Seismic Trap Saboteur

Our first purchase is going to be the Boots Deerstalker (Trade Link). Deerstalker is a cheap pair of Boots with Maximum Life, Movement Speed and Trap Throwing Speed, it also allows you to get a Pseudo 5-Link for your Exsanguinate Setup.

Flasks are a significant defensive upgrade that's often overlooked. The flask bases we run are:

We craft our Flasks using basic crafting methods, first using an Orb of Transmutation on White Flasks and then alternating between using Orb of Alteration and Orb of Augmentation until hitting the following mods on your Quartz Flask, Granite Flask and Diamond Flask. Any of the below mods can be on any of the flasks you're rolling:

Roll your Quicksilver Flask using the same method as above for the following modifier: Increased Movement Speed during Flask effect. When rolling your Divine Life Flask look for the following modifier making sure that it's not rolled with any negative modifiers: Grants Immunity to Bleeding if used while Bleeding.

Look for Amulet Bases that have Implicits granting Attributes you need to run your Gem Setups (Strength and Dexterity can be a struggle early on). We are looking for a decent amount of Maximum Life & Global Critical Strike Multiplier. If you have some budget, you can eventually add some Spell Damage or even a +1 to All/Physical Spell Skill Gems but that is not a priority for now. We are going to annoint our Amulet:

A Stygian Vise is a very easy upgrade to get. We are only looking for Maximum Life, Elemental Resistances and an empty Suffix Modifier to craft Trap Throwing Speed. Some Strength is also great for Attribute Requirements and more Life, but harder to hit. Get one yourself by finding Abyssal Depths in Maps and spam some Essences of Greed / Hatred / Anger / Wrath / Rage on it to get the desired result.

Then, we'll need an Abyss Jewel to socket into this Stygian Vise. We are looking for Maximum Life, Global Critical Strike Multiplier & Added Physical Damage to Spells. Abyss Jewels are common so that it should not be a problem to get yourself a cheap one (Trade Link).

A pair of Gloves with an Incursion Modifier is an easy damage upgrade for starter gear that is relatively cheap. Look for one of these two modifiers alongside some Maximum Life (Trade Link) :

Upgrading your Helmet and Rings to ones with higher Life, Resistances and Attributes is something to look at. We want to invest heavily in making sure we gain more Resistances and Attributes than we need here, as we require it later on in progression. Get Evasion Bases to craft on, either make sure to have these bases on your lootfilter or purchase them off of trade to craft on.

To craft your Helmet, spam any of the following Essence on the item until you find decent Maximum Life, some Elemental Resistances and eventually Spell Suppression:

On your Rings, you need Maximum Life, Elemental Resistances and some Strength if possible, this helps you reach the Attribute Requirement you need for your Gems.

The gear you have is already pretty comfortable to go through the early Atlas but in order to melt Bosses and tougher enemies even more, we are going to get a cheap 6-Link for our main skill Seismic Trap. Here are your options:

This upgrade is not excessively expensive but will get you to the next step with ease. If you have more Budget and don't mind a Tabula Rasa, you can check for a +2 Trap / AoE / Duration Gems one.

Enchanted Deerstalker is going to be a small upgrade but for a relatively small cost. We are looking for the 120% increased Critical Strike Chance if you haven't Crit Recently enchantment (Trade Link). Since Traps are dealing damage for us, we never crit ourselves, meaning this enchant has a permanent uptime. Alternatively, you can farm this enchant yourself in the Eternal Lab since it is not a rare Labyrinth Enchantment. Note you can also farm the Merciless Lab, if that is easier to handle for you, to get 90% increased Critical Strike Chance if you haven't Crit Recently which is still a good damage buff.

This Weapon is a massive power spike but these might be costy the first few days of a league. However they are not that rare, meaning the supply will always top the demand and make the price drop quickly (Trade Link).

If the price is too high for now, you can look for Wands with +1 Level to All Physical Spell Skill Gems with a combination of some Global Critical Strike Multiplier, Critical Strike Chance for Spells and Spell Damage (Trade Link).

Getting your damaging skills Gems to Level 21 is going to be a great damage upgrade. The quality on Exsanguinate does not matter and it should not be too expensive (Trade Link). Quality on Seismic Trap is a decent damage boost and will cost more (Trade Link), hence you should try to get it yourself. As soon as you can buy Seismic Trap during your leveling, you should level as many as you can in Offhand Weapons.

Jewels with Life on them are expensive but offer greater defences. Early on in your progression, go for % Life & 1-2 Damage Modifiers (Critical Strike Multiplier or eventually Trap/Spell/Physical Damage) to keep things affordable and effective. Going for 2-3 Damage Modifiers and giving up on % Life for now is an acceptable solution as well.

Eventually, getting a Watcher's Eye with the (8-12)% chance to deal Double Damage modifier is a big offensive upgrade and can be a good deal depending on the economy (Trade Link). This might be too expensive early in a league so don't make it your primary focus, Rare Jewels are perfectly fine.

With The Devouring Diadem and Sovereignty alongside some Enlighten Support, you now have Herald of Purity. This enables you to take in Circle of Guilt with these modifiers (Trade Link) :

This Ring is a massive damage upgrade. As a Synthesis Implicit, you look for either Maximum Life or Global Critical Strike Multiplier depending on your preferences if you can afford it (Trade Link).

Best case scenario, you want 2 of these Synthesis Rings but it is easier (for Resistances Cap and Defence in general) to go for a Vermillion Ring with Global Critical Strike Multiplier, Maximum Life and Elemental Resistances (Trade Link). Global Critical Strike Multiplier on Rings requires either Conqueror Influence or Essence of Scorn if you plan on crafting it. Don't forget to apply Catalysts on your Rings:

Bottled Faith is a quite expensive Flask that drops from Cortex, yet one of the best Flask in the game for this build (Trade Link). It gives you a massive Critical Strike Chance buff, a Damage Debuff on Enemies (which is multiplicative with Damage Buffs on your character) and a great recovery through its Triple Radius Consecrated Ground. Replace your Diamond Flask with it and make sure the Suffix you're dropping is Reduced Effect of Curses.

Getting your Endgame Boots is a step that needs to be done alongside the previous one (Endgame Gloves). on these Boots, we want high Maximum Life, 30-35% Movement Speed, Spell Suppression and Elemental Resistances (Trade Link). It is way cheaper to buy rather than crafting them since all the modifiers we are looking for are pretty common. Once you have your Boots, you need to enchant them with 120% increased Critical Strike Chance if you haven't Crit Recently which is not a rare Labyrinth Enchantment.

There is one final step to finish your Boots and turn them into a great upgrade for your build, it is getting your Eldritch Implicits. The main one we are looking for is the Searing Exarch one Drops Brittle Ground while Moving, lasting X seconds. Brittle Monsters have +5% Critical Strike Chance against them, which is an absolutely massive damage buff. Higher tiers of this Eldritch Implicit increases the duration of the Brittle Ground which is not incredibly useful since you are very mobile and monsters are moving around anyway. Eater of Worlds Implicits are not incredibly strong for us, but getting an Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate one is good for more gameplay smoothness since it reduces the cooldown of both your Movement Ability and Seismic Trap.

You can now focus on getting all Awakened & Alternate Quality Gems as well as all Level 21 Gems to pimp your Setup. This includes 2 Awakened Brutality Support, Awakened Chain Support, Divergent Exsanguinate, Divergent Advanced Traps Support (if the additional Skill Effect Duration lets you reach an additional set of waves). Additionally, you can get Divergent Determination, Anomalous Defiance Banner, etc...

Getting a Dual Modifier Watcher's Eye is going to be one of your last reasonably expensive big offensive upgrade (Trade Link). We are still looking for the (8-12)% chance to deal Double Damage while using Pride modifier and are going to add one of these modifiers on top:

When you have the budget for it, look for The Brass Dome with Corrupted Implicits. The Implicits you are looking for are +2 to Level of Socketed Trap / AoE / Duration Gems, +1 to Level of Socketed Gems or eventually 50% increased Damage. While this is not especially a damage upgrade over Skin of the Loyal, The Brass Dome is a huge defensive upgrade.

At this point, replacing your Dual Cold Iron Point Setup with Rare Weapons is one of the last massive damage upgrade you can get. In that case, you're looking for:

If you managed to go that far, then the chances are you already considered to swap this build to a Cold Conversion Setup. Cold Conversion Seismic Trap indeed has a better damage ceiling at higher budget since it has more opportunities for damage scaling such as Secrets of Suffering, Zealotry, Hatred, etc...