Charged Bolt Sentry

A trap that emits charged bolts at enemies that pass near.

Charged Bolt Sentry is the Assassin's first true sentry (Traps tree, level 12, requires Shock Web; it unlocks Lightning Sentry). It is placed on the ground and fires volleys of charged bolts at anything that comes near until its shots are spent. The numbers that decide it are the maximum damage per bolt, 84 at level 20, and the count: 5 volleys of 5 bolts, which only hard points in two other traps raise.

The numbers

The damage is EMin/EMax halved by a HitShift of 7. The minimum is 1 at every level (EMin 2, all EMinLev 0). The maximum is 7 at level 1 and grows +3 a level to level 8, +4 to 16, +6 to 22, +7 to 28 and +8 past that (EMaxLev1–5 are 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, halved): 1–84 per bolt at level 20, 1–154 at level 30. It reads the full level, so +skills count.

Bolts per volley are Param3 (5) plus Param4 (0) a level — the sentry's own level adds none — plus one per Param6 (3) hard points in Shock Web. Volleys are Param1 (5) plus one per Param7 (4) hard points in Lightning Sentry (calc4). Both read blvl, so +skills add nothing: a bare sentry always fires 25 bolts, one with 20 in Shock Web and 20 in Lightning Sentry fires 10 volleys of 11, 110 bolts. Mana is a flat 13.

How it works

The sentry is a summon (pet type "assassintrap") and takes one of the 5 sentry slots (petmax) the Basin says the Assassin and her Shadow share across Blade Sentinel and the five sentries; a sixth dispels the oldest. The Basin's page says it is laid with the attack rate, must be placed in line of sight, and then picks its own targets within its own line of sight and awareness range, so it can shoot things the Assassin cannot see. It cannot be targeted or harmed and expires when its volleys are spent.

Each volley is a spray of long-range charged bolts that die on their first hit; the Basin says they spread as they travel and a target can be hit by several, so the sentry does most when it is laid close to its target. No attack rating is rolled; the damage is lightning, and the row's three passive stats pass the Assassin's Lightning Skill Damage, Enemy Lightning Resistance Reduction and lightning sundering to the trap (the Basin's page says the same of D2R). It carries no weapon damage: no leech, Crushing Blow or Open Wounds. See Dealing Elemental Damage.

Synergies and +skills

EDmgSymPerCalc reads the hard points in Fire Blast and Lightning Sentry and multiplies the sum by Param8 (9): +9% lightning damage per hard point in either, applied to the maximum only, as the Basin notes, since the minimum is 1. Shock Web adds bolts and Lightning Sentry adds volleys as above. Charged Bolt Sentry gives back more than it gets: its hard points are +11% to Fire Blast, +17% to Shock Web and +18% to Lightning Sentry. The Basin says the Shadow Warrior and Shadow Master can lay it too.

Against players

A player's hit on another player, and a pet's, is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before resistances, see Player versus Player. The Basin's page says nothing else specific about players.

Build notes

• The sentry's own level buys only damage; the counts come from hard points in Shock Web (bolts) and Lightning Sentry (volleys), which are both synergies anyway.
• A hard point here is worth +18% to Lightning Sentry and +17% to Shock Web, and Lightning Sentry's points come back as +9% here.
• Mana is a flat 13, a bare sentry fires 25 bolts, and it shares the five-trap cap with Lightning Sentry.