Managing mana as a trapper - how?

I'm currently level 83 in THC as a bladefall trapper. Thus far I have used a mana flask the entire leveling process, and probably will continue to do so.

However, its a complete pain in the ass.


The nature of trappers means that you are casting extremely high (relative to mana pool) cost abilities and at relatively long (compared to other archetype) intervals. As a result, mana flasks become incredibly painful to use.

Running dual blasphemy curses leaves me just shy of enough mana for a second trap. Running a 50% aura and a curse leaves me unable to cast a trap at all. I often need to pot before I cast my second trap. There are _no_ mana regen nodes that work for trappers (thanks to no hit/kill - bino+southpaw aside) within reach of the area of the tree in which trap nodes are present, unless you go all the way deep into witch (bad for bear trap that doesnt use spell damage or aoe) or through the scion wheel into shaper and quick recovery (reeaaaally long way around the tree). There is a 20% mana regen node in the ranger area, but it is 5 points away from anything a trapper would want to take.

I can keep using the flask, and it works and it's fine, but its horrible to play that way - basically every second cast I push a mana flask, or I spam traps to stop my mana from filling too fast. If I use a smaller flask, it has far less charges and less efficiency, running the risk of emptying.

I guess this is as much of a feedback thread as it is a discussion thread - how do other trappers feel about mana? Is everyone just sitting on their pot button like me, or are people running way more mana regen than me somehow? Do I really have to give up a curse to run clarity? Seems like a really disappointing choice to have to make.

There is a really awkward juxtaposition between where traps sit on the tree and the type of mana nodes that are around there. They aren't a good fit; nor are traps and mana flasks due to the intervalic nature of mana use in the builds, and the continuous usage requirement to make efficient usage of flasks.

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Pathological wrote:

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The the 50% increase in base mana pool you'd think this would be less of a problem than its ever been. The higher your mana pool the higher your regen, and the more effect %mana regen has. Possibly getting more +mana gear would help. You also neglect to mention aura reserve nodes, there aren't many builds that don't benefit from even a 6% reduction.

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't +mana on hit also work from jewels/talismans? And certainly +mana on kill.

I used quite a bit of +mana and %mana regen on gear and high level Clarity. And also only running AA, no heralds or other auras. Could do half regen with a mana pot and did fine without one in normal regen maps. That was all before the mana buff. All in all, mana management on a trapper is a major pain. Oh, I also pathed to Shaper, but I don't think I will do it again with the current respec, gonna try something different.

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foolishwtz wrote:

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Pathological wrote:

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The the 50% increase in base mana pool you'd think this would be less of a problem than its ever been. The higher your mana pool the higher your regen, and the more effect %mana regen has. Possibly getting more +mana gear would help. You also neglect to mention aura reserve nodes, there aren't many builds that don't benefit from even a 6% reduction.

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't +mana on hit also work from jewels/talismans? And certainly +mana on kill.

+mana on kill and +mana on hit don't work with traps, even if they did, it wouldn't be quite enough. My six link costs >120 mana, my four link >85. And traps don't hit that often anyway. Hit once, hit hard, that kind of stuff.

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foolishwtz wrote:

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Pathological wrote:

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The the 50% increase in base mana pool you'd think this would be less of a problem than its ever been. The higher your mana pool the higher your regen, and the more effect %mana regen has. Possibly getting more +mana gear would help. You also neglect to mention aura reserve nodes, there aren't many builds that don't benefit from even a 6% reduction.

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't +mana on hit also work from jewels/talismans? And certainly +mana on kill.

Neither mana on hit or mana on kill work for trappers, unless they are running a version that uses southbound gloves (so that the dot gets the kill).

Reserve nodes only mildly alleviate the problem - they delay the need to push the flask by one trap out of every 4 or 5. Increasing max mana is ok, but by itself does almost nothing. Mana regen is 1.75% of max mana per second, so going from base mp at my level (~650) to 710 increases my regen by a mere 3. Getting 50% regen on gear takes that new base of ~13mana/sec to 20/sec. Traps cost upward of 120mana per throw, at a cast time of 0.75. So.. we are talking very small drops in a very large bucket - even if I got another 300 mana and 300% mana regen which would be upward of 12 points investment in the tree, I would still only be half way to supporting trap cost.

So, that leaves spamming a pot, or running clarity.... and still spamming a pot, only slightly less often. Sigh.

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Pathological wrote:

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foolishwtz wrote:

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Pathological wrote:

...

The the 50% increase in base mana pool you'd think this would be less of a problem than its ever been. The higher your mana pool the higher your regen, and the more effect %mana regen has. Possibly getting more +mana gear would help. You also neglect to mention aura reserve nodes, there aren't many builds that don't benefit from even a 6% reduction.

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't +mana on hit also work from jewels/talismans? And certainly +mana on kill.

Neither mana on hit or mana on kill work for trappers, unless they are running a version that uses southbound gloves (so that the dot gets the kill).

Reserve nodes only mildly alleviate the problem - they delay the need to push the flask by one trap out of every 4 or 5. Increasing max mana is ok, but by itself does almost nothing. Mana regen is 1.75% of max mana per second, so going from base mp at my level (~650) to 710 increases my regen by a mere 3. Getting 50% regen on gear takes that new base of ~13mana/sec to 20/sec. Traps cost upward of 120mana per throw, at a cast time of 0.75. So.. we are talking very small drops in a very large bucket - even if I got another 300 mana and 300% mana regen which would be upward of 12 points investment in the tree, I would still only be half way to supporting trap cost.

So, that leaves spamming a pot, or running clarity.... and still spamming a pot, only slightly less often. Sigh.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of the mana on hit/kill problem. If anything it seems like that should be changed, does mana leech support even work? I've only run a trapper once, and it was before the passives even existed on tree.

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foolishwtz wrote:

Interesting, I wasn't aware of the mana on hit/kill problem. If anything it seems like that should be changed, does mana leech support even work? I've only run a trapper once, and it was before the passives even existed on tree.

No - traps are an entity of their own, meaning that any on hit/kill affect applies to the trap rather than the player. It is why trappers are reflect-immune (the reflect "hits" the trap), but it also makes many effects in the game nonfunctional, including most of the mana regain on the shadow/ranger portion of the tree. Besides on hit mana regen, the other major available nodes in the area revolve around flasks, which as discussed, are also terrible for trappers (flasks give back plenty of mana, it's actually an issue of finding the right one to not give it back too fast and kill the regen effect).

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Pathological wrote:

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foolishwtz wrote:

Interesting, I wasn't aware of the mana on hit/kill problem. If anything it seems like that should be changed, does mana leech support even work? I've only run a trapper once, and it was before the passives even existed on tree.

No - traps are an entity of their own, meaning that any on hit/kill affect applies to the trap rather than the player. It is why trappers are reflect-immune (the reflect "hits" the trap), but it also makes many effects in the game nonfunctional, including most of the mana regain on the shadow/ranger portion of the tree. Besides on hit mana regen, the other major available nodes in the area revolve around flasks, which as discussed, are also terrible for trappers (flasks give back plenty of mana, it's actually an issue of finding the right one to not give it back too fast and kill the regen effect).

Hmm Devouring Totem is often overlooked and could help your mana problems. If you aren't using any other totems it sounds reasonable, you dont even need to link it to anything.