Curse

Tellani Artini · Jul 20, 2005, 10:09 PM // 22:09

Against melee mobs, I suggest taking barbed, flame, and spike trap and taking advantage of the 20+ seconds of cripple from barbed trap to run away. Before leading them over your trap set, round them up into a cluster so they'll all hit it at the same time. Bring pin down for any stragglers. Then run away a bit and set more traps as they limp towards you, reapplying the cripple. Add poison and watch them DoT out. You can kill blessed griffons and mountain trolls all day like this. Dust trap is not needed, because they won't ever get close enough to hit you.

Against ranged attackers, trapping isn't very fun. It's harder to get them to hit the traps. That's where you need throw dirt, whirling etc. Apply your bleed, poison, and cripple then run behind a corner and lick your wounds. Rinse and repeat.

When trapping I use 12marks, 15wilderness, 9exp. Here's a pretty standard setup for Snake Dance:

Pin Down
Barbed Trap
Flame Trap
Spike Trap {Elite}
Apply Poison
Troll Unguent
Storm Chaser
Distracting Shot

Arcanists are your worst enemy; poison them and keep troll unguent active until they die. Azure shadows are rough, but you can pick off signet of judgement with distracting shot. Against more than one shadow, if caught unprepared, run. Otherwise, pin down and trap. Against griffons and mountain trolls, round them up and run them over 6-9 traps then apply poison and set more traps. Run past all stone summit. To kill tundra giants, apply poison to all of them and run behind cover to unguent; repeat as desired.

This build can solo Raptorhawk and his entourage, with enough time. Certainly not as efficient as monk farming, but it can face disenchanting and melee interrupts.

Vermilion Okeanos · Jul 21, 2005, 12:23 AM // 00:23

honestly... trap alone are really not that useful... your averge damage is only about 1/4 of the opponent's hp... that is about 105 damage, and maybe a little more by time thru fire... but it really aren't anything to brag about.

I suggest you also carry something that can finish your opponent off right after they step on your trap.

EX: Put spike trap, flame trap, barbed trap etc... wait for the opponent to have 3/4 hp left, lure them to trap... then when they step on the trap, they get about 2/4 hp left and still going... with spike trap they get knock down and you do a high level after shock.

Personally I found being ele primary is easier to lure + able to finish opponent off once they step on it. While still have energy to keep it up.

Tellani Artini · Jul 21, 2005, 01:52 AM // 01:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vermilion Okeanos

honestly... trap alone are really not that useful... your averge damage is only about 1/4 of the opponent's hp... that is about 105 damage, and maybe a little more by time thru fire... but it really aren't anything to brag about.

I suggest you also carry something that can finish your opponent off right after they step on your trap.

Depends on how many traps you set, and how much time you want to spend watching them DoT to death. At 15 WS barbed and spike do a little over 60 piercing damage each, and flame adds up to 90 fire damage + 5 seconds of "on fire" for another 50 damage that doesn't stack and ignores armor. If using spike trap, it's almost guaranteed they'll be hit by all 3 flame bursts. So say we take 30 seconds or so to set up two sets of these three traps with 15 WS..

Spike: 68*2 = 136 (physical)
Barbed: 65*2 = 130 (physical)
Flame: 30*3*2 = 180 (fire)
"On fire" damage: 50
Total: 446 before armor, 50 after armor

Barbed trap bleed time: 25 seconds
Total bleeding damage: 150

Total damage after 6 seconds: 532
Total damage after 25 seconds: 646

Wait a minute, won't that kill most creatures in 6 seconds? Armor soaks up quite a bit of the damage for creatures at or above level 20. Blessed griffons end up only about 25% dead after this attack, but the poison+bleeding makes short work of them. Maybe there's something else that prevents traps from doing full damage or stacking properly.

Compare to the total damage at 12 WS.

Spike: 56*2 = 112
Barbed: 56*2 = 112
Flame: 27*3*2 = 162
"On fire" damage: 50
Total: 386 before armor, 50 after armor

Barbed trap bleed time: 21 seconds
Total bleeding damage: 126

Total damage after 6 seconds: 472
Total damage after 21 seconds: 562

Difference in trap damage after 6 seconds: 60, all before armor. If we use three sets of traps, which we do have the time and energy for, this becomes 90.
Difference in trap damage after 25 seconds: 84

One more thing. If the description is correct, glyph of concentration will not affect traps, only spells, just like all the other glyphs. I'd try it now if I had a skill point :/

Blight And Ruin · Jul 21, 2005, 02:36 AM // 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vermilion Okeanos

honestly... trap alone are really not that useful... your averge damage is only about 1/4 of the opponent's hp... that is about 105 damage, and maybe a little more by time thru fire... but it really aren't anything to brag about.

I believe this is either an untrue or an unfair statement, depending on whether or not you bring supporting skills for trapping (e.g., SQ, QZ, EW).

For reference, QZ is: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/skill/4...ckening-zephyr

Create a level 1-8 Spirit. For creatures within its range, all skills recharge twice as fast as normal and require 30% more energy to cast. This Spirit dies after 30-126 seconds.

For reference, SQ is: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/skill/4...nt-s-quickness

For 15-27 seconds, recharge times for your skills are reduced by 33%. Serpent's Quickness ends if your health drops below 50%.

My last UW trapping build packed this exactly

Defensive Trapper: R/Mo

Serpent's Quickness
Barbed Trap
Dust Trap
Flame Trap
Troll Unguent
Quickening Zephyr
Protective Spirit
Rebirth

Attributes (I need to check my toon but it was something close to this):

Wilderness : 13 (9+3+1)
Expertise: 14 (11+3)
Marksmanship: 9 (6+3)
Beast Mastery: 3 (0+3)
Protection Prayers: 8

You'll note that there are two things affecting my recharge speed (-50% and -33%). The objective is to pump out a metric ton of traps in under ~70 seconds, then to survive the luring process to the minefield. I have never counted my traps, but there are quite a few, since I am trapping for a full minute with a little extra change.

I never run out of EN, ever.

I usually don't stop trapping until team-mate has 3 or 4 lvl 28ish monsters almost on top of me. Very rarely do I actually get hit, and even if I did, they'd hit me for 18 points or so.

So I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with Vermilion, and agree with Tellani. Traps can be *extremely* effective in PvE, and if you don't agree, ask the groups of monsters who went from anticipating a nice Ranger snack to dead as a doornail in 2 seconds.

Kyle · Jul 21, 2005, 03:13 AM // 03:13

Would QZ and SQ stack. so u have like realy fast recharge on your skills?

But i agree traps do work effectivly if known how to use. in my UW group today we brought 1 trapper. he layed out tons of barbed, dust, flame and they were bleeding and on fire. and with 90% to miss. we barely ever got touched. really nice and affective.

Blight And Ruin · Jul 21, 2005, 05:14 AM // 05:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyle

Would QZ and SQ stack. so u have like realy fast recharge on your skills?

Unless my computer is seriously buggy, they stack.

TheCrusader · Jul 21, 2005, 05:18 AM // 05:18

In PvP, Spam as many traps as you can.. All over key places when they are set.. go across the traps and fire a Power Shot at the warrior if they have one.. They will usually chase you.. Then when he crosses gang up on him and do this repeadetly

Vermilion Okeanos · Jul 21, 2005, 08:46 AM // 08:46

Trap is still not that great in my opinion... (unless you got like 6 people laying them... but then again, wouldnt 6 people spamming armor ignoring damage be much quicker?)

I had try a 4-5 layers flame trap + barbed trap (each 4-5 in the exact same spot) and it did only around 1/4 of a warriors hp... Obviously something is getting miss out, although I can't really say what it is... but that was one of the reason that I didn't find trap any good at all without any other source of damage. I don't really remember the result when traps are seperated, as damage don't come at once.

I only put them to support damage to help creating a bigger spike damage when they do get in.

and no... piercing dmg = bow and piercing axe dmg... not amror ignoring dmg. It is like the slash and blunt damage.

Sholtar · Jul 21, 2005, 08:58 AM // 08:58

Vermilion judging from your saying "around 1/4 of a warriors hp" you might be talking about PvP, and that would be why you disagree. In PvP trapping is completely different. It can still be very effective if done right but it's different from in PvE, and so far this topic has been mostly about PvE. And in my personal opinion there's not much of an argument against traps in PvE, they work very well when done right.

Vermilion Okeanos · Jul 21, 2005, 09:01 AM // 09:01

Yes, in PvE I agree it does rip those mobs apart... I tend to think everything is pvp in this game (the only thing I got left to have fun with really...) They do however... cost you something... Time. With a good group, we can rip apart the mob with 1 or 2 hit on 2 people while at the 2x pace of the trappers in UW. Although... I must admit I would much rather use trap on those smite bugs than anything else =/

But, I do recall the thread creator was talking about pvp... oh well, whatever.

(god... I am getting alot of typos... and missing words in my sentence... oh, it is 5 am!!)

Creshnire · Jul 21, 2005, 11:05 AM // 11:05

This is what i do for PvP ,

I set traps at corners where my opponent might likely run past. I only set at corners behind view of the enemy so that they don't know where the traps are.

I usually use barb for this one to slow them down when i'm retreating pass it.

TheStonedOne · Jul 21, 2005, 11:30 AM // 11:30

In pvp i always lay a barbed near the healer , thats a almost 100 % guarantee the trap wil get used by enemies

MoSigma · Jul 21, 2005, 11:49 AM // 11:49

this may sound like a simple question, but I honestly dont know the answer

I just learned my first trap. During a mission I stood near the monk, clicked my trap, watched the animation and then... nothing. I have no clue if the trap was set or not. So I did it again. Same results. I don't see a trap on the ground or my map or anyplace. Well, we lured the bad guy almost to the exact spot I was standing when I laid the two traps and .... nothing. Absolutely nothing happened to him. Thinking the trap had expired, we did it again. This time lured the bad guy onto the spot within 20 seconds of laying the trap... and still nothing.

What am I doing wrong if anything? Is there a way to know where I've laid my traps?

Blight And Ruin · Jul 21, 2005, 12:48 PM // 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoSigma

this may sound like a simple question, but I honestly dont know the answer

I just learned my first trap.

What am I doing wrong if anything? Is there a way to know where I've laid my traps?

I usually use a marker of some kind - a Warrior, a Monk, a spirit, or some part of the map texture - to keep track of traps.

What trap did you learn?

MoSigma · Jul 23, 2005, 04:32 AM // 04:32

I learned barbed trap. I went back to one of the beginning cities where the mobs are super easy, laid a few of them and lured them to the spot. And I saw these sticks poking out of the ground when they came on the spot i set it at. it was cool.

but i wish there was a way to see on the map, like a yellow or pink marker, where my traps are.