This Path of Exile Build is all about using Traps for incredible clear speed and decent bossing potential. The Ice and Lightning Spire Trapper Saboteur does not require any initial investment, so it’s a solid league starter too. Trap-based builds often don’t get enough attention, but don’t let this one pass you by.
Ice Trap can gather some impressive damage with even mediocre gear, and when combined with a handful of supporting Traps and other skills, it’s very easy to get through map after map with this build by just blasting everything to pieces with cold and lightning damage. And as a Critical Strikes build, later levels really start to crank out the damage as we use Passives, gear and some Ascendancy buffs to leverage even more DPS through Crits.
Defensively you’re relying on the combination of Life and Energy Shield to act as your primary buffer. With a high Life pool and tons of Mana, you’re going to be able to soak a lot of damage without much thought. Having good flasks offers even more layers to this beast. But since Life Regen and Leech won’t really be a major factor, only a minor influence with the best gear, you should never try to facetank with this build. As our Ascendancy choices like Born in the Shadows offer much better mitigation through ailments and other CC methods.
Offensively this is a very easy build to grasp. Your’re just zipping around with your movement skills to proc Fortify, following it up with a combo of Lightning Spire and Ice Traps for pack clearing. Aim your Bear Trap for Rare mobs and bosses to pin them down, using all your traps and Vaal skills to DPS the biggest threats. With enough AoE, pack clearing should be easy while dealing with the main threats.
You’ll find all you will need to construct this build down below. The guide assumes that you’re going all-out and are maximizing every aspect, but you don’t have to go that far at all to reach a point where the build is enjoyable. Even in the low 90s with less-than-perfect gear, the build runs Maps and Delves just fine. And it’s a great choice as a league starter build for any POE player. If you are a brand new Path of Exile player, feel free to check out our various POE guides for noobs.
Build Pros
- Great clear speed
- Easy to play
- HC viable
Build Cons
- Not the best leveling build
- Expensive to gear to the top-end
Passive Tree(s)
Here is the Endgame Passive Tree
Pantheon
Upgrade all of these.
Major God: Soul of the Brine King
Soul of Lunaris offers great defensive options for mapping too. If facing some bosses with lots of DoT, opt for an upgraded Arakaali.
Minor God: Soul of Abberath
Abberath Offers decent defensive help as well for fire damage. Shakari is another good option for removing Poison from the equation.
Pantheon powers can be upgraded by using Divine Vessel in the Map Device while you are activating the particular Map that contains the boss you need. Once you’ve killed the boss and captured his soul, you need to deliver the vessel to Sin in Oriath.
Bandits
Alira is the absolute best option thanks to the Crit buffs and Resists.
Ascendancy skill points
Saboteur
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in this order:
Perfect Crime
Chain Reaction
Pyromaniac
Born in the Shadows
Perfect Crime is the vital first step for this build. The extra DPS from an additional trap trigger is welcome.
Chain Reaction is a node that offers a surprising damage increase by allowing traps to trigger on one mob, great for bossing.
Pyromaniac is one of the must-haves for this build if you scale it properly with Life sustain and MoM.
Born in the Shadows This is a wonderful defensive layer, as the Blind ailment can effectively reduce the incoming damage by half on mobs weak to the ailment.
Enchants
Helmet: (From Best to Worst)
40% increased Ice Trap Damage
Ice Trap Damage Penetrates 10% Cold Resistance
12% increased Ice Trap Area of Effect
Boots:
0.6% of Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if you’ve Killed Recently
% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you’ve Killed Recently
Damage Penetrates 10% of Elemental Resistances if you haven’t Killed Recently
Gloves:
Commandment of Light or Frost.
You could also use these Corruptions on Gear:
Curse Enemies with Level (10–12) Elemental Weakness on Hit (Gloves)
(4–6)% Increased Maximum Life (Belt, Body Armour)
Leveling General Tips
Fireball can run through most of the early game on just a four link by running with some Elemental Damage from multiple Heralds. Mana Regen might be a bit of a pain in late game, so some stopgap gear that offers bonuses to Mana Regeneration is useful. You can check out our leveling Uniques guide for some recommendations on that. If you manage to snag a Tabula, go straight for the 6-Link setup below, this will carry you through leveling.
That final fight with Kitava will be a little easier as long as you have both Decoy Totem and Ancestral Totem to keep adds off your back.
Efficient Farm Locations:
Act 1: The Ledge
Act 2: The Fellshrine Ruins
Act 3: The Docks
Act 4: The Dried Lake
Act 5: The Chamber of Innocence
Act 6: The Ridge
Act 7: The Temple of Decay lv1-2
Act 8: The Harbour Bridge
Act 9: The Blood Aqueduct
Act 10: The Ossuary
Avoid these map mods:
* Players cannot Regenerate Life, Mana or Energy Shield
* Elemental Reflect
Be careful of these map mods:
* Monsters have #% increased Critical Strike Chance / +#% to Monster Critical Strike Multiplier
With high evasion, attack should almost never crit you. Spell on the other hand can still hit hard.
* Monsters fire 2 additional Projectiles
Scary mod on some bosses and monster types. Some monsters are still able to spam out too many projectiles to handle.
* Area contains two Unique Bosses
Your goal to survive this mode is a combo of extreme DPS and Life. The faster you can down the bosses, the less threat they pose.
* #% increased Monster Movement Speed / #% increased Monster Attack Speed / #% increased Monster Cast Speed
Some bosses are going to be too fast to hit effectively, meaning you’ll spend more time than you normally should kiting them. This combination with Temporal Chains is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
* Players are Cursed with Vulnerability
Negated during mapping with a Warding Flask, but not against bosses. Bleeds from bosses can kill you easily.
* Players are Cursed with Temporal Chains
I would personally avoid this on high-tier maps.
Final Skill Gem Setup
You’ll find recommendations for different attack skill setups for this build below. The basic buff and aura setups are down there too.
=== MAIN ATTACK ===
Ice Trap-> Cluster Traps -> Trap and Mine Damage -> Increased Critical Strikes -> Controlled Destruction -> Added Cold Damage
=== SECONDARY ATTACK ===
Lightning Spire Trap -> Controlled Destruction-> Trap and Mine Damage -> Concentrated Effect
=== MOVEMENT ===
Flame Dash -> Faster Casting -> Arcane Surge
OR
Shield Charge -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify
=== AURA/UTILITY ===
Vaal Righteous Fire
Vaal Clarity
Bear Trap
Wrath
Summon Lightning Golem
Build Uniques / Example Rare Gear
In this section you will find all the suggested items for this build. We always try to include optional gear in our listing, or try your own assuming you get similar stat rolls. Aim for high-quality Rares if you’re replacing Uniques. The Minimum/Optional requirements listed assume you’re using Rares as a replacement for listed Uniques (where possible). As usual, you should use POEAffix to search for the bases and mods that work best for your version of any build. Our guide just lays out the most effective options, these aren’t always a must-have choice.
Stat Priorities:
Life is super important for survivability, especially at endgame. Although be careful not to forsake too many damage mods for it or you won’t be able to kill mobs quick enough for your defenses to handle incoming DPS. And since we’re using MoM
Mana is very important for an MoM build like this, some would say more important than Life, although that depends on which is easier to scale depending on other gear choices.
Cold is your primary DPS, get this in any way you can, as long as you don’t compromise defenses. Lightning Damage is also helpful to scale as your secondary attack.
Spell Damage can also really help increase DPS with all of your skills equally. Increasing Critical Strike Multiplier on your weapons offers another nice bump to damage too.
Resistances until capped.
Getting these stats in order and using the outline below can give you all of the information you need to maximize the potential this trapper build has. The build is very budget-friendly and can be played as a league-starter too, so that’s nice.
Weapons
The best weapon for this build will be a Dagger as it offers the best base Crit Chance rolls. And it also offers a ton of option mods when crafting a Shaper/Elder base with Fossils. Aiming for multiple Shaper/Elder mods that buff Crits can really help by turning what would be a 3-link Lightning Spire trap into a 5-link in essence.
Min. requirements:
Added Elemental Damage
% Increased Spell Damage
Crit Buffs
% Increased Attack Speed
Optional affixes:
% Chance to gain a Power, Frenzy or Endurance Charge on Kill (Essence of Horror)
Gain % of Elemental Damage as Extra Chaos Damage (Shaper)
Socketed Gems are supported by Level ?? Elemental Damage with Attacks/% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills (Shaper)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Increased Critical Strikes/% increased Critical Strike Chance (Shaper)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Lightning Penetration/% increased Lightning Damage (Shaper)
% Increased Spell Damage per 16 Intelligence (Elder)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Efficacy/% increased Spell Damage (Elder)
Damage Penetrates % Lightning Resistance (Metallic Fossil)
% increased Elemental Damage (Prismatic Fossil)
Shield
Your primary defensive layer for reducing incoming DPS will be the shield you use. A Shaper base with any of the optional affixes below will be very powerful with this build. The Mana-focused buffs scale wonderfully with MoM.
Min. requirements:
% Increased Mana Regen
% Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells
Uncapped Resistances
Optional affixes:
Gain an Endurance, Frenzy or Power charge when you Block (Shaper)
Recover % of your Maximum Life when you Block (Shaper)
Recover % of your Mana when you Block (Shaper)
Socketed Spells have % reduced Mana Cost (Aetheric Fossil)
Helmet
A Rare can work in this slot, although without some rather strong mods, it will be lagging behind a Unique option that’s much easier to obtain. Deicide Mask for an Evasion/ES base, Bone Helmet for Armour/ES base. Although you may want to opt for a pure Armour base since we lose half or ES to Acrobatics. It’s entirely up to you and if you want more Evasion or Life in this slot.
The amount of options for a well-rolled Rare are staggeringly varied. Scaling Elemental Damage is stupid easy with this slot, while also grabbing some needed Attributes if you don’t have them in other slots.
Min. requirements:
90 Maximum Life
Attributes (Dexterity, Strength)
Uncapped Resistances
+ Maximum Mana
Optional affixes:
Chaos Resistance
Reduced Attribute Requirements
% Reduced Mana Reserved (Bound Fossil) (Only if not using Essence Worm)
+ Maximum Life/% Increased Maximum Life (Pristine Fossil)
Nearby Enemies have -9% to Lightning Resistance (Metallic Fossil)
+2 to Level of Socketed ?? Gems (Corruption)
% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills (Crafted)
% Chance to gain a Power Charge on Kill (Shaper)
% Chance to Block Spells (Elder)
Socketed Attacks have % to Critical Strike Chance (Elder)
Body Armor
This MoM/Life hybrid POE buld benefits from a lot of different gear choices, with even otherwise weak Uniques making great leveling options. Loreweave offers great DPS and is not too difficult to obtain, although it needs to be very well-rolled. Belly of the Beast offers another tanky option but with the caveat that is doesn’t synergize as well with an MoM build. Shavronne’s Wrappings is another option that offers a bit of defense and tons of DPS potential.
Tabula Rasa can carry you pretty far as well. Thousand Ribbons offers a solid leveling option as well.
A well rolled Rare will likely work really well with this build as well.
There are several ways to further increase the effectiveness of a Rare here, but they will massively increase the currency cost, as a high-end Armour that fits these parameters would be Mirror-service-worthy.
- A +1/+2 Level to Socketed Gems Corruption is extremely useful if running a Rare.
- % Increased Effect of Auras on you is good too, that comes from Bound fossils.
- Getting Reduced Attribute Requirements can really help if you’re struggling with attributes. This can also free up other Affixes as you no longer need to waste them. This would allow you to further increase your DPS. Although getting this mod combination will be extremely hard, and will cost a lot of currency, so bank on just using a crafted affix instead.
- Getting a high, or possibly Legacy, Increased Life and/or Chaos Resistance roll really helps with survivability.
Min. requirements:
100 maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
Attributes (Dexterity, Strength)
Optional affixes:
% Increased Maximum Life (Elder, Pristine Fossil)
Recover % of Maximum Life/ES on Kill (Elder)
+ to Level of Socketed Support Gems (Elder)
% Increased Intelligence (Shaper)
% Increased Damage (Corruption)
Belt
Abyssal Belts are BIS, with a strong base Rare coming in a distant second thanks to the flexibility of Abyss Jewels for more DPS. Fossil crafting can really help with this, as you can very easily target your primary damage types.
Some will opt for the very cheap Cyclopean Coil to some of the Attributes they need, while also increasing damage a bit, although for this build it’s definitely not the best option.
Min. requirements:
70 Maximum Life
Uncapped Resistances
Optional affixes:
Reduced Flask Charges Used
Increased Flask Duration
% Increased Elemental Damage (Prismatic Fossil)
% Increased Lightning Damage (Metallic Fossil)
% Increased Cold Damage (Frigid Fossil)
% Increased Cast Speed/Spell Damage during any Flask Effect (Shaper)
Gloves
Check here for some Unique options, most useful while leveling. These are by no means needed for the build to function, just more of a convenience if you’re trying to squeeze every bit of potential out of the optimal version.
For a Rare, opt for Fingerless Silk Gloves for the extra Spell Damage. Obviously the more Life and Mana, the more survivable you’ll be, but don’t take too many defensive layers and risk losing out on DPS. Use the following stats as a baseline for a Rare:
Min. requirements:
+ Maximum Life/% Increased Maximum Life (Pristine Fossil)
Uncapped Resistances
Added Cold/Lightning Damage to Attacks
% Increased Energy Shield (Dense Fossil)
Optional affixes:
Chaos Resistance
Reduced Attribute Requirements
Recover % of Maximum Life/ES on Kill (Elder)
% Global Chance to Blind Enemies/Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Blind (Shaper)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Faster Casting/% increased Cast Speed (Shaper)
% Increased Intelligence (Shaper) (ES bases)
Socketed Gems are Supported by Level ?? Arcane Surge (Aetheric Fossil) (ES bases)
Boots
Rare boots with max rolled Life, Resists and Movement Speed are great as a generic choice, but you may find yourself a bit more prone to taking hits than you would like. This one is more of a personal judgment call. Here’s the basic requirements for Rare in this slot. Two-Toned Bootes are good here for the extra Resists. This build will benefit most from an ES base, so use this list to pick one.
Kaom’s Roots are great, but you may find yourself socket-starved, it’s a personal choice.
Min. requirements:
+ Maximum Life/% Increased Maximum Life (Pristine Fossil)
30% increased Movement Speed
Any Uncapped Resistances (>25%)
Optional affixes:
% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills (Crafted)
% chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Kill (Elder)
Amulet
A good endgame Rare is a Shaper base with buffs to Crit as well as Spell Damage, but that’s not cheap. Since we’re using MoM, Mana, Intelligence and Regen are all at a premium defensively as well.
Stone of Lazhwar and Atziri’s Foible are both solid leveling options here. Aul’s Uprising with the right Aura buff can offer some great defensive potential at the loss of some DPS.
Min. requirements:
50 Maximum Life
Mana Regeneration
% Increased Spell Damage
Crit Buffs
Uncapped Resistances
Optional affixes:
Attributes
Chance to gain a Power, Frenzy or Endurance Charge on Kill (Shaper)
% Increased Damage per 15 Intelligence (Shaper)
Damage Penetrates % Elemental Resistances (Shaper)
% Increased Attributes (Shaper)
Increased Aura Effect (Corruption)
Rings
Rare rings will likely work best here, Opal Ring bases still offer tons of potential for Elemental Damage, so give those a shot.
There are a ton Fossil and Shaper/Elder mods which can be useful here, check out this list. And if you’d like to search for a specific Fossil mod to find out what Fossil it comes from, go here.
Le Heup of All and Berek’s Respite also offer competitive Unique options for the a Unique if you want that. Although a high-end Elder base will get a lot more mileage for this build with the right rolls. If you’re running the Elder base for Curse Enemies with Assassin’s Mark on Hit, Mark of the Shaper can offer a pretty good DPS increase, although it will be a little pricey and can be overtaken by a good Rare.
Essence Worm is essential for one slot if you’re using Wrath, this way you can both have more Mana to use defensively and get more damage from Clear Mind.
Min. requirements:
50 Maximum Life
% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
Adds Lightning Damage
Uncapped Resistances
Optional affixes:
% Increased Lightning/Cold Damage
Curse Enemies with Assassin’s Mark on Hit (Elder)
% Increased Elemental Damage (Prismatic Fossil)
% Increased Damage with Ailments (Corroded Fossil)
Attributes
Increased Aura Effect (Corruption)
Flasks
Atziri’s Promise – Great flask for DPS buffs and a bit of defense
Lavianga’s Spirit – Best Mana Flask for MoM
Other Flasks:
- Catalysed Divine Life Flask of Staunching
- Experimenter’s Diamond Flask of Heat
- Chemist’s Basalt Flask of Warding
You can swap these mods around if needed due to RNG.
Jewels
Watcher’s Eye with Wrath mods is a great endgame choice. Clear Mind is an option for more damage if you’re using Essence Worm/Wrath.
Abyss Jewels with added Elemental Damage to Attacks, as well as bonuses to Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier are also really strong here.
Rare Jewels can run with the following stats:
Recommended affixes:
- % Increased Maximum Life
- % Increased Maximum Mana
- % Increased Spell Damage
- % Increased Area Damage
- % Increased Trap Damage
- % Increased Elemental Damage
- % increased Critical Strike Multiplier for Elemental Skills
- % Increased Damage
Optional affixes:
Attributes (Dexterity/Intelligence)
Resistances
