Do you use bear traps, and why not?

[khadgar]

If you use bear traps, please share how you use them, and if it is effective.
If you don't use them, share why you don't use them, and what would have to be done to make you want to use them.

Currently, they do somewhere around 33 damage. (tested on Master Hero on a skelebot dwarf).

Deploy Medium Trap : Bear Trap

The first enemy to step onto a bear trap will activate it, incurring damage and destroying the trap.

Cooldown: 3.0: Logistical

[nanostrike]

Currently, they do somewhere around 33 damage. (tested on Master Hero on a skelebot dwarf)

That pretty much answers why right there.  I have basic, Tier 2 spells that hit for upwards of 90 damage BEFORE my enchants come into play.  A mere 33 damage is barely worth the time.

[khadgar]

I don't think they necessarily need more damage, because the player already has a huge number of ways  to deal damage to a foe. I would like to see them root an enemy who steps on them in place for a few seconds, or at least slow them. Maybe bear traps should hit for 33 damage, root them in place, and keep dealing 33 damage a second for 2-6 seconds. Why not? It would be a nice way to deal with being cornered ahead of time. Drop a bear trap right in front of your escape door. If you ever fall back to the door, you may be able to kill the enemy with a well placed trap instead of retreating.

[Hyfrydle]

I don't think they necessarily need more damage, because the player already has a huge number of ways  to deal damage to a foe. I would like to see them root an enemy who steps on them in place for a few seconds, or at least slow them. Maybe bear traps should hit for 33 damage, root them in place, and keep dealing 33 damage a second for 2-6 seconds. Why not? It would be a nice way to deal with being cornered ahead of time. Drop a bear trap right in front of your escape door. If you ever fall back to the door, you may be able to kill the enemy with a well placed trap instead of retreating.

I like this idea but a random chance of escape would be needed otherwise people would just start spamming bear traps. Maybe make them so you can also get caught in them if your not careful.

[khadgar]

Would people really spam them? 3 continents worth of exploration only netted me around 300 bear traps (335 to be precise). Those would run out preeeeeety quickly if I actually used them. Like, I could use ellusion scrolls a lot, but I don't, because they are rare situational in when they will save my life / upgrade stones. Same with decoy fireworks, and to a lesser extent, bat scrolls. I don't use any of them lightly.

I think I would use them in battlegrounds the most. In fact, I already do, they just suck and don't do anything other than make the magma rhinos angry.

Side question: how many bear traps would it take to kill the overlord?

[Misery]

Actually, the idea of using bear traps as roots is a really good one.

It wouldnt be overpowered;  for one, you'd need to HAVE some in your inventory, and they arent as crazy common as crates or platforms.   I dont think they'd be spammed, and their frequency of appearance could always just be lowered a bit if they are.

2, it'd only work on ground foes.   Espers and the various other flying/floating things would be unaffected.

3, it wouldnt need to do damage to be useful.   I can think of quite a number of situations where having a root effect available would have REALLY helped me alot.

4, it would be the sort of thing that works on normal foes..... but doesnt work on any type of boss.


Yeeesss, I think I like this idea.   

[LintMan]

The problems with traps are: weak damage, no effect on the many flying critters, and it drops at your feet, so they aren't convenient to place.  It's so much easier to just outright kill a monster with direct damage.

I think traps are rare enough to justify making them very useful without the players able to "spam" them.  It's be nice for players to be happy to find these when they get some.

If you want to keep them as "bear traps", I like the "freeze enemies in place" idea, but with only affecting non-flyers, and needing to place them in the path of enemies, it would have to be for a fair bit more than a few seconds to be worthwhile for me, enough time to actually get something done like separating out a clumped group of critters on an anachronism mission. 
- Remove all damage from traps
- freeze enemy in place for 15 + <random extra time> seconds
- enemies can still shoot during this time.
- bosses are immune
- traps "tossed" toward cursor, instead of dropped at player location

Alternately, what if we made the bear traps into "proximity mines":
- When a creature comes within detection range it will trigger an area-effect blast over 1.5x that range.  (Any less, and it would likely only catch the triggering creature, making the "area effect" pointless)
- The detection range would be large enough to trigger on a flying enemy passing overhead in a typical hallway room.
- The area effect damage affects all enemies in its radius, and is on par with a Fireball of the current world tier.  (This isn't that much damage, considering the player's actual fireball would be boosted by enchants and likely be just one of many fireballs shot.)
- mines are placed like the Light spell, sticking in position.

[TechSY730]

I think an important thing to aid their usability is to have a direct keybind for them, that way I can just place them without having to take up a 0-9 slot.
This seems reasonable, considering it is classified as a logistics ability.

[Penumbra]

I think an important thing to aid their usability is to have a direct keybind for them, that way I can just place them without having to take up a 0-9 slot.
This seems reasonable, considering it is classified as a logistics ability.

It's also possible to bind one of the ability 11-30 slots to another key, and place your bear traps there. Those extra 20 slots are direct access and let you configure what gets its own binding.

[Epitaph64]

Yeah I think they should be a bit more powerful. Rooting enemies is a good idea it seems, since it makes them more powerful but in an interesting way versus just increasing the damage.

[Dizzard]

Don't know if I've ever actually used a bear trap....maybe once a long long time ago.

They don't seem very relevant.

[khadgar]

like separating out a clumped group of critters on an anachronism mission. 

Ooh, I never thought of that before! That would be a very useful reason to have them deal no damage, or at least minimal damage like fire flare.

- traps "tossed" toward cursor, instead of dropped at player location

Hey, that's a great idea too. As it stands right now, I only used bear traps in active combat once, as I was jumping back and forth over the overlord, dropping bear traps directly on his head for extra damage. :3

[freykin]

Bear traps seem to actually do a percentage of the targets health, not just 33 damage. I've hit a skelebot centurion with one for I think 300 damage before? It's of current health, too.

I tried it on a boss skelebot, and from what I could tell it's potential damage is also capped, as it didn't do a noticeable amount of damage to it.

[khadgar]

Oh. I didn't think to consider that, as when I dropped it on the overlord, it didn't do much of anything.

[Varil]

I don't, but that's more of a "not enough fingers problem". I've never even tried them, because I'd never be able to fit them on my mouse buttons, and using keyboard buttons is usually pretty awkward.