My Trickster is now ready to crush the Endgame! ( sort of ) | Ep.5 | Path of Exile [3.28]

Siphoning Trap of Pain is now the best Cold DoT skill. Due to it's nature of being a spell and a trap at the same time, Siphoning Trap of Pain gives Trickster much more value. Being near trap/mine nodes, Trickster can now rush more damaging nodes and pick less life early on. Trickster's pathing used to reach the Templar area, which meant a long passive tree stretch. Instead of Malevolence, we can now opt for Skitterbots, which reserve less mana, allowing us to skip Charisma and pick even more damage. Besides these benefits, the trap playstyle is much more interesting. It is much faster to "cast" our spell and the trap covers a lot of ground, which boosts the clearspeed to new heights. This trap does NOT stack with itself ( tested ), meaning that only one of the traps thrown will target a boss and the others will stay idle or target other enemies in range. Leveling: ------------ This isn't set in stone, but the best way for me now is to level as a trap or a mine until I can use Siphoning Trap of Pain. The best skill for me is Explosive Trap. During the first few levels, I link Explosive Trap with Chance to Poison support. The support gem is given by default and the only thing I have to do is to change the skill ( from Viper Strike ). This skill has really strong dps and benefits from flat added damage. Early on, a wand with added flat damage to spells implicit adds a lot of total damage. As the character levels up, I try to add % spell damage on top of flat damage modifiers. It's important to have a mix of these stats, not just one or another. Wand + Shield setup is required, because the 2 movement speed skills used are Shield Charge with Frostblink. Having high mobility is a must. Leveling with Explosive Trap means that one of the priorities is to get dedicated trap nodes. These trap nodes will be kept for Siphoning Trap of Pain, because both are traps and have the same traits. This is a really nice QoL for leveling towards our Cold DoT skill. As for the passive skill tree, the best way is to path towards the top, while picking relevant trap related modifiers. After that, the goal is to reach the biggest trap cluster. Explosive Trap does not benefit from "Traps cannot be damaged" mastery. Do not path towards suppression yet and instead, path towards the witch area. Pick as much damage as possible, while also picking reservation efficiency and area of effect. Pick even more reservation efficiency and damage, then suppression. Add even more suppression later on and a bit more life. These stats can be picked in the order that you prefer, but the general idea is that suppression should be picked towards the end, as well as most masteries. Pick or skip "Traps cannot be damaged" once you swapped to Siphoning Trap of Pain, which can be done as early as Act 4. This mastery needs more testing around it, because I am not sure if it's mandatory to take. I took it because I noticed that my traps were lasting a bit less than normal. A trap has by default a 2 second window, in which it cannot be damaged. This skill lasts for 4 seconds on the ground ( inactive ) and 3 seconds while firing ( active ). Ascendancy points: 1. Swift Killer - Damage + Speed 2. Heartstopper - Defense 3. Polymath - Damage + Recovery 4. Escape Artist - Defense Picking "Polymath" in the third lab is the best, since we are trying to add a lot of masteries towards the end. Mana reservation efficiency is important to enable all 3 auras as early as possible. Make it a priority. Mana reservation efficiency is also important to enable the use of Stormblast Mine. ------------ Stormblast Mine is now the coolest ( pun intended ) Cold DoT tech at our disposal. It is an aura mine that can be thrown after our Siphoning Trap is already on the ground, targeting enemies. That aura makes nearby enemies take increased damage per mine. Since Cold DoT has a "hit and run" playstyle, it is very synergistic to throw a Siphoning Trap and then throw Stormblast Mines. It was never possible before to press Vortex or another Cold DoT spell and then throw Stormblast Mines, because the spells need cast speed and the mines need throw speed. The usage of mines was extremely clunky, making it an unreliable tech option. Since Siphoning Trap of Pain is a trap, it needs trap throwing speed, but this modifier is often found paired with mine throwing speed. Example: "Trap and Mine Throwing Speed" small passive point or "Guerilla Tactics" cluster jewel notable, that gives both trap and mine throwing speed Due to this, it is also possible now to play Cold DoT with Saboteur. He mostly has defense + damage for mines/traps that hit enemies, but he also has an ascendancy notable that boosts the aura effect of mine skills. A Cold DoT Saboteur would get defensive nodes and try to boost the effect of the aura from Stormblast Mine. He would also play with life instead of energy shield and try to maximize damage ( the glass cannon counterpart of Trickster ). ------------ At level 85, I added more damage and a bit more defense. Replica Dragonfang's Flight with +3 Siphoning Trap gems is insane for leveling, especially for this skill ( same scenario for Katabasis ). Since the idea is to boost trap damage, the support skill ( Cold Snap ) will have weaker damage numbers. Not supporting Cold Snap as well as Siphoning Trap is, as such, considered fine at this point. Later on, a classic +4 Focused Amulet will be required, because it supports both the main skill and the support skill at the same time. Bane is my way of "automating" curses. Curses are the highest damage multipliers for Cold DoT. Having multiple curses on one target is insane. Instead of pressing multiple buttons in order to cast all curses available, it is better to press Bane once, which will apply all linked curses ( 2-3-4 curses ). ------------ Level 90 is where this character needs to swap to Energy Shield. It is the perfect time for me to do this transition, because I reach high tier maps at this level, including T16s. T16s hurt a lot for a life based character. Triumvirate Authority enables consistent Vaal Cold Snap early ( without Trialmaster ascendancy ). Picking Runegraft of the Soulwick is mandatory for Vaal Cold Snap. The ring got buffed this league, where it's damage can be upgraded. Awakened gems also got deleted, which means: 1. indirect Cold DoT nerf ( sadge ) 2. more reasons to play this ring ( since the gems won't give as much damage as before ). As such, Triumvirate Authority now competes with the other 3 unique ring staples for Cold DoT, which are: 1. Fated End 2. Doedre's Damning 3. Anathema Fated End is also seeing a resurgence in Mirage League, because Siphoning Trap of Pain can skip curse related passives on the tree and focus more on clusters. If the character doesn't invest in curse effect at all, this ring essentially gives a top end total of: (220-100)/2 = 60% curse effect This ring can also be upgraded with a Volatile Vaal Orb in order to give even more raw Cold DoT dps. Doedre's Damning and Anathema are similar. Anathema gives passive skill points ( Whispers of Doom is skipped ) and an extra curse, while Doedre's Damning gives elemental resistances with the extra curse. It depends on the setup for which one is better. Since Trickster was aiming to incorporate Melding of the Flesh before, he needed a lot of elemental resistances. I will update the notes later on, where I will discuss more in depth about these rings. ------------ High mana regen is required to sustain the cost of Siphoning Trap of Pain in a 6L. Foulborn Sunblast gives more AoE, more traps thrown at once ( amazing clearspeed ) and makes the trap not be triggered by enemies, only by Skitterbots. This way, Siphoning Trap of Pain can become a pure bossing tool if Skitterbots are removed, due to the 4.9 second delay ( my trap duration ). The new exceptional support gem "Invention" adds damage to the trap based on how many seconds passed since the trap has been thrown and the moment it sprung. Since there is a massive delay, the trap will come out after 4.9 seconds and get full benefits from Invention. Alternatively, Siphoning Trap of Pain can be used with Foulborn Sunblast and Skitterbots while mapping, without Invention support. The clearspeed will be greatly increased and Skitterbots will trigger the traps for me. I noticed that there is still a delay between triggers, because Skitterbots have to travel to each trap location to activate the traps. It is a little bit clunky in that regard, at least for me. ------------