Fire Trap PVM guide

[Ace_wanderer]

Can anyone give me advice or point me towards a Fire Trapper or Hybrid Kick/Fire Trapper guide?

[FrankieTeardrop]

I've tried 2 different firetrap builds. Both involve maxing all 3 fire traps (duh), and wearing as much +skills gear as possible.

The easier build maxes Dragon Talon as a physical damage support. I would recommend this build if you have no problem getting upped gore riders and a high crushing blow %. You will sacrifice some +skills (and therefore fire damage) for CB, but will have a reliable fallback skill that, in hell, you will find yourself using as much as -- if not more than -- your traps.

I've tried another version which maxes charged bolt sentry for use against fire immunes. CBS is, (I believe), the only lightning trap that gets increased damage for each point in fire blast, as opposed to more shots. The damage will still look low (i think mine was around 1-350 dmg per bolt) but with 5 traps each shooting 5 bolts, it can still dispose of fire immunes in hell, provided you are somewhat experienced at controlling crowds with mind blast and cloak of shadows. I suggest using this variant if you don't have upped Gore Riders + Guillaume's Face, or want to stick to a pure trapper build.

It might also be possible to succeed in hell maxing Shadow Master or Death Sentry as opposed to DTalon or CBS, tho I've never tried either of these builds. I suggest a Holy Freeze merc with firetrap builds, with the possible exception of a might merc if you take the kicking route.

I've read that Wake of Inferno has a bug that causes it to only deal a fraction of its listed damage. Whether this is true or not, I still never use it. Even if it still deals way more damage per second than Wake of Fire, its area of effect is tiny in comparison. WoF is going to be your bread and butter skill, used to kill anything that's not fire-immune. The damage looks low if you go by the numbers (even at level 30 or so, fully synergized, my WoF was listed at <600 max damage on the character screen), but it always surprises me to see how well it still shreds, even at endgame. Shoots fast, covers a huge area, and looks cool as hell.

[Ace_wanderer]

I've tried 2 different firetrap builds. Both involve maxing all 3 fire traps (duh), and wearing as much +skills gear as possible.

The easier build maxes Dragon Talon as a physical damage support. I would recommend this build if you have no problem getting upped gore riders and a high crushing blow %. You will sacrifice some +skills (and therefore fire damage) for CB, but will have a reliable fallback skill that, in hell, you will find yourself using as much as -- if not more than -- your traps.

I've tried another version which maxes charged bolt sentry for use against fire immunes. CBS is, (I believe), the only lightning trap that gets increased damage for each point in fire blast, as opposed to more shots. The damage will still look low (i think mine was around 1-350 dmg per bolt) but with 5 traps each shooting 5 bolts, it can still dispose of fire immunes in hell, provided you are somewhat experienced at controlling crowds with mind blast and cloak of shadows. I suggest using this variant if you don't have upped Gore Riders + Guillaume's Face, or want to stick to a pure trapper build.

It might also be possible to succeed in hell maxing Shadow Master or Death Sentry as opposed to DTalon or CBS, tho I've never tried either of these builds. I suggest a Holy Freeze merc with firetrap builds, with the possible exception of a might merc if you take the kicking route.

I've read that Wake of Inferno has a bug that causes it to only deal a fraction of its listed damage. Whether this is true or not, I still never use it. Even if it still deals way more damage per second than Wake of Fire, its area of effect is tiny in comparison. WoF is going to be your bread and butter skill, used to kill anything that's not fire-immune. The damage looks low if you go by the numbers (even at level 30 or so, fully synergized, my WoF was listed at <600 max damage on the character screen), but it always surprises me to see how well it still shreds, even at endgame. Shoots fast, covers a huge area, and looks cool as hell.

Thanks for the post.

Do you have any advice for gear? Will I need faster cast rate to get the traps out there faster?

Also do you use WoF for single targets as well?

[Pyrotechnician]

Fire trappers are a difficult build, only because of the sheer number of fire immunes in hell mode so of course your going to need a backup skill such as kicks or a charge up attack. Laying traps is based on IAS, not FCR so your going to need gear that meets the IAS breakpoints, there should be tables listing the breakpoints in the guide stickies. WOF is going to be equally effective against groups or single enemies, of course your not going to see the destruction you would see with a group but its still going to apply substantial damage if they are not fire immune. The problem with Wake of Inferno is that Inferno has a bug which puts it at about 1/3 of its listed damage, someone did a study on it at one point confirming the damage difference and the reasoning behind it, something to do with the frame rate versus per second calculation. For gear I would assume it wouldn't be much different from a lightning trapper, apart from probably using shako instead of a griffon helm and fire facets instead of light facets, of course it may have to vary depending on what your backup skill or skills would be.

[hubb]

If you go with 20 CBS then Fire Blast will do roundabout three times as much as a Wave of Fire so that'll be better against single targets.

As Pyro pointed out, fire trappers are a little more challenging since there are so many fire immunes in hell. If you're not familiar with assassins then it might be better to try out the standard Lightning/Death Sentry build first. Otherwise read up on trap mechanics and recommended gear in the FAQ and do what Frankie said

[Noodle]

And of course fire facets won't do a thing for Wake of Inferno, just like lightning facets don't affect Lightning Sentry at all.

[Pyrotechnician]

The fire facets won't do anything for your WOF and WOI traps, but they will however work with your fire blast and if you are maxing CBS with it upping fire blasts damage, it will become that much more effective, similar to how light facets work with your shock web for a light trapper.

[Ace_wanderer]

The fire facets won't do anything for your WOF and WOI traps, but they will however work with your fire blast and if you are maxing CBS with it upping fire blasts damage, it will become that much more effective, similar to how light facets work with your shock web for a light trapper.

Effectiveness won't be that much of an issue since I will have 2 other players with me. I have a decent idea now of what to do.

[FrankieTeardrop]

Thanks for the post.

Do you have any advice for gear? Will I need faster cast rate to get the traps out there faster?

Also do you use WoF for single targets as well?

If you choose the kicker route, use DTalon on single targets. Otherwise, WoF or Fireblast will do just fine, provided the target isnt FI. I personally use WoF on everything, mostly because it just looks so damn cool


As for gear, you aren't confined to any certain items. I'm sure shako is the most popular hat for trapsins, but if you're using kicks, Guillaume's Face is probably best.

As far as weapons/shields go, you can choose between a higher damage output or more safety. If you want more dmg, use dual claws. If you're lucky enough to find/buy/gamble rare or magic claws that add +3 or more to traps (or, more specifically, wake of fire), use them. Otherwise, even dual Bartucs is more than sufficient (love that fhr) If you want to be safer, use a Stormshield (socket with pdiamond or um rune) paired with any +traps/+WoF claws or HotO.

For rings, SoJ/BK rings are always best, but not always available. If not, any high resist rings are fine. If you are making a kicker hybrid, you might need a dual leech ring if you dont have leech mods on any other equipment. For amulets, your best option is probably a magic +3 traps. If you have a lot of game gold, you should be able to gamble one of these. Otherwise, rare +assassin/resist amulets, Mara's, Seraph's Hymn, or even Rising Sun (i think the +2 fire skills mod works for traps) would be fine.

For boots, Treks if you're pure trap, upped gore riders if you're a kciker hybrid.

Belt: Dungo's if you can get one. String of Ears if you cant. If you can't get either, a rare +fhr/resist belt is ok.

Gloves: Magefist

[maxicek]

Matriarch Blaze