3.22 UPDATE (works for 3.23) - Check the video + video description for the 3.23 POB!
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CHECK THE VIDEO for the 3.22 UPDATE & POB link.
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Throw me a 🔴YouTube sub and a follow on 🔵Twitter for updates. Please enjoy the guide❗💗
✨ PREVIOUS VIDEOS ✨
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💜 Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting me with a follow and coming by to hang out & chill. Even if you're putting the page in the background while playing POE yourself, it's a big help to a small channel:) You are always welcome to ask questions in my chat and I leave the VODS up so there's something league-relevant to watch for any aspiring trapper. See you soon. 💜 - twitch.tv/thatdanishfellow.
💚 The build has worked great in EVERY league since its inception in 3.5❗
💚 Does all map mods. (If no regen, use an enduring mana flask)
💚 Does all content and scales extremely well. (FEEL the power growth)
💚 Not a meta-life build! (Why be pro-life when you can be no-life❗❓)
💚 Use mostly rares. (League start & scale to an epic endgame)
💚 Can kill endgame bosses on a 5L. (https://bit.ly/3DhVQve)
💚 Works in HC. (High-Block! 7-10k ES, ES regen, ES OnBlock)
💚 Easy to start. (Play as life till mid-game then go CI or LL)
💚 This builds endgame slaps❗ (Check the videos, see if you agree) _________________________________________________________________
💔 If you're new, ES can be tricky starters. (My guide will help you❗)
💔 Honestly, having played many other builds, it's hard to find downsides on this one, which is why it became my favorite. (Perhaps needing a Shavs as is the case for all low-life builds)
___________________________________________________ August 13th (3.15):
Cleared most of the atlas and killed A9. :)
This is a VERY tiny league, so I haven't played much as it's a bit less encouraging with so few people around/dead trade etc. :/ Lets hope GGG picks this up for 3.16. :)
I've evolved from life, into CI and I'll swap to LL when I can afford a 5/6L shavs. CI can carry just fine, while I gather currency for a shavs (check video above) :) This is all self-found or bought for less than 3-5c total.
This highlights how the build works if you don't find anything at all of value while leveling act 1-10. (no good sellables or uniques or exalts)
Because of that, I've swapped from life to CI (instead of LowLife) and will continue farming early maps as CI until I can get my shavs. It's easy to swap between CI and LL, it's merely 2 points you're changing.
Enjoy Ritual League! (it seems awesome!)
🧾 LEAGUE UPDATES
3.15 Expedition
Spoiler
All player-power was nerfed because flasks and support gems got nerfed, but we made it through pretty well compared to many other builds. Traps are still strong and the build is clearing everything still. :)
3.14 Ultimatum
Spoiler
All good! POB Updated.
3.11 Harvest
Spoiler
Harvest patch-notes. There's been some crit nerfs globally on the skill-tree, but nothing significant to warrant any worry, neither the minor nerf to spire trap, especially because we got our Lightning Trap buffed! from 135% dmg eff, to 170%. I'll update the guide if I find anything could or should be changed.
3.9 Metamorph
Spoiler
-old information removed-
3.8 Blight
Spoiler
Lost some regen from Ascendancy as well as the Shaper +1 trap thrown gloves mod. But we now have Skitter bots!! MORE trap damage yay! Plus our ascendancy is still strong with plenty regen to keep us safe.
Playing & developing on this build since betrayal league (3.5), always doing all content, with an emphasis on not dying! (works for HC) and clearing everything with ease and relatively good map speed (nice for SC, lots of damage!).
My own first experience with PoE was some friends persuading me to try this "diablo-like game" they called it... they were playing HC, so that's where I started my first ever league in PoE (Harbinger).... Having no clue about the game, I decided I wanted to play an archer build... fast, ranged aaaaaand super squishy, perfect for HC... well, I actually made it to lvl 55'ish and Kitava act 5 ... my friends then told me, no no don't try that boss alone, you'll die, let us come do it for you, just stand back and we'll kill him ... right ok then ... apparently, even back then the HP of bosses increased with the number of players and my mates didn't realize that, so lets just say I still ended up very dead and after a few more leagues trying all kinds of different builds and mostly getting my ass kicked, I decided I wanted something that could tank a few hits, screen-clear and be able to take down the endgame... without "help" from friends. :P
So there's my background for this trapper and why I take some pride in not dying too much, even if nowadays I only play SC with less hours available. :)
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❓ HOW TO GET STARTED
💯 LEVELING 💯
❓ How to league-start this
I've personally league-started this in every league since 3.5.
Follow the guide and simply level as a life-trapper.
Depending upon whether you want to re-spec some points, you can add temporary life nodes and change them later to ES (check the image in leveling 1-28+ section).
Around the time you reach maps, consider buying cheap ES items for all slots/cheap ES uniques (check budget armor in guide) and switch to Chaos Inoculation full ES build. This is strong enough to carry you to early red maps while you save currency for a Shavs armor.
It depends on your experience and your budget.
Some switch as early as act 7 to CI/ES, others level to maps before switching.
If you do not have/can afford a shavs body armor I recommend to pickup cheap ES gear for every slot and choose Chaos Inoculation in the tree. This way you can continue working on stacking ES gear, while gathering currency and get used to being an ES build.
For your shavs, often you can save currency early league by getting the prophecy cards instead.
❓ Bandits & Pantheons
✔️ Help alira for easier resist cap and more dps.
✔️ Major: All major Pantheon powers can be beneficial for the build, although Soul of Solaris is probably the best choice in general, although Lunaris with 10% chance to avoid projectiles can also be really strong.
✔️ Minor: Same as major Pantheons, almost all minor ones are useful for the build and you can switch them around depending on map mods, as some offers you immunity to stuff like burning ground etc.
Pantheon powers can be upgraded by using Divine Vessel in the Map Device while you are activating the particular Map that contains the boss you need. Once you’ve killed the boss and captured his soul, you need to deliver the vessel to Sin in Oriath.
❓ Level 1 to 28+
POB found under the skill-tree category or/and in the Quickguide.
ULTIMATE QUICK GUIDE 3.17❗❗
copy url: oestergreen.dk/dissentxtv
Note 1: Always path right side first of the skill-tree towards the trap damage points: Blast Cascade, High Explosives etc. I suggest getting the trap throwing speed points ASAP (Expeditious Munitions).
Note 2: The POB is for full ES. Adjust your tree with some life if you feel the need while leveling (red circles). I'd suggest using gear with life stats until you can switch to CI and/or then shavs with low life.
Note 3: As you progress levels take a peek at budget items in the guide to know what you should look out for/set trade filters for while you play.
🐱🏍 Twink Leveling Gear
x2 or 2x +1 lightning spell wand/shield
📲 Level 1 to 28+
From level 1, you should use Explosive Trap in a Lifesprig, or whichever wand or sceptre you have.
If you're in a Fresh league start, consider doing the vendor recipe for a lightning wand, it's a nice damage boost early on.
At level 10, you should add Flame Dash for additional mobility or when it's available for you - until then, you should use frostblink.
At level 12, you can transition to your signature skill, it's available after the quest; the siren's cadence. Replace Explosive Trap with the following Lightning Trap link.
✔️ Lightning Trap ➡️> Multiple Traps Support ➡️> Added Lightning Damage Support ➡️> Pierce Support
Note 1: If you want to do max dmg vs bosses, keep swift assembly somewhere in a green socket and replace multiple traps with swift assemble only for bosses for a speedier kill at early levels.
By level 16, your Lightning Trap should look like this (gems placed in order of priority, so remove based on how many links you've got).
✔️ Lightning Trap ➡️> Multiple Traps Support ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Added Lightning Damage Support ➡️> Elemental Focus Support
At level 24, you should add Skitterbots OR Wrath for additional damage.
Note 1: You can use both, but it'll leave you with very little unreserved mana, so you'll be chuggin' mana flasks like a mad man.
At level 28, you may optionally add a Seismic Trap setup (pickup the lightning mastery eventually 40% conversion from phys to light and the support gem also giving 50% conversion). Seismic traps will only be used as a drop&forget on bosses. Otherwise check the gem links section in this guide and consider using one of the Curse or Exposure gems manually for now (vs bosses only).
✔️ Seismic Trap ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Physical to Lightning Support ➡️> Advanced Traps Support
While you continue from lvl 28 and onwards, remember to check the GEM section to get the proper setup going when your levels meet the requirements.
Lightning Penetration is really good but not available until after the library or in act 6. It should normally be your 4th gem, but based on if you can get one early.
🗺️ PLAYING MAPS AND SURVIVING 🗺️
1) After you've transitioned to either CI or LowLife(shavs), your Vaal Discipline skill gem becomes your number ONE survival button, so make SURE it is bound to a good key. (You do not have to reserve discipline in order to use the vaal effect, but you are supposed to reserve discipline once you can fit it with your mana pool). This vaal discipline button is your "life flask" and makes you close to immortal for 3 seconds when you press it, allowing you to safely clear whatever dangerous mobs are around you or flame dash to safety and off-screen kill whatever was swarming you.
3) Always throw traps in the direction you are moving! Get used to this, as it will keep you extremely safe by killing and weakening mob packs before you are actually in their reach or simultaneously as you flame dash towards them. Again keep in mind, if you jump into large packs, always just hit your vaal discipline and you'll be perfectly safe for 3 seconds - plenty of time to clear the screen. You'll eventually learn to judge when is a good time to click the vaal key, but it re-charges super fast, so it's better using it too often than not.
Check the survival tip section of the guide for more information!
❤️ SURVIVAL TIPS ❤️
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🥶 Freeze Immune 🥶
Brine King (upgraded) or Flasks is my goto choice for freeze immunity.
It can also be obtained as a boot enchant or a combination of boot enchant + jewelry implicits etc. Click For A Large Image
The inspiration to this build was from playing Hardcore and managing to take down all the endgame.
❗❗❗Here's some general tips:
👉 The number ONE tip to learn as a trapper is to ALWAYS be throwing traps in the direction you are moving/flame dashing. If you learn this simple gameplay mechanic, you will draw full advantage of your ascendancies and defensive layers ---> Blinding all monsters on and offscreen that you move towards and having your regeneration running even before you start taking any potential damage.
👉 Make sure you use a Vaal Discipline. The vaal effect is an instant save-yourself button! With how our Pyromaniac ascendancy you should ALWAYS be tossing traps.. it's nice having a constant 10% regeneration running.
With Vaal Discipline you can tank a LOT of damage and also run around in darkness in delve.
👉 Make sure you've picked up Zealot's Oath by the time you switch to full ES (but not before!)
👉 Upgrade Solaris pantheons, they're really strong, especially the crit extra dmg recently immunity. Use Brine king pantheon, until you have your amulet which makes you stun immune, then pick Solaris.
👉 Prioritize ES on your gear - your damage will already be insane when you've obtained shavs and gone low-life. Heck, even as hybrid before you get shavs your damage is really strong if you follow the guide and use the recommended multiplier stats etc etc.
👉 In every league since 3.5 you can grab Ltrap lvl 21 early on very cheap and it's a big damage boost when you're starting maps.
👉 Do NOT pick jewel sockets until you are lvl 86+ and GET multiplier jewels, cheap double multis cost 1-5c.
👉 Remember to check the budget gear section, there are some cheap ES gear we can use.
👉 Born in Shadows ascendancy gives you a big survival boost because it blinds ALL monsters around you(-15% dmg taken). The sooner you get it, the sooner you'll feel that much more tanky.
👉 You can optionally replace flame dash as your primary mobility with a shield charge + fortify combo instead.
👉 Get a SHIELD with ES on block! You block a lot, so getting ES on block mod, will make you nearly unkillable by monster packs. Until you can get a shield with that mod, make sure you use a HIGH es shield.
👕 GEAR 👕
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🛡️ Armor
💲 Budget Gear before going low-life. (Hybrid/leveling)
Examples of cheap gear to use while leveling and before transitioning/acquiring shavronne's.
Literally any gear with health and resists will carry you through to maps or until you can go Low-Life with a shavs 5-link. Buy an unlinked one via prophecy cards and buy a 5L Jeweller's Touch prophecy and you're strong off the bat with a 5L shav's.
Priority ORDER for stats in your weapon are:
Lightning%/Spell%/Elemental Damage.
Added Lightning Damage to Spells.
Global Crit Multiplier.
+1 All Lightning Spell gems (if u can get it)
Spell Crit chance.
My endgame weapon, just as example towards stat priorities (replace focus craft with Trigger craft described in gem section under seismic traps):
💲💲 Budget Gear for CI & low-life. (Early Mapping)
Start out with any decent ES shield (whatever you can afford).
Replace it asap with an ES shield that recovers ES when you block.
200 es+ and recover ES% on block preferably.
👉 Darkness Enthroned got buffed considerably in 3.11 and is a really strong choice now and a super cheap option compared to rare belt.
In fact the belt is so strong that I'm using it in my high-end gear. (They buffed Darkness Enthroned from 50% bonus to the jewels to 75%)
An example is: a decent crystal belt has 80es implicit and 40es explicit = 120 es.
Darkness enthroned, I can throw 2 abyss jewels in with avg 35es on each and some damage/multiply dps stats.. 2x35 = 70 x 1.75(belt bonus) = 122.5 ES (same as crystal belt O.o)
💰💰💰 High-end Gear
Note: You do NOT need a mana reservation shield. It's a luxury craft and expensive usually. Having the sovereignty nodes and a lvl 3 enlighten is enough. You can buy corrupted enlightens relatively cheap from ppl failing to vaal their gem to 4.
💍 Jewels
There are no *absolute mandatory* jewels for us, but getting a thread of hope (medium circle) is extremely useful, same as getting a cheap intuitive leap unique jewel. These are usually very affordable in every league however.
We get a lot of power from relatively cheap jewels because our traps will inherit multiplier from many sources, therefore we can search for many combinations of jewels (elemental multiplier, spell multiplier, lightning multiplier, global multiplier etc)
Multiplier jewels are better than abyss jewels, but using a stygian or darkness enthroned with one or two strong abyss jewels is still very complimentary to our regular jewel sockets with multiplier jewels.
x3 Multi
A Watcher's Eye Watcher's Eye (since 3.9 changes is extremely expensive/rare) with Wrath Wrath mods and % energyshield, so it is only a luxury item that we definitely do not need, but in case you run around with 5-20ex to spend, then you know this exist.
Although I wouldn't recommend, it's still an option: the blue nightmare jewel can help you cap spell block if you don't want to use a rumi's flask. (it adds 20% with glancing). It has to be placed into the socket below Faith and Steel.
👉 Basically, jewels depends entirely on your budget, if you're running a lower budget, just find anything with ES% and +trap damage and/or multiplier damage to spells and/or to lightning skills.
💠 Cluster Jewels
I recommend using this type of large cluster. Specifically this one. (note: widespread is not REQ, it's only an extra luxury if you can afford it. It's not important):
⚗️ Flasks
Make sure you have Bleeding and Freezing immunity on your flasks.
My endgame setup is:
The enkindle orb effect and the suffix craft on the diamond flask makes it nearly as strong as a bottled faith as of 3.15!
👉 I'm not running bleed removal because I have a jewel that prevents me getting bleeded. (You vaal orb jewels and can get lucky)
👉 ES raw# (EVERY small number increase is a big increase to your ES pool because of our es% boosting)
👉 Intellect (a great suffix giving 1% ES every 5 int and boosted by Utmost Intellect in our tree)
👉 Block (spell/attack)
👉 5% ES-On-Block-Shield (Huge survival boost when you get it - make sure the shield has at least 250-300+ ES total)
👉 Outside of stats we rely on several layers of defense, including that we blind everything we hit and everything we are near (born in the shadows) and that we regenerate ES/Life from every triggered trap (pyromaniac + zealots oath)
👉 We are by default immune to blind, shock and ignite. We are also stun immune with the Chayula amulet. We can become Freeze immune through harvest and/or corrupted implicits on jewels).
🔨 CRAFTING 🔨
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❗❗❗OBS: By FAR the easiest and cheapest way to craft 80% of our equipment is through Dense fossils. Dense fossils are a common drop in low delve depths and thus you can either farm them or buy them at reasonable prices.
📝 Tips & Tricks
Firstly, it's important to use a good source of information about the base items you intend to craft upon. For this I suggest www.craftofexile.com
Choose the base group, choose the base type and that's it!
Now you can see every mod that exists on that base-type, how high it can roll depending on ilvl and what the 6 different influences can add to the item, mod-wise. This is also a huge help in knowing which mods are targetable with harvest crafting (via the tag names) and which ones are not.
Now the tips&tricks:
👉 Always fix quality first on an item, preferably a grey base if 20% is all you need, otherwise perfect fossils if you're going for 30%. (Hillock in fortification/transport can do 28% on an already crafted item)
👉 When using crafts that say "reroll item but keep suffixes" or "keep prefixes", always remember the craft may still ADD extra mods to the affix type it's "keeping" IF there is open affixes of that type on the item.
So to prevent un-intentionally bricking your items, always bench-craft the missing prefix or missing suffix, before you reroll the item with "keeping suffixes or prefixes".
👉 Keep annulment orbs in mind! Depending on their prices, they can speed up your crafting success a LOT. When you're rolling your item from scratch and you hit lets say 1 good mod, then augment a crap mod.. instead of starting over with alterations, you annulment orb because that's a 50/50 and much cheaper than using another 100+ alteration to try hit that one good mod again.
📿 Anointment
Best DPS: Master Sapper (Oils: Teal, Black, Opalescent)
🏺 Dense Crafting
🔨 Shield, Gloves, Boots and Rings can all be crafted on a budget with just Dense fossils. For our belt I suggest Essence of Zeal as it provides trap throwing speed. For our weapon I suggest trade because in 98% of cases you'll be able to buy something at far cheaper investment than trying to craft a similar weapon. If you are in SSF or for other reasons want to craft the weapon then there are multiple options, the easiest being to spam extremely cheap and common Metallic fossils on a ilvl 84 base wand or sceptre. You can also use a crusader base if you want extra chance at hitting Wrath or Zealotry aura boost.
🦠 Alteration Crafting (Shield)
❗❗Again - Dense fossils is the easier route (video below❗), while alteration/regal is often a way used at early league-start to get *something* workable (alteration guide below the video).
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Titanium Spirit Shield (Shapered) (ilvl 86 is optimal, 78 is lowest I'd go in a league-start scenario)
Second best shield option is:
Harmonic Spirit Shield (Shapered) (min.ilvl 78+)
(just an example of the basetype)
1) Get the base.
2) Quality item to max (consider hillock or perfect fossils)
3) Transmute and start spamming alterations until you hit T1 ES or ES% block recovery.
4) If you hit either of those & only have 1 mod on the item, then augment orb and hope for a decent ES roll or ES% recovery.
5) If you augment a crappy stat, then go back to spamming alterations until
you again hit.
6) When you get good ES or ES% recovery then regal and hope for a useful stat (+1 spell/lightning gems, ES, resists, high intellect). Remember your bench can craft any missing ES% or ES#.
7) If you hit double or even triple T1 ES rolls, then read below!
👉 Opt.1 Recommended) Dense fossil spam your shaper shield. It's the most reliable and cost effective way of landing a good item.
👉 Opt.2) If you already hit maybe 1 good ES stat and ES-recover-on-block, perhaps consider to Multicraft. It costs 2ex and will use 1 suffix, allowing you to add 2 extra crafts, which will complete your item at 6 total affixes.
👉 Opt.3) If you're on a tighter budget, use a shield with highest possible ES and worry about ES% block recovery later.
🔨 Weapon
Check the gear section.
I recommend buying weapons as it is generally way cheaper than the investment of trying to craft something of equal power.
🔨 Helmet
Crown of the inward eye is really strong and usually quite cheap as most leagues the awakener goes on farm quite fast and people start selling his helmet in spades.
A runner-up would be an influenced hubris with -9 lightning res. Even double influence with multiplier and -9 light res.
In the meantime you can use any helm with good ES. ilvl 85 Hubris provides the best base for dense fossil crafting good ES stats.
🔨 Gloves
Best base is Shapered ilvl 84 Fingerless Silk and second best is Sorcerer Gloves. I always aim for adv.trap with throwspeed%.
I spam alterations, augment and regal until I'm lucky with having either double gem bonus (+ throwspeed + proj dmg), or throwspeed and strong ES.
If so, I buy a 2nd base and start using the ones with just 1 trap gem stat, while I continue crafting on the 2nd base trying to get perfect rolls.
(Look at the shield section of crafting, for an in-depth example of how to craft a base -- otherwise just spam dense fossils at 1-2c each, easy and quite cheap!)
💎 GEM LINKS 💎
👉 If you are ever confused about any gems, then check out my most recent character -> click my profile -> DissentXTV
👉 Using an awakened version of the gems that exist in such version is optimal, but not at all required, it's luxury.
👉 Alternatives: Some people prefer cluster traps instead of swift assembly, but check my video on the topic. Charged traps is an option only while leveling if you want the throw-speed before you have it in gear eventually. ____________________________________________________________
👉 Awakened Added Lightning Dmg adds +1 to lightning gems at level 5.
👉 Awakened Ligtning Penetration adds exposure at level 5. (this makes wave of conviction redundant)
👉 If you don't have a pierce lab enchant(helmet), add pierce as a jewel or a temporary talisman - you get a jewel in act 5 with +1 pierce.
Seismic Trap (4-Link) ____________________________________________________________
OPTIONAL 4L Seismic while leveling/early maps:
At level 28, you may optionally add a Seismic Trap setup, then as you level further pickup the lightning mastery eventually also with 40% conversion from phys to light and the support gem also giving 50% conversion. Seismic traps will only be used as a drop&forget on bosses. Otherwise check the gem links section in this guide and consider using the Mark-Curse/Exposure setup vs bosses only.
✔️ Seismic Trap ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Physical to Lightning Support ➡️> Advanced Traps Support
💫 Auras
Mana Reserve Auras - (4 Link + 1). ____________________________________________________________
Life Reserve Auras - (3 Link). ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
👉 This is after you've obtained shavs and are ready to go low-life.
👉 Note the gem levels (this will keep STR required at max 85)
✨ Curse
Trigger (In your weapon) or Arcanist Brand (3-Link). ____________________________________________________________
OR
👉 Alternatives:
____________________________________________________________
👉 If you do not have a trigger craft or no room for it on your weapon, alternatively you can use Arcanist Brand linked with Assassins' mark and Wave of conviction. You then place the brand on bosses and it will debuff.
👉 Depending on your crit chance and dexterity, Sniper's mark may in some cases outperform Assassins' mark by a significant margin - you have to POB this with your own character/stats/gear.
❗❗❗Wave of conviction & Arcanist brand is LvL 1 to avoid trouble with reflect maps.
Note❗❗❗: Replace tempest shield with a lvl 1 version to do reflect maps. Note: Siphoning trap would replace Sigil if you want more defense (phantasmal is not REQ, regular works too). ____________________________________________________________
👉 Discipline or Wrath aura can wait till when your mana reserve can afford it, go with whichever makes you feel comfortable with your damage or ES-pool. As you level, pickup reduced reserve sovereignty skill node.
🌳 SKILLTREE(POB) & ASCENDANCY 🌳
🌳 Skill-Tree
✔️ Main POB
https://pastebin.com/kMYzAsV2
(lvl 50 & 100 tree with NOTES❗❗❗)
👉 Check ❗❗❗NOTES in the POB.
👉 Only pickup jewel sockets after lvl 86+ - they require good jewels to be worth picking.
👉 Cluster setup is your LAST points.
👉 The POB's I use are always my OWN character, so the gear is not fantasy crafts or made-up, you can literally always find my character that the POB stems from, on my account. I've cleared all of the atlas and bosses with just 350-500k dmg per lightning ball and I've cleared it with 2mil+ dmg per lightning ball.
For where to put your early skill points >> check lvl 1-28 section of the guide or type !quickguide in my twitch chat.
🐮 Ascendancy
READ THE NOTE!!
My recommended order for anyone new to POE or somewhat new is
to play it safe and be more tanky by going in this order:
Pyromaniac ➡️> Perfect Crime ➡️> Born in the Shadows ➡️> Explosives Expert.
Note: You may also go born in the shadows, before perfect crime, to be even
more tanky while leveling
For highest dps and if you don't care being squishy/dying while leveling:
Perfect Crime ➡️> Explosives Expert ➡️> Pyromaniac ➡️> Born in the Shadows.
❗❗❗Note: For hardcore or deathless SC playthroughs, you may want to go for survivability before DPS - it also makes it a breeze doing your playthrough imho, you still got plenty damage. Regen from Pyromaniac and the blind from Born in shadows is a massive survivability boost - check pic below.
My deathless runs I usually go>
Born in the Shadows ➡️> Pyromaniac ➡️> Perfect Crime ➡️> Explosives Expert.
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💬 FAQ 💬
❓ Why pierce lab enchant over lightning trap penetration? 🧐 Pierce enchant means we don't need to invest skill-tree points or use a gem link to obtain pierce. We need pierce to thoroughly clear maps and also to stay safe as screen-clearing via piercing packs matters for that.
❓ Why am I dying/feeling squishy if players completed hardcore on this? 🧐 Check survival tips part of this guide. Make sure you stack ES on all gear, even small increases on gear matters a lot since we get 200% increase from our tree to boost those numbers. Play smart, throw traps in the direction you flame dash/move.
We are not a squishy build.
75% Spell Block ~ 35% value
75% Attack Block ~ 35% value
100% Blinding all enemies around us. (enemies has 50% less hit chance & do 10% less dmg to you)
10k ES (6-8k in medium gear)
1k+ ES regen per sec. (don't stop throwing traps, it's your regen!)
Screen-clearing ability & Off-screen hitting enemies.
Immune to Ignite in the build.
Immune to Shock in the build.
Immune to Blind in the build.
Immune to Stun (chayula amulet)
Immune to Freeze/Chill (depending if dream fragments ring)
Room for THREE magic flasks with other immunities.
What more immunities you want? damage? o.O lol.
❓ How do I play/level before I got a shavronne's armor? 🧐 Check the budget gear section.
Play the build as a life build and change the life-nodes for ES and CI by the time you're ready to start maps. The quickguide in TLDR shows available temporary life nodes in our leveling path.
When you switch from life to ES remember to pickup Zealot's Oath on the skilltree.
❓ How do we lower the mana cost of Traps? 🧐 Dealing with mana issues while leveling and/or in general (enduring mana flask while leveling).
+ A mana flask during acts, preferably with enduring prefix mod for a huge quality of life - this flask isn't needed once you fix your 5th gem & ascend.
+ Inspiration Support 25%-44% less mana cost of your trap links. (your 5th gem)
+ Perfect crime ascendancy, 25% less mana cost of traps.
+ Get "Anomalous Trap and Mine Damage Support" (20% quality it)
+ Bench crafting -mana cost for non-channeling skills on 1 or both rings.
+ Lvl 1-5 clarity reserved on mana, later reserved on life with arrogance.
+ Mystic Bulwark and Coldhearted Calculation on the skill-tree.
+ Endgame min/max optionally level an enlighten to 3 (or buy a corrupted lvl 3).
❓ Chain Reaction or Explosives Expert? 🧐 The base trigger radius for traps is 10 units.
Without the trigger effect from chain reaction, you need about 200% trigger radius in your skill-tree and/or with items for traps to trigger reliably where it'll feel good. (or using a sunblast belt, but that's really not very good imo, giving up a big slot).
in 3.16 we gained a bunch of trigger area, so that we have 200% by default.
This means Explosives Expert became a very viable choice and actually my default 4th ascendancy.
❓ Why Swift Assembly over Cluster Traps or Multiple Traps? 🧐 Multiple Traps is just bad, poor placement design. Cluster Trap skills can be thrown to locations of different heights, across gaps, and do not have a minimum throwing range as Multiple traps do, however they do nerf your damage quite a bit.
Swift Assembly has become my default go-to choice. It also has the benefit of becoming stronger and stronger the more trap throwing speed you pickup.
"
🧔 ABOUT ME 🧔
Uh.. what to say?
Been playing PoE since 2017.
I stream sometimes at twitch.tv/dissentXTV
Feel free to throw me a follow, it'll help with some motivation!
I feel this build deserves being shared. It's a lot of fun and super strong! If my guide is shit, don't blame the build, just blame the writer ...
Last edited by oestergreen on Dec 16, 2023, 11:11:09 PM
I'll try not to sound too biased, but having tested both skills in end-game gear as ES builds I can only recommend Lightning Trap.
Reasons are:
More defense (ice trap rely on prism for dmg compensation and thus no es-on-block)
Far cheaper items as a lightning trapper (cold items, cold multis, cold jewels cost a ton and competes with many other builds)
I was able to achieve close to 5mil DPS on ice trap in very very expensive gear. In gear at half the price, lightning trap sits at 15mil dps.
So honestly, you shouldn't go ice trap with ES builds. If you go ice trap it's because you want to play an evasion/dodge build with life instead of ES and you are willing to compete with the prices on cold gear and life gear and you simply love freezing things so much that its worth it to you.
Obviously these are recommendations based on the assumption you want to clear the endgame comfortably and want to achieve good end-game gear.
🥶 Freeze Immune 🥶
❗❗❗OBS: A lot of players are super annoyed with how many monsters are freezing in this league (specially with the nerf to flask immunities). So I notice many of you pickup dream fragments. Although it's definitely a great ring, especially for leveling, I'd like to show an alternative way of being freeze immune at the cost of a little ES. The craft itself only cost 4c and the skill-tree is something we already have.
💜 Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting me with a follow and coming by to hang out & chill. Even if you're putting the page in the background while playing POE yourself, it's a big help to a small channel:) You are always welcome to ask questions in my chat and I leave the VODS up so there's something league-relevant to watch for any aspiring trapper. See you soon. 💜 - twitch.tv/dissentxtv.
💚 The build has worked great in EVERY league since its inception in 3.5
💚 Does all map mods (if no regen, just exchange 1 flask for an enduring mana flask)
💚 Does all content with ease. (blow up uber elder and shaper with instant phases)
💚 Not a meta-life build!
💚 Uses mostly rares. (Can go from a few chaos budget to an epic 100ex+ endgame if you fancy)
💚 Can kill endgame bosses on a 5L. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fd2U4zaLGc)
💚 Works in HC. MAX-Block! 10k+ ES endgame, 6-8k in mediocre gear, strong ES regeneration from ascendancy.
💚 Easy to start, just play it as a life-build till mid-game.
💚 This builds endgame, is the strongest lightning trapper imo, check videos and see if you agree. (I've played life version and other guides) _________________________________________________________________
💔 If you're new, es can be tricky knowing when to switch(my guide will help you).
💔 Honestly, having played many other builds, it's hard to find downsides on this one, which is why it became my favorite. (Perhaps needing a Shavs as is the case for all low-life builds)
"
Character Stats
"
🔥 CURRENT & PAST LEAGUE NEWS 🔥
___________________________________________________ August 13th (3.15):
Cleared most of the atlas and killed Sirius. Soon Maven. :)
This is a VERY tiny league, so I haven't played much as it's a bit less encouraging with so few people around/dead trade etc. :/ Lets hope GGG picks this up for 3.16. At least the build itself still clears the atlas/endgame and everything still works smooth for us. :)
___________________________________________________ Feb 7th: Cleared everything including A9/Sirius (deathless). Now working towards unlocking the Maven fight (defeated multiple of her invitations such as elder guardians. :) Red maps video from current league; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKcNlSEsWS4&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=oestergreen
Using 22% movespeed boots while crafting a pair of 35%'ers), so take it as it is. ;)
___________________________________________________ Jan 22nd: Acts 1-10 was a breeze :)
I've evolved from life, into CI and I'll swap to LL when I can afford a 5/6L shavs. CI can carry just fine, while I gather currency for a shavs (check video above) :) This is all self-found or bought for less than 3-5c total.
🧾 LEAGUE UPDATES
3.15 Expedition
Spoiler
All player-power was nerfed because flasks and support gems got nerfed, but we made it through pretty well compared to many other builds. Traps are still strong and the build is clearing everything still. :)
3.14 Ultimatum
Spoiler
All good! POB Updated.
3.13 Ritual
Spoiler
Perfect Crime
No longer grants 10% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate for throwing Traps.
Now grants 10% increased Damage for each Trap (from 8%), 25% chance for Traps to Trigger an additional time (from 20%), and 25% reduced Mana Cost of Skills that throw Traps.
Chain Reaction
No longer grants 30% increased Trap Damage.
Now grants 50% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate for throwing Traps (from 15%) and causes Skills used by Traps to have 50% increased Area of Effect (from 20%).
Pyromaniac
No longer grants 20% reduced Mana Cost of Skills that throw Traps and 20% reduced Mana Reservation of Skills that throw Mines.
Now causes you to Regenerate 2% of Life per Second for each Trap Triggered Recently (from 1%) , up to 10% per second, and Regenerate 2% of Life per second for each Mine Detonated Recently (from 1%), up to 10% per second.
Born in the Shadows
No longer grants 30% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments against Blinded Enemies.
Now causes you to Blind enemies on hit (from 25% chance to Blind enemies on Hit).
Bear Trap
Trapped enemies now take 25% increased damage from traps and mines (from 15%).
3.11 Harvest
Spoiler
Harvest patch-notes. There's been some crit nerfs globally on the skill-tree, but nothing significant to warrant any worry, neither the minor nerf to spire trap, especially because we got our Lightning Trap buffed! from 135% dmg eff, to 170%. I'll update the guide if I find anything could or should be changed.
3.9 Metamorph
Spoiler
-old information removed-
3.8 Blight
Spoiler
Lost some regen from Ascendancy as well as the Shaper +1 trap thrown gloves mod. But we now have Skitter bots!! MORE trap damage yay! Plus our ascendancy is still strong with plenty regen to keep us safe.
Playing & developing on this build since betrayal league (3.5), always doing all content, with an emphasis on not dying! (works for HC) and clearing everything with ease and relatively good map speed (nice for SC, lots of damage!).
My own first experience with PoE was some friends persuading me to try this "diablo-like game" they called it... they were playing HC, so that's where I started my first ever league in PoE (Harbinger).... Having no clue about the game, I decided I wanted to play an archer build... fast, ranged aaaaaand super squishy, perfect for HC... well, I actually made it to lvl 55'ish and Kitava act 5 ... my friends then told me, no no don't try that boss alone, you'll die, let us come do it for you, just stand back and we'll kill him ... right ok then ... apparently, even back then the HP of bosses increased with the number of players and my mates didn't realize that, so lets just say I still ended up very dead and after a few more leagues trying all kinds of different builds and mostly getting my ass kicked, I decided I wanted something that could tank a few hits, screen-clear and be able to take down the endgame... without "help" from friends. :P
So there's my background for eventually doing this trapper and why I take some pride in not dying too much, even if nowadays I only play SC with less hours available. :)
"
❓ HOW TO GET STARTED
💯 LEVELING
Spoiler
How to league-start this
Spoiler
I've personally league-started this in every league since 3.5.
Follow the leveling guide down below, but simply play as a life-trapper with a 1-5 chaos tinkerskin until you can afford a shavs body-armor.
Depending upon whether you want to respec later, you can add points in life nodes and change them later to ES (check the image in leveling 1-28+ section).
Alternatively you can start collecting and equipping ES heavy gear and switch to CI while you're getting a shavs. While CI you can also very easily farm lab for enchants (CI makes traps a joke)
When to switch to low life/ES
Spoiler
It depends on your experience and your budget.
Personally I level all the way to maps (sometimes to late white maps) before I switch. It also depends whether you have a Shavs.
The build works fine as life and is still very strong, but of course it means you have to pick life-nodes on the tree OR play more carefully with lower ES/Life combo.
Alternatively, my recommended way of starting maps (before you are low-life) is to pickup cheap ES gear for every slot and choose Chaos Inoculation in the tree. This way you can continue working on stacking ES gear, while gathering currency and get used to being an ES build.
For your shavs, often you can save currency early league by getting the prophecy cards instead.
Bandits & Pantheons
Spoiler
✔️ Help alira for easier resist cap and more dps.
✔️ Major: All major Pantheon powers can be beneficial for the build, although Soul of Solaris is probably the best choice in general, although Lunaris with 10% chance to avoid projectiles can also be really strong.
✔️ Minor: Same as major Pantheons, almost all minor ones are useful for the build. I recommend shakari.
For Sirius boss-fight, get upgraded Arakaali and Shakari.
Pantheon powers can be upgraded by using Divine Vessel in the Map Device while you are activating the particular Map that contains the boss you need. Once you’ve killed the boss and captured his soul, you need to deliver the vessel to Sin in Oriath.
Note 1: Always path right side first of the skill-tree towards the trap damage points: Blast Cascade, High Explosives etc. I suggest getting the trap throwing speed points ASAP (Expeditious Munitions).
Note 2: The POB is for full ES. Adjust your tree with some life if you feel the need while leveling (red circles). I'd suggest using gear with life stats until you can switch to CI and/or then shavs with low life.
Note 3: As you progress from Lvl 28+ take a peek at budget items in this guide to know what you should look out for/set trade filters for while you are leveling.
From level 1, you should use Explosive Trap in a Lifesprig, or whichever wand or sceptre you have.
If you're in a Fresh league start, consider doing the vendor recipe for a lightning wand, it's a nice damage boost early on.
At level 4, you should add Bear Trap for single target damage (use it on bosses or difficult rares, it helps a lot).
At level 8, your Explosive Trap link should look like this.
✔️ Explosive Trap ➡️> Swift Assembly ➡️> Added Fire Damage Support(optional if you have the STR for it)
At level 10, you should add Flame Dash for additional mobility or when it's available for you - until then, you should use frostblink.
At level 12, you can finally transition to your signature skill, it's available after the quest; the siren's cadence. Replace Explosive Trap with the following Lightning Trap link.
✔️ Lightning Trap ➡️> Multiple Traps Support ➡️> Added Lightning Damage Support ➡️> Pierce Support
By level 16, your Lightning Trap Lightning Trap should look like this (gems placed in order of priority, so remove based on how many links you've got).
✔️ Lightning Trap ➡️> Multiple Traps Support ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Elemental Focus Support
At level 24, you should add Skitterbots OR Wrath for additional damage.
At level 28, you may optionally add a Lightning Spire Trap gem setup. Spire traps will only be used as a drop&forget on bosses.
✔️ Lightning Spire Trap ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Lightning Penetration Support ➡️> Elemental Focus Support ➡️> Inspiration Support
While you continue from lvl 28 and onwards, remember to check the GEM section to get the proper setup going when your levels meet the requirements.
Pierce is an optional gem, decide on your own if you prefer it or rather want more raw damage.
👕 GEAR
Spoiler
🛡️ Armor
Spoiler
💲 Budget Gear before going low-life. (Hybrid/leveling)
Spoiler
Examples of cheap gear to use while leveling and before transitioning/acquiring shavronne's.
Literally any gear with health and resists will carry you through to maps or until you can go Low-Life with a shavs 5-link. Buy an unlinked one via prophecy cards and buy a 5L Jeweller's Touch prophecy and you're strong off the bat with a 5L shav's.
Priority ORDER for stats in your weapon are:
Lightning%/Spell%/Elemental Damage.
Added Lightning Damage to Spells.
Global Crit Multiplier.
+1 All Lightning Spell gems (if u can get it)
Spell Crit chance.
My endgame weapon, just as example towards stat priorities (replace focus craft with Trigger craft described in gem section under spire traps):
💲💲 Budget Gear for CI & low-life. (Early Mapping)
Spoiler
Start out with any decent ES shield (whatever you can afford).
Replace it asap with an ES shield that recovers ES when you block.
200 es+ and recover ES% on block preferably.
Darkness Enthroned got buffed considerably in 3.11 and is a really strong choice now and a super cheap option compared to rare belt.
In fact the belt is so strong that I'm using it in my high-end gear. (They buffed Darkness Enthroned from 50% bonus to the jewels to 75%)
An example is: a decent crystal belt has 80es implicit and 40es explicit = 120 es.
Darkness enthroned, I can throw 2 abyss jewels in with avg 35es on each and some damage/multiply dps stats.. 2x35 = 70 x 1.75(belt bonus) = 122.5 ES (same as crystal belt O.o)
💰💰💰 High-end Gear
Spoiler
Note: You do NOT need a mana reservation shield. It's a luxury craft and expensive usually. Having the sovereignty nodes and a lvl 3 enlighten is enough. You can buy corrupted enlightens relatively cheap from ppl failing to vaal their gem to 4p.
💍 Jewels
Spoiler
There are no mandatory jewels for us.
We get a lot of power from relatively cheap jewels because our traps will inherit multiplier from many sources, therefore we can search for many combinations of jewels (elemental multiplier, spell multiplier, lightning multiplier, global multiplier etc)
A Watcher's Eye Watcher's Eye (since 3.9 changes is extremely expensive/rare) with Wrath Wrath mods and % energyshield, so it is only a crazy luxury item that we definitely do not need, but in case you run around with 20ex to spend, then you know this exist.
Note: Basically, jewels depends entirely on your budget, if you're running a lower budget, just find anything with ES% and +trap damage and/or multiplier damage to spells and/or to lightning skills.
⚗️ Flasks
Spoiler
Make sure you have Bleeding, Curse and Freezing immunity on your flasks.
(You don't need freezing immunity however if you are running the Dream fragments ring that I like to use)
My endgame setup is: Note: I'm not running bleed removal because I have a jewel that prevents me getting bleeded. (You vaal orb jewels and can get lucky)
💎 GEM LINKS
Spoiler
Note1: If you are ever confused about any gems, then check out my most recent character -> click my profile -> DissentXTV Note2: Using an awakened version of the gems that exist in such version is optimal, but not at all required, it's luxury.
- Alternatives: ____________________________________________________________ Note 1: Lightning Penetration is your best gem until you reach a certain threshold of penetration (via tree, potential cluster jewel selections and if you use the trigger wand setup). Best way to measure if you've reached it is through swapping Lightning Pen in POB and compare the damage result. Note 2: If you don't have a pierce lab enchant(helmet), add pierce as a jewel or a temporary talisman - you get a jewel in act 5 with +1 pierce.
____________________________________________________________ Note 1:Lightning Spire Trap is mainly used in order to boost your single target damage vs bosses in early/mid game. Put spire traps in whichever available links you have while leveling.
❗Around yellow tier maps you can drop the Lightning Spire trap entirely and use the Trigger setup below: (If you crafted shaper gloves with extra trap stats, keep them even without spire traps their dmg mods are global).
You put 3 gems in your weapon and craft the weapon with a trigger suffix craft that automatically triggers a gem in your weapon sockets with an 8 sec delay.
❗❗❗OBS take off wave of conviction gem in reflect maps.
⚡ Trigger Setup (only works in your weapon, so swap current weapon gems into whatever item you used to have spire traps in and add the below gems to your weapon) ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________ Note1: If you do not have a trigger craft or no room for it on your weapon, alternatively you can use Arcanist Brand linked with Assassins' mark and Wave of conviction. You then place the brand on bosses and it will debuff with wave & mark. Note2: Depending on your crit chance and dexterity, Sniper's mark may in some cases outperform Assassins' mark by a significant margin - you have to POB this with your own character/stats/gear.
✔️ Auras
Spoiler
Visual:
Spoiler
Mana Reserve Auras - (4 Link). ____________________________________________________________
Note:Discipline or Wrath aura can wait till late-game, or when your mana reserve can afford it, go with whichever makes you feel comfortable with your damage or ES-pool. As you level, pickup reduced reserve sovereignty skill node.
🌳 SKILLTREE(POB), ASCENDANCY & CLUSTER JEWELS
Spoiler
Skill-Tree
Spoiler
(lvl 75 & 100 tree with NOTES!)
✔️ https://pastebin.com/Fu0yJLXh
Note: Cluster setup is your LAST points. Check NOTES in the POB.
Always only pickup jewel sockets LATE in the game lvl 86+ - they require good jewels to be worth picking.
Note2: The POB's I use are always my OWN character, so the gear is not fantasy crafts or made-up, you can literally always find my character that the POB stems from, on my account. I've cleared all of the atlas and bosses with just 350-500k dmg per lightning ball and I've cleared it with 2mil dmg per lightning ball.
For where to put your early skill points >> check lvl 1-28 section of the guide or type !quickguide in my twitch chat.
Ascendancy
Spoiler
READ THE NOTE!!
My recommended order for anyone new to POE or somewhat new is
to play it safe and be more tanky by going in this order:
Pyromaniac ➡️> Perfect Crime ➡️> Born in the Shadows ➡️> Chain Reaction.
Note: You may also go born in the shadows, before perfect crime, to be even
more tanky while leveling
For highest dps and if you don't care being squishy/dying while leveling:
Perfect Crime ➡️> Chain Reaction ➡️> Pyromaniac ➡️> Born in the Shadows.
❗❗❗Note: For hardcore or deathless SC playthroughs, you may want to go for survivability before DPS - it also makes it a breeze doing your playthrough imho, you still got plenty damage. Regen from Pyromaniac and the blind from Born in shadows is a massive survivability boost - check pic below.
My deathless runs I usually go>
Born in the Shadows ➡️> Pyromaniac ➡️> Perfect Crime ➡️> Chain Reaction.
Cluster Jewels
Spoiler
You can in theory by dumping some ES/defense, gain more dps by going multiple clusters. I prefer the defense, so I recommend using only 1 large cluster. Specifically this one (note: widespread is not REQ, it's only an extra luxury if you can afford it. It's not important):
🛡️ ES raw# (EVERY small number increase is a big increase to your ES pool because of our es% boosting)
🛡️ Intellect (a great suffix giving 1% ES every 5 int and boosted by Utmost Intellect in our tree)
🛡️ Block (spell/attack)
🛡️ 5% ES-On-Block-Shield (Huge survival boost when you get it - make sure the shield has at least 250-300+ ES total)
🛡️ Outside of stats we rely on several layers of defense, including that we blind everything we hit and everything we are near (born in the shadows) and that we regenerate ES/Life from every triggered trap (pyromaniac + zealots oath)
🛡️ We are by default immune to blind, shock and ignite. We are also stun immune with the Chayula amulet. We can become Freeze immune through 80% avoid freeze on a boots bench craft (we have the last 20% in our skill-tree already).
🔨 CRAFTING
Spoiler
❗❗❗OBS: By FAR the easiest and cheapest way to craft 80% of our equipment is through Dense fossils. Dense fossils are a common drop in low delve depths and thus you can either farm them or buy them at reasonable prices.
🔨 Shield, Gloves, Boots and Rings can all be crafted on a budget with just Dense fossils. For our belt I suggest Essence of Zeal as it provides trap throwing speed. For our weapon I suggest trade because in 98% of cases you'll be able to buy something at far cheaper investment than trying to craft a similar weapon. If you are in SSF or for other reasons want to craft the weapon then there are multiple options, the easiest being to spam extremely cheap and common Metallic fossils on a ilvl 84 base wand or sceptre. You can also use a crusader base if you want extra chance at hitting Wrath or Zealotry aura boost.
Tips & Tricks:
Spoiler
Firstly, it's important to use a good source of information about the base items you intend to craft upon. For this I suggest www.craftofexile.com
Choose the base group, choose the base type and that's it!
Now you can see every mod that exists on that base-type, how high it can roll depending on ilvl and what the 6 different influences can add to the item, mod-wise. This is also a huge help in knowing which mods are targetable with harvest crafting (via the tag names) and which ones are not.
Now the tips&tricks:
1) Always fix quality first on an item, preferably a grey base if 20% is all you need, otherwise perfect fossils if you're going for 30%. (Hillock in fortification/transport can do 28% on an already crafted item)
2) People often make the mistake of NOT using their regular crafting bench while harvest or augment/regal crafting. Remember your bench is an easy way to add an extra suffix or prefix or a specific targetable mod, for harvest crafting.
Example; imagine I got a shield with reduce reserve % and some other misc stats, but not any ES mods, which means I'd normally have to reroll it, or use expensive augment defence harvest crafts. Well, instead go to your regular bench, pay less than 1c value to add a random defence mod and now you can use the "remove def/add def" recipe, simply removing your bench craft to replace it with the harvest craft.
In same style of thinking; let's say you have an item with only 1 ES mod and you want to have 2 (so raw ES and % ES) but you're afraid of hitting the 1 good ES roll. Simply bench craft something random on your item and use the dirt cheap remove-non def/add def recipe.
Some of these things will always be gambles, because often there are multiple mods you've hit, but these are simply ways to lessen the risks and increase the gambling odds in your favor. Many people don't use the regular crafting bench enough, to increase their own odds of NOT hitting one of their good mods when crafting.
3) When using crafts that say "reroll item but keep suffixes" or "keep prefixes", always remember the craft may still ADD extra mods IF there is space on the item.
Example: "reforge while keeping prefixes" ... if you only have 2 prefixes on the item for the recipe to "keep", it can still add a 3rd random prefix.
So to prevent un-intentionally bricking your items, always bench-craft the missing prefix or missing suffix, before you reroll the item with "keeping suffixes or prefixes", this way the craft won't randomly add something to fill the missing mod slot.
4) Keep annulment orbs in mind! Depending on prices, they can speed up your crafting success a LOT. In ritual league annulments cost 1-2c each, so they are dirt cheap. What this means is when you're rolling your item from scratch and you hit lets say 1 good mod, then augment a crap mod.. instead of starting over with alterations, you annulment orb because that's a 50/50 and much cheaper than using another 100+ alteration to try hit that one good mod and hoping for a good augment again.
5)
Anointment:
Best DPS: Master Sapper (Oils: Teal, Black, Opalescent)
Alternative: Tranquility (Oils: Azure, Golden, Golden) Note: Tranq is only really worth it with 10-12k ES. Master Sapper will usually provide more raw DMG, unless you want the extra ES from Tranq. You will have to check your character in POB to make certain if it's worth picking tranq over Sapper.
Shield:
Spoiler
Titanium Spirit Shield (Shapered) (min.ilvl 80 for shaper affix 15% mana reserve reduce)
Second best shield option is:
Harmonic Spirit Shield (Shapered) (min.ilvl 80)
(Ignore stats on these, they're not crafted but just examples of the basetype)
How to craft:
1) Get the base.
2) Quality item to max (consider hillock 28% or perfect fossil to 28-30%)
3) Transmute and start spamming alterations until you hit 15% Reduce for socketed gems.
4) If you hit only 15% reduce, then augment a secondary stat and hope for something useful (+1 spell/lightning, ES, resists, high intellect).
5) If you augment a crappy stat, then go back to spamming alterations until
you again hit 15% reduce and get a 2nd useful stat.
6) When you got 15% reduce and a 2nd useful stat then regal and hope for a useful stat (+1 spell/lightning gems, ES, resists, high intellect). If it fails, then scour and back to alteration spam.
7) You should now have mana reduce and 2 other useful stats, so a total of 3. This leaves you with some options depending on your budget/currency.
Opt.1 Recommended) Make sure your shield has 3 prefixes and GOOD es stats. In this case you can pay 2ex to lock the prefixes and then use a very commonly found harvest recipe called "reforge a rare item with at least one defense modifier". When you use this harvest craft on a shield with locked prefixes you will force harvest to add random suffixes, but one of them will ALWAYS be energy shield restored on block. It's guaranteed.
If your shield only has 2 and not 3 prefixes, be aware that Harvest may add a random 3rd prefix. It will however not reroll your existing other prefixes as they're locked.
Opt.2) If you already hit maybe 1 good ES stat and ES-recover-on-block, perhaps consider to Multicraft. It costs 2ex and will use 1 suffix, allowing you to add 2 extra crafts, which will complete your item at 6 total affixes.
Opt.3) If you're on a tighter budget, use a shield with highest possible ES and worry about es recovery on block later. (Leo in research gives free exalt slams on items btw)
Weapon:
Spoiler
Check the gear section.
Buy a good weapon or alternatively
craft it with alteration spam, regal and bench crafts.
(Look at the shield section of crafting, for an in-depth example of how to craft a base)
Helmet:
Spoiler
Crown of the inward eye is really strong and usually quite cheap as most leagues the awakener goes on farm quite fast and people start selling his helmet in spades.
In the meantime you can use any helm with good ES. ilvl 85 Hubris provides the best base for dense fossil crafting good ES stats.
Gloves:
Spoiler
Gloves, I almost always go for 2 gem bonus stats, via using a shaper base, prefer ilvl 84.
I spam alterations, augment and regal until I'm lucky with having either double gem bonus (+trap and mine dmg + proj dmg or adv trap + proj dmg), or 1 trap stat and strong ES.
If so, I buy a 2nd base and start using the ones with just 1 trap gem stat, while I continue crafting on the 2nd base trying to get 2 proj + a trap gem bonus.
I always prefer trap throw speed as one of my 2 gem bonus stats, then the 2nd one is projectile damage. (trap and mine damage + proj is also good if you feel fine about your throw speed)
(Look at the shield section of crafting, for an in-depth example of how to craft a base)
❤️ SURVIVAL TIPS
Spoiler
"
The inspiration to this build was from playing Hardcore and managing to take down all the endgame. But you WILL be somewhat squishy in the time while you are leveling and before you transition to full ES and also obtain your final ascendancy. (born in the shadows - however check ascendancy section and consider picking the HC-safer ascendancy order that I listed)
Here's some general tips:
New Tips:
1) Make sure you use a Vaal Discipline. The vaal effect is an instant save-yourself button! With how our Pyromaniac ascendancy works (combined with Zealot's oath if you're ES specced), you regenerate life/ES from all traps going off! In short... you should ALWAYS be tossing traps, even if you're not in any danger.. it's nice having a constant 10% regeneration running.
When combined with vaal discipline, it becomes an instant save button, since vaal disc makes your ES regen NOT get interrupted by incoming damage. You can tank a lot of damage this way and also run around in darkness in delve.
2) Make sure you've picked up Zealot's Oath by the time you switch to full ES (but not before!)
3) Upgrade Solaris pantheons, it's really strong. Use Brine king pantheon, until you have your amulet which makes you stun immune, when you have it pick Solaris. Use Soul of Shakari and upgrade poison immunity (useful this league vs metamorphs and the hunter boss)
4) Prioritize ES on your gear - your damage will already be insane when you've obtained shavs and gone low-life. Heck, even as hybrid before you get shavs your damage is really strong in just a cheap 1c tinker-skin.
5) Do NOT pick jewel sockets until you have really strong jewels - rather invest in damage and ES until you got jewels with ES and 2 damage stats.
6) Remember to check the budget gear section, there are some cheap ES gear we can use.
7) Your Pyromaniac and Born in Shadows ascendancy gives you a big survival boost because it blinds ALL monsters around you. The sooner you get it, the sooner you'll feel that much more tanky. Also consider picking pyromaniac as your FIRST ascendancy if you want to be tanky while leveling! (note screenshot)
8) You can optionally replace flame dash as your primary mobility with a shield charge + fortify combo instead.
9) Get a SHIELD with ES on block! You block a lot, so getting ES on block mod, will make you nearly unkillable by monster packs.
"
💬 FAQ
Spoiler
Why pierce lab enchant over lightning trap penetration? Pierce enchant means we don't need to invest skill-tree points or use a gem link to obtain pierce. We need pierce to thoroughly clear maps and also to stay safe as screen-clearing via piercing packs matters for that.
Why am I dying/feeling squishy if players completed hardcore on this? Check survival tips part of this guide. Make sure you stack ES on all gear, even small increases on gear matters a lot since we get 200% increase from our tree to boost those numbers. Play smart, throw traps in the direction you flame dash/move.
We are not a squishy build.
75% Spell Block ~ 35% value
75% Attack Block ~ 35% value
100% Blinding all enemies around us. (enemies has 50% less hit chance & do 10% less dmg to you)
10k ES (6-8k in medium gear)
1k+ ES regen per sec. (don't stop throwing traps, it's your regen!)
Screen-clearing ability & Off-screen hitting enemies.
Immune to Ignite in the build.
Immune to Shock in the build.
Immune to Stun (chayula amulet)
Immune to Freeze/Chill (depending if dream fragments ring)
Room for THREE magic flasks with other immunities.
What more immunities you want? damage? o.O lol.
How do I play/level before I got a shavronne's armor? Check the budget gear section, get a cheap 1c tinker-skin (it's almost 1c in every league)
Play the build as a life build and change the life-nodes for ES later.
You could use Demi guide for a life version of this build and then switch to this one when you feel ready. Personally however I run this build as a league-start and I don't bother investing much points into life, I just play more careful and use life-heavy items until I can switch to shavs+low life, or switch to CI, until I can afford a 5L shavs.
When you switch from life to ES and equip shavs remember to pickup Zealot's Oath on the skilltree.
How come we use elemental focus, how do we shock? We use skitterbots for shock. They are a reliable shock, plus it allows us the 49% more damage modifier from EF
How do we manage running out of mana? Dealing with mana issues while leveling and/or in general (enduring mana flask while leveling) then for later game there's veiled bench ring craft: non-channeling skills have -7 mana cost and use lvl 1-5+ clarity via bloodmagic links)
+ Leveling my enlighten to lvl 3 (or buying a broken corrupted lvl 3).
+ Bench crafting -mana cost for non-channeling skills on 1 or both rings should also alleviate any mana issues.
+ Getting my block to max/picking up glancing and the remaining block points in the skill-tree combined with Mystic Bulwark for the 75% mana regen.
+ Leveling inspiration support gem = 34% reduced mana cost of our trap skill.
+ Picking up perfect crime ascendancy = 25% reduced mana cost of our trap skill.
+ Getting the sovereignty skill nodes in the tree.
There are many mana improvements that people don't see until they level to 85+ and invest a little time with the build and/or know the build in advance from having played it before already :)
Why chain reaction over Explosives Expert? The base trigger radius for traps is 10 units.
Without the trigger effect from chain reaction, you need about 200% trigger radius in your skill-tree and/or with items for traps to trigger reliably where it'll feel good. (or using a sunblast belt, but that's really not very good imo, giving up a big slot).
You can also use Hair Trigger Jewels, but again, even if we said i'd just remove 1 of my jewels in the end-game, it's a huge dps loss, more than having explosive expert, since a jewel can have double and even triple the amount of multiplier + other stats & ES%.
There are some reddit threads and YT's discussing the differences and there are some trap builds preferring explosives expert and at the end of the day, I'd say you can always try it and see how it feels for you, but generally the way of delivering the most damage is to land majority of your traps so close to the target that they all get triggered and this feels far smoother with Chain Reaction. Without it, you'd definitely need to think about how to get enough trigger area effect that it feels comfortable and effective still.
Why Cluster traps over Multiple traps? Unlike traps supported by Multiple Traps, Cluster Trap skills can be thrown to locations of different heights, across gaps, and do not have a minimum throwing range.
"
🧔 ABOUT ME
Spoiler
Uh.. what to say?
Been playing PoE for like 5 leagues, on and off, skipping some of them.
I stream sometimes at twitch.tv/dissentXTV
- Though it's not so often as there are 0 viewers to my channel, yeeeh wauv=P
Feel free to throw me a follow, it'll help with some motivation!
I feel this build deserves being shared. It's a lot of fun and super strong! If my guide is shit, don't blame the build, just blame the writer ...
Last edited by oestergreen on Sep 5, 2021, 12:20:36 AM
❗❗❗Updated all of the guide.
In preparation for 3.16, I have used feedback from the last 2 leagues in this thread, to go over all text and every section in the guide and either deleted/moved or updated its relevance. Hopefully this all makes for an even better guide. Make sure you check each section out before your next playthrough. :)
3.16 waiting room activated...
...Meantime for this next league-start I intend to start using twitter to easier reach you guys about stream schedules and when RL stuff gets in the way.
Throw me a 🔴YouTube sub and a follow on 🔵Twitter for updates. I would very much appreciate your help reaching the elusive 1k youtube subscribers goal. :) I hope in return you'll enjoy the guide❗💗
"
"
"
💜 Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting me with a follow and coming by to hang out & chill. Even if you're putting the page in the background while playing POE yourself, it's a big help to a small channel:) You are always welcome to ask questions in my chat and I leave the VODS up so there's something league-relevant to watch for any aspiring trapper. See you soon. 💜 - twitch.tv/dissentxtv.
I'll try not to sound too biased, but having tested both skills in end-game gear as ES builds I can only recommend Lightning Trap.
Reasons are:
More defense.
Far cheaper items as a lightning trapper (cold items, cold multis, cold jewels cost a ton and competes with many other builds)
I was able to achieve close to 5mil DPS on ice trap in very very expensive gear. In gear at half the price, lightning trap sits at 15mil dps.
So honestly, you shouldn't go ice trap with ES builds. If you go ice trap it's because you want to play an evasion/dodge build with life instead of ES and you are willing to compete with the prices on cold gear and life gear and you simply love freezing things so much that its worth it to you.
Obviously these are recommendations based on the assumption you want to clear the endgame comfortably and want to achieve good end-game gear.
💚 The build has worked great in EVERY league since its inception in 3.5❗
💚 Does all map mods. (If no regen, use an enduring mana flask)
💚 Does all content and scales extremely well. (FEEL the power growth)
💚 Not a meta-life build! (Why be pro-life when you can be no-life❗❓)
💚 Use mostly rares. (League start & scale to an epic endgame)
💚 Can kill endgame bosses on a 5L. (https://bit.ly/3DhVQve)
💚 Works in HC. (MAX-Block! 7-10k ES, ES regen, ES OnBlock)
💚 Easy to start. (Play as life till mid-game then go CI or LL)
💚 This builds endgame slaps❗ (Check the videos, see if you agree) _________________________________________________________________
💔 If you're new, ES can be tricky starters. (My guide will help you❗)
💔 Honestly, having played many other builds, it's hard to find downsides on this one, which is why it became my favorite. (Perhaps needing a Shavs as is the case for all low-life builds)
"
🔥 CURRENT & PAST LEAGUE NEWS 🔥
___________________________________________________ August 13th (3.15):
Cleared most of the atlas and killed Sirius. Soon Maven. :)
This is a VERY tiny league, so I haven't played much as it's a bit less encouraging with so few people around/dead trade etc. :/ Lets hope GGG picks this up for 3.16. At least the build itself still clears the atlas/endgame and everything still works smooth for us. :)
___________________________________________________ Feb 7th: Cleared everything including A9/Sirius (deathless). Now working towards unlocking the Maven fight (defeated multiple of her invitations such as elder guardians. :) Red maps video from current league; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKcNlSEsWS4&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=oestergreen
Using 22% movespeed boots while crafting a pair of 35%'ers), so take it as it is. ;)
___________________________________________________ Jan 22nd: Acts 1-10 was a breeze :)
I've evolved from life, into CI and I'll swap to LL when I can afford a 5/6L shavs. CI can carry just fine, while I gather currency for a shavs (check video above) :) This is all self-found or bought for less than 3-5c total.
This highlights how the build works if you don't find anything at all of value while leveling act 1-10. (no good sellables or uniques or exalts)
Because of that, I've swapped from life to CI (instead of LowLife) and will continue farming early maps as CI until I can get my shavs. It's easy to swap between CI and LL, it's merely 2 points you're changing.
Enjoy Ritual League! (it seems awesome!)
🧾 LEAGUE UPDATES
3.15 Expedition
Spoiler
All player-power was nerfed because flasks and support gems got nerfed, but we made it through pretty well compared to many other builds. Traps are still strong and the build is clearing everything still. :)
3.14 Ultimatum
Spoiler
All good! POB Updated.
3.13 Ritual
Spoiler
Perfect Crime
No longer grants 10% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate for throwing Traps.
Now grants 10% increased Damage for each Trap (from 8%), 25% chance for Traps to Trigger an additional time (from 20%), and 25% reduced Mana Cost of Skills that throw Traps.
Chain Reaction
No longer grants 30% increased Trap Damage.
Now grants 50% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate for throwing Traps (from 15%) and causes Skills used by Traps to have 50% increased Area of Effect (from 20%).
Pyromaniac
No longer grants 20% reduced Mana Cost of Skills that throw Traps and 20% reduced Mana Reservation of Skills that throw Mines.
Now causes you to Regenerate 2% of Life per Second for each Trap Triggered Recently (from 1%) , up to 10% per second, and Regenerate 2% of Life per second for each Mine Detonated Recently (from 1%), up to 10% per second.
Born in the Shadows
No longer grants 30% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments against Blinded Enemies.
Now causes you to Blind enemies on hit (from 25% chance to Blind enemies on Hit).
Bear Trap
Trapped enemies now take 25% increased damage from traps and mines (from 15%).
3.11 Harvest
Spoiler
Harvest patch-notes. There's been some crit nerfs globally on the skill-tree, but nothing significant to warrant any worry, neither the minor nerf to spire trap, especially because we got our Lightning Trap buffed! from 135% dmg eff, to 170%. I'll update the guide if I find anything could or should be changed.
3.9 Metamorph
Spoiler
-old information removed-
3.8 Blight
Spoiler
Lost some regen from Ascendancy as well as the Shaper +1 trap thrown gloves mod. But we now have Skitter bots!! MORE trap damage yay! Plus our ascendancy is still strong with plenty regen to keep us safe.
Playing & developing on this build since betrayal league (3.5), always doing all content, with an emphasis on not dying! (works for HC) and clearing everything with ease and relatively good map speed (nice for SC, lots of damage!).
My own first experience with PoE was some friends persuading me to try this "diablo-like game" they called it... they were playing HC, so that's where I started my first ever league in PoE (Harbinger).... Having no clue about the game, I decided I wanted to play an archer build... fast, ranged aaaaaand super squishy, perfect for HC... well, I actually made it to lvl 55'ish and Kitava act 5 ... my friends then told me, no no don't try that boss alone, you'll die, let us come do it for you, just stand back and we'll kill him ... right ok then ... apparently, even back then the HP of bosses increased with the number of players and my mates didn't realize that, so lets just say I still ended up very dead and after a few more leagues trying all kinds of different builds and mostly getting my ass kicked, I decided I wanted something that could tank a few hits, screen-clear and be able to take down the endgame... without "help" from friends. :P
So there's my background for this trapper and why I take some pride in not dying too much, even if nowadays I only play SC with less hours available. :)
"
❓ HOW TO GET STARTED
💯 LEVELING 💯
❓ How to league-start this
I've personally league-started this in every league since 3.5.
Follow the guide and simply level as a life-trapper.
Depending upon whether you want to re-spec some points, you can add temporary life nodes and change them later to ES (check the image in leveling 1-28+ section).
Around the time you reach maps, consider buying cheap ES items for all slots/cheap ES uniques (check budget armor in guide) and switch to Chaos Inoculation full ES build. This is strong enough to carry you to early red maps while you save currency for a Shavs armor.
❓ When to switch to ES
It depends on your experience and your budget.
Some switch as early as act 7 to CI/ES, others level to maps before switching.
If you do not have/can afford a shavs body armor I recommend to pickup cheap ES gear for every slot and choose Chaos Inoculation in the tree. This way you can continue working on stacking ES gear, while gathering currency and get used to being an ES build.
For your shavs, often you can save currency early league by getting the prophecy cards instead.
❓ Bandits & Pantheons
✔️ Help alira for easier resist cap and more dps.
✔️ Major: All major Pantheon powers can be beneficial for the build, although Soul of Solaris is probably the best choice in general, although Lunaris with 10% chance to avoid projectiles can also be really strong.
✔️ Minor: Same as major Pantheons, almost all minor ones are useful for the build and you can switch them around depending on map mods, as some offers you immunity to stuff like burning ground etc.
Pantheon powers can be upgraded by using Divine Vessel in the Map Device while you are activating the particular Map that contains the boss you need. Once you’ve killed the boss and captured his soul, you need to deliver the vessel to Sin in Oriath.
Note 1: Always path right side first of the skill-tree towards the trap damage points: Blast Cascade, High Explosives etc. I suggest getting the trap throwing speed points ASAP (Expeditious Munitions).
Note 2: The POB is for full ES. Adjust your tree with some life if you feel the need while leveling (red circles). I'd suggest using gear with life stats until you can switch to CI and/or then shavs with low life.
Note 3: As you progress levels take a peek at budget items in the guide to know what you should look out for/set trade filters for while you play.
🐱🏍 Twink Leveling Gear
x2 or 2x +1 lightning spell wand/shield
📲 Level 1 to 28+
From level 1, you should use Explosive Trap in a Lifesprig, or whichever wand or sceptre you have.
If you're in a Fresh league start, consider doing the vendor recipe for a lightning wand, it's a nice damage boost early on.
At level 4, you should add Bear Trap for single target damage (use it on bosses or difficult rares, it helps a lot).
At level 8, your Explosive Trap link should look like this.
✔️ Explosive Trap ➡️> Swift Assembly ➡️> Added Fire Damage Support(optional if you have the STR for it)
At level 10, you should add Flame Dash for additional mobility or when it's available for you - until then, you should use frostblink.
At level 12, you can finally transition to your signature skill, it's available after the quest; the siren's cadence. Replace Explosive Trap with the following Lightning Trap link.
✔️ Lightning Trap ➡️> Multiple Traps Support ➡️> Added Lightning Damage Support ➡️> Pierce Support
By level 16, your Lightning Trap Lightning Trap should look like this (gems placed in order of priority, so remove based on how many links you've got).
✔️ Lightning Trap ➡️> Multiple Traps Support ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Elemental Focus Support
At level 24, you should add Skitterbots OR Wrath for additional damage.
At level 28, you may optionally add a Lightning Spire Trap gem setup. Spire traps will only be used as a drop&forget on bosses.
✔️ Lightning Spire Trap ➡️> Trap and Mine Damage Support ➡️> Lightning Penetration Support ➡️> Added Lightning Damage Support
While you continue from lvl 28 and onwards, remember to check the GEM section to get the proper setup going when your levels meet the requirements.
Pierce is an optional gem, decide on your own if you prefer it or rather want more raw damage.
👕 GEAR 👕
🛡️ Armor
💲 Budget Gear before going low-life. (Hybrid/leveling)
Spoiler
Examples of cheap gear to use while leveling and before transitioning/acquiring shavronne's.
Literally any gear with health and resists will carry you through to maps or until you can go Low-Life with a shavs 5-link. Buy an unlinked one via prophecy cards and buy a 5L Jeweller's Touch prophecy and you're strong off the bat with a 5L shav's.
Priority ORDER for stats in your weapon are:
Lightning%/Spell%/Elemental Damage.
Added Lightning Damage to Spells.
Global Crit Multiplier.
+1 All Lightning Spell gems (if u can get it)
Spell Crit chance.
My endgame weapon, just as example towards stat priorities (replace focus craft with Trigger craft described in gem section under spire traps):
💲💲 Budget Gear for CI & low-life. (Early Mapping)
Spoiler
Start out with any decent ES shield (whatever you can afford).
Replace it asap with an ES shield that recovers ES when you block.
200 es+ and recover ES% on block preferably.
Darkness Enthroned got buffed considerably in 3.11 and is a really strong choice now and a super cheap option compared to rare belt.
In fact the belt is so strong that I'm using it in my high-end gear. (They buffed Darkness Enthroned from 50% bonus to the jewels to 75%)
An example is: a decent crystal belt has 80es implicit and 40es explicit = 120 es.
Darkness enthroned, I can throw 2 abyss jewels in with avg 35es on each and some damage/multiply dps stats.. 2x35 = 70 x 1.75(belt bonus) = 122.5 ES (same as crystal belt O.o)
💰💰💰 High-end Gear
Spoiler
Note: You do NOT need a mana reservation shield. It's a luxury craft and expensive usually. Having the sovereignty nodes and a lvl 3 enlighten is enough. You can buy corrupted enlightens relatively cheap from ppl failing to vaal their gem to 4p.
💍 Jewels
There are no mandatory jewels for us, but getting a thread of hope (large circle) is a big boost to the build.
We get a lot of power from relatively cheap jewels because our traps will inherit multiplier from many sources, therefore we can search for many combinations of jewels (elemental multiplier, spell multiplier, lightning multiplier, global multiplier etc)
Multiplier jewels are better than abyss jewels, but using a stygian or darkness enthroned with one or two strong abyss jewels is still very complimentary to our regular jewel sockets with multiplier jewels.
x3 Multi
A Watcher's Eye Watcher's Eye (since 3.9 changes is extremely expensive/rare) with Wrath Wrath mods and % energyshield, so it is only a luxury item that we definitely do not need, but in case you run around with 5-20ex to spend, then you know this exist.
Although I wouldn't recommend, it's still an option: the blue nightmare jewel can help you cap spell block if you don't want to use a rumi's flask. (it adds 20% with glancing). It has to be placed into the socket below Faith and Steel.
Note: Basically, jewels depends entirely on your budget, if you're running a lower budget, just find anything with ES% and +trap damage and/or multiplier damage to spells and/or to lightning skills.
💠 Cluster Jewels
You can in theory by dumping some ES/defense, gain more dps by going multiple clusters. I prefer the defense, so I recommend using only 1 large cluster. Specifically this one (note: widespread is not REQ, it's only an extra luxury if you can afford it. It's not important):
⚗️ Flasks
Make sure you have Bleeding and Freezing immunity on your flasks.
My endgame setup is:
The enkindle orb effect and the suffix craft on the diamond flask makes it nearly as strong as a bottled faith as of 3.15! Note: I'm not running bleed removal because I have a jewel that prevents me getting bleeded. (You vaal orb jewels and can get lucky)
💎 GEM LINKS 💎
Note1: If you are ever confused about any gems, then check out my most recent character -> click my profile -> DissentXTV Note2: Using an awakened version of the gems that exist in such version is optimal, but not at all required, it's luxury.
- Alternatives: ____________________________________________________________ Note 1: Awakened Added Lightning Dmg adds +1 to lightning gems at level 5.
Elemental Focus is stronger than Added Lightning Dmg until you get a decent amount of critical strike chance and/or your diamond flask. For HC you want to add some cold to spells on jewels or gear and avoid Elemental focus so you can freeze monsters for added safety. Note 2: Lightning Penetration is your best gem until you reach a certain threshold of penetration (via tree, potential cluster jewel selections and if you use the trigger wand setup). Best way to measure if you've reached it is through swapping Lightning Pen in POB and compare the damage result. Note 3: If you don't have a pierce lab enchant(helmet), add pierce as a jewel or a temporary talisman - you get a jewel in act 5 with +1 pierce.
💫 Auras
Visual:
Spoiler
Mana Reserve Auras - (4 Link). ____________________________________________________________
Life Reserve Auras - (3 Link). ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________ Note: This is after you've obtained shavs and are ready to go low-life.
✨ Curse
Trigger (In your weapon) or Arcanist Brand (3-Link). ____________________________________________________________
OR
____________________________________________________________ Note1: If you do not have a trigger craft or no room for it on your weapon, alternatively you can use Arcanist Brand linked with Assassins' mark and Wave of conviction. You then place the brand on bosses and it will debuff. Note2: Depending on your crit chance and dexterity, Sniper's mark may in some cases outperform Assassins' mark by a significant margin - you have to POB this with your own character/stats/gear.
❗❗❗Wave of conviction & Arcanist brand is LvL 1 to avoid trouble with reflect maps.
Note: Siphoning trap would replace Sigil if you want more defense (phantasmal is not REQ, regular works too). ____________________________________________________________
Note: Discipline or Wrath aura can wait till late-game, or when your mana reserve can afford it, go with whichever makes you feel comfortable with your damage or ES-pool. As you level, pickup reduced reserve sovereignty skill node.
🌳 SKILLTREE(POB) & ASCENDANCY 🌳
🌳 Skill-Tree
(lvl 75 & 100 tree with NOTES!)
✔️ https://pastebin.com/urRXcbjx
Note: Cluster setup is your LAST points. Check NOTES in the POB.
Always only pickup jewel sockets LATE in the game lvl 86+ - they require good jewels to be worth picking.
Note2: The POB's I use are always my OWN character, so the gear is not fantasy crafts or made-up, you can literally always find my character that the POB stems from, on my account. I've cleared all of the atlas and bosses with just 350-500k dmg per lightning ball and I've cleared it with 2mil dmg per lightning ball.
For where to put your early skill points >> check lvl 1-28 section of the guide or type !quickguide in my twitch chat.
🐮 Ascendancy
READ THE NOTE!!
My recommended order for anyone new to POE or somewhat new is
to play it safe and be more tanky by going in this order:
Pyromaniac ➡️> Perfect Crime ➡️> Born in the Shadows ➡️> Chain Reaction.
Note: You may also go born in the shadows, before perfect crime, to be even
more tanky while leveling
For highest dps and if you don't care being squishy/dying while leveling:
Perfect Crime ➡️> Chain Reaction ➡️> Pyromaniac ➡️> Born in the Shadows.
❗❗❗Note: For hardcore or deathless SC playthroughs, you may want to go for survivability before DPS - it also makes it a breeze doing your playthrough imho, you still got plenty damage. Regen from Pyromaniac and the blind from Born in shadows is a massive survivability boost - check pic below.
My deathless runs I usually go>
Born in the Shadows ➡️> Pyromaniac ➡️> Perfect Crime ➡️> Chain Reaction.
👉 ES raw# (EVERY small number increase is a big increase to your ES pool because of our es% boosting)
👉 Intellect (a great suffix giving 1% ES every 5 int and boosted by Utmost Intellect in our tree)
👉 Block (spell/attack)
👉 5% ES-On-Block-Shield (Huge survival boost when you get it - make sure the shield has at least 250-300+ ES total)
👉 Outside of stats we rely on several layers of defense, including that we blind everything we hit and everything we are near (born in the shadows) and that we regenerate ES/Life from every triggered trap (pyromaniac + zealots oath)
👉 We are by default immune to blind, shock and ignite. We are also stun immune with the Chayula amulet. We can become Freeze immune through 80% avoid freeze on a boots bench craft (we have the last 20% in our skill-tree already).
🔨 CRAFTING 🔨
"
❗❗❗OBS: By FAR the easiest and cheapest way to craft 80% of our equipment is through Dense fossils. Dense fossils are a common drop in low delve depths and thus you can either farm them or buy them at reasonable prices.
📝 Tips & Tricks
Firstly, it's important to use a good source of information about the base items you intend to craft upon. For this I suggest www.craftofexile.com
Choose the base group, choose the base type and that's it!
Now you can see every mod that exists on that base-type, how high it can roll depending on ilvl and what the 6 different influences can add to the item, mod-wise. This is also a huge help in knowing which mods are targetable with harvest crafting (via the tag names) and which ones are not.
Now the tips&tricks:
👉 Always fix quality first on an item, preferably a grey base if 20% is all you need, otherwise perfect fossils if you're going for 30%. (Hillock in fortification/transport can do 28% on an already crafted item)
👉 When using crafts that say "reroll item but keep suffixes" or "keep prefixes", always remember the craft may still ADD extra mods to the affix type it's "keeping" IF there is open affixes of that type on the item.
So to prevent un-intentionally bricking your items, always bench-craft the missing prefix or missing suffix, before you reroll the item with "keeping suffixes or prefixes".
👉 Keep annulment orbs in mind! Depending on their prices, they can speed up your crafting success a LOT. When you're rolling your item from scratch and you hit lets say 1 good mod, then augment a crap mod.. instead of starting over with alterations, you annulment orb because that's a 50/50 and much cheaper than using another 100+ alteration to try hit that one good mod again.
📿 Anointment
Best DPS: Master Sapper (Oils: Teal, Black, Opalescent)
🏺 Dense Crafting
🔨 Shield, Gloves, Boots and Rings can all be crafted on a budget with just Dense fossils. For our belt I suggest Essence of Zeal as it provides trap throwing speed. For our weapon I suggest trade because in 98% of cases you'll be able to buy something at far cheaper investment than trying to craft a similar weapon. If you are in SSF or for other reasons want to craft the weapon then there are multiple options, the easiest being to spam extremely cheap and common Metallic fossils on a ilvl 84 base wand or sceptre. You can also use a crusader base if you want extra chance at hitting Wrath or Zealotry aura boost.
🦠 Alteration Crafting (Shield)
❗Again - Dense fossils is the easier route, while alteration/regal is often a way used at early league-start to get *something* workable.
Titanium Spirit Shield (Shapered) (ilvl 86 is optimal, 78 is lowest I'd go in a league-start scenario)
Second best shield option is:
Harmonic Spirit Shield (Shapered) (min.ilvl 78+)
(These are not crafted but just examples of the basetype)
1) Get the base.
2) Quality item to max (consider hillock or perfect fossils)
3) Transmute and start spamming alterations until you hit T1 ES or ES% block recovery.
4) If you hit either of those & only have 1 mod on the item, then augment orb and hope for a decent ES roll or ES% recovery.
5) If you augment a crappy stat, then go back to spamming alterations until
you again hit.
6) When you get good ES or ES% recovery then regal and hope for a useful stat (+1 spell/lightning gems, ES, resists, high intellect). Remember your bench can craft any missing ES% or ES#.
7) If you hit double or even triple T1 ES rolls, then read below!
👉 Opt.1 Recommended) Make sure your shield has 3 prefixes and GOOD es stats.
In this case you can pay 2ex to lock the prefixes and then use a commonly found harvest recipe called "reforge a rare item with at least one defense modifier". When you use this harvest craft on a shaper shield with locked prefixes you will force harvest to add energy shield restored on block suffix. It's guaranteed.
If your shield only has 2 and not 3 prefixes, be aware that Harvest may add a random 3rd prefix. It will however not reroll your existing other prefixes as they're locked.
👉 Opt.2) If you already hit maybe 1 good ES stat and ES-recover-on-block, perhaps consider to Multicraft. It costs 2ex and will use 1 suffix, allowing you to add 2 extra crafts, which will complete your item at 6 total affixes.
👉 Opt.3) If you're on a tighter budget, use a shield with highest possible ES and worry about ES% block recovery later.
🔨 Weapon
Check the gear section.
I recommend buying weapons as it is generally way cheaper than the investment of trying to craft something of equal power.
🔨 Helmet
Crown of the inward eye is really strong and usually quite cheap as most leagues the awakener goes on farm quite fast and people start selling his helmet in spades.
A runner-up would be an influenced hubris with -9 lightning res. Even double influence with multiplier and -9 light res.
In the meantime you can use any helm with good ES. ilvl 85 Hubris provides the best base for dense fossil crafting good ES stats.
🔨 Gloves
Best base is Shapered ilvl 84 Fingerless Silk and second best is Sorcerer Gloves. I always aim for adv.trap with throwspeed%.
I spam alterations, augment and regal until I'm lucky with having either double gem bonus (+ throwspeed + proj dmg), or throwspeed and strong ES.
If so, I buy a 2nd base and start using the ones with just 1 trap gem stat, while I continue crafting on the 2nd base trying to get perfect rolls.
(Look at the shield section of crafting, for an in-depth example of how to craft a base -- otherwise just spam dense fossils at 1-2c each, easy and quite cheap!)
❤️ SURVIVAL TIPS ❤️
"
🥶 Freeze Immune 🥶
❗❗❗OBS: A lot of players are super annoyed with how many monsters are freezing in this league (specially with the nerf to flask immunities). So I notice many of you pickup dream fragments. Although it's definitely a great ring, especially for leveling, I'd like to show an alternative way of being freeze immune at the cost of a little ES. The craft itself only cost 4c and the skill-tree is something we already have.
The inspiration to this build was from playing Hardcore and managing to take down all the endgame.
❗❗❗Here's some general tips:
👉 The number ONE tip to learn as a trapper is to ALWAYS be throwing traps in the direction you are moving/flame dashing. If you learn this simple gameplay mechanic, you will draw full advantage of your ascendancies and defensive layers ---> Blinding all monsters on and offscreen that you move towards and having your regeneration running even before you start taking any potential damage.
👉 Make sure you use a Vaal Discipline. The vaal effect is an instant save-yourself button! With how our Pyromaniac ascendancy you should ALWAYS be tossing traps.. it's nice having a constant 10% regeneration running.
With Vaal Discipline you can tank a LOT of damage and also run around in darkness in delve.
👉 Make sure you've picked up Zealot's Oath by the time you switch to full ES (but not before!)
👉 Upgrade Solaris pantheons, it's really strong. Use Brine king pantheon, until you have your amulet which makes you stun immune, when you have it pick Solaris.
👉 Prioritize ES on your gear - your damage will already be insane when you've obtained shavs and gone low-life. Heck, even as hybrid before you get shavs your damage is really strong if you follow the guide and use the recommended multiplier stats etc etc.
👉 Do NOT pick jewel sockets until you are lvl 86+ and GET multiplier jewels, cheap double multis cost 1-5c.
👉 Remember to check the budget gear section, there are some cheap ES gear we can use.
👉 Born in Shadows ascendancy gives you a big survival boost because it blinds ALL monsters around you. The sooner you get it, the sooner you'll feel that much more tanky.
👉 You can optionally replace flame dash as your primary mobility with a shield charge + fortify combo instead.
👉 Get a SHIELD with ES on block! You block a lot, so getting ES on block mod, will make you nearly unkillable by monster packs.
"
💬 FAQ 💬
❓ Why pierce lab enchant over lightning trap penetration? 🧐 Pierce enchant means we don't need to invest skill-tree points or use a gem link to obtain pierce. We need pierce to thoroughly clear maps and also to stay safe as screen-clearing via piercing packs matters for that.
❓ Why am I dying/feeling squishy if players completed hardcore on this? 🧐 Check survival tips part of this guide. Make sure you stack ES on all gear, even small increases on gear matters a lot since we get 200% increase from our tree to boost those numbers. Play smart, throw traps in the direction you flame dash/move.
We are not a squishy build.
75% Spell Block ~ 35% value
75% Attack Block ~ 35% value
100% Blinding all enemies around us. (enemies has 50% less hit chance & do 10% less dmg to you)
10k ES (6-8k in medium gear)
1k+ ES regen per sec. (don't stop throwing traps, it's your regen!)
Screen-clearing ability & Off-screen hitting enemies.
Immune to Ignite in the build.
Immune to Shock in the build.
Immune to Blind in the build.
Immune to Stun (chayula amulet)
Immune to Freeze/Chill (depending if dream fragments ring)
Room for THREE magic flasks with other immunities.
What more immunities you want? damage? o.O lol.
❓ How do I play/level before I got a shavronne's armor? 🧐 Check the budget gear section.
Play the build as a life build and change the life-nodes for ES and CI by the time you're ready to start maps. The quickguide in TLDR shows available temporary life nodes in our leveling path.
When you switch from life to ES remember to pickup Zealot's Oath on the skilltree.
❓ How do we manage running out of mana? 🧐 Dealing with mana issues while leveling and/or in general (enduring mana flask while leveling) then for later game there's veiled bench ring craft: non-channeling skills have -7 mana cost and use lvl 1-5+ clarity via arrogance links)
+ Leveling my enlighten to lvl 3 (or buying a broken corrupted lvl 3).
+ Bench crafting -mana cost for non-channeling skills on 1 or both rings should also alleviate any mana issues.
+ Getting my block to max/picking up glancing and the remaining block points in the skill-tree combined with Mystic Bulwark for the 75% mana regen.
+ Leveling inspiration support gem = 34% reduced mana cost of our trap skill.
+ Picking up perfect crime ascendancy = 25% reduced mana cost of our trap skill.
+ Getting the sovereignty skill nodes in the tree.
There are many mana improvements that people don't see until they level to 85+ and invest a little time with the build and/or know the build in advance from having played it before already :)
❓ Why chain reaction over Explosives Expert? 🧐 The base trigger radius for traps is 10 units.
Without the trigger effect from chain reaction, you need about 200% trigger radius in your skill-tree and/or with items for traps to trigger reliably where it'll feel good. (or using a sunblast belt, but that's really not very good imo, giving up a big slot).
You can also use Hair Trigger Jewels, but again, even if we said i'd just remove 1 of my jewels in the end-game, it's a huge dps loss, more than having explosive expert, since a jewel can have double and even triple the amount of multiplier + other stats & ES%.
There are some reddit threads and YT's discussing the differences and there are some trap builds preferring explosives expert and at the end of the day, I'd say you can always try it and see how it feels for you, but generally the way of delivering the most damage is to land majority of your traps so close to the target that they all get triggered and this feels far smoother with Chain Reaction. Without it, you'd definitely need to think about how to get enough trigger area effect that it feels comfortable and effective still.
❓ Why Cluster traps over Multiple traps? 🧐 Unlike traps supported by Multiple Traps, Cluster Trap skills can be thrown to locations of different heights, across gaps, and do not have a minimum throwing range.
"
🧔 ABOUT ME 🧔
Uh.. what to say?
Been playing PoE since 2017.
I stream sometimes at twitch.tv/dissentXTV
Feel free to throw me a follow, it'll help with some motivation!
I feel this build deserves being shared. It's a lot of fun and super strong! If my guide is shit, don't blame the build, just blame the writer ...
Last edited by oestergreen on Sep 6, 2021, 12:43:25 AM
Hi! Nice build, it's very funny, now i'm level 68 e i've started mapping. Which is the best helmet enchantment (LT penetrates 10% ER, LT pierce 3 more targets) in your opinion?
The cycle of life and death continues. We will live, they will die.
Hi! Nice build, it's very funny, now i'm level 68 e i've started mapping. Which is the best helmet enchantment (LT penetrates 10% ER, LT pierce 3 more targets) in your opinion?
In my opinion it's the pierce 3 targets lab enchant.
You get a lot of penetration in boss-fights from dropping your lightning spire traps ontop of your own lightning pen. (I instant-blow up bosses, even shaper/elder;P)
Plus having pierce on your helmet saves you a link in your main setup, which means you can add more damage (controlled destruction, or elemental focus, depending if you want to be able to shatter/shock - personally I mostly run Elemental Focus as 6th)
Your build looks good btw! When you can, I would suggest going Master Sapper for anointing. But feel free to ask and I'll try answer best I can:)
Last edited by oestergreen on Oct 11, 2019, 1:08:23 PM
Hi! Nice build, it's very funny, now i'm level 68 e i've started mapping. Which is the best helmet enchantment (LT penetrates 10% ER, LT pierce 3 more targets) in your opinion?
In my opinion it's the pierce 3 targets lab enchant.
You get a lot of penetration in boss-fights from dropping your lightning spire traps ontop of your own lightning pen. (I instant-blow up bosses, even shaper/elder;P)
Plus having pierce on your helmet saves you a link in your main setup, which means you can add more damage (controlled destruction, or elemental focus, depending if you want to be able to shatter/shock - personally I mostly run Elemental Focus as 6th)
Your build looks good btw! When you can, I would suggest going Master Sapper for anointing. But feel free to ask and I'll try answer best I can:)
Thanks for your answer! I'll change my helmet enchant in the future then. Now I'm going to anoint my amulet. My only problem here is i can't run Skitterbots cause i need level 4 enlighten to run them smoothly.
BTW i did my first blighted map with this build, 0 problems
The cycle of life and death continues. We will live, they will die.
Thanks for your answer! I'll change my helmet enchant in the future then. Now I'm going to anoint my amulet. My only problem here is i can't run Skitterbots cause i need level 4 enlighten to run them smoothly.
BTW i did my first blighted map with this build, 0 problems
Nice to hear! Glad you liking the build :)
You may be able to run skitters while you work on a lvl-4 enlighten, but it'll cost 2 points. In your tree right under Chaos Innoculation, there's a 4% mana reserve reduction, it may be just enough (I haven't checked in POB, so can't say)
Of course you'd undo the points when you get a lvl 4 enlighten, or when you craft either a helmet or shield with mana reduction. (a shaper Shield can have up to 15%) A regular helm can have 5% with delve fossil crafting (bound fossil for auras).
