Traps, Mines, Sentries: New build possibility of 9.12 patch

With the 9.12 patch turning bow and wand attacks into proper projectiles and thereby making them compatible with the Totem support gem a new and interesting build possibility has arisen. Even as you read decisions are being made that can make or break this possibility, so if what follows interests you please make your voice heard.


What is this build possibility?
That of a deviant trapper skilled in the use of mechanical devices. A cunning master of stealth and deception that prefers to set the stage and lure hapless victims to their destruction. A guerilla fighter that specialises in ambush tactics.


How do we make this happen?
Rather than enabling bow skills with totem, introduce a new Sentry support that is a variation on traps and mines.

Sentry would turn a bow skill into a deployable mechanical dart gun or bolt thrower, equipped with its own bow class weapon.

Unlike totems, Sentry would not activate the player's skills from its location. Instead it would attack with its own skill using its own weapon and attributes. This is important because it would make it usable by characters equipped with melee weapons and would make balancing its damage output more straightforward.

Sentry would derive bonuses from the player's trap related nodes and additional trap nodes could be introduced for sentry attack speed, range and damage as well as deploying more sentries. These nodes would be positioned between the Shadow and Ranger classes to fit within their character themes and towards the outer rim to distance them from totem nodes.

Sentry would be compatible with both Trap and Remote Mine supports. Currently this works with the Totem support (yes you can lay traps and mines that spawn Ice Spear totems when detonated) but totem traps and totem mines would be disabled to provide Sentry with a special niche to fill.

Sentries are mechanical in theme and would not be 'cast' like totems to appear magically at their location. Instead they would be thrown or placed like traps and mines. Alternatively they would be placed by default but could be thrown when combined with the trap support.


Why make this happen?
Totems using bow attacks would be cool in its own way but they look and feel magical so it seems odd for them. It would also be nice for the more physically (as opposed to magically) oriented characters to have something mechanically similar but thematically different to one of the coolest skill supports available to spell casters. Finally, traps and mines as a build are missing something to make them special. I feel this is it.


Closing
Thank you for reading. If you are a player please comment if you like the idea or wish to suggest a variation. If you are a developer please at least consider making this happen.

To dissuade players from using multiple totems with multiple sentries, perhaps the use of bow skills should require the player to have a quiver equipped in their active weapon set. Sentry's damage could then be derived using the player's quiver as a base.

The player could then use Sentry without having a bow equipped, since it would be loaded from the player's quiver after all. Also it would mean that to use Sentry the player would have to sacrifice their off-hand which would lower the effectiveness of using totems or melee with Sentry.

Whatever the outcome of this, I feel that it would be great if people could use bow/wand skills on totems/sentries/whatever while using melee weapons. Your suggestion seems to be a pretty balanced way of doing that, so that's cool.

Thank you, your feedback is much appreciated.

I've been wanting bow skills to work with my dual totem build since the beginning but the more I think about it the more I feel totems suit spells better and traps are missing something to make them special.

When I discovered that I could lay remote mines that spawned my totems, the build idea clicked. Providing a unique ambush capable turret for bow attacks could give trapper builds something special that is consistent with the theme of using mechanical devices.

+1

+2

Edit: I could totally see myself playing a trapper that uses knockback supported sentries to push packs into a cluster of mines. It wouldn't be the most straight forward dps build (currently what is unappealing, when generally you want to kill stuff as fast as possible in aRPGs) but it would be such a cool/fun/unique build just to have some fun with.

No, I can't get behind it using a bow, a quiver, yes; but I'd rather make it a wand instead.
Bows are already the most overdeveloped weapon type in the game largely due to the wand being underdeveloped.

This suggestion does not involve the player using a bow. Neither does it prevent the player from using a bow.

It's aimed at separating bow skills from totems and further developing traps without tying bow skills to bow builds. I imagine a trapper may wield a dagger and quiver for example.

Very good idea. I'd love to see this implemented.