Gadgit Arsenal/Traps: a Chronology

[Argentae]

So, in between waves of overwhelming efforts at work, I wanted to try out Arsenal, and as I’ve never played traps an obvious build was born. Gadgit is a crystal powered steampunk type character. 
 

I’ll post a build and more details probably tomorrow, but a few notes at the start.

 

Wow.

 

By mid to late thirties I’m running at +4/x8 effectively. No insps needed as long as it’s a single spawn, double spawn a purple is a good idea. 
 

I’m decently outfitted in sets, all catalyzed.

Both sleep grenade and Nitro are 5 packs of Posi Blast -Res from Annihil. Smoke is a full six pack of Malaise, Cryo and Poison Gas trap are 4 packs of Baz Gaze both will get damage procs as soon as I have the slots. Preventative Medicine unique in Triage Beacon and Miracle unique in Hibernate. LotG in Cloak, Shield Bot, Combat jumping (and a -KB Zephyr), and soon Ice Armor. I have a third -Res Annihilation in Caltrops. Flash Bang has a 5 pack of Stupify with another -res and Tri cannon has a full six pack of exped reinforcement. The +10 Res from the pet aura IO in Exped Reinforcement cuts dmg to Tri cannon in half and the + Ranged Def is very nice.

7

I have confirmed that nothing seems to proc with Trip Mine or Temporal Bomb, with one HUGE exception. Trip Mine procs like bleep with FF +Rech. Try it.

 

Caltrops and Sleep Grenade proc amazingly well with the -Res, Nitro is more sporadic, but it keeps popping up in the log enough to be well worth it.

 

I have seen people dis various powers in these sets, but apart from Web Grenade I have and use every power in both sets. It’s hella effective.

 

Tear gas -> Smoke -> Sleep Grenade -> Nitro as I run in and hit Caltrops. Then Triage and Poison Gas Trap + Flash Bang -> Trip Mine and Temporal mine if I can get it to work on a durable enemy and finally Acid Mortar with Achilles -Res.

 

Then just cycle through the AOEs as they come up. 
 

Seekers are  maybe the closest to a questionable power but I’ve seen a difference when I don’t use them, the -Dmg and another -5 to -10 To Hit helps, very useful in surviving the rare shot that gets though all the controls.

 

individually some of the control patches may seem a bit anemic, but when you layer them ALL together, it’s very effective and scales very well indeed.

 

Seriously, try a FF in Trip Mine, you’ll thank me.  🙂

 

I’m Trying Ice Mastery first, might land on something else. Fold Space would probably be amazing, build a stack of mines in the middle of the patch of doom and TP the spawn right on top of a huge explosion. I only have two free power slots though if I go Hibernate - Ice armor - Ice Storm. Was thinking I’d go Super Jump for once and maybe pick up Spring attack to trigger the Fury of the Gladiator -Res instead of running in.

 

Still things to think through, but this is going to be a monster with some more def. Already is. 🙂

Edited April 3 by Argentae
Forgot -Res enh in Flash Bang.

[Argentae]

Got Gadgit to 43 tonight.

 

I played around with sequencing a bit and proved out the testing. I’m stacking probably 3 or 4 -Res at a time from Annihilation IOs, and the effect is very noticeable. 
beating on a +4 Boss Eclipse Warwolf is slow and painful. I watched one walk into a stack of 3-4 Trip Mines (and my Trip Mines hit hard, especially with Containment in effect) and only take about 1/4 of his health bar.

Get him locked down in a patch and keep stacking the AOE’s to stack the -Res and he suddenly starts to visibly fade, if he’s the last Boss, multiple Acid Mortars chime in and he drops like a stone.

 

DO NOT underestimate the effect on this build of slotting 4 -Res Annihilation AOE’s plus Achilles in Acid Mortar. They proc well, and when they all stack Trip Mine does insane damage.

 

Im strongly considering changing from Ice Mastery to Soul, I think the heavy Dmg boost from Soul Drain would mesh well with the haymaker AOE of Trip Mine. 
 

On the other hand, Ice Storm can take another -Res, and I think would benefit from it as well as Trip Mine hitting even harder. That’s quite a 1-2 punch. Ice Storm would probably drop the minions much faster. And the size is much better than Trip Mine. 
 

Also finally slotted the two resistance set unique +def enh and the +Health all in Ice armor and Ghost Widow and Neuronic Shutdown psi dmg procs in Poison Gas Trap.

PG Trap has grown on me,it’s nice to have a hold to stack with the disorient in Flash  Bang. They give time to plant the Trip Mine and give it containment damage.

Swapped Prev med to hibernate and Numina to Triage Beacon and added the Numina +heal and an SO heal.

 

This  build is all about the maximizing of Trip Mine with FF slotted. 🙂

[KC4800]

I am pretty much owning everything with my Arsenal/Traps  controller, with the exception of one foe. The Council Super soldier from John Houston's Rogue arc. He just repeatedly took down my Tri-Cannon before it could recharge, then I was dead in the water. The only one I could not solo defeat thus far.

[Crysis]

On 4/2/2024 at 10:35 PM, Argentae said:

I played around with sequencing a bit and proved out the testing. I’m stacking probably 3 or 4 -Res at a time from Annihilation IOs, and the effect is very noticeable. 

 

 <snip-snap>

 

DO NOT underestimate the effect on this build of slotting 4 -Res Annihilation AOE’s plus Achilles in Acid Mortar. They proc well, and when they all stack Trip Mine does insane damage.

 

-RES procs from the same caster don’t stack.  You’ll refresh the effect if one goes off while another is still in play, but you won’t stack -RES procs of the same type.

 

That said, I’ve slotted at least one of every -RES proc into my Arsenal/Storm troller and -RES definitely make a difference.

[Onlyasandwich]

On 4/7/2024 at 9:21 AM, Crysis said:

-RES procs from the same caster don’t stack

Very true!

 

They also don't stack from different casters.

[Argentae]

Agreed, I identified the hole in my testing when I got started looking at final build possibilities.

 

I had been testing them in isolation to make sure they were triggering, but not in combination. Did some testing on a Vanguard training dummy and the Power Analyzer from the PTW vendor and observed the lack of stacking. It's still useful to have multiple powers with the Annihilation -Res and Arsenal/Traps can slot a LOT of them, to keep it renewed and to affect mobs that didn't get tagged with the -Res the first or second hit. 

 

2 different Acid Mortars I think do stack (though not the proc as mentioned), if you have the Achilles -Res slotted it make a huge difference with taking down single hard targets at the end of the spawn.

 

I'm still tweaking the build a bit, and I've shifted tactics in some situations to better use Tri-Cannon as an aggro magnet/pocket tank. With the +10 Res unique in Exped Reinforcement slotted, Tri-Cannon becomes extremely tough if it's floating in the effect of a heal slotted Triage Beacon.  I'll often use smoke first, then creep up, drop Triage and then resummon Tri-cannon at the point of the Triage effect and toss Caltrops in front of it then start the stacking patches of doom in just in front of the caltrops so they overlap.

 

I picked up Spirit Ward to see if it was helpful, I thought I'd use it on Tri-Cannon to make it nigh unkillable when added to the Triage Beacon, but I found it's often not needed UNLESS Tri-cannon took a major pounding before the Triage Becon came up. I HAVE found it to be useful in keeping FF Generator (Buffbot) alive. Many times when I get into trouble it's because  Buffbot dropped and I didn't notice quickly enough.

 

Running at +4X8 with bosses. 

 

New Council is a lot tougher than they used to be, which is nice. Sudden appearances of new bosses with no debuffs on them and no aggro lock on Tri-Cannon can be dicey. 

Arachnos is surprisingly easier for me then in some builds, I kind of expected it though as I really don't need to see my targets to bleep them up with successive patches of doom.

Carnies are generally doable though the Master illusionists can be a massive pain as always. 

 

I think I'm going to go Intuition Radial Paragon for the Alpha, and I'm shifting slots around to get more -Tohit out of Smoke Canister (4 pack of Dark Watcher + 2 Coercive Persuasion). Seekers are pretty useful for the -Dmg and additional -ToHit, so I'm thinking they will get 2 -ToHit and call it good. 

 

In general, there are several one-slot wonders in Traps (Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Seekers, Temporal Bomb really only needs 1 or 2, Trip Mine needs FF +Rech and dmg probably a 4 slot when all is said and done. )

Edited April 9 by Argentae