Trap Damage Mitigation/Avoidance

[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.



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.

[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.



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.


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.

[Thalone]

Monastery blade traps in the arches.


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.

[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.

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

[Ivan_Milic]

Your game runs so smooth.
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.

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.