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noot noot



The Basics

Basically what we're looking at is a build that is able to stay mobile and dodge damage, as with most trappers. Bladefall is a new spell gem that rains ethereal weapons down from the sky in a quite large AoE - linking this to multitrap allows great AoE coverage, while single target is quite easily handled by Bear Trap. Poison is used as a large portion of our damage, with quite good scaling with our physical damage and making the Vulnerability curse doubly as effective. Defenses are minimal, and my current gear is not quite chock-full of life either. The endgame ideal is to be hybrid, using energy shield gear with life rolls. Energy shield is great for trappers as they are able to throw traps and GTFO out of there to regen ES.



The Skill Tree

"Finished" Skill Tree (122 points)



Current Tree (level 87)



Budget Skill Tree + Explanation Our skill tree, as you may expect, starts off at the Shadow area, grabbing juicy physical and chaos nodes, as well as some life and energy shield. Trap nodes are also quite close, allowing for quite a bit of damage scaling for Bear Trap as well (which is not a spell, so spell damage does not affect it). I am currently transitioning to also grab spellcrit and trap crit nodes for endgame damage. We travel eventually towards the Templar area as well, taking all the life, spell damage, AoE, and eventually spell crit that is available there. (this used to be the Scion life circle, but thanks to 7thDayTheory I did looked at the tree some more and it appears that the Templar area is superior to traveling for the Scion circle). I ended up sticking with Conduit as I am constantly playing with a pretty tight-knit group of friends, but in an ideal situation I would cut those nodes out to pick up another jewel socket. This skill tree was intended for my character as my first character in the league ; it gives much more life than the new tree (which extends to the Ranger) at the cost of damage nodes.



I've recently revised the skill tree so that instead of going to the Scion life circle (1st version of the build) or even the Templar area (2nd version of the build), we instead extend downwards below the Ranger start to pick up even more trap damage. The Master Sapper notable cluster gives a whopping 92% trap damage, which double dips for our poison calculations, providing us with more damage than the spell damage the Templar notables would give. Though we lose powerful life nodes in the Templar area, we gain more critical strike chance and multiplier via the Heartseeker cluster, along with some more increased physical damage (and a little bit of life) from the Revenge of the Hunted notable cluster. This tree aims to provide as much damage scaling for our poison DoT as possible, potentially sacrificing defenses and life to do it. If you are playing on a limited budget (and cannot get enough life to be comfortable with just ~120% increased life on the tree) I recommend sticking with the old Templar tree, which gives more life at the expense of trap damage and critical strike chance + multiplier.



For the bandit quests, you have quite a few options that are all decent. Getting life from Oak in Normal difficulty is always a solid choice, though I chose to pick up a passive point instead. With the new mana changes, mana from Alira is less optimal. There is a clear favourite in Cruel difficulty: % Physical damage from Oak because it is generic physical damage, which helps with the damage of Bladefall and Bear Trap. In Merciless it is again a toss-up between a power charge from Alira or simply getting a passive point. I'd say if you are choosing to use Jaws of Agony, picking up the power charge is worth it, but otherwise I would pick a passive point over it.



As far as leveling goes, there are two ways to go about it. You can either level with Fire Trap and Bear Trap, or with Ethereal Knives and Blade Vortex. There really is no difference between the two trees, just a matter of which nodes are picked up earlier. I quite suggest picking up the Sniper notable for leveling as a physical caster, as the projectile speed increase greatly helps Ethereal Knives.



Leveling as Trapper



Leveling as Physical Caster

I've recently revised the skill tree so that instead of going to thelife circle (1st version of the build) or even thearea (2nd version of the build), we instead extend downwards below thestart to pick up even more trap damage. Thenotable cluster gives a whopping 92% trap damage, which double dips for our poison calculations, providing us with more damage than the spell damage the Templar notables would give. Though we lose powerful life nodes in the Templar area, we gain more critical strike chance and multiplier via thecluster, along with some more increased physical damage (and a little bit of life) from thenotable cluster. This tree aims to provide as much damage scaling for our poison DoT as possible, potentially sacrificing defenses and life to do it.For the bandit quests, you have quite a few options that are all decent. Gettingindifficulty is always a solid choice, though I chose to pick up ainstead. With the new mana changes,is less optimal. There is a clear favourite indifficulty:because it is generic physical damage, which helps with the damage of Bladefall and Bear Trap. In Merciless it is again a toss-up between aor simply getting a. I'd say if you are choosing to use, picking up the power charge is worth it, but otherwise I would pick a passive point over it.As far as leveling goes, there are two ways to go about it. You can either level with Fire Trap and Bear Trap, or with Ethereal Knives and Blade Vortex. There really is no difference between the two trees, just a matter of which nodes are picked up earlier. I quite suggest picking up thenotable for leveling as a physical caster, as the projectile speed increase greatly helps Ethereal Knives.

The Gear

The character is fairly flexible as far as gearing goes. My current gear is very minimal, and will likely see frequent changes as I find/buy upgrades. Ideally, you want life, energy shield, and some combination of resistances (as for every build) that will let you reach cap. Some trapper uniques can be used, though I don't consider any of them necessary. The build is meant to be easily played as a first character (as it is my first character in Talisman) so I tried to keep gearing as minimal as possible. I would call this build easily played without any starting currency, and realistically the only unique that provides a big boost to damage is Deerstalker because they provide an easy 5-link for our Bladefall trap.



Current Gear

Armour



Weapon + Shield



Jewellery





Uniques + Reasoning









100% decreased duration to make traps explode instantly. Regardless, the belt still is one of the best damage increases you can achieve in this slot, so it is an option.



optional choice because it doesn't offer us any life or resists, and only a tiny amount of energy shield. However, what it does give us is 30% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage , giving us great scaling from our Shadow's Physical + Chaos nodes. The Chaos damage still adds to our poison damage over time.







20% of Physical Damage Added as Chaos Damage , and that Chaos damage can then be scaled with your assorted Chaos damage nodes on the tree. All in all, this is probably your number one offensive option for your ring slot, at the expensive of drastically reduced defenses.



Southbound.



Your Hits can only Kill Frozen Enemies ," which has an important synergy with Bino's Kitchen Knife: since we don't deal any cold damage and therefore can't freeze, our Bear Trap and Bladefall will never kill an enemy on the initial hit, instead leaving them to die from our Poison damage over time. This is because while the initial hit cannot kill unfrozen enemies, the poison is not a hit and therefore will always deal the killing blow on enemies, allowing us to benefit from the bonuses Bino's Kitchen Knife gives us.

Deerstalkers are great boots because they offer us trappers an easily obtainable 5-link, which is able to carry us through early/midgame through to low/mid mapping. Its obvious downsides are a lack of life and resists, and they are not an energy shield base. In short, they offer us quite a good boost to our Bladefall trap, but are lacking in defenses (like most other trapping uniques). Jaws of Agony is similar to Deerstalker in that it offers us a link - a level 20 Bear Trap, with 3 possible support gems. This is, again, quite good as an early option because it is a 4-link in an otherwise 3-link slot, allowing greater flexibility with your other gear's sockets. Level 20 Bear Trap also does huge damage thanks to our tree's physical and trap scaling. Jaws of Agony offer us some more increased physical damage and trap damage, both of which boost our Bladefall trap and Bear Trap. Sunblast is an obvious choice for trappers, offering up increased trap damage, some mana regeneration, and quality of life for triggering traps. Unfortunately when Reduced Duration was changed to Less Duration, it became nearly impossible for trappers to achievedecreased duration to make traps explode instantly. Regardless, the belt still is one of the best damage increases you can achieve in this slot, so it is an option. Lightbane Raiment is very much anchoice because it doesn't offer us any life or resists, and only a tiny amount of energy shield. However, what it does give us is, giving us great scaling from our Shadow's Physical + Chaos nodes. The Chaos damage still adds to our poison damage over time. Divinarius is quite a good dagger for us, offering all the offensive stats we could ever want - spell crit and spell damage. On top of that, we also benefit greatly from its increased AoE. This is a great pickup and can be used pretty much forever, or at least you run into a wand/dagger with 100% spelldamage and 100% spellcrit. Ming's Heart is an endgame option when you are feeling very comfortable with your life, energy shield, resists, and Chaos Orbs. It offers, and that Chaos damage can then be scaled with your assorted Chaos damage nodes on the tree. All in all, this is probably your number one offensive option for your ring slot, at the expensive of drastically reduced defenses. Bino's Kitchen Knife is an extremely good pickup (if a little bit expensive), even though it lacks spelldamage and spellcrit. It gives us some increased damage over time to compensate for the loss of damage, but it gives us incredible quality of life and defense as a trade. The poison proliferation it has gives us not only better AoE coverage, but any boss that spawns adds around it will take enormous amounts of extra damage (as the poison stacks from the normal monsters will transfer onto the boss). It also gives us an absolute TON of life regen, as any time an enemy dies from poison, we receive the poison DoT as life regen. This regen can number well into the 50k+ numbers, basically keeping us safe from all but one-shots. However, this must be paired with Southbound is a pair of unique gloves that give us x% maximum life and a good amount of cold resist. It also gives us the property "," which has an important synergy with: since we don't deal any cold damage and therefore can't freeze, our Bear Trap and Bladefall will never kill an enemy on the, instead leaving them to die from our Poison damage over time. This is because while the initialcannot kill unfrozen enemies, the poison isand therefore will always deal the killing blow on enemies, allowing us to benefit from the bonusesgives us.

The character is fairly flexible as far as gearing goes. My current gear is very minimal, and will likely see frequent changes as I find/buy upgrades. Ideally, you want life, energy shield, and some combination of resistances (as for every build) that will let you reach cap. Some trapper uniques can be used, though I don't consider any of them necessary. The build is meant to be easily played as a first character (as it is my first character in Talisman) so I tried to keep gearing as minimal as possible. I would call this buildplayed without any starting currency, and realistically the only unique that provides a big boost to damage isbecause they provide an easy 5-link for our Bladefall trap.

The Numbers (mostly for Poison)

I thought I would add this section for the sake of clarifying (both to you readers and to myself) how the Poison DoT works.



Poison's base definition is a status effect that deals 10% of the initial hit of Physical and Chaos damage every second, for 2 seconds. Let's use my character, with its level 74 gear and skill tree, as an example.



I have 86% increased Chaos Damage, and 125% increased damage with Poison on the skill tree. Trap nodes also affect the poison damage of the traps (double dipping), which allows me to add my increased trap damage (174% trap damage). My current Poison gem (level 15) adds 95% increased damage with Poison. On top of all of this, support gems and gear give me 34.36% MORE damage to the poison DoT. This adds up to 720.9% increased damage for our poison DoT. Applying this to the 10% base damage per second gives us a whopping 82.09% of our initial hit dealt as a chaos damage DoT, per second. Because we don't have any duration increases, the duration of the Poison DoT is only 2 seconds , which gives us 164.18% total added damage from the Poison gem. Crazy!



Now let's apply this to my Bear Trap. Bear Trap deals 19,072 damage, which is purely Physical and Chaos, so 100% of that damage is used in the calculation for the poison DoT. 82.09% of 19,072 is 15656.2048 damage per second. Multiplying this DPS by 2 for the 2 seconds duration of the Poison DoT gives us a total of 31312.4096 chaos damage that we can effectively "add" onto the initial hit of 19,072 of Bear Trap. This gives us a total combined damage of 50384.4096 damage.



Now what about Vulnerability? My Vulnerability gem is currently level 15, making enemies take 27% increased physical damage and 33% increased damage over time. Because this modifier applies to the MONSTER and NOT to us, we can treat these numbers as a "multiplier" rather than adding on a rather insignificant 27% physical damage to our total from the skill tree and gear.



Bear Trap's physical damage: 11443.2



Vulnerability effect: 11443.2 * 1.27 = 14532.864 total physical damage



NEW total damage from Bear Trap = 14532.864 + 7628.8 (average chaos damage, unaffected by Vulnerability) = 22161.664 (not counting crit)



Total damage from Poison = 22161.664 * 1.6418 (from above, 82.09% * 2 seconds) = 36385.02



Vulnerability effect on DoT: 36385.02 * 1.33 = 48392.07654 total poison DoT



Total damage of Bear Trap to enemies affected by Vulnerability (linked to Void Manipulation, Trap and Mine Damage, and Poison): 22161.664 Initial Hit + 48392.07654 = 70553.74 total damage!



From the comment below (#8 or so) explaining supports for Bear Trap

" AznR4ge

#0: Poison, absolutely necessary to make use of all the outstanding scaling of Physical Damage , Chaos Damage , Trap Damage , Damage over Time , and Duration .



#1: Trap and Mine Damage, pretty much unquestionably the best 2nd gem to have. More trap damage multiplies both the initial hit and the DoT effect.



#2: Increased Duration increases the duration of the Poison DoT, effectively increasing the total damage dealt by the trap, but not the damage per second . At level 20, Increased Duration adds 64% duration, making the duration of the poison DoT 3.28 seconds. At base, 10% * 2 seconds = 20% of initial hit damage added; with Inc. Duration it's 10% * 3.28 seconds = 32.8% of initial hit damage added.



#3: Empower, adding gem levels to Bear Trap, which scales really well into the higher levels. Level 20 -> 21 gives a 11.45% base damage increase. The more duration you have other than the Increased Duration gem, the better Empower is. However it takes up to 90% increased duration for Empower to outweigh Increased Duration so Empower will remain 3rd priority.



#4: Void Manipulation applies a more multiplier to any chaos damage you deal, as well as a more multiplier to the chaos DoT. At level 20, Void Manipulation has a 39% More multiplier to chaos damage. Assuming that we do ONLY physical damage, the poison DoT calculation works like this: 10% *1.39 = 13.9% of initial hit damage per second, for 2 seconds = 27.8% of the initial hit, assuming there is no chaos damage on the initial hit. If there is significant chaos damage on the initial hit, Void Manipulation may turn out to be better than Increased Duration because it also increases the initial hit damage.



#5: Rapid Decay lowers the duration of the Poison DoT, but increases the damage it deals per second. This can be considered the opposite of Increased Duration. At level 16 (for whatever reason there is no stat for level 20 on the wiki), Rapid Decay decreases duration by 15% but has a 35% more damage multiplier. This means, for our base poison of 10% every second for 2 seconds, that the duration goes down to 1.7 seconds but the damage goes up to 13.5% of initial hit per second. The total damage we get out of Rapid Decay is 13.5% * 1.7 seconds = 22.95% of the initial hit. #0:, absolutely necessary to make use of all the outstanding scaling of, and#1:, pretty much unquestionably the best 2nd gem to have. More trap damage multiplies both the initial hit and the DoT effect.#2:increases the duration of the Poison DoT, effectively increasing thedamage dealt by the trap, but not the. At level 20, Increased Duration adds 64% duration, making the duration of the poison DoT 3.28 seconds. At base, 10% * 2 seconds = 20% of initial hit damage added; with Inc. Duration it's 10% * 3.28 seconds =#3:, adding gem levels to Bear Trap, which scales really well into the higher levels. Level 20 -> 21 gives abase damage increase. The more duration you have other than thegem, the better Empower is. However it takes up to 90% increased duration for Empower to outweighsowill remain 3rd priority.#4:applies amultiplier to any chaos damage you deal, as well as amultiplier to the chaos DoT. At level 20, Void Manipulation has a 39% More multiplier to chaos damage. Assuming that we do ONLY physical damage, the poison DoT calculation works like this: 10% *1.39 = 13.9% of initial hit damage per second, for 2 seconds =, assuming there is no chaos damage on the initial hit. If there is significant chaos damage on the initial hit,may turn out to be better thanbecause it also increases the initial hit damage.#5:lowers the duration of the Poison DoT, but increases the damage it deals per second. This can be considered theof. At level 16 (for whatever reason there is no stat for level 20 on the wiki), Rapid Decay decreases duration by 15% but has a 35% more damage multiplier. This means, for our base poison of 10% every second for 2 seconds, that the duration goes down tobut the damage goes up to. The total damage we get out ofis 13.5% * 1.7 seconds =



And this Poison DoT can stack, so throwing your Bear/Bladefall traps in quick succession does no harm :)



If anyone knows if I got anything wrong, please do tell. I'm not perfect.

I thought I would add this section for the sake of clarifying (both to you readers and to myself) how the Poison DoT works.Poison's base definition is a status effect that deals. Let's use my character, with its level 74 gear and skill tree, as an example.I have, andon the skill tree. Trap nodes also affect the poison damage of the traps (double dipping), which allows me to add my increased trap damage (trap damage). My current Poison gem (level 15) adds. On top of all of this, support gems and gear give medamage to the poison DoT. This adds up tofor our poison DoT. Applying this to the 10% base damage per second gives us a whoppingof our initial hit dealt as a chaos damage DoT, per second. Because we don't have any duration increases, the duration of the Poison DoT is only, which gives ustotal added damage from the Poison gem. Crazy!Now let's apply this to my Bear Trap. Bear Trap deals 19,072 damage, which is purely Physical and Chaos, so 100% of that damage is used in the calculation for the poison DoT.of 19,072 isdamage per second. Multiplying this DPS by 2 for the 2 seconds duration of the Poison DoT gives us a total of 31312.4096 chaos damage that we can effectively "add" onto the initial hit of 19,072 of Bear Trap. This gives us a total combined damage ofdamage.Now what about? My Vulnerability gem is currently level 15, making enemies take 27% increased physical damage and 33% increased damage over time. Because this modifier applies to the MONSTER and NOT to us, we can treat these numbers as a "multiplier" rather than adding on a rather insignificant 27% physical damage to our total from the skill tree and gear.Bear Trap's physical damage: 11443.2Vulnerability effect: 11443.2 * 1.27 =NEW total damage from Bear Trap = 14532.864 + 7628.8 (average chaos damage, unaffected by Vulnerability) =(not counting crit)Total damage from Poison = 22161.664 * 1.6418 (from above, 82.09% * 2 seconds) =Vulnerability effect on DoT: 36385.02 * 1.33 =Total damage of Bear Trap to enemies affected by Vulnerability (linked to Void Manipulation, Trap and Mine Damage, and Poison): 22161.664 Initial Hit + 48392.07654 =If anyone knows if I got anything wrong, please do tell. I'm not perfect.

The Gems

Our main skill for AoE damage and even boss-killing is a Bladefall trap augmented to deal the new Poison damage over time effect. Because Bladefall can hit multiple times, the stacking property of poison can be used to deal huge damage over time. Heavy single target and boss-killing is handled by a Bear Trap augmented nearly the same way.



Bladefall Trap setup



4L: Bladefall + Trap + Multiple Traps + Trap and Mine Damage



5L: Bladefall + Trap + Multiple Traps + Trap and Mine Damage + Poison



6L (with chaos conversion/Ming's): Bladefall + Trap + Multiple Traps + Trap and Mine Damage + Poison + Void Manipulation



6L (with less/no chaos conversion): Bladefall + Trap + Multiple Traps + Trap and Mine Damage + Poison + Increased AoE / Concentrated Effect



Note : If you are using a Bino's Kitchen Knife you may drop Multiple Traps to run an additional gem (choose from Increased AoE, Concentrated Effect, Void Manipulation, Rapid Decay, Increased Duration)



Bear Trap Setup



3L: Bear Trap + Trap and Mine Damage + Poison



4L: Bear Trap + Trap and Mine Damage + Poison + Increased Duration



Other sockets can be used for Flame Golem / Ice Golem, Vaal skills, and curses. I recommend Vulnerability as an offensive curse as it increases both your initial hit of physical damage, and also the poison DoT that occurs afterwards. I currently run Blasphemy linked to Enfeeble to help with my currently lackluster defenses.



Another great option is Blasphemy + Temporal Chains + (optional)Increased AoE, which helps with both defense and offense. It slows down enemy attacks and movement, but also increases the duration of our poisons. The damage per second of the poison does not decrease, but the duration increases.



The Media (Screenshots and Videos)



Screenshots (level ~75, low gear)







Screenshots (level 87, close to endgame gear)



Non-crit DPS of poison DoT (life regeneration = DPS because of Bino's)





Crit DPS of poison DoT





Tooltip of Bladefall (links: Bladefall - Poison - Trap - Trap and Mine Damage - Concentrated Effect - Empower)







By request, a shitty quality little Dried Lake run. Will probably make a better video when I'm back on my desktop



A little bit better quality build-guide-like video, explaining gear + skill tree, along with a short map. Shows off playstyle of the build



Atziri run



*Note that the substantial poison DoT damage is not included in the tooltip



The Changes

Edit 1: Added media, including screenshots and a video

Edit 2: Added a lengthy "Numbers" section to explain poison mechanics

Edit 3: Changes to the "Numbers" section thanks to discussion and comments on reddit and in this thread

Edit 4: Added a "suggested support gems" section for Bear Trap.

Edit 5: Added a "finished" skill tree

Edit 6: Changed around the suggest support gems for Bear Trap thanks to Fearmonger.

Edit 7: Added bandits to the skill tree section

Edit 8: Huge change to the suggested skill tree (finished and leveling) thanks to 7thDayTheory. Now travels to the Templar area rather than dicking around with the Scion life wheel

Edit 8.1: Minor change to the skill tree, just improved pathing efficiency by 1 node. Now a 120 point "finished" build

Edit 9: Updated current gear and current skill tree

Edit 10: Slight changes to the suggested "finished" tree, taking out the High Explosives notable and changing around pathing to be a little more flexible

Edit 11: Changes to the finished tree again. Dropped trap trigger radius and a little bit of trap damage to pick up a grand total of 175% life

Edit 12: Updated gear, apparently it became unlinked. I also updated my current skill tree and my character level (84).

Edit 13: New video up in the Media section.

Edit 14: Big update, character currently level 86. Gear update, additional unique recommendations, more info on gem links. Will probably record new video on playstyle with Bino's tonight.

Edit 15: HUMONGOUS update. Character only 1 level higher @ 87 (have been playing 3 alts), and I updated the skill tree, current gear, and skill tree explanation. The "endgame" skill tree picks up Acrobatics and extends down below the Ranger start for the Master Sapper notables instead of the Templar area. Bladefall is now 6-linked and I have dropped Bear Trap as it's not needed.

Edit 15.5: Added an Atziri run to the Media section.





Thanks for reading through! Hi guys, this is my second guide, after my discharge CoMK build. I'm currently playing this build through on the Talisman softcore league, and I'm currently doing low maps. I'll try to keep this updated as I progress further. The name of my Talisman character is, if I'm ever online and you want to ask me question don't be afraid to throw me a PM.At home now, find my stream at Twitch ! (NOTE: My internet at school is spotty at best, don't expect my stream to be consistently up/smooth)Thanks for reading through! noot Last edited by AznR4ge on Jan 31, 2016, 6:32:46 PM Last bumped on Mar 13, 2016, 2:11:40 PM