Traps/ Defenders - Looking for feedback/thoughts on powers

[Renatos1023]

I've never played Traps on any AT. I decided to roll this Traps/Beam Rifle Defender the other day because the new Issue was coming out and it was getting a new T9 (Temporal Bomb) that actually seemed useful compared to the previous T9. Just wanted to give some early thoughts to the set, and I welcome any feedback and thoughts. I probably play Defenders 85% of the time, and this is one of the few sets I've always skipped, because it is not the normal Defender mold that I am used to. As someone who plays on relatively fast-moving teams, Traps/ and its setup does take some getting used to, but it has been fun. Just hit Lv.29 tonight, so my perspectives are from a low-level build using a handful of unique IOs, plus mostly Lv.30 normal IOs. 

 

1. I took Web Grenade over Caltrops. I thought the -fly and -recharge from the grenade (not mentioning the immob.) would be more useful. I generally avoid those powers that cause scatter. Does anyone find caltrops useful? 

 

2. Triage Beacon - took this because I had two crappy T2 and T3 powers in my secondary that I didn't want to take, so had no choice. Figured in extended AV/EB/GM fights, it could be useful. Doesn't seem terrible, really just needs a recharge or two, depending on what you can spare.

 

3. Acid Mortar - Finally a useful power! Used judiciously until I was able to get some recharge enhancements into it, but definitely a set-defining power. Who doesn't want the -def, and -rech. Once I can get more recharge into the build and get multiple out (they stack, i'm pretty sure, right?), it should feel pretty good de-buff wise. 

 

4. Force Field Generator - I was surprised that, once slotted (at level 29 no less), it gave 20% def. to Rng/AoE/M -- this should be an easy toon to soft-cap. Part of me wishes this FFG was attached to my back or something, so I didn't have to deal with it following me - but at least it moves a lot quicker than most other follow powers. This is definitely key to setting up your other Traps in relative safety. 

 

5. Poison Trap - I took this but am a little confused as to its usefulness. According to the data page in-game it does -1000% regen, but for only 10 seconds (?, is that right)...and the other debuffs are relatively meager. I just slotted with 2 recharge IOs. I'll keep it for toe-bombing AVs, but are the numbers better than they seem? Would you even slot the hold aspect, or just focus on recharge? Do you use this in normal mobs or is this just for the upper EBs/AVs/GMs? I can never remember if the skippable (by player consensus) Poison Trap is the one from Traps/ or Poison/.

 

6. Seeker Drones - I skipped. I feel like I had read a lot of bad-ness about this power back in the day. Please let me know if I am wrong, I just don't have the power slots planned in my build to take it, but if this is actually a good power now, I can always find a way to respec it in.

 

7. Trip Mine - I took this because I thought it would be good damage and I'm already toe-bombing with other traps, so why not drop it. I feel 'meh' so far on the damage. Plus, the interrupt seems to happen too often (maybe once I'm soft-capped def. this will be less of a concern). For those who have played Traps/ on a Defender, is this a good power or a skip? Part of me wouldn't mind respec-ing out at this point. 

 

8. Temporal Bomb - The new T9! I managed to pick it up today on the day it came out. It seems pretty good. The damage doesn't seem too high, but I so far just have it slotted with an Acc and 2 Rech. The buff portion of it seems pretty handy, and I think it is definitely better than what was there before (as I said never played a Traps/ before, but the previous T9 on paper seemed like crap both according to its numbers and the forums, and was almost universally skipped).

 

Overall, I think Traps/ is better than I thought it would be. As a Defender afficionado I would have some changes, but I will continue my way up to 50. Pool-wise I've gone Leaping for CJ and Leadership (just Maneuvers so far). Will also likely take Stealth and Hasten I think. Trying to fit in as many LoTG +Rech as I can and boost the recharge since it seems that is what Traps/ needs most. 

 

 

Edited February 21 by Renatos1023

[Spaghetti Betty]

Hello! Traps is one of the few support sets I've had a bit of time with. I haven't touched it since Temporal Bomb was added, but I can comment on every other power! Traps specializes in prolonged fights such as AV encounters, since a lot of the powers are hands free and very potent.

 

Web Grenade is a must pick if you plan on tackling AVs. Very strong and spammable immob.

 

I think Caltrops gets a bad rep as pic these days. It comes packed with a mag 50 Afraid effect. This means a mob stuck in it will drop everything they're doing and try to get out of it. This is priceless value solo. Even if you're teaming, it's essentially free damage that doesn't have to pass a hit check. Just don't throw them at War Wolves!

 

Triage Beacon is an easy skip. It's probably the most niche power in a very niche power set. I've seen it have value in some of the most strict self imposed challenges, but that's it.

 

Acid Mortar and Poison Trap are your One-Two for debuffing AVs hard. And the poison trap from Poison in the skippable one. Poison Trap in Traps is incredibly strong. You can slot it for recharge, but as far as other slotting goes, a Lockdown proc gets good mileage or you can use it for set bonuses. These 2 powers also stack. My recommendation would be to invest in Burnout! Cover the AV's Air Jordans in so much debuff that they'll never recover!

 

FF Generator is a buffable ally! I've found all sorts of neat tricks with it. You can TP it, so if it's lagging behind you can just port it to you. I also hit mine with Spirit Ward and Enflame!

 

Seeker Drones are good in that they can absorb an alpha for you. Summon them in the middle of a mob and they'll attempt to attack the drones first. IMO, the debuffs they do are secondary to this. Definitely don't sweat not taking them if you don't feel the need.

 

Trip Mine is poopy!

 

Another thing that can really stretch the mileage of your powers is Fold Space. I use it on my Traps to great effect. No need to worry about your traps going to waste if you can drop new mobs in them!

 

As far as your typical mob to mob encounter goes, in a team you can just drop Poison Trap and Acid Mortar and you've done your job. Save any fancy setups for big targets.

[Carnifax]

Poison Gas Trap is a very handy proc bomb. 2 50+5 recharge IOs, 3 Hold Damage procs and the lockdown proc is how I slotted it. 

 

My Traps is an Ice / Traps / Sorcery / Fold Space controller (it's a weird one) so I do use Trip Mine since I can Control myself the space to use it to toe bomb. It's decent damage for a Controller if you can pull it off (or Fold Space things onto it) but on fast moving teams it's not great (this is the Traps motto to be honest). 

 

Even my Thugs / Traps has Fold Space for pulling things

 

And yes, Traps LOVES recharge. 

[Uun]

The thing to know about Poison Gas is that the -regen refreshes every 1s while the foe remains in the AoE (which has a 30s duration) and then lasts for 10s after they leave the AoE. The debuffs are autohit, however, any procs you slot have a tohit check, so accuracy is useful. I find slotting for hold duration is also useful. The power has an initial 6s hold and then has a 2% chance of a 6s hold every 1s. My current slotting is 5x Unbreakable Constraint (including the damage proc) plus the Ghost Widow damage proc.

 

I happen to like Caltrops, and took it as well as Web Grenade. I would take Caltrops over Triage Beacon. I slot 5x Ice Mistral's Torment, which enhances damage and slow and gives you some nice set bonuses. Alternatively, a slow IO in the base slot also works well.

[Psyonico]

In my experience with Traps, caltrops is more useful in low levels and web grenade is more useful in higher levels (AVs that like to run)

 

@Uun can you even slot accuracy into Poison Gas Trap?  I'm not a proccer so I am not even sure if that's a thing.

[Uun]

1 hour ago, Psyonico said:

@Uun can you even slot accuracy into Poison Gas Trap?  I'm not a proccer so I am not even sure if that's a thing.

You can't slot accuracy directly, but you can slot hold sets that include accuracy. It doesn't show up in the enhancement screen, but it does show up in the Detailed Info screen.  I haven't done any field testing to see if it's actually working.

[Renatos1023]

14 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Seeker Drones are good in that they can absorb an alpha for you. Summon them in the middle of a mob and they'll attempt to attack the drones first. IMO, the debuffs they do are secondary to this. Definitely don't sweat not taking them if you don't feel the need.

 

Trip Mine is poopy!

Interesting on Seeker Drones - I may do a quick respec to drop Trip and take it instead. Would be useful to have a power to break alphas when needed, and Trip is underwhelming so far.

 

7 hours ago, Uun said:

The thing to know about Poison Gas is that the -regen refreshes every 1s while the foe remains in the AoE (which has a 30s duration) and then lasts for 10s after they leave the AoE.

This is what I was looking for! I hate that the in-game power descriptions are so lacking, because I never would have figured this out by the description there. This definitely makes the power very good.

 

Thank you all for the feedback and comments! I'll also have to look into proccing Poison Trap seeing as that seems to be a common consensus.

[Psylenz0511]

Caltrops are a slow, and a fear, AND DAMAGE. The slows can be 'procc'd' for decent aoe damage.

 

Personally for the alpha strikes, I certainly endorse seeker drones, especially with a caltrops chaser, that gives you TIME to set up the other traps.

 

Also, adding to fold space, and teleport target, regular teleport gives you a few seconds of invulnerability to lay down a Poison Gas Trap!

 

I look forward to trying the new tier 9

[Uun]

BTW, I use Poison Trap as cover to lay Trip Mines. They can't interrupt you if they're all choking. 

[Carnifax]

5 hours ago, Psylenz0511 said:

slows can be 'procc'd' for decent aoe damage.

Not really. They can take procs but the proc rate is fairly miserable 

[Relvinian]

Defenders don't do much damage so if you want to be a damage machine you need to use procs.  Almost all the trap powers are useful i used to skip time bomb but now its detonate i dont know, probably still skip it.  I also skip trip mine because the damage is not that good on a defender-- its better on a controller or mm as it is a pet.

 

[Renatos1023]

14 hours ago, Relvinian said:

Almost all the trap powers are useful i used to skip time bomb but now its detonate i dont know, probably still skip it

Just fyi, it is now Temporal Bomb. It does damage, debuff to enemies, and +Recharge and +Recovery for allies within the radius. It is actually a decent power now. 

[Fanta]

Heh, fold space with traps = win even on a crappy team

[tidge]

I can toss in $0.02, based on my experience with the Mastermind Traps secondary:

 

The arguments between Web Grenade and Caltrops are legit... but I went Caltrops. Even facing enemies that like to run, I found that Web Grenade had two things working against it:

1. It isn't useful against enough (95%+) content.
2. To make it useful when you want it, it requires more investment than I prefer to make.

Caltrops  will %proc on cast, mileage varies on how well you can leverage this.  More Slow does very little in my experience, so I wanted accuracy for better %proc chances, plus some set bonuses.

 

 (A) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime

 (*) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime

 (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Damage/Recharge

 (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

 (*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance for Damage(Cold)

 (*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

 

Triage Beacon is an odd duck. It was a power I used while leveling, but eventually got rid of. It would be more useful IMO than Web Grenade.

 

Acid Mortar is good! It requires accuracy to %proc reliably. The MM wanted debuffing for the henchmen.

 

Acid Mortar       

 (A) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff

 (*) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Recharge

 (*) Undermined Defenses - Recharge/Endurance

 (*) Undermined Defenses - Recharge

 (*) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff

 (*) Accuracy: Level 50+5

 

FFG is great, Just a couple of Defense pieces maxed out, more slots if you need mules.

 

IMO it isn't worth too much %damage in Poison Trap, but it will fire reliably. Note that the Entomb piece affects caster, and is reliable (upon cast).

 

 Poison Trap       

 (A) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50+5

 (*) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50

 (*) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal)

 (*) Unbreakable Constraint Chance for Damage (Smashing): Level 50

 (*) Superior Entomb: Chance for +Absorb: Level 50

 

Seeker Drones got dropped. I like stuns, but I found these to be unreliable. They will not %proc on detonation.

 

I don't use Mines, YMMV. The issue with Mines for me is that with Caltrops, Acid Mortar and Poison Trap I already have enough to "drop"... and I don't like having to devote extra mental processing power to figuring out where to put them.

 

I have no experience with Temporal Bomb. I skipped the (different) T9 on the Traps Mastermind.... again, it was too much effort for me.

 

[Deadlymantis]

Something I would add that's very useful on my Traps MM: some form of Invisibility.  This will allow you to enter a mob and drop a mortar or poison as an opener and lessen any alpha, as the mobs will attack the trap (or your FF gen following along behind).

 

My favorite form of invisibility is Superspeed+Celerity:Stealth.  It gives effective invis to most things, is easily toggled, and allows you to move quickly into and out of situations.