Lightning Trap

the lightning trap gem looks weird next to other gems.

- not the same size as other gems
- darker color

My Feedback regarding Lightning Trap and how it could be more effective:

Currently, I am a level 62 Shadow. My main linked Skill Gems are Lightning Trap + Chain + Added Lightning Damage + Lightning Penetration + Faster Projectiles (sometimes I will change my main Lightning Gem depending on what I am in mood to use)

Without the Chain Support Gem, I am dealing 109-2063 Lightning Damage per projectile. With the Chain Support Gem, I am dealing 56-1069 Lightning Damage per projectile. Overall, Lightning Trap has been a really fun Skill Gem to use.

There are, however, 2 problems with Lightning Trap that is affecting its effectiveness:

1. The first enemy who triggers Lightning Trap does not receive more 'central' Light Damage than any other enemy (like the main enemy should). Therefore, since Lightning Trap is triggered from a 'central' point when an enemy hits it, the enemy that triggered the trap should take more Lightning Damage than any other enemy.

What I would like to see is an animation of a greater ball of lightning at the 'central' point when an enemy triggers it, and THEN for the lighting balls to spread outwardly.

As of now, it makes no sense because what central source are the lightning balls that spread outwardly from the initial blast coming from IF there is no 'central' greater ball of lightning to spread out from?

I think if a greater ball of lightning were added that occurs at the 'central' point when the first enemy triggers it, for example a Boss, dealing greater damage to that enemy only, Lightning Trap may/will be considered as a viable Skill Gem to use throughout the game.

2. From what I've seen, when Lightning Trap is supported by the Chain Support Gem, only 2 Projectiles that spread outwardly Chain on enemies, and that's a big problem damage-wise. Meanwhile, the other balls of lightning don't even take the Chain Support Gem into consideration!

Technically, each projectile from Lightning Trap supported by the Chain Support Gem should all Chain from one enemy to the next enemy (within big packs of enemies), and they don't do that.

I have tested this many times in huge packs of enemies, and what you see is only some projectiles chaining, whereas the other 80% of projectiles don't Chain.

Conclusively, Lightning Trap has the potential to be a really effective Skill Gem throughout the game, yet the Skill Gem really needs improvement (as suggested).

P.S. Oh, and when are Traps/Mines going to get their own unique Keystone Skill Tree node?

What doesn't make sense to me is there are nodes specifically for Traps and Mines as if hinting around Trappers can be end-game worthy if you build your Skill Tree around those nodes (like in other builds), yet there is no Keystone Trap/Mine node.

I think it's time Traps/Mines get a Keystone Skill Tree node.



Thank you for looking into this.
HeavyMetalGear

I think what the above poster really means are keystones as traps and mines already have a bunch of notables in the passive tree.

This skill doesn't shotgun,doesn't pierce,and has 4% crit chance.Its only use was to triple shock stack targets but now that's out of the game so can you please fix or delete this skill also?

"

kompaniet wrote:

I think what the above poster really means are keystones as traps and mines already have a bunch of notables in the passive tree.

I made the correction of saying 'Keystone.' Thank you.

"

Maybe wrote:

This skill doesn't shotgun,doesn't pierce,and has 4% crit chance.Its only use was to triple shock stack targets but now that's out of the game so can you please fix or delete this skill also?

I agree. That is to say, only if the Lightning Trap gem continues to remain in its current poor state, because as of now, Lightning Trap is an extremely useless gem that just barely deals any damage to end-game enemies and end-game bosses.

Lightning trap is a nice gem but very POOR dmg. I love to play lightning trap + multitrap + lightning pene + add light but it's still to low for high lvl map and impossible to use this skill to kill any bosses.

Please fix this skill, there's no point in making a constructive post since this skill is a castastrophy.

the idea behind it is awesome but the mechanics ....

I hope we'll see changes to this skill with the releasee of act 4 !

Against everyone's advice i went for a lighting trap witch and i'm very disappointed
It seems arc is much better to stack shocks and it does a hell of alot more damage

The forum is a mess there are no lightning trap builds that are updated and it feels like a maze of worthless duplicate threads

Also the lag that multiple lightning traps produce with the already cluttered screen is enough to not want to use it even if it can be of use

Back to the drawingboard

lightning trap has a shorter cooldown which is 2 seconds but arc+trap is more reliable because you dont need very big groups to get the full damage potential.

Comparison:

LvL 20 Arc + LvL 20 Trap(34% more damage):
Pros:
-very reliable damage/shock in all situations(means the full damage potential is used)
-ok crit base (5%)
-good base damage (38–726)
-low mana cast (26)

Cons:
-high cooldown (4sec)
-bad damage effectiveness (50%)

total damage potential(chains 5 times): (38+726)/2 *5 *1.34 = 2559 avg dmg per trap


LvL 20 Lightning Trap + LvL 20 Chain(38% increased Damage, 50% less Damage):
Pros:
-low cooldown (2sec)
-"ok" damage effectiveness (90% which is higher than arc)
-good base damage (27–514 per projectile)

Cons:
-unreliable damage/shock vs smaller monster groups(means the full damage potential is not used)
-bad crit base (4%)
-high mana cost (38)

total damage potential(chains 2 times and 9 projecitles): (27+514)/2 *2*9 *0.5 = 2435 avg dmg per trap
(I did not calculate 38% increased Damage from Chain in here)

Actually a hard decision and very build dependent.

I ended up using Lightning Trap cause of my build and my unqiue shield. The advantage spammability(2sec cd) is huge for my build.
After all it's not a bad skill :)
Another thing I noticed is the skill tree has some pierce chance nodes, which could be really cool with a pierce support gem instead of chain. I see lots of Damage here :D

The items: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1040957

The passive tree:

EDIT: Current Build = http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1278679

I hope you like this post.