3.23 Explosive Trap of Shrapnel, Nice Bosser (pob in comments)

|-----Notes/Neat Things-----| -If you want to see the full damage of the build with Pyroclast Mines of Sabotage active, you have to change to the skill in the drop down menu on the left-hand side of PoB, and change the active count of mines to whatever number you want to see the damage for. Afterwards, you can change back to Explosive Trap of Shrapnel. -The calculation for "average explosions hitting" for Explosive Trap of Shrapnel is incorrect, do not trust it. In reality, single target damage with this skill varies quite a lot based on the arena the monster is in. The more walls/smaller the room, the more the secondary explosions will be forced to overlap, and thus the more damage the skill will do. Most Uber arenas (other than Searing Exarch and Sirus) have walls that will amplifiy the damage the skill does greatly. -If you want, you can always gem swap for normal Explosive Trap when bossing, but I never felt the need with this current setup in 3.23. In most scenarios that I tested, standard Explosive Trap did not do noticeably more damage than Explosive Trap of Shrapnel. -This notes section is largely geared towards beginners and intermediate level players. Let me know if there is a section that you feel is missing or could use more explanation for future guides! |-------Gems & Locations-------| Note: Some gems are not offered as quest rewards or are offered at the same time as other gems, so must be bought from the vendor after the completion of the quest that offers them, or in some cases, a quest shortly after the quest that offers them. You can, if you want, run Bear trap instead of a Cast when Damage Taken setup, but it's an extra button to press that isn't really worth pressing with how quickly most things will die. -6L Body Armor: Explosive Trap of Shrapnel (4 Green 2 Blue) - Explosive Trap (Original version in Act 1) -> Explosive Trap of Shrapnel (Trade or get from Lab yourself), Charged Traps (Act 3 Fixture of Fate), Power Charge on Crit (Act 2 Sharp and Cruel), Awakened Elemental Focus (Act 2 Sharp and Cruel for normal version of gem), Swift Assembly (Act 1 Tidal Island), Trap and Mine Damage (Act 2 Sharp and Cruel) -3L Wand: Auras (1 Green 2 Blue) - Grace (Act 3 Lost in Love), Vaal Discipline (Act 3 Lost in Love + Vaal Orbs), Summon Skitterbots (Act 2 Intruders in Black) -3L Shield: Bonus Stuff (1 Red 2 Blue) - Cast when Damage Taken (level 1) (Act 4 The Eternal Nightmare), Wave of Conviction (level 1) (Act 2 Root of the Problem), Assassin's Mark (Act 3 Lost in Love) -4L Boots: Pyroclast Mines of Sabotage (1 Red 3 Blue) - Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage (Trade or get from Lab yourself), Charged Mines (Act 3 Fixture of Fate), Minefield (Act 4 The Eternal Nightmare), Arrogance (Act 3 Fixture of Fate) -4L Helmet: Frostblink Hextouch Setup (1 Green 3 Blue) - Frostblink (Act 1 Mudflats), Hextouch Support (Act 4 The Eternal Nightmare), Enfeeble (Act 3 Lost in Love), Temporal Chains (Act 3 Lost in Love) -4L Gloves: Bane W/ Damage Curses (1 Red 3 Blue) - Bane (Act 3 Lost in Love), Flammability (Act 3 Lost in Love), Elemental Weakness (Act 3 Lost in Love), Punishment (Act 3 Lost in Love) |-------Leveling-------| -Leveling gear should consist of the normal fair, such as +skill level wands/sceptres and resist rares. Other standard leveling uniques like Goldrim, Lifesprig, Tabula Rasa, Seven-League Step are good, too. Explosive trap does pretty good damage, so nothing special is required for leveling. -You can use whatever trap skill you want while leveling, taking note that the fire wheel above the Witch starting area is taken specifically for Explosive Trap since it has a physical damage portion to convert to fire damage. -Until you get your first Ascendancy, support gems that throw additional traps may feel a little bit bad to use. You can choose to use other direct damage options instead of Swift Assembly or Cluster Trap supports at early levels. -Use a 20% quality Explosive Trap/Explosive Trap of Shrapnel while leveling if you can (very fancy, I know, I know), as quality increases the number of explosions on the spell and thus makes it more reliable for clear and damage in general. -Don't worry too much about using Pyroclast Mines while leveling, they're gonna feel really slow to use until you get your power charge stacking uniques. Gems in Act 1 (From Nessa [Act 1 Town]): Explosive Trap - For leveling until you get Explosive Trap of Shrapnel (Intruder at the Gates ) Swift Assembly Support (Mercy Mission) Frostblink (Breaking Some Eggs) Gems in Act 2 (From Yeena [Act 2 Town]): Trap and Mine Damage Support (Sharp and Cruel) Power Charge on Crit Support (Sharp and Cruel) Elemental Focus (Sharp and Cruel) Wave of Conviction (keep at level 1) (Root of the Problem) Summon Skitterbots (Intruders in Black) Gems in Act 3 (From Clarissa [Act 3 Town] or Siosa [Library]): Grace (Lost in Love) Vaal Discipline (Lost in Love + Vaal Orbs) Bane (Lost in Love) Flammability (Lost in Love) Elemental Weakness (Lost in Love) Punishment (Lost in Love) Enfeeble (Lost in Love) Temporal Chains (Lost in Love) Assassin's Mark (Lost in Love) Pyroclast Mine (Sever the Right Hand) <- Make sure to get the "of Sabotage" transfigured version from trade or Labyrinth, the normal version is not super useful when used as a debuff. Charged Mines Support (Fixture of Fate) Charged Traps Support (Fixture of Fate) Arrogance Support (Fixture of Fate) Note: You will not be able to use all of these curses at once until you equip Anathema, equipable at level 49. You will also need all of the %mana reservation efficiency nodes in the build active before you can use all of Grace, Discipline, and Summer Skitterbots at once. Gems in Act 4 (From Petarus and Vanja [Act 4 Town]): Cast when Damage Taken Support (keep at level 1/2/3) (The Eternal Nightmare) Minefield Support (The Eternal Nightmare) Hextouch Support (The Eternal Nightmare) |-------Passive Tree-------| -There are trees for leveling included which assume you use a standard leveling gear setup with no uniques or standard leveling uniques such as Tabula Rasa and Goldrim. -You could use a cluster jewel setup at the expense of the left-hand side of the tree (and your amulet annoint, since you'd need to annoint the 3rd Power Charge notable), but the value of cluster jewels is pretty low for this build (and charge stackers, in general) due to the massive amount of % increased spell damage provided by Void Battery and Malachai's Loop. Still, if you have an Unstable Infusion Forbidden Flesh & Flame combo, you can squeeze a good chunk of extra damage out of the build with the extra jewel socket provided by cluster jewels. I just found it an unnecessary loss of survivability for a damage boost that the build doesn't really need. -An alternative method to run a Forbidden Flame & Flesh combo would be to drop a handful of lower-value defensive nodes (life nodes, in particular) to pick up some of the three-point jewel sockets that the build paths next to. -Militant Faith is best placed where it is in the passive tree (North of Witch Start), as the build actually needs the strength that would otherwise be converted if militant faith were placed West of Templar start. You can, of course, run Strength as an affix on your rares to alleviate the stat requirement issue. -The "30% of Chaos Damage does not bypass Energy Shield" mastery from the Energy Shield/Life wheel next to Shadow start should be taken as soon as you feel you are dying to chaos damage (and you have any significant amount of energy shield to make the mastery matter). Chaos Damage deaths can be pretty easy to notice, as you'll mostly die from chaos damage while still having most or all of your energy shield. -If you want a smidgin' more defense (or quite a bit more once %Evasion Rating Per Frenzy Charge mods are less common), you can grab the 3 %Evasion and Energy Shield nodes at Shadow's start instead of the 3 10% elemental damage nodes. |-------Acendancy-------| -Get Chain Reaction first, it allows traps to reliably trigger even when they "miss" the target so long as another nearby trap is triggered. -Next, grab Pyromaniac, which gives you a nice bit of regen and will allow you to use Slavedriver's Hand if you have access to them while leveling. -Then, get Born in the Shadows, which will give you some much-needed survivability for early mapping. -Last node is Demolitions Specialist, which will allow you to benefit from the full effect of Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage's Damage aura (on enemies) without having to place 20 of them down, which makes them feel much better to use when extra damage is needed on tanky rares and bosses. |-------Pantheon-------| -Soul of the Brine King with all divine vessel upgrades. This is mostly for freeze/chill reduction. -Soul of Shakari to reduce Chaos damage taken. Soul of Ralakesh is another option here, it is mostly preference. (Note: If you don't know what maps the bosses for divine vessel upgrades reside in, you can search the boss's name in the atlas search bar, it will highlight the map that has that boss.) |-------Gearing-------| -First and foremost, basically all of the charge-stacking uniques are REQUIRED for this build to work, especially Ralakesh's Impatience. If any of them are changed post 3.23, plug the updated versions of them into the build and decide for yourself if it's still worth a dang. Chances are that Ralakesh's Impatience will be changed in some way after 3.23, no one boots should have all that power, etc. -The Charge Stacking Uniques In Question Are: Void Battery, Malachai's Loop, Graven's Secret, Badge of the Brotherhood, Anathema, Militant Faith (With Dominus Keystone & 2% ele res per 10 devotion), and Ralakesh's Impatience. -If struggling with capping your elemental resistances for whatever reason, a Goldrim works perfectly fine into even late endgame until you can cap your elemental resistances and get a +1 Power Charge helmet (more on that below). -If you can cap your elemental resistances, a Charm with % Increased Evasion Rating Per Frenzy Charge is key to scale the evasion of this build, so it should be a priority if you find yourself dying a lot. (Rolls go up to 9% Evasion Rating Per Frenzy Charge) -For Vaal Implicits, rings and belts can have %Elemental Resistance implicits, as well as aura effect increases or other damage boosts. Personally, since the damage of the build is pretty good, defensive corruptions feel the most prudent to use. For the Malachai's Loop, a Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Cold/Fire/Lightning corruption is the bee's knees, as it were. -The big boy offensive charm mods that are best are (in order): % chance to cover rares and unique enemies in ash for 10 seconds (a 20% increased fire damage taken debuff on the enemy), Culling Strike (just nice reliable damage), %chance to throw up to 4 additional traps (at low amounts will be better than Culling Strike, but can easily cause you to hit trap limit on bosses, so it's fake damage some times. Another note on this one, PoB doesn't calculate damage with additional thrown traps in mind, including from support gems and the passive tree), %increased critical strike multiplier per power charge. Other options such as %elemental damage penetration and % chance for area damage to do 50% more damage are lower value but still worth it when on a budget or as options on That Which Was Taken. -There are lots of options for your helmet slot, such as a Crown of the Inward Eye (best overall unique option), a Doedre's Scorn (best damage unique option), and a bevvy of other unique helmets, so long as they have a +1 Maximum Power Charge corruption. -Alternatively, you can make a +1 Maximum Power Charge (Warlord) rare with an awakening orb and your choice of second guarenteed prefix. I recommend the Phys Damage from Hits taken as Cold (Redeemer) modifier as your second guarenteed prefix, it's a nice chunk of physical damage mitigation. After the awakener's orb, if you have open suffixes, you can craft "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and reforge with a guarenteed Crit mod on the Harvest bench to guarentee Crit Multiplier on the suffix. Hooray, a nice helmet! Energy shield, hybrid EV/ES, or pure Evasion helmet bases are all good options for this craft. -For your body armor, a hybrid life/ES chestpiece will give the most raw effective hp, and crafting one using a fractured % Energy Shield base is the easiest way to do it. Just get the base and slap DeafeningEssences of Woe on it until it looks handsome enough for your standards. If you have the currency, you can also do some metacrafting using the "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" bench craft and reforging with either a guarenteed cold, fire, lightning, or chaos modifier to land some better suffixes with a gaurenteed resistance roll if need be. -For your one rare ring, a synthesized implicit base with either %spell damage per power charge or %evasion rating per frenzy charge (or both) are good options if you have the currency to craft a good ring using methods such as spam reforging on the harvest bench or using fossils to eventually land a ring with good resistances (i.e. a ring with both high Chaos resistance and one or two other high-tier resistance rolls). Otherwise, use a normal ring base such as a Two-stone ring or Amethyst ring to solve your resistances more easily. |-------Flasks-------| -As for most builds in modern PoE, you can instilling orb your utility flasks to use when charges reach full, or when you use a travel skill, or whatever else your preferred auto-use condition is. -For flasks that you swap to while bossing (Bottled Faith and a Quartz Flask in place of your Quicksilver and Jade Flasks, e.g.), I like to leave instilling orbs off of them so that you can choose exactly when to use them and never have any charges wasted at inopportune moments. That being said, flasks aren't a huge deal for this build outside of surviving dangerous uber mechanics like Shaper's ball phase, and even then you can easily survive these phases without flasks being up (by puting on your gamer shoes and actually dodging half of the mechanic). -Bleed/Corrupting blood immunity is very important to have on your life flask, no other suffix comes close to the survivability gain that this suffix will have. -Thanks to Pyromaniac providing shock and ignite immunity, you needn't worry about many other flask suffixes and can just focus on the ones that give output increases like Cast Speed, Movement Speed, and Evasion Rating during flask effect. |-------Playing the Build-------| -While mapping, you mostly just need to throw Explosive Trap of Shrapnel. It'll take care of everything, like a good, responsible, strong main skill ought to! -When needing extra damage for tanky rares or juiced map bosses, take this debuff priority into consideration: 1. Pyroclast Mines of Sabotage are your strongest debuff by a lot on most targets. No need to detonate them, you just want the debuff aura from the mines being on the ground. 2. Offensive curses linked to Bane (Flammability, Elemental Weakness, and Punishment) will be the next best, and generally faster than throwing Pyroclast Mines if you only want/need to cast one debuff spell 3. Assassin's Mark and defensive curses applied via Frostblink should be used last, as Assassin's Mark is a pretty small damage increase compared to 1 and 2, and defensive curses will likely be applied automattically when Frostblinking away from dangerous rares. -For Uber Pinnacle bosses (and bosses in general), you can prep for many phases by dropping 10-15 Pyroclast Mines and capping on traps underneath where the boss will activate, and pretty comfortably apply your other debuffs while your first payload of traps deals damage. After that, follow the normal priority as listed above for maximal damage. |-------What League Mechanics is the Build Good At?-------| -As a trapper, bossing is what the build excels at most, as well as league mechanics that are typically paired with bossing, such as Essence or Heist Lockers (not necessarily Heist itself, just the lockers within maps). -Other mechanics that aren't necessarily great when paired with bossing but the build is still decent at include: Blight, Ultimatum, Expedition, Harvest, Abyss, Harbingers, Bestiary, and Beyond -Mechanics that the build can do but doesn't necessarily excel at include: Betrayl, Delve, Incursion, Heist (All for basically the same reason, the build is lacking in the movement speed department) -Mechanics this build may struggle with include: Delirium (Making the monsters too tanky really makes the build's lack of recovery or crowd control show), Legion (at least in affliction league where the rares can become quite dangerous) |-------Bonus Min-Maxing Stuff-------| -You can swap out the rare vaal regalia for a Dialla's Malefaction (particularly with some gem level/% damage corruptions) to do a bunch of extra damage. You'd want Explosive Trap of Shrapnel in a green socket, and could use Empower or Enhance if you feel like it, although neither is much better than any other support the build already uses when using Pyroclast Mines to add a bunch of damage taken by enemies. You will be losing one of the only items that gives the build any raw ehp to do this, however. -Due to the sheer number of Uniques used in this build, there's not a whole lot of min-maxing that can be done outside of spending a bunch of currency getting a handful of better modifiers on your ring, helmet, and body armor, or to get double corruptions on any of the unique slots. -Like basically every other build in existence, you can slap a Mageblood on this build to make it much tankier. The absorption charges from Graven's Secret are really really good for energy shield sustain, however, so it's not a decision that lacks any tradeoffs, unlike most other builds.