Seismic Trap Upgrade 🡪 Flow Chart
“How do I upgrade my character?”
This flow chart will help guide you through your upgrades in a league start scenario.
Table of Contents:
*Current as of patch 3.18*
Flow Chart: Endgame Viable (Basic)
Goals:
Are you resistance capped?
No
Yes
Get res on your gear, starting with belt and rings. Avoid res on armour since that will be rotated often, and avoid on boots since we use unique boots.
Are you using Deerstalker Boots?
No
Get them ASAP, they will increase your mapping speed significantly.
Yes
Is your Seismic Trap in a 5-link?
Yes
No
Get any base with evasion and throw random essences / harvest reforges on it as you map until you get something that’s not trash.
Is your Seismic Trap in a 6-link?
Yes
No
Invest in a corrupted 6-link / Tabula. This can carry you to endgame content.
Are you using two Cold Iron Points?
No
Start with these, they are only a few chaos each. Try to find ones with open suffixes if possible (craft trap throwing speed).
Are you using two +1 phys wands?
No
Yes
Yes
Upgrade to Cold Iron Points next, these are your endgame weapons.
Are you capped on spell suppression?
No
Grab about 30-40% spell suppression between assorted gear pieces, your tree should provide the rest for now.
Yes
Are your flasks optimized?
Yes
No
Fix these now before you even run your next map.
Are you at least running these flasks?
Life Flask, Jade, Granite, Diamond, Quicksilver
No
Yes
Good, now optimize the affixes of your flasks to make them excel (e.g. increased armour during flask effect on granite flask, increased evasion on jade)
Are your auras at least level 20? (Pride, Determination, Skitterbots, Defiance Banner)
Yes
Defensive Auras gain massive value with gem levels (flat defense + % more defenses)
Either level them naturally to 20, or buy them. Buy corrupted 20/0 gems to save $$.
Does your amulet have +1 phys gems?
Yes
No
Upgrade this next. +1 phys gems will upgrade your Seismic Trap, Exsanguinate, Bear Trap, Pride, Determination, Defiance Banner, etc. Good Value.
Do you have at least 4k life + ES with 15k armour?
No
No
The difference between 3k+ and 4k+ life is pretty massive when it comes to endgame content. Try to make sure every rare has at least 50 life on it. Also, try to use hybrid Armour / Evasion bases if possible for maximum defense!
Do you have a Level 21 Seismic Trap ?
No
Invest here next. We can settle with a 21/0 gem for now without quality.
Yes
Are your rare items weak defensively? (defenses = life, armour/evasion, etc.)
Yes
No
Consider upgrading / crafting a new six-link body armour with 100+ life with open prefix (craft “Gain % of Max Life as Extra Max ES”)
Yes
At this point, you should be able to engage with and defeat all content in the game. It won’t always be comfortable, but it will be do-able. If you want to upgrade your character to have a smoother endgame experience….. �
Move on to the next Flowchart
Flow Chart: Endgame Smooth (Intermediate)
Goals:
Do your gloves have 25-30% spell suppression?
No
Yes
This is the first requirement needed before we switch to the Devouring Diadem. Find gloves with T1 or T2 Suppression, then use Eldritch ichor for an additional 7-10% on the implicit.
Are you using Devouring Diadem?
No
Grab one with resistance suffixes or attributes (if attributes, it must have strength). Now socket your most costly auras here (e.g. Determination, Pride, etc.). Additionally, drop Lifetap from your 6-link and start using another support gem for more damage (e.g. Increased Crit Dmg).
Yes
Have you added Herald of Purity to your setup?
No
Do you have enough mana available to reserve?
Yes
Then what are you waiting for…. Add it!
No
Invest in an Enlighten gem. If necessary, pick up a cheap mana reservation efficiency small cluster jewel temporarily while you level the Enlighten.
Yes
Are you using a Large Cluster Jewel?
No
Pick up a Physical Large Cluster jewel. You can buy one with three notables already, or buy the base and roll it yourself with either Jagged Fossils or Physical reforges in Harvest. Look for the Force Multiplier notable to save yourself money in the long run. Master the Fundamentals will help you balance your resistances as you upgrade your gear over time.
Yes
Are you using Medium Cluster Jewels?
No
Pick up a Trap and Mine Damage Medium Cluster jewel. The mandatory notable is Arcane Pyrotechnics. The second notable should be Guerilla Tactics or Set and Forget depending on your preference / budget. Eventually pick up a second Medium Cluster with Guerilla Tactics + Set and Forget.
Yes
Are you still using Arcane Surge in your gem setup?
Yes
Drop the Arcane Surge gem, you no longer need it since you now get it from your Medium Cluster jewel. Reconfigure your gems so that you have two open sockets and link Cast when Damage Taken (lvl 6) with Vaal Molten Shell (Lvl 13).
No
Have you acquired the Ashes of the Stars amulet?
No
Save up for this item. It is overpowered, and foundational for further optimization of the build in the long run.
Yes
Do you have a chest piece that offers at least +2 gem levels to Seismic Trap?
No
Pick up a Skin of the Lords with the proper colors. This is your baseline endgame body armour. *IMPORTANT*: Make sure you do not get one with a build-ruining Keystone (e.g. Acrobatics, Avatar of Fire, etc.).
Yes
Do you have a Thread of Hope jewel?
No
Get one that affects passives in a Large Ring. Place it in the jewel slot directly east of your starting location (in the same location as +1 frenzy and power charges). Allocate Expeditious Munitions, Assassination, Saboteur, and Blood Siphon. Depending on your passive tree, this can save you anywhere from 8 to 10 passive points!
Yes
Are you using a Circle of Guilt rings?
No
Grab one at a time, and adjust your passive tree as necessary. If your rings were a huge source of resistances, pick up notables on the passive tree such as Sentinel and Survivalist to offset the losses until you can buy a res-heavy belt. You should have 4 – 5 jewel slots, so if needed you can pick up cheap resistance jewels temporarily to make sure you always stay res-capped.
Yes
Are your physical gems all level 21?
No
Give your Exsanguinate some attention and grab a level 21 gem. Additionally, upgrade all of your physical auras to level 21. Every gem level matters.
Yes
Great! Now let’s work on a few final details…
Is your amulet anointed?
Are your boots enchanted?
Do you have Awakened Brutality?
Is your jewelry catalyzed?
Anoint Sovereignty or Arcane Potency
Amulet = Intrinsic, Rings = Noxious, Belt = Prismatic
120% inc crit chance if you haven’t crit recently
Get it now so you can start leveling it to lvl 5
I’ve already done these….
The build is now at a point where it should cruise through all content smoothly. Both single target and AOE clear are excellent. Survivability should be top notch, with multiple layered defenses. However, if you want to upgrade your character to trivialize even the hardest content POE has to offer….. �
Move on to the next Flowchart
The elephant in the room….. Mageblood (gasp!)��For the purposes of this progression guide, we will ignore this item. If you get one, then this guide no longer applies to you and you can customize the build however you see fit. But for us mere mortals, we shall proceed without it…..
Flow Chart: Endgame Stomp (Advanced)
Goals:
Is your Helmet Enchanted with +1 additional wave?
No
Yes
This is one of the first “cheap” upgrades in the later stages of min/maxing that is extremely high value.
Do your gloves have % chance to Unnerve?
No
Use Eldritch ember to roll anywhere from 15-40% chance to Unnerve enemies on hit. This will give you 10% more damage.
Does your Large Cluster Jewel have the Force Multiplier notable?
No
It’s worth paying to upgrade your cluster for a source of double damage. This is the single most impactful notable for this build outside of Arcane Pyrotechnics from your Medium Cluster.
Yes
Do you have a Watcher’s Eye?
No
There are plenty of great options to choose from. I’d suggest looking for “% chance to deal Double Damage while affected by Pride”
Yes
Do you have good three mod rare jewels with life?
No
Invest in solid jewels to round out your build. Jewels should have %Increased Max life along with at least two other mods. Examples: Global Crit Multi, Spell Crit Multi, Dual-Wielding Crit Multi, any needed resists.
Yes
Yes
Are you fully capped at 100% chance to crit?
No
Bottled Faith will solve the rest of your crit issues, as well as give you a massive boots to DPS against enemies on the consecrated ground.
Yes
Are you overcapped and have some crit chance to spare?
Yes
Search for corrupted Cold Iron Points with % Increased Spell Damage (best) or Global Crit Multi (second best) implicits. You will lose 60% global crit chance by doing this, so double-check the numbers in PoB before making the move.
No
Are you using Shaper trap gloves?
No
Buy or craft a pair of Shaper-influenced trap gloves. Make sure suffixes have Trap Support and T1 Spell Suppression. Lock suffixes and veiled chaos orb or Harvest reforge for desired prefixes. Now move Exsanguinate out of your Deerstalkers and into the gloves. Deerstalkers are now expendable.
Yes
Are you now looking to upgrade your Deerstalker boots?
(Hint: You should be)
Yes
Buy or craft boots with T1 Suppression and other desired suffixes (e.g. chaos resistance, elemental resistances, attributes). Lock suffixes and veiled chaos orb looking for movement speed + onslaught (offense) OR movement speed + cannot be chilled (defense) veiled mods. Craft life and you’re done. If you need more res, do this with a desired resistance base (fugitive or two-toned boots). If you don’t need res implicit on boots, consider going for eldritch implicits (e.g. cooldown recovery rate, movement speed, action speed, sapped ground, etc.)
Boots and Gloves are done!
Are you still using only one Large Cluster Jewel?
Yes
No
Secure another Physical Large Cluster with three notables. Make sure one of the notables is Force Multiplier.
Did you get two more Medium Clusters as well?
No
Yes
Get two more Medium Clusters with Guerilla Tactics + Set and Forget. The damage and QoL will be extremely evident.
Are you ready to pay a lot for a final body armour upgrade?
No
Don’t stop now, you’re almost there!
Yes
Your options:
+5 Skin of the Loyal
+4 Carcass Jack, Brass Dome, Tinkerskin, assorted rare armour
That hurt my wallet…
Are all of your gems maxed out?
No
Make sure every gem is at least 21/20, and your Awakened Brutality is at least 5/20. Ashes of the Stars will give amazing value boosting all of these qualities. Experiment with alt-quality gems if desired (e.g. Determination, Assassin’s Mark, Precision, etc.)
Yes… are we there yet?
Almost! Here are a few more details
Are you Level 100?
Are your flasks max quality?
Are your gear pieces max quality?
Every passive point helps!
More quality = more defense!
More quality = more QoL!
Done!
�You win! Now sit back for a second and admire your achievement! This build is steamrolling anything it touches. Sirus is your bitch. Maven is your side chick. We still miss Zana….��And the build is now on Chris Wilson’s radar to get nerfed. He is personally monitoring you on POE Ninja and saying your name in GGG internal meetings for prospective nerfs next league. Have fun feeling like a god, you deserve it! �