PoE 3.25 Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Build

There are two types of players in Path of Exile. There are those who want to use a fast mapper to earn as much currency in the early game as possible. On the other hand, some players prefer to use builds that are meant for bossing and nothing else.

But, wouldn't it be great if there is a build that you can use for both? That is a good idea indeed! Luckily, there are builds in PoE that offer a good mix of both mapping and bossing and the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is definitely one of the best out there.

If you are interested in creating this character for yourself, then read this article to completion. This is our ultimate build guide for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Basics

This build utilizes the new transfigured version of the Explosive Trap gem called the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel. This version deals more damage, has higher damage effectiveness, and can destroy anything within its area of effect.

Speaking of which, the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel can unleash up to nine smaller explosions, and the size of these explosions varies greatly. This is part of the Transfigured Gem itself, but because you are throwing multiple traps a second, the size of the explosions really does not matter that much.

With how this build performed in the last league, it is surprising that GGG did not touch the skill gem itself in Patch 3.25. You still get the same damage and area of effect. However, some of the items and gems have received some changes.

For one, Hatred no longer grants more cold damage. Instead, you now get "% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage."

If you run into mana issues due to the change in Inspiration Support, you can go for Clarity and link it with the Arrogance Support gem as well.

On a more positive note, the Endurance Charge is now great for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster. This is because you get 4% elemental damage reduction rather than just 4% to all elemental resistances. You could get this by inserting a small cluster jewel with "Enduring Composure" on it.

Keep in mind that this guide focuses on the endgame version of the build because the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel works really with higher investment. That said, the build specifically utilizes the self-chill mechanic via Call of the Void and Winterweave. All gear and gem interactions will be discussed in greater detail in their respective sections of the build guide, so read them if you want to understand how they work.

Do not worry, we will include some items that you can use early on in a new league to get you started. This is to help you get acquainted with the modifiers that this build needs to shine.

You can improve the damage of the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster by looking for the following mods on your gear:

• Increased Trap Damage
• Increased Spell Damage
• Increased Fire Damage
• Increased Cold Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Trap Throwing Speed
• Increased Area Damage
• + to Global Critical Strike Multiplier

Playstyle

The Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is played similarly to other trap builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. Use your preferred travel skill to move around the map in search of huge packs of monsters.

Once you come across a group of enemies, cast Elemental Weakness to increase the damage they take from your traps. After that, just throw your Explosive Traps at them and watch them get blown up to smithereens!

When fighting against pinnacle bosses, you can set plenty of traps (including Bear Trap) before the encounter begins so that you can deal a huge amount of damage right from the get-go.

Ascendancy

Normally, trap builds in Path of Exile would gravitate toward the Saboteur. However, this build, in particular, goes for the Trickster ascendancy class. That is mainly because of the value it provides in terms of offense and defense.

Polymath is great because it allows you to gain a significant damage boost. What's more, this improves your survivability by letting you recover a considerable portion of your life, mana, and energy shield per kill. These effects are scaled based on the number of different Masteries you have allocated on your passive tree.

As you progress through the campaign, you want to bolster your defenses before you start doing the early white and yellow maps. For this reason, taking Escape Artist as your second notable ascendancy passive makes sense. This basically improves your evasion rating and energy shield based on your equipped helmet and body armor, respectively.

After that, you should take Spellbreaker. This node gives you an easier time capping your spell suppression chance. Additionally, it prevents 10% of suppressed spell damage from harming you while you're on full energy shield, which is quite noticeable when you take on the game's harder content.

The last notable ascendancy passive for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is Swift Killer. This raises your Maximum Frenzy Charges by two and ensures that they last longer.

If you are going to use this build as a league starter, you could go with One Step Ahead instead of Swift Killer. The increase in action speed can help you breeze through maps early on. Only switch to Swift Killer if you have equipped the right pieces of gear which will be mentioned later on in the build guide.

You can purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels if you have enough PoE currency. There are a couple of notables that we recommend, starting with Ambush and Assassinate. This is from the Assassin ascendancy tree, which increases your crit chance and critical strike multiplier against enemies. Plus, it empowers your traps to cull monsters that are below 10% of their maximum HP, thus greatly improving your map-clearing speed.

Opportunistic is another useful node to take. This boosts the damage of your Explosive Traps against rare or unique monsters. Opportunistic is definitely what we’d recommend if you use this build primarily as a bossing character in PoE and nothing else.

Gear

This build guide only focuses on the endgame version of the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster. Therefore, the items that you will see in the subsections are what we consider the best-in-slot. You can definitely league start with Explosive Trap, especially since GGG has buffed the base version of the gem in the previous league. You can craft your starter pieces of gear by using any essences you can get your hands on. Ultimately, you're going to want to acquire the items that will be mentioned here.

Weapon

Your main weapon for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is a self-crafted Alternating Sceptre with a Redeemer mod, as well as +2 to level of spell/physical spell gems. You can refer to our comprehensive crafting guide to learn how to craft this weapon yourself.

The reason why you should go for this weapon base is for its "Secrets of Suffering" implicit modifier. Instead of inflicting Chill, Shock, and Ignite, you cause enemies to suffer from Scorch, Brittle, and Sap whenever you land a critical strike with your Explosive Traps.

Secrets of Suffering does three things that can benefit the build. For one, it weakens the enemy's elemental resistance due to Scorch. Next, it increases your critical strike chance against them thanks to Brittle, And lastly, affected monsters deal less damage because of Sap.

The Alternating Sceptre can be obtained from the Curio Displays at the end of Grand Heists. If you can get your hands on the Alternating Sceptre as soon as you can, then that is great! However, the Opal Sceptre or the Void Sceptre are not bad in terms of a weapon you can use as a crafting base during the league start.

Get an ilvl 82+ Void or Opal Sceptre and use the vendor recipe, where you sell a bunch of gems that have the "Fire" tag on them to the vendor along with the weapon. Make sure that the total gem quality amounts to 40% for this to work. Doing this will guarantee the "+1 to Level of All Fire Spell Skill Gems" prefix.

The resulting sceptre will become a magic item, so use a Regal Orb to turn it into a rare weapon. After that, you simply bench-craft the mod "% Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells" and you are good to go! If you have enough PoE currency, use Exalted Orbs to populate the rest of the weapon's affixes.

Offhand

The offhand weapon for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is also a self-crafted weapon, except that you go for the Golden or Platinum Kris as the crafting base. The reason for this is that these weapons give you a significant boost to your critical strike chance when equipped, which complements the Alternating Sceptre perfectly.

Having said that, the process of crafting the weapon starts by spamming it with the Deafening Essence of Woe until you get "+1 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems" and "+1 to Level of All Physical Spell Skill Gems."

Then, lock prefixes and use Harvest Augment Critical until you get a T1 or T2 global crit multiplier. After that, relock prefixes again and then use a Veiled Orb. Then, talk to Jun and unveil. Look for the mod, "+(36-40)% Critical Strike Multiplier While a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby."

For the last suffix slot, just bench-craft "15% Increased Trap Throwing Speed" and be done with it.

Since you can equip a couple of one-handed weapons on this build, the "Trigger a Socketed Spell..." mod can be put either on the main hand or the offhand weapon. Just make sure that at least one of them has it because that specific modifier is mandatory to make the self-chill mechanic work. More about this mechanic later in the build guide.

Body Armor

Since the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is primarily meant for killing the uber bosses in Path of Exile, you want to make sure that your HP and defenses are all sorted out. That is why you are going to equip a self-crafted body armor using the Sadist Garb as the base. Spam it with Deafening Essence of Loathing for that increased mana reservation efficiency. Refer to our dedicated crafting guide so that you can learn how to craft the endgame chest.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the body armor with Grand Eldritch Ichors to obtain the mod "Hatred Has 27% Increased Aura Effect" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "14% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills."

During the league start, shop the trade website for a Kintsugi. This body armor heavily improves your survivability thanks to its unique effects. If you have not been hit in the last four seconds, you take 35% less damage. However, if you've been hit within that time frame, your evasion rating is increased significantly to compensate.

In case you're not aware, item quality on equipment has been buffed in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. Rather than granting "increased" defenses, you now get "more" defenses. This means that the armor bonus from item quality is calculated multiplicatively. In other words, you get higher numbers now compared to the previous leagues. This also applies to weapons, so be sure to use the appropriate PoE Currency to increase the quality of your gear.

Helmet

In Patch 3.25, GGG introduced new items that provide higher defenses, including the Moonlit Circlet, Sunfire Circlet, and Lich's Circlet. So, if you're able to get your hands on any of these, then that would give you more energy shield than the Hubris Circlet.

Anyway, the helmet for this build is a self-crafted Hubris Circlet with some Elder and Shaper-influenced modifiers. You will use a special combination of fossils to get the Concentrated Effect, Trap/Mine Damage, and Hypothermia mods. Crafting this endgame helmet is no easy task, so you have to be prepared to spend a lot of PoE currency in order to do so.

Early on, you can use the Hubris Circlet for the crafting base, but this time, you spam it with Shrieking Essence of Loathing for that mana reservation efficiency mod. Do this until you get life, energy shield, and some elemental resistances.

If you can get some Lesser Eldritch Ichors, use that until you get the mana reservation efficiency implicit modifier as well. Having problems with survivability? If so, you could opt for "% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" instead.

Gloves

Thanks to the Trickster ascendancy class, you no longer have to worry about rolling for spell suppression on gear. That is why the perfect gloves for this build are those that come with the "% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies" mod. These gloves can be acquired by defeating the boss in the Temple of Atzoatl.

Now, Explosive Trap already converts 50% of your physical damage to fire damage. That is why you want to craft a pair of damage conversion gloves to convert the other half to cold damage.

You'd want to fracture the "chilled" mod mentioned earlier using a Fracturing Orb so that you will have an easier time crafting the gloves.

Admittedly, the gloves mentioned above are pretty expensive. In the meantime, you can grab an ilvl 82+ Sorcerer Gloves and spam them with Shrieking Essence of Greed (Life) until you get some elemental resistances, attributes, and chaos resistance. Leave a prefix open so that you can bench-craft the physical damage converted to cold mod.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the gloves with Lesser Eldritch Ichors until you get cold exposure and Lesser Eldritch Embers for "% Chance to Unnerve Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit."

Boots

By now, you are probably tired of crafting your own pieces of gear for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster. Fortunately, this build does use some unique items, so you can enjoy what it has to offer simply by equipping them.

One of those unique items is the Ralakesh's Impatience unique Riveted Boots. These boots not only provide you with increased movement speed and cold/chaos resistance, but they also allow you to feel the effects of Endurance/Frenzy/Power Charges at all times!

A good alternative to Ralakesh's Impatience is a pair of crafted boots with the Onslaught Mod on them. Refer to our crafting guide so that you will learn how to craft the Onslaught Boots. When it comes to the boots' implicit modifiers, spam them with Eldritch Ichors until you get "Gain % of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage" and Eldritch Embers for "% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked."

Amulet

The Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster can use a few different amulets. Replica Dragonfang's Flight, specifically one that comes with "+3 to Level of All Explosive Trap Gems" is pretty good. Its increased reservation efficiency and reduced item/gem attribute requirements are welcome additions as well.

Although this next amulet got nerfed a couple of leagues ago, the Ashes of the Stars still provide a ton of value for this build regardless. You see, all versions of the Explosive Trap gem get better the higher their gem quality is. Since Ashes of the Stars can raise the quality of all skill gems by up to 30%, this amulet boosts your Explosive Traps by enabling them to cause a couple more explosions when equipped!

The last amulet that is great for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is a self-crafted amulet using the Focused Amulet as a crafting base. Use the Orb of Alteration method of crafting until you get "+2 to Level of All Skill Gems." Then, use a Regal Orb to turn the amulet into a rare item. Spend an Orb of Annulment to remove the modifier that was added by the Regal Orb. If the "All Skill Gem" mod got annulled, repeat the Orb of Alteration spam again.

Put the metamod, "Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers" from the Crafting Bench and use Harvest Augment Physical. This guarantees the mod, "+2 to Level of All Physical Spell Skill Gems." To finish the crafting project, bench craft "24% Increased Trap Throwing Speed." Elevate the speed mod by using Accelerating Catalysts.

For the anointment, you have a couple of options. In most cases, anoint the amulet with Dreamer (Sepia Oil, Teal Oil, Azure Oil) to increase your mana pool by 20% and reduce the mana cost of your active skills by 10%.

On the other hand, if you need more mana reservation efficiency, you can opt for Sovereignty (3x Silver Oils) instead.

Rings

Earlier in the build guide, we mentioned that the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster utilizes the self-chill mechanic provided by the unique rings: Call of the Void and Winterweave.

Call of the Void empowers all of the damage you deal to inflict the "Chilled" status effect. If you only wear this ring by itself, it has a major downside where any damage you take from hits can chill you as well. To turn this obvious disadvantage into a great advantage, you will complement Call of the Void by also wearing Winterweave.

The Winterweave is a unique Coral Ring in Path of Exile that essentially reverses the effects of chill on you. This means that rather than getting slowed down by the said debuff, you actually gain speed thanks to this unique ring!

As to how you can reliably activate this mechanic, that will be discussed in the "Gems" section of the build guide.

How about if you are not utilizing the self-chill mechanic? What rings can you use then? Well, you can replace them with Opal Rings. Get an item level 85+ Opal Ring and use Harvest Reforge Chaos until you get chaos resistance, elemental resistance, and attributes (whichever of these mods you need). Lock your suffixes and use a Veiled Orb.

Go to the Crafting Bench and put "Adds to Fire Damage, Adds to Cold Damage" and then head to Jun and unveil. You are looking for the mod: "+55 to Maximum Mana, 7% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills."

After you have acquired the desired veiled modifier, bench-craft the non-channeling skills mod. To amplify the effect of the modifier, be sure to spam the ring with Fertile Catalysts as well.

Belt

Your elemental resistances and mana cost of skills are difficult to manage on this build and they can only be addressed if you are wearing the Mageblood.

This unique heavy belt has become a staple in many PoE builds simply because it gives you a permanent uptime of four of your magic utility flasks. Additionally, it grants you a considerable amount of STR, DEX, and fire/cold resistance.

If you do not have the means to buy a Mageblood, you can wear the Sunblast for the time being. This belt allows you to throw two additional Explosive Traps with one cast, though its drawback is that the traps are thrown randomly around the targeted location. Still, this is an amazing belt that does not cost a lot of PoE currency to obtain.

Flasks

• Jade Flask
• Silver Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Bottled Faith

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)
• 20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• Alchemist/Abecedarian/Dabbler (prefix, 25% Increased Effect)

Jewels

The Balance of Terror gives a slight boost to your elemental resistances. But, the main reason why you want to get your hands on this jewel is that it grants you unique effects depending on the curses you use. If you are going to purchase The Balance of Terror from the trade website, get one with the mod, “Gain % of Physical Damage as a Random Element if You’ve Cast Elemental Weakness..."

The second unique jewel for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is The Adorned. What makes this unique Crimson Jewel interesting for this build is that it increases the effects of corrupted magic (blue) jewels.

Having said that, get magic jewels with these modifiers to maximize the unique effect of The Adorned:

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier for Spell Damage
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Fire Skills
• % Reduced Mana Cost of Skills
• % Increased Maximum Life

It is worth noting that The Adorned got a sizable nerf in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. Instead of granting a 150% increased effect of corrupted magic jewels, it now only grants up to 100%. For this reason, you could replace this with a small cluster jewel with the "Enduring Composure" mod on it.

To roll Enduring Composure, grab yourself a small cluster jewel (armor), and then use Harvest Reforge Defense from the Horticrafting Station.

While not mandatory, you can include a Watcher's Eye if you want to. The best one you can get for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is a Watcher's Eye with "+% to Critical Strike Chance While Affected by Hatred." The other modifiers can be anything that you want, so long as it can improve the build.

The Lethal Pride is another complementary jewel that you can add to the build. Aim to get one that has plenty of "5% Chance to Deal Double Damage" nodes.

Since the damage of the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is based on physical damage, you can scale that by putting at least one Large Cluster Jewel (physical damage) on the passive tree. Use Harvest Reforge Physical until you get these notable skills:

• Battle-Hardened
• 30% Increased Evasion and Armor
• 35% increased Physical Damage
• Force Multiplier
• 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
• 25% Increased Physical Damage
• Iron Breaker
• Overwhelm 10% Physical Damage Reduction
• 35% Increased Physical Damage

Medium Cluster Jewels (trap/mine damage) can roll a couple of useful modifiers that can benefit the build, such as:

• Guerilla Tactics
• 20% Increased Trap Damage
• 10% Increased Trap Throwing Speed
• 5% Increased Movement Speed if You’ve Thrown a Trap Recently
• Surprise Sabotage
• +8% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Traps
• Trap Damage Penetrates 4% Elemental Resistances

To craft the Medium Cluster Jewel, just go to the Horticrafting Station and use Harvest Reforge Critical.

Gems

Most of the gem setups for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster are already fixed. The only setup that is flexible on this build is the movement skill that you want to use. 

Helmet

• Explosive Trap of Shrapnel
• Inspiration Support
• Increased Critical Damage Support
• Charged Traps Support

This is your gem setup for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel. The support gems used here complement this spell skill in more ways than one.

For instance, Charged Traps Support not only increases the damage of your Explosive Traps, but you can quality it up to 20% to gain a slight boost to your trap throwing speed.

Inspiration Support has been rebalanced in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. This support gem now grants 40% less mana cost, which means that it is calculated multiplicatively.

Increased Critical Damage is a support gem that makes your traps' explosions more devastating. To maximize this, make sure that your critical strike chance is relatively high (above 60% if possible) to make this gem count.

Take note that this setup presupposes that you are wearing the self-crafted Lich's Circlet mentioned earlier. If you do not have this helmet equipped, transfer the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel to the body armor and add Trap and Mine Damage Support and Concentrated Effect.

Helmet (If Wearing the Budget Helmet)

• Hatred
• Grace
• Summon Skitterbots
• Enlighten Support

Body Armor

• Vaal Grace
• Hatred
• Herald of Ash
• Herald of Purity
• Summon Skitterbots
• Enlighten (lvl 4)

Hatred is your main offensive aura on this build. This has also been rebalanced in Patch 3.25. Instead of granting more cold damage, you now get 39% of physical damage as extra cold damage at gem level 20.

Vaal Grace gives you more evasion rating, which is scaled even further thanks to the Escape Artist node on the ascendancy tree. The "Vaal" portion of the skill is something that you can activate if you are in a tough situation.

Take note that in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, Grace only provides 1,545 evasion at gem level 20 as opposed to 2,575 in the previous league. You could gain some of the evasion back by wearing any of the new evasion/energy shield bases.

Because a portion of Explosive Trap's damage is fire-based, the Herald of Ash provides a bit more oomph in that department.

Herald of Purity is another great aura to activate here because of that "more" physical damage multiplier. Such multipliers in PoE are better than "increased" modifiers simply because they are calculated multiplicatively rather than additively.

The Alternating Sceptre prevents you from inflicting Chill and Shock on monsters, right? So, how exactly can you make them suffer from the said debuffs then? Well, you have Summon Skitterbots for that. When activated, you summon a couple of invincible minions that inflict "Chill" and "Shock" on your foes. Chill reduces their action speed, while Shock causes them to take more damage from all sources; perfect for killing map minions and uber bosses in PoE.

Without a doubt, activating these auras requires you to have a large mana pool. That is why you should use a level 4 Enlighten Support to drastically increase your mana reservation efficiency. In other words, thanks to this support gem, you can activate these auras comfortably while still having enough mana left for your traps and active skills.

Body Armor (if Using Budget Helmet)

• Explosive Trap/Explosive Trap of Shrapnel
• Trap and Mine Damage Support
• Charged Traps Support
• Increased Critical Damage Support
• Inspiration Support
• Concentrated Effect

Gloves

• Petrified Blood
• Arrogance Support
• Inspiration Support
• Elemental Weakness

This build does not have a high HP pool, which means that you have to use whatever defensive layers you can in order to survive. Petrified Blood is a definite life-saver because the damage that would have killed you is lost over several seconds instead. This gives you an ample amount of time to recover your HP to get back into action.

Since mana is tight, you should link Petrified Blood with Inspiration Support and Arrogance Support so that you can enable the said buff.

Elemental Weakness is a curse spell that reduces the elemental resistances of affected enemies significantly. This should be cast manually to take advantage of The Balance of Terror unique Cobalt Jewel.

Boots

• Lightning Warp
• Less Duration Support
• Inspiration Support
• Faster Casting Support

Without any special mechanics, the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is a bit clunky to use for mapping. Fortunately, there is a way to make your mapping experience smoother and that is by utilizing Lightning Warp as your movement skill.

Lightning Warp essentially teleports you a short distance when used. Coupled with Less Duration Support and Faster Casting Support, the said movement skill is going to make you traverse the map as quickly as possible. Inspiration Support is only added as a way to reduce the mana cost of Lightning Warp.

Now, if you find Lightning Warp to be nauseating, you can replace that with Shield Charge linked to Faster Attacks Support. The third gem slot can be reserved for Flame Dash or Frostblink. Leave Inspiration Support in both setups to significantly lower the mana cost of these skills.

Weapon

• Summon Holy Relic/Raise Spectre
• Guardian's Blessing Support
• Zealotry

Zealotry is an aura that increases your spell crit and spell damage. Unfortunately, the only way you can activate this is by linking it with Guardian's Blessing Support and Summon Holy Relic.

So, how does this setup work exactly? Every time you call forth a Holy Relic, you will gain the effects of Zealotry so long as that minion is alive. Since the said minion can die, you just have to resummon them whenever this happens.

In Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, GGG brought itemized corpses back to the game. This means that you can get your hands on the Dark Marionette again, which is a minion you can summon by using Raise Spectre.

In case you've forgotten, the Dark Marionette has the ability to revive itself automatically shortly after death. That is why you can opt for Raise Spectre and the Dark Marionette as a viable alternative to Summon Holy Relic.

The Dark Marionette and other itemized corpses can be acquired as possible rewards for completing Ritual Altars in Patch 3.25.

Offhand

• Forbidden Rite (lvl 1)
• Inspiration Support
• Bear Trap

Call of the Void and Winterweave's self-chill mechanic only works if you hit yourself with an attack or a spell. For this reason, you are going to use a level 1 Forbidden Rite. This is automatically cast thanks to the veiled modifier: "Trigger a Socketed Spell on Using a Skill, with a 4-second Cooldown; Spells Triggered This Way Have 150% More Cost."

Bear Trap is automatically used thanks to the veiled modifier as well. This trap can cause monsters to take 25% increased damage from your Explosive Traps.

Tattoos

The Wildwood Ascendancies have not returned in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League. They might come back in the future, but in the meantime, you can apply some Tattoos to gain certain bonuses. That said, here are the Tattoos that we can recommend for the Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster:

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot
• 2% Increased Movement Speed
• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller
• +3% to Chaos Resistance
• Tattoo of the Valako Scout
• 10% Reduced Effect of Shock on You
• Tattoo of the Hinekora Shaman
• 8% Increased Mana Regeneration Rate
• Tattoo of the Hinekora Deathwarden
• 6% Reduced Effect of Curses on You

Passive Tree

POB

Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster

Final Thoughts

The Explosive Trap of Shrapnel Trickster is one of the best bossing builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. This Transfigured Gem causes more explosions to occur, dealing massive amounts of damage in the process. Since you can "preload" the traps before the boss arrives, you can take them down without breaking a sweat shortly after they become vulnerable!

Although Explosive Trap, in general, is clunky to use for mapping, the said skill now feels a lot better thanks to the improvements GGG has implemented in the previous league.

Some of the gems and items that this build uses have received some changes in Patch 3.25. However, the build still performs admirably well despite the adjustments, so there's nothing to worry about.

This build packs a serious punch and is definitely worth considering if you are looking for a competent bossing build in PoE.

With that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Great build to take down uber bosses

+Feels smoother to play while mapping thanks to recent improvements

+Can destroy pretty much any monster in Path of Exile

+Still amazing in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League

CONS

-Trap playstyle may not be for everyone

-Expensive