Electric Auras vs. Inferno Traps

[gigazelle]

Just a tidbit of research I've done I'd like to share with the community, and have updated based on feedback in this thread. This was all tested within a Nightmare map, NOT the tavern.

Electric Auras vs. Inferno Traps? Which is better in Nightmare? (Current as of v7.32)

Naked inactive hero (with 120 into damage, attack rate, and radius):
Electric Aura: 479 damage every .41 seconds. DPS = 1168 (234 per DU)
Range: 6.87
Inferno Trap: 575 damage every .29 seconds. DPS = 1983 (496 per DU)
Range: 8.29 (4.19 activation)

Geared with 850/1850/1150/850 inactive hero (no weapons so their stats are identical):
Electric Aura: 2713 damage every .23 seconds. DPS = 11796 (2359 per DU)
Range: 11.20
Inferno Trap: 2473 damage every .16 seconds. DPS = 15456 (3864 per DU)
Range: 12.55 (6.84 activation)

Geared inactive, fully upgraded, with a fully upgraded Buff Beam (EV 1500/1500/700/750)
Electric Aura: 9053 every .13 seconds. DPS = 69638 (13928 per DU)
Range: 17.83
Inferno Trap: 10952 every .16 seconds. DPS = 68450 (17113 per DU)
Range: 12.63 (10.88 activation)

Both auras and traps have spherical ranges, so an inferno trap with 10 range reaches the EXACT same places as an electric aura with 10 range (even vertically); I've tested this personally, and can confirm it. Inferno traps have the appearance they are lower because of their animation of flames on the ground.

Advantages to electric auras: Scale better late-game, they are always on, and don't need activation (manually or by an enemy). Nice for wyverns, especially when accompanied by an ensnare and strength drain. When buff beamed, their effective range is greatly increased.
Advantages to inferno traps: higher damage output early game, ALWAYS better DPS per DU. If buffed by a guardian when activated, the guardian's effect persists for that entire activation (even if the guardian leaves). You can also cram a buttload of them into a single area by shrinking the trap activation radius. Planting a buncha these in a single spot does some pretty hefty damage, especially since they set eachother off when one is activated. They also last freaking forever; a huntress with 1500 tower HP can plant one of these and have it last all the wave to survival wave 25 without any repairing.

Disadvantages to electric auras: Cannot stack them in any way. Don't last nearly as long as inferno traps do (maybe a couple waves tops). Less effective damage per DU.
Disadvantages to inferno traps: require activation, and have a cooldown time once set off. Terrible dependent to take out wyverns, unless it's in a high-traffic area. Buff beams and Monk Guardians increase their effective range by practically nothing (though their activation range is greatly increased, which is helpful). Their flames don't let you see an effing thing, and if you have several of them going at once makes most video cards shed a tear. I sometimes don't use them simply because of the mere cosmetic havoc they wreak.

Conclusion: If you have end-game gear and you don't mind forking over the extra defense unit, or if you are heavily reliant on range boosts, use electric auras. If you don't have end-game gear and don't mind the complete blindness they cause, use inferno traps. My favorite is to use both tied to a buff beam; after all they are not mutually exclusive in builds.

Which do you use, and why do you use it? I'd like to hear your feedback!

[gyles]

just a quick judge, naked the electric is about 58% as good as the inferno,

with gear, its 77% as effective, so the better your gear, the better the electric will get..


granted, its going to take obscene gear for the electric to be better, but it defiantely scales better.

[nemesis102]

Electric Aura > Inferno

I can see the map.

[Hakk03]

Inferno > Aura before djinns. Could put em on spawns to thin everything out

[gigazelle]

Electric Aura > Inferno

I can see the map.

Yup. I've fallen into lava or off cliffs more than once solely because they have completely obstructed my vision.

["Bad Jue Jue" xbox]

How does the lag factor come in to play? Pre shark minmal aruas and fire traps....post shark I am experiencing alot of lag?
I turned off post processing. BTW nice post ill have to start usin elec more than fire.

[ManaCorporation]

For some reason I never thought about using multiple inferno traps by shrinking the activation sizes. I'll have to test some things out now.

Also, Inferno is 4 DUs versus Electric's 5 DUs.

[\/4n!114 ][c3]

unless you are going for inferno+inferno+proxi, stacking inferno traps isnt very effective for DU. and when ogres come marching, it really isnt worth it. traps cant draw ogre aggro, which means ogres will absolutely obliterate walls. you also wont have anything that can deal with sharken, and more importantly, djinn.

[Igniz12]

Idk if stacking infernos is efficient but some form of staking must be used if you want to deal with sharken. Killing sharken>>>>>>>>>>>Killing a HP sponge. Your point about ogre aggro is a important one and it must be addressed too or else even a buffed wall will go down very easily to ogre smash. Your best bet would be to get to 2k tower damage and then use buff beams to boost them further to be able to draw ogre aggro, hopefully. Unless trendy gets off their asses and puts charging sharken a no.1 priority for towers, we're stuck with having to kill them in gas traps before they can get free.

Its impossible to kill all the ogres and then have enough time to get sharken stuck in gas traps on wave 20+ survival cause at any time you're having to deal with 2-3 ogres at once on each lane. Today I tired a different setup on misty to the one I was using before. What I basically did was to use up DU to stack an inferno and Electric aura in place of an extra tower on certain lanes. Doing that I managed to survive longer in wave 20 than I have ever done so than any time this past week.

I dont know how long I could have held out for cause I got the instant crystal explosion glitch....>_> one way or another, trendy manages to screw us up somehow. That really isnt saying much since I used to be able to get to wave 27+ before the sharken got introduced but it did give me some hope. Next time I play, Im gonna use less towers and more inferno+electric aura stacking and see what happens. If I can handle ogres with just one harp then I'll try using prox+Electric aura and see how it goes too.

[ManaCorporation]

Ogres can aggro whatever the heck it wants inside a strength aura. Nothing's going down inside that bad boy.