A new guide to trappers. Interested?

[tl998]

Hello all! This past few days I've been toying around with a a trapper build that I haven't seen any other person try yet. It's a 'Safe' build by which I mean the main objective of this build is to not get killed easily. If you're swamped and have no way out, you should still have a lot of time to save and exit with this build. Perfect for hardcore (even though I don't play HC. My trapsin has never, ever died to a monster). This build is also geared for those who are poor, or only lightly-twinked, and most everybody should be able to afford the gear I recommend. In any case, would people be interestedin a guide like this? It will be the first time I'm writing a guide, so please bear with me if you see and flaws :) I welcome any and all constructive criticism. I'm in act2 hell right now, and I'm going to try to take her thru it solo for the most part. Once I finish the I will start the guide.

[Indemaijinj]

Indeed I would and I have no doubt that others will too.


I suppose such a build would also provide a more varied play experience than your standard max-damager.

[tl998]

Well the one and only downside to this build is the lack of dual-elemental damage. Lightling is your only source of attack pretty much, so you'll have to be strategic and coordinate attacks with your merc and your shadow who will provide secondary sources of damage to take care of IMMUNEs. the only problems I've really had are boss packs lead by a lightning/physical immune unique. If I really can't get past something I'll mind blast, and then move on. If you REALLY want to kill itI suppose you can throw a lot of weak fireblasts (mine are at like 130 damage each).

[lextalionis]

I'm a huge fan of untweaked, guides for po people. Because as much as I talk about Diablo and know about Diablo, I don't actually have too many sojs to back it up. So, I like guides designed for people without access to the best equipment.

[SoulTaker]

gl dood, hope it comes out good, i think me n you were trying to make an assy bout the same time, but iv been busy lvling a merc =\
my assy has MANY unused skill pnts, keep that guide coming dood...
=D

[tl998]

Thanks for the support, guys :) I know what my project will be the next few days. Oh and SoulTaker, I've my assassinf or like...5 days I think? and I spent 3 and a half of those days leveling my merc :) Leveling a level 7 merc to a level 77 is a PAIN.

[C-Beat]

all guides a rewelcome. however, there allready is a untwinked lightning trapper guide. it would be a bit of waste if yours turns out more or less the same.

C-Beat

[SoulTaker]

i sent you a pm tl998, Check It
=D

[tl998]

I made sure to read that guide even before I thought about a guide. I looked ariund the forums, and didn't see anyone else with my build idea.

JRichard's guide is a good one, mind you (although I can't access the page about trap-laying techniques for some reason) but his build just wasn't what I was looking for at the time. My build is designed with NOT DYING in mind, and so far, with very common equipment, I have succeeded. My equipment lsit isn't completely untwinked, but it's kinda close. Trust me, you'll see when my guide is posted that it is definitely Different from Jrichard's.

[CronicTKY]

Problem solved; change last part of URl "page=4" to "page=5", I had same prob.

[tl998]

I'm trying ot access it fromt he Strategy Compendium, and I didn't see any page 4 or page 5 in the url there. :(

[jrichard]

try it from here: JRichard's Assassin Stuff (http://e.domaindlx.com/JRichard/D2)

I'd be interested in seeing the guide. I'll defer any other comments until you post it, but will say i'm confused about the build being focused on not dying. Seeing as how i play HC, all my builds are pointed towards not dying.

jrichard

[tl998]

Well let's just say your guide is terrific, but I disagree with a few point in your guide. My stat point allocation calls for heavy investment in the shadow tree. I will be working on the guide, like i said, after I beat hell. I still haven't died yet and I hope I won't :)

[tl998]

Oh btw, I know your build is for playing untwinked, but I am interested in your personal setup. More specifically, I'm interetsed in the charms/jewelry you use. I'll share mine once the guide is written.

[jrichard]

My most recent trapsin is currently level 64 HCL. She's only wearing stuff she's found. I think the rings give fire, cold resists and mana. The ammy gives mana, poison resist and +1 assassin skills. Not anything exceptional to speak of. She's wearing smoke armor and carrying two +2 Assassin blade talons. Reast of the gear is peasant crown and rare gloves and boots that offer lightning resist. For charms, i have a lightning resist GC and two +mana GCs. some +mana small charms round it out.

She's just killed nihlathak in NM and i'll probably do the ancients later tonight. Then i'll pause to do some meph runs, cube a few GCs and gather money to gamble better rings before moving on.

One thing that makes me wonder is this: When she did anya last night the place was full of lightning immune gloams. How do you handle those? My merc wasn't gonna take care of that many LIs without my help. I guess the question that comes to my mind and the reason i'd like to see your guide is have you sacrificed too much killing power for the sake of safety? How does the build do when not soloing? What's she like in 4 or more player games without help?

jrichard

[tl998]

Lightling immunes are still killable even in late nm for me for the most part. Maybe I got a lucky roll and didn't see many LIs during NM Anya quest. MY build does rely on a strong merc to help, and I made sure that my merc stayed near my level every step of the way. However, I don't think my merc choice is the optimal choice for this build. I bought a rogue merc from normal and stuck with her the whole time. She performs solidly, and can help me handle LIs given something is tanking, like my shadow, or myself. However, in late HELL she's just not doing enough damage anymore to handle more than one at a time, and as I get deeper and deeper in hell I've had to mindblast and use cloak of shadows more often than before to park a ridiculous Lightling immune/physical immune pack and then moving on.

Even if she is partied, my sin is far from useless against LIs because mind blasts can keep the enemies stunned while my partners beat them to a pulp. Cloak of shadows will stop annoying Balrog flame attacks/Gloam lightling etc. She is a great support char in a party, in addition to being able to kill things if said things are not Lightling Immune. And of course once there are bodies a maxed Death sentry does wonders. I'm current in act4 Hell, but I'm going to do a bit of shopping first before I try to kill D. Actually, the bosses are all easy...it's getting to them that's hard. I'm going to shop for +3traps/+3LS claws from Anya so give my LS a +6 boost over what I have now.

For a merc, I think an act2 Holy Freeze merc or even an act5 merc would've been better, as they can be another tank, keeping me even safer. However, Ive been wanting to use a rogue merc for a long time and I figured my shadow can tank well enough (she can). Still, for max safeness act2 holy freeze would the top choice, and can probably do more damage than my rogue.

In conclusion,from what I've seen my char can do so far...she can solo pretty much all of norm/nightmare, but there are certain spots in hell where it's pretty impossible (or would takes 5 hours) to clear. She has to either party (even a 2 player party works great) or she has to park the monsters and move on. My build was made with survival as the TOP priority. While I was hoping she could solo hell by herself, it was never a requirement when I started her. Remember, she is FAR from a slouch even in a party AND against LIs. No one will call you a leecher when you keep the monsters helpless and stunned and blind while your teammates safely dispose of them.

[SoulTaker]

ever since ,i belive HoS told me, about a might merc with a kelpie, i cant switch to nething else...they do some good physical dmg and still slow,
simple but it works

get that guide coming~iv been lvling mercs past couple days and bs'ing more then lvling my assy, lvl like 12 to 20 are argh, im dreading it....

[lextalionis]

ever since ,i belive HoS told me, about a might merc with a kelpie, i cant switch to nething else...they do some good physical dmg and still slow,
simple but it works

get that guide coming~iv been lvling mercs past couple days and bs'ing more then lvling my assy, lvl like 12 to 20 are argh, im dreading it....

I wouldn't use a might merc, I'd use a HF merc. It will be slow on top of slow. Even a Defiance merc gives you better support than a might merc. I agree with the Kelpie as a weapon. Its a much cheaper version of the Decryptify casting Polearm. I'm a huge fan of both for their slow, but you still need to use the merc that helps you the most with your build.

[SoulTaker]

I wouldn't use a might merc, I'd use a HF merc. It will be slow on top of slow. Even a Defiance merc gives you better support than a might merc. I agree with the Kelpie as a weapon. Its a much cheaper version of the Decryptify casting Polearm. I'm a huge fan of both for their slow, but you still need to use the merc that helps you the most with your build.
iv nevered used a defiance or prayer or nething like that, never needed it or at least i personally think id rather have 2 types of dmg, for those immunes...i beleieve
tl998 even siad he cant rlly kill da immunes, just mindblast and run away or sumthing...(correct me if i wrong, thats just wut i think he said from memeory)

a holy freeze with kelpie would be some slow *** monsters, but still, lightning immunes will still be a biotch...and personally do you rlly need em that slow??

[tl998]

Depends. Some immunes are impossible (like physica/lightling immunes with a LOT of life) while others are doable. I've never had to shy away from an immune in nightmare, but some in hell I've had to run past. Since your merc is an important source of secondary damage, I'd say the MIGHT merc is viable especially if your shadow is buff enough to tank entire crowds (mine is most of the time). Besides, mind blast has no penalty in later difficulties so you can keep monsters stunned and let your merc/shadow whack away with impunity. I'm in act4 hell right now, but I've been having lots of homework, and things are a bit slow. I'm hoping to kill baal sometime tomorrow, and then I'll get started on the guide. I already have a good idea of what I'mg oing to say,b ut I want to beat the game first with this char.

And don't forgot CLOAK of SHADOW! This skill is so good in 1.10 it's not even funny.

[lextalionis]

iv nevered used a defiance or prayer or nething like that, never needed it or at least i personally think id rather have 2 types of dmg, for those immunes...i beleieve
tl998 even siad he cant rlly kill da immunes, just mindblast and run away or sumthing...(correct me if i wrong, thats just wut i think he said from memeory)

a holy freeze with kelpie would be some slow *** monsters, but still, lightning immunes will still be a biotch...and personally do you rlly need em that slow??


What other advantage can you really get from your mercs? And slow, is not attacking you. Which is great defense. But decide what you like. Don't forget teh decryptify polearm either.

Do you use the Shadow Warrior Shadow Master learning trick?

[CronicTKY]

I'm trying ot access it fromt he Strategy Compendium, and I didn't see any page 4 or page 5 in the url there. :(

This might be a little OT now, and I apologize if this takes too much space, but here's "Trap Laying Techniques" from JRichard's guide for tl998:

Trap Laying Techniques

They majority of mana and killing speed issues most people have when running Trapsins are probably tied up in how they are placing their traps. Trap placement is key to taking these from okay builds to great builds. In normal and most of nightmare, you can get by with just spamming out five traps in a rather haphazard fashion. It’s not going to be as fast a method of killing, but it will work. In late nightmare and hell level, things will change. It’s best to just get yourself used to using good trap placement right from the beginning. You’ll have lots of room for error while learning and by the time it’s necessary, it’ll be second nature.

As a general rule, you should almost never namelock a target to lay your traps. If you do, the traps will get placed around the target where the game thinks there’s room for them. Your LS’s will fire in all sorts of different directions and many CBS bolts will miss. As for Fire Blast, that’s a lot like running ranged character, you can namelock them if they’re standing still, but you need to learn how to lead targets that are moving.

Lightning Sentry

LS fires in a straight line and pierces through all enemies until it reaches it’s maximum range or gets stopped by a large obstacle, i.e. a wall, tree or rock.

This trap is perfectly suited for lined up monsters.

LS’s range increases with more points. If you can, place them to continue down long hallways after hitting your target or into open areas if you’re outside.

Often times, as a group of monsters approach you they string out a little and line up. This trap placed in a stack in front of such a group will tear them up.
If the group is more bunched up, say for instance around your shadow or mercenary, you don’t want to stack the traps. Lay them close together in a slightly curved line off to one side of the group. You’ll do more damage to the whole group than if you just stacked them.

As a general rule of thumb for LS, always keep in mind what is behind the monster you’re trying to target with LS and adjust your placement to hit as many enemies as possible.

Charged Bolt Sentry

CBS releases a set of charged bolts every time it fires that travel outward from the trap at slight angles from each other causing it to spread it’s damage in an arc that widens the farther away from the trap the bolts get. The bolts from CBS do not pierce, once they hit a target they are gone.

Most often you don’t want this trap to be directly left, right, up, or down from your targets. You want to place this at angles in-between. If we use the clock reference, place them at around 2, 5, 8 or 11o’clock rather than 3, 6, 9, or 12 o'clock.

Versus singles monsters, you want the CBS traps to be as close as possible to the target. Multiple CBS bolts can hit the same target and if the traps are placed right, all the bolts can hit one large target.

This is how I kill bosses with this trap. First of all, count on laying these traps in groups of six, not five. Lay the first one far enough from the target that you’re not namelocked on it. Without letting the mouse button up, move the cursor right next to the boss (at an angle, not directly up, down, left or right) and lay five more traps without letting the button up. This will erase your first trap and leave you with five traps right next to, almost on top of, the boss. Most if not all the bolts should hit. When used this way, CBS will deal more damage to a single monster than LS by far. If your placement is bad and bolts start missing, it will do much less damage than LS. CBS is really a finesse trap.

Against groups, once again it’s not best to stack these traps unless the targets are lined up. Using CBS against a group will kill more slowly than LS, but it has an advantage in that it spreads the damage out better. It can be easier to keep an entire group in hit recovery with CBS. It’s a way to keep your mercenary and shadow a little safer in fights against a large number of small targets. Flayers and Fallen come to mind as two groups this works well against. Demon Imps also spring up as a group to use this against. Personal note – I hate those little teleporting pains in the butt! –End personal note. To place them against groups, think of the area that you want to cover. It can even be effective to place them all around a group and let them all fire towards the center (not against the imps!).

Fire Blast

FB doesn’t have a whole lot of tactics attached to it, but it has a few things that should be mentioned. First, learn how to lead a target. You’ll notice that the arc when you throw it very far is quite high. Make sure to adjust how much you lead the target with to accommodate this. Secondly, don’t forget that FB has a small damage radius. If you’re dealing with a group, toss it in the middle, not at the edge of the group. Finally, FB doesn’t count against your five trap total, feel free to spam them while your other traps are firing. It will drain your mana quickly if you do this, so have mana pots available if you have a low mana pool.

Death Sentry

Since all we’re looking for from DS is the corpse explosion, I’ll talk about that. If you plan on using the lightning damage, it fires just like LS and the tactics will be the same. Most often you’ll place four of another trap and drop a DS trap last to help cleanup groups once the first trap has provided a few bodies.

To better understand how this trap works, you need to think of three different ranges. The first one I’ll call the targeting range. This is how close to the trap a monster has to be in order for it to fire it’s lightning bolt. The second is the bolt’s range or the distance it will travel once it’s fired. The third is listed in the description on the skill screen. It’s the corpse explosion radius. The corpse explosion radius is measured from the body, not from the trap. Now, the corpse explosion can happen on any body within the bolt’s range. In order for the corpse to explode, an enemy has to come within the corpse explosion range of the body. Once an enemy comes within the corpse explosion range, the body will explode and do damage in the radius listed on the character screen The trap, however will stay up until it has fired it’s lightning it’s maximum times. What this all means is it’s possible to lay a DS trap outside of it’s targeting range and get corpse explosions to happen on bodies within the bolt’s range, but because the trap doesn’t fire it’s maximum times, it does not get used up. I’ve had bodies explode for me several screens away from the DS trap when using high level DS. You can drop a DS every so often even if no enemies are around and still get the corpse explosion effect. Just make sure you don’t overwrite the DS trap that you left behind. Learning to estimate these ranges, I leave up to you if you want to try an take advantage of this. It’s something that can only be learned with practice in my opinion.

With all of these, don't forget to use CoS and MB. CoS won't just blind enemy ranged attackers to you, it'll also help hold all monsters in place for your traps to go to work on them. MB will stun them, it breaks their AI pattern if they are still headed to where you are after casting CoS and it can give you a few temporary allies to take the heat off of both you and your minions.

I really need to thank the members of the Assassin Forums at both the Amazon Basin and DiabloII.Net for a lot of information. I couldn’t possibly begin to sort out what comes from whom. Thank you all. A big thanks to Son of Rah and Bandit xx for their 1.09 PvM Trapper guide. I’m hoping the updated version for this patch comes out soon!

jrichard

[tl998]

Cronik, thanks but I've already managed to access it :)

As of this moment (I just got my internet back because Adelphia's cable server went haywire for like an hour or two) I'm still working on my guide. I'm not sure how to format it tho so it may look pretty bad when I first post it. anyways it should be posed within an hour or two assuming my internet connection stays up.