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Seismic Trap Saboteur

SentinelArchived

Last Updated:July 26, 2024|Changelog

WARNING: THIS GUIDE IS OUTDATED. WE DO NOT RECOMEND PLAYING THIS BUILD.

Introduction

The Seismic Trap Saboteur is a league start bossing specialist that excels in single target and can take on most endgame bosses on a moderate budget. It is a fairly decent mapper even though it is not the fastest build out there. You are a trap specialist throwing deadly devices on the ground while running and dodging everything coming your way.




Mid Game Gear Overview

Strengths and Weaknesses

DifficultyModerate
BudgetLow
MappingModerate
BossingAmazing
DefenceModerate

Skills Breakdown

Seismic Trap is your main damage skill. Lay all your trap charges down on Bosses. While mapping, only throw one here and there to help out clearing the screen and take out tougher enemies like Rare Monsters.

Ascendancy Breakdown

The Saboteur is our choice as it offers many Traps bonuses and good defences.

  • Born in the Shadows grants a permanent and efficient source of Blind which is a great defence layer.
  • Perfect Crime grants additional damage for Traps, complemented by Chain Reaction for Trap Cooldown Recovery and Trap « Chain Trigger ».
  • Pyromaniac is our main source of recovery, granting us 10% Life Regeneration while also making us Immune to Ignite and Shock.

To learn how the Labyrinth works, feel free to consult our Labyrinth Guide!

Playstyle

When playing as Seismic Trap Saboteur your primary focus is to lay down your Seismic Traps and Exsanguinate Traps in good positions to maximize your damage output on the targets. The rest of the time, you're free to run around targets and surgically dodge attacks.

Mapping

While mapping, Exsanguinate Traps become your main source of damage, spam them near targets and only throw Seismic Trap to help clear out very dense screens or tougher enemies.

Bossing

Traps allow you to frontload damage (spend all trap charges at once to stack them) in order to create massive damage bursts, which makes the Seismic Trap Saboteur a great bossing character and single target character in general. When fighting a Boss, curse them with Assassin's Mark and let Seismic Trap do most of the work. Exsanguinate Trap is used as a filler while dodging and waiting for Seismic Traps charges to refill, it adds some secondary damage, kills small adds and keeps up the Perfect Crime Ascendancy damage buff.

Build Scaling

Offence
Defence

Seismic Trap and Exsanguinate combined with Trap Support are both Traps Spells dealing Physical Damage, hence they scale off of these stats mainly:

  • Trap Damage
  • Global Physical Damage
  • Spell Damage
  • Auras (Summon Skitterbots, Pride, Herald of Purity, Precision)

Since we have easy access to Critical Strike stats on the Passive Skill Tree, we also optimize around these stats:

  • Critical Strike Chance for Spells / Traps
  • Critical Strike Multiplier

Seismic Trap has very specific mechanics allowing for more damage scaling: By default, the trap releases a set of 5 waves every 0.9 seconds for a total duration of 3.5 seconds. This lets us scale our Seismic Trap damage even further:

  • The interval of 0.9 seconds between each set of waves is reduced by your Trap Throwing Speed.
  • The Skill Effect Duration increases the duration of the trap, letting you reach more wave releases if you hit a breakpoint.

This leads to this formula:

Seismic Trap Formula 001

The result is rounded down. This allows you to get an estimation of the actual number of wave releases, but there might be imperfections in some scenarios due to server ticks affecting duration. The best way to tell how many ticks your Seismic Trap releases is to throw one into your Hideout and count them manually.

Beware that Trap Duration does not directly increases your damage nor the actual duration of the trap, it only affects the duration before the trap activates. It is an interesting stat to take to reduce the activation time of your Traps for gameplay smoothness, but not a requirement.

The Saboteur has access to a wide variety of defences on its gear and passive Skill Tree, the following defences are our focus:

  • Evasion and Armour from Gear, Flasks and Skill Tree
  • Capped Elemental Resistances at 75%
  • 100% Spell Suppression
  • Freeze Immunity
  • Corrupted Blood Immunity

The above defences grant the build solid mitigation against difficult to avoid one shots and unavoidable ailment deaths, but still position it firmly as a ranged glass cannon reliant on excellent positioning and dodging.

Mapping Preparation

You're done with the Campaign and are ready to take on the Path of Exile Endgame. Priority 1 is to ensure your Elemental Resistances are capped (75%) and have sufficient Attributes to continue leveling your Skill Gems. Use Essences you have gathered on any item that is not Magic or Rare already. Items with an open modifier slot can be crafted on. Head to the Crafting Bench and craft Resistances wherever possible according to what you need and Life wherever else possible.

Map Modifiers

Take note of the below modifiers as they should be avoided or run with caution when they appear on your maps:

  • Avoid No Regen and Less Recovery because your only source of recovery is Life Regen. Be careful even if you are confident enough that you can take care of these Maps with only your Life Flask.
  • Beyond is always problematic when progressing since Beyond Monsters are deadly and can easily kill you off guard.
  • Minus Global Resistances and Reduced Suppressed Spell Amount are modifiers you should always be looking for since they dramatically increases the damage you take.
  • Physical Damage Reduction is a no-go for tougher content since it reduces your damage output by a straight 40%.

The first step is to progress through the Atlas following our Atlas Progression Guide. As a mapping focused character you should focus on the mechanics listed below depending on what level of content your character is currently capable of completing. If you're struggling in higher tier content it is always recommended you go a step back and farm up more Currency and Gear. Clicking the League Mechanics below takes you to either a full Explanation Guide or a detailed Currency Farming Guide based around maximizing your profits from that mechanic or content.

Mid Game

Endgame

Pantheon

For information about what is the Pantheon and how it works, don't hesitate to consult our Pantheon Guide!

For Major Pantheon, select Brine King to gain Immunity to Freeze and Reduction of Chill Effect. This bonus is not baseline and needs to be acquired with a Divine Vessel.

For Minor Pantheon, select Shakari or Grukthul and upgrade it. The first gives you defences against Poisons and Chaos Degens while the latest grants you a more generic defensive layer. Both are good choices depending on your playstyle and the content you're running.

Skill Gems

Gems are an fundamental part of your build, getting the correct link setups before entering Maps and leveling those Gems as you progress through the Atlas is one of your main goals. This is how your Gem setup should look like before entering Maps:

Early Game Gem Setup

This is how your Gem setup looks like as you enter Maps. You should have both Seismic Trap & Exsanguinate on 4-Links, your Movement Setup and your Auras Setup ready. Initially, you need to choose between Determination and Pride (either more defense or more damage). Quickly, you focus on getting a cheap 6-Link for Seismic Trap and Deerstalker for a pseudo 5-Link on Exsanguinate.

Use Slider to see Skill Progression
Mid Game Gem Setup

As you transition into The Devouring Diadem, you can replace Lifetap Support with Concentrated Effect Support on your 6-Link Seismic Trap. At the same time, you can add in Determination or Pride with some Level 2-3 Enlighten Support. If you went full offense with Pride and want even more, add Herald of Purity instead. You can change your Movement Setup to something smoother like Whirling Blades or Dash.

End Game Gem Setup

As you get expensive upgrades, Ashes of the Stars lets you add the last Aura you were missing. You can focus on getting Corruption Implicits, all Awakened & Alternate Quality Gems as well as all Level 21 Gems to pimp your Setup.

Skill Tree Progression

Key Build Info

The Skill Tree Progression is really straightforward up until obtaining Cluster Jewels. Some Late Game Upgrades such as Thread of Hope and Impossible Escape require some Skill Tree Tweaks.

One thing to check during ever point of your build progression is how many Seismic Trap ticks per Trap you have. As seen above, this tickrate scales with Trap Throwing Speed while Skill Effect Duration allows for longer Traps which may get you one more tick. Don't hesitate to throw a Seismic Trap in your hideout to check the numbers of ticks you currently have and if it is worth to go for more Trap Throwing Speed or if you can remove some.

Character Progression

Mid Game
Gear Overview
Milestones
Mid Game Goal

Our goal is to upgrade into powerful rare and unique items which greatly boost both our defenses and offenses. At the end of these milestones we arrive at a full build that is able to take on all endgame challenges.

Mid Game Gear Overview
Milestone 1 - Flask Setup Upgrade

Flasks have Modifier Tiers just like items so be sure to get high Item Level Flasks to gain access to higher modifiers as they offer better utility and defence. Take another look to your Flask Setup and recraft new ones with higher tier Suffix Modifiers. Additionally, try to look for Gain X Charges when Hit by an Enemy as Prefix Modifier on your Utility Flasks. On your Divine Life Flask, look for Seething (Instant Recovery) or Ebullient / Bubbling (Instant Recovery + Quick Recovery after).

As you pick up Glassblower's Bauble, use them on your Flasks until they hit 20% Quality. After picking up enough Instilling Orbs, check the Crafting Bench and craft the following enchant on each of your Utility Flasks: Used when Charges reach Full.

Milestone 2 - First Cluster Jewel Setup

Cluster Jewel Setups are a massive damage upgrade. We need a 8 passives Physical Large Cluster Jewel with a combination of these 3 notables (Trade Link):

  • Master the Fundamentals
  • Force Multiplier
  • Battle-Hardened

If you're buying it from trade, Battle-Hardened can be replaced by Iron Breaker for a generally way lower cost (Trade Link). However, it is really worth it to get a 8 passives Physical Large Cluster Jewel (Item Level 50 minimum) and use Jagged Fossil or Physical Rerolls recipes from Harvest to try to get it yourself. Worst case scenario, you get a decent one and sell it to fund your own. If getting a 8 passives Cluster is too expensive, you can start with a 9 passives one which is cheaper.

To go alongside this Physical Large Cluster Jewel, we need 2 4-5 passive Traps Medium Cluster Jewel with Guerilla Tactics and Set and Forget notables. Guerilla Tactics is a generic damage upgrade granting Trap Throwing Speed and Movement Speed while Set and Forget is a must-have for gameplay smoothness. Careful Handling is a decent notable as well.

Milestone 3 - Skin of the Loyal / Skin of the Lords

Skin of the Loyal & Skin of the Lords are very powerful Body Armours dropping off of Chayula. The 100% Global Defences modifier is a massive buff to your Armour and Evasion Ratings but the main reason we are going for this Body Armour is the +1 to Level of Socketed Gems. While buying one, take care of Socket Colours since they are fixed and cannot be modified!

Skin of the Loyal is allowing you to get +2 to Level of Socketed Trap or Mine / AoE / Duration Gems or +1 to Level of Socketed Gems as Corrupted Implicit which is a massive damage upgrade. This should be your focus if your goal is maximizing damage.

Item Seismic Trap 02

Skin of the Lords on the other hand can allow you to get the Magebane Keystone without having to path to it if you have issues capping your Spell Suppression. However it is inherently Corrupted meaning you cannot get Corrupted Implicits to further buff your damage. If you can't afford a Corrupted Implicit Skin of the Loyal, then a Skin of the Lords with a random Keystone (which has no influence on your build) will probably be cheaper.

Milestone 4 - The Devouring Diadem

The Devouring Diadem (Trade Link) is a really interesting Unique Helmet which comes with a lot of benefits:

  • Its 25% Reservation Efficiency allows us to add in one more Aura between Determination, Pride or Herald of Purity with 1-2 Level 2-3 Enlighten Support and/or Sovereignty Annoint (Next Step).
  • Its Eldritch Battery & Energy Shield Recharge Modifiers allows us to reverse the entirety of our Mana pool with Auras and replace Lifetap Support with Concentrated Effect Support in our Seismic Trap 6-Link.
  • Its +1 to Level of Socketed Gems makes our Auras even stronger.
  • Its Automatic Triggered Feast of Flesh is a great recovery bonus.

As soon as you have enough budget to afford it, get The Devouring Diadem with the Labyrinth Enchantment Seismic Trap releases an additional Wave (Trade Link). This enchantment makes every set of waves releases 6 waves instead of 5, creating more area overlaps between them, dramatically increasing your damage output if the enemy is well-positioned.

Milestone 5 - Amulet Upgrade & Annoint Swap

The stats we are looking for are Maximum Life, Global Critical Strike Multiplier, +1 to Level of All Skill Gems / All Physical Skill Gems and if we can, crafted Trap Throwing Speed (Trade Link). We are annointing Sovereignty to make sure we can reserve the Aura we talked about thanks to The Devouring Diadem.

Silver Oil

Silver Oil

Silver Oil

Sovereignty
12% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills
10% increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills

Milestone 6 - Second Cluster Jewel Setup & Thread of Hope

Adding a Second Cluster Jewel Setup is going to be a massive damage upgrade as well. We are looking for a second 8 passives Physical Large Cluster Jewel with the same notables than before (Milestone 2). We need to get a 4-5 passives Traps Medium Cluster Jewel with Guerilla Tactics and Arcane Pyrotechnics notables. We need Arcane Pyrotechnics in order to proc Arcane Surge Support since we do not spend any Mana anymore due to The Devouring Diadem (Milestone 3).

In order to get enough Passive Skill Points to allocate all the points needed for this second Cluster Jewel Setup, we are going to need a Large Ring Thread of Hope to save some Skill Points.

Milestone 7 - Ancestral Bond Impossible Escape

Impossible Escape with Ancestral Bond is a relatively small upgrade that comes at a relatively small cost. It allows you to allocate Reservation Efficiency, Purity of Flesh and Arcane Potency without having to path to them.

Summary

Upon completing this guide you will have an amazing Bosskiller character with fairly decent capabilities of Mapping, a great "All-Rounder" character, able to deal with almost any content in the game. If you're looking for the next step of your Seismic Trap journey, you can transition this Physical Seismic Trapper into a Cold Conversion Seismic Trapper which is more expensive to build early on but has a higher damage ceiling allowing to wreak havoc on the battlefield even more!

Credits

Written by Chewingnom.
Reviewed by Palsteron.

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