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The Best Starter Builds for Patch 3.15 and Expedition League

The Best Starter Builds for Patch 3.15 and Expedition League

List of the 5 most cost-effective builds in Patch 3.15 that are the best choices to start your adventure in Expedition League

The Best Starter Builds for Expedition League
and Patch 3.15

The Expedition League is launching soon so we want to show you some of the best starter builds. The changes brought by the new league are one of the biggest the game has seen yet - 19 new Gems have been added, which we will try to cover in later build guides. Flasks now work a bit differently, to prevent being under the constant influence of them. It now takes longer to refill a Flask, but they can be modified with new special Orbs - Flasks can be automatically triggered when certain conditions are met, or attain new powerful effects at the cost of being unable to gain charges during their effect. Overall, this league will be more challenging - to battle the power creep which presence is more and more visible as the game has been developing, the pure-damage Support Skill Gems such as Melee Physical Damage Support will be nerfed. Automatically triggered Skills will now cost Mana, movement Skills will be probably nerfed too, and enemies in the first acts are going to be more powerful. It means that all the builds from the past will perform worse when compared to the 3.15 expansion, and much of them will have to change completely.

The brand new defensive layer has been introduced - Ward. Ward is a numeric value representing the amount of damage that will be deduced when you're hit, after receiving a hit your whole Ward is depleted, and after five seconds it's instantly restored. If you're constantly receiving Hits, it's better to invest in faster Ward restoration or don't pay any attention to it at all, but if you have a high chance to Evade or Dodge a Hit, it's better to increase your Ward. It has a huge potential to give you an advantage against bosses that have a low attack or cast speed, such as the Guardian of the Minotaur or Hydra, Sirus, most Conquerors, or map bosses that you fight one on one. Note that if you Block or Avoid Damage - you have had already been hit, and your Ward will be depleted anyway. When you're about to get hit, the first to roll is your chance to Evade, then Dodge, after both fail you receive a Hit that can be Blocked, and if that fail - Avoided. Ward modifiers will be commonly found as modifiers on Rare items or the new Uniques.

\The new League Mechanics is quite an interesting one - you travel to an isolated location where you can choose your own level of difficulty by placing the explosives at the locations where they'd wake up the enemies buried underneath the ground. You can choose to summon a lot of enemies which you will have to defeat, or if you don't feel like fighting - go for the smaller rewards. You can later trade the league-specific currency with the new NPCs for some gear and currency by haggling with them. The locations you can travel to come in a form of an item similar to a map, there can be modifiers increasing monsters' effectiveness and decreasing your defenses, you can also encounter new bosses here. It's in some ways similar to the Ritual League mechanics - you fight monsters to gain currency that can be later traded for times. This time it's much more complex with few tweaks and additions.

 

Toxic Rain Pathfinder - Toxic Rain is one of the most popular skills for progressing through content and Atlast on literally 0 equipment. Toxic Rain is primarily used as Chaos Damage over Time Skill that fires multiple arrows into the air. Each arrow creates a spore pod that deals DoT in a radius around itself. The DoT effect from Toxic Rain can overlap on a single enemy, so by increasing the number of Projectiles you fire and your Attack Speed, you can dish out some insane damage numbers. Increased mobility, Flask sustainability, and bonus to Attack Chaos Damage as a Pathfinder makes it one of the most balanced and versatile classes for this setup. The damage in this build comes mainly from Skill Gems and Passives, and extra Dodge from the Ranger's side of the Passive Tree makes up for the initial lack of defensive stats on your equipment and mediocre Life pool that you usually suffer from during the early stages of a new League. Overall, it's a Top Tier starter builds for the Ranger class. 

I. SKILLS
  • Toxic Rain is the primary Attack used in this build that's going to deal tons of Chaos Damage over Time from spore pods it creates. The DoT effect can stack on the same enemy, so this build not only kills enemies all over your screen thanks to the wide radius but can also offer very high single-target DPS. 
    Core Support Gems are: Vicious Projectiles -> Void Manipulation -> Greater Multiple Projectiles -> Mirage Archer -> Swift Affliction
  • Wither - applies Withered debuff on enemies. It's most efficient and convenient to use it combined with Spell Totem and Multiple Totem Support so that the debuff is applied while you can freely avoid incoming damage and attack enemies with your Toxic Rain. If you find that your damage is more than enough on your current level, you may as well skip it and use Withered Step to apply the debuff without having to waste time summing your Totems constantly
  • Dash - used for extra mobility, can be linked to Second Wind Support for more frequent casts
  • For the Auras, we recommend taking Malevolence as it's directly boosting your Damage over Time. Depending on your Mana pool, you may be able to use just one Aura because of the current increases to Mana Cost of Skills
  • A low-level Immortal Call linked to Cast when Damage Taken and Increased Duration is the recommended Guard Spell setup, but also using maximum level Steelskin is an option assuming you have enough Strength for its Attribute requirements 
  • You can also use Lightning Golem for extra Attack Speed and Blood Rage to generate Frenzy Charges to increase your Damage and Attack Speed further
II. GEAR

CORE UNIQUE ITEMS: While this build can be played with only rare equipment, the following combination of cheap and early level Uniques is among the most cost-effective setups in the entire game, offering a very high DPS bonus and instant recovery of Life and Mana. Both the items are relatively easy to obtain early on, so it's highly recommended to get both as soon as possible.

  • Quill Rain - one of the best leveling weapons, which not only carries you through the campaign but allows you to easily farm white/yellow Maps. It grants an insane Attack Speed bonus, and if you are using Thief's Torment as well, it will allow you to spam Toxic Rain endlessly and instantly recover your missing Life and Mana
  • Thief's Torment - the best leveling Ring which is best used with Quill Rain to boost the massive recovery this item provides. You will be unable to use a second Ring when you equip it, but the result simply make it irrelevant

RARE ITEMS: Rare Items are nothing special, you want to cap your Elemental Resistances, and reach slightly over 3,000 Maximum Life on lower Tier Maps - just enough to not get one-shotted by Bosses. Other than that, you want to focus on Attack Speed, and eventually Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier, which is the best way to scale your DPS. Increasing your Chaos Damage and Damage over Time also increases the damage of your Toxic Rain, but with lesser effect. Don't bother getting Accuracy Rating - while it reduces your chance to Hit with the initial arrow, it does not affect the DoT caused by spore pods created by Toxic Rain. 

III. PASSIVE SKILLS
  • 30 Points Passive Tree - you are looking to get Master Fletcher and Hunter's Gambit as soon as possible, they both increase your Toxic Rain damage significantly, and bring you closer to all the Passives you are going to take later on
  • 60 Points Passive Tree - simply go all the way up for Growth and Decay and Atrophy to boost your Chaos DoT while picking up extra Life from Blood Siphon and Written in Blood
  • Final Skill Tree for level 90 character - there are presumably several different routes you can take towards your final build. The extra Skill Effect Duration, Life, and Resistances from Exception Performance, Constitution, and Scion's Jewel are the best option. You can also refund all the Passives from the top of your Tree (everything up from Fangs of the Viper) and take Passives from the Duelist's part of the Tree including Bravery/Golem's Blood/Deadly and Heavy Draw or simply invest in Cluster Jewels (because of their price, they are usually found in end-game builds though)
  • Starter build PoB: https://pastebin.com/bH8PrEEj
  • End-game build PoB: https://pastebin.com/PJzzTwq5
  • Bandits: Kill All
  • Major God: Soul of Solaris
  • Minor God: Soul of Garukhan

 

For the full Guide, you can check: Toxic Rain Pathfinder Starter build

 

Poisonous Blade Blast Assassin - BFBB Assasin is a common choice for players looking for a well-balanced build in terms of single-target damage and survivability. It's one of the best boss-killer builds thanks to the Poison combined with Bladefall and Blade Blast mechanics. Use Bladefall to place a lot of blades in the ground, and then use Blad Blast to deal damage and inflict Poison, the blast can overlap multiple times on one enemy causing a lot of damage if well-aimed. Assassin Class offers a decent buff to all Crit-based Poison builds in terms of damage and defenses. Elusiveness, Dodge Chance, Evasion Rating, and Maximum Life will prevent you from dying while the Combination of Toxic Delivery, Coralito's Signature, and Ungil's Harmony creates a one-of-a-kind synergy that boosts your damage with Poison, enhanced by your Critical Strike Chance. The build is cheap, it requires a pair of Obliteration Unique Wands. Other items worth equipping are Carcass Jack and Atziri's Step, these relatively inexpensive Uniques are exceptionally great for this and some other builds. Overall - the minimal price to make this build run is really modest, but the build works just fine in the later stages of the league, after some investment. Even with the recent nerfs, this build is fully viable thanks to the 50% more damage multiplier to global Poison damage which should partly compensate for most of the nerfs that touched Blade Blast and the Assassin Ascendancy in Patch 3.15

I. SKILLS
  • Blade Blast is the Spell that is used to deal with the bosses. To extract the most damage from it - you need to create a lot of Blades from Bladefall. Since you will be using these 2 spells alternately, another - third Spell for clear speed will be required.
    Core Support Gems are: Vile Toxins -> Deadly Ailments -> Void Manipulation -> Chance to Poison -> Critical Strike Affliction Support
  • Bladefall - The most efficient way to create blades, combine it with Support Gems such as UnleashSpell Cascade,  and Faster Casting
  • Plague Bearer - It's the Spell for killing trash mobs. You create a circular zone around you that deals with the small enemies almost instantly, to charge it use Bladefall and Blade Blast once in a while on a pack of mobs.
  • For the Auras, we recommend taking Malevolence - it's the aura that increases your Damage over Time which the build relies on. For Herald pick Herald of Agony - it's the one that's aimed specifically for Poison builds, like this one.
  • Wither can be used combined with Spell Totem so that you won't need to cast it yourself. it's a stacking debuff that increases Chaos (Poison in this case) Damage your enemies are receiving.
  • As a mobility Skill, we recommend using Smoke Mine with a detonation button set up instead of walking, it's another extra defensive layer and a good way to get out of sticky situations.
II. GEAR

CORE UNIQUE ITEMS: What makes this build a great starter is a fact that all the Unique Items are cheap. Note that none of these items are absolutely necessary, and you can probably get away with not using them up to some point.

  • Obliteration - The obvious choice for a Wand, all the mods offered by it are directly enhancing your damage output. It's one of the best clear-speed tools you can find by a large margin - your enemies have a high chance to explode dealing a lot of damage to nearby enemies and starting a chain reaction. Use two of these Wands.
  • Carcass Jack - The Body Armour that increases your Area of Effect and Area Damage - both are extremely beneficial for you Bladeblast and Plague Bearer DPS.
  • Atziri's Step - Chance to Dodge Spell Hits, nice Movement Speed bonus, Evasion Rating, and Maximum Life are all really important stats, which this pair of boots provide.
  • Ungil's Harmony - up to 350% increase in Critical Strike Chance at a cost of dealing no extra damage with Critical Strikes is an excellent tradeoff, due to Coralito's Signature your Critical Strikes won't deal extra damage anyway, and Toxic Delivery will boost the Poison Damage coming from Critical Strikes anyway.
  • Coralito's Signature - increases your Poison Damage with Critical Strikes making it a perfect Utility Flask for Assassin class

RARE ITEMS: The priority should be capping your Elemental Resistances at 75%, gathering enough Maximum Life so that you can comfortably take a hit and not die to it - thanks to your rapid Health Regeneration you'll recover quickly. After your defenses are in order, increase your damage by acquiring the mods that make your Poison Damage stronger - Poison Damage, Poison Duration, Chaos Damage, Chaos Damage over Time, Critical Strike Chance, Spell Damage, Cast Speed, and Physical Damage. Don't look for Attack Damage - you're using Spells, not Attacks. Keep in mind that you'll need around 100 Strength and 200 Intelligence, it shouldn't be a big issue.

III. PASSIVE SKILLS
  • 35 Points Passive Tree - Take Trickery, Acrobatics Phase Acrobatics, Growth and Decay, and Fatal Toxins. With these, you'll be set up with enough Poison Damage for the first few acts.
  • 71 Points Passive Tree - The cluster with Atrophy and Force Shaper offers a huge damage boost, While Wind Dancer and the nodes you can pick on your way there will elevate your survivability. 
  • Final Skill Tree for level 89 character - After you picked all the important nodes you're looking for a way to get more Maximum Life and Damage. For Maximum Life head for Constitution - you can pick some other useful nodes on your way there such as Sentinel, Profane Chemistry, and a Jewel Socket. For more damage pick Doom Cast, Serpentine Spellslinger, and then you'll have an option to find more in Cluster Jewels. There is a "Chaos Damage" base for a Large Cluster Jewel and a "Chaos Damage over Time" base for the Medium ones.
  • Starter build PoB: https://pastebin.com/VSinvPEz
  • End-game build PoB: https://pastebin.com/aYjA0quz
  • Bandits: Kill All
  • Major God: Soul of the Brine King
  • Minor God: Soul of Garukhan

 

For the full Guide, you can check: Bladefall Blade Blast Poison Assasin build

 

Freezing Pulse Totem Hierophant - Freezing Pulse is the best Spell to use with Spell Totems making it a perfect choice both for leveling and end-game content. Hierophant Ascendancy is one of the best for Totem Builds - Pursuit of Faith and Ritual Awakening makes your Totems more durable, more effective, and adds a nice scaling with the number of Totems that increase their damage and regenerate your Life and Mana. To survive, this build relies on Maximum Life, Energy Shield, and Mana - by utilizing Mind Over Matter. Eventually, this build can take great advantage of some synergies that can be found between certain Unique Items. With Coward's Legacy Belt you're permanently cursed with Vulnerability, but as you equip Viridi's Veil this curse will have no effect upon you as long as you have a Magic Ring in the right slot. Coward's Legacy makes you count as "low life" even if you're not, so with that, you can allocate Pain Attunement Keystone for permanent 30% increased damage. Soul Mantle, which you are aiming to get as soon as possible, is a Unique Body Armour that provides you with an additional Totem and 7th Support Spell - Spell Totem for your Freezing Pulse, but it inflicts a Curse upon you as your totems die. As mentioned before - your Helmet will prevent you from these curses affecting you, so you might as well pick Self-Flagellation Jewel for more Damage per curse on you.

I. SKILLS
  • Freezing Pulse that shall be placed in your Body Armour, which you eventually want to be Soul Mantle. It is one of the best Spells you can use with your Totems. The projectile is fast, piercing, and freezes enemies. It's more effective against enemies staying close to the source of the Spell - your Totems. You can additionally put two Unique Jewels dedicated to this Spell - First Snow - for more Projectiles and Damage.
    Core Support Gems are: Spell Totem (unless provided by Soul Mantle) -> Hypothermia -> Added Cold Damage -> Multiple Totems -> Cold Penetration -> Increased Critical Strikes Support
  • Frost Bomb - a utility Spell that reduces Life and Energy Shield and Regeneration for enemies and applies Cold Exposure which reduced Cold Resistance
  • There is only one Aura in use, and one Mana-reserving skill at that - Hatred. It will be allocated in Essence Worm Unique Ring so it will reserve no Mana while having increased effectiveness.
  • The Golem that provides the most useful assets would be Ice Golem - it grants you increased Critical Strike Chance. Linked with Culling Strike it will kill low-life enemies, and with Cast when Damage Taken you won't need to worry about re-summoning it after its death.
  • Cast when Damage Taken linked with Immortal Call is a great way to prevent receiving too much damage in a short span of time.
  • the recommended Movement Spell is Flame Dash. It's instant and doesn't have any specific requirements
II. GEAR

CORE UNIQUE ITEMS: There are a few Unique Items and not all of them are cheap. These items are the core element of the build and it'd be hard to get to the red maps without them. However The Hierophant's Synergy with Totems, accordingly allocated passive points, and good rare items should be just enough to have this build working.

  • Essence Worm - The ring that allows you to have Hatred at a higher Gem Level and at no cost. You will need all the Mana you can get - MoM and high Mana Costs of Freezing Pulse Totems will drain your Mana Pool quickly
  • First Snow - cheap Unique Jewel to boost your damage

RARE ITEMS: As with all builds - you have to cap your Elemental Resistances at 75%. Other Defences are Maximum Life, Maximum Mana, and Maximum Energy Shield. Maximum Life is by far the most important when it comes to survivability. To increase your damage you need to look for Cold Damage, Cold Penetration, Totem Damage, Spell Damage, Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier for Spells, and Maximum Mana (Divine Guidance). Maximum Mana serves as both - offensive and defensive mechanisms. 

III. PASSIVE SKILLS
  • 31 Points Passive Tree - immediately head for Ancestral Bond so that you can cast two Totems, it will double your damage
  • 63 Points Passive Tree - Look for all the stats mentioned earlier: Mana, Life, Totem damage, and such. Form a path so that you can easily reach Pain Attunement and Mind Over Matter so you can allocate them easily when you're ready to do so.
  • Final Skill Tree for level 79 character - Continue the trend of picking up all the beneficial nodes. At this stage of the game focus especially on Critical Strike Chance and Maximum Life. You have might notice that the Ancestral Bond Keystone is dislocated - in reality, it is not. The Final version requires you to have Thread of Hope so that you can reach it and save some points. There will be some points left to spend after you reach a higher level - invest them in some good Cluster Jewels - preferably Totem bases. Check the PoB link for details.
  • Starter build PoB: https://pastebin.com/1ZGaM4Dn
  • End-game build PoB: https://pastebin.com/KxFqkn43
  • Bandits: Kill All
  • Major God: Soul of the Brine King
  • Minor God: Soul of Ryslatha

 

For the full Guide, you can check: Freezing Pulse Totem "Low Life" Hierophant build

 

Raise Spectre Necromancer - Necromancer has been a very popular choice for the past several expansions. This Ascendancy specializes in dealing damage through minions and its very specific playstyle is admired among a huge percentage of the player base. This build focuses on Spectres rather than Zombies or Skeletons (Zombies still will be used, just not as a primary source of damage). The nature of the Spectres requires you to seek the best corpse to reanimate as your minion - they keep their abilities, some of which are very unique. Slave Drivers and Redemption Sentries are considered one of the best for Spectres and this guide will focus mostly on them. Slave Drivers deal Lightning Damage and can be commonly found in Control Blocks in the fifth act. They offer great single-target damage as well as decent clear speed. Redemption Sentries spawn in Redeemer-influenced Map, which's a bit late in the game. They deal Cold, Ranged Damage and are considered one of the best Ranged Spectres. Slave Drivers are by far the easiest to summon so this starter build guide will focus on the most part on their role in this setup. The build can be easily adjusted to accommodate other Spectres later in the game. Zombies are used defensively - to protect you from attacks and projectiles. It's a Life-based build with a fair amount of Armour that uses Bone Armour to prevent a portion of incoming damage.

I. SKILLS
  • Raise Spectre - The main DPS Minion Skill that allows you to summon Spectres - Slave Drivers in this case. They Deal Lighting Damage so it makes sense to link this Gem with the ones such as Lightning Penetration Support, but if you're using a Spectre that deals a different kind of damage, use a different Support Gem. Try to elevate the total Level of this Gem to 25 - it will allow you to have an additional Spectre summoned.
    Core Support Gems are: Spell Echo -> Minion Damage -> Controlled Destruction -> Elemental Focus -> Lightning Penetration
  • You should own a wand that automatically triggers the Spell Gems placed in it every 8 seconds with Flesh OfferingDesecrate, and Summon Stone Golem. This offering grants your Minions Attack Speed and Cast Speed, Desecrate creates corpses to be used during fights when you typically lack in them, and Stone Golem is used for Life Regeneration.
  • for Auras use Wrath and Zealotry. Wrath provides more Lightning Damage to your Minions, while Zealotry gives them more Spell Damage. Link them both with Generosity Support for increased effectiveness.
  • Your Zombies should be linked with Feeding Frenzy Support so that they will provide a considerable buff to your other Minions.
  • Use Storm Brand to Curse enemies with it, and to activate Elemental Equilibrium. To achieve this, you have to take Avatar of Fire Keystone, and link the Skill with Curse on Hit Support and the Curse such as Elemental Weakness.
  • Use Dash to move around and Enduring Cry to quickly regenerate your Life.
II. GEAR

CORE UNIQUE ITEMS: The build requires no Unique Items to work, the ones that are considered useful are really cheap, priced at around one Chaos Orb. There should be no trouble in getting all the two Jewels which are really worth their price but other than that, there isn't much to strive for.

  • Victario's Charity - Great Shield for Minion-oriented builds. It increases the AoE of your Auras and provides Frenzy and Power Charges to your Minions. A fair amount of Maximum Life and Resistances are useful as well.
  • Bones of Ullr - a Pair of boots that increases the Gem Level of your Zombies and Spectres, it's extremely cheap so it's worth considering
  • Unending Hunger - Unique Jewel that works really well with Specters - half the times it grants them Soul Eater buff on kill which enhances their Cast Speed by 5% per Stack. Increases AoE of all Minions Skills.
  • Anatomical Knowledge - another Unique Jewel, it increases your Maximum Life per Intelligence in its radius

RARE ITEMS: It is a Life build, this makes every mod that increases your Maximum Life extremely valuable, over 5000 Maximum Life should be enough to call the build endgame ready. After your Elemental Resistaces are capped at 75%, try to reach maximum Block Chance for Attacks, it can be easily done with Glancing Blows Keystone. Minion Damage, specifically Minion Spell/Lightning Damage is one of the few offensive stats to look for, the other being increased level of all Intelligence/Minion/Spectre Gems. Bury in mind that you don't deal damage by yourself and increasing for example the basic Lightning Damage stat will grant you nothing.

III. PASSIVE SKILLS
  • 34 Points Passive Tree - Lord of the Dead and Quick Recovery should be the first Notables to take. After that pick more Minion-oriented nodes such as  Death Attunement and Ravenous Horde, Keep your Maximum Life high with Cruel Preparation.
  • 66 Points Passive Tree - to keep it short, look for more Minion Damage and Maximum Life
  • Final Skill Tree for level 92 character - The Life Cluster surrounding Constitution is the biggest increase to your Maxmiuim Life you can find, your secondary layer of defense is Chance to Block. Glancing Blows will help you with damage mitigation. With Call to Arms Keystone, you'll be able to use Enduring Cry instantly, and the nodes around it provide a lot of defenses. Avatar of Fire will make activating Elemental Equilibrium easier. 
  • Starter build PoB: https://pastebin.com/E7j1B3RZ
  • End-game build PoB: coming soon
  • Bandits: Kill All
  • Major God: Soul of the Brine King
  • Minor God: Soul of Gruthkul

 

For the full Guide, you can check: Starter Spectre Summoner Necromancer

 

Lightning Trap Saboteur - Saboteur is an Ascendancy that specializes in Mines and Traps. It's one of the most popular choices for a starter - these builds are cheap and effective due to the common Uniques and easily accessible increases in damage. Trap builds are versatile and can be easily swapped between different kinds of them. Lightning Trap variant is particularly powerful - it's good for dealing with large packs of monsters and it's very defensive thanks to Saboteur's immunity to Ignite, Shock, Blind, rapid Life regeneration, and Blind applied to his opponents. The starter version of this build can be played as a Life build, while later switching to Low-Life ES build. A Rare gear should be enough to carry you through the first maps, all the necessary modifiers are cheap and can be commonly found on the market. There is an abundance of mods that increase your damage - you can look for Spell, Lightning, Trap, Projectile, and Crit-related stats. If you're familiar with trap mechanics or want to give it a shot for the first time, this is a great chance to start a league.

I. SKILLS
  • Lightning Trap is the type of Trap used in this build, and as the name suggests it deals Lightning Damage. Upon activation, it fires eight Projectiles with the build-in chance to Shock and increased Shock Effect. There is also an increased Critical Chance against Schocked enemies, making it one of the highest DPS Skills.
    Core Support Gems are: Cluster Traps -> Trap and Mine Damage -> Inspiration -> Lightning Penetration -> Elemental Focus
  • Lightning Spire Trap can be used to further increase your damage against bosses. If you have Shaped Gloves with built-in Support Gems such as Trap and Mine Damage it can serve as a five-link.
    Core Support Gems are: Added Lightning Damage -> Trap and Mine Damage -> Lightning Penetration > Advanced Traps Support
  • Sniper's Mark or Assassin's Mark are the curses you should consider using to increase your damage, additionally use Wave of Conviction to lower the Lightning Resistance of your enemies.
  • Summon Skitterbots and Wrath are the Mana reserving Skills you should use. Skitterbots are particularly recommended when you linked your Lightning Trap with Elemental Focus. if you have troubles with Mana sustain, use low-level Clarity.
  • to increase your mobility use Flame Dash combined with Second Wind Support and a low-level Arcane Surge Support
  • To avoid sudden death after receiving a lot of damage in a short span of time, use Immortal Call linked with Cast when Damage Taken Support. Both should have the lowest possible level.
II. GEAR

CORE UNIQUE ITEMS: There are not many Unique Items with equipping, usually due to the abundance of great modifiers that can be found on Rare gear. Unique items dedicated to Trap users have usually some drawbacks or are aimed at a different playstyle.

  • Tinkerskin - a Body Armour with a nice boost to your Maximum Life, Evasion Rating, and Energy Shield. It has a chance to generate you Frenzy Charges and give you Phasing when your Trap is triggered by an enemy, and it recovers 100 Life and 50 Energy Shield for you each time your Tap is triggered by an enemy.
  • Hair Trigger - a unique Jewel that increases Trap Damage and Trap Trigger Area of Effect, good when combined with Tinkerskin mentioned above

RARE ITEMS: Your priority as always is to reach 75% across all your Elemental Resistances. Increasing your Maximum Life is another very important aspect of survivability, but if you plan later to switch to a Low-life ES build don't invest too much in it. To increase your damage look for Lightning Damage (that includes Elemental Damage), Spell Damage, Critical Strike Chance, and Critical Strike Multiplier.

III. PASSIVE SKILLS
  • 29 Points Passive Tree - Go for Blood Siphon and Blood Drinker for Maximum Life. There are many other Notables that directly increase your damage via Projectile, Elemental, Lightning, Spell Damage, or Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier.
  • 66 Points Passive Tree - allocate the nodes in the Trap-related clusters, and look for some more defensive stats such as Maximum Life, Evasion Rating, and Energy Shield
  • Final Skill Tree for level 83 character - Go for the Life cluster around Constitution and allocate some more Maximum Lige, Elemental Resistances, and Trap Damage as you make your way there. Try to find more useful stats by allocating Large Jewels Socket and finding a decent Cluster Jewel.
  • Starter build PoB: https://pastebin.com/s7ENSGfU
  • End-game build PoB: https://pastebin.com/VvRJMWCF
  • Bandits: Kill All
  • Major God: Soul of Solaris
  • Minor God: Soul of Garukhan

 

For the full Guide, you can check: Lightning Trap Saboteur Starter Build


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If you have any suggestions about other interesting Builds and/or Starter Builds for the Expedition League we would love to hear your feedback! The patch introduces a lot of new Active Skill Gems that will take some time before we can test them all thoroughly, so if you have any suggestions please let us know in the comments below! Obviously, we will be updating all our Guides over the course of the current League

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games

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