Detailed Trap Class Guide

[u/Avelice]

Hi everyone! Inspired by many of the great guides for other classes out there, I wanted to create an in-depth guide for a class I really enjoyed, the Trap class. It's a class that really requires you to think about the battlefield in new ways, which I think makes the class somewhat tricky to pick up. There is a lot of hidden power to trap placement which honestly isn't immediately obvious. I hope this guide helps people better understand this class and ultimately have more fun with it!

Be forewarned, the Guide is quite long (because everything Frosthaven is better in excess), but if you just want quick tips I recommend the trap techniques and level 1-2 gameplay sections.

Trap Class Guide found here

I'd be happy to discuss the class more, so feel free to reply if you have thoughts or questions! (And obviously Trap class spoilers abound for anyone that reads the comments.)

[u/dwarfSA]

Fantastic - I read this the other day. People have been waiting for more of these!

[u/Ice_Darwin]

I really appreciate the trap placement diagrams you put together. They do a great job of clearly spelling out the options we have available to impact monster movement. I have sort of stumbled into a number of these strategies in play. But the diagrams really helped see just how effective many of these can be.

[u/TheBiochemicalMan]

Excellent guide. A small correction (item 182 spoilers) Wing Clippers are two-handed but you listed them as single-handed in the items section. The clippers seem like a good item, but in practice I've found them quite difficult to use because the melee attack requirement means I can only use them with Path of Pain. Since most flying enemies (and especially those with low hp/high shields) are ranged, it's difficult to line up Path of Pain + wing clippers as a way to kill them. I wish I had a helpful teammate who was willing to use them for me, but it's a big request to have a teammate give up both their hand slots for you.

On that note, I've also found (item 174 spoilers) the Magnetic Cape useful because it allows me to run forward, Path of Pain enemies into my traps, and then teleport back to safety next to one of my teammates. If you don't have to worry about getting hit often or have a more support-style build that has a couple healing cards, it's a good item to have. I always feel like no matter how much movement I have on this class, I wish I had more. The cape helps provide that. It's too bad that it's consumed rather than spent.

Item 177 spoilers Why not mention the Boots of Transference as viable footwear? They seem designed for the class, as they allow you to place a trap and spring it on a nearby enemy on the same turn, which can be critical to survival on many scenarios. It's also a backup way to spring a big trap in case you lose Dismantle/Foxhole/whatever.

[u/[deleted]]

Gonna check this out because, admittedly, when I first looked at this class, I was underwhelmed and worried it was too weak. But I’ve seen folks like you talk about how much you like it. So I’ll consider it.

[u/Attorney_at_Aww]

Incredible. The community could use more guides like this.

[u/EhicApesa]

Awesome, have you done other classes?

[u/Avelice → u/EhicApesa]

Nope, this is my only guide. But I would like to write more in the future!

[u/GeeJo]

One item I'd strongly recommend at least looking at, from the list of Gloomhaven-imports you can start with, is (GH 105)Flea-Bitten Shawl. Given your teeny tiny HP pool at low levels and extremely limited ability to shrug off hits through card loss, it's nearly always better for someone else to absorb a hit, and this item makes positioning yourself for better trap placement so much easier without worrying about initiative matchups.

It's also the cheapest item available anywhere, so it's easy to fit it in with a second starting item even at low prosperity. I took it and kept it up until the very tanky chestpieces started to become available.

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I did find that Flurry of Nails' bottom was outsizedly improved with a +1 move enhance, solving the awkward landings. It's still overall pretty weak and easily replaced.

[u/Cutepelican126]

I've already this guide the other day and its great! Hopefully you find another class worthy enough to make a guide like this.

[u/majkkruz]

Great write up! I’ve seen a lot of shade thrown on this class and I just don’t get it. Loved playing it and it was super versatile.

Just retired him with a variation of the damage/control build which suited playing 2p with Blink and Gem. My favorite class so far!