Level 30 question

I just dinged 30 on my Thugs/Traps and I don't know what to take. ATM I don't have Acid Mortar or Poison Trap as I didn't see how they would help my playstyle (depending on my question below). I'm less of a set trap and lure them into it as I am a run in (since I have the FF Generator and wanna keep my Arsonist and Bruiser in it) and shoot stuff kinda guy. So I guess I have a few questions.

1. Can I make the Acid Mortar and the Poison Trap at a distance like the seeker drones, or is it like the Triage Beacon, right under me?

2. Is the buff from Grant Invis. in the Concealment pool good enough to take to give to my pets? I am not really up on having to reapply it every 2 minutes, but if it is a really good buff, then I might take it. I already have the Fitness and Flight pools.

If you have another good suggestion on something I should take, feel free. I have everything else in Thugs (except Gang War atm which I WILL take sometime soon) and everything else in Traps except the above 2.

Thanks for any advice.

Ok, ignore question 1 above. I just went over to test and found out they are both right under you when you make them. But I still am curious if people think the grant invis buff is worth it.

I think Maneuvers would be a better choice, it will cost less endurance than casting Grant Invs on all your pets every 2 minutes and it will also grant you some extra defense too. Plus it opens up Tactics which is nice for the lower level minions to be able to hit reliably.

If you still have your second build available, I would strongly suggest you give poison trap and acid mortar a try in an experimental build for you. These are bread and butter powers on many trapsters, even ones that run in and start fighting/shooting. I would suggest a quick recharge on both, I think you might like them. If I am feeling really gung-ho, I set my acid mortar between the current group and the next since it has awesome range, 100 feet per Red Tomax City of Data.

My trapster runs in except for exceptionally difficult groups, but even with forcefield generator defense I can still set off trip mines in a crowd.

My suggestion for taking gang war would be at level 18. I find it invaluable on thugs.

On my Bots/Traps I am only level 11 so have no experience with Poison Trap (And my experience will be different due to being so low level) but getting Acid Mortar made the world of difference for me.

Things die so much faster and I never have to resummon bots when there is an Acid Mortar about.

The range is much nicer than I thought too, when I first clicked it I expected a targetting circle and was annoyed I had wasted the power when it dropped at my feet, but it hit the mob quite happily

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

I took acid mortar at 10 and PG trap at 24 (after stamina) on both my thugs and bots /traps. If I found out a /traps had neither of those powers by 30 I'd immediately kick them from the group for sheer idiocy, as other than FFG they are the two powers that absolutely define the set.

It would be comparible to a /rad telling me that he didn't take either of his debuff toggles.

To give you an idea of what you're doing to yourself, my 35 thugs/traps solos +0x6 easily, I can solo x8 or +2x5, but the efficiency starts to go down as I'm not fully setted out. Spawns that size take long enough to go down that my 45 second acid mortar is up every spawn, PG trap has a longer recharge but is generally up every spawn as well, unless I get very lucky with AoEs or am in a small hallway.

Acid mortar is -def and -res. You do more damage when you hit and hit more often. Godly, especially when you start facing enemies of a higher level. PG trap is -regen for hard targets, a hold which can and does lock up entire spawns long enough for me to drop caltrops and immobilize a boss right in the middle of an arsonist burn patch, and PG trap is an Autohit debuff. That makes it a proc mule, there is no tohit check so its a flat 20% or 33% chance to hit very enemy in the spawn every 10 seconds starting with the instant it goes off. With procs in caltrops and in PG trap, you can destroy every minion in a spawn in about two seconds when you get lucky on the rolls.

Or, you can drop in a chance for +2 mag hold and watch bosses get held for 8 seconds.

I don't play the lure-and-kill style much. Traps is so effective that, assuming the mobs aren't completely over the top lethal, simply charging into the mobs and laying down acid and poison is far better. I also employ stealth IO+superspeed to gain the alpha advantage.

You really should consider respec'ing to add both of these powers in as soon as they can be taken. No matter how you like to play, they are the backbone of the set (along with FFG). They'll improve your performance considerably, and your value to any team.

Teleport wouldn't be bad either. The foes don't have time to react before poison gas trap is down.

I think the real problem the OP is facing here is the assumption that acid mortar and poison trap are only (or even mostly) effective if you use a lure and kill play style. The fact is that both of these powers are very useful for both the set trap and lure play style and the run in and kill things play style.

Because neither power is interruptible both can be dropped in the middle of a group without any problems. Poison trap makes a great 'beta' absorber, in that you will take the alpha when you drop it but then the hold kicks in and gives your pets a chance to kill the mobs before they attack again. Acid mortar is even better as it is ranged and has quite a long range - longer than it may initially seem because it only fires at targets near YOU but it can fire at targets a long ways away from the mortar itself if you run up to them - so if you have two groups in LOS of the mortar you can drop it in the middle of one, finish that group off, then move up to group two and have a good chance of getting a couple mortar shells off.

I would definitely recommend taking acid mortar - in fact, if you can respec to fit it in at an earlier level and get a couple slots in it for some recharge and maybe a little accuracy all the better. Acid mortar is one of the traps powers you want up every spawn if possible due to the def and res debuff - you can also slot an achilles heel chance for res debuff proc in it to get some extra resistance debuff. Poison gas is a little less important - my thugs/traps alternates it with seeker drones as an alpha/beta absorber but if you don't have a problem with alpha's then it is probably skippable.

Really, the only power in the MM traps set that really needs a lure and kill strategy to use it fully is trip mine, mostly because it IS interruptible so you can't plant it in the middle of a group easily - although with a reasonable amount of def you stand a good chance of planting one even while being attacked. I do have trip mine on my thugs/traps but I may respec out of it - generally by the time I get around to planting it I end up wasting the mine on nearly dead mobs. I could see using it on EB's and av's though - hard, single targets like EB's are about the only time I would resort to a mine and lure strategy - otherwise I play my thugs/traps about the same way the OP does for pretty much the same reason, to prevent mob spread so everyone stays in the FFG & Enforcer maneuvers area.

Poison trap is also your best -regen (-1000% is one of the best in the whole game). Thus it's your anti-AV/GM power as well.