Last week we announced our plans to revamp many skill gems[/url] and initiated an ongoing news series where we will continue to discuss what we're working on in this area. Our first skill revamp post included a few examples of skills that we're working on and discussed the overall direction we plan to take in this process. Today's skill revamp post discusses some changes to Fire Trap, Bear Trap and Lightning Trap that we're currently experimenting with.

Fire Trap

The version of Fire Trap we're experimenting with no longer has a cooldown. The purpose of removing the cooldown is so that the skill can be used as often as required, alongside other traps that have cooldowns.

This version of Fire Trap also deals additional fire damage to burning enemies, which makes it great to use repeatedly on targets that are already in burning ground from a previous Fire Trap.

We're also altering the burning ground from Fire Trap so that it's much more intense but only lasts a short time. We're still in the process of adjusting its values but we're working towards making it so that using the skill repeatedly on a higher health target will be worth the effort for both hits and burning.

While we don't have any numbers to confirm yet, the skill's damage and area have been slightly increased.

To keep the skill in line with the above changes, we're planning to change Fire Trap from a Level 1 starting skill to a Level 12 Skill. The current plan is that it would first become available from "The Siren's Cadence" quest. We're planning for a new trap skill to take its place as a level 1 "Enemy at the Gate" reward. We also intend for this new trap skill to have no cooldown.

Bear Trap

Bear Trap is another skill that we're working on at the moment. In our current plan, it applies a debuff on enemies that increases the damage they take from traps and mines. The trap still does massive damage to the target triggering it. These two effects should make it a powerful tool for taking on bosses.

The skill will still immobilise enemies for a duration that's based on how much damage the skill inflicts on them. We're currently testing out having it also apply a significant movement speed reduction for a short time after the immobilisation phase has ended.

Lightning Trap

Lightning Trap will also be losing its cooldown so that you can use it as much as you want, like Fire Trap.

In our test version, Lightning Trap has a higher base crit chance and gains a large increased critical strike chance against Shocked enemies which should give it a much stronger critical strike focus. We're making these changes while also working on a new trap-specific support gem that should synergize well with Lightning Trap.

Other changes

The new trap-specific support gem will give you a chance to generate both Power and Frenzy charges when your traps are triggered while simultaneously giving you a Critical Strike Multiplier for each Power Charge and increased Throw speed for each Frenzy Charge.

We're developing changes to the Shadow starting area and other trap clusters. The Shadow will be offered passives that increase all trap damage right away, rather than having to decide early on between using elemental or physical damage.

We're planning to introduce a number of new Trap skills alongside these changes, which we'll reveal more about as their development progresses.

It's worth noting that we're also planning to increase the active trap limit significantly but this is still undergoing testing to assess the risk of doing so.

There may be other changes to trap mechanics coming, but we're still discussing these options. It's likely that we will reveal more about this as we announce the other upcoming trap skills and continue to keep you updated on our plans. Keep an eye out!

Please note that this post outlines our current plans and thoughts which may be subject to change while we continue to work on Content Update 3.3.0.