Level 93 Hybrid Crit Explosive Trap Trickster^3.24

Notes

Pros of this build
--------------------------------------------
- One of the best opening weekend boss rushing / carry service builds, smooth progression into bossing
- Scales into very high damage for not a huge amount of investment; huge single target once you get rolling
- Flexible playstyle.  You can build this as a giga-tank and still do considerable damage, or go zhp and do billions, or anywhere in between.
- Suppression is the best Uber defense available, and Trickster gets the best version of suppression with additional effectiveness and caps it for no cost.
- Highest damage potential ascendency (by a lot) for Explosive Trap outside of Assassin.
- Pretty comfy scaling, all upgrades feel meaningful and you don't need mirrors to instantly delete Ubers


Cons of this build
--------------------------------------------
- Some people don't like traps.  If you don't like traps, this is not a build you will like
- The trade-off to access both the power and defenses of Trickster, you have to manage your mana costs.
- Mapping is servicable on the normal gem, but not amazing.  Shrapnel transfigured gem mostly addresses this but it's AoE was nerfed by about 25% in 3.24 (It's still huge)



Act 1:
--------------------------------------------

In 3.21 They nerfed level 1 Explosive Trap, removed Arcane Surge's spell damage, and removed the vendor recipe for wand flat dmg which slowed down leveling
with Explosive Trap.  You CAN still level with Explosive Trap if you are a one-skill-enjoyer, but it's a bit slower than the meta.  For 3.24 I am again speed running campaign
with Rolling Magma into Armageddon Brand at level 28.  I'll use that all the way to early maps for clear.  For Single Target I'll start using Fire Trap at level 12 and keep
that until Explosive Trap starts outscaling it around level 75-80.


Gem Progression is:
Level 4:  Buy Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation after Tidal Island.  Buy Flame Wall.  Shoot your Magma balls through the flame wall to get additional flat fire dmg.
Level 8:  Get an added damage support for whichever links you are able to find, either Added Cold Damage or Added Lightning Damage, then once you kill Brutus grab Combustion from vendor
Level 12:  Pick up Fire Trap for single target.  Link it with Trap and Mine Damage as soon as you complete Yeena's quest in A2


IMPORTANT - BEFORE BRUTUS - Since they removed the vendor wands and Arcane Surge has lost 10% more spell damage, you need to make sure you grab 
a BBG or BBB link BEFORE you fight Brutus and a Goat Horn or two for added flat damage to spells implicit.  The third link for added damage with Rolling Magma
makes a big difference.

ALSO IMPORTANT - Because the vendor wand craft is gone, it's now worthwhile to pick up and ID all caster base weapons if you don't mind the delay.  Rune Daggers,
Wands, Sceptres, etc. can all roll flat added spell damage.  At ilvl 20, it's roughly 22% of the mod pool to hit some tier of added flat damage to spells.  In the meantime, 
grab Goat Horns before you fight Brutus to make the fight very easy.  Once you get to A3 Dialla you can bench added flat fire damage to one or both weapons and use
those for the remainder of the campaign.

OFFHAND GEM LEVELING - Before you get too deep into campai, purchase a three green socket weapon swap for both slots.  You'll want to buy 6x Explosive Traps and level them
as you progress through acts.  If you forget, it's not a huge deal just make sure you grab them from the A1 vendor who will level the gems for you as you progress up 
to level 15.  It's important to get quality on your gems BEFORE you vaal them.  Quality is worth roughly double the damage an extra level would be, and that means you
should value a 20/20 gem over a 21/0.  You can get cheap quality by running the first lab and the font if you are SSF


Vendor Search Strings:
---------------------------------------------
Movement speed boots + BBB / GGG / GGB + gem levels
"b-b-b|g-g-b|g-[gb]-g|b-g-g|nne|rint|ll g|Earn"


Act 2:
--------------------------------------------

Your links at this point should be Rolling Magma + Elemental Proliferation + Combustion for clear and Fire Trap + Trap and Mine Damage + Swift Assembly
We'll be scaling that from here on out.  You'll use this all the way through early maps until around level 75 when Explosive Trap starts to outscale it.


Bandits
---------------------------------------------
Help Alira.  The flat mana and 15% ele res are huge in campaign and the 15% crit multi is worth it all the way up until you start investing a lot into the build


Act 3:
---------------------------------------------
Once you get to Solaris Temple Level 2 go into the Eternal Lab and grab the bench craft for Fire Damage.  It's a huge dps boost for only a few transmutes.  
I used this craft + a level 4 wand all the way through campaign into maps.

At level 28 you can swap Rolling Magma for Armageddon Brand from A3 Library.  It feels AMAZING through campaign and we are already scaling fire damage and elemental
damage on our tree so you don't need brand wheels for it to shine.  I'll use Armageddon Brand + Elemental Proliferation + Combustion for clear all the way through
white and yellow maps.  The reason for using Arma brand is the clear is incredible and a cast time of 0.36s (vs. a trap skill in campaign which is closer to 0.9s) means
it is a very comfortable move-while-killing-things combination.


Act 4:
---------------------------------------------
Make sure you grab Grace and equip one from here on out.  You'll feel too squishy as you make progress into late campaign without it.

YOUR FIRST ASCENDENCY should be One Step Ahead.  It's an amazing QoL to have the extra action speed, be chill and freeze immune, and slow down enemies.


Act 7-9:
---------------------------------------------
Around A7-9 4L your Fire Trap setup by adding an Inspiration.  It will reduce mana pressure and make the end of campaign very smooth.  You want GGGR on any piece 
of gear.  You'll also want to 4L your Armageddon Brand with Fire Penetration if you are ok on Mana, and Inspiration if you need more mana help.  This will be a BBBR 
piece of gear.

YOUR SECOND ASCENDENCY should be Polymath.  This provides a substantial damage increase and sustain.  All the way up until you find an Alternating Sceptre
you will benefit from the life/es/mana recovery from Polymath as your Armageddon Brand and Fire Trap both Ignite, and DoT damage kills count as you.


White / Early Maps
--------------------------------------------
ASAP Craft two +1 gems Sceptres or Rune Daggers (depending on what movement skill you prefer).  You can do this buy purchasing +x% quality gems that are
tagged Fire off of trade (i.e., Blazing Salvo, Armageddon Brand, Fire Trap, etc.).  These drop all the time and can be bought for alchemy orbs.  You need 40%
combined with a FIRE tag and you can vendor a WHITE sceptre with the gems to get back a magic sceptre with +1 Fire Spell Skill Gems on it.  This is a substantial
early maps dps boost and should be done right away.  After you get it back from the vendor use an Orb of Augmentation to get a second mod, then a Regal Orb
to get a third mod, then bench the highest tier of Added Fire Damage to Spells.  You'll keep this benchcraft until you transition to crit later in maps.

You should use Fire Trap until you start switching to crit around level 75.  To get more damage early bench the next tier T2 of flat Added Fire Damage To Spells on
your weapon(s) ASAP.  Fire Trap and Arma Brand both have excellent effectiveness of added damage and this is a significant increase to it (260% and 200%, respectively).
Look for natural rolls of it on caster weapons and use those to unlocking another offensive benchable mod too, I'll usually have a natural roll of this by the time I'm
in White Maps since flat added damage for spells is very common.  NOTE:  Added Fire Damage does NOT work, it HAS to be Added Fire Damage To Spells

As soon as you get to maps, pick up T1/T2 bases for Energy Shield and/or Hybrid Evasion.  Hit them with an Essence of Woe (any tier) to get a good base ES pool
going and make sure you've allocated Ghost Dance.  Next fix your flasks as they're almost certainly terrible out of campaign.  Get a Jade flask (important!) because
all of the synergy with ES / Trickster / Ghost Dance relies on a good Evasion pool.  A spirit shield with a single Essence of Scorn is also a very strong source of crit
chance, defense, and additional ES.

Find a belt you like (Crystal is lovely, Stygians are great too) and hit it with an Essence of Zeal of any tier to grant a high roll of Trap Throwing Speed.  
You should be comfortable with that gear into red maps.  I'll also be shopping for a Sunblast and will take the first one I find with any non-bottom roll.  This will be the 
one piece of gear I'll constantly be shopping for a better roll for as the difference between a low roll and a high roll is substantial.


When to switch to Explosive Trap
--------------------------------------------
I typically will keep Fire Trap through early yellow maps and switch to Explosive Trap the instant it starts outscaling Fire Trap, which is somewhere 
around level 75 if you have been keeping up with leveling the gem in your offhand.  If you haven't, stop by the Act 1 vendor (IMPORTANT: not Lilly in A5) 
and she will give you a partially leveled gem you can level.  Explosive Trap scales HARD with levels, so if you have an under leveled Explosive Trap gem don't 
use it, instead either go find an appropriately leveled one off of trade or work on leveling your own.

As SOON as you switch to Explosive Trap, go run a few low level Labs and get the quality up to 20%.  It's between 20-30% more damage, depending on what
level your gem is.

If I'm able to source Brittle from somewhere (Alternating Sceptre, The Interrogation jewel, Galesight, Leadership's Price too though I wouldn't recommend it)  
I'll swap to Explosive Trap immediately.  Brittle is such a massive damage boost that you don't want to miss out on it and Fire Trap cannot take advantage of it
without a Leadership's Price.



Brittle
--------------------------------------------
Brittle grants a ton of base crit, you want it.  Options for it include (in priority order)
1. Alternating Sceptre
2. The Interrogation
3. Galesight
4. Leadership's Price (SSF farmable with Twins contract)



But I can't get/find a source for Brittle!?!
--------------------------------------------
Focus on gear affixes like Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells, get a Crit medium cluster they are pretty easy to roll something that grants increased crit
chance, Grab Power Charges on the tree, make SURE you have Infused on the tree.



Recipe for mitigating Mana Costs
--------------------------------------------
Did you Help Alira?  (hint:  yes.  not needed for 6L)
For a 4L:  Run Inspiration in your links and use a Mana Flask.  Enduring mana flasks are ideal.  Once you get to the Life mastery you can take it if you have some amount
                of life regen on gear, but a mana flask works fine.  Run a low level Clarity between 3-10 for a small bit of extra regen.
For a 5L:  You want a 20% Inspiration + Dreamer annointed + Life mastery for Skills Cost 30% Life Instead of Mana.  Quality your Inspiration in lab if you need to.
                 If you don't have some source of flat life regen to offset the life mastery, look for some on gear or maybe run a level 10 Vitality + Arrogance.  Stone Golem is nice
                 but he's squishy and can't be relied on all the time, though I'll definitely still run one through the campaign and into white maps.  Run a low level Clarity between 3-10 for a small bit of extra regen.
For a 6L:  You want 20% Inspiration, Dreamer annointed, and Elreon crafts on your 2x rings and amulet and the Life mastery for Skills Cost 30% Life Instead of Mana.
                 If you don't have some source of flat life regen to offset the life mastery, look for some on gear or maybe run a level 10 Vitality + Arrogance.  Stone Golem is nice
                 but he's squishy and can't be relied on all the time, though I'll definitely still run one through the campaign and into white maps.  Run a low level Clarity between 3-10 for a small bit of extra regen.

For a bit more budget there are other options, but these are nearly free or very cheap.




ASCENDENCY ORDER
-------------------------------------------
1.  One Step Ahead
2.  Polymath
3.  Escape Artist
4.  Spellbreaker


When I get into Late maps / bossing, I will switch out of One Step Ahead and over to Swift Killer, particularly if I've acquired a Sunblast.  The additional Frenzy charges
are nice but the REAL improvement is the 200% charge duration.  With this you'll have your charges up basically forever unless you AFK, and it's important if you
have a Sunblast as your ability to generate charges is gated behind Skitterbots proc'ing.



Check the endgame PoB in the description of the build guide video for pushing damage further and starting to boss.

IMPORTANT FOR DEFENSES: If you feel too squishy, try some of these things
(1) Equip a shield.  Ideally an ES base.  Hit it with an Essence of Scorn to get crit chance and/or look for life/ES and +1 to Fire skill gems.  Once you go Explosive Trap, Phys or Fire both work.
(2) Recoup is INCREDIBLE for recovery.  You have close access to two wheels, one by Circle of Life and one by Vampirism.  I'd prioritize them in that order
(3) Prioritize Flat Life Regen on gear in addition to Recoup for recovery.  This also feels great.  I used Flat Life Regen on gear + both Recoup wheels to push late into 3.23 Gauntlet, it will feel even better in SC
(4) If you aren't using Enduring Cry + Call to Arms, you should be.  It's periodic free recovery and Enduring Cry feels excellent, I've incorporated it into this build several times.
(5) Heartstopper is an amazing defensive layer and can be traded for Polymath.  You'll lose about 18% of your damage.
(6) You can take additional Life and Life/ES wheels for better hit mitigation.  These are at Revenge of the Hunted and Melding.  Revenge of the Hunted is a better value at 3 passive points.



Good early/SSF unique options
-------------------------------------------
- Nycta's Lantern is an excellent low cost weapon.  It will often be several chaos the first half day or so and will trend towards alchemy territory.  Battlemage is strong.
- Praxis dropping means you don't have to care about mana anymore until late game


Mid Game Gearing
-------------------------------------------
- I've left a shield and off-hand sceptre option, one will be tankier one is more dps.
- ASAP I would start hunting for any corrupted +2 gems (either +2 AoE or +2 Trap or Mine gems) chest.  This is a SUBSTANTIAL damage increase and can be six
  linked with tainted fusings and colored with tainted chromatics.  Some options are Kintsugi, Lightning Coil, Cospri's Will (extra curse, squishier), Queen of the Forest, Shadowstitch, 
  Tinkerskin or Restless Ward, and Ultimatum poops out tons Rares with these corruptions.  The Rares are everywhere, but they will make you squishier than a high evasion
  base or tanky chest like a Kintsugi or Lightning Coil.  Be aware of that, it's only really good for pushing dps gated content early at the cost of your portals.
- The rings are two mod rings + an unveiled prefix with an open benchable prefix.  These will drop in betrayal and can be bought off trade from as low as a few chaos, 
  depending on what other mods you care about.  It's a 1/3 to unveil the 6-7% reduced mana cost of skills prefix, just make sure you don't have mana blocked.  Bench life
  to block the life unveil, then bench the Elreon craft afterwards.  THESE ARE NOT NECESSARY IF YOU DON'T WANT THEM, OTHER OPTIONS:
      - Dreamer annointment on amulet
      - Low level Clarity
      - Level 1 Clarity + Watcher's Eye with -mana cost of skills
      - Impossible Escape, Necromantic Aegis (for dreamer wheel)
      - Impossible Escape, Glancing Blows (for tireless wheel)
- Look for useful fractures for weapons (+1 phys, +1 fire, +80+ spell damage, +30+ crit multi, +80+ spell crit chance) and Essence for another good mod and bench 
  a 4th for a very good weapon for not a lot of currency.
- Phys 8-mod cluster can be made by purchasing an ilvl 50-67 Phys Large Cluster and hitting it with a few one-socket jagged fossils.  All 3-mod phys combos are sellable
- Crit medium cluster can be crafted easily with Harvest targeting Lighting (for Eye of the Storm).  Several of the other notables are good, Eye of the Storm is the best


Transfigured Gem (Explosive Trap of Shrapnel)
-------------------------------------------
- If at ANY POINT you drop / acquire one, I would immediately equip it, even if you are still in the Fire Trap campaign phase provided it's a reasonable gem level.  Make sure you 
  20% quality it by running the lowest level lab as that is a huge damage boost (20-30% more damage, depending)
- AoE was nerfed by about 25% in 3.24, and damage was reduced by 10-15% from the 3.23 Shrapnel numbers, but the trap is mechanically superior and will get a signficant
  damage boost from its abillity to contract available secondary explosion radius to force more overlaps and additional ailment effect.  I will do some testing like I did
  in 3.23 as soon as 3.24 lauches and I'll let you know more thoughts on it.  It will almost certainly be a superior mapping gem as it has 50% or so more AoE than the
  normal gem.


HELP!! My damage is low!!
-------------------------------------------
- Do you have affixes that are helpful on your weapon(s)/shield?  Gem levels, Spell Damage, Crit Chance For Spells, Crit Multi, Trap Throwing Speed, and Added Flat Damage to Spells are all good and in that priority order
- Do you have a combined total of 50% Physical Damage Converted to Cold?  If not, that's priority 1 once you have Explosive Trap equipped.  Gloves (bench) + Tree are enough.
- What gem level is your Explosive Trap?  If it's not 20 or 21, go buy one that is 20 minimum
- Have you gotten 20% quality on your gem?  If not, go run first lab a few times and get 20% quality.  It's ~20% more damage, and closer to ~30% more at lower levels
- Check the gem links for wherever you are progression wise.  Do you have the right supports?
- Are you crit capped?
- Is your crit capping conditional?  Meaning, are you way under without your flasks?  If so, consider swapping in a crit medium cluster.  More consistent crit chance will feel a lot better
- Did you allocate the 50% effect of crit ailments?  If not, do that now.  It's very strong for Brittle and works with Traps
- Do you have Traps Cannot Be Damaged as a Trap mastery?  For many boss encounters, they will create an AoE that CAN DESTROY YOUR 1hp TRAPS.  Guardians in particular (Constrictor/Eradicator/Enslaver/etc)
- Do you have your mana sorted out?  If not, running out of mana will brick your ability to damage.  See the build guide video for recipes to mitigate with a 5L and a 6L
- If you have a Sunblast, are you overthrowing your traps?  This can lead to a loss in damage that is hard to detect.  Make sure that you don't combine Swift Assembly with this unique.  See build guide video for more info.


HELP!! I'm too squishy!!
-------------------------------------------
- Are you Spell Suppression capped?  This is probably the #1 thing I saw in PoBs where people said they were squishy in maps
- See the IMPORTANT FOR DEFENSES section above, do some or all of those things
- Do you have Ghost Dance and a decent ES pool (1k+)?
- For Ghost Dance to be effective, you need a decent Evasion pool.  Is it 30k+?
- Do you have some amount of Flat Life Regen somewhere (or Stone Golem/Arrogance+Vitality) if you are using the Pay Casting Costs with Life?
- Is your guard skill the correct level?  I personally like a CWDT at level 2 and Immortal Call at level 4
- Do you have Enduring Cry + Call to Arms?  You should definitely do this
- Are you using correct item bases?  Armour won't be impactful unless you get a few thousand