Trap Powers

I plan on making a new MM with the secondary power Traps. But im not sure what powers or power pools i should get. Any ideas, tricks, tips, and slot advice? My primary is Mercenaries, the more unused primary power of the MM.

Hey I have a level 42 Thugs/Traps. I took every last power in the secondary set. I find that the only one i never use is trip mine. It does massive damage, but with the way villian teams play its all but impossible to get a few of them set up. I keep hoping ill be able to on an av run or something but it has yet to happen. I took stamina, hasten, super speed, and stealth for my power pools. Put a stealth io in and you shouldnt have a problem with laying acid mortar or poison mine down in the middle of a group without risking to much. Its a good idea to three slot hasten and have it auto hit. I find with the proper slotting you can get all your traps up every group, some of them even twice. Remember your going to be running in and out of melee to lay traps. Also i would seriously consider choosing a ranged primary for your pets like thugs or bots because of the shield generator and the triage beacon. Hope this helped

There is a reason for taking all the powers but to any individual some may matter and some may not. The don't leave home without powers are probably Forcefield Gen, Poison Gas and Acid Mortar...oh and Web Grenade which people are given no choice on. It's actually handy. But anyway from there you may want to let experience be your guide. Powers add flexibility and its all down to whether or not you think they're viable. I don't have Detonator and I don't have Seeker Drones.

I skipped acid mortar, poison trap, time bomb, and seeker drones, but only to get patron powers, poison trap serves very well when slotted though, and detonator might work out better for you than time bomb on a corruptor. But I do miss P-trap. I miss watching mobs puking uncontrollably. Good Secondary and good choice on the primary, mercs rule!

What primary?

Generally, I view Detonator as completely skipable, and if you're Bots, Seeker Drones as well (Protectors get Drones of their own). Must-haves are Poison Trap, FFG, and Web Grenade. Triage Beacon and Acid Mortar are both very good, and Trip Mine is nice solo, as well as against masses. I personally adore Caltrops, but others see it differently.

As for why you want these powers:

Web Grenade - you have to take it, but it's a nice immobilise and also has a -recharge component, which can stack if you spam it.

Poison Trap is billed as a hold - and it is a nice one, which I'll get to later - but its real benefit is its -regen component. It's also got more -recharge. The real beauty of Poison Trap's hold, by the way, is that it's unresistable. It's not a sure-hold and only has a chance of firing while enemies are in the cloud, but if it hits, it hits anything. Even an AV. Best thing ever was watching Reichsman double over vomiting (the FX of the Hold) from my Poison Trap.

Force Field Generator is a very powerful defence tool. Slotted, it's ~15% defence to everything, and that bonus applies to you, your team and your pets. And more importantly, it provides mez protection - Hold, Stun, and Immobilise - to everyone in range as well.

If you don't have Bots, Seeker Drones are really nice for two uses - taking alphas and debuffing to-hit and damage. Even without Bots, I still view this power as skipable, because unlike Poison Trap's Hold, the to-hit and -dam can be resisted (by the PToD), which limits its usefulness against AVs and EB where you really need the debuffs.

Trip Mine is excellent for setting up ambushes. With a bit of recharge, you can get 14-18 Trip Mines down before they start exploding, and that is enough damage to take down half an EB's health.

Triage Beacon is basically a stationary Regeneration Aura. Good way to keep your pets (and team) alive.

Caltrops is a slow field, which pairs really well with Bots or Thugs, who both have burn fields. Foes are slower getting out, so they take more damage. Slot in Pace of the Turtle's proc, and it's yet another -recharge power as well. Slot in Positron's Blast's proc and you get exploding Caltrops, and hilarity ensues.

Acid Mortar is a nice debuff - both resistance and defence - and can serve well to pull spawns as well. It's an AOE debuff too, which is always nice. You can't target it, though, which is its biggest drawback.

So, that's Traps in a nutshell. The combo of Poison Trap, Triage Beacon and Force Field Generator, as well as Acid Mortar, Caltrops, and general MM toughness, is why Traps is generally viewed as one of the primary AV-soloing secondaries. A good opening set of Trip Mines helps too.

A little tip on playing /Traps: it is a stationary set. For the most part, a /Traps MM sets up a killing field (Trip Mines, Poison Traps, Acid Mortar, probably some Caltrops) and then lures enemies into it. A /Traps MM makes a fort, then defends that fort. And once the /Traps MM is fully dug in, you're a powerhouse. Moving around a lot really diminishes the power of Traps.

And Poison Trap's "hold" doesn't trigger very often these days; it's mainly useful as a -regen power.

Im a Mercenary MM, as said in my first post...

I don't have any experience working with Mercenaries, but the standard MM pools - Leadership and Medicine (for Aid Other) - will probably be helpful in increasing the Mercs' lifetime and damage output.

If you're used to playing other MM secondaries, you might find Traps a bit sub-par at first, because unlike the other secondaries, to really leverage Traps powers requires being pretty close to the action - Caltrops doesn't have a great range, Poison Trap only affects the area around itself, Triage Beacon has to be deployed where the fighting is happening and so on. If the battle isn't happen on top of your Traps, you're probably operating at about 33% peak effeciency (because well-deployed Traps are, in fact, that good.) Of course, 33% from a Traps MM is still pretty impressive.

As for slotting, I personally have Web Grenade and Caltrops six-slotted; Web Grenade with Trap of the Hunter (which includes a damage proc, making Web Grenade now a damage power in addition to an Immobilise and -recharge) and Caltrops with Pacing of the Turtle (making Caltrops a slow field with a -recharge component). The rest of Traps is more lightly slotted with generic IOs to amplify their various effects, though I do have Ghost Widow's Embrace's damage proc in Poison Trap for the amusement of small damage from the Trap Gas (and random massive deaths of low-level foes). More than three slots in FFG is a waste, unless you're aiming for a specific IO set bonus.

I'd recommend a bit of recharge in most of Trap's powers, especially Trip Mine, Poison Trap, and Triage Beacon, simply so you'll have them available more often and so you can move your "fortress" zone more frequently. And note that the Seeker Drones, the Trip Mine and the Acid Mortar all need to make to-hit checks, so a bit of accuracy in each if you take them would not be remiss.

Quick run down of /Traps:

Web Grenade: Your stuck with it, but you wanted it, anyway. Get some recharge and some Immobilization durration enhancements into this in the early 30s... you are going to need it to keep hard targets in one place, which makes most of your other Traps more effective.

Caltrops: Possibly a power you could skip, but it's nice way to convince things to stop beating on you and/or your pets.

Triage Beacon: A placed Regen Booster. Great when you've got a stand point... not so much otherwise. Don't bother taking it before the 20s, it's worthless without SOs.

Acid Mortar: A key power! This is a defense and resistance debuff, and as such, will be your best friend. It's also a pretty tough little toy, and so can serve as an aggro soaker for a bit. Recharge is key here, you can get two of these out and stack their effects! Take it, and use it often.

Force Field Generator: A key power! Teams love you for this, your pets adore you for this, and you will be happy for it, too. A great defense boost that follows you around. You can summon it up often enough, and can even use it to soak up alpha strikes if needed. Best art? You never need more than three slots in this - max out its defense, and you're golden.

Poison Trap: A key power! While not the beast it used to be, this is still your -regen trap, and why you will be able to fight EBs/AVs with (reletive) ease. This is also why you want to slot up Web Grenade - you need to keep hard targets inside the gas cloud to keep the benefits.

Seeker Drones: A Damage and To Hit debuff, and stun, to boot? Sounds good, right? Well, it isn't bad, but it's not as sexy and the last three. Still, they make a superior way to soak an alpha, and to pull enemies - preferably into your other traps.

Trip Mine: Pretty blah, actually. Damage isn't all that great, and it's tricky to set these up on the fly. Good for solo play, where you can set up a killing field. Not so much otherwise.

Detonator: Sacrifice a pet for a big boom! Not really worth it. You want to make explosions, take trip mine... you will only surpass the mine's damage with Detonator if you sacrifice your Boss-pet... which is generally worth more than the detonator damage. Highly skippable.

Only thing I can say about Mercs is that Serum is entirely skippable. My Mercs/Traps took it because, no stamina and I had an open slot, but its not all that great. Also, if you want personal defense, pick burst or slug, won't need both and M30 grenade is also not needed.