It has been a long time since i bothered to mess with traps, so maybe they changed in a previous update and i didn't notice.
However, i was wandering around House C and when i activated the trapmaking bench, i noticed it had a shiny new barter interface, so i tried it out. As i looked down the list, my jaw was dropping.
1: Alchemy potions that used to be rogue hand grenades seem to now be specified more for the arts class, and from what i read somewhere else they have a skill that increases the damage from them.
2: Magical traps can be made that Hold Monster, or cast Deep Slumber (which is now a more useful spell then when the traps first came out.)
3: Mechanical pieces and Handwraps can be transformed into a gear-type equipment that seems to be useable only by art. pets. The one i made gave +2 metaline of bone breaking.
But the part i loved the most, as a mechanic rogue who once thought that maybe traps would be fun, was this;
4: Traps now use the same number of trap pieces, but elemental traps now use lesser essences instead of trapped souls.
So basicly, instead of trying to convince one of my friends to trap a huge fire elemental, or leveling up my mage to do it myself, i just need to destroy a couple of +1 flaming burst daggers. Umm.... win? Yes. Iirc, force burst, instead of needing a soul trapped beholder (with all that implies, anti-magic cone anyone?), just needs some arcane essences, which can be found in bulk from half of the items in the game it feels like. Suddenly instead of having to kill and trap (with another class) some of the more annoying monsters in the game to make 5 somewhat low damage traps, you just have to pillage a few random treasure chests and waste some loot in order to make 10 i think it is now? I am so checking this out more tomarrow.