[3.9] ColdXplosive Ice Trap Saboteur - All Content Viable & SSF Friendly - (Life version)

13 Sep 2019
Updated Build Mechanic section and Skill gem setup for aura.
Removed outdated information from FAQ.

10 Sep 2019
Updated the gear section for gloves explanation/choice.

06 Sep 2019 - READY for 3.8 Blight League
Updated the skill tree for Patch 3.8 Blight League.
"PROs and CONs" and "Video Clips" section have been moved to the top of the build guide.
Slightly improved the readability of some sections.
The leveling section is a bit outdated but still relevant for 3.8, just make sure you are refering to the 3.8 skill tree instead.

06 Sep 2019
Clarity aura got buffed incredibly, up to 33 mana regen (from 17). That means the mana sustain for traps are so much easier now because less dependant on getting "%Mana Regeneration Rate affix" from gears.

05 Sep 2019 - Ice Trap got buffed slightly on the AoE once again.

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The base radius has been increased at all levels, with the main circle gaining +3 radius, the medium circles gaining +2 and the small circles gaining +1.

03 Sep 2019 - Trapper is getting some nerfs in 3.8.
First nerf is the "Pyromaniac" ascendancy node which regen rate being cut into half, only up to maximum of 10% now.
Second nerf is the "1 Additional Trap" modifier on Shaped Gloves has been removed in 3.8, the overall DPS loss is pretty huge imo (about 1/3, roughly) since now it takes more time or more trap throwing speed to reach the same number of traps being thrown within a duration.
However, the "Trap Throwing Speed" modifier on Shaped Gloves is buffed to compensate the DPS loss slightly.
Still waiting for official changes on passive skill tree to see if there's any adjustment needed.

03 Sep 2019
Added Level 1 Precision into the Skill Gem section for Aura setup.

28 Aug 2019 - Regarding 3.8
Not sure if I will be playing trapper again in the upcoming league, but I will try to keep up with the updates/changes that are relevant to this build.
Dependng on the how much the changes of Saboteur Ascendancy rework, passive skill tree and new support skill gems, the skill tree probably still remain unchanged or identical to current pathing.
Otherwise, playstyle, skill tree, ascendancy choice, gears & skill gems setup etc are subjected to change.
Meanwhile the new mines archetype are looking like a much, much, MUCH better version than current traps, which are very tempting to try them out in new league.
The base mine throwing speed is now 0.25, it looks insanely fast as compared to trap throwing speed which feels clunky and slow if there's no investment of skill points and gears into it.
Regardless of all the new stuff, Ice trap is probably still fine but definitely need a bit more AoE increment/buff to make this skill much more appealing to other skills imho. The previous buff to the AoE isn't that significant at all.

10 July 2019
Updated the final passive skill tree and leveling skill tree progression.

19 June 2019
Updated Title to 3.7, this build is still viable for Legion league.
The passive skill tree are mostly remain the same, but only dropping the "Master Sapper" nodes because they no longer on the main path.
Gearing choices are pretty much similar as before, I will update some optional/interesting uniques choice if I found any of them that are Legion league exclusive.
Next update I will try to take & upload new snapshot of pictures regarding the changes from 3.6 to 3.7 passive skill tree.

29 April 2019
Added Pure Uul-Netol Breachlord and Abyss Lich boss fights.

27 April 2019
Added Uber Atziri full run gameplay and another Delve boss fight Lv83 Kurgal, the Blackblooded.

22 April 2019
Added Delve boss fight Ahuatotli, the Blind Lv.83 in depth 260-ish.
Updated current gears with some explanations/notes.

13 April 2019
Added Synthesis Lv83 Twisted Synthete boss fight clip.

12 April 2019
Updated with Deathless Uber Elder gameplay!!! With some minor gear changes to beat Uber Elder. Replaced synthesis boss Altered Synthete to lv83 version.

10 April 2019
Added synthesis Lv83 Augmented Synthete boss fight.

07 April 2019
Replaced the synthesis mini boss fight (Rewritten Synthete) with a Lv.83 one, which is equivalent to T16 shaper's guardians or tankier I believe.

06 April 2019
Added T16 Eradicator Elder Guardian boss fight gameplay.

05 April 2019
Uploaded mapping and delving showcase, added two synthesis mini boss fights to video clips.

04 April 2019
Added syndicate mastermind boss fight to video clips section, edited Introduction section.

04 April 2019
Added gameplays of pure xoph, constrictor, enslaver, purifier, minotaur and phoenix boss fights.

03 April 2019
Added gameplays of red elder, hydra and chimera boss fights.

Uber Elder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx_fhqptgTg
The Shaper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0FUP5E0mlI
Uber Atziri: https://youtu.be/zGIRKqQC1ys
Syndicate Mastermind (Lv.83): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-_9juGMI7o
T14 Red Elder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVVQHlv9oDk
T16 Guardian of Minotaur: https://youtu.be/D61uU782VNQ
T16 Guardian of Hydra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9eS3tYA_mw
T16 Guardian of Chimera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlY6meXQMUc
T16 Guardian of Phoenix (1 death): https://youtu.be/icnMJGc2a6Q
Delve Boss Ahuatotli, the Blind: https://youtu.be/2Dce3DKIK4g
Delve Boss Kurgal, the Blackblooded: https://youtu.be/XncvgIlGQlc
Pure Xoph's (1 death): https://youtu.be/70q7BRVzLHE
Pure Uul-Netol (1 death): https://youtu.be/kK4PLcMNFek
T16 Elder Guardian Enslaver: https://youtu.be/dY--nPddBcE
T16 Elder Guardian Eradicator: https://youtu.be/lThKVBkHlK0
T16 Elder Guardian Purifier: https://youtu.be/yCyLgfVQoUw
T16 Elder Guardian Constrictor: https://youtu.be/8jhpBbrBS4U
Mapping Showcase: https://youtu.be/p4pfkBpt8lQ
Delving Showcase: https://youtu.be/klGRyzji4Ro
Synthesis Mini Boss (Altered Synthete Lv.83): https://youtu.be/aU36sm8pD_U
Synthesis Mini Boss (Rewritten Synthete Lv.83): https://youtu.be/5_9C0fcZnI0
Synthesis Mini Boss (Augmented Synthete Lv.83): https://youtu.be/XWqcL3sRQx0
Synthesis Mini Boss (Twisted Synthete Lv.83): https://youtu.be/QnbzZfEe_8g
Abyss Lich, Ulaman: https://youtu.be/TPee_rF--dY

Hi there exiles, this is my second try to write another simple build guide and any criticism is welcome. I started playing Path of Exile during the last month of Harbinger League, which is 3.0 and instantly get hooked and spent quite a lot of hours since then. To be honest I'm still learning towards other build mechanics and architects as PoE is pretty massive with every new league, so bear with me if there is any mistake or weird decision making because I'm just a casual player that wanna beat the end game, complete some challenges as well as having some funs.

First of all, I decided to play SSF in Synthesis league and beat Uber Elder for the first time on my own. Therefore the build has to be a bosskiller but doesn't sucks at general map clearing, so I end up by playing a trapper once again but change from arc to ice trap instead since it is buffed massively in terms of number. I do like to play at slower pace this league because I'm tired of magic finding "zoom zoom" around til I have a hard time on my eyes to catch up with the fast motions on Windripper build I did in Betrayal farming to in order to buy my first Mirror of Kalandra in PoE.

By searching through all the trap build guides, there is very little existence of Ice Trap before the launch of 3.6 Synthesis. Across some of the Ice Trap builds I found doesn't appeal to my liking and playstyle so I theorycrafted my own Ice Trapper.

After playing Ice Trap for about 3 weeks and putting this build into real test, I can now say it done pretty well throughout most of the contents even with poor gears.

Similar as other trapper playstyle, never ever try to facetank any big hits. If you do try to facetank like I did, pray hard on evade/dodge RNG blessing :D. Simply throw all your traps before the boss fight begins, and then aggro the boss afterward to trigger all traps at once for massive burst damage.

When having hard time against tough target(s), simply drop a Frostbomb on the target(s) to gain massive DPS buff by reducing their cold resistance. Frostbomb is very useful against target that have massive regen mod, such as Red Beast.

Siphoning Trap is quite under-rated skill since it doesn't provide any DPS boost. However, it is very strong for crowd control by applying chill effects to enemies nearby the trap once activated thus slowing their action speed significantly. At the same it also provide good amount of life + mana regen, especially for delving.

For endgame mapping, the clear speed is good enough with Increased AoE skill gem and quicksilver + silver flask as well as phase run that doesnt make backtracking feels that bad. With flask and phase run we are getting around 180% increased movement speed which makes walking/running feel good enough without spamming movement skills too much and are relaxing to play in slower pace.

Ascendancy choice is actually pretty flexible and totally up to personal preference. Some players prefer Born of the Shadows first for safer start when leveling. Perfect Crime is also good choice as first ascendancy point for the DPS boost.
I was picking Born in the Shadows last because I was using Stibnite flask until Lv.90 and not having a single Diamond flask drop then I realize I disabled it to show on my lootfilter by accident xD.

Patch 3.7
Lv.94 PoB: https://pastebin.com/9z30hgdu
Lv.94 Passive Skill Tree

Main Skill (6-link)
Ice Trap - Cluster Trap - Trap & Mine - Hypothermia - Cold Penetration - Inc. AoE/Conc. Effect


Prioritize on getting a Lv.21 Ice Trap as it will give 10-15% more damage approximately, quality on Ice Trap doesn't matter that much as it's just 10% increased AoE. Other skill gems are good to have 20% quality, except Hypothermia which isn't that much of difference.
Added Cold damage provides slightly more DPS than Cold Penetration, but cold penetration provides consistency of damage output, especially on map mod "Enemies has extra elemental resistance".

Utility (4-link)
Siphoning Trap - Bonechill - Increased Duration - Phase Run

Siphoning Trap is amazing for crowd control and sustain of life and mana. It applies chill to synergize with Hypothermia on Ice Trap for single target, the chill effect is then boosted by Bonechill. Phase Run is just a quality of life to run faster and phasing thru everything.

CWDT Setup (3-link)
CWDT Lv.1 - Immortal Call Lv.1 - Enfeeble Lv.5

Just a generic defensive setup, nothing fancy. It helps to prevent spike physical damage to be temporary immune to physical hits for a short duration of time. The reason of keep this setup at low level is to ensure the enfeeble curse being applied consistently every time you got hit.

Movement Skill (3-link)
Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Portal

Portal is just a quality of life so I don't have to pick up portal scrolls anymore.

Aura (3 or 4-link)
Clarity - Skitterbots - Enlighten - Precision Lv.1

Enlighten is totally optional here, good to have extra mana unreserved if mana regeneration rate is lacking on gears.
Level 1 Precision aura provides some increased crit chance that is almost free since the mana reservation is relative low at level 1.

Debuff - Frostbomb

Can be linked with Spell cascade/arcane surge/increased duration if there's any extra socket available. Without any support it is fine by itself.

Other Utility/Aura that can be considered if you can fit them in are:
Vaal RF (more DPS during skill effect)
Aspect of Spider (DPS increase and defensive layers)
Bear Trap (more DPS of course, but need some aiming/baiting skill to proc it successfully)
Focus (4s shock from ring veil mod, chance to deal double damage from weapon/shield veil mod)

To ease the Uber Elder boss fight, I have swapped one of my opal ring to This is a quality of life change to ignore the chill and freeze caused by Elder's ice spears which I can't avoid them sometimes so that I can keep moving/dodging Shaper's bullets all the time.
I have also replace the quartz and silver flask with for extra DPS and flask sustain throughout the long fight.

Replaced the talisman that has carried me long enough, the extra chaos damage from non-chaos damage is giving a good amount of flat damage and I have some exalts sitting in my stash so decided to multimod it.
The trap throwing speed is a big QoL improvement and actual dps boost against targets/bosses that you have to constantly dodging. Other mods are just life and AoE crafted. It isn't the best multimodding but it is good enough and better than my old amulet.


Minor DPS boost over the old one, have couple spare opal rings in my stash and used a Shrieking Essence of Hatred and I got the best outcome I hope for, which is T1 life and little bit of mana with open prefix/suffix for mastercrafting.


Been ID-ing more than 200 fossil shields, never got a good one. So i throw some leftover essences to craft my own. Spamming some shrieking essence of greed and screaming essence of scorn finally yield me this beefy shield with open prefix. Then mastercraft it with cold as extra chaos damage.


This helm is crafted with pristine fossil, mainly for life and capping my lightning resist.

Weapon:
Any Wand/Dagger/Sceptre is fine. Just look for %increased Spell /Cold damage, %critical strike chance for spells, gain % cold damage as extra chaos, %critical strike multiplier.
For a budget starter, maybe a Divinarius is good enough to carry you to red tier maps without problem.
For the easy highest dps weapon, ilvl85 shaper Opal Wand is the best to craft I think. Alteration spam until you hit the Tier 1 "Gain 16-20% Elemental Damage as extra chaos". then regal, annul the unwanted prefix/suffix and multimod it. Or go with the safer way by spending 2ex to craft prefix cannot be changed and scour the 1-2 unwanted suffix, then multimod it.

Shield:
Rare Fossilised Spriti shield or any hybrid shield that can roll spell/elemental damage and spell crit is fine. Affixes to look for are Life, Spell/Cold damage, Spell Crit, Gain Cold damage as extra chaos. Mana, Mana regen, Elemental resist are good to have as well.

Helmet:
Any rare helmet with tons life and resist, with open prefix is good to craft "phys taken as fire damage" veil mod. Or simply look for a crafting based temple helm with similar phys taken as ele damage incursion mods. I got my T1 life roll with lucky Aug/Regal , so I use it right away.
For unique helms, maybe Starkonja or any other helms that provide good stats and life are fine.
Helm enchant that is good to have: Ice Trap Penetrate 10% cold resist.
By using Pristine + Frigid fossil crafting a rare helm, you can get a delve suffix with "nearby enemies have -9% cold resist" and good life roll. This is another DPS boost option. I regret so much after reroll my tier2 life helm with the delve suffix so much just because there's no open prefix :3.

Body Armour:
Probably any rare 6-link chest is fine, but prefer to get Evasion or Hybrid Evasion/ES base to roll 5 green and 1 blue color on sockets. Just look for life and resist.
I manage to 6-link the Kintsugi chest with less than 200 fusings, becuase it was the only best drop I had early on so I stick with it for a long time and it does provide very good defensive stat for evasion based characters. Surprisingly, Kintsugi synergize very well with Saboteur blind aura as we are taking hits less often, but when first damage hits it always be 20% less. And 20% less damage taken is also applied DoT and other damage types I think as long as we didn't get hit recently.
For other unique chest options, Carcass Jack improves clear speed and dps boost. Shroud of lightless, Loreweave, Belly of the beast, Perfect Form are all great with bonus life and defense.

Glove:
Any Shaper glove is fine, we only need to spam alteration on crafting until we hit the "increased trap throwing speed" affix to boost both clear speed and dps. Then Augment/Regal the shaper glove and hope it hits something good and master craft life on it.
**Please note that +1 trap can no longer obtainable from shaped gloves, this section has been updated up to 3.8 by latest.**

Boots:
Any rare boot with tons of life, resist and 30% movement speed.
Unique boot maybe an Atziri's Step for extra spell dodge. Or look for rare boot with incursion mod that provides 30% movement speed and extra dodge/spell dodge.
The most ideal DPS boot enchant will be "damage penetrates elemental resistance if you haven't kill recently". Otherwise, life regen and extra dodge chance when hit are solid for defenses.

Amulet:
Rare amulet with life and crit multiplier, other good affixes to have are spell damage, cold damage, crit chance, mana, mana regen and some missing dex/str.
Ideally you want either open prefix/suffix to craft increased AoE or trap thowing speed.
Unique amulet offensive choice: The Pandemonius, defensive choice will be Solstice Vigil that provide free temporal chain curse.
Rings: Rare rings with life, cold damage, mana, mana regen, resist, dex/str.

Belt:
Stygian Vise with Life, Cold damage and some resist. Prefer to have an open suffix to craft trap throwing speed. Can be crafted by using Pristine + Frigid fossils.

Flask: These are the flasks I'm using when mapping/delving. Even bossing I don't feel the need to change them cause I'm just lazy :P.
Life flask (Bleed/Freeze removal)
Quicksilver of Adrenaline (for more movement speed)
Diamond Flask of warding (constantly immune to curses)
Quartz Flask (bleed/freeze removal)
Silver Flask (bleed/frezee removal)
Other good options for DPS boost/defense: Wise Oak, Atziri's Promise, Sulphur/Basalt flask.

Jewels:
For normal jewels, look for %maximum life, spell damage, global crit multiplier, trap throwing speed, crit multiplier with ele skill, crit multiplier for spells, crit multiplier for cold skills, cold damage.
For Abyss jewels, look for life,global crit multiplier, damage penetrate ele resist if haven't kill recently and resist/stats as well as mana and mana regen are good to have too.

Bandits: Alira
Provide resist, mana regen and global crit multiplier. Unless you are having a very nice 4 stats jewel, otherwise she still provide the best stat from the start to end game.
Pantheons:
Major = Soul of Brine King to prevent stun lock.
Minor = Soul of Shakari to reduce chaos damage taken and immune to poison once upgraded. Minor gods are very flexible, switch to any based on situation/preference.

15pts - starts with the trap nodes, then life and crit.


30pts - pick up more life and take the trap throwing speed clusters.


44pts - move towards clever construction a for more trap throwing speed, then take the remaining life nodes on ranger area.


60pts - move to witch area and take more life and pick up the Acrobatic keystone.


75pts - pick up more life again at Templar side and please ignore the EE keystone because this build no longer take it.


90pts - path towards scion life wheel to fill up more life.


106pts - take the Blast Cascade first then fill up the remaining power nodes. (critical strike chance & multiplier)


*Please note that the leveling skill tree is just a brief guideline, so feel free to adjust it accordingly to personal preference.

Level 1-4:
Explosive Trap - Lesser Poison

Level 8:
Explosive Trap - Added Cold - Multiple Trap
Frostbomb - Arcance surge (Lv.1)

Level 10: Flame Dash, Clarity, Siphoning Trap.

Level 18:
Explosive Trap - Trap & mine - Multiple Trap
Flame Dash - Faster Casting

Level 28: Ice Trap - Trap & Mine - Multiple Trap - Added Cold

Level 31:
Ice Trap - Trap & Mine - Multiple Trap - Cold Penetration/Hypothermia
Siphoning Trap - Advanced Trap

Level 38:
Ice Trap - Trap & Mine - Cluster Trap - Cold Penetration/Hypothermia
Siphoning Trap - Bonechill - Advanced Trap
Stone Golem

At Act 6 onward, you can buy all the remaining required gems from Lily NPC and use them as long as there are free socktets available.

Start using storm brand for single target after EE is allocated in the skill tree, then progress throughout the rest of the story.

1. Why cluster trap over multiple trap? Aren't multiple trap gives more dps and throw same amount of traps at the same time?
Cluster Trap allow traps to be thrown and spread more evenly on your mouse pointer, therefore they are easier to be triggered at the same time from chain reaction asendancy and resulting more dps and consistent clear speed. Whereas multiple trap throwing traps as a straight line, which can awkward and harder to trigger most of the traps unless having very big traps trigger AoE.

2. Why Cold Penetration over Added Cold and Elemental Focus?
Added Cold damage provides slightly more DPS than Cold Penetration in PoB, but cold penetration provides the consistency of damage output, especially on map mod "Enemies has extra elemental resistance".

3. Are there any specific uniques are required to enable this build?
None, just put up all rare gears with tons of life and capped your resist you are set. Some uniques are nice to have but totally unnecessary if you are tight on budget.

4. This build is dealing elemental damage, how does it became immune to elemental reflect and sustain life/mana in no regen map mods?
Traps mechanic work similarly as totems, which mean traps are the one that deal damage and killing enemies while you are not killing/hitting anything. In no regen map, just deactivate your aura and replace them with Arctic Armour if you want, then replace silver flask with a mana flask. As you cannot regen life, take your time and not rushing into monsters to get surrounded and died.

6. Is Mind over Matter (MoM) better than pure life based?
MoM is still the easier way to get very high eHP, but need to bring a mana flask which I personally dislike. I prefer to have a silver flask so I can move slightly faster while mapping.

7. How about Edritch Battery (EB)?
It is worth it only if you are using a Tinkerskin unique chest imo.

8. How about Bear Trap for extra DPS?
In theory it is another boost of DPS, but I feel it is much clunky to use on tough situations so I rather stick with frostbomb instead. You have to aim your trap position or bait the boss into it to trigger the effect, and most of the time I feel like it is too much effort to do so while frostbomb had better AoE and served the similar dps boost already.

9. What is the Ice Trap DPS?
This build have over 1 million DPS with some simple calculation and assumption of buffs present.
With most of the realistic buffs being ticked on PoB, Ice Trap has 120k damage per hit. With 0.43 trap throwing rate and 4 traps per throw, the real DPS will be:
4 traps / 0.43 throwing speed = 9.3 traps thrown per sec
Total DPS = 120k x 9.3 = 1.1 million damage per sec.