[3.10] "Occultist would like to know your location" - Double DoT Toxic Rain trapper [Trickster]

"AND I NEED TO CURSE FIRST TO HAVE A CHANCE TO TRIGGER AN EXPLOSION?!"


You've read it correctly. Toxic Rain trapper. With... double DoT? Indeed.

I can safely say that this is the most interesting build I have self-crafted, and "it just works".

The build focuses on Toxic Rain being ran in a trap setup. Why traps and not mines, or even regular bow, you ask?

1. No mana reservation allows us to use not one, not two, but FIVE auras
2. No need to spam your Detonate Mines key; traps do it on their own
3. Insane AoE with a single click; 15 pods per click, up to 110 pods within 2 seconds (or 21 pods / 154 pods max. with Dying Sun)
4. Traps scale really well with DoT skills, and they are conveniently located at the Shadow starting point
5. No need to scale attack speed to make regular bow setup work; one stat less to worry about

Now onto the fun part: 'SPLOSIONS.

This is why I call it the "Occultist would like to know your location" build. We utilize one of the most underused, yet incredibly satisfying body armours from the last league: Sporeguard.

3.10 update: You can now use Cluster Jewels, namely Unspeakable Gifts notable, for explosions if you want to skip Sporeguard. OR run double explosions for even more fun!



It guarantees pack explosions without the need to have the enemy cursed. It works especially well with a trapper since we stutter-step, so anything around us will explode when we stop moving, as well as packs that are far away due to the Contaminate skill. It is also our primary source of stacking damage for Plague Bearer, as explosions are hits and they deal insane amounts of damage.

Why Trickster and not Saboteur:
- Ghost Dance
- Extreme survivability (increased recovery of life and ES, Life/ES on kill)
- MORE damage over time
- and even more damage over time

Trickster works really well here since we are utilizing Mind over Matter and Eldritch Battery.

This build is capable of running auras reserving a total of 170% mana. How is it possible? The Devouring Diadem.



That's where our EB comes from, and we've got plenty ES to both take damage for us, and permanently sustain mana-hungry traps. The helmet also will heal us every 5 seconds for each corpse, up to 4k Life and 4k ES. This is great for mapping, delving, and end-game boss fights in case you run out of flasks (that's where Desecrate comes in handy). We run a self-cast Desecrate when we need to make sure we survive a heavy hit, and a Desecrate on hit in our gloves.

Auras used:
- Skitterbots: free shock, chill and trap damage buff
- Malevolence: more DoT
- Discipline: further boost to our defenses
- Flesh and Stone: permanent blind and damage reduction from projectiles
- Herald of Agony...?

Yes. Herald of Agony.

We are double-dipping our Damage over Time. With traps and mines, it is especially easy to get poison on hit thanks to Coated Shrapnel*. And, since we are dealing primarily chaos damage, they stack really well together. And since we apply poisons, we are capable of making great use of Plague Bearer - works great against highly resistant rares, final boss fights and, of course, metamorphs.

3.10 update: Coated Shrapnel no longer works. Only explosions will allow your Plague Bearer to stack. Use chaos multi/trap damage jewels instead.

And since we are running HoA, this build gets a nice damage boost from Circle of Nostalgia.



Note: they were really cheap during 3.9


PROS:
- Great clear
- Good damage
- Insane burst damage against metamorphs; 154 spore pods (11 mil Shaper DPS excluding Plague Bearer and wither stacks)
- Great survivability (high EHP, MoM, EB, CWDT Immortal Call + Enfeeble)
- Ability to heal without flasks
- Multiple sources of chaos damage over time
- Multiple defensive layers
- Great sustain due to fast ES recovery
- Relatively inexpensive; does not require two 6-links
- Interesting mechanics
- Different
- Sirus-viable

CONS:
- Requires mandatory uniques to work effectively
- Expensive to min-max
- Requires a typical DoT bow in a 6link setup (at least +1 gems, +2 bow gems and 40% chaos multi)
- Clunky in parties (more on that in the spoiler below)




Current gear and gem links (upd. 30.01.2020):


Pantheons:


Current PoB:


Video showcase:

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The character - "MindOverBatter" - is able to be viewed through my profile as well.

Haven't played a trapper in a long time. Thoughts on the leveling process? Not sure how Toxic Rain traps will do as a leveling skill.

I like the concept very much, waiting for the video with great interest =)

Nice concept!

How is playing a trapper without clever construction and is the malevolence helm enchant mandatory?

Thank you very much

Yep i really want to try this bu i'll wait a little video. Is it mandatory to have the body 6L because it seems the only 6L is the bow.

I just droped a circle with +97% crawler dmg and 49% chaos dmg i want to try it ^^ !

"

ConsPark wrote:

Haven't played a trapper in a long time. Thoughts on the leveling process? Not sure how Toxic Rain traps will do as a leveling skill.

Levelling was fine. At first I had no idea how to proceed, so I messed around with random chaos abilities incl. Soulrend until I refined my trap build. It's a chaos DoT ability after all, and all of them are perfectly suited for storyline where there is barely any chaos res.

"

uberamazing wrote:

Nice concept!

How is playing a trapper without clever construction and is the malevolence helm enchant mandatory?

Thank you very much

It is not. Any %reduced mana reservation on auras that we use will work here, e.g. Discipline or Skitterbots. So there's a large pool of enchantments you can hit; with the current setup, you'll still end up at 100% mana reservation.

Of course you could drop one of the auras if you find it unnecessary and go for Toxic Rain fires +1 arrow.

As for Clever Construction, I never had any issues with my traps getting destroyed before they pop. The large increase of trigger area from passives allows them to get off before any random hits.

"

Uriacesjaces wrote:

Yep i really want to try this bu i'll wait a little video. Is it mandatory to have the body 6L because it seems the only 6L is the bow.

I just droped a circle with +97% crawler dmg and 49% chaos dmg i want to try it ^^ !

As I noted in the guide, it is not necessary to have 2 6 links. I just happened to 6 link mine when I was messing with my other character.

Just remember your Crawler isn't going to be of much use; it's all about the poison damage buff, poison on hit chance, and the benefits of Circle of Nostalgia's chaos damage increase.

I hope it's good because i spend a bit of money on it xD

i'll finish it this afternoon, buyin lvl 21 gems, i already have a lvl 2 awakened vicous projectile, i'll see how it feels .

"

Uriacesjaces wrote:

I hope it's good because i spend a bit of money on it xD

i'll finish it this afternoon, buyin lvl 21 gems, i already have a lvl 2 awakened vicous projectile, i'll see how it feels .

Don't expect lacerate amounts of damage. This is a very specific playstyle and does not by any means provide insane damage. But, it is safe to play and has been carrying me through anything I threw at it so far.

No, I have not attempted Sirus yet. My Atlas is bugged to hell and it won't spawn any conquerors.

I have not spent a dime on my build apart from the 21/20 TR (I just couldn't corrupt one myself...); everything has been self-found or self-crafted.

Showcase video rendering right now.

Contents:
Rare T15 siege incl. instant Metamorph meltdown
Depth 200 Delve run (Abyssal Chamber)

Since I fell in love with this build, I will be likely to make further showcases, e.g. with Uber Elder or all conquerors.

Main post will be edited once it's uploaded onto my Youtube channel.

EDIT: First vid available.