/Traps - Caltrops Procs

[High_Beam]

Caltrops - I have perused the forums and have found no specific conversations in this arena.  I have seen some builds with damage procs in Caltrops (Positron Blast for one), others do not and I am wondering if those are proccing when someone steps on them or are they procing when first tossed and there happens to be some targets in the toss, or are they even firing and someone was just Mids theorycrafting?

[SeraphimKensai]

Caltrops are treated as a patch/pseudopet. They last 45 seconds, have a radius of 15 feet.

 

Most targeted AoE procs have a PPM of 3.5, there are outliers however, but using 3.5 as a basis for calculating, Caltrops can get a 21.71% chance to trigger every 10 seconds.

 

 

[High_Beam]

Thank you for that response.

[bustacap]

It was discussed in the proc testing in the defender forums. If you have the slots its worth putting procs in caltrops. The KD proc does not turn it into a KD patch FYI. 

 

Poison trap and AM are the big ones though. 

 

The drones proc nothing. 

[High_Beam]

Yeah, PT and AM both have slots allocated for procs because my mercs need all the help they can get.  It has made a big difference.  I have since slotted a Positron's Blast in Caltrops and I am pleased.  I will be slotting the proc from Impeded Swiftness.

[KeiyraMule]

On 9/28/2022 at 11:10 PM, bustacap said:

... The KD proc does not turn it into a KD patch FYI. 

While true it is no earthquake or ice slick, it does still knock some foes down, slowing their escape from the caltrops and adding to the soft control 

[bustacap]

12 hours ago, KeiyraMule said:

While true it is no earthquake or ice slick, it does still knock some foes down, slowing their escape from the caltrops and adding to the soft control 

 

If you are MM /Traps your better off putting OF in the T1 pets. I wouldn't waste a Ragnarök proc in there but some might disagree.  

[tidge]

A few rando comments, from my Bots/Traps MM (with page 5 'alpha' respec still to be studied)

• I have always had %procs in Caltrops, but I'm thinking of giving up at least one slot from it.

I've also had relatively good recharge slotted in it (for the speed debuff, but also a set bonus) so the %proc rates are rather lackluster. The revamp requires some extra slot consideration, so I am re-thinking the number of slots I used to put here.

• I have KB->KD in the MM's attacks, to provide extra control for the henchmen. Otherwise I agree that if you have a slot, putting KB->KD from Overwhelming Force in the T1 is a generally good idea.

While I appreciate the lack of henchmen knockback, I actually miss all the extra control it brought when altered to knockdown (via Sudden Acceleration piece). My build was tossing a lot of %-Resistance and Knockdown before... I may have to make more tweaks than I originally considered. I have only been revisiting lower level content with my 50, so I still have a lot of level range content to check out. One of the Robotics MM primary attacks (is it Photon Burst?) requires the OF piece to knockdown enemies, as it otherwise does not do knockback.

• (highly unsure about what follows!) IIRC, %procs (e.g. %damage) also require a ToHit check... and the ToHiT check is based on the slotted accuracy of the power. I have no idea how this works for pseudo-pets, but I have a hard time imagining that they have it better than players.

My general observation has been that my (alpha respec) build has significantly better %proc in the Poison Trap than Caltrops. Much of this is would be due to the longer inherent recharge, some of it could be that I typically have 50+5 Accuracy/* pieces slotted in the Hold. I have a little more testing to do to see how the pseudo-pet behaves...I'm going to use the %+2 Mag Hold piece to try to get a visual display rather than parsing the logs.

[Meknomancer]

I tried proccing out caltrops/acid mortar/poison trap and the latter 2 both recharge in roughly 33 seconds and proc maybe half the time. Caltrops i don't even notice and i ended up using it as a mule for a full frozen blast set and just tossing them out whenever and wherever as they recharge so fast. The extra damage the pets do now more than makes up for the puny proc numbers caltrops may have been putting out before. I still toss the overwhelming in mercs tier 3 he has way too many kb's and now bots do kd i can save it for (possibly photon nade) wherever depending on what secondary i'm running.

[tidge]

My current /Traps choices and slots are (keep in mind, this is still my 'alpha' slotting):

 

Caltrops (@1)

1. Impeded Swiftness %Smashing
2. Annihilation %-Res
3. Annihilation Dam/Recharge
4. Ice Mistral %Cold
5. Ice Mistral Dam/Recharge
6. Ice Mistral Acc/Dam/End/Recharge

Acid Mortar (@14)

1. Achilles Heel %-Resist
2. Annihilation %-Resist
3. Undermined Defenses Def Debuff
4. Undermined Defenses Def Debuff/Recharge
5. Undermined Defenses End/Recharge
6. Undermined Defenses Recharge

Force Field Generator (@16)

1. Luck of the Gambler Def/Global recharge
2. Luck of the Gambler Def
3. Defense 50+5

Poison Trap (@20)

1. Unbreakable Contraint %Smashing
2. Lockdown %+2 Mag Hold
3. Gladiator's Net %Lethal
4. Gladiator's Net Acc/Hold (50+5)
5. Gladiator's Net Acc/Recharge (50+5)

Poison Trap is a reliable %proc, so I will probably move the Caltrops slot holding Impeded Swiftness to Poison Trap, and instead of Lockdown use the Entomb (Rech/+%absorb) plus a %damage... I like the visual of the +2 Mag, but frankly I'd rather have 1 more tick of the %damage. I love the set bonuses from Annihilation, beside the 2-piece bonus in Caltrops I have 2x5 piece bonuses in Photon Grenade and Mace Beam Volley. +MaxEnd and an Endurance Discount? Yes please! The %-Res from extra sources doesn't stack, but keeping -Res while the 'bots are fighting really helps.

 

I don't have any more powers from the secondary. I like Seeker Drones (I've taken it while leveling up), but not enough to find slots for it. Taking it now would delay Maneuvers and Tactics which I find helps out the henchmen.

 

I still have to go up against PI Giant Monsters solo, but against the zone-level GMs (Jack, Echoai in Atlas Park, Skyway City, Perez Park) the defeat times are faster than last year. I should note: This character had primary +epic attacks before this page, so aside from the availability of primary power choices and the tweaks to Equip/Upgrade Robot powers, the biggest build effects have been:

1. Pulse Rifle Blast is taken at level 2 (because Caltrops can be taken instead of Web Grenade at level 1!) instead of level 38
2. Triage Beacon was swapped for Maintenance Drone (same slotting of 6xPreventive Medicine)
3. Photon Grenade was taken at level 8 (instead of level 30) replacing a LotG mule that can be deferred.

This alpha build isn't having Endurance problems (The Henchmen are, so... thinking), so I'm going to take a hard look at my Recovery slotting.

[Crysis]

I three slot mine and it makes a great immob when it goes off:

 

Caltrops -- FrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(A), JvlVll-Dam%(45), ImpSwf-Dam%(45)

[Disruptor]

On the topic of /Traps and Procs is there any Interface Incarnate that is beneficial to Trap powers? I'm guessing no but am curious as I have never unlocked anything other than Degen or Reactive.

[Arbegla]

Degen is the best for /traps IMO, because of the sheer number of DoTs you have. the -maxhp does more overall Damage then the -resistance you get from reactive.

 

Especially once you factor in the pets, Degen is just the hands down the best option.