Merciless:
Kill Hillock, re-gear to cap the resistance, equip a Granite Flask of Iron Skin, skip Medicine Chest and Dweller of the Deep, and proceed till The Ledge, where you can farm a bit. Go for Brutus and Merveil when ready. In act2 head directly to Fellshrine where you want to farm until you’re able to turn CI. What I suggest is to buy a 400+ ES chest if you’re not lucky to find one, and turn CI when you match the level of the chest armor. You can take Trap from the Weaver, but just because you’re a Trapster, not for the utility of the skill…. Beware of Vaal Smash, can 1 shot you even with 3k+ ES! Complete act 3, and all the other quests you’ve left behind, look for better gear and prepare for maps!

Maps:
Avoid Blood Magics mods, or you will get killed as soon as you enter the map, other mods are viable and not that risky. Half-regeneration or no regeneration or Temporal Chain will only reduce the clear speed. Other risky mods are the same risky mods for every other builds: vulnerability, reduce resistances, added damage, will increase the damage taken, especially the added elemental damage one, but keep in mind you’re more ranged rather then melee, so if you have learnt through all the acts how to kite, you should be fine!

Here I’m describing what your behavior should be when approaching maps. If acts are quite simple after all, if you just point to cap your resistance in merciless and pay a little attention in act3, maps can be a different challenge.

That’s a reason if I’ve named this build as “versatile”: in accordance with the map’s mods I can change my attacks and my skill gem as needed:
Mods where mobs have increased fire resistance, or elemental resistance, or elemental reflect, make me change skill as following:
- Switch Concentrated Effect with Cold Penetration for Cold Snap
-add Fire Penetration to Fire Traps (still not have a 5-6L)



Now let’s see why I called it “warper trapper”
I stated that high movement speed is required for this build. High MS will affect the build twice:
- Bare increased movement speed, which is pretty useful as an active defense
- Highly affect the Lighting Warp’s travel time

Using Lightining Warp with high movement speed allow you to teleport yourself in the middle of a mob’s pack while laying a freeze mine, this will cause to block every enemy and let you kill them with ease. What i suggest is to throw a Cold Snap Trap in the Group and activate a Granite Flask will make it works with 0 risk. The high speed will make it safe, because you’ll be able to lay the mine before the mobs will react to your presence.

Smoke Mine is a nice skill, teleport + blind are very helpful in maps and a perfect way to escape Dangerous situation.
I usually set a smoke mine before moving so i can teleport back when in danger, take in mind that Smoke Mine must be in your field of view to be used

Being a CI will make you suffer a lot from Status Ailments: stun, freeze, shock, burn will happen very very frequently, in particular stun and freeze will make you rip very fast if you don’t know how to deal with them

Shock – Burn: they don’t frighten me so much being ranged and fast, I usually run around mobs if shocked, without letting them hit me, throwing in the meanwhile traps or freezing them. Burn is not a problem at all.

Freeze: it can be very dangerous: freeze duration, calculate to your maximum hp, will last pretty long, the only way to deal with it is to use a freeze dispelling flask or uniques such as dream fragment.

Stun: this is hard to deal with until we’ll be back in hardcore where the Eye of Chayula will be a keystone in your gear. In the meanwhile to deal with stun in maps, you should behave in two different ways:
- Charging mobs or melee: I usually lay a freeze mine and throwing traps, if mobs are charging, or they come close, I just detonate it.
- Ranged mobs: here movement speed comes in help, the only way to deal with them is to actively dodge their projectiles, warp at their back and freeze them.

Mana: there isn’t never enough mana for us, i've ended by taking the mana regeneration node in the templar and witch

Remote Mine: it’s increased damage looks very nice, but still have to realize how to better use it..was thinking about linking it to FireStorm, place 5 mines, wait for the boss the approach them and detonate, should be fun, but need to be tested!