PoE 3.23 | Comprehensive Explosive Trap Trickster League Start Guide

Act 1: -------------------------------------------- In 3.21 They nerfed level 1 Explosive Trap, removed Arcane Surge's spell damage, and removed the vendor recipe for wand flat dmg which slowed down leveling with Explosive Trap. You CAN still level with Explosive Trap if you are a one-skill-enjoyer, but it's a bit slower than the meta. For 3.23 I am speed running campaign with Rolling Magma into Armageddon Brand at level 28. I'll use that all the way to early maps for clear. For Single Target I'll start using Fire Trap at level 12 and keep that until Explosive Trap starts outscaling it around level 75. Gem Progression is: Level 4: Buy Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation after Tidal Island. Buy Flame Wall. Shoot your Magma balls through the flame wall to get additional flat fire dmg. Level 8: Get an added damage support for whichever links you are able to find, either Added Cold Damage or Added Lightning Damage, then once you kill Brutus grab Combustion from vendor Level 12: Pick up Fire Trap for single target. Link it with Trap and Mine Damage as soon as you complete Yeena's quest in A2 IMPORTANT - BEFORE BRUTUS - Since they removed the vendor wands and Arcane Surge has lost 10% more spell damage, you need to make sure you grab a BBG or BBB link BEFORE you fight Brutus and a Goat Horn or two for added flat damage to spells implicit. The third link for added damage with Rolling Magma makes a big difference. ALSO IMPORTANT - Because the vendor wand craft is gone, it's now worthwhile to pick up and ID all caster base weapons if you don't mind the delay. Rune Daggers, Wands, Sceptres, etc. can all roll flat added spell damage. At ilvl 20, it's roughly 22% of the mod pool to hit some tier of added flat damage to spells. In the meantime, grab Goat Horns before you fight Brutus to make the fight very easy. Once you get to A3 Dialla you can bench added flat fire damage to one or both weapons and use those for the remainder of the campaign. OFFHAND GEM LEVELING - As soon as you can, purchase a three green socket weapon swap for both slots. You'll want to buy 6x Explosive Traps and level them as you progress through acts. If you forget, it's not a huge deal just make sure you grab them from the A1 vendor who will level the gems for you as you progress up to level 15. It's important to get quality on your gems BEFORE you vaal them. Quality is worth roughly double the damage an extra level would be, and that means you should value a 20/20 gem over a 21/0. Vendor Search Strings: --------------------------------------------- Movement speed boots + BBB / GGG / GGB + gem levels "b-b-b|g-g-b|g-[gb]-g|b-g-g|nne|rint|ll g|Earn" Act 2: -------------------------------------------- Your links at this point should be Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation + Combustion for clear and Fire Trap + Trap and Mine Damage + Swift Assembly We'll be scaling that from here on out. You'll use this all the way through early maps until around level 75 when Explosive Trap starts to outscale it. Act 3: --------------------------------------------- Once you get to Solaris Temple Level 2 go into the Eternal Lab and grab the bench craft for Fire Damage. It's a huge dps boost for only a few transmutes. I used this craft + a level 4 wand all the way through campaign into maps. At level 28 you can swap Rolling Magma for Armageddon Brand from A3 Library. It feels AMAZING through campaign and we are already scaling fire damage and elemental damage on our tree so you don't need brand wheels for it to shine. I'll use Armageddon Brand + Elemental Proliferation + Combustion for clear all the way through white and yellow maps. The reason for using Arma brand is the clear is incredible and a cast time of 0.36s (vs. a trap skill in campaign which is closer to 0.9s) means it is a very comfortable move-while-killing-things combination. Act 4: --------------------------------------------- Make sure you grab Grace and equip one from here on out. You'll feel too squishy as you make progress into late campaign without it. YOUR FIRST ASCENDENCY should be One Step Ahead. It's an amazing QoL to have the extra action speed, be chill immune, and slow down enemies. Act 7-9: --------------------------------------------- Around A7-9 4L your Fire Trap setup by adding an Inspiration. It will reduce mana pressure and make the end of campaign very smooth. You want BBGR on any piece of gear. You'll also want to 4L your Armageddon Brand with Fire Penetration if you are ok on Mana, and Inspiration if you need more mana help. This will be a BBBR piece of gear. YOUR SECOND ASCENDENCY should be Polymath. This provides a substantial damage increase and sustain. All the way up until you find an Alternating Sceptre you will benefit from the life/es/mana recovery from Polymath as your Armageddon Brand and Fire Trap both Ignite, and DoT damage kills count as you. Early Maps -------------------------------------------- As soon as you get to maps, pick up T1/T2 bases for Energy Shield and/or Hybrid Evasion. Hit them with an Essence of Woe (any tier) to get a good base ES pool going and make sure you've allocated Ghost Dance. Next fix your flasks as they're almost certainly terrible out of campaign. Get a Jade flask (important!) because all of the synergy with ES / Trickster / Ghost Dance relies on a good Evasion pool. A spirit shield with a single Essence of Scorn is also a very strong source of crit chance, defense, and additional ES. ASAP Craft two +1 gems sceptres or Rune Daggers (depending on what movement skill you prefer). You can do this buy purchasing +x% quality gems that are tagged Fire off of trade (i.e., Blazing Salvo, Armageddon Brand, Fire Trap, etc.). These drop all the time and can be bought for alchemy orbs. You need 40% combined with a FIRE tag and you can vendor a WHITE sceptre with the gems to get back a MAGIC sceptre with +1 Fire Spell Skill Gems on it. This is a substantial early maps dps boost and should be done right away. Find a belt you like (Crystal is lovely) and hit it with an Essence of Zeal of any tier to grant a high roll of Trap Throwing Speed. You should be comfortable with that gear into red maps. ASCENDENCY ORDER ------------------------------------------- 1. One Step Ahead 2. Polymath 3. Escape Artist 4. Spellbreaker Check the endgame PoB for pushing damage further and starting to boss. IMPORTANT FOR DEFENSES: If you feel too squishy, try some of these things (1) Equip a shield. Ideally an ES base. Hit it with an Essence of Scorn to get crit chance and/or look for life/ES and +1 to Fire skill gems. Once you go Explosive Trap, Phys or Fire both work. (2) Heartstopper is an amazing defensive layer and can be traded for Polymath. You'll lose about 18% of your damage. (3) You can take additional Life and Life/ES wheels for better hit mitigation. These are at Revenge of the Hunted and Melding. Revenge of the Hunted is a better value at 3 passive points.