Looking for suggestions - pvp budget kicker/trapper

[BananaPancakes]

Hey guys, I am looking for suggestions and strategies involving my kicker / trapper (light based) residing at east-ladder. She's already joined handful of pub duel games, and this is the setup I found to work best based on my budget so far.

Equip:
Shako (15ias / 18 light resist jewel)
MP Enigma
Fury GTs, +3 lightning sentry
Bartuc GTs (15 resist all jewel)
Trang Gloves
Shadow Dancers +2/18
+2 assassin skills, 8%FCR, 18str, 13dex, 9 resist all ammy
10FCR 10 resist all except 35 fire resist ring
240/20 Ravenfrost
Switch: 4BO CTA / Spirit Monarch
Charms: 4x plain / minor shadow GCs, 1x 31 lifer, 1x 12FHR (6 total)
2x plain / minor trap GCs, 1x 28 lifer (3 total)
Stash:
2/2/47 resists Jade Talon
Stormshield - open socket
33 spirit monarch - possibly for hdins and bone necros
Malice Feral Claw, +2 lightning sentry

Base Stats
42 strength
104 dex (75% block with SS)
369 vita

Martial Tree:
8 dtalon
Shadow Tree:
20 venom
2 mindblast
1 into rest of tree
Trap Tree:
1 to Wake of Fire
19 Shock Web
20 Light Sentry
20 Death Sentry
1 to fireblast, charged bolt sentry


with this setup I hit
66% open wounds
7/3 kicks i believe (dtalon slvl23 with battle command)
9 frame traps with lvl 24 fade; never used BoS
59% claw block
86 FHR
42 FCR - I am trying to get a 2/15 ammy to hit the next bp..but its hard :cry:
6.4k lightning sentry damage
42% damage reduce / 75 resists before anya bug except poison, meh
2.9k life


I find when I'm dueling most of the time I act like a trapper (random WoF, lay LS and spam MB / tele much) with half the damage and a much slower mindblast spam. Don't get me wrong, I am definietly killing pubs, but I don't see when I have a chance to use dtalon. When do you guys use dtalon? I try to whenever I see a chance (stunned opponent, zero block opponents, but usually it's extremely risky and I lose more life than I should have, considering the risk.

I also have a huge headache when dueling chargers, and my win % against a good one with high resists is near none. Perhaps once I hit 65FCR, the mindblast spamming will make it easier? So far they just charge past everything and I find myself teleing for my life, stopping here and there to lay traps / spam MB / recast my shadow. There I can slowly clip life until I die -_-

Also a few minor questions:
blade fury - I don't need it right? If I have time to spam it, then I could be laying traps, spamming mindblast instead
dragon flight - never used it, never missed it. it's fine with just tele?
concerning shield block: I have a SS in stash, but I never used it. I already built in dex for max block though. When to use SS? WWbarbs and chargers? I can aleast use claw block for smiters, and most chargers will smite anyway.

Strategies for dueling, suggestions for gear, and any useful advice is much appreciate, thanks beforehand
PS - friendly duels / discussion are always welcome. My assassin's name is Cushions, level89 @eastladder. *nahhh

[BananaPancakes]

aww, no comments at all? is it just too much to read?

i doubt this sin is perfect..any suggestion is appreciated :thumbsup:

or are the questions too random to answer? that's okay cause i don't know the answers myself..

[wizAdept]

Build looks alright for low budget, improvements really depend on what you can afford to get.

From what I see your priority should be to push yourself over 65+ cast bp.

From a higher budget viewpoint it can be seen as:
trang/arach/circlet/ring = 65bp
trang/arach/circlet/amulet = 65bp
trang/arach/valk = 65bp
trang/arach/15amulet/ring = 65bp (shako or coa setup)
trang/15amulet/ring/circlet = 65bp (ow belt setup)

So really it depends on what you can obtain. imo a high budget circlet setup is really the best, but a low budget plain 2/20 circlet is just not worth it, in a low budget by using trang/arach/griffons for 65 cast without using amulet/ring slot, which you can use for maras/raven for better stats.
Personally Im not a fan of shako, but if you want to keep it in your setup, get a 2/15 amulet.

If youre going to use SS with max block on a trapper hybrid, you should probably put Um'd wizardspike on there and use BoS for w/s instead.


Other improvements uh..
If you keep with fcr ring/amulet setup, try to get better ones, with +stats. stats = more hp = gg.
bartucs is also kinda weaksauce unless you build your stats around it, but that may restrict your build. imo its not worth it.


Also a few minor questions:
blade fury - I don't need it right? If I have time to spam it, then I could be laying traps, spamming mindblast instead
dragon flight - never used it, never missed it. it's fine with just tele?
concerning shield block: I have a SS in stash, but I never used it. I already built in dex for max block though. When to use SS? WWbarbs and chargers? I can aleast use claw block for smiters, and most chargers will smite anyway.I wouldn't use bf on a trap hybrid in pvp.
df has its tactical uses, but yeah for the most part all you need is tele.
Use SS whenever you need to block something. This means: barbs, chargers (no you can't block smite, but you can block charge, and c/c gets raped by charge) bowzons, wwsins, other kickers ect. Anything blockable by a shield you will do better against using a SS/75block than c/c.


I find when I'm dueling most of the time I act like a trapper (random WoF, lay LS and spam MB / tele much) with half the damage and a much slower mindblast spam. Don't get me wrong, I am definietly killing pubs, but I don't see when I have a chance to use dtalon. When do you guys use dtalon? I try to whenever I see a chance (stunned opponent, zero block opponents, but usually it's extremely risky and I lose more life than I should have, considering the risk.Usually you don't want to kick players outside of trapstun unless you really know what you are doing. Kicking helps add more stun and keeps players in place when they try to r/w out of trap stun.

Until you get really comfortable using talon you probably want to stay away from kicking barbs and hammerdins. Opponents such as sorcs necros druids and zons only minimal trapstun is needed, use kicks vs them.

Uh, maybe this will help, here is a clip I made where Im making fun of one of my friends (he was new to fb sorcs at the time) with my pvm kick/ls hybrid. The character Im playing is 65cast/86fhr/6k ls/3kick bursts/high cb/1.7k hp no battle orders. azure/spirit and stormlash/ss switch. Not geared right at all for pvp but I mollywhop my friend anyways:
http://media.putfile.com/gert-04-low
That should give you an idea of how to use kicks against casters on a similar build.

Hope that helps.

[Speedasin]

I just try to apply dtalon for OW, usually teletalon and then get the hell out of range ASAP.

Wiz what do you do against high def barbs and pallys? How do you hit them with kicks? Angelics? Also, what do you shoot for number-wise with kicks? Would a Fool's Claw (double Um'D) be a better option than Fury for pure c/c?

[mephiztophelez]

Uh, maybe this will help, here is a clip I made where Im making fun of one of my friends (he was new to fb sorcs at the time) with my pvm kick/ls hybrid. The character Im playing is 65cast/86fhr/6k ls/3kick bursts/high cb/1.7k hp no battle orders. azure/spirit and stormlash/ss switch. Not geared right at all for pvp but I mollywhop my friend anyways:
http://media.putfile.com/gert-04-low
That should give you an idea of how to use kicks against casters on a similar build.

Hope that helps.

finally, after all this time i am actually able to see one of your vids. *huzzah*

hehe, yuh, primo lesson for sorcy: never tele right where the trapper has just been, theres likely a trap-field there.

gg's.

[yelopen]

I use DTalon against all casters. As long as I have them stunned it is usually safe for me. You should always try to keep them stunned, lay down traps and MB in between kick sequences so they don't escape. If a wind druid starts casting nados or something, usually I just tele out and start that again.

I may be doing it wrong but I win pretty much all casters (some pub some not) except for my friends uber gg Nova sorc with a horribly strong TS that wipes me out in a couple hits.

[BananaPancakes]

wizadept, thanks for the extremely informative and indepth response. i agree that my priority now should be hitting the 65%fcr breakpoint somehow. most likely a circlet or ammy if i ever find one. the video is also great to learn from, its a blast to see a pvm assassin own like that.

speedasin, yeah thats usually what happens lol, quick teletalon and out

yelopen, thanks for the information. it seems to be the case for me as well. if i can get them stuck there in the first place i can talon.

i might never get the 65% fcr though, as i will start trying to get gear for a bm character..this assassin is too easily bm'd in pubs, it annoys me to see ppl pot and sorb like no tomorrow. the assassin is fun in that rare clean environment thou

thanks for all the responses