[3.26] Spectral Helix of Trarthus Trickster, cheap and easy

Pros:
-Very simple to play, 1 button to throw traps, 1 button to move around, 1 for optional damage boost for harder enemies.
-Cheap. few Divines are enough for all the mechanics to start working. Later you can replace items with better rolls.
-Pretty safe playstyle, you drop traps wherever, they do damage for 4 seconds, so you have plenty of time to dodge.
-Low spec friendly, each trap is just a single tiny projectile. You might see in videos, that you can barely notice it.
-The skill doesn't need any AoE, extra projectiles, piercing, cooldowns. Just pure damage.
-Can do many annoying map mods, like reflect or no regen.

Cons:
-Traps builds are not for everyone, damage is somehow delayed, so it won't zoom through maps at light speed.
-It's not strong enough to just alch and go afk farm T17+ and uber bosses, you'd need better dodging skills than mine and more patience to learn mechanics.
-Not that much room for infinite hundreds millions dps scalling.
-Any continuus damage (dots, ground effects, channels) will be deadly if ignored.
-Also be extra careful for big phys/chaos hits, like those post death green orbs.

1) Enemy hits you with a spell, you suppress damage and apply 18% exposure, thanks to the suppress and elemental masteries.
2) Skitterbots also lower resists thanks to Scorch from Arkhon tools.
3) Optionally you cast Arcanist Brand, which applies Ele weakness for even lower resists. And Flame Wall for extra fire dmg.
4) You throw traps, the projectiles circle around for 4 seconds and pretty much always pass through Flame Wall for extra damage.
5) Trickster Polymath adds 2% more damage per unique Mastery and we're going to have 11 of them, so 22% more damage.
6) 2x the Taming add 2x 48% x the number unique elemental ailments. 4 ailments are very easy to achieve, 5-6 with the right boots eldritch implicit or Mercenary.
7) Frenzy Charges, Power charges, crit bonuses.

1) 100% suppress chance.
2) Decent recovery of ES and Life from Trickster magic and Tinkerskin.
3) Immunity to elemental ailments, maim, hinder, optional posion
4) High evasion.
5) Some block.
6) Fortify is pretty situational, sometimes you dash through something, sometimes you don't.
7) Endurance charges. Generating them through Slavedriver's hand is pretty random, but with Trickster's very long charge duration and the right map pacing, you should be able to keep them up.
8) (optional) Big saps from Mercenary.

Pardon my noob skills, this is a raw footage of me doing each of this content first time in my life. The build carried me to where I've never been before.

The Feared (I was too scared to alch this one)
https://youtu.be/mP-Hx_PzCWc?si=MLAzO_1rv7yAYA1M

Maven (I'm too old for the memory game, so I just accept my death)
https://youtu.be/YzEQKAGPpQI?si=be9c0Ku3e4hIpc57

The Twisted
https://youtu.be/pTNTPZ_S8Cg?si=82nFwL078fTaZyCb

The Formed
https://youtu.be/dT9lNKs292M?si=wvHwFJ7ABa3Zzvqh

The Elderslayers
https://youtu.be/2PEoF7DLpB0?si=XmlC0uu_wFoPsZMn

The Hidden
https://youtu.be/Ps9jdJppk2Y?si=kxissn7EwKB9F0iV

The Forgotten
https://youtu.be/7TUeMYFJnm0?si=FDBmHObUl1-tBjZd

5 way Legion
https://youtu.be/BTZghbnq9Zg?si=V2cxXoAFL9ZWMnke

Some delving
https://youtu.be/nKj1jx1GjXs?si=pSXflrbADe0nzAic

And some Tier 17 map I've found and got wrecked by the boss, cause I buffed her too much. I beat her later, but needed a break to pick up loot and google the mechanics in peace. I've tried few other T17 maps and the result is the same, you carefuly study the mechanics of those uber bosses or die, which I've found pretty tiresome. So the build limits are somewhere there, you can't go blindly into T17 content and just afk wreck bosses.
https://youtu.be/1VnHy2BjpJE?si=BGvWLhKyUOpas9Z6

https://pobb.in/5av9noM7hkjB

With my mercenary it might go up to this, depends on few circumstances:
https://pobb.in/zyIhKBWIbT68

-Any gear that gives attack dmg, % ele dmg, flat ele dmg, trap dmg, projectile dmg, accuracy, crit will boost your damage.
-Remember the rule „Your traps are you, but you aren't your traps”. It basically means that all your damage boosts transition to traps. But none of the „gain X from hitting/killing” enemy goes back you you.
-I'd suggest taking any nodes that give strength farily soon, cause str can be an issue. Also first take the trap nodes, later ele dmg and crit ones.
-Leave the dagger and chaos res nodes for the end, good daggers might be a bit expensive.
-Any weapons with good flat damage (ignore attack speed) will do for leveling. 2x Rebuke of the Vall is a cheap solid option for white maps. Once you start taking crit nodes, search for weapon with 7%+ base crit, then finally daggers.
-Don't put on Arkhon Tools too soon, first you need Stormshroud and 100% chance to avoid being shocked from boots + abyss jewel.
-My current gem setup might not be the best for leveling, you can replace immolate and awakened ele dmg with Critical Support, Swift Assembly, maybe Ice Bite or whatever PoB suggests.
-Trap mastery that gives life on trap trigger is great for leveling, you can respec it later.
-Golems are great source of bonus stats for leveling, die too easily in later maps.
-Get few blind tatoos, they're fairly cheap and even small % blind chance will be enough.
-Don't level up your Str requiring gems too high, first make sure you will be able to keep that Str with gear changes.

Bandits: Kill all, optionally you can take resists from Allira and change it later.
Ascedancy: Swift killer → Escape Artist → Spellbreaker → Polymath
Pantheon: I'd take whatever helps with chaos and poison, until you get some chaos res, then you can take whatever.

Helmet and boots are the only 2 rare armor pieces, so you must cap the remaining resists through them. Helmet should also have some suppress chance, while the boots must have enough chance to avoid being shocked to reach 100% with the abyss jewel. Some chaos res and flat mana are also nice to have. If Mercs don't go core, I'd suggest getting eldritch implict on boots to drop sapped or brittled ground.
The gems in either of these are our main auras. Don't link Unbound Ailments to Skitterboots, until you have enough reservation efficiency. Then there's basic CWDT Steelkin setup and optional Dash, because Whirling Blades don't go through obstacles.
I chose Anger as the main damage aura for better ignites, which every now and then kill some random mob and it procs extra sustain from Polymath.

Tinkerskin is great for sustain. Phasing and frenzy charges is just a bonus, because you generate them anyway through Charged Traps. You can wear whatever body armor you want tbh, I just like having more sustain.
You might want to use something else than Immolate and Damage on Full Life, until you get decent crit / ignite chance and Life Mastery to count as full life when you have at least 90% life.
You may wonder, does Damage on Full life really work if I have some life reseved and pay with life for traps. I've tested it and I'd have to stand still and throw traps for 10 seconds without hitting anything to go below 90%. Of course, chaos damage can still bypass it, but that's what life flask is for.


2x The Taming are core items of this build, with our ignite and Skitterbots we apply 4 ailments. With boots implict or Mercenary, there might be more.


Slavedriver's Hand brings a huge QoL for the build. Faster traps throwing, free Endurance charges generation, no mana issues. If you're a PoB warrior, you can probably use Enduring Cry instead and wear rare gloves with intimidation on hit or smth.
Links here are a support setup for damage boost through curse and Flame Wall. Just need to press the button every few seconds for harder enemies.
Leave the brand at low lvl for low mana cost.

Arkhon Tools belt is another core item for this build, provides huge boost for DPS and reservation efficiency. It comes with a big downside of skitterboots debuffing you too, but we bypass it with Stormshroud and 100% chance to avoid being shocked from the boots and abyss jewel.

Aul's Uprising for free Grace. Annointed with whatever me more dps in PoB, although you might also choose something defensive.

You should search for daggers with good flat ele dmg and solid crit. Best way to find them in PoE trade is to set up decent ele DPS (600, 650, 700+ depends on your budget), 7+ crit chance and limit attack speed by setting up max. They should also either give Str or have open Suffix to craft it.
My daggers are far from perfect, they're okay. I guess the best way would be to craft them by yourself, but I have no idea about PoE crafting.

Arrogance+Precision to get +1% max res from Reservation Mastery. And you can attach Grace for free to Arrogance for bigger effect.
Another gem setup is our main travel skill. Try to pass through some enemy sometimes for the Fortify. Whirling Blades at low lvl for low mana cost.

Pretty basic flasks setup, Atziri is great both for dmg and chaos res. If you're rich, you can probably find better unique flasks.

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Stormshroud along with Abyss jewel that gives 40-50% and boots that give 50-60% for 100% avoid immunity for being shocked not only prevent the Arkhon Tools downside, but also give you immunity for elemental ailments (you still have to watchout for ground effects tho). Ideally, you also want some Strength from the Abyss jewel.

https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Intuitive_Leap To save some passive points. If you can afford corrupted „immunity to corrupted blood” version of one of these jewels, that's a huge QoL buff.

https://pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/Watcher's_Eye This should be the final jewel slot you take in later game, once you can afford some decent Watcher's Eye. I think crit multi from Anger is the most valuable stat, then whatever you find for other auras.

-Better Watcher's Eye.
-Better weapons.
-Perhaps poison setup, which is pretty easy to transition to. Use base Pneumatic daggers (all hits can poison), respec something to take the nearby Adder's Touch node (always poison on crit) and the Pefect Agony keystone (crit multi → damage over time) and change the gem setup.
-Cluster jewels. I ignored those, because I liked stacking masteries for the Polymath damage boost, but there's definitely a lot of power in cluster jewels.
-Join the meta, transition to CI, go full lightning damage and abuse Doryani merc setup.

I'm not sure will merc go core, but here is is.
-Stormhand (lightning caster), becuase it gives us Wrath, best damage aura next to Anger. Mine also has Sigil of Power. Lightning merc can add extra ailment (Sap) for The Taming.
-https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Thundersight to apply Saps instead of Shocks for extra ailment for out The Taming dmg boost. And it's a great source of defense (Saps lower enemies damage).
-Any rare boots that drop Brittle Ground, when unique/pinnacle enemy is in your presence. I guess enemy standing on that ground is pretty luck based, but when it does, we get a huge dmg bonus. Technically you can manually force it with the Merc recall skill.
-https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Perquil%27s_Toe another big damage boost for us. Annointed with „Breath of Lightning” for stronger saps
-https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Thunderfist for more powerful saps. Corrupted with cast speed.
-https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Kaom%27s_Binding to help us deal with physical damage.
-Some rare lightning caster weapons I've found. Singularity is also a nice option to lower enemies movement speed.
-2x The Taming, because it's just as powerful damage boost for Merc as for me.
-https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Replica_Shroud_of_the_Lightless full of lightning caster / ES gems corrupted with „increased effect of non-damaging ailments” for even stronger saps.