So, traps?

[abaris]

I'm not sure, if this is the right forum to post it, but it contains no spoilers, just a general observation.

 

Does anyone else feel they're underwhelming when used by the player and overwhelming when stumbled in by the party?

 

I had it numerous times that I lay out traps at certain choke points to lure a group of enemies to them. But often times it happens that one or two of them just run over them without anything happening. Then it clicks and it says triggered, but again, nothing happens. The trap just dissappears without leaving so much as a scratch on my opponents.

 

Does this happen to anyone else? I'm on the 1.05 beta and I've got the feeling that it's gotten actually worse now, since with earlier patches there was at least some effect observable.

[luzarius]

New POST:

 

Disarm traps, but never use or rely on them for POTD, TOI difficulty.

 

Old POST:

 

I agree that Cassandra was a trap, completely uncalled for, especially with that mannish face.

Edited May 7, 2015 by luzarius

[Silent Winter]

I've not been using many traps - every time I've tried, the enemy run over it and it doesn't go off.

The trigger area doesn't seem to be large enough (the red area shown on screen doesn't seem to correspond to the trigger area).

[Nakia]

I mostly just sell the traps.   I have found them of little value otherwise.

[Gorbag]

As others said, traps have a small trigger area, so enemies can easily miss them. Furthermore their "hit detection" seems to be somewhat off so the enemy needs to walk right on top of them in order for them to trigger, not just tangentially touch the trap. On the other hand if it does trigger and nothing happens, this may be because a) the trap missed, or b) there's something wrong (a bug). Check your combat log to verify.
I wouldn't call traps useless as a whole, as some of them are pretty powerful, but their use is very situational and depends on a dice roll.
AFAIK as of 1.05 their accuracy is lowered, so traps are even more likely to miss now.

[Blovski]

I'm not sure, if this is the right forum to post it, but it contains no spoilers, just a general observation.

 

Does anyone else feel they're underwhelming when used by the player and overwhelming when stumbled in by the party?

 

I had it numerous times that I lay out traps at certain choke points to lure a group of enemies to them. But often times it happens that one or two of them just run over them without anything happening. Then it clicks and it says triggered, but again, nothing happens. The trap just dissappears without leaving so much as a scratch on my opponents.

 

Does this happen to anyone else? I'm on the 1.05 beta and I've got the feeling that it's gotten actually worse now, since with earlier patches there was at least some effect observable.

A few of the traps are astonishingly powerful when used by the player, most of them have overly low damage. They're not really ever any threat to the party honestly either, though, unless you stumble across one at the start of a fight.

[Nakia]

Well they are freebies, magically appear in your inventory and you can sell them.  Not a total waste.

[abaris]

AFAIK as of 1.05 their accuracy is lowered, so traps are even more likely to miss now.

 

That explains it then.

[fgalkin]

Well they are freebies, magically appear in your inventory and you can sell them.  Not a total waste.

"magically appear?" You get traps in your inventory when you disarm them

 

Have a very nice day.

-fgalkin

[Luckmann]

Traps can be powerful but.. they're usually not. A good policy is to use traps where you find them, because the lower-level traps will quickly become utterly useless.

Generally speaking, there's no reason to bother with them, as they're far from necessary - usually they won't affect the battle in any meaningful way. If you win, you didn't need traps, and if you're going to lose, the traps wouldn't have made a difference.

 

Imo:

• The number of placeable traps should scale according to Mechanics, at a rate of 3-4 mechanics per trap.
   
• The bug that that makes Seals count as Traps must be fixed, because it means that if you place a seal, the trap is lost, and Mechanics should not affect Seals. If anything should, it's Lore.
   
• The trap triggers needs to be fixed; currently, monsters need to practically step squarely on top of the trap to trigger, and even well-placed traps often go untriggered throughout an entire fight.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Luckmann

[Nakia]

 

Well they are freebies, magically appear in your inventory and you can sell them.  Not a total waste.

"magically appear?" You get traps in your inventory when you disarm them

 

Have a very nice day.

-fgalkin

 

Yes, but to me it is still "magical".   No problem for me and I am not complaining.  

[Guest]

I get why the trap change happened, and, in theory, I support it. In practice, I think the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Of course, I'm only a few levels into the new system, so there's plenty of time to have my mind changed.

 

Re: traps as a whole - they definitely have some value. Especially against mobs. Think of them as AoE spells you get to cast before combat starts

[mystang89]

I really tried to like traps but I just can't get them to work. The activation of the traps is too screwed up. I put a trap right in the door way yesterday. There was no way around it. Three enemies walked over top of it and then to me. It never went off. I'm sure it's my fault for not saying some magic word or something but for me they are just completely useless except as vendor fodder.

[Luckmann]

I get why the trap change happened, and, in theory, I support it. In practice, I think the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Of course, I'm only a few levels into the new system, so there's plenty of time to have my mind changed.

 

Re: traps as a whole - they definitely have some value. Especially against mobs. Think of them as AoE spells you get to cast before combat starts

 

"Trap change"?

 

 

I really tried to like traps but I just can't get them to work. The activation of the traps is too screwed up. I put a trap right in the door way yesterday. There was no way around it. Three enemies walked over top of it and then to me. It never went off. I'm sure it's my fault for not saying some magic word or something but for me they are just completely useless except as vendor fodder.

 

Not your fault, unless I'm doing the same thing and it's my fault too. Perhaps we should sacrifice some goats.

[Guest]

If the person setting the trap has insufficient points in Mechanics, then the trap may never "roll" a hit. You may set a trap with -15 accuracy, get really lucky, and have someone trigger it, but the odds won't be in your favor. This creates an incentive to only set traps your party members have sufficient Mechanics to make dangerous.

[abaris]

Re: traps as a whole - they definitely have some value. Especially against mobs. Think of them as AoE spells you get to cast before combat starts

 

If they worked. But as I said, most of the times, they run over them without triggering or there's absolutely no result. I don't expect them to do the fighting for me, but the least I do expect is for them to be a nuisance for the opponents. And not even that doesn't happen in any way, shape or form.

 

And I guess, a 10 in mechanics should be more than sufficient to get at least some result.

Edited May 7, 2015 by abaris

[Guest]

Yeah, you may have a buggy game then. I don't have the problems you're describing much past level 4.

[wanderon]

So mechanics effects the accuracy of set traps? Do we have any numbers for that?

 

I always assumed mechanics would only effect whether or not the trap could be set - not how likely it was to hit/go off.??

[Luckmann]

So mechanics effects the accuracy of set traps? Do we have any numbers for that?

 

I always assumed mechanics would only effect whether or not the trap could be set - not how likely it was to hit/go off.??

 

Mechanics *only* affects Accuracy for Traps (and Seals). There is no way you can fail to set a trap. Traps are always set (but only a maximum of 1 per character).

 

If the person setting the trap has insufficient points in Mechanics, then the trap may never "roll" a hit. You may set a trap with -15 accuracy, get really lucky, and have someone trigger it, but the odds won't be in your favor. This creates an incentive to only set traps your party members have sufficient Mechanics to make dangerous.

Accuracy and whether or not something triggers is completely unrelated. We're talking specifically about the triggering of traps, not whether they graze, hit, miss or crit.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Luckmann

[JONNIN]

when they work, it is like a free spell, and a powerful one in some cases.   Excellent for narrow paths where the NPC must walk on it.  Not so good in open areas.

[Guest]

So mechanics effects the accuracy of set traps? Do we have any numbers for that?

 

I always assumed mechanics would only effect whether or not the trap could be set - not how likely it was to hit/go off.??

Yes, look at the Mechanics entry on the character sheet. It's not like the information is hidden.

 

+3 trap accuracy per point in Mechanics. Mechanics 0 = +0 trap accuracy. Mechanics 10 = +30 trap accuracy. Higher end traps have -25 Accuracy, so don't even bother trying to set one unless you're sporting at least Mechanics 8 (-1 accuracy)

 

So even if you put a trap in a choke point, it won't trigger unless the person setting it has enough Mechanics to make the trap accurate enough to "hit" when stepped on.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Achilles

[Luckmann]

when they work, it is like a free spell, and a powerful one in some cases.   Excellent for narrow paths where the NPC must walk on it.  Not so good in open areas.

This is, even if I place a trap in a doorway, odds are it won't trigger unless they are walking straight over it, which is far from guaranteed.

[abaris]

Traps seem to be absolutely useless as of patch 1.05. I just stumbled into a level 10 trap because I was attacked at the same time as spotting it and the effects were non existing. It seem to have been chainlightning because it sizzled a bit, but that was about all.

 

They may have been too strong before, but now they're definitely to weak to justify their existence.

[Silent Winter]

 

So mechanics effects the accuracy of set traps? Do we have any numbers for that?

 

I always assumed mechanics would only effect whether or not the trap could be set - not how likely it was to hit/go off.??

Yes, look at the Mechanics entry on the character sheet. It's not like the information is hidden.

 

+3 trap accuracy per point in Mechanics. Mechanics 0 = +0 trap accuracy. Mechanics 10 = +30 trap accuracy. Higher end traps have -25 Accuracy, so don't even bother trying to set one unless you're sporting at least Mechanics 8 (-1 accuracy)

 

So even if you put a trap in a choke point, it won't trigger unless the person setting it has enough Mechanics to make the trap accurate enough to "hit" when stepped on.

 

So if the trap 'misses' , then it just stays there until it hits?

That seems like a weird solution to me - I've had Eder trigger traps that missed him, but never walk over a trap that didn't trigger.

Enemies walk over my traps like they're not there (Set by Durance with 9 in mechanics), but his seals trigger ok (larger area maybe).

[Guest]

 

 

So mechanics effects the accuracy of set traps? Do we have any numbers for that?

 

I always assumed mechanics would only effect whether or not the trap could be set - not how likely it was to hit/go off.??

Yes, look at the Mechanics entry on the character sheet. It's not like the information is hidden.

 

+3 trap accuracy per point in Mechanics. Mechanics 0 = +0 trap accuracy. Mechanics 10 = +30 trap accuracy. Higher end traps have -25 Accuracy, so don't even bother trying to set one unless you're sporting at least Mechanics 8 (-1 accuracy)

 

So even if you put a trap in a choke point, it won't trigger unless the person setting it has enough Mechanics to make the trap accurate enough to "hit" when stepped on.

 

So if the trap 'misses' , then it just stays there until it hits?

That seems like a weird solution to me - I've had Eder trigger traps that missed him, but never walk over a trap that didn't trigger.

Enemies walk over my traps like they're not there (Set by Durance with 9 in mechanics), but his seals trigger ok (larger area maybe).

 

That's been my experience. Especially early in the game when no one on my team has a ton of points in Mechanics yet.

 

I'm not sure what "Eder trigger traps that missed him" means. Are you talking about traps you set or traps that you encounter? Not the same animal.