please judge and improve my tree: 3ele traps, crit, hc

Hi,

I have build a passive skill tree for my current and first serious character. Has to become viable for HC with the upcoming patch and league.


This is made up by merging these two builds:

[1.3.1] Tri-Element Equilibrium Trapper (budget atziri's killer)
[1.3.0] Jaws of Agony Crit Trapper - Edited build for next HC League

Item choices will be what I can get, most likely a mix of those two setups.
Another pretty similar and outdated build:
Elemental-Equilibrium-Trapper

I wonder and hope that some experienced players can guide me on what I should focus first in the passive skill tree and items affixes, as well as if there're some bad mistakes I made.

The idea is to use lightning trap for shock as dmg amplifier, cold snap (as trap) for defensive freeze and igniting fire trap for the aoe kill and kite damage.
I was thinking about a forked and chaining lightning trap to maximize shock chance. If Arc is a better choice, please elaborate (or link) why.

Some other builds I have found are outdated and I also wondered if this is ready for the upcoming patch and league to start new?

Having the Awakening in mind, I wanted to ask independently if there's a chance of a physical Spectral Throw Trap Build with Bloodlust, supported by a Puncture Trap?

Yeah, I'm just heavily into traps right now.

First things first, you have VERY little life. As a bare minimum for hardcore in patch 1.3.1 you want 140% life in the tree. This build has 108%. It is really difficult to get enough life nodes to reach 140% through only the ranger/shadow area of the tree, so I would strongly recommend going for the entire scion life wheel.

Secondly your damage nodes seem to be all over the place. As an EE trapper you're using all 3 elements on your traps, so picking up the fire only, or cold only damage nodes is really not worth it at all. Your main foci should be trap damage, elemental damage (nodes that affect all 3 elements), and crit/crit multiplier. Unfortunately EE is in a really awkward place with nothing else really useful in the immediate area. The "Ash, Frost, and Storm" notable is really bad, It's not even worth the 4 points unless you're nearing the end of your build and you have nowhere else to go.

Personally I really dislike running acrobatics and eldritch battery since your energy shield gets cut in half before it gets converted to mana and EB is several points out of the way, however I do know that traps are very mana intensive so you may still feel it's necessary.

I also don't think you will get much effect out of ondar's guile, since you have no evasion in the tree anyway, so doubling it doesn't really help.

The pierce nodes are not even worth 3 points. If you want to shock things in an aoe with your lightning trap, put elemental proliferation on it rather than investing in pierce because the pierce nodes don't even affect the majority of your damage.

I would personally use a build more similar to this

This version of the build has 153% life and more efficient pathing through the tree, though it is by no means min/maxed. I'm sure there are still some things to tidy up. I removed ondar's guile and replaced it with the entire scion life wheel. I also took out the single element nodes. This version is only 99 points, so it should be around level 75-78. Once you reach that point you really have to be playing the build to know what you need. It's right next to a bunch of crit nodes, a few trap nodes and a bunch of mana/ mana regeneration nodes. Perhaps you will feel like you need to run arctic armour and get some more life, or maybe you'll just want more damage.

As for gear, trappers really don't need much on their gear. All you need is a lot of life and resistances. I would probably focus mostly on energy shield base types since you have little to no evasion and armour scaling and energy shield will benefit your mana pool. You can get crit/crit multiplier on your amulet and dagger as well.

Good luck!

Thanks man, really appreciated.

That life wheel is a great idea and the insight on "Ash, Frost, and Storm" are a point of view I've been asking for. So that's good to know! I will search for better nodes with similar costs for everything, like.. I think I should prefer "Deep Thoughts" over "Dreamer", right?

So is it considered more save to play in hc without Eldritch Battery and Acrobatics?
Because, I can imagine with evade and dodge to be one-shotted someday, just because they don't do as they should in the wrong moment.
What are my alternatives on a trapper?

Thanks again and regards.

"

Hurix wrote:

. I think I should prefer "Deep Thoughts" over "Dreamer", right?

Yes, definitely. I didn't even catch that, good eye. Deep thoughts gives you just as much mana and mana regen for only two points rather than three.

"

Hurix wrote:

So is it considered more save to play in hc without Eldritch Battery and Acrobatics?

It's not that it's safer without acrobatics, in fact it's probably a lot safer to use acrobatics in conjunction with EB because you can also get a cloak of defiance for the mind over matter damage mitigation making it even better. The only reason I said I don't like EB and MoM together is the fact that you get half the mana from EB that you would otherwise get, it's just a minor loss of efficiency.

"

Hurix wrote:

What are my alternatives on a trapper?

If you choose not to use EB, I would still probably keep acrobatics. So not going EB would save you about 4 points in the skill tree which isn't that much, but if you get the block nodes right above acrobatics and maybe shift around another few points and pick up the life wheel right above conduit you will become more tanky. Acrobatics is really strong when combined with a high amount of block since you almost never take damage. You can't really get that much block for only a couple extra points, but every little bit helps. The question is whether running EB gives you enough mana regeneration to run a high level arctic armor. If you can afford a high level arctic armor in addition to acrobatics you will be significantly tankier, but if you don't have the mana regen for arctic armor it's probably more worth it to invest in block and life.

Have you a high level clarity included?

*edit
Isn't Ondals Guile good if I use only evasion based items?

And, you said something about Dagger, I guess it's because they have implicit crit. Would a mace be another good option since it's sporting a lot of elem/spell dmg? Also, wands? Whats good in which cases and which item yields specific passive tree nodes as mandatory?

I think I will use a spirit shield with some res, crit, life. Runs good atm.

Thanks again. You'r a great help.

Aaand I have another question that hopefully someone with beta access can try. Does the new fire nova mine affect almost all linked trap/spells or just specific ones? Talking about the "Supported Spells repeat an additional 3 times". I would for example try to combine with firetrap so it explodes 3 times?

Clarity is a must on any build running arctic armor or mind over matter. You may choose not to run it depending on what other auras you're running, but I would strongly recommend it.