Trap Accuracy - How 1.05 Went Too Far (A Feedback Thread)

[Guest]

1. Sunlance Trap = -40 Accuracy
2. A rogue, starting with either Laborer, Mercenary, Merchant, or Scientist, and investing in NO OTHER SKILLS can get to Mechanics 14 by level 12.
3. Each point of Mechanics grants +3 Accuracy with traps.
4. Therefore, said rogue will be able to set this trap with +2 Accuracy...at level 12

It is possible to take it too far, guys. If you're going to make us work this hard to make traps a viable part of gameplay, at least make them do more damage so it's actually worth it (20-25 Damage? Come on.)

 

[Malignacious]

Is this true, has the patch ruined another aspect of the game?

 

I'll wait 2 months more so things settle in before I start playing again.

[Zwiebelchen]

I don't get why traps had to be nerfed. Was anyone complaining about traps being too strong?

 

PS: Don't get me wrong; the rest of 1.05 is pretty damn good. It's just that the trap nerf was uncalled for.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[Sensuki]

fun not allowed

[mazeltov]

A bit excessive. Some other Traps based on level six spells are -30, so -40 for Sunlance seems like an outlier. The spell version of Sunlance has a Burn damage portion in addition to the Piercing damage, presumably the Trap version does too.

[archangel979]

Haha! On my Hard play I used traps only for laughs since I didn't really need them at all. Now they have been made useless even for laughs lol

[Evange]

I never used traps for a single time since the IE days...kinda too cheesy for me.

[MadDemiurg]

• Devs see a Thaos solo vid with petrtify trap
• Nerf all the traps!

Even though most of them were useless in the first place...

[Zwiebelchen]

I have no objection against petrify being nerfed.

[MadDemiurg]

What that has to do with trap nerf?

[Hiro Protagonist II]

With all the nerfs being tossed around, why not a trap nerf to sweeten the deal. Glad I finished the game before all these nerfs.

[mazeltov]

Another consideration is that Mechanics is the only way to directly buy Accuracy with Skill points, which is otherwise a tightly controlled modifier. So Mechanics is more about avoiding Accuracy penalties on Traps rather than generating bonuses. Mechanics 10 cancels out the penalty of most Traps with very high level underlying effects, like Gaze of the Adragan Trap and Freezing Pillar Trap.

 

High Mechanics can outstrip the Accuracy penalty of lower level Traps, and classes that set Traps often have high base Accuracy anyway, e.g. Rogue.

[Guest]

So Mechanics is more about avoiding Accuracy penalties on Traps rather than generating bonuses. 

I'm fine with that. The problem is that the higher level traps are all 30+ (30, 35, or 40).

• M40 trap penalty can only be negated with extreme meta-gaming (rogues only, of which there are none, so you're giving up a companion slot for a hireling. And that hireling only has one skill).
• M35 trap penalty can only be negated by a 12 point Mechanics spend, a feat not obtainable with any non-rogue party member.
• M30 trap penalty can only be negated by a 10 point Mechanics spend, which is feasible for non-rogues, but involved resting bonuses, so now you're limited in how you can use those, too

All this effort *might* be worth it if traps are dropping a ton of damage, but unless the actual damage is something other than the stated damage, they aren't.

 

Lastly, I'm not aware of any class restrictions on setting traps. The last time I checked Mechanics was open for all and was a starting Skill for several classes, not just rogues.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Achilles

[mazeltov]

The problem is that the higher level traps are all 30+ (30, 35, or 40).

 

My first post did say that -40 was a bit excessive. My preference would be for nothing over -30, but a few outliers above that wouldn't be the end of the world. Chain Lightning is -35, which is doable with a standard Mech 10 and a bit of luck in getting a gloves of Mechanics +2 drop.

 

Traps are a moderately powerful free perk that comes along with good Mechanics, a Skill that players are building on one character anyway to reveal Secrets and open locks.

[Guest]

I think a hard cap of 30 is probably the sweet spot. Aloth and Durance are going to take a slight hit to trap accuracy, but the player can offset that with the resting bonus, if they choose to. Kana will do well with lower and mid-level traps, but probably shouldn't play with the really dangerous ones. Rogues will probably get an accuracy bonus unavailable to other classes, but that's ok because they are rogues and should be the gold standard when it comes to setting traps.

[Ink Blot]

Ye gods, it seems Obs is just flailing about blindly and choosing to nerf for the sake of nerfing with no regard to the actual effects in-game. I'm both surprised and disappointed.

[ruzen]

My crazy teory is Obsidian only wants you catch those speedrunners. Couse I was confused aswell.

[Whatever6669]

On the wiki there's two passive talents to increase traps efficiency: "Powerful traps" and "Accurate traps". Didn't see those talents available so far, so I'll assume there were removed, right?

[Guest]

Correct. The wiki cannot be trusted.

[Tigranes]

Seems like they just went a bit overboard, either by design or by bug. -25 or -30 would be appropriate. Strangely, I just finished a 1.05 playthrough and I never noticed, and my rogue was hitting traps pretty OK with under-5 mechanics. Wonder what's up with that.

[Luckmann]

Still do not see why they were nerfed. Traps may not have been useless before, but aside from very specific ones, they pretty much were.

[Guest]

Seems like they just went a bit overboard, either by design or by bug. -25 or -30 would be appropriate. Strangely, I just finished a 1.05 playthrough and I never noticed, and my rogue was hitting traps pretty OK with under-5 mechanics. Wonder what's up with that.

Yeah, traps will still hit, but the new system insists it will always be with a penalty (speaking specifically about high-level traps).

[LeonKowalski]

All this effort *might* be worth it if traps are dropping a ton of damage, but unless the actual damage is something other than the stated damage, they aren't.

 

Why do you care so much whether it has penalty or not? Do the mechanics reward some huge advantage for going from -1 accuracy to +1 accuracy?

[Guest]

Why do you care whether or not I care?

 

Not talking about +1/-1 and if you bothered to read any of the thread, you'd probably know that

Edited May 11, 2015 by Achilles

[Carados]

Is someone really using traps ? Before 1.05 they were highly situational. How often was a real chance to place traps effectively? Now after 1.05 there is no point of placing them at all.