(2.6) Saboteur EK Nova Cluster Trapper (aka the Pipebomber) {WIP}

Glad you enjoy it and yes, those are some fantastic changes that look good to me. I planned on taking ZO simply because leech isn't possible with the build and I wanted to find a way to keep my health up. So regen looked good to me at first. After thinking it over, yeah those points are kind of wasted in trying to take ZO. Better to keep a sorrow of the divine flask if I need some fast regen instead and use those points elsewhere.

Very sick idea with crafting a delirium bow, I hadn't considered that. I was sticking with the quill rain simply because I got lucky and 6l it, but I did notice that my damage was dropping off as I tried to push into red maps. It can do them with spamming shaped strands and whatnot, but if I try to push into doing guardians with it, I would definitely need some more deeps.

You can get okay clear speed with the build, but it's not vaal-spark fast. And as long as you don't expect it to be vaal-spark fast, you'll be fine with it. :)

I am currently trying to level using EK traps, but it seems to be a bit difficult. Normal clearing is good and all, but boss fights are a bit tough.

I am using bladefall trap as well, but just doesn't really seem to cut it.

What should I be looking for at this time to start boosting my damage? Currently level 45 and have not done normal trials just yet.

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jobintobias wrote:

I am currently trying to level using EK traps, but it seems to be a bit difficult. Normal clearing is good and all, but boss fights are a bit tough.

I am using bladefall trap as well, but just doesn't really seem to cut it.

What should I be looking for at this time to start boosting my damage? Currently level 45 and have not done normal trials just yet.

Ascendancy points are EVERYTHING with this build. Bomb specialist and Chain Reaction are both key build enabling points because of the chance for traps to trigger a second time (especially useful on bladefall trap on bosses) and chain reaction makes all of your traps trigger at the end of their duration. They both also give a sizable boost to trap damage, which translates into a large damage increase It's also worth noting that for trap builds, you wanna rush for Clever Construction on the tree (in the top right half of the big trap cluster that's between the giant claw and dagger nodes to the right of shadow start) ASAP because there's plenty of things that can instantly destroy your traps and clever construction makes them invincible for up to 5 seconds after being thrown.

I get that some people like to really over-level before doing lab, so if you're trying to level, just use something like bladefall or flameblast totems to level efficiently and cheese it through lab to get your points. Or pony up the cash to pay for carries if you're not comfortable doing lab on your own. The build can certainly do labs on its own, but not having bomb specialist or chain reaction is a massive gimp to the build. In fact, I would recommend NOT leveling as this build at all until after you get your normal and cruel lab points. The large cooldown on traps, plus the loss of the extra damage and necessary build-enabling mechanics that not having those two ascendancy nodes has makes the build very hard to play, if not impossible.

Also, the suggestion of bear trap as doing your main damage instead of bladefall is a good one too. Disabling boss movement + the damage it causes works surprisingly well with EK (the rogue exile Vickas Giantbone makes damn good use of it with EK totems and is considered one of the deadliest rogue exiles because of it). I just chose to use bladefall out of personal preference. So if you feel that bladefall isn't cutting it, swap in bear trap. Or instead of doing a bow version of the build, find a way to work the shield Jaws of Agony ( http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Jaws_of_Agony ) into your build for the extra trap damage + free level 20 bear trap (keep in mind that socketed gems can affect skills granted by items, so think of that shield as being a 4l bear trap with benefits)

Well shoot, I see what you are saying. I am hosing myself without having those ascendancy points.

Unfortunately, I am playing lhc so I have to overlevel a bit for safety reasons and my damage seems a bit low right now for single target so I don't think I could handle Izaro yet.

I'll keep pushing a long and try bear trap. Do you know if those warden rings that give a lot of flat phys damage would boost my damage on EK?

Those rings give a boost to physical attacks, not spells. So unfortunately, they'd be useless for ek. In fact, they also reduce your attack speed by 30% each, which will have a negative affect on movement skills like blink arrow, whirling blades, leap slam, and shield charge. This would really hurt your clear speed because it would feel like you have temp chains on while trying to move from pack to pack. I'd very much advise to stay away from them for this build.

How realistic would you say a build like this would be in 3.0? I thought of trying something similar, as I like the playstyle of traps, but already have an elemental trapper on Legacy.

The build is okay, but I would probably go life based instead of CI due to the ES changes. In which case you could use that new trapper chest to help with cooldown or a lightning coil for survivability.