Vaal Lightning Trap

i think this is somewhat failed concept.

major cons:

- projectiles (that leave shocking ground) do not pierce by default. if trap explodes in a large pack the shocking ground is very small because of that
- soul cost is very high
- arc + spell totem + ele prolif (+Q added lightning) do a job of shocking WAY better and more reliable.

the advertised 'pro' of this skill is that vs lone bosses it the only way of getting shock stack. true. but how often one meets a LONE boss? there are some - true. but is 4 seconds (or 8 seconds with full Inc Duration investment) non-rechargable (3 times) trap really worth it?

better take vaal flameblast + echo and simply kill that boss instead of fiddling with this trap. also vaal storm call is more than useful if one needs lightning based attack

i sorta needed fork or chain to use this correctly due to the above commenter's "no piercing" note. continued the trails and boosted damage where applicable.

So it's basically a regular Lightning Trap with a free Added Lightning support that also creates 4 seconds of shocking ground.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to who exactly should be using this skill.

If you're a lightning build, there are more reliable ways to stack shock.
If you're not a lightning build, it's an easy way to get shock on a big group (with chain and/or fork) but the soul requirement is too high to make it much of a source of damage.

I, for one, can't complain about this gem, since I feel its shocking ground feature is what helped me kill Ch'aska, Bringer of Bullshit Deaths. I was raining traps on her pointy thrice-cursed head like they were going out of style in order to cash in on the shocking ground while it was active, and I was rather surprised how quickly she died. Took two doses of Vaal Lightning Trap plus goodness knows how many Lightning/Fire/Bear traps, but it got the job done a lot faster than I was expecting.

Full disclosure: this was in Normal. However, since she's grossly overtuned even in Normal, I still felt the kill (with Vaal Lightning Trap and every other trap I had) to be a nice bit of anecdotal support for this gem working as intended.

I do use it on other boss types as well (e.g., Tyrannursus Maximus, rogue fucking exiles and particularly tough rares), to speed up the process of trapping them to death. I can't really complain about this gem at all, although I do wonder how well it will age going through the difficulty levels.



+1 to Lightning Gems probably gives it added sex appeal, I think.

TL;DR: Seems to be working as advertised, at a reasonable soul cost, in Normal. Not yet evaluated in Cruel or Merciless.

EDITED TO ADD:
Vaal Lightning Trap, like most Vaal gems, doesn't age well through the difficulty levels. The shocking ground is nice and all, and seems to speed up kills a little bit, but having something as fiddly as a "prep trap" before one goes to one's usual Fire/Lightning/Bear trap mix makes it a bit more difficult to use effectively in higher difficulty levels, where the packs are larger and coming at you faster and more aggressively. The added HP and elemental resistances further minimize the gem's effectiveness.

I suppose my problem with this gem is the same problem I have with many Vaal gems: they're okay to good in Normal, meh to sorta good in Cruel, and worthless to meh in Merciless. I don't know that the problem is the soul cost so much as the poor damage scaling with increasing difficulty levels. Gems with a flat effect -- usually non-damaging, like Vaal Clarity -- scale better with increasing difficulty because they're not usually trying to overcome dramatically increased monster defenses, resistances and life pools. The lack of good damage scaling coupled with the soul cost is what kills Vaal gems in later difficulty levels, in my opinion.

In this particular case, the shocking ground is still useful, but needs Increased Duration to be properly exploited while in effect. The shocking ground just seems to dissipate way too quickly when unsupported.

For what this gem brings to the table -- and this criticism applies to many other Vaal gems -- the combined effect of increasing soul count and comparatively flat damage scaling makes them poor alternatives to already existing normal skill gems. While the gem is accumulating souls, it's effectively a dead spot in your control strip... so you either wait for the beating heart to show up and make do with that dead spot in the meantime, or you cycle through other gems in that control spot while waiting for the gem to become usable. Then, once the gem is usable, one falls prey to the "too good to use" effect, where one's trying to save that once-in-a-blue-moon charge for just the right situation... only to find either the situation has passed, or to have it not quite work as you'd hoped, whether through a failure of timing, an obscure mechanic, or just plain bad luck.

I understand the idea was not to have Vaal gems eclipse their normal counterparts, but I feel there is plenty of room for improvement before they even come close to that level.

I've been trying to use this skill with multiple traps, which would make it useful since it could possibly cover a very large area with shocking ground.

The problem is that it seems to consume all 3 charges of the trap with one cast, making multiple traps pretty much useless with the skill.

Is this a bug or intended behaviour? Because it seems like bug to me as this is not how multiple traps works with every other trap skill.

I think the skill is kind of usefull but if you want to use it on a single boss it can be pretty easy for him to run out of the shock ground. Maybe it would be nice if the enemie that activated the trap would have a shocking ground under him that follows him. I know you cant shock him directly because ele prof would be OP then.
Or make more shocking grounds in the centre of the explosion, like as big as the burning ground from the Fire Trap with 20-40% increase AOE.

if i link multiple trap to this, does it still consume 16/48 or does it use all 48 charges?

Hi

2 questions:

1.The shocking ground effect works with celestial punishment?

2. Elemental proliferation only works if the initial bolts of lightning hit a target?, not the shocking ground effect?

cheers

I have been experimenting with the differences between Fire Trap and Lightning Trap and found that Increased Area of Effect doesn't change the size of the shocking ground trails.

I know the difference between "area" and "trail" is likely intended, but I feel allowing it to interact with AoE modifiers would be all that's necessary to bring it within acceptable reliability.

As others have mentioned, the trails are currently too small/thin to be reliable. The duration is already quite low, letting us use the shock reliably would be great.

EDIT:

I've also tried testing Fork and Chain to increase the area of shocking ground. Neither appear to affect shocking ground trails; I'm not sure about Fork, but I can definitely confirm Chain doesn't extend trails due to the more erratic trajectory changes.

This suggests the shocking ground is not left by the trails, but is actually a predetermined pattern?

Can anyone confirm if this as as bug or intended functionality?