After playing a bit with this skill, I must say that I do not understand what was the developers intention for it:
It is strong for thrash mobs, but is not needed at all
It is totally useless on bosses.
It can’t be really used to trigger procs, only if it is used on thrash mobs.
If it will be usable on bosses, the %DA reduction will be to much, so it does not make any sense in its current form.
Proposal: The immobilize effect should be decoupled from the damage and %DA debuff. It should trap normal mobs and have no immobilize effect on bosses as it is now (lore: bosses are strong entities that will break out of the trap instantly). The instant piercing should be done and the bleeding damage should last for the full duration of 3.5 seconds, disregarding the target type (lore: even if the target broke out of the trap it still bleeds from the wounds). The %DA should be reduced to 10-15% from the shown skill %DA on bosses/heroes, resulting in a net 3-5% DA reduction on bosses/heroes and should last the full duration of 3.5 second; basically it should be coupled with the bleeding and not with the immobilize effect (lore: bosses will break the trap but it will steel be weakened by the wounds, though in a lesser manner as they are powerful creatures).
Hopefully a developer will read this and maybe it will be taken in consideration. Any opinions?
PS: A similar approach could be used also for Olextra’s Flash Freze, where the debuff should be coupled with the frostburn damage (though this skill is a lot stronger, due to the CC all screen behavior for trash mobs). The resistances debuff should be scaled down for bosses/heroes (using the same logic), resulting at 12 ranks to a -15/20% fire resistance debuff and -5/8% physical resistance defuff from Absolute zero. The percentage will not be that high, but it would be expected as it is a low level skill and it would have usability also on bosses/heroes targets.
I have ‘Aether Bomb’ from Widow bound to Blade Trap on my dual-wield Spellbreaker and find it very effective! Blade Trap will hold things still long enough to set off the mines!
As I’ve mentioned, you use it on thrash mobs mostly. Do you see any benefit in using it in on Fabius for example (of course with changes to devotion trigger chances based on skill CD it will be better to trigger procs)?
Personally I think no skill should only be used only to proc a devotion (it could be used like that, but not only for that with 1 point sinked in it); the skills should have a full usage so that people are tempted to sink full points in them. In almost every optimized build, the skill is never used; in very few builds you may find the skill, but used with only 1 point in Blade Trap and 1 point in Devouring Blades
It is useful skill. I am using it with my elemental damage dealer build. It holds mobs in elemental seal aoe and in elemental storm aoe and in meantime blizzard bashing their heads and necrosis is eating them
…if all u want to do in Grim Dawn ia kill Fabius then use one of Jajaja’s 8s Fabius builds!
I don’t like running past trash and find it an invaluable skill on my Spellbreaker as it massively helps with my survivability…B31 Blade-spirit was better but that got needed too hard!
At Mickelangello: Again it maybe usefull against trash, but not used in 95% of the cases at it s not needed. Thrash mobs will die in couple seconds in any circumstances. And if you play the end game with one character it is all about farming nemessis/bosses/heroes. Trash is skipped most of the time and even it it is not the huge % DA reduction on thrash does absolutely nothing. Please check any Nightblade related build from these forums and you will find exactly what I’ve mentioned: the skill is not present in 95% of the builds and when it is it is just a +1 point used for procs.
At Krsboss: It is not about killing Fabius, it is about having 0 effect on nemessis,bosses and heroes on ultimate. Even if I play mainly a Blademaster, I also don’t skip trash (and you can’t skip it if you farm for materials as I’ve done lately in trying to obtain a decent rolled Belgothian Carnange after 3 bad rolls). Between the WPS, items and devotion procs, the skill after testing provides exactly nothing. For your spellbreaker OFF will provide a far more increased survivability than blade trap. B31 Blade spirit was too powerful offensively so it had to be toned down (they may have went to far though I agree).
If you can find me a B31+ end game build on the whole Grim Dawn forums, that uses more then 1+1 points in Blade Trap, I will be in your debt (except yours that is using 6 +1 points of course). No offense (I totally agree with your Last Blademaster build), but you can see an optimized spellbreaker build in the one posted by jajaja lately. The 1+1 points in OFF will do more for survivability than any points put in Blade Trap.
I do not understand why the idea of making the skill have a reduces effect, but still be of some use on bosses/heroes (with lore behind it) sounds so strange :).
if u r Spellbreaker, u can have both OFF & Bladetrap anyway so I don’t see your point!
If you don’t like the skill don’t use it!
It’s not a powerful enough skill to make a build around to be using as an exclusive damage dealer but I have no problems with it in it’s current state and my Spellbreaker has 12/12 in it’s current configuration (5/5 OFF). It can run through Ultimate BoC in ~20 mins killing everything on the way to Shar-Zul so by no means the fastest clearer, but fun non the less!
I’m not really using it for damage or the debuff, more the crowd control (stationary enemies can’t melee) and healing (43% life steal!)
Personally I believe a skill shouldn’t have zero effect on the more difficult game opponents (which are an important part of the game), by design. I simply propose a way to change the skill in a way that it still has an use on the bosses/heroes as a minor damage dealer/resistance debuff, so that the skill doesn’t fill useless in that case. I totally support the idea that the CC effect should not affect bosses/heroes (to avoid any CC fest like in Diablo 3 seasons 3), but it should still have some effect.
…not the best video ever, but my Spellbreaker would have died in seconds in this encounter if it wasn’t for Blade-Trap…so as I’ve said previously, don’t use it if u don’t like it!
