Cooldown & Energy
This build revolves around one goal: 100% uptime on
Death Trap, so you can infinitely cast it. To make this work, there are four non-negotiable breakpoints you need to hit:
- The Cooldown: You must reduce your Death Trap cooldown to 15 seconds or less through gear and tempering.
- The Energy Bank: You need a maximum energy level of at least 225.
- The Restoration: You need to be able to restore 225 energy back immediately.
- The Reduction: You need Trap Arm Time Reduction
Why 225 Energy? Because we use the
Preparation Specialization alongside
Beastfall Boots to fully reset that cooldown the moment we spend our energy.
Cooldown Reduction:
Greater Affix Cooldown Reduction on as many pieces as possible (e.g. Helmet, Gloves, Rings, and Amulet), and Greater Affix Cooldown Tempers on your Rings and Amulet. There is also Trap Cooldown Reduction on the
Deadly Ambush Paragon Board.
Equal or more than 225 Maximum Energy:
You get this through +Maximum Resource on your Chest, +Maximum Resource on your Charms and the Unique Charm
Sea Lord's Fine Gloves, providing you 30% more Energy once fully stacked.
Restoring 225 Energy:
To restore 225 Energy we utilize the
Aspect of Aftermath on one of our Rings. To do that, you need 40 Ranks of
Death Trap with a min-rolled or 25 Ranks with a max-rolled one. We get an additional 25 Energy restored by
Beastfall Boots. Now how do we get that many Ranks of Death Trap? Simple, via
Vehement Brawler's Aspect, Charms and our Amulet. Charms can get up to 4 ranks to Trap Skills each and our Amulet can roll Ranks to Trap or Ranks to All Skills. Get as many ranks as necessary to fulfill the requirement.
Trap Arm Time Reduction:
You need to temper it on your Gloves from the offensive category and get it in the Paragon on
Deadly Ambush. This is necessary because there can only be a finite amount of Death Traps laid out before they are overwritten, unless they spring before that happens. Meaning, with maximum Trap Arm Time Reduction, they spring in 0.15 seconds.
Leveling
You can not level with this build. I would recommend you level with the Dance of Knives Leveling guide.
Runes
Cir
Vex is best in Slot due to granting Skill Ranks.
ZAN
Gar is mandatory to get closer to 100% Critical Hit Chance.
Alternative Runewords:
Zan
Jah can be used to go even faster.
Poc
Mot is a choice if you are lazy do not want to press
Dark Shroud manually.
Masterworking and Greater Affix Priority
If you want to learn more about Masterworking and Tempering, check out our Masterworking and Tempering Guide.
Attack Speed Breakpoints
The optimal Attack Speed Breakpoints are different for each variant. Check the respective description in the variant you are using.
To avoid wasting Attack Speed, you can calculate the Attack Speed Breakpoints for your skills using THIS SHEET.
You might be wondering how frames translate into actual Cast Speed. Because the server runs at 60 frames per second the way we translate frames into Cast Speed is with the formula: 60 / Frames = Casts per Second.
Affix Choices
With Season 13 reworking the damage affixes on gear, for this build we have a simple priority:
Critical Strike Damage Multiplier > Vulnerable Damage Multiplier > Shadow / All Damage Multiplier. Note that Shadow and All Damage fall into the exact same damage category, so you always want to pick the higher of the two. These make a real difference in your build and can be very important to great damage output.
Frequently Asked Questions
I can not spam Death Trap infinitely, what am I doing wrong?
Make sure to:
- Have your Death Trap below 15 seconds Cooldown.
- This requires a lot of Cooldown Reduction, Death Trap Skill Ranks and good Tempering rolls and Masterworks.
- Have means to restore 225 Energy.
- Actually have 225 Energy in the first place
- Have
Preparation as Specialization equipped. - Have Trap Arm Time Reduction on your Gloves and in the Paragaon Board
Deadly Ambush.
Where can I get
Rustbitten Dirk?
Rustbitten Dirk is a random drop from Lair Bosses, so no target farm. You can upgrade white Daggers in the Horadric Cube to Unique. If you do not have white Daggers, use the remove affix recipe on blue or yellow ones until they are white.