[2.0] The Degenerate: Cheap as chips hybrid life/es DoT Trapper, Atziri viable

Videos
Spoiler
Dry Peninsula run with twinned boss (boss at 4:01) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LovkhRlFppQ&feature=youtu.be

atziri vaal bosses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzTtKVKBoHQ

trio https://youtu.be/8bAGT10Ir34

I forgot to turn on the recording software for the actual atziri fight but safe to say she's easier than the first two bosses. I died once to trio because I couldn't tell if A'alai was dead or not (she was, of course) and it becomes pretty much impossible to win the fight if she is the last boss standing.

Sorry about the awful quality, turns out it was my GPU that was fried (of course, the most expensive component) so I'm on an old crappy one for now.


Well, I was going to wait until I picked up another level so I could test Atziri with a bit more evasion, but last night I spilled a glass of whisky on my computer case and fried either my motherboard or PSU, so since I've got some free time I might share what i've been working on for the past three weeks now.

TL;DR
Spoiler
This build uses Chin Sol + the Point Blank passive with Puncture traps supported by GMP and multiple traps, alongside Poison Arrow traps for added AoE/crowd control. It stacks as many Traps, Damage over Time and Projectile Damage bonuses as possible to boost both attacks' damage. Defence is evasion based hybrid life + ES, with Mind over Matter, chaos golem and Arctic Armour providing damage reduction. Furthermore, the build is highly mobile - you should very rarely get hit by melee attacks. It uses Ondar's Guile to help evade projectile damage.


I got interested in this build in a very roundabout way, initially I was trying to come up with something interesting to do with Sire of Shards and traps, but while theorycrafting became intrigued with the possibilities for stacking damage with traps, the new trap/mine damage gem, and the new damage over time/bleed nodes. Specifically, I read a lot about using puncture traps + point blank + Chin Sol to get very high bleed damage on single targets, so I wondered if it would be possible to turn that mechanic in to a main use skill (meaning give it some AoE ability while retaining enough dps) I'm new to trap builds, but early on it became apparent to me that the limit of 3 traps at time with the cooldown would be a very limiting factor, so it would be necessary to have either some damage+aoe support from heralds/auras or a second type of attack. So what skill has the best damage scaling overlap with trapped puncture? I initially tried burn prolif with HoA as burning damage would benefit from DoT nodes, but it was underwhelming, while also still clear speed restrictive due to the 3 trap limit. Maybe it would have been good in 1.3. Poison Arrow has plenty of overlap with bleed damage modifiers, and helps out with crowd control where puncture traps may fall a bit short. It also does not require multitrap or other damage reducing support.

As a further challenge I wanted to make this build as cheap as possible so as to be accessible to early game players. There are enough builds at there costing 25 ex+ that can melt screens of mobs, but I love the idea of finding a build that can take down Atziri for a total cost of less than an exalt. I am currently level 86, farming 75-77 maps and running Atziri with 4600 combined life+ES and 350 unreserved mana.

Pros:

Extremely cheap (cheapest variant costs around 30c in total)
Takes down rare/unique mobs really fast
Can start using the build early on (from around level 32-37)
High mobility/movement speed (up to +124% move speed with quicksilver flask of adrenaline)
Damage scales well in parties due to us using no damage auras solo.
Can run any map mods, including bloodmagic, no regen, reflect, enfeeble, temp chains etc.

Cons:

Reliant on good positioning/kiting for survivability
Mapping clear speed not super fast, crowd control abilities somewhat lacking
Enemies with movement skills (flicker striker, lightning warp, etc) can be a pain
Somewhat tough to cap resists with the amount of uniques


Passives tree at 86:


Bandits are Oak, Eramir, Eramir.

The build is 'finished' at level 85. Once I hit 87 I will spec out of the trap/mine damage node in the clever construction/high explosives wheel and grab the Reflexes evasion node, adding 42% increased and +50 flat eva. After that most likely attempt to pick up more damage or life nodes.

For the one jewel slot, the ideal jewel would be trap damage + damage over time + projectile damage + life. When I test a drillneck later I will replace this with Poacher's Aim (+15% chance to pierce and +10% projectile damage)

Gems:
Spoiler

I recommend NOT getting quality on puncture as it increases the time it takes for your traps to detonate as well as the cooldown. Quality on Poison Arrow is the first priority as we don't have increased AoE support. This is the extreme budget variant and will allow you to farm Voll and up to low 70s maps.

4L: Deerstalker: Puncture + Multiple Traps + GMP + PPAD (swap out Multitrap and/or GMP for Trap and Mine Damage and/or Slower Projectiles for facing bosses)
4L: Poison Arrow + Trap + Trap and Mine Damage + Slower Projectiles
4L: Blink arrow + Chaos Golem + Faster Attacks + Culling Strike
4L: Frenzy + GMP + curse on hit + vulnerability/Temporal Chains.
3L: CWDT + Frostwall + Enfeeble/Temp Chains

You will need at least your bow or body armour to be 5s, so you can run both Discipline and Arctic Armour. If both are 5s or one is 6s, you can run a low level clarity for some mana regen support.

For the variant I am running now, (5L Chin Sol and +1 gems Deerstalker) PA goes in the boots with Empower, slower projectiles, and trap and mine damage. Puncture goes in the bow with the same games and the trap support gem added. The puncture trap damage is not materially improved, but the poison arrow support is massively better, gaining 2 levels from a level 1 empower and the boots. Still, Atziri is defeated with puncture traps, so it she should be doable with the budget build. It will take longer to clear the mobs between boss rooms though.

Gear:
Spoiler

Weapon - Chin Sol: This build is reliant on the 100% more damage modifier on Chin Sol. It also has knockback at close range, which is a fine defensive mechanism. Should not cost more than 1-2c.

Body Armour - Cloak of Defiance: Necessary for Mind over Matter, to give use 30% damage mitigation with a reasonable mana pool. Should be attainable for around 5c

Boots - Deerstalker: Amazing boots for any trap build. Trap support makes it an effective 5L. A 4L should be around 1-2c

Belt - Sunblast: Nice boost to trap damage and the reduced duration + detonation of traps makes trap throwing accuracy much less important. You may want to try for a nice corrupt but the stun recovery implicit is quite handy too. Can be gotten for <1c

Quiver - Rare penetrating arrow quiver with resists, life, added damage, maybe a bit of crit chance. Obviously drillneck would be a dream but that's rather out of our budget.

Gloves and Helm - Rares with Resists, Life, and high Evasion/Energy Shield. Mana and/or Intelligence is a bonus.

Rings- Rares. Again, resists and life are first priorities here, accuracy rating and mana regeneration are very nice to have as well. You will have to get some Intelligence here or on your other rates in order to run high level discipline


My current gear:
Spoiler



Everything I have equipped I bought for 5c or less, except for the Empower gem which cost 10 and the 20/23 PA which cost 18. (neither are necessary for the budget variant) I made the Boots myself by buying 4L deerstalkers, chroming and vaaling. It took me 8 tries to get +1 gems, for a total cost of around 20c. It is effectively the same as a +2 5L bow. The most expensive item here is the 5L 6s Chin Sol, which cost around 1 ex worth of currency to make from a 4L chin sol, which I bought for 4c.

Flasks: (swap granite and quicksilver for a ruby and a topaz for atziri)



I use hybrid flasks instead of life because with the MoM from CoD it's necessary to refill the mana pool quickly. I rolled stun recovery on my quicksilver because getting stunlocked is one of the most frequent causes of death. You may choose to roll move speed though, I find 94% to be enough.


Damage scaling with Puncture and Poison Arrow
Spoiler

The modifiers that will increased both the bleed damage of puncture and the poison arrow cloud:
Damage over Time
Projectile Damage
Trap Damage

The modifiers that will increased puncture bleed damage but not poison arrow cloud:
Increased Damage/Physical Damage
Increased Damage with Bows

The modifiers that will increase poison arrow cloud damage but not puncture bleed:
+Gem Level
Increased Chaos Damage
Increased Area Damage

Playstyle:
Spoiler

This is not a faceroll build. It requires attention to positioning and placement of traps. The main defensive strategy of this build is to get hit as little as possible. With around 4500 combined ES/life and no armor you will not be particularly tanky. Fortunately, high mobility plus the ability to attack from distance, around corners, and while kiting means you will very rarely be face to face with any danger. It is very important not to let yourself get surrounded - keep the mobs all on one side of you and have an escape route in case you get overwhelmed.

There is a big difference in puncture's bleed in that its degen does 5x the amount of damage when the enemy is moving as opposed to standing still. For melee mobs, who will chase you, this is great as you can kite them while they die in a hurry. This is the reason we take Ondar's Guile, since ranged attackers don't drop as quickly and are therefore more dangerous. It's more efficient to take out ranged and caster mobs with poison arrow traps.

It would be preferable to use Split Arrow + Chance to Flee in place of Frenzy + GMP, but Chance to Flee does not work on rare or unique mobs. If I had a 5L chest, I would add Chance to Flee as the 5th gem. This would make ranged white/blue mobs easier to take down.

The big danger is melee mobs who use movement skills, like devourers, certain warbands enemies, Oak, flicker spiders, etc. There are a couple ways to deal with these. You can kite them, but throwing traps in front of you instead of behind so when they flicker or leap to your location they land right on the trap and go bang. You can also use bear trap to lock them in place, although it takes some practise to get good with them. Also use blink arrow and your chaos golem to draw their aggro, and then bomb them with PA/Puncture traps simultaneously.

About multitrap support: Multiple traps with GMP and pierce is great for applying bleed degen to large packs of mobs in open/outdoor areas. However, it can't be thrown across gaps, over walls, or through cell doors, whereas a single trap can. In tile sets with a lot of tight passages and/or gaps and fences, it is advised to swap Multiple Traps for Trap and Mine damage.

Also, CWDT + Frost Wall can be a great lifesaver at times, but you can also find yourself restricting your own movement in tight spaces. I take it off when fighting Atziri, for example.

Curses: Vulnerability is the best curse for adding damage, as it increased both physical damage taken, and also damage over time (both chaos and phys) Enfeeble is the best defensive curse, but does not add any dps. Temporal chains is very nice for this build as well, as it provides some defense, while also prolonging chaos and physical degen, (which still apply damage at the same rate) increasing overall damage.


I will add some videos of an Atziri run and some mapping to demonstrate how to play once I get my machine back up in running. If anyone has any criticisms, constructive or not, I'd be happy to hear them. I'd love some ideas on how to improve the build!
for all mirror items check The Forbidden Trove:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2516760
Last edited by antilev2 on Aug 20, 2015, 10:51:00 AM
del
Last edited by mndstrm on Aug 18, 2015, 3:40:11 PM
Can we get some game play videos on your proposed build?

Thanks for the build.
"
MaliceRed wrote:
Can we get some game play videos on your proposed build?

Thanks for the build.

Hey, just added a couple. Will run some tougher/higher maps when I get my graphics card sorted out. The one I'm using at the moment is producing really bad quality videos and also causing my fps to suffer when I'm recording.
for all mirror items check The Forbidden Trove:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2516760
Last edited by antilev2 on Aug 20, 2015, 10:51:27 AM

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info