CarloC
20-07-2008, 10:19
Shock Trooper
A Lightning/Fire trap hybrid. Instead of focusing on Lightning Sentry, you'd focus on, ultimately, Fire Blast and Death Sentry.
On the road....
Let's first max Fire Blast and Death Sentry. Fire Blast deals 348 damage (ew, right?) and Death Sentry is an effective corpse-exploder, albeit with weak lightning damage (although with 11 shots, thanks to Fire Blast).
We're currently very weak. Therefore, we'll max Lightning Sentry. We won't actually use lightning sentry much at all, and you'll see why in a bit. If you max LS, death sentry now deals 1000 damage at level 20, and fire blast deals 550~ damage at level 20.
Now we're getting somewhere. At this stage, lightning sentry does pretty much the same lightning damage as death sentry, and death sentry has 1 more shot in it's lifespan. It also blows up corpses for 40-80% of the corpse's life at a 9.6 yard radius. This is key to this build, since Death Sentry will be your main trap.
At this point, you can choose to leave the trap tree like this, and level up your shadow master early.
However, there's more you can do to make yourself stronger. If you want, you can leave shadow master at a low level, and max Wake of Fire. While Wake of Inferno is synergized by both Death Sentry and Fire Blast, and will have a higher listed damage than Wake of Fire due to these synergies, it only does around 1/3 of its listed damage (bugs are fun). Therefore, it's better to use Wake of Fire as Fire Blast's Synergy.
If you max Wake of Fire, it deals 190~ damage at level 20. Yeah, it's kind of weak, but its fast. It's real use is as a synergy, though. Your 550~ damage fire blast now deals 750~ damage at level 20, and scales VERY well with +skill gear (at slvl 25, Fire Blast's damage nearly doubles and deals 1340 damage).
As a Shock Trooper, with trap skills at slvl 25 (with the borderline minimum in easily obtained +skill gear):
Fire Blast deals 1340 damage
Death Sentry deals 3-1470 damage
Wake of Fire deals 280 damage per rapid wave
Lightning Sentry (although you won't really be using it) will deal 5 to 1650~ damage.
This takes up 80 skill points, which is obtainable at level 70ish.
From here on, you can make your fire blast stronger through Wake of Inferno (which also makes Wake of Fire stronger), or you can also choose to level up Shadow Master so she's able to tank in hell (slvl17 with your +skill gear is great).
Let's compare this to the normal Lightning Trapper.
You max LS, DS, and one of LS's synergies. Some decide to max Fire Blast.
As a Lightning Trapper with Fire Blast maxed and traps at slvl25:
Fire Blast deals 1340 damage
Lightning Sentry deals 5-2740 damage
Death Sentry deals 3-1475 lightning damage
Lightning Trappers have a strong Lightning Sentry, which has a higher max damage than any of a Shock Trooper's traps, but the actual average damage of lightning sentry is around 1400 damage. A Shock Trooper's Wake of Fire deals 300~ damage to many enemies very quickly, and our combination of Death Sentry and Wake of Fire traps can work just as well as many of a lightning trapper's LSs. We'll also have more corpses going boom, which is a plus, and we deal with lightning immunes better.
The Shock Trooper build may seem too fire centric to some, but remember that Death Sentry deals 1470 max lightning damage at slvl25, which is respectable, and its corpse explosion effect will take care of many enemies. Lightning Trappers concentrate on Lightning Sentry, and may pull out a Death Sentry a screen away for the corpse explosion effect. However, a Shock Trooper will use Death Sentry primarily for it's corpse explosion and lightning damage, and corpses will be exploding very rapidly due to many DSs being up and running at once. They'll also be creating corpses effectively with their powerful Fire Blast and WoF.
General combat:
Spam Fire Blast on one enemy to start a corpse explosion chain with Death Sentry. Wake of Fire is useful for finishing off enemies after they've been blown up by DS, and is also helpful for taking care of large groups.
When up against Lightning Immunes:
Use Wake of Fire and Death Sentry. Fire Blast will, of course, be destroying most enemies. Corpse exploding works just as well here.
When up against Fire immunes:
Use Death Sentry. It will deal lightning damage and blow up corpses. Fire Blast and Wake of Fire are useless here, but Lightning Sentry is not. You may use LS to take Wake of Fire's place. However, you may find a more effective approach is concentrating on Crowd Control (CoS and MB) to help lock up enemies while 5 Death Sentry traps do what they do best. Your Lightning Sentry deals only around 150-200 more max damage than Death Sentry, so concentrating on Death Sentry works fine.
When up against Fire/Lightning immunes:
Run! Just kidding. This fight is similar as when you're up against fire immunes, except your Death Sentry won't be dealing any lightning damage. Here, what you can do is concentrate on Crowd Control (Cos and MB) while your merc and shadow master have their way with the enemy. MB is especially useful here. The key here is to concentrate on killing one enemy as to set up a corpse explosion chain. The corpse explosion damage will be weaker, but still very effective. You can choose to break the immunities, but it's not required. You have an effective physical damage source, and Fire/Lightning immunes aren't common enough to worry too much about.
When up against Physical immunes:
Not a big deal. Corpse explosion will still be dealing 50% fire damage, and your traps will be working in full effect.
When up against Physical/Fire or Physical/Lightning immunes:
Argh. Use the trap that they aren't immune against. If it's a Phys/Lightning immune, your fire blast will still be effective. If it's a Phys/Fire immune, Death Sentry's lightning damage will be effective. Turn up the Crowd Control nob.
When up against Physical/Fire/Lightning:
What the hell do you expect to do? Break their immunities or RUN. Heck, you can choose to run against double immunes too if you want. No big deal. Blizzard (the company) wins here. I think they deserve it.
As for gear, it's pretty much the same as Lightning Trappers. +3 trap claws are as effective as ever, or you can go with bartucs+trap claw as to build up your CC skills (CoS and MB) as well as Fade and Shadow Master. In this guide, I used +5 trap skills as a very conservative amount. You should be able to find some more +skill gear in amulets and such. Overall, the gear is extremely cheap. This build, like the lightning trapper, is definitely doable untwinked.
Skill Allocations:
20 Fire Blast
1 Shock Web
1 Charged Bolt Sentry
20 Lightning Sentry
20 Death Sentry
20 Wake of Fire
1 in every Shadow tree skill except for Venom.
1-2 Mind Blast (so your shadow master uses it more often)
1-XX in Shadow Master
You can choose to max either WoI, Shadow Master, or whatever after level 80+. I recommend Shadow Master, but some dislike AI support, so maxing Wake of Inferno will be useful here as to make Wake of Inferno and Fire Blast stronger. You can also go half-half (10 in Shadow Master and 10 in WoI) and you'll be alright (try to get Shadow Master to slvl 17, though, so she's geared up).
Let me just say that this build isn't meant to beat the Lightning Trapper build or anything. Both are great, and this is simply a different variation of the popular trapper builds. I don't feel like you lose too much fire-immune killing power as a Shock Trooper. Sure, your lightning and death sentry trap damage is lower, but corpse explosion works very well and you're still doing respectable lightning damage. For what you gain in versatility (as a fire/lightning trap hybrid), you don't lose a whole lot, imo.
A Lightning/Fire trap hybrid. Instead of focusing on Lightning Sentry, you'd focus on, ultimately, Fire Blast and Death Sentry.
On the road....
Let's first max Fire Blast and Death Sentry. Fire Blast deals 348 damage (ew, right?) and Death Sentry is an effective corpse-exploder, albeit with weak lightning damage (although with 11 shots, thanks to Fire Blast).
We're currently very weak. Therefore, we'll max Lightning Sentry. We won't actually use lightning sentry much at all, and you'll see why in a bit. If you max LS, death sentry now deals 1000 damage at level 20, and fire blast deals 550~ damage at level 20.
Now we're getting somewhere. At this stage, lightning sentry does pretty much the same lightning damage as death sentry, and death sentry has 1 more shot in it's lifespan. It also blows up corpses for 40-80% of the corpse's life at a 9.6 yard radius. This is key to this build, since Death Sentry will be your main trap.
At this point, you can choose to leave the trap tree like this, and level up your shadow master early.
However, there's more you can do to make yourself stronger. If you want, you can leave shadow master at a low level, and max Wake of Fire. While Wake of Inferno is synergized by both Death Sentry and Fire Blast, and will have a higher listed damage than Wake of Fire due to these synergies, it only does around 1/3 of its listed damage (bugs are fun). Therefore, it's better to use Wake of Fire as Fire Blast's Synergy.
If you max Wake of Fire, it deals 190~ damage at level 20. Yeah, it's kind of weak, but its fast. It's real use is as a synergy, though. Your 550~ damage fire blast now deals 750~ damage at level 20, and scales VERY well with +skill gear (at slvl 25, Fire Blast's damage nearly doubles and deals 1340 damage).
As a Shock Trooper, with trap skills at slvl 25 (with the borderline minimum in easily obtained +skill gear):
Fire Blast deals 1340 damage
Death Sentry deals 3-1470 damage
Wake of Fire deals 280 damage per rapid wave
Lightning Sentry (although you won't really be using it) will deal 5 to 1650~ damage.
This takes up 80 skill points, which is obtainable at level 70ish.
From here on, you can make your fire blast stronger through Wake of Inferno (which also makes Wake of Fire stronger), or you can also choose to level up Shadow Master so she's able to tank in hell (slvl17 with your +skill gear is great).
Let's compare this to the normal Lightning Trapper.
You max LS, DS, and one of LS's synergies. Some decide to max Fire Blast.
As a Lightning Trapper with Fire Blast maxed and traps at slvl25:
Fire Blast deals 1340 damage
Lightning Sentry deals 5-2740 damage
Death Sentry deals 3-1475 lightning damage
Lightning Trappers have a strong Lightning Sentry, which has a higher max damage than any of a Shock Trooper's traps, but the actual average damage of lightning sentry is around 1400 damage. A Shock Trooper's Wake of Fire deals 300~ damage to many enemies very quickly, and our combination of Death Sentry and Wake of Fire traps can work just as well as many of a lightning trapper's LSs. We'll also have more corpses going boom, which is a plus, and we deal with lightning immunes better.
The Shock Trooper build may seem too fire centric to some, but remember that Death Sentry deals 1470 max lightning damage at slvl25, which is respectable, and its corpse explosion effect will take care of many enemies. Lightning Trappers concentrate on Lightning Sentry, and may pull out a Death Sentry a screen away for the corpse explosion effect. However, a Shock Trooper will use Death Sentry primarily for it's corpse explosion and lightning damage, and corpses will be exploding very rapidly due to many DSs being up and running at once. They'll also be creating corpses effectively with their powerful Fire Blast and WoF.
General combat:
Spam Fire Blast on one enemy to start a corpse explosion chain with Death Sentry. Wake of Fire is useful for finishing off enemies after they've been blown up by DS, and is also helpful for taking care of large groups.
When up against Lightning Immunes:
Use Wake of Fire and Death Sentry. Fire Blast will, of course, be destroying most enemies. Corpse exploding works just as well here.
When up against Fire immunes:
Use Death Sentry. It will deal lightning damage and blow up corpses. Fire Blast and Wake of Fire are useless here, but Lightning Sentry is not. You may use LS to take Wake of Fire's place. However, you may find a more effective approach is concentrating on Crowd Control (CoS and MB) to help lock up enemies while 5 Death Sentry traps do what they do best. Your Lightning Sentry deals only around 150-200 more max damage than Death Sentry, so concentrating on Death Sentry works fine.
When up against Fire/Lightning immunes:
Run! Just kidding. This fight is similar as when you're up against fire immunes, except your Death Sentry won't be dealing any lightning damage. Here, what you can do is concentrate on Crowd Control (Cos and MB) while your merc and shadow master have their way with the enemy. MB is especially useful here. The key here is to concentrate on killing one enemy as to set up a corpse explosion chain. The corpse explosion damage will be weaker, but still very effective. You can choose to break the immunities, but it's not required. You have an effective physical damage source, and Fire/Lightning immunes aren't common enough to worry too much about.
When up against Physical immunes:
Not a big deal. Corpse explosion will still be dealing 50% fire damage, and your traps will be working in full effect.
When up against Physical/Fire or Physical/Lightning immunes:
Argh. Use the trap that they aren't immune against. If it's a Phys/Lightning immune, your fire blast will still be effective. If it's a Phys/Fire immune, Death Sentry's lightning damage will be effective. Turn up the Crowd Control nob.
When up against Physical/Fire/Lightning:
What the hell do you expect to do? Break their immunities or RUN. Heck, you can choose to run against double immunes too if you want. No big deal. Blizzard (the company) wins here. I think they deserve it.
As for gear, it's pretty much the same as Lightning Trappers. +3 trap claws are as effective as ever, or you can go with bartucs+trap claw as to build up your CC skills (CoS and MB) as well as Fade and Shadow Master. In this guide, I used +5 trap skills as a very conservative amount. You should be able to find some more +skill gear in amulets and such. Overall, the gear is extremely cheap. This build, like the lightning trapper, is definitely doable untwinked.
Skill Allocations:
20 Fire Blast
1 Shock Web
1 Charged Bolt Sentry
20 Lightning Sentry
20 Death Sentry
20 Wake of Fire
1 in every Shadow tree skill except for Venom.
1-2 Mind Blast (so your shadow master uses it more often)
1-XX in Shadow Master
You can choose to max either WoI, Shadow Master, or whatever after level 80+. I recommend Shadow Master, but some dislike AI support, so maxing Wake of Inferno will be useful here as to make Wake of Inferno and Fire Blast stronger. You can also go half-half (10 in Shadow Master and 10 in WoI) and you'll be alright (try to get Shadow Master to slvl 17, though, so she's geared up).
Let me just say that this build isn't meant to beat the Lightning Trapper build or anything. Both are great, and this is simply a different variation of the popular trapper builds. I don't feel like you lose too much fire-immune killing power as a Shock Trooper. Sure, your lightning and death sentry trap damage is lower, but corpse explosion works very well and you're still doing respectable lightning damage. For what you gain in versatility (as a fire/lightning trap hybrid), you don't lose a whole lot, imo.