[1.3] HC - Templar/Witch Firetrapper (EB+MoM+AA)

Please note, this is my first build guide, be gentle. So if anything's missing or complete bullshit, please call it out. Thanks.

Welcome to Kyuzou's Witch/Templar Fire Trap guide!
Important to note, the only thing that's different between Witch and Templar is the start, as a Witch we go through the mana regen and mana nodes (right side) and as a Templar as take the life, mana, mana regen route (bottom). Also this guide already uses the new skill tree links so in order to see them before the patch goes live is to use offline skill tree planner!

Some quick Q&A i guess.
Is this HC viable? Yes it was made with HC in mind

Is it expensive? Yes and no.
Searing Touch is really the only "expensive" item, which is merely optional still. Rest is very self found friendly

Q: Why did you not pick up ____? Why aren't you using ____?
...Herald of thunder: Im not shocking anything, so it's pointless
...Herald of Ice: Risking shattering corpses eliminates the idea of the prolif
...Herald of Ash: Its mostly scaled by physical, a damage type I'm not doing
...Sovereignty: With a low mana pool this is really useful to up the value of MoM, even with a high mana pool you could potentially add say Haste for faster movement speed. However using only Disc and Clarity and a mana pool of 1400+ it's a "waste" of points, 5 points to get it, I'd rather get Inner Force instead (which I currently have not)
...Clever Construction: Since 1.2 the position of clever construction is completely retarded, it's so far away. The nodes you even have to go through to get there is not worth it. IMO this node is not "needed", it's a convieniance rather, just play smart. The only thing that's really going to wreck your trap is Storm Heralds (Arc is a bitch too) but, smart play and patiance will be enough.
...Spell damage: The way firetrap works is, you throw it. It will explode and based on that explosion it will deal burn damage. Spell damage only applies to the initial explosion, NOT burn damage. Fire damage however applies to both the initial explosion AND the burn damage, which is why spell damage is "bad".

Req Items
Windscream Boots: I would consider this item the only "required" piece for this build. Dual cursing is really strong, if you can corrupt Additional Curse on an amulet and afford to lose the implicit stats I would probably replace windscream.

Carcass Jack: This is more of a convieniance rather than requirement because of two things. 1) 20% Inc AoE, this is SUPER nice since Conc effect gimps our radius in the first place. 2) Decent amount of ES, since we're EB this turns into mana, more mana = more mana regen = being able to run a higher lvl AA and since we're MoM we also increase our health pool.

Searing Touch: It has massive burn damage and this is a burn prolif build. this thing will sky rocket your damage. Needed? Not really, i've tried 1h+shield and still cleared really fast and easy.

Bandits
Help Oak
Kill All
Kill All

Links and Gems
(In Order)
Firetrap:
4L: Fire Trap + Chance to Ignite + Increased Burning Damage + Elemental Proliferation
5L: Fire Trap + Chance to Ignite + Increased Burning Damage + Elemental Proliferation + Concentrated Effect
6L: We have quite some options here. We could run Empower to further boost Fire trap level, or we could use Fire penetration (quality fire pen adds fire damage). Or we could do Increased Area of Effect to really blow stuff up, or Item Rarity.

Empower Vs. Fire Penetration: lvl 2 Empower gave me between 4-500 more avg dmg but overall i seem to get more damage using Fire Penetration. Personally, I prefer Fire Pen because when you run into those curse immune+Elemental Immune mobs, fists goes in the air.

Curses: Flammability+Elemental Weakness

Mobility: Lightning Warp + Reduced Duration + Faster Casting

Auras: Reduced Mana + Clarity + Grace + Discipline.
I generally rush IR to bump my survivability which is why I run grace, once you get a mana pool of ~700 (AFTER reservation) we can drop grace once we have Mind over Matter.

Defences: Cast when Damage Taken + Enduring Cry + Immortal Call + Increased Duration

Added flavours: If you have a slot open I like to run Searing Bond for the added single target damage, but mostly to "shoot around corners". Meaning, if there's a crossroad of sorts with sketchy mobs (or you're behind a door), toss some traps then pop searing bond near the trap, mobs will run for the totem, activate the trap, boom.
Also, Vaal Lightning Trap is amazing against bosses to shock them to take more damage.

Skill Tree
Lvl 90 (if you need more str pick up Beef and/or Might if you cannot add from masters):

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA34rpAv6zVyu9gm0Zl_QI9FJTwFSXlT1fakO86kyzaxcEB5Ug6-SD2x8CwfNfKlXGNsUyNIIeOljYJK-32wusmKcIh2XxbLiTna4QWDbY6-4y0RJpGmwsnEkbmuAo-kVHFxw26SqNRZ2Cx8BmcXkkquxVU1L56ASzn98Wb0GHogA8Be9842q3Ppo7_gqCm9i97Dg1kicvtfKQVW6qGjhKyMAaPydxhSpNeubzERUgY_2xQiLiLOlG10fi3Q3QgfzFW6-kOWegTioY24d2KaV08eOfhTJKffAfaPI=

Level 90 Cloak of Defiance version (instead of heading completely into shadow you have the option of picking up Clever Construction, personally I dont see this node to be a requirement)

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA34rpAv6zVyu9gm0Zl_QI9FJTwFSXlT1fakO86kyzaxcEB5Ug6-SD2x8CwfNfKlXGNsUyNKKjgh46WNgkr7d_xtsLrJinCIdlEZbxbLiTna4QWAceDkg22OvuMtESaRpsLJyVLl3ySRua4Cj6RUcXHDbp8NWdYyqNRZ3aOoLHwGZxeSSqSVHljuxVU1KBr_noBLOf3xZvpLG40EGHogA8Be9842qMNrEFtz7wH5o7VUv-Cmjygpth4ti97DgmlScvkFUaOMAacYV65vMRY_2xQkbX5Rm0OPv1l5dFfA==

Level 100

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMA34rpAv6zVyu9gm0Zl_QI9FJTwFSXlT1fakO86kyzaxcEB5Ug6-SD2x8CwfNfKlXGNsUyNIIeOljYJK-32wusmKcIh2XxbLiTna4QWDbY6-4y0RJpGmwsnEkbmuAo-kVHFxw26SqNRZ2Cx8BmcXkkquxVU1L56ASzn98Wb0GHogA8Be9842q3Ppo7_gqCm9i97Dg1kicvtfKQVW6qGjhKyMAaPydxhSpNeubzERUgY_2xQiLiLOlG10fi3Q3QgfzFW6-kOWegTioY24d2KaV08eOfhTJKffAfaPLaOoGvuNCxBe0g4XPyRTrh_o9N4w==

Leveling

Just level with Searing Bond until your firetrap is atleast lvl 16, when it actually starts doing damage. Focus on life, mana regen. you dont need to much damage early on from the tree. pick up Holy Fire and Fire Walker, rush Ancestral Bond (from Purity of Flesh) then rush IR, just focus on life and mana regen so AA can keep up. Grab Eldrich Battery as soon as you can after this (probably around lvl 60?) Once you have a decent enough health pool start picking up the damage nodes and dont forget to spec out of ancestral bond :)

I will try to update the leveling guide later on point by point.

Gear Example
You want to look for gear with Mana regen, Mana and ES after life and resists. with MoM mana = life


Map mods
You can do pretty much every map mod besides Blood Magic.
Half Regen maps means no AA (or if you have enough regen you could lightning warp entirely instead of walking to keep AA on), if you're tanky enough you should be able to handle it
No Regen maps means mana pots, it's doable but tedious.
Curse Immunity - I NEVER run these because unless I dual curse, im not really doing too much damage
Fire Resistace - Not too bad, consider it a mild Enfeeble map
Fracture - no problem, the fractures instantly die from the burn prolif.

Videos
Please note, almost all (if not actually all) videos were recorded pre 1.2 which means in the videos i have less life and damage than i would in 1.2, also trap cast speed was faster

1.2 Quick Strand run-through
1.1 Double Boss Crematorium - With a special surprise in the boss room
1.1 Shrine inc. Piety
1.1 Turbo Double Boss Courtyard
And in case you are curious how fracturing maps would run:
1.1 Fracturing Maze

1H + Shield (no searing touch) Plateau map
the weapon and shield used



Thank you for reading the crappy guide and if anyone's actually trying this build, I hope you enjoy it, it's been one of the most fun builds I've played!

If you have any questions you could visit my stream: Twitch.tv/KyuzouTV
pm me on the forums, or IGN: KyuzouTV
Last edited by KyuzouTV on Dec 12, 2014, 1:15:22 PM
update: Re-wrote some parts, added some stuff. Uploaded a new video where i run with a 1h+shield instead of searing touch (was pretty fun seeing my mana pool jump to 1800 after reservation and 454 mana regen :D)

Updated the show-case gear.
Last edited by KyuzouTV on Sep 9, 2014, 6:26:35 PM
I am thinking running a fire trapper myself, but going shadow and stacking some crit. Instead of doing MoM just stacking alot of evasion/armor with IR and running around like a chicken :P

Tell me what you think of my trees.

level 90

level 100
Mess with the best, die like the rest.
I've started leveling my trapper, any input on my tree?
Mess with the best, die like the rest.
"
Edzilla wrote:
I am thinking running a fire trapper myself, but going shadow and stacking some crit. Instead of doing MoM just stacking alot of evasion/armor with IR and running around like a chicken :P

Tell me what you think of my trees.

level 90

level 100


looks pretty solid. Personally i'd want to pick up Throatseeker and Assassination a bit earlier tho
Last edited by KyuzouTV on Sep 2, 2014, 1:56:34 PM
"
"
Edzilla wrote:
I am thinking running a fire trapper myself, but going shadow and stacking some crit. Instead of doing MoM just stacking alot of evasion/armor with IR and running around like a chicken :P

Tell me what you think of my trees.

level 90

level 100


looks pretty solid. Personally i'd want to pick up Throatseeker and Assassination a bit earlier tho


Annihilation and Heartseeker are better than Assassination, but what should I drop for throatseeker cluster then?
Mess with the best, die like the rest.
What do you think of the Sunblast belt?
Mess with the best, die like the rest.
"
Edzilla wrote:
What do you think of the Sunblast belt?

sorry for these late replies. Personally i've never really been a fan of the belt, especially with my setup because it has no life on it and i'm already running without a shield and windscream that has no life on it. i just dont think its worth it, but its just my opinion.
I dunno, 30-40% trap damage is kind of hard to ignore - it does give mana regen too and fire resist - sure, no HP but that is quite a lot of damage. equal to about 2-3 passive skill points.
Mess with the best, die like the rest.
Updated for 1.3, leveling guide in near future

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