I’m back with my Blade Trap Trickster! This is my signature immortal build. I’ve improved it in a lot of ways, so this build isn’t what you’ve seen before. Let’s start with the basics first, and then I’ll talk about the new stuff we got.
Skill Itself
Our skill choice is Blade Trap. You throw a trap, and when it’s triggered, it uses your weapon and starts spinning like a Cyclone. That’s why it matters what weapon and Divine Orb you use. We need to achieve 100% accuracy.
We still use Ephemeral Edge to scale damage, and use more Energy Shield to get more damage. It’s that simple.
New Things In The Build
Now let’s talk about the new stuff we got. Through Afflciton League, we can get Charms. This item is too powerful for this build.
You may have noticed that our Energy Shield is close to 19k. There is a Charm that gives us maximum mana as an additional Energy Shield. Each Charm can increase Energy Shield by 5%. I’m only using 2 right now, which gives us 700 Energy Shield, so that’s increasing our damage all the time.
This build has issues with capping the spell suppression. But with Charm, we can also solve this problem. This also opens up a new way to give us more base crit opportunities on Brittle Ground. These Charms alone give us 30% extra damage and tanking capabilities.
We also used a very underrated and unique Anathema Ring. Our curse limit is equal to our maximum energy expenditure. This gives us 4 curses to use in this build.
Since we get the extra energy from the tree, we can add 4 curses to the build. It’s up to you to decide whether to go all-out offensive and use all damage curses or use 3 damage and 1 defensive curse.
I took the defensive route, thinking that even with three curses we would have enough damage. So the offensive curses I use are as follows: Elemental Weakness, Conductivity, and Assassin’s Mark.
Our defensive curse is Enfeeble, which reduces the damage enemies inflict on us. If our enemy triggers the trap, we can easily generate Power and Frenzy Charges.
Also, we’re giving Trickster an additional 2 max Frenzy Charges. This gives us 5 Frenzy Charges, and we pair it with Charged Traps Support to make our trap throw as fast as possible.
As I said before, our largest Energy Shield build is very large. So try to use Perfect Fossil and buy POE Currency to increase the quality of all armor parts to at least 29% to get more damage in your build.
New Defensives
Next, I want to talk about some changes I made defensively.
I gave up on cycling defensive layers Heartstopper and One Step Ahead. Since I noticed that Blade Trap Trickster is in full Energy Shield most of the time, these two nodes are not good enough.
Also, since I no longer want to use Atziri’s Step, I need to find a new way to limit my spell suppression. Thankfully, Trickster has a node that gives us suppression. If you suppress spell damage, you can prevent even more.
So I chose Spellbreaker for that reason. This way we can use rare boots to get more Energy Shield in the build.
Sadly, Trisckster has established Regen. So we need to borrow Pyromaniac Ascendancy Passive from Forbidden Flesh and Flame.
I bought these two Jewels with only a small amount of POE Currency. But the supply is very limited right now, so if you want to buy this, it’s still difficult. I’m working on a version without these Jewels. So if you want to play this, you’ll need to wait a little longer.
Where does the nearly 19k Energy Shield come from? Let’s start with the biggest source.
Another underrated unique body armor, Ghostwrithe, will convert our maximum life into Energy Shield. From now on, we can extend our life and energy shield at the same time. That’s why I have life and Energy Shield on every piece of gear.
We also stacked intelligence to get more Energy Shield, and I got over 900 intelligence.
Another piece of Energy Shield comes from our amulet, Presence of Chayula, which also converts our maximum life into Energy Shield. We retain less than 50% of our lives.
We also used Arctic Armor with Arrogance Support. This makes us take less physical and fire damage if we stand still. And this build will stand still most of the time.
Also, since we gave up One Step Ahead, this will also give us Freeze immunity. It’s worth mentioning that we also use Vaal version of this skill.
Coruscating Elixir
Next, we want to talk about Coruscating Elixir’s unique Flask. I feel like this flask is the bait for this build. Because even if the quality is 28%, the flask does not have 100% uptime. So you need Flask Charge buff, which we can’t do easily.
We need to make a belt for Flask that can increase charge recovery, but this is also hard to come by. Because we need to use an attribute belt with high int.
Also, in order to scale Esh’s Visage, you’ll need a good shield. But since you still need to repair your chaos resistance before going to Chaos Inoculation, we can’t do that. Because we retain life, but we will lose life scaling, so our Energy Shield will be less. So overall, this flask is not worth it.
Items
Before you start, you’ll also need to improve the quality of all your POE items. Not just 20%, you need to get 28% or higher quality. You can do this with Perfect Fossil or with Hillock. Let’s start with our weapons.
- Weapon: Ephemeral Edge. This weapon has some important statistics that are unique to this weapon. First and most important, attacking with this weapon increases maximum lightning damage by 20% of maximum Energy Shield.
- Shield: Esh’s Visage. When life is not low, the chaos damage received will not bypass our Energy Shield. Thanks to this shield, we can have 600 life points without dying from chaos damage.
- Body Armor: Ghostwrithe. This is the key to how we can extend Energy Shield from life. Because this item converts our maximum life into Energy Shield and also provides us with a large amount of Chaos Resistance.
- Amulet: Presence of Chayula. With this, we won’t be stunned and can convert our maximum life into Energy Shield. And we also specify Arcane Focus for more Energy Shield.
It’s also worth mentioning that investing Divine Orbs on an item that rolls well, even if it’s not a 6-Link, you can make a 6-Link yourself.
How To Craft Items?
I made most of the rare items you see in this character myself, so it’s hard to estimate the cost, but it’s not expensive at all. I’ll give you some tips on how to make these items.
- Gloves: Before starting crafting, use Perfect Fossil on them to get more Energy Shield. Then spend POE Currency to buy a framed with life and use Int Essence until you hit flat Energy Shield.
- Boots: There are two ways to get this. You can use Dense Fossil until you reach max Energy Shield and movement speed, which can take a long time. Or use Essence and spam until you get high Energy Shield. Both require open suffixes for suppression.
- Helmet: Needs to be framed with life and use Dense Fossil until you hit the huge Energy Shield. You need 2 open suffixes, one for Aspect of the Crab and one for Suppression craft.
- Belt: Buy a Hunter base Crystal Belt and use the attributes Catalyst and Int Essence until you reach the highest attributes.
- Ring: You need Life, Energy Shield, Int and Strength.
Passive Tree
Finally, I just want to highlight some things you need to build on Passive Tree. We used 8 Passive Cluster Jewels and 4 Medium Cluster Jewels.
If you want to increase a node’s critical hit chance or elemental damage. Watcher’s Eye’s attack power will increase while being affected by Precision. Mana serves as an additional Energy Shield and is also affected by Precision.
If you can’t find this combo, you’ll need to attack the damage combo to get more damage. Max Mana acts as an additional Energy Shield, and if you haven’t dealt a critical hit recently, the trap will also deal a critical hit, increasing the chance of a critical hit.
Anyway, that concludes this Blade Trap Trickster guide. Regardless, the addition of items like Charms makes this build even more powerful in Affliction League. Following this guide will make it easy for you to clear everything.