At level 89 I've generally finished my own version of this build, so I wanted to share with you all final thoughts. I have also completed a pretty decent gear (largely self crafted), so this is almost most I can get from this awesome build before switching to gems with +20% quality.
As I already discribed on page 13, I've resigned from following important skills:
- Chain Reaction
- Mind over Matter
- Eldritch Battery (I used Essence Worm ring to reduce mana reserved from Wrath + Herald of Ice + Herald of Thunder at once, while having enough mana for casting skills)
By doing this I managed to get fully benefit of:
- Tinkerskin, that regenerates me 400 life and 200 hp with every trap throw:) So in 1 round of traps throwing (12 pieces), I'm getting back around 1800 hp + ES alltogether.
- Energy shield, that now adds to my HP pool, so it's much harder to one shot me.
Both those things greatly improved my survivability and allowed me fast clearing of maps, as I can play much more aggresively.
Just to say this -> Up to Tier10 maps I'm even using magic find items, as both damage and survivality is enough not to worry about anything.
Moreover, even if I'm hit very hard, I can still cast all attacks and defensive moves, so this helps A LOT. In the original build, in this situation you would get your ES shiled down to zero and can do nothing but think about survivial. If you're additionally on for instance burning ground, you'll never regenerate and just die. In this build, you retain full control of characted in every possible situation:)
DPS form shrapnel shot (mouse over value):
- no buffs: 5 950
- with Wrath + herald of Ice + Herald of Thunder + ice golem (so normal setup for game) : 10 034
- while figtning: around 14 000,
In practice in means killing every boss in few seconds...
In terms of jewels (I don't know how to copy them), I used:
2 x collateral damage
3 x jewels with maximum life + some damage + additional damage/resistances
Final words and special thanks to a collegue who gave a tip about Frostwall - it's great.
I hope you'll like it and some oy you may even try it:)
Good luck!
Kashon
Dropping chain reaction is a huge no-no, if you do, you need to use sunblast, and take clever construction. Or else your traps will be destroyed by ground effects/spells. Also the 20% cooldown reduction on that node is huge, traps have a long cooldown. But I like your passive tree, it has a bit more life, which is good. I will also try out a cwdt-frostwall set up.
I wonder how important "Clever Construction" is?
Can a boss really destroy the traps before they get activated when they are in front of him?
If not, why spend points here, the damage increase is low, similar to "Expeditious Munitions".
To all who go for "Iron Reflexes":
Pls check how armour works in this game, it doesent help against Izaro.
With like 3k armour you prevent 300 damage at max. Thats only against small hits, the harder the hit the lower it gets.
This is a high dex, evasion based build, why would you trade 25% evasion for some useless armour which only helps a bit against plenty of tiny hits?
I wonder how important "Clever Construction" is?
Can a boss really destroy the traps before they get activated when they are in front of him?
If not, why spend points here, the damage increase is low, similar to "Expeditious Munitions".
To all who go for "Iron Reflexes":
Pls check how armour works in this game, it doesent help against Izaro.
With like 3k armour you prevent 300 damage at max. Thats only against small hits, the harder the hit the lower it gets.
This is a high dex, evasion based build, why would you trade 25% evasion for some useless armour which only helps a bit against plenty of tiny hits?
Clever construction is useful if you don't have chain reaction, especially when levelling with traps. I guess if you stack a lot of trap trigger radius you might be good, but trap trigger radius is pretty hard to stack because of the AoE nerfs. Without chain reaction and huge trigger radius most of your traps are going to be duds. You can also go with sunblast + reduced detonate time jewel x 4 for instant "trap grenades" that way they trigger instantly, so can't be broken by monsters/ground effects. Best way is to experiment for yourself I think, its only a couple of skill points. But skipping the bomb specialist node I think is super bad, its worth it just for the reduced cooldown on traps, especially if you're using an attack based trap like shrapnel shot; maybe less so for ice trap as the cd on that is much lower.
Hmm, Wouldn't a phys to lightning gem (maybe instead of added lightning) and a decent quiver be a better choice to gain 100% phys to ele conversion than blackgleam?
It seems a bit wrong to me using a whole itemslot just for ele conversion, when instead you could use phys to lightning. However I just did some calculations and when using no added flat phys dmg a lvl 20 phys to lightning would add ~50 flat lightning dmg. While a lvl 20 added lghtning gives ~210
Clever construction is useful if you don't have chain reaction, especially when levelling with traps. I guess if you stack a lot of trap trigger radius you might be good, but trap trigger radius is pretty hard to stack because of the AoE nerfs. Without chain reaction and huge trigger radius most of your traps are going to be duds. You can also go with sunblast + reduced detonate time jewel x 4 for instant "trap grenades" that way they trigger instantly, so can't be broken by monsters/ground effects. Best way is to experiment for yourself I think, its only a couple of skill points. But skipping the bomb specialist node I think is super bad, its worth it just for the reduced cooldown on traps, especially if you're using an attack based trap like shrapnel shot; maybe less so for ice trap as the cd on that is much lower.
Thx for your answer. I am using Clever Construction and as it looks i will keep it.
I think Sunblast is no option here since Tinkerskin needs a trap triggered by an enemy.
I never mentioned Bomb Specialist and Chain Reaction, ofc i am using both since they are the whole point of going Saboteur. :)
Traps like Lightning and Ice are great for leveling but the higher the maps the less useful they get with this build. I am starting to miss Lightning Trap, it has much better AoE than Blast Rain....
Hmm, Wouldn't a phys to lightning gem (maybe instead of added lightning) and a decent quiver be a better choice to gain 100% phys to ele conversion than blackgleam?
It seems a bit wrong to me using a whole itemslot just for ele conversion, when instead you could use phys to lightning. However I just did some calculations and when using no added flat phys dmg a lvl 20 phys to lightning would add ~50 flat lightning dmg. While a lvl 20 added lghtning gives ~210
Dont use Blackgleam, rather use the upgraded version The Signal Fire.
Later you can replace it with an expensive rare quiver which gives similar damage and some extra life. But even then Added Lightning is always better than Phy to Lightning.
Dont use Blackgleam, rather use the upgraded version The Signal Fire.
Later you can replace it with an expensive rare quiver which gives similar damage and some extra life. But even then Added Lightning is always better than Phy to Lightning.
without signal Fire/Blackgleam/phys to lightning you only have 50% damage conversion, so all the inc. elemental damage from shadow start, WED on Gear and the WED Gem loses 50% effectiveness. Do you really get the same damage with only 50% conversion when using a rare quiver?
without signal Fire/Blackgleam/phys to lightning you only have 50% damage conversion, so all the inc. elemental damage from shadow start, WED on Gear and the WED Gem loses 50% effectiveness. Do you really get the same damage with only 50% conversion when using a rare quiver?
With Signal Fire the phy damage part is around 1-2% of total damage.
With a rare quiver which should grant some increased elemental damage the phy damage part gets around 11-12% which is far from the 50% you are talking about.
So even with a rare quiver around 90% of your damage is elemental based.
Hard to believe? On top of the conversion Herald of Ice, Herald of Thunder, Wrath, Explosives Expert, any flat elemental damage added and EDwA Gems all make the elemental damage part bigger. In the end the Damage conversion from Signal Fire is hardly needed anymore.
So why Signal Fire? Well, its a Budget build and therefore a good Quiver to start with.
To have similar dps with a rare one you need a quiver like the one from thevdende, just check his post. The 'only' benefit here is the extra life.
