[3.3]Stormquake's Trapnel Shot Bow Bomber | All Endgame Content Viable!

Wow! I finally pushed out the new 3.3 skill tree and gem set-ups! However, before diving into this build, I feel there are a few things I should mention up front!

First off, I still need to clear Uber Elder and get that video up.

Next, some changes to build have occurred between 3.0 and 3.3! Namely, I sacrificed some health for full Acro/Phase Acro, the Ascendancy pathing has changed [Check Ascendancy section], and Trap Throwing Speed has become a major DPS stat due to Trap Support no longer having a cooldown! Lastly, support attacks like Ice Shot and Lightning Arrow are no longer needed due to the same change and Bear Trap is now important due to its amplification of trap damage.

Aside from that, I think I've captured most changes through the section updates, please let me know if I missed anything or if you have any questions! Thank you for your continued interest and enjoy Trapnel Shot in its better-than-ever state!

[NEW;3.3] Alluring Abyss [7 minutes]
[NEW;3.3] Shaper's Realm [Sub-7 minutes]
[OLD;3.0] Shaper's Realm with 5L/old gear [8 minutes]
[OLD;3.0] Apex of Sacrifice [Sub-3 minutes not including opening ports]
[OLD;3.0] Uber Izaro [Kill gif; will record full lab if there's interest]
[OLD;3.0] Twinned Palace [T14/Rare]
[OLD;3.0] Resistant Abyss [T15/Rare]
[3.3]Uber Elder Completed. Took 3 deaths. Unsure when deathless will come, this fight is brutal, but doable.

Now that you've seen the build in action [or even if you haven't looked yet], I should take the time to explain to you just how it works. As said prior, this build utilizes specific synergies in order to make shrapnel shot [and almost any bow skill for that matter] insane.

The primary synergies at work in this build are between Tinkerskin, Eldritch Battery, Point Blank, Collateral Damage, and Chin Sol.

Here's a quick rundown of how it works.
- Because of Eldritch Battery and the Energy Shield on Tinkerskin, it's possible to reserve all mana for damage boosting auras/heralds
- Shrapnel Shot traps are thrown down in a cluster for around 50 mana/energy shield cost.
- When traps detonate toward an enemy, Tinkerskin refunds life and energy shield, providing sustain for both life and mana.
- Enemies will generally be at close range due to the trap trigger radius, meaning that they will be hit by the shrapnel shot cone
- This cone will deal double damage due to two collateral damage jewels, then will be doubled again due to Chin Sol, and then further increased by point blank by 30-50% depending on proximity to the trap

It should be noted that this build was able to take down guardians, Shaper, Uber Atziri, and Uber Lab with only a 5L. My gear has since been upgraded as I made the push to get 6Ls and to get a bit more life.

So the first question to ask is: Can this build level up and reach maps smoothly?

Yes, absolutely! Although the speed will depend on what kind of gear you have. Obviously leveling uniques and rares will help you blow through content fast and, depending on your equips, you may not be able to utilize traps right away. If you find yourself at a lack of gear, I would recommend leveling up with default shrapnel shot or lightning arrow until you can get cluster traps and then switching over.

I personally was able to use shrapnel shot traps from the moment I got the trap support gem on this character and didn't struggle too much while leveling. My first deaths came in later acts, but that was mostly due to the bad optimization of the build at the time and because I was inexperienced with new content.

This section will briefly go over the uniques that are either crucial, or can provide aid to the build, be it in the long run or for leveling.

Required:

Chin Sol: Chin Sol doubles the damage of projectiles at close range and synergizes so amazingly well with traps. It's important to note that "close range" in this case is around 20 units. I've optimized my build to have exactly 20 trigger radius on traps to take advantage of this.

Tinkerskin: Due to its interaction with Eldritch Battery, Tinkerskin allows you to have pretty much no mana issues as soon as you acquire it [if you're specced into EB by then, of course!]. A single trap will pretty much refund its entire cost, let alone four traps. This lets you run some normally dangerous map mods such as No Regen without much risk so long as you don't super screw up your trap placement.

Collateral Damage: Get two of these jewels as they will double the damage on your Shrapnel Shot cone, which will almost always hit an enemy due to their close proximity to your traps! These are particularly convenient as you can get one as a quest reward in act 5.

Recommended:

Obscurantis: There are many other helms that are better for non-trap bow builds, but most of those are nice due to the attack speed or physical damage they provide. Neither of those are that helpful to this build, so it's hard to argue with the high accuracy and increased projectile damage that Obscurantis provides. In addition, now that we take the double accuracy node as of 3.3, this item offers even more damage!

Hair Trigger: This jewel is incredibly nice due to the massive boost to detonation radius that it provides. I personally run two, bringing me to have a total of 20 trap trigger radius, riding right on the edge of Chin Sol's damage boost range for maximum coverage and effectiveness. Having two of these also helps a lot with stationary end-game bosses as they allow for all of your traps to detonate if aimed properly.

Thunderfist: While these gloves should eventually be replaced by Gripped Gloves with Trap Throwing Speed, they add lovely flat lightning damage that can prove useful even into some of the tougher endgame encounters.

Boot Enchants: While this isn't really a unique item, I figured I would mention this in the recommended gear section. It is highly recommended to have boots with the enchant for added lightning damage if you haven't killed recently. Traps can't credit you for kills, which is a curse in some cases, but a blessing with this enchant.

Helpful for Levelling:

Tabula Rasa: 6-link from the start, not much more to be said. Makes leveling a bit easier. I'd personally recommend using multiple skill gems in it to make the chest an effective multiple 4L/5L item.

Deerstalker: Incredibly nice early game boots. 30% total movement speed after throwing a trap, decent life and evasion, effective 5L. While it should be replaced after obtaining a 5L bow and chest, these boots are amazing early on.

Storm Cloud: Super early game bow with nice lightning damage. Especially good if you're choosing to to level up at first without traps.

Death's Harp: Nice crit multi, has an extra arrow for a little extra coverage [although two arrows feels awkward]. I personally used this bow all the way up until I could switch to Chin Sol.

Main links of importance:


Shrapnel Shot - Trap - Cluster Traps - Added Lightning Damage - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Trap and Mine Damage

Bear Trap - Faster Casting - Culling Strike - Increased Duration

Support Skills:

Bear Trap: Starting with this one as it is currently very important in 3.3! This build now amplifies trap damage after it hits by 15%, and this can be boosted to 25% with a lab enchant! Combining this with Faster Casting and Culling Strike's Quantity bonus means that the trap will activate faster, leaving a greater chance of the debuff being applied before your damage comes through in the initial rally of traps. It may not always outspeed the cone, but it should often apply the debuff before the arrows hit. Keep this skill at level 1.

Conductivity: Best damage curse for this build. There were opponents in 3.0, but not anymore. I would recommend linking it to trap. It will almost always cast faster than the Trapnels go off, meaning the curse will apply before the damage comes in. Also, with careful planning of ES, you can make it so that you will utilize all of your ES to use a Conductivity Trap, Bear Trap, and 5 Trapnel Rallies. This will let you put down a full payload without worrying about overwriting your support traps!

Wrath -AND- Herald of Thunder: Nice flat added lightning damage.

Herald of Ice -OR- Arctic Armor: The former is offense; the latter is defense. I personally use HoI as I like being able to shatter enemies with pesky death mechanics such as those spike boys.

Decoy Totem: Really helpful skill for getting enemies to bunch up and to take pressure off of yourself.

Ice Golem: Crit and accuracy are nice.

Blink Arrow: Mobility and such

KILL! KILL! KILL! [2 skill points]

Deadeye. Yes. Deadeye.

But why?..

Well, Deadeye has quite a few things that are valuable to this build. For example, a +100% critical strike chance for projectiles that pierce combined with a passive that makes projectiles pierce at close range. Additionally, a +80% crit chance and +40% crit multiplier against bleeding targets combined with a passive that grants bleed chance. Note that physical to lightning isn't used in this build, meaning that Shrapnel Shot does some level of physical damage and has the chance to inflict bleed. Before 3.2/3.3, I recommended going for Far Shot and Endless Munitions, but these are no longer the most optimal paths. Instead, go for Fast and Deadly and Gathering Winds. Double Accuracy is amazing and Tailwind actually affects trap throwing speed, which is now a major DPS stat for CD-less trap builds.

In terms of progression through the ascendancy tree, I would recommend going for Fast and Deadly, then Rupture, and then Powerful Precision, with Gathering Winds last.

Other ascendancy options could include Saboteur if you want more health sustain and reliable detonations [although the detonations are hardly different between Deadeye and Sab if you have enough trigger radius] or Assassin if you want more reliable crits [although I have 75%+ crit with diamond flask up, which has proven to be enough for me].

Brine King: The ability to have some form of stun and freeze prevention is nice

Ryslatha: I just love this minor god. Because this build doesn't have the best sustain, combining Ryslatha with Panicked Flasks leads to huge instant life returns at low-life.

As of right now, I am level 93 and my character profile can be seen Here

Will include some intermediate level guides soon! Rather, what your build should look like at crucial points [Entering Part 2, Getting Tinkerskin, Entering Maps, etc.]

Is this build HC viable?: Unsure, but you're welcome to try and make it work there! I should say that Saboteur might be better in HC due to their good regen, but Deadeye is the better damage choice if HC doesn't matter to you.

How does this build fare in endgame?: If the videos and other details in the thread aren't enough to prove it, take my word that this build is viable for the game's hardest content [Uber Elder still to be tested, but I'm sure it's fine]! As said in the title, I've managed to clear most endgame content with just a 5L, but have 6Ls now.

How expensive is the build?: It's not too expensive to get the items you need to decently clear content up to endgame, but acquiring 6L uniques is always a difficult task. Most of the gear I've bought, not counting rolling colors/sockets/links, has probably cost somewhere in the realm of 200 chaos combined. However, getting up to shaper probably only cost me around 100 chaos in terms of buying gear. So... not super cheap, but also not crazy expensive. A great second or third build for a league, I'd say!

https://pastebin.com/04H6bVA2