[2.1 / 2.0] Magma Orb Trapper with Sire of Shards

Hey guys,

with the new leagues coming up, I thought it would be a good time to share an unorthodox build. My character is only level 67, so I do have no experience in the mid tier maps, but the early ones are no problem. I finished act 3 with level 64 and started doing solo maps with 66. While my way of leveling leaves me a bit on the squishy side, the damage is nice and can kill groups of enemies really fast. Tanky single targets are a bit anoying, since pretty much all the damage ist AOE. Most rare monsters still die quickly, though.

I use Magma Orb traps in a Sire of Shards and for support Firestorm traps, Fire Trap and Lightning Trap.

The idea for this particular build arose when I watched a video for the newly introduced Magma Orb where it was said that, while the skill itself would most likely see quite some use, it wouldn't be as useful with traps or totems. I agree, that just using Magma Orb with a trap support can be quite problematic since the projectile travels just in one direction and is slow on top of that. Then a new unique item, in itself already interesting, namely the Sire of Shards, presented a solution.

I leveled the trapper till Merciless during Warbands but since I didn't have a Sire of Shards I switched to some other characters. Recently I continued and found a suitable staff so that I could finally test this build for real and I am quite pleased with the result.

I guess it would be possible to play this in hardcore, but since I leveled as a glass cannon I died quite some times. With the skilltree for 2.1 I advise against playing this in hardcore, because there are less defense nodes in the surroundings of the trap nodes.

--- the concept ---
Magma Orb is a powerful spell with great AOE damage and with the Sire of Shards you can work around the problem of just attacking in one direction. Furthermore you can use some great damage multipliers with trap, trap and mine damage and slower projectiles. Concentrated effect and fire penetration are also possible. Of course using multiple traps boots the AOE damage even farther.

When you have the staff and some links on the spell, you can just throw your traps in the middle of an enemy group and they will explode. The five projectiles (+4 from SoS) fan out in a nova and cover a great area due to the AOE radius of Magma Orb. With Multiple Traps that can cover pretty much all of the screen.

The Defense is based around Acrobatics and Life.

Since this is a trapper build you won't have any problems with any kind of reflect during maps or something like Corrupting Blood. No Regen maps would be problematic because you rely on your mana regeneration and don't have leech or mana gain on hit. Otherwise you can run any map as long as you have the resistances and life for it.

--- the necessities---
The central item for this build is


I got a great offer for 2 exalted orbs and fixed the sockets and links myself. Since this is a strength/intelligence item it can take quite some chromatics to get the colors right. 2 green sockets are the minimum, but 4 are better.

--- for leveling ---

Is a great item for leveling. Up to the point when I got my Sire of Shards the Firestorm in this item was my main attack and even now I use it in tandem with Magma Orb. I will replace these boots soon, but up till now they are just great, because they give a free trap gem and a great movement boost. Keep in mind that especially in early Merciless the low life and missing resistances really hurt.

I also used

for a time. But I switched to

for the mana and life regeneration.

None of these are necessary but they help.

As I said above, Firestorm is a great skill for leveling, especially if you get the Deerstalker boots and multiple traps gem. Together with Fire Trap and perhaps Lightning Trap or Bear Trap you can just run through Normal and Cruel.

- bandits -
Normal: help Oak (+40 life)
Cruel: kill all (+1 skillpoint)
Merciless: help Aliara (+1 power charge) / kill all (+1 skillpoint)
The additional power charge is useful because you can generate power charges when traps are triggert due to the passive tree. You can also use Assasins Mark to get more charges.

--- skill trees ---
Below I will list the skill trees I currently use and planned for both 2.0 and 2.1. since I got most of the damage nodes first, the character dies easily if you'rem not careful but deals lots of damage. So for hardcore it would be advised to get the defensive stats first.
In the upcoming tree there are more trap nodes and these are differently dispersed so the defensive will be a bit weaker but the damage is going to be greatly enhanced. The pure damage bonus for traps as well as faster cooldowns and the buffed Magma Orb gem will significantly boost the damage. Of course that is still just theory since the patch will only be released in a few days.





--- skills ---
At this point I can only give you the plan I have for a later gem setup, because I'm still using leveling gear and so the sockets I have are not final yet.

Sire of Shards: Magma Orb + Trap + Multiple Traps + Trap and Mine Damage + Slower Projectiles

This gives great multipliers to Magma Orb and you don't suffer the negative effects of Slower Projectiles, since it doesn't apply to Magma Orb. For the sixth slot there are various options, depending on personal taste and the available color. For example Concentrated Effect, Empower, Fire Penetration or Added Chaos Damage would all be good choices. If you feel the AOE isn't big enough (unlikely) you could even use Increased Area of Effect.

Chest: Magma Orb + Trap + Multiple Traps + Trap and Mine Damage

After that you can add any of the above options as you see fit.

4 link: Fire Trap + Trap and Mine Damage + Increased Bruning Damage + Fire Penetration

Its useful to have enough Traps available since you can only store 3 of a kind.

additional 4 sockets: Anger, Herald of Ice, Lightning Warp, Curse

As curse you can use Assasins Mark for more crit, Flamability or Elemental Weakness to lower resistances, Temporal Chains or Enfeeble for more survivability.

3 link + 1: Summon Flame Golem, Vaal Arc + Trap + Trap and Mine Damage

Summon Flame Golem can't be supported by Trap, so a 4-link is fine as well. If you prefer another Vaal skill, you can change Arc. I tested Vaal Frost Nova, Spark and Fire Ball and all worked as normal, except that the center point was the trap instead of the character. Multiple Traps works only when the Vaal skill has more than one charge, so it's better to use Trap and Mine Damage instead.

[pre 2.1 damage]
My Magma Orb Trap deals an average 4430 damage per hit, with gem level 17. That doesn't sound like much, but with every use 3 traps are thrown and with Sire of Shards the damage effects overlap and are devastating for groups.
I still can't say how it would work in mid tier maps, since I'm only up to tier 4 now, but with the next patch the damage will receive a great buff.

--- equipment ---
Sire of Shards is the only unique item you will need. Something like Carcass Jack would be great later on, but you can do without.

My gear is still really bad and all but the Sire of Shards will be exchanged. For now it still works but I will upgrade around level 70 to get more life, evasion and resistances.



- jewels -
I'm using the Survival Secrets unique jewel for the mana regeneration. Otherwise you can use jewels to increase damage (fire damage, spell damage, AOE damage, trap damage and so on) or to increase defensive stats (life or evasion rating for example).

--- 2.1 ---
When Talisman starts I will start a new character and play in that league but I will try to test this build with the new skill tree and changed Magma Orb soon and update this post.

--- afterword ---
It was fun playing and leveling this character up till now and I want to continue it in the future. It is great to explode groups of enemies with Magma Orb and Firestorm. Opening Strongboxes is really nice if you can plant 9 Magma Orb Traps around and a moment after activating it collect the rewards. During Cruel and Merciless I was always one or two levels below the level of the area and together with leveling damage and subpar equipment that (and just plain carelessness) was the cause of some deaths that could otherwise have been prevented . Still it was fun to play and pretty fast as well.

I would appreciate opinions and suggestions on this build.

Update:
added bandits
updated skills

I will add some stats later.