Post by moonreaper on Jan 5, 2007 8:17:04 GMT -5
Hello, sorry for being so inactive in this forum. Posted this "guide" in the SIF, hope you don't mind me adding it here.
The Dark Elf Fire Trapper
Well, I’ve never really found a guide on how to make a fire trapper, which is kind of strange, because from my experience they are really good. I’m not really a guide writer, but I’m going to try to explain how I make my fire trappers. However, I’m Swedish, so excuse grammatical mistakes and strange expressions. And if you have any questions, comments etc. feel free to post them.
I try to build my trappers a bit like tanks, keep my main trap Regen time between 0.5-1.5 seconds, have a pretty good Life Leech and boost Constitution skill as high as possible, and a fire trapper can become a really tough tank.
This is the skills I like to take for my fire trappers:
Dual Wielding*
Constitution
Ballistics
Weapon Lore
Armor
Trap Lore
Blade Combat
Sword Lore**
*Dual Wielding is not a must for this build, since you might want to collect a full Huron set (Huron set contains a shield), however, Dual wielding is a great skill to have and opens up a lot of build possibilities.
**Hehe, Sword Lore you might think, what’s the point? Well, I took it so I could use the Aarnum stuff, which give good fire damage bonus and Life Leech. It’s a completely optional skill, and Trading or Parrying work as well.
As with most builds, keep Weapon Lore and Constitution as high as possible. Ballistics and Trap Lore should be as high as possible as well. When it comes to Dual Wielding, Blade Combat and Sword Lore, I mostly put 1-10 points into them, IMO you don’t need more. I like to keep Armor at least half my level. If you take trading instead of Sword Lore, max it out and get a trade suit (and search forums for more info concerning trading skill). The skills disarming, concentration, agility and parrying I find to be useless for this build. Riding can be taken if you like horses. however, riding is not nessecary for this build either.
Attributes:
There are a lot of combinations with attribute points for Dark Elf, and when it comes to trapper I mostly put them all into Phys. Regeneration and boost the others up with items.
Combat Arts:
The main attack trap for this build is Explosive Charge with Adrenaline and Soul Catcher* as defense. Not sure how many Dark Elf players who uses Soul Catcher, but it’s very helpful, and I find it really good for this build. I like to keep a 5-15 seconds gap between Soul Catcher and Adrenaline at early levels, using this strategy: **Cast the Soul Catcher and then Adrenaline. When you see the Soul Catcher symbol disappear you know Adrenaline will run out soon. This is similar to the Testosterone/Adrenaline strategy Mjjolnir’s guide teaches us for poison Dark Elves, but since this is a fire trapper, Testosterone is pretty useless. You can build a Fire trapper without soul catcher of course, if so keep addy as main and max it out as much as you can. Soul catcher is useful for a DE that has very low Life leech, or a DE using a lot of WIDD, meaning you can take a few hits and then heal yourself up.
*Remember, undead have no souls, but since they’re weak to fire, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with them. And you still have Adrenaline as defense.
**When the soul catcher reaches duration of 90 seconds, you can't increase its duration anymore, however the life gain continue to increase. At this point you can't use the Soul catcher/Adrenaline strategy as good as at lower levels, however it is still very good to use them together, when you see the Soul catcher symbol disappear, you still know that adrenaline will run out in for example 30 seconds. What you can do now is that you cast the soul catcher again and continue, when you see adrenaline run out you start it again: I've tested this at niobium lvl, and it works, as long as you have atleast one of these running, you survive good.
Ok, what other CA’s to use? Well, from here you can chose and experiment a lot yourself, the main attack is Explosive Charge. You can take Confusion/Battle Fog for some extra cover or a Mongoose for shortcuts and quick escapes (if needed, this is supposed to be a tank, hehe :wink: ).
You remember me saying Testosterone is pretty useless; well I use it together with Bottomless Pit as damage back-up and surprise attacks, will tell more about it in the survival strategy section (or what to call it). Pak-Dain can be used as well, good for desert/forest areas, you can bomb the melee mob to hell while the archers kills themselves, hehe. As I said, the Explosive Charge, Adrenaline an Soul Catcher is most important for this build, the others can be chosen by you, just don’t come to me and cry if it doesn’t work. :tongue:
Survival and Combat Strategies:
I will start with some advantages/disadvantages compared to poison trappers.
A Poison Mist trapper has the advantage of the Poison Mist duration and also the poison effect on poison weak opponents, that is it slows them down. The Explosive Charge is a one hit trap, but it deals a lot more damage.
A Poison Mist trapper can boost his damage with Testosterone, not only with rings/ammys/items.
However, a Poison Mist trapper has to be aware of the Testosterone expiring and damage dropping, this is no problem for a fire trapper; he mainly has to focus on the Adrenaline.
Boosting the Fire Damage:
Since you can’t use Testosterone to increase the Explosive Charge trap, you need to find another way to do it.
This is not hard; there are rings, ammys, armors, blades and swords with bonus for fire damage. Many Dark Elf blades have both fire damage +fire damage boost. Do notice that +fire weapon damage is useless for this build.
The Aarnum rings I spoke of earlier in this “guide” are very useful. And of course, a full Huron set is excellent for a fire trapper. And the most important thing is to increase the Explosive Charge trap it self with runes and +all combat art items etc, just try to keep the Regen time as low as possible. And also, the + spell damage smith art works for the explosive charge trap as well (they work for poison mist and bottomless pit too, just a reminder ), so use them as much as you can, at higher difficulty levels they give a very good boost to both fire damage and physical damage, better then most of the rings with +fire damage actually.
In combat:
Life Leech, Critical Hit and Adrenaline/Soul Catcher in harmony to come closer to the tank warrior:
As with all builds and characters, Life Leech and “Chance to Land a Critical Hit” is very useful and important. And together with Explosive Charge, Adrenaline and Soul Catcher, you can get a very good killing machine.
Just a reminder:
A good thing with Explosive Charge is that you can throw it on enemies that haven’t seen you yet, which gives a good advantages.
Fighting mobs always has its risks of course, but a fire trapper (as a poison trapper) is a good mob killer. Keep Adrenaline and Soul Catcher running and try to aim the Explosive Charge so it hits as many as possible, the more you hit, the faster the kill. If you have Life Leech, the high damag given from Explosive Charge heals you very quick and the Soul Catcher heals if needed when you’ve killed the mob and Adrenaline greatly reduces the chance of even taking damag. I’m gonna try to describe this more exactly in some combat situations in areas I’ve experienced can be very common and good for raising levels.
The Khorad desert is fun IMO, and orc mobs are very common. An orc mob of 4 warriors, 2 archers and a chieftain launch an attack. My Explosive Charge kills all melee orcs and severely damage the chieftain. I like to keep the Explosive Charge that when the first strikes, the next can be launched. So next Explosive Charge is aimed at the archers, kills them both, then I finish the chieftain off with a 3rd Explosive Charge. I have full health when battle is over and I am ready for another mob.
The bear cave in VoT is a good and hard place for experience. 4 golems run towards me, the first lands a blow that removes more then half my life. I throw the Explosive Charge and it hits all 4 golems, one golem dies instantly with the Critical Hit, and my Life Leech heals me back to full health. I’ve already thrown my second Explosive Charge and it kills the rest. They manage to hit me before death, but the Life Leech and the Soul Catcher gives me full health once again. And I of course have pots if I would take too much damag, hehe. Never leave home without them.
I have tried both situations in Hard Core platinum, so I know it works on high difficulty and against high level enemies. I have also at this moment reached niobium level, and tested this strategy in Khorad, it's working without any problems. Will as soon as possible go to Valley of Tears at niob lvl.
Well, the Bottomless Pit/Testosterone technique I spoke of, not necessary, but can be useful. The Bottomless Pit trap deals both fire and poison damag, and since you boost fire damag the Bottomless Pit can hurt a lot mixed with Testosterone, even at low Bottomless Pit/Testosterone level. Bottomless Pit is good for surprise attacks on strong enemies like dragons or in hero cave. Just throw a lot of Bottomless Pit’s on ground and lure the dragon inside them while bombing it with Explosive Charge’s. In hero cave, just throw them on the ground before opening the graves.
Ok, not sure if you need to know anything more, but if there is, feel free to ask. And as I said, I’m no guide writer so I’m sorry if it isn’t very well written. Hope it will help someone out.
The Dark Elf Fire Trapper
Well, I’ve never really found a guide on how to make a fire trapper, which is kind of strange, because from my experience they are really good. I’m not really a guide writer, but I’m going to try to explain how I make my fire trappers. However, I’m Swedish, so excuse grammatical mistakes and strange expressions. And if you have any questions, comments etc. feel free to post them.
I try to build my trappers a bit like tanks, keep my main trap Regen time between 0.5-1.5 seconds, have a pretty good Life Leech and boost Constitution skill as high as possible, and a fire trapper can become a really tough tank.
This is the skills I like to take for my fire trappers:
Dual Wielding*
Constitution
Ballistics
Weapon Lore
Armor
Trap Lore
Blade Combat
Sword Lore**
*Dual Wielding is not a must for this build, since you might want to collect a full Huron set (Huron set contains a shield), however, Dual wielding is a great skill to have and opens up a lot of build possibilities.
**Hehe, Sword Lore you might think, what’s the point? Well, I took it so I could use the Aarnum stuff, which give good fire damage bonus and Life Leech. It’s a completely optional skill, and Trading or Parrying work as well.
As with most builds, keep Weapon Lore and Constitution as high as possible. Ballistics and Trap Lore should be as high as possible as well. When it comes to Dual Wielding, Blade Combat and Sword Lore, I mostly put 1-10 points into them, IMO you don’t need more. I like to keep Armor at least half my level. If you take trading instead of Sword Lore, max it out and get a trade suit (and search forums for more info concerning trading skill). The skills disarming, concentration, agility and parrying I find to be useless for this build. Riding can be taken if you like horses. however, riding is not nessecary for this build either.
Attributes:
There are a lot of combinations with attribute points for Dark Elf, and when it comes to trapper I mostly put them all into Phys. Regeneration and boost the others up with items.
Combat Arts:
The main attack trap for this build is Explosive Charge with Adrenaline and Soul Catcher* as defense. Not sure how many Dark Elf players who uses Soul Catcher, but it’s very helpful, and I find it really good for this build. I like to keep a 5-15 seconds gap between Soul Catcher and Adrenaline at early levels, using this strategy: **Cast the Soul Catcher and then Adrenaline. When you see the Soul Catcher symbol disappear you know Adrenaline will run out soon. This is similar to the Testosterone/Adrenaline strategy Mjjolnir’s guide teaches us for poison Dark Elves, but since this is a fire trapper, Testosterone is pretty useless. You can build a Fire trapper without soul catcher of course, if so keep addy as main and max it out as much as you can. Soul catcher is useful for a DE that has very low Life leech, or a DE using a lot of WIDD, meaning you can take a few hits and then heal yourself up.
*Remember, undead have no souls, but since they’re weak to fire, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with them. And you still have Adrenaline as defense.
**When the soul catcher reaches duration of 90 seconds, you can't increase its duration anymore, however the life gain continue to increase. At this point you can't use the Soul catcher/Adrenaline strategy as good as at lower levels, however it is still very good to use them together, when you see the Soul catcher symbol disappear, you still know that adrenaline will run out in for example 30 seconds. What you can do now is that you cast the soul catcher again and continue, when you see adrenaline run out you start it again: I've tested this at niobium lvl, and it works, as long as you have atleast one of these running, you survive good.
Ok, what other CA’s to use? Well, from here you can chose and experiment a lot yourself, the main attack is Explosive Charge. You can take Confusion/Battle Fog for some extra cover or a Mongoose for shortcuts and quick escapes (if needed, this is supposed to be a tank, hehe :wink: ).
You remember me saying Testosterone is pretty useless; well I use it together with Bottomless Pit as damage back-up and surprise attacks, will tell more about it in the survival strategy section (or what to call it). Pak-Dain can be used as well, good for desert/forest areas, you can bomb the melee mob to hell while the archers kills themselves, hehe. As I said, the Explosive Charge, Adrenaline an Soul Catcher is most important for this build, the others can be chosen by you, just don’t come to me and cry if it doesn’t work. :tongue:
Survival and Combat Strategies:
I will start with some advantages/disadvantages compared to poison trappers.
A Poison Mist trapper has the advantage of the Poison Mist duration and also the poison effect on poison weak opponents, that is it slows them down. The Explosive Charge is a one hit trap, but it deals a lot more damage.
A Poison Mist trapper can boost his damage with Testosterone, not only with rings/ammys/items.
However, a Poison Mist trapper has to be aware of the Testosterone expiring and damage dropping, this is no problem for a fire trapper; he mainly has to focus on the Adrenaline.
Boosting the Fire Damage:
Since you can’t use Testosterone to increase the Explosive Charge trap, you need to find another way to do it.
This is not hard; there are rings, ammys, armors, blades and swords with bonus for fire damage. Many Dark Elf blades have both fire damage +fire damage boost. Do notice that +fire weapon damage is useless for this build.
The Aarnum rings I spoke of earlier in this “guide” are very useful. And of course, a full Huron set is excellent for a fire trapper. And the most important thing is to increase the Explosive Charge trap it self with runes and +all combat art items etc, just try to keep the Regen time as low as possible. And also, the + spell damage smith art works for the explosive charge trap as well (they work for poison mist and bottomless pit too, just a reminder ), so use them as much as you can, at higher difficulty levels they give a very good boost to both fire damage and physical damage, better then most of the rings with +fire damage actually.
In combat:
Life Leech, Critical Hit and Adrenaline/Soul Catcher in harmony to come closer to the tank warrior:
As with all builds and characters, Life Leech and “Chance to Land a Critical Hit” is very useful and important. And together with Explosive Charge, Adrenaline and Soul Catcher, you can get a very good killing machine.
Just a reminder:
A good thing with Explosive Charge is that you can throw it on enemies that haven’t seen you yet, which gives a good advantages.
Fighting mobs always has its risks of course, but a fire trapper (as a poison trapper) is a good mob killer. Keep Adrenaline and Soul Catcher running and try to aim the Explosive Charge so it hits as many as possible, the more you hit, the faster the kill. If you have Life Leech, the high damag given from Explosive Charge heals you very quick and the Soul Catcher heals if needed when you’ve killed the mob and Adrenaline greatly reduces the chance of even taking damag. I’m gonna try to describe this more exactly in some combat situations in areas I’ve experienced can be very common and good for raising levels.
The Khorad desert is fun IMO, and orc mobs are very common. An orc mob of 4 warriors, 2 archers and a chieftain launch an attack. My Explosive Charge kills all melee orcs and severely damage the chieftain. I like to keep the Explosive Charge that when the first strikes, the next can be launched. So next Explosive Charge is aimed at the archers, kills them both, then I finish the chieftain off with a 3rd Explosive Charge. I have full health when battle is over and I am ready for another mob.
The bear cave in VoT is a good and hard place for experience. 4 golems run towards me, the first lands a blow that removes more then half my life. I throw the Explosive Charge and it hits all 4 golems, one golem dies instantly with the Critical Hit, and my Life Leech heals me back to full health. I’ve already thrown my second Explosive Charge and it kills the rest. They manage to hit me before death, but the Life Leech and the Soul Catcher gives me full health once again. And I of course have pots if I would take too much damag, hehe. Never leave home without them.
I have tried both situations in Hard Core platinum, so I know it works on high difficulty and against high level enemies. I have also at this moment reached niobium level, and tested this strategy in Khorad, it's working without any problems. Will as soon as possible go to Valley of Tears at niob lvl.
Well, the Bottomless Pit/Testosterone technique I spoke of, not necessary, but can be useful. The Bottomless Pit trap deals both fire and poison damag, and since you boost fire damag the Bottomless Pit can hurt a lot mixed with Testosterone, even at low Bottomless Pit/Testosterone level. Bottomless Pit is good for surprise attacks on strong enemies like dragons or in hero cave. Just throw a lot of Bottomless Pit’s on ground and lure the dragon inside them while bombing it with Explosive Charge’s. In hero cave, just throw them on the ground before opening the graves.
Ok, not sure if you need to know anything more, but if there is, feel free to ask. And as I said, I’m no guide writer so I’m sorry if it isn’t very well written. Hope it will help someone out.
