Trap Damage Mitigation/Avoidance

[Thalone]

I've been doing a life without trap skills or evasion, the first time in a long time, and I've forgotten how brutal some of the damage can be on elite. I'm not aware of any consolidated trap-avoidance/mitigation guide, and I think it would be a useful exercise to put one together.

My goal is to have a strategy in place to bypass or survive as many traps as possible, in a full party doing elite (no scaling) without trap skills, on a D4 hit die class with terrible reflex saves.

First off, quest knowledge is of utmost importance to mitigate trap damage, so you can prioritise your buffs. When you know a trap is coming up and you're not sure you can Mario around it, you should buff your hit points:

Constitution, false life, vitality items
Rage, Tenser's Transformation (scrolled, to avoid long-term spell cooldown issues)
Temporary HPs from Aid, False Life, GH, Rejuvenation Cocoon
Earth stance on monk splashes (though this decreases movement speed)
Defensive stances on paladin/fighter tank builds, these will also increase run speed if you have the enhancements for it [Credit to LeonAureo]
Yugoloth CON potion (+2 CON, +20 HPs) [Credit to SirValentine]


While I personally do not rely or high saves to survive a trap (everyone rolls a 1 eventually), buffing reflex saves can put the dice in your favour:

Resistance/Dexterity item/Tenser's Transformation; Charisma/Intelligence if Paladin 2+ or Insightful Reflexes
Parrying, Good Luck items
Lucky Cape (does not stack with Good Luck)
Haste
(Greater) Heroism
Monk water stances [CaptainSpacePony]


If you know an elemental trap is coming, you can mitigate the damage:

Protection from Elements (scrolls or pots)
Energy Resistance from spell, gear, potions, or ship buffs
Fire Shield (Cold version absorbs 50% fire damage, and vice versa)
Energy Sheath from Draconic Incarnation absorbs 50% of one element, but is mutually exclusive with Fire/Cold Shield
Energy Absorption from Shiradi absorbs 15% of all elements
Absorption appears on lootgen ("*proof" items) and on green steel weapons; Cannith crafting has 33% fire and electric absorption shards

Note that percentage-absorption gear with different values stack, but not additively. If you have Fire Shield: Cold (50%) and Firestorm Greaves (33%), you would take (1 - 0.50) * (1 - 0.33) = 33.5% of the damage you would have taken, not (1 - 0.5 - 0.33) = 17%.

Traps that do physical damage, rather than force/elemental/poison/etc, are subject to damage reduction and PRR. Therefore, Axeblock/Spearblock/Hammerblock/Invulnerability, Adamantine armour, sources of DR/-, blue PRR gems, and Stoneskin all help. However, multiple sources of DR do not stack: only the best applies. For Heroic levels, Stoneskin is a good bet for 10 DR against traps that hit multiple times; the DR will apply to each hit until the Stoneskin is depleted. [SirValentine, CaptainSpacePony]

Since Update 28, wearing noncloth armour will grant a PRR bonus based on your BAB, provided you have proficiency. You can temporarily set BAB equal to your character level by scrolling Divine Power or Tensor's Transformation. Also, starting with light shields, you will get another PRR bonus with each successively heavier shield type, regardless of proficiency. Light shields and heavier also provide MRR and help when traversing elemental traps. Therefore all characters not confident of their ability to traverse a deadly trap can benefit from having a tower shield when they attempt to cross a trap zone.

[Tom116] Poison traps can be traversed safely by characters with natural immunities (e.g., Warforged/Bladeforged, undead forms).

The less time you spend in a trap, the less damage you will take. Consider boosting your movement speed:

Striding/Speed item, Haste, Longstrider, Shadow Walk (typically will not stack with each other)
Temporary run speed skill boost from enhancements (Ranger/Barb)
"Wings": Monk/FvS leaps, Cannith Boots of Propulsion, Draconic/Exalted Angel wings
Some traps do multiple pulses and you can time your transition between pulses. This also enables healing while you're transitioning (have someone target you as you're going through, or use heal over time pots/Druid regens).


Additionally, you should attempt to get to Jump cap (40) via pots, gear, and Strength buffs, and have a featherfall item ready for swapping. Invisibility is sometimes useful to keep aggro off of you while you're trying to get good positioning.

Much of the above requires UMD if not on a caster, of course.

Many traps' activation zones are larger than their damage zones. This means you can tiptoe up to a known trap location to activate it to see its exact location. Additionally, many trapped levers can be activated safely by grabbing the levers at maximum range (e.g., Cry for Help). If all else fails, you can use a hireling or pet (arti dog, druid wolf, PM skelly) to pull these levers.

Additionally, many traps activate [i]after you run through their damage zone--which means the first person through is safe and the people following have to be careful. [Ithaquah]

There are several different classes of traps.

Retractable Spikes
These are traps that poke straight in and out of floors or walls. They can be blade or spear types.

Typical examples are found in Monastery of the Scorpion (blade), Bounty Hunter (spear), Maze of Madness (both).

Retractable traps do damage only in the split second that they poke out. When they are up, it is safe to run through them, or even jump up and down on them.

Guillotines
Guillotines are sharp blades that slide up and down vertically.

Typical examples are in Faithful Departed, Keeper's Sanctuary.

Guillotines have an upstroke and a downstroke; when the blade is on the way up, it is safe to pass through. When it's going down, you may lose your head.

Jets
Jets shoot elemental, force, poison, or sometimes darts. Typical examples are in Redfang the Unruled (horizontal poison), STK 2 (horizontal acid, fire), Rest for the Restless (diagonal fire), and the Rushmore's Mansion challenges (diagonal fire).

Most horizontal jets can be avoided by jumping/featherfalling over them. Most diagonal jets can be avoided by running under them.

Spinning Blades
Spinning blades pop up out of the ground and whirl around for a set time, then retract for a brief time before starting up again.

Typical examples are in VoN 5, Hiding in Plain Sight, Bring Me the Head of Ghola Fan.

These traps can be avoided by jumping over them. It's safer to do so while they're retracting, especially if they're in a staggered formation like in the VoN 5 north hallway.

Slashing Blades
Blades slice through an arc in a regular pattern.

Typical examples are in VoN 5 (horizontal), Valak's Mausoleum (vertical from floor), Lords of Dust (horizontal and vertical from wall), Smuggler's Warehouse (dual horizontal).

Some dual horizontal traps can be avoided completely by running down the middle of the hall (e.g., Chains of Flame, Smuggler's Warehouse). Others do not have enough clearance, and you should hug one wall to avoid risking two shots of damage. Characters with "wings" (FvS/Exalted Angel, Monk, Cannith Boots of Propulsion, Draconic Flyby Attack) can easily bypass these blade traps. Other characters can minimise the damage by timing their transitions to enter the damage zone as the blade starts swinging.

Explosions
Explosions usually do elemental or force damage, triggering on the use of an interactable.

Typical examples are in VoN 3, Graverobber, Under the Big Top.

The wheels in Big Top are particularly deadly, doing up to six hits of elemental damage if you are not standing in a good spot. You can cut the damage in half by hopping onto the wheel, pulling the wheel, and immediately jumping/featherfalling straight into the air. This cuts down the damage from six to three hits, which should be survivable with proper buffs. It is also possible to cut down damage by pulling the wheel from the side and immediately moving to stand behind the wheel's supporting post, but this manoeuver is more difficult. (I think I picked up this tip on the forums; can't remember from whom.)

Static Spears
Many sharp objects in a confined space equals lots of potential for pain. Damage triggers when you make contact with the pointy bits.

Typical examples are Crucible (maze horn pit and swim), Cry for Help, Rainbow in the Dark.

Jumping around in them is a virtual death sentence in higher levels. If you fall into a spike pit and somehow survive, you can slowly walk to the exit to avoid further damage.

Mines/Bear Traps
Mines hidden in the ground explode on contact, usually doing elemental damage. Bear traps do damage and immobilise a trapped character who fails a save.

Typical examples are in Undermine and Made to Order.

Mines (and bear traps) can be avoided by jumping over them, but this presupposes knowledge of the exact location of the mines. In Undermine, you can set off charges to destroy a group of mines. In Made to Order, I typically solo (dungeon scaling is in my favour) with elemental protection buffs and jump/featherfall in the trapped hallways, hugging the walls. I find the starting locations of the clumps of enemies/breakables are not generally trapped.

Spell Wards
Found in the Forgotten Realms, spell wards do many types of alignment and elemental damage. They have a no-save slow component, and can additionally paralyse you.

Almost anyone can disable spell wards even if they don't have trap skills. These traps are susceptible to dispel effects, so casters or UMD characters can scroll Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic to slowly lower the ML of spell wards, and eventually destroy them (this also counts toward your trap bonus!). Unfortunately, this still requires someone to trigger the ward, as Dispels cannot target an arbitrary area... they default to yourself if nothing is selected. Mordenkainen's Disjunction also lowers Spell Ward CR (and likely faster), but scrolls are hard to come by, so it will usually be cast from a Wizard's SP pool. [kinggartk]

Trap Plates
Trap Plates, when you step on them, can either trigger a damage effect of some sort, or glue you to the ground.

Typical examples are in Epic Prove Your Worth and Haunted Halls.

I'll be sporadically (very, very sporadically) posting walkthroughs of specific traps people in PuG groups seem to find difficult. Don't hesitate to post your own tips or request a walkthrough of how to avoid a specific trap. I myself am curious if it's even possible to survive the VoN 3 explosion and VoN 4 east lever spikes on an evasionless character!

I would also be very interested in errors or omissions in this original post.

[Thalone]

Post #2 reserved in case a quest index post is needed in the future.

[Thalone]

Here's an example video of the jump-avoidance for Big Top:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQwVDREbnn0&feature=youtu.be

[Thalone]

Here's a video of how to avoid the quadruple-blade trap in VoN 5. I trigger the trap by strafing very carefully onto the raised platform--it's still safe to stand there. Notice that the blades cycle predictably and there are two cycles where the bottom three blades are in synch. Starting to run at the beginning of the second triple-blade cycle should ensure you live.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Xv9f_Byhk&feature=youtu.be

[Thalone]

Here's a video of the north split in VoN 5: hug the posts and you should be safe from the spinning blades. The electric damage shouldn't be too bad with absorption/resistance/protection.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj0hCBgTTmk&feature=youtu.be

[thouston]

very nice guide, thanks for taking the time to create and share it
+1

[Thalone]

Crucible swim, method where you don't have to make any saves. Buffing your Swim skill helps, but is not required. While this character did indeed have evasion, you'll note "Evade" never appeared over her head.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-fQxiExxI&feature=youtu.be

That being said, you don't have to do a perfect swim even on heroic elite: a whack of HPs and a stack of Cure pots when you make a minor mistake are fine, even with a full party (no damage scaling). Alternatively, you can bring a hireling with res spells on their hotbar (hirelings can cast under water). There is also a valve under the water after the maze room to turn off the flow, but I've never done that method and can't comment on it.

So do the swim next time in your pure cleric in full plate with no reflexes an impress your party!

[angrysn1per]

Useful info, thanks for taking the time to put this together.

[Thalone]

Crucible trap room (Horn of Agility) video. Typically I'll get hit with a couple of dart traps (whose damage is piddling anyway) in the end room, but I lucked out this time and took no damage at all.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQMQLZrhFKw&feature=youtu.be

[Saekee]

I've been doing a life without trap skills or evasion, the first time in a long time, and I've forgotten how brutal some of the damage can be on elite. I'm not aware of any consolidated trap-avoidance/mitigation guide, and I think it would be a useful exercise to put one together.

My goal is to have a strategy in place to bypass or survive as many traps as possible, in a full party doing elite (no scaling) without trap skills, on a D4 hit die class with terrible reflex saves.

First off, quest knowledge is of utmost importance to mitigate trap damage, so you can priortise your buffs. When you know a trap is coming up and you're not sure you can Mario around it, you should buff your hit points:

Constitution, false life, vitality items
Rage, Tenser's Transformation (scrolled, to avoid long-term spell cooldown issues)
Temporary HPs from Aid, False Life, GH, Rejuvenation Cocoon
Earth stance on monk splashes (though this decreases movement speed)
Defensive stances on paladin/fighter tank builds, though these will decrease run speed


While I personally do not rely or high saves to survive a trap (everyone rolls a 1 eventually), buffing reflex saves can put the dice in your favour:

Resistance/Dexterity item/Tenser's Transformation; Charisma/Intelligence if Paladin 2+ or Insightful Reflexes
Parrying, Good Luck items
Lucky Cape
Haste
(Greater) Heroism


If you know an elemental trap is coming, you can mitigate the damage:

Protection from Elements (scrolls or pots)
Energy Resistance from spell, gear, potions, or ship buffs
Fire Shield (Cold version absorbs 50% fire damage, and vice versa)
Energy Sheath from Draconic Incarnation absorbs 50% of one element, but is mutually exclusive with Fire/Cold Shield
Energy Absorption from Shiradi absorbs 15% of all elements
Absorption appears on lootgen ("*proof" items) and on green steel weapons; Cannith crafting has 33% fire and electric absorption shards

Note that percentage-absorption gear with different values stack, but not additively. If you have Fire Shield: Cold (50%) and Firestorm Greaves (33%), you would take (1 - 0.50) * (1 - 0.33) = 33.5% of the damage you would have taken, not (1 - 0.5 - 0.33) = 17%.

Additionally, you should attempt to get to Jump cap (40) via pots, gear, and Strength buffs, and have a featherfall item ready for swapping. Invisibility is sometimes useful to keep aggro off of you while you're trying to get good positioning.

Much of the above requires UMD if not on a caster, of course.

Many traps' activation zones are larger than their damage zones. This means you can tiptoe up to a known trap location to activate it to see its exact location. Additionally, many trapped levers can be activated safely by grabbing the levers at maximum range (e.g., Cry for Help). If all else fails, you can use a hireling or pet (arti dog, druid wolf, PM skelly) to pull these levers.

There are several different classes of traps.

Retractable Spikes
These are traps that poke straight in and out of floors or walls. They can be blade or spear types.

Typical examples are found in Monastery of the Scorpion (blade), Bounty Hunter (spear), Maze of Madness (both).

Retractable traps do damage only in the split second that they poke out. When they are up, it is safe to run through them, or even jump up and down on them.

Guillotines
Guillotines are sharp blades that slide up and down vertically.

Typical examples are in Faithful Departed, Keeper's Sanctuary.

Guillotines have an upstroke and a downstroke; when the blade is on the way up, it is safe to pass through. When it's going down, you may lose your head.

Jets
Jets shoot elemental, force, poison, or sometimes darts. Typical examples are in Redfang the Unruled (horizontal poison), STK 2 (horizontal acid, fire), Rest for the Restless (diagonal fire), and the Rushmore's Mansion challenges (diagonal fire).

Most horizontal jets can be avoided by jumping/featherfalling over them. Most diagonal jets can be avoided by running under them.

Spinning Blades
Spinning blades pop up out of the ground and whirl around for a set time, then retract for a brief time before starting up again.

Typical examples are in VoN 5, Hiding in Plain Sight, Bring Me the Head of Ghola Fan.

These traps can be avoided by jumping over them. It's safer to do so while they're retracting, especially if they're in a staggered formation like in the VoN 5 north hallway.

Slashing Blades
Blades slice through an arc in a regular pattern.

Typical examples are in VoN 5 (horizontal), Valak's Mausoleum (vertical from floor), Lords of Dust (horizontal and vertical from wall), Smuggler's Warehouse (dual horizontal).

Some dual horizontal traps can be avoided completely by running down the middle of the hall (e.g., Chains of Flame, Smuggler's Warehouse). Others do not have enough clearance, and you should hug one wall to avoid risking two shots of damage. Characters with "wings" (FvS/Exalted Angel, Monk, Cannith Boots of Propulsion, Draconic Flyby Attack) can easily bypass these blade traps. Other characters can minimise the damage by timing their transitions to enter the damage zone as the blade starts swinging.

Explosions
Explosions usually do elemental or force damage, triggering on the use of an interactable.

Typical examples are in VoN 3, Graverobber, Under the Big Top.

The wheels in Big Top are particularly deadly, doing up to six hits of elemental damage if you are not standing in a good spot. You can cut the damage in half by hopping onto the wheel, pulling the wheel, and immediately jumping/featherfalling straight into the air. This cuts down the damage from six to three hits, which should be survivable with proper buffs. It is also possible to cut down damage by pulling the wheel from the side and immediately moving to stand behind the wheel's supporting post, but this manoeuver is more difficult. (I think I picked up this tip on the forums; can't remember from whom.)

Static Spears
Many sharp objects in a confined space equals lots of potential for pain. Damage triggers when you make contact with the pointy bits.

Typical examples are Crucible (maze horn pit and swim), Cry for Help, Rainbow in the Dark.

Jumping around in them is a virtual death sentence in higher levels. If you fall into a spike pit and somehow survive, you can slowly walk to the exit to avoid further damage.

Mines/Bear Traps
Mines hidden in the ground explode on contact, usually doing elemental damage. Bear traps do damage and immobilise a trapped character who fails a save.

Typical examples are in Undermine and Made to Order.

Mines (and bear traps) can be avoided by jumping over them, but this presupposes knowledge of the exact location of the mines. In Undermine, you can set off charges to destroy a group of mines. In Made to Order, I typically solo (dungeon scaling is in my favour) with elemental protection buffs and jump/featherfall in the trapped hallways, hugging the walls. I find the starting locations of the clumps of enemies/breakables are not generally trapped.

Spell Wards
Found in the Forgotten Realms, spell wards do many types of alignment and elemental damage. They have a no-save slow component, and can additionally paralyse you.

Almost anyone can disable spell wards even if they don't have trap skills. These traps are susceptible to dispel effects, so casters or UMD characters can scroll Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic to slowly lower the ML of spell wards, and eventually destroy them. Unfortunately, this still requires someone to trigger the ward, as Dispels cannot target an arbitrary area... they default to yourself if nothing is selected.



I'll be sporadically (very, very sporadically) posting walkthroughs of specific traps people in PuG groups seem to find difficult. Don't hesitate to post your own tips or request a walkthrough of how to avoid a specific trap. I myself am curious if it's even possible to survive the VoN 3 explosion and VoN 4 east lever spikes on an evasionless character!

I would also be very interested in errors or omissions in this original post.

nice work +1

[Ancient]

Very nice!

+1

[Cordovan]

Nice work, OP.

[Seikojin]

ddo wiki this!

[Battery]

excellent info +1

[SirValentine]

I've been doing a life without trap skills or evasion, the first time in a long time, and I've forgotten how brutal some of the damage can be on elite. I'm not aware of any consolidated trap-avoidance/mitigation guide, and I think it would be a useful exercise to put one together.


Nice idea for a guide, and nice work on creating it.



I would also be very interested in errors or omissions in this original post.


- Yugoloth Essence of Desire grants a stacking +2 Constitution, and an additional stacking +20 to maximum hit points.

Traps that do physical damage (Piercing, etc., not Elemental or Force or such) are subject to Damage Reduction. There are a number of sources of Damage Reduction available. One of the best in early or mid-levels is the Stoneskin spell, which grants damage reduction 10/Adamantine.



I myself am curious if it's even possible to survive the VoN 3 explosion and VoN 4 east lever spikes on an evasionless character!


For the VoN4 trap, the first time I tried it, I didn't buff quite enough, and it brought me to -10 on the nose. Once I fully buffed (CL 10 False Life, Rage, STONESKIN!!!), I lived through it. I took 7 hits from it, so Stoneskin stopped 70 of the damage from reaching me. Now, mind you, I was solo, so it'll be worse with a full party.

[CaptainSpacePony]

You mentioned monk earth stance for the extra HP. It is worth noting that's also extra PRR vs physical traps, however, most w/monk stances will have evasion and maybe better off in water stance for improved saves.

[silinteresting]

didnt no about the bubbles part in that quest thankyou.

your friend sil :)

[GlassJaw]

Wow, great work.

I always have trouble with the spinning blades at the beginning of Temple of Vol, especially the right side. Can all of those really be avoided by jumping?

[MultiFaceted]

Wow, great work.I always have trouble with the spinning blades at the beginning of Temple of Vol, especially the right side. Can all of those really be avoided by jumping?Yes, they can be avoided easily. Face, and keep facing, the left wall while jumping and strafing (moving sideways) to the right. You can jump through the gap between the 'arches' and the wall. When you get to the middle there is a pillar you need to walk around but there is a shadow or two that you need to kill at this spot too. Then you use the same tactic facing the left wall for the rest up to the chest area. QED, even I think with an average jump score

[Icywave]

Great post and videos. Good to see actual player skills put to use.

+1

[Micki]

Crucible swim, method where you don't have to make any saves. Buffing your Swim skill helps, but is not required. While this character did indeed have evasion, you'll note "Evade" never appeared over her head.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-fQxiExxI&feature=youtu.be

That being said, you don't have to do a perfect swim even on heroic elite: a whack of HPs and a stack of Cure pots when you make a minor mistake are fine, even with a full party (no damage scaling). Alternatively, you can bring a hireling with res spells on their hotbar (hirelings can cast under water). There is also a valve under the water after the maze room to turn off the flow, but I've never done that method and can't comment on it.

So do the swim next time in your pure cleric in full plate with no reflexes an impress your party!

Awesome post. Ty.

:) I have a pure cleric, but on eH she can just aura heal through most traps, the traps in von5 EE will kill her if not disabled, so learning how to avoid them is very useful.

I have also done the swim in heroic elite crucible on a pure druid, reflex save of 4. I got as far as the last spikes before getting hit, used hire to raise me, and onwards. Your avoid spikes swim in this video seems much more fool proof, though. Might try that next time.

[Loromir]

For Spell wards....in addition to dispel and greater dispel, Mordekainens Disjunction works well. In fact, it can lower the CR of the spell ward a bit faster than Dispel and Greater Dispel.

[Cordovan]

I've added this guide to the "Gathering of Guides" that is stickied in this forum here. (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/425026-A-Gathering-of-Guides-A-Travelogue-of-Tools)

[alancarp]

...If you know an elemental trap is coming, you can mitigate the damage:...

Energy Sheath from Draconic Incarnation absorbs 50% of one element, but is mutually exclusive with Fire/Cold Shield



I believe that my Icy Cold Shield pots do work with Energy Sheath when applied after Energy Sheath is enabled. That's been an essential part of my Fall of Truth strategy.

[Ithaquah]

You may also want to consider adding speed boosts and heals to the list of mitigation options...

Many traps will "pulse", doing damage then a pause, then more damage. If you're timing is great you may be able to slip in between the pulses of damage, but if not then there are a couple other options.

Rush through! Use a speed boost such as a "of speed" item, expeditious retreat, haste, or even shadow walk. (if you limit the time in a trap you limit the damage you take)

Heal in the middle! (this works best with a friend, or maybe a healing hireling). Have your friend ready to heal, with you hard-targeted, and their finger hovering over the heal button. You might get hit by some damage, but a quick heal will let you get through before the next damage hits. Also, druid's heal-over-time spells can help out a lot with this.

*note: Being the first one through makes a big difference too. Some traps won't trigger until someone runs across them, so if you're a zerger, you may rush through a trap without getting hit. (but everyone behind you is screwed)

[Gabrael]

I believe that my Icy Cold Shield pots do work with Energy Sheath when applied after Energy Sheath is enabled. That's been an essential part of my Fall of Truth strategy.

I recall messing with trigger came (elemental cape of fire) and energy sheathe, and if one was activated before the other they got nullified, and the reverse SEEMED to work, but after testing it they were in fact useless despite being visible


You may also want to consider adding speed boosts and heals to the list of mitigation options...

Many traps will "pulse", doing damage then a pause, then more damage. If you're timing is great you may be able to slip in between the pulses of damage, but if not then there are a couple other options.

|snip


I like using cannith boot of propulsion for that, or Exalted Angel leap of Faith

[Thalone]

Thanks for the additional tips, everyone; I've added them to the first post.


Wow, great work.

I always have trouble with the spinning blades at the beginning of Temple of Vol, especially the right side. Can all of those really be avoided by jumping?

I completely forgot about this subclass of spinning blades... I want to say in general that jumping over them works (there is one of these at the beginning of a Necro 3 quest and I typically jump over it, but I believe sometimes there is a random blade trap on top of it too, so it's hard to figure out where the damage is coming from), but it wouldn't in Vol: even if you jump over the first row, you will land in the middle of the second and get shredded. But MultiFaceted's reply is spot-on; that's how I do that side.

[Thalone]

LoD trap hall.


http://youtu.be/G2lQVOI2tPo

I've gotten through the horizontal blades before just plain running, but the timing is very sensitive and I can't do it on command. Boots/wings/etc are a sure-fire way to get through them. Even on EE, they weren't too bad... two people in the party, my fighter wearing medium armour got hit for 400ish.

For the vertical blades, I count 1-2, 1-2 in my head until I get the timing of the sounds firm, then strafe as the slashing sound starts. The third vertical blade has a slightly longer pause.

[Thalone]

Litany drop.

http://youtu.be/piIthgbEQRk

Not much commentary here. I'm sure there are lots of paths to do it; this is just the way I learned it. You do not want feather fall on: time in the air counts towards the grace period before the force traps activate. You also don't want to drop down while harried with Dungeon Alert; this will cut your run speed.

[Thalone]

From time to time, I see LFMs up for Monastery specifically asking for an evasion character for the antigravity room. But it's very easy to do without having to make any saves at all.

http://youtu.be/heZmLQNYqJ4

[Thalone]

Monastery blade traps in the arches.

http://youtu.be/ClnJ0w_dea0

Caveat: some of the blades extend quite far around the arches. Due to the semirandom nature of the dungeon I couldn't test as thoroughly as I wanted. But the illustrated method is the one I typically use. On the second floor, blades also occur away from arches. I find jumping on/around the slabs of stone generally safe.

[Thalone]

Been a while since I've had an example to post. Ran EE Prove Your Worth today, and felt some trepidation given all the sound and fury on the forums about it. The character I ran through had mid-60s Reflex with evasion, and most of the traps I could just dance on. The spike fall was different. First attempt was a death, second attempt was a heal-through it with aura/NEB and a success. At this point I've found a safe path through, and it's just a matter of time before it gets from the 50ish% success it is now to the 99% that is the Litany drop.

As you can observe from the video, no hexagon icons appeared over her head; no saves needed to be made; no spikes were harmed in the making of this video.


http://youtu.be/sUa3Kl_hG7k

[Tscheuss]

Been a while since I've had an example to post. Ran EE Prove Your Worth today, and felt some trepidation given all the sound and fury on the forums about it. The character I ran through had mid-60s Reflex with evasion, and most of the traps I could just dance on. The spike fall was different. First attempt was a death, second attempt was a heal-through it with aura/NEB and a success. At this point I've found a safe path through, and it's just a matter of time before it gets from the 50ish% success it is now to the 99% that is the Litany drop.

As you can observe from the video, no hexagon icons appeared over her head; no saves needed to be made; no spikes were harmed in the making of this video.


http://youtu.be/sUa3Kl_hG7k

Very nice. Thanks for showing there is a way through without needing reflex or evasion. :)

[Ivan_Milic]

Your game runs so smooth. :D
What is your ping?

[Thalone]

You have a very peculiar definition of "smooth." I thought the video was pretty choppy... and the game feels much laggier since the update.

Anyway, I almost always have green latency. I don't check while in combat, obviously, but out in a public instance the number seems to be typically mid-40s ms or better.

[Ivan_Milic]

You have a very peculiar definition of "smooth." I thought the video was pretty choppy... and the game feels much laggier since the update.

Anyway, I almost always have green latency. I don't check while in combat, obviously, but out in a public instance the number seems to be typically mid-40s ms or better.

For me that is very smooth.
I never have under 160 ms.
90% of the time when I jump, my char jumps twice.

[Tscheuss]

For me that is very smooth.
I never have under 160 ms.
90% of the time when I jump, my char jumps twice.

I blame the cross currents in the ocean. :)

[Cordovan]

Been a while since I've had an example to post. Ran EE Prove Your Worth today, and felt some trepidation given all the sound and fury on the forums about it. The character I ran through had mid-60s Reflex with evasion, and most of the traps I could just dance on. The spike fall was different. First attempt was a death, second attempt was a heal-through it with aura/NEB and a success. At this point I've found a safe path through, and it's just a matter of time before it gets from the 50ish% success it is now to the 99% that is the Litany drop.

As you can observe from the video, no hexagon icons appeared over her head; no saves needed to be made; no spikes were harmed in the making of this video.


http://youtu.be/sUa3Kl_hG7k

Nice work!

[Ivan_Milic]

I blame the cross currents in the ocean. :)

I wouldnt notice it that much if I wasnt playing another game where I have 40-50 ping.
It doesnt seem as a lot, but it is.

[Tom116]

Nice work :)
Also wanted to mention, warforged/bladeforged characters have a racial immunity to natural poison. This includes many, if not all, of the poison traps found throughout the game. Confirmed in Redfang Unruled, Fleshmaker's Lab, and the poison spell wards in Beyond the Rift. It should be noted that the slow effect on the poison spell wards still affects warforged and bladeforged.

[Seikojin]

Nice work!

Exactly! Now we need someone to do it without ff. :D

[Thalone]

Nice work :)
Also wanted to mention, warforged/bladeforged characters have a racial immunity to natural poison. This includes many, if not all, of the poison traps found throughout the game. Confirmed in Redfang Unruled, Fleshmaker's Lab, and the poison spell wards in Beyond the Rift. It should be noted that the slow effect on the poison spell wards still affects warforged and bladeforged.

Oooooh thanks for pointing this out; added racial/undead immunities to the first post.

I junked my Proof Against Poison items after they nerfed them and have been running through poison wards; weirdly it seems these items don't seem help against these traps despite their description including natural poisons.

[dunklezhan]

There's been hubbub? Must've missed it. we did it last night and all died on the first attempt down the spikes. It was my first run through and didn't know this had been changed. I just always liked the quest and wanted to do it on epic. We rez-caked it rather than releasing and trying again because it was late and we wanted to finish, but before I died on my next-to-nothing reflex save melee, I got down to the last gap first time with only one 'hit'. I misjudged how far away the last gap was and fell between two sets of spikes, which is what did it.

Its crazy difficult. Please keep it that way. This quest SHOULD be very tough, it's a pirate's fiendish trial. If I was to offer a suggestion it would be to allow a sufficiently high search to reveal a chamber with an elevator to the bottom, protected by a sufficiently difficult lock, trap and in need of fixing up with a sufficiently high repair. And I mean like, 'highest difficulty possible for the level' kind of difficulty.Thumbs up from me on the new spike section.



Also, I LOVE the end fight, with the swashbuckler pirate and his insults. Once we got the hang of it, it was kinda trivialised (on Epic Hard), but its a great, hilarious mechanic (for now... after a dozen more runs I'll let you know :) ), and could be really challenging without someone with the requisite skills and real life reflexes to use them.


Suggestion for player swashbucklers - find some way to give them a UI where they can write say, a 64 character insult to use with their swashbucklery skills. Profanity filters should apply if set in chat, but beyond that, even if you just got ONE custom insult of your very own... oh the awesome. Make sure there's a 'reset to default' so that it can go back to the "official" insult. 'Your bacon smells of soyburger!' or whatever.

[Thalone]

I haven't run a whole lot of Haunted Halls yet, but have been running a character through on standard for familiarisation. (Embarrassing story: I died in the end fight on normal on my WF Sorc. I'd managed to kite myself through a Symbol of Weakness until I was helpless...)

With a party with no trap skills and no search skills, the bottleneck seems to be the double slashing blades on the way to the doppleganger crest ("easily" avoidable by winging through) and the web plates which catch you on the (surprise!) spinning blades just after.

The plates seem to be placed semirandomly. The way to avoid these, from the half dozen or so times I've gone through it, is to examine the floor tiling. Jumping/featherfalling down the middle stripe, landing approximately in the vertical middle of the tiles, seems to be an area clear of the plates.

http://youtu.be/9P9aVVfKNgg

I'd be interested if people could find a counterexample to this, and how to beat it if so.

[Thalone]

I make sure to run Titan once per life to grab the favour. While it's technically not necessary to run HiPS/Slavers/Ghola every life to flag (having a sigil from a previous life suffices if you can GT), I tend to do max-favour lives, so end up running the flagging quests anyway. Sometimes I even manage to con PUGgers into joining me by posting a long series of at-level quests and putting these at the end.

There's a hallway in Ghola with traps which cannot be disabled, but they're easily bypassed with a buffed Jump:

http://youtu.be/0Q3o2dCF2gM

[Eth]

Is there any good way to avoid the slash traps at the elevator leading up in proove your worth?

[Rys]

Is there any good way to avoid the slash traps at the elevator leading up in proove your worth?

Jumping on the torch works.

[Thalone]

I haven't found a solution to the elevator that satisfies me. Various threads have suggested jumping on the torch, but in my personal experience, this requires wings/abundant step/etc, and not every character is going to have two charges. Additionally, landing on the torch seems very sensitive... often I'll hit my head on the elevator above and lose the required height and get nicked, or I'll land on the torch but the physics engine starts nudging me off (even though I make sure to zero my angle using /loc) and I can't recover in time.

Summons don't seem to trigger the traps, so you can't pre-scout the safe locations with someone expendable.

I've had the elevators go kind of nuts when they're sandwiching, and by jumping, it'll lift my character onto the upper elevator, but this doesn't seem like the intention, and I can't reproduce it consistently.

[Thalone]

I've heard a lot of whoppers about Spies in the House, both reading comments on the forums and in parties. There was a stretch where I was PUGging it out on EE daily, and total strangers would start /telling me I was nuts. There was even one of "those uber players" from one of "those uber guilds" that actually asked me if he could pike it because he was just level 20 and had no Reflex save or Evasion (he was apparently on his Wizard with no Insightful Reflexes)... and then actually piked it!

Well, since this thread is all about avoiding trap damage... Challenge Accepted! I ERed my Cleric (Reflexes don't get much worse than Cleric--forgot to put on a Reflex item and I'm walking around with 12...) and ran through EE solo at level 20. She has no heroic past lives as yet; only two fortification epic lives. She's exceptionally geared at 20, but even so, the Necro DCs weren't autokill in there.

To be honest, it took me about three tries to get it down perfectly, because I usually use a wing clicky to get past the electric trap on the grease ramp, but I was trying to avoid that to illustrate a way of getting through on any class/ED. Luckily, many traps trigger before their damage zone, and this is one such trap.

As it's fairly long, I wouldn't recommend watching this if your goal is to learn the quest (though I do annotate quest highlights); there are numerous zergy runs of Spies already on YouTube (here's a seven-minute one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2Z1PfFB4I)). I also wouldn't recommend watching the entire thing if you're familiar with the quest and just want to see how to deal with the traps, so I'll put in some time ranges here:

01:07 Entry
04:30 Grease ramp
19:55 Jet up: first and second electric floors
24:00 Lying gargoyle valves


Apologies in advance for the choppy video; my system evidently can't handle full-screen capturing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgYAQVVfPCA

[Thalone]

Minor update to the original post with the PRR/MRR changes this update:


Since Update 23, wearing heavy armour will grant a large PRR bonus even if you have no proficiency. You will additionally get bonus PRR if you are proficient, according to your BAB (you can temporarily set BAB equal to your character level by scrolling Divine Power or Tensor's Transformation). Also, starting with light shields, you will get another PRR bonus with each successively heavier shield type, regardless of proficiency. The related MRR mechanic in the same update means that much the same logic applies to traversing elemental traps. Therefore all characters not confident of their ability to traverse a deadly trap can benefit from having a suit of heavy armour and a tower shield when they attempt to cross a trap zone.

[Ulsio]

Alternatively, you can bring a hireling with res spells on their hotbar (hirelings can cast under water).

Cleric Hires will no longer Rez You while underwater.

[schelsullivan]

Theres a scroll spell for detect traps too. My swashbuckler is being devastated by the traps on elite this TR. Since ive never had a trapper toon I dont have most of the trap locales memorized. I havent tried the detect traps scroll spell yet, is it effective?

[Thalone]

Cleric Hires will no longer Rez You while underwater.

I just tested this by drowning myself in Sunken Sewer. Tempys Lorben raised me without complaint. Possibly what you experienced was quest-based (maybe they nerfed this method in Crucible? Crucibled the Crucibled Crucible?). Or it's another hireling issue in an update full of hireling issues.


Theres a scroll spell for detect traps too. My swashbuckler is being devastated by the traps on elite this TR. Since ive never had a trapper toon I dont have most of the trap locales memorized. I havent tried the detect traps scroll spell yet, is it effective?

It's caster level 2 on a scroll, so only boosts your Search by 1. The only use I've found for it is when I'm doing a trapper life on a Divine. I can cast it from my SP pool to boost Search, and therefore spend fewer skill points on Search when levelling up.

[peng]

Theres a scroll spell for detect traps too. My swashbuckler is being devastated by the traps on elite this TR. Since ive never had a trapper toon I dont have most of the trap locales memorized. I havent tried the detect traps scroll spell yet, is it effective?

The scroll doesn't add much to your search skill. What it does do is allow you to find traps with a dc over 20, which normally require rogue or artificer levels. So a ranger or wizard could invest in search skill points and gear, umd a find traps scroll (or cast it on a cleric or favored soul), and be able to find traps with the search skill. This has no effect on the pop-up that warns you a trap is nearby if your spot is high enough, and it doesn't allow you to disable the trap. This can help you see exactly where a spike trap will pop up, or find a trap for an under-geared rogue/arti party member. Or just to confuse the rogue whose search no longer seems to do anything :).

[Thalone]

While MoD tiles isn't exactly what anyone'd call a trap, I had issues surviving the swim when I started running my melees through (I started running it on my CC characters, who would typically do platform duty).

The strategy I use nowadays is not as slow as people plowing forward, but I have good success staying alive.

The forcefield is to the left in the video. There are two lanes of invisible tiles, and the idea is to run the left lane. If you start falling, stop all forward motion so you will be aligned with where the tile will reappear. Strafe to the left as you fall (careful not to strafe past the forcefield) and count off three seconds (the maximum tile-not-present time), then strafe-jump back to the right. Take the time to heal up while you know the tile's going to be solid under you, then start moving forward again.

There's a good illustration of this at 0:13, though I counted off the seconds a little quickly and probably should have waited another second instead of risking an extra tick of water damage. At 0:25, you see I overcorrected when the tile suddenly appeared, but since I was largely going sideways, jumping back onto the tile was easy.

I like keeping to the left lane since it's not flush against the barrier like the right side is with the solid wall. So if I end up in the drink, I won't be bumping my head up against tiles when I try to get back up.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEH6TpowkFM&feature=youtu.be

The tile timings seem similar to heroic Abbot (all difficulties), as illustrated in Xyfiel's video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQsVrhAG3LU). I've generally run MoD on EN (only done EH once and never done EE), so if the timings are different on higher difficulties, I'd be interested to hear it.

[Xahtep]

Good guide.

Just wanted to point that the defensive stance in fighters dont reduce your movement speed, and if you take a certain enhancement from stalwart tree, stance even boosts your speed by 10%. Dont know about pally but i supose it might be a similar case.

[Thalone]

Yes, you're completely correct; +10 Frog points to you. The movement speeds were changed in U23, according to some wiki history.

(Not sure how I managed to missed your reply for a week when I have the thread subscribed...)

[BD_]

Cleric Hires will no longer Rez You while underwater.


I just tested this by drowning myself in Sunken Sewer. Tempys Lorben raised me without complaint. Possibly what you experienced was quest-based (maybe they nerfed this method in Crucible? Crucibled the Crucibled Crucible?). Or it's another hireling issue in an update full of hireling issues.


One time consuming but more or less no fail way to do the swim in crucible if you don't have a swimmer but have a space for a hireling with res is to just die in the swim, summon hire to you, have them grab your stone and wait there - swim up as far as you can to a safe spot and summon hire to you again - repeat til you're at the end and have hire res you before you turn the corner to the mobs.

[cru121]

*bump*
I wonder if anyone could share some insight on the force trap on the bridge in Grey Moon's Den (Sorrowdusk Isle part 3 and 4).

[Rauven]

*bump*
I wonder if anyone could share some insight on the force trap on the bridge in Grey Moon's Den (Sorrowdusk Isle part 3 and 4).

http://ddowiki.com/page/DDO_information_project/Spot_and_Search/7#The_Grey_Moon.27s_Den:_Extermination_.28Grey_Moo n_Waning.2C_Part_4.29

[cru121]

http://ddowiki.com/page/DDO_information_project/Spot_and_Search/7#The_Grey_Moon.27s_Den:_Extermination_.28Grey_Moo n_Waning.2C_Part_4.29

Ha! Thanks, I was mostly looking for ideas how to get to the other side of the bridge intact. I usually jump + feather fall + sprint boost from the left ledge, still I sometimes get one or two tics of damage. Can this trap be timed somehow? Are there safe spots on the bridge?

This life I didn't bring feather fall, so I just ran through. Ended up at -1 (from 449). Maybe there's a better way... *grumble*

[PurpleTimb]

*bump*
I wonder if anyone could share some insight on the force trap on the bridge in Grey Moon's Den (Sorrowdusk Isle part 3 and 4).
Climb up the ladder on the left side; hop up on the low wall; then haste and jump and feather fall across the bridge. Without wings/abundant step et. al. you won't make it all the way across, but you can safely land on the bridge railing then run/jump the rest of the way. At most I usually take one hit from the force traps.

Others say they can make the run through the trap by hasting and then timing the run perfectly.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/474451

[STORM201314]

in case of need