Provided you and your friends know the difference between a game and “real life” that’s not an issue. I get that people take their gaming very seriously these days but when you’re fart-assing around on a LAN game “anything goes”.
It’s funny when you’re playing DotA 2 and there’s one member of your team continuously raging over every minute detail (pretty much every game).
I vote for option 1, make it a trap based damage/debuff skill. Get rid of the hard CC, improve the damage, rebalance the debuff so that it works on bosses without being OP. Could be either a bursty trap or a continuous effect like thermite mines, both could work. I also think trap skills would be more popular if there were enough of them to make a good build. Trap builds always see play when they’re viable, the problem is too many devs make them clunky and weak for some reason.
Blade Trap is way too clunky QoL wise to be an attractive trash handling skill and too deep in the tree to use while leveling. I’m also opposed to the idea of certain skills being only useful for low level or poorly geared chars. OFF gets a pass for being such a cheap, high QoL, “1 button trash management” skill but that’s it.
Would there be a way for a skill to have good crowd control on mobs and a marginal effect on bosses? Because it could be arbitrarily marginal from .0001% to ridiculously effective couldn’t that arbitary level amount to something that doesn’t come close to trivializing bosses but still has a marginal effect which would make you think “hmmm this will help with crowds and also a marginal effect on the bosses”.
edit: implicit in the above is that the skill has to affect bosses differently from other monsters. I don’t know if the engine allows.
Assuming the engine DOES allow for that option, I think the boss option would have to have NO CC. This is a Single Player game…But there IS Multi. Four people all using one really tiny CC suddenly make it significant. It’s very, very hard to make a CC so small that it can’t be abused on a Boss, BUT ALSO make it a large enough CC that the players know it’s even there. I’ve seen people in other games give bug reports for CCs that were reduced in effect on Bosses, thinking that the CC wasn’t going off… No, it was just that small you didn’t notice it was there.
If i get more ideas i’d make a poll 
Quoting myself
Would a thread suffice or do i need to add a poll?
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53064 <- Same for the Canister thread
Do threads suffice or do i need to add a poll?
Just some last things on the skill.
Trapping “trash mobs” feels like a waste of time. They can be killed by pretty much anything. But certain tough enemies actually become more dangerous when Blade Trap is used.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Etc, etc.
This is an easy fix. Have Blade Trap cause 100% skill disruption during the duration of the trap or disable enemies ranged skills whilst under the Trap. Sometimes when using it I felt that it was more of hindrance than actually being helpful. Still fun to use but could certainly be more useful aside from making it work on bosses that is.
Hmm, nice observation with Shamblers.
Flesh Hulk stun is deal-able imo
Harbringer bombs? No idea but they’re nasty enemies as well
My biggest gripe with BT and Canister is they unlock later than every other skill in the mastery line and contribute so little to the end game
In comparison, Olexra’s Flash Freeze which is useless against bosses unlocks at level 5 and is used as a leveling skill and used for end game trash clear
Canister Bomb unlocks at level 20 and is only usable on large hitboxes for shotgun but even there the damage dealt isn’t high enough
Blade Trap is literal trolling, unlocks at level 25 and is meant to trap enemies. Too OP, Crate plz nerf:rolleyes::rolleyes:
No this is bad design, you’d expect to get more useful stuff for the end game as you go deeper into the mastery bar not some subpar CC skill.
Ring of Steel can stun/freeze enemies and has fumble and stuff and makes for a nice end game investment.
Blade trap doesn’t appeal to end game farmers (most of them) and needs some looking into. A level 20 skill basing its entire abilities on entrapment makes it effectively useless
Also, Blood Pox which is not very popular outside retaliation is actually the strongest OA debuff skill in the game.
So pretty much every skill has end game potential. Cansiter Bomb needs its potential improved and Blade Trap needs a rework
Don’t want to go completely off topic, but even Shard + Night’s embrace still isn’t enough to debuff enemy freeze resistance right?
On top end enemies, yeah. Some lesser bosses and heroes are still susceptible though.
Ah, well wanted to make an OFF build but i guess i wont anymore
Just realized another advantage of turning Blade Trap into an actual trap skill is that it will be good for Tricksters
Provided Blade Trap’s trap version deals - Vitality/Bleed Damage this would be a perfect opportunity for Blade Trap + Vitality Storm set
Focusing on the two trap skills
Currently, I’m running a witch hunter (which I regret) and the class doesn’t really have effective AoE DPS in places like crucible where there are swarms of mobs.
I play with a friend that’s a Sham/Arcanist and they wipe the floor with the whole board while I’m swiping away 1 at a time and constantly need help even though I’m higher lv and better geared.
Phantasmal blades isn’t much better. In-fact that really sucks and de-spec’ed it.
You spend 30 points between the two and you have no damage. The dual-wield procs are single target or got a target penalty like 3 at a time.
Yeah, great boss sniper class but not very effective against the rest of the game. Well, kind of because you’re face tanking w/o any defensive passives and can die in two hits if you don’t dodge.
I played the trickster in TQ and liked it waaay better then this build.
It’s like this class was great once but got hated and nerfed.
The idea to make it a damage trap seems best for me personally.
Id like to see that 1-3(rang dependet) big phys/pierce blades whirl from the trap like boomerangs … and u can convert them into 5-8 smaller daggers in poison or bleed style… would also love that and even more if they shoot out fast and getting slower on their way while they move in circles away from the trap …
sorry for the bad english =/
and sorry if its a bad idea because of missing knowlegde 
You probably made the mistake of focusing on too many damage types with PB
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50262
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49729
And the easiest Witch Hunter to play with imo