Hardcore Trapsin D2R Build Guide

The Trap Assassin is a strong hardcore option in D2R given her inherent safety behind traps, mercenary and strong crowd control. While she might not have the health pool of some of her counterparts, she makes up for it with her high natural damage reduction and resistances with fade. While dual claw with weapon block is viable, it is not recommended for Hardcore.

When farming, ensure your fade and battle orders are up at all times. Resummon your shadowmaster when she perishes, and ensure your mercenary survives. You will be able to reposition your squad with Enigma teleport and they should provide you safety as you’re teleporting. Mindblast should prevent groups of mobs from being able to focus you down. Start fights with Lightning sentry (higher initial damage), and move onto Death sentry as you’ve accumulated some corpses (corpse explosion). Given your dual elemental damage threat (corpse explosion = fire and physical), you do not necessarily need a lightning Sunder, however it is beneficial for clear speed if you can still cap out resistances.

Skills:
Traps: 20 Lightning Sentry, 20 Death Sentry, 20 Shock Web, and 20 Charged Bolt Sentry.

Shadow Discipline A prerequisite of 5 skills is required for Shadow Discipline. Equip 1 Mindblast, 1 Shadow Warrior, 1 Shadow Master, and 1 Fade.

Maximize your lightning damage. You can opt into more points into mindblast for extra safety and cc at the cost of one of your synergies. Shadow master is an excellent decoy for damage, while one point in fade should provide you with capped DR and resistances with our suggested gear build.

Attributes
Strength should be enough for gear. Put enough into dexterity to achieve 75% blockrate with Shield Shield). Put the remaining points into Vitality. Energy should be kept at base.

Gear
Weapon - Heart of the Oak
This is the best option providing +3 to all skills, 40% FCR, and a huge boost to resistances. The dexterity will help your max block and additionally, you can summon an oak sage for a significant life boost.

Weapon / Shield Switch - Standard CTA and Spirit Monarch (given you are already investing the strength to equip stormshield).

Shield - Stormshield

Stormshield is a standard in Hardcore for good reason. It boosts your Damage reduction hugely allowing you to easily cap out, as well as resistances, defence and a good block %.

Helmet - Shako
Another standard, given the extra DR from Crown of Ages, is not beneficial. Shako provides a big boost to life and mana, as well as +2 to all skills. Consider an Um (resistances) or Shael (FHR) depending on your needs.

Amulet - Maras

Maras should be your go to, given the +2 skills and 30 to all resistances is both the best damage and defensive option. You can consider something different, like a metalgrid for an Insight golem, if your resistances are already capped and you are wanting to experiment.

Enigma body armor

+2 skills / DR / FRW and huge str to allow you to invest less str for stormshield, would make this the choice even without teleport. Given teleport is the strongest mobility ability in the game, and necessary for repositioning to safety, it should be prioritized. If you’re willing to play slower, and are on a budget, you can consider other options, like Chains of Honour, Vipermagi or even Templar Coat.

Ring 1
One ring slot should be saved for Raven frost to provide the “Cannot be Frozen” mod, which is essential for maintaining speed, mobility and thus survivability. The extra dexterity will also assist with achieving max block with less investment

Ring 2
Bul Kathos or Stone of Jordan is recommended for the +1 skills. Remember, extra points to your fade increases your resistances and DR so has a defensive purpose. BK is recommended for the additional life mod.

Belt
Arachnids belt
An extra skill and 20 FCR is very good for the belt slot. Verdungos is not necessary given we should be over max DR. Thundergods can be considered for extra lightning absorb if souls are feeling threatening, or if you’re trying to mitigate a Sunder charm in your inventory.

Gloves
Trang Gloves (20 FCR + 30 Cold resistances) or IAS gloves (additional trap laying speed) are the best option for this slot.

Boots
Treks are a good option, providing good FRW, FHR poison resistances, and 30 total attributes that are useful. Tri Res FHR  boots are also an option to make up for certain lacking resistances. 

Charms
For Anni and Torch, prioritize resistances if you are not capped in Hell. If you are running an infinity merc and are not capped with lightning resistances, consider not running a lightning Sunder. The rest of your inventory should focus on:

1. Ensuring you hit the desired FHR, ideally 86%
2. Ensuring you hit max resistances 75 all resistances in Hell 

3. Maximizing Life
4. Maximizing Damage (+1 Skillers)


Mercenary
An ideal Mercenary setup would be an Act 2 Defiance Mercenary (Holy Freeze is anti synergistic with Corpse explosion) wielding:

Weapon: Infinity (Conviction, breaking some lightning immunes, and boosting damage from both corpse explosion and lightning sentries)

Armour: Treachery (Huge defensive boosts for mercenary survivability, and matching mercenary fade)
Helmet: Vampire Gaze or Andariels for desirable life leech and defensive mods. Andariels should be ral’d to mitigate its negative fire resistances, if chosen.

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