Strongest Fire Trap Setup

Hi !

I go crazy with all the new options to play a fire trapper. What setup is now the stongest?
(I have a 5 link carcass)

Witch Elementalist?
1= Single Trap - Crit with proliferation from acend (but only 9m radius)

Or Saboteur?
2= Non Crit Cluster Trap with concentrated effect? Instead of crit trap wheel with the frenzy chrges?
3= Crit Cluster Trap with concentrated effect?
4= Assassin? With max crit but without frenzy charges

Or Occultist
with triple curse?
Crit/Non Crit

Something other ?

Theres so much options now

I chose to run Ice trap over Fire trap, but most of the ideas presented here should still be valid.

I'm currently running a lvl77 Saboteur. At least for leveling and low-end maps I've found that the two most important aspects for traps are huge spike damage and big area coverage. Spike damage is doable either through crit or stacking multipliers. With the changes to the Increased critical strikes gem I opted to run a crit setup with Ice trap - Cluster traps - Cold penetration - Inc crit strikes - Trap and mine damage, with Jaws of Agony for power charges. It reaches upwards 60% crit chance with a pretty straightforward tree and charges up, though the multiplier is still low-ish (about 260% iirc). For non-crit you'd want to swap your crit nodes for straightforward increases and the inc crit strikes gem for another multiplier (Controlled destruction would be a good choice imo). I'd avoid using concentrated effect since it's pretty devastating for area coverage. If you opt to go the crit way, then a Divinarius is a great choice to go with the CJ you already have to amp the area even more. Lastly, I chose to go Saboteur almost solely due to Chain reaction. It's huge QoL and essentially makes trap trigger radius a non issue. Saboteur also gets pretty lovely boosts to trap cooldown, which is always nice. For the last two ascendancy points you get to choose either a moderate amount of oomph or some nice blind effects. Damage is a pretty self explanatory choice, while the blind mechanics have proven to be useful against bosses that use attacks.

With all that said, I can give a thumbs up for Saboteur with crit cluster trap and no conc effect. I'd assume an Assasin with a similar setup and a Sunblast + 2x Cheap construction (to essentially get the instant triggering) works similarily.

Hopefully someone else can give an input on the Witch-based builds.

Thank you for your experience. I guess you're right and saboteur cluster is really strong.
You have enough power charges from jaws?

I'm not sure crit is stronger than non crit with frenzy charges.
You are using frost bomb for single target? Auras?

I run ice trap with cluster trap - trap and mine damage - cold pen - hypothermia. Even with just 5L that skill is insane and you can compound it with frost bomb by doing frost bomb - trap - cluster trap - less duration. 2 throws and you can clear an entire room. I'm not even running crit build at all.


To me fire trap seems like the skill you'd want to maximize the burning ground damage because it can eat away HP so quickly it is not even funny, also vulnerability/flammability makes it even more deadlier. I'd go with the increase area skill around witch tree and potentially going to the templar side and grab that as well.

I'd probably do something like this if i am to do fire trap:

fire trap - trap and mine damage - rapid decay - controlled destruction - conc effect

"

You have enough power charges from jaws?

Yes, it's 25% chance to gain a charge per trap thrown. With cluster traps you throw five traps at once. That's def's enough to keep up whatever max charges you run for.

"

I'm not sure crit is stronger than non crit with frenzy charges.

I'm not sure either. It's crit gem setup vs. frenzies + DPS gem setup. A close shave, I'd think. I'm going to test out the non-crit setup as well later on. I have no data on that for now, unfortunately.

"

You are using frost bomb for single target? Auras?

I use frost bomb where needed. Always against bosses. Usually against magic packs to keep the speed up. Aura setup is something I forgot to mention eniterly. I run Clarity, Vitality and Herald of Ice. Vitality and HoI were planned. The former for obvious reasons, the latter to convert shatters into DPS. Clarity wasn't planned, but it turns out the mana cost of even a 5L setup gets pretty steep. Seems pretty much like a mandatory aura, unfortunately.


EDIT: You could probably skip up on Vitality if you're really confident about your flask management. My idea is to spec the regen nodes from the Growth and Decay cluster as well as run a Stone golem to top Vitality off. I'd imagine the build is doable without some of these regen sources, or even without any of them. I just like to have some passive sustain on trap builds.

And for a non crit build, this is what im doing in Perandus league atm, lv86:



With 6 frenzy charges up each ice trap is doing about 3k-5k damage.

I'm currently 75 in PHC as Elementalist, using Fire Trap for single target and Ice Trap for AOE, with Orb of Storms as utility for power charges and pre-shocking. I've only started mapping recently but was able to full clear a Graveyard with little trouble (been having shit luck with map drops)

Links:



Tree:



disclaimer: In retrospect, I wish I'd gone Shadow for either the Saboteur or Assassin spec. Elementalist feels underwhelming.

So my fire trap setup has been Fire Trap + Trap Dmg + Conc Effect + Fire Pen ever since I got a 4L.


Could someone help me understand the mechanics of ignite and burn, as related to crit Fire Trap? My understanding is that when Fire Trap crits, it ignites the target based on the damage of the crit. It also creates burning ground (regardless of crit), which seems to apply a 3rd source of fire damage on top of the initial Fire Trap hit (1) and ignite (2). Is this all correct?

That being said, what would be the best 4-link for scaling all three types of damage at once? I was reading the wiki on burn damage, and it seems Fire Pen doesn't increase the damage from burning ground, which makes me believe that it also wouldn't increase the crit-ignite burn DOT. If that is true, then Fire Pen is only good for the initial crit, which seems like it can't be optimal.

Would Increased Critical Strikes or Increased Crit Damage be better than fire pen for scaling all three sources of damage against a single target? Or chance to ignite/burning damage/rapid decay/ or something else?

Crit only helps with the initial explosion. The burning ground causes a degeneration effect that is unrelated to ignite, i.e you can actually cause ignite on enemies that is standing on the burning ground, the effect will stack, and you are right that fire pen doesn't help with the burning ground damage, it only helps with the explosion damage. If you want greater burning ground damage, apply vulnerability.

For 4L i'd do what i've mentioned above but no rapid decay. Ice trap definitely goes with cluster/cold pen and trap and mine damage.

You'd rather use Controlled Destruction over something else in a crit Fire Trap setup? Doesn't controlled destruction synergize negatively with Ignite DOT by reducing the chance of it even occurring (from the initial hit)? I was under the impression that Crit helps with the initial hit, but also with ignite DOT, which is scaled off the crit.

Would Rapid Decay increase both Ignite DOT and Burning Ground DOT? Do both of these burn DOTs stack on crit? (google says yes http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/106247/does-the-damage-from-fire-traps-stack)

I'm going to try playing around with it tonight. Fire Trap + Trap Dmg + Conc Effect seems like the optimal core for single target, I guess the question is whether Rapid Decay or Controlled Destruction is the best 4 link.

Rapid Decay: Scales Ignite DOT and Burning Ground DOT, but no effect on Initial Explosion damage.

Controlled Destruction: Scales all three, but reduces crit chance of Initial Explosion, therefore also reducing chance to Ignite. However, since I'm an Elementalist, I have 100% chance to ignite while Elemental Conflux is active, so this may not matter. Realizing this, I think Controlled Destruction will be the best 4link.

Respeced my crit prolif Fire Trapper into a non-crit prolif with Searing Touch and Cloak of Flame (great combination with Acro). Went with Saboteur (two spare points into blind). Damage on a 5L seems only slightly less than a crit setup with a 6L (still 1 trap per white/blue pack is enough), and non-crit is much more consistent. Also found an interesting place for a Fireborn jewel in the shadow starting area :).