Trapper Gear Improvements

S

Silkweed

New member
Trapper Gear Improvements

Having a blast with my trapper. There's no boss pack she can't handle; nowhere she can't tread confidently. My gear is good, but I like to work towards ideals. There are plenty of trapper guides, but they all sort of skip over the equipment section, or, when I read it, it doesn't seem to take into account simple things like resists, or even important breakpoints.

I'd like people to post their ideal trapper gear (spare no expense), with maybe a little commentary about why they picked it. Here's what I'm using, with a couple comments on what maybe I'd like to improve:

Helm

Harlequin Crest socketed with Um rune.

I think this is pretty much perfect, unless I stumble across some delicious rare circlet with wicked mods.

Armor

"Treachery" Wire Fleece (574 defense).

Nifty +2 skill armor with FHR and IAS. I hit the 9 fpa trap laying breakpoint and then some, and with my other gear, the second last FHR breakpoint. The CR is kind of nice, and the ctc Fade almost never goes off, but as it is, I've got level 15 Fade with +skills anyway.

I've thought about other options here. If you take a look at the other +2 skill armors, you've got Enigma, Chains of Honour, and Arkaine's Valor. Enigma's got some cool mods on it, but I really don't see myself teleporting around, and it lacks any other really important mods for a trapper, in my opinion. The same can really be said for the Chains, with the exception of the resists on it. The Valor on the other hand has some potention. It has roughly triple the defense of any Treachery, FHR, some +DR and huge life bonuses. I'm not sure whether I hit the 9 fpa trap laying breakpoint without the 45% IAS on Treachery, so this is something I'll have to look into. Also, because it's not a runeword, I could conceivably socket it with something like a Scintillating Jewel of Fervor, for added resists and a small IAS increase. The only drawback is the huge strength requirements on it. I think with my other gear, though, I might just make it.

Weapons

Right: Bartuc's Cut-Throat with Shael rune
Left: Cunning Greater Talons also with Shael rune

I could easily have just used two +3 traps claws, but I decided that I wanted a +2 skill claw just so that my weapon blocking was a little bit higher. Currently it sits at 51%, which is quite comfortable for me. The other benefit to having the Tuc's is that I get more FHR. Unfortunately, because of the way the strength requirements on my weapons worked out, I don't get any benefit from the huge stats on it. However, if I do decide to pick up a Valor, they might just tip the scale for me. I just don't like being naked on switch...

I would like to get a really nice +3 traps Greater Talon with +LS and one of the other traps. Not sure what they go for, and I'll be damned if I'm going to shop for them.

On Swap: Shadow Greater Talons

Again, it'd be nice to have a second mod on them like +SM or +Fade.

Belt

198% Thundergod's Vigour.

I decided to take my strength up to 110 for this belt. The lightning absorb alone is worth it, in my opinion, but then there's the +10 to maximum lightning resist and the huge life. If I come across a 200% ed one, I'll slap it on.

I've read that a lot of people like to use Arachnid's, but I guess it's a matter of personal preference. Aside from the +1 to skills, I don't see how it's that great for a trapper.

Gloves

Bloodfists Heavy Gloves

I just haven't gotten around to upgrading them yet. Not sure how useful the IAS is for me, but the life and the FHR are lovely. I'm kind of at a loss for what gloves to use. I've seen and read about people using all sorts of things from crafted & rares with IAS, resists and stats, to Laying of Hands. Fists seem to be popular for the same reasons I'm wearing them. When I come across the ingredients, I craft blood gloves out of Vampirebone gloves in the hopes of creating something decent. So far nothing.

Boots

Natalya's Soul Mesh Boots (21 LR/25 CR)

I like running fast, so it had to be a 40 FRW pair of boots for me since I'm using Fade. My cold resistance and lightning resistance are both maxed in Hell with these boots.

I pick up any rare boots I come across, but so far nothing has struck me as particularly nice. Before I managed to trade for these boots, I was wearing a rare pair with 20 FRW, 38 FR and 20 PR, and that balanced out my resists very nicely, but I was so slow in them! Before that I was using Sigon's... ugh.

Jewelry

Ring 1: Ravenfrost (20 Dexterity)
Ring 2: Dwarfstar
Amulet: ... Cunning Amulet of Blandness

With the rings and my belt, I have triple absorb, making me pretty much invincible to nasty boss explosions. I suppose I could part with the Dstar in favour of a nice rare or crafted ring with crazy mods, or even a BK ring for the life and +skill, but I like the security of knowing I have triple absorb. The Raven takes care of CBF and the dex factors into twinkage nicely.

My amulet on the other hand is shameful. It's a vanilla +3 traps amulet. However, it keeps my +traps high, so the only improvement would be to either get one with +life or find a crazy rare or crafted amulet with +3 traps. I'm not even sure if rares and crafted can have +3 to a tab though...

I've thought about getting a Mara's, and I keep crafting blood amulets when I come across the ingredients. So far nothing great. I'm kind of open to suggestions as far as amulets go.

Charms

15 stat, 20 resistance Assassin Torch
Shadow GC
A GC with poison resistance and 12% FHR to hit that breakpoint
The rest are either resist charms or life charms
No Annihilus as of yet, but I'm working on it

I guess if I had a Mara's, I could ditch a lot of resistance charms and start getting trap skillers with life on them. Get one with FHR to replace the GC I've got now and then stock up on more vita charms.

Other

Well, I wouldn't mind a perfect Call to Arms, but I hardly think it's necessary. Also, I'd have to spend a lot of time switching back and forth between it and the shadow claws. I'm just as well without it. Life is sitting at like 1700, and if I cared, I could just get a friend to BO me.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other people put down.
 
I started typing up a reply earlier today (in class, for shame). But, I closed the window when class ended, and knocked out what I had (oops). Anywhay, I had a few thoughts:

Switch:
CTA/Spirit is a far better combo than dual shadow claws. Your shadow skills don't need that much buffing on this build, and it'll provide an extra +1 to your trap skills on switch from Battle Command. The Battle Command itself makes this one worthwhile imho.

Enigma:
Why not? This is an amazing piece of gear. The teleport is reason enough to use it, but you don't seem to like that. The +skills make it an equal with Treach/CoH, but then it has FRW and +str with some other goodies. The MF is what tips it for me, really. Trappers make some of the best Assassin MFers (with hybrids or godly trappers being the absolute best), so why not set up to do everything? The 8 DR isn't bad either.

Gloves:
I like Chance guards... but that's just me. Bloodfists are awesome, but this is a slot I use for nothing other than filling in any holes left by other equipment.

Amulet:
Maras or a crafted +2 sin/FCR ammy (or magic +3 traps/mf)


Build Goals:
Even though most of the guides don't talk about specific end-game equipment, some of them hint at the goals you should be getting. I'll list my own set:

Basics:
As many +traps as possible
86 FHR
maxed resists
20 FCR
Good FRW
50%+ Weapon Block

Advanced:
9- or 10-frame trap laying (it's not that important, frankly)
tri-absorb and >75 resists
50 dr (optional... you shouldn't be hit)
MF
45+ or 65+ FCR
Teleport

My approach is to pick some key pieces of gear, and then design around them. On this build it would be Enigma + Um'd Shako + dual trap claws. Your tri-absorb gear is pretty much perfect, so use everything else to maximize +skills and resists. Depending on how much you throw Fire Blast; Trap-laying speed is far less important (imho) than your FCR and +skills. Mind Blast and Cloak of Shadows are the twitch-defense skills, and the faster those pump out, the better. It only takes a little FCR to really speed them up.

(I can help you a bit on speeds; I actually prefer BoS, but you can do almost as well this way.)
 
You make a strong case for the CTA/Spirit on switch. I hadn't really thought about it all that much, but I think I might like to give it a try. Besides which, I've got this 15% superior four socket monarch lying around just waiting to be "Spirited" away. Heh.

I want to like Enigma, but everytime I go to look at its stats, it just doesn't quite seem to fit for me. I've got a pretty good thing going managing all the skills I use now, but if I were to throw in Teleport on top of it all, I think it might throw me off a little. I could make it work, but it would sort of feel strange to have teleport assigned to something other than the "W" key the way I do on my sorceresses.

My keys are set up like so:

Ring Finger
A - Fireblast
Q - Shock Web
Z - Charged Bolt Sentry, but I never use it really.

Middle Finger
S - Lightning Sentry
W - Death Sentry
X - Cloak of Shadows

Index Finger
D - Mindblast
E - Burst of Speed
F - Fade
R - Shadow Master

Other
F1 - Unsummon

I suppose a way around it would be to make E Teleport and then assign Z to Burst of Speed since I don't use it often. It would get really confusing for me to do that though because I'm so used to W being for Teleport on my sorceress, or anything sort of "mobility" like, for instance, W would be Dragon Flight on an MA sin, or Leap/Leap Attack on a Barb, or Vigor on a Pally.

I'd assign the F keys around for the CTA if I could get one.

I'm crunching the numbers, and I think that if I can get a +2 Valor, I will definitely make it work. I should have enough strength to wear it if I can get a perfect attribute stat Anni (well, I could do it without, but I don't want to be naked on switch).

With everything else the way it is, the build as I had in mind affords me the following:

9 fpa trap laying
4 frame hit recovery
Maxed resists in Hell (Assuming a perfect Mara's and Anni)
Triple absorb
40% FRW (I wish it were faster, but oh well)
Roughly 25% PDR from Shako and Fade
50%+ Weapon Blocking
+15 traps before skiller GCs and Warcries
+13 shadow skills, with CTA/Spirit, also sans charms

The only thing I'm really missing is the FCR, but personally, I tend to favour having faster trap laying over FCR. I maxed fireblast, and I like to spam it against LI's instead of waiting around for the merc to deal with them. I've got none on my girl, and she can still spam MB and CoS effectively. It would be really nice to squeak in 20 FCR, but I'm not sure where I'd get it without making sacrifices somewhere else. I suppose I could switch the Bloodfists out for something like Magefists or Trang's gloves, but then I wouldn't be making that FHR breakpoint. Decisions, decisions. Even 10 FCR on a crafted amulet would knock off a frame casting.

I've been thinking maybe about whether a HoTO/Spirit trapper might do better than a C/Cer, but then you'd have to decide whether to go max block or not. The dexterity would come at the cost of life, but if you went vita over max block, then your block wouldn't be as good as it would be if you were using dual claws. However, you'd have your resists and your FCR problems solved rather nicely. Could probably get away with using BoS as well, although I still tend to favour Fade since I play hardcore.
 
Well, I've been running some numbers, and here's something I came up with. It's for a level 94 trapper using Heart of the Oak and Spirit.

"Um" Shako
"Ber" Arkaine's Valor
Perfect resist HoTO
Perfect FCR Spirit
6/6 CTA/Spirit on Switch
T-Gods
Infernostride
Chancies
Raven
DStar
Mara's

Perfect Anni & Torch
5x Trap skillers
6 Vita SCs
(Leaves room for cube, two tomes and a 2X4 slot for anything you find)

Total:

+15 To All Skills Levels before CTA or skillers
+463 To Life
+288 To Mana
18% PDR
Damage Reduced by 30
Fire Resist 85% in Hell
Cold Resist 75% in Hell
Lightning Resist 85% in Hell
Poison Resist 75% in Hell
85% Faster Hit Recovery
75% Faster Cast Rate
+65 Strength
+75 Dexterity
Cannot Be Frozen
+20 Lightning Absorb
20% Cold Absorb
15% Fire Absorb

Allowing for:
4 frame Faster Hit Recovery (with a charm)
11 frame Casting
With Burst of Speed, 9 frame per attack trap laying

Now with stats, you could get away with 100 in Strength, and depending on how much block you want, you hitpoints will vary.

75% block ~1200 life
50% block ~1500 life
20% block (none in dex) ~1900 life

After CTA, 2420, 3000 and 3700 hit points respectively.

LS Damage: 7-8921
DS Damage: 3-3264, 16.6 yard radius
FB Damage: 4730-5539
SW Damage: 22 spikes at 7-3649 damage per second

Level 17 BoS means that you're very fast.
Level 17 SM gains all rare equipment.

Pretty slick, huh? I just wonder how much it would cost to put it together...

I plan on running some numbers for a C/Cer and see what it looks like and how it compares, but I'm bloody tired right now and don't have the patience for it immediately.
 
Well. I cant really tell you how to improve YOUR assassin as I dont know your spending limit/skill/playingstyle. So I thought I would tell you a little about my trapper.

First of all let me say that I play ladder so some of this might not be easy for you to get.

Stats:

Life: around 2530 with bo
Block: 75% with SS but not with Spirit (big difference in shield %)
FHR: I dont really know at this time im sure I have atleast 5 maybe 4 frames
FCR: 102 break point (10 frames)
Damage: 10k (and in pvm added for those that arnt immune -85% res from merc)


As for a C/C all I have to say is it would cost you 10 frames FCR because you cant get the 102% without atleast a shield. You gain the ability to block most things but at a lower chance. And maybe faster IAS with the right claws. You would also lose res in most cases.

Gear
Helm: Shako (um)
Ammy: Mara (26)
Armor: Enigma (mage)
Belt: Arachnid
Ring1: Bk ring
Ring2: Raven Frost (20 dex)
Gloves: Mage Fist (upped)
Boots: Storm Trek's (perf stats non eth)
Weapon1: Hoto (35)
Weapon2: Spirit (35)
Shield1: CTA (1bo)
Shield2: Spirit (unknown dosnt matter)

Invintory
7* Trap gcs
20res 15 stat torch
rest= Random res/life/fhr charms

Backups (extra stuff I keep in my stash for X reason)
CoH
Extra Raven
2* Wisp
2* Dwarf
SS
2* 10% fcr rings with nice res/life/mana mods


Merc
Helm: Tal's Helm
Armor: Fortitude
Weapon: Eth CA Infinty

What I would like to add/upgrade
6bo cta
2 more trap gcs
anni
life on my gcs
maybe Eth treks and archon enigma. but not like I get hit much so defense really donst matter its mostly for looks.

Some people like using rare circlets... I dont because for me to bo I have to throw my shako back on or i lose +2 to my bo and well thats not very easy when your in the middle of a duel

What I can do.

PVM Well I can rush 4 people through hell no problem I havnt tryed more. There is nothing I cant kill. That I have run into yet. Bosses take me about 10-20 seconds to take down.

PvP
Im only counting manners as in public dueling people use wisp/tgods and what not. For the most part the only thing that gives me problems are casters that I have to keep chasing. I play a very offensive style so chasing down a spamming sorc/necro can take a wile but if needed i can sit back set up my traps and lure them into them. And with 10k damage and 10frames of FCR I can hold most casters in place long enough to damage them rather well if not kill them.

In some manner PVP I have ran into people rich enough to buy a 4 lo shield (aka 20% max lightning res giving them 95% res) In these cases I simply go back to basic trapper camping and wait for them to try and come to me and then NL them as soon as they come on screen.

Lots of info hope it helps.

I am wondering how silkweed is calculating his BO life though inorder to get over 100% extra life your skill level would have to be over level 20 and without GCs or swaping gear that is imposible.

Helm: 2
Ammy: 2
Armor: 2
Shield: 2
Weapon: 6 bo +1 all = 7
Belt: 1
2* rings : 2
BC: 1
ani: 1
Total = 20

Now you could get 10* charms, +3 bo ammy (maybe a +3 wc helm?) and that will add up but without swappin your looking at lvl 20 max 92% life/mana

Unless I forgot something?

that would make 1200 life = 2304

I have just over 1.6k life and with a lvl 13 bo I have 2530 life. 3152 if I had lvl 20
 
just a quick question.. why all this faster cast rate? faster laying of traps is solved by increased attack speed and nothing else(?)
also, what about mana regeneration? to be able to recast traps almost continuously?
 
What would you guys suggest socketing in my claws for pvm? I should have enough IAS to hit 9fpa trap laying so shaels seem a bit pointless, what other options are there? Io's for extra life a good option?
 
High FCR is for Mind Blast. More FCR = Better chance of BM locking someone.

Recasting traps constantly is pointless in pvp as you will be MBing them.


As for what to put in it a good idea would be 15% res 7% fhr jewels. If you cant get those try 15% res jewels or 7% fhr jewels. Life/Mana also help. STR would also help if you need STR.
 
I play Hardcore Ladder on USEast, but even so, I'd say I'm "upper middle class" in terms of wealth. I've got access to some pretty decent gear, but access to the runes I'd need to make really fancy runewords could be problematic. I think I could put a HoTO together in the near future, and either trade for, or make a CTA after a while.

I suppose I should mention that I don't do any dueling with most of my characters, and that I tend to play PvM almost exclusively. I've had my go at some LLDing and PKing (25 kicksins mostly, a preteen charger last season), but I think, BigChief, that you can appreciate why I don't do any higher level dueling in HC. I don't want to lose all my good stuff! Back when I played SC, I did a little dueling with a MA Assassin. I wasn't very good at it, and I didn't really care for it terribly much. I understand why a lot of people get into it, but it's just not my cup of tea and I don't think it ever will be.

If I were building for PvP, my equipment choice would be a lot different. Since I'm building for PvM, though, I think I'm pretty safe standing by the gear I already posted.

Merc gear I was just gonna use Duriel's, Tal's Mask and "Insight." Forget Infinity. It's way too expensive, and I'd rather just have the mana regeneration since I play PvM. I think Infinity's kind of overrated these days, but I've never had one or even played with anyone that used one, so I guess I wouldn't know. Party play is kind of rare in HC in Hell games. Too dangerous to play with people you aren't close friends with. I've got a friend from university that'll still play this game with me, but well, let's just say that he won't be paying me back that Rixot's he lost when his Firedancer died, heh. I don't imagine he'll be making many high chars or doing a lot of MFing.

I think you're right about my miscalculating the BO. I think what happened was that I had forgotten that the Torch has +Assassin skills and not just +Skills. I remember I was multiplying by 1.95, so that's like level 21? Not sure where the hell I got that from. I was really tired last night since I hadn't slept the night before.

I'm gonna have to run a few other numbers and see if maybe there aren't any alternatives to some of the gear I've been looking at. There still seems to be a heavy bias in favour of Enigma, and I just don't get it, personally. Mebeh i am teh n00b.
 
My reason for liking Enigma is my chance to tool around with a friend's Sorc. The transportation (mostly safe, I might add) was amazing compared to my usual running with BoS. Anyway, I'm not going to pimp it anymore since I haven't even equiped it on my own builds yet. :xmas24:

Anyway, another thought is you could put on a Crown of Ages instead of that Shako. You'll lose the MF and a skill, but get bonuses on resists, fhr, and socket slots. That'll free up gloves, too.

IMHO, the way you're going to be able to truly optimize this is choose between raw killing power, or raw mf-er (high killing speed being more important than mf > 300). That will make a lot of gear choices much closer to no-brainers.

BTW, in your life calculations, I hope you aren't boosting the "unboostable" life from certain mods. +life/lvl, +vit/lvl, and +vit on gear do not get boosted by BO, so your final life will be lower than you are expecting. (Also, same goes for mana, but use mana/lvl and nrg.)
 
NP with the calc mix up I just thought I was missing something. I wasnt trying to prove you wrong or anything just wanted to make sure I wasnt wrong.

And yes playing HC I can see why you wouldnt pk at a high level. I have never played HC myself but from what im guessing is that if you die everything in your stash and on your merc is lost right? So yeah having something like fort/infinty on a merc would be a big risk to take and I myself wouldnt take it.

As long as your merc does decent damage and your fireblast does good damage you should still be able to kill just about anything in the game. As there arnt many immune fire/light/phy monsters. (atleast that I have run into)
 
silkweed thanks for last post=)
however i'm kinda confused, since on arreat summit this is said on the paladins meditation aura skill:
Bonuses To Meditation
Prayer: same as having Prayer active without mana cost
Note: Meditation will not work on hirelings

Actually, the second line confuses me even more than the first - could someone clarify?
Also - since I am also prioritizing mana regen i would like to know how fast your mana recovery really are? Assuming your merc has the insight equipped and you have base mana - can you recast traps almost continuously?
thx
 
I have an eth CV "Insight" with level 14 or something Meditation on it. I can cast traps almost continously with it, and I have been able to since about level 28 when my merc was wearing an "Insight" on a War Scythe. Even with like 80 mana (that's at like level 30), you're totally fine. Until then, it's pretty easy just to go melee.

The Merc I was using was a Defiance mercenary, but I think if and when I rebuild, I'll choose a Prayer one so that I'll be constantly regenerating my life. The defense just really doesn't matter terribly much, while there have been a few instances where I would have preferred to have my life going up constantly. Particularly in those times when you don't want to drink a full rejuv, but you're at a little more than half life and can't find any supers and don't want to TP, if you know what I mean.

I think that the Arreat Summit means that mercenaries receive no bonus from the Meditation aura since it increases mana regeneration. Mercs don't use mana, so it doesn't benefit them in any way. However, if they happen to have an item that grants that aura on them, you, the player, can benefit quite nicely from it.
 
I will lay out my gear for my assassin just to inform everyone looking for a cheap to make, pretty effective trapper. This is also my first assassin and now I realize maybe I put too much in shadowmaster (10) and too few in death sentry (~3 and dumping rest).

This char was the first on the new ladder and therefore I wanted something that could be effective even with cheap equipment. I must say playing with her is very satisfying as I rarely die and given enough time play any area.

Ok now for the equip:

Kira's 67 pruby (cost ~12 pgems)
Treachery mage plate (cost lem + shael rune)
rare belt fhr, little life, some resists
manald heal
rare ring with some str, dex, little goodies
magefists
Nats boots
3 trap 6 life amu
bad bartucs (cost ~3 pgems)
rare claw 2 traps, 40 ias, 39fres
20stat/17res torch (cost ~30 pgems)
shadow/12fhr skiller (selfcubed with pgems)
charms with str, life, resists

Everything without a cost was selffound by me or friend. The kira's is really usefull as it does not need any str and gives you cbf, superresist and fhr and even a socket. Right now in the ladder shako[um] and ravenfrost are too expensive, but after the reset or when I am richer I could upgrade to that kind of gear.

This assassin does not rule to the max in terms of dmg, (~2k fireblast, ~4.5k LS) but is very effective and Safe!

edit: also wanted to mention that my merc uses an insight too (normal thresher for now), coupled with tals mask and shaft it works great.
 
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