Diablo III- Skills Article LI: The Demon Hunter, Device Skills- Spike Trap

Spike Trap (30 Hatred): Lay a trap that arms after 1.2 seconds.  When triggered by an approaching enemy, it deals 275% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards.  You may only have 3 Spike Traps active at a time.

One of the favored Devices skills for Demon Hunters so far, Spike Trap is very useful for those who can manipulate the battlefield or at least their enemies’ motions (usually by moving themselves as targets).  The damage is quite respectable, and while the arming time means you have to be ready to keep out of enemy clutches for a bit of a while, the area of effect makes it quite useful.  The limit on the number of traps can be a bit frustrating, but at least they’re useful.  The cost per trap is a bit high- if you like to have a full Hatred pool to empty in a short burst of damage, you should probably tend away from this skill.

Bandolier (30 Hatred): Lay a trap that arms after 1.2 seconds.  When triggered by an approaching enemy, it deals 275% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards.  You may only have 6 Spike Traps active at a time.

Most useful when fighting a boss or when you have time to set up an area as enemies are incoming, Bandolier lets you have enough traps at once to cover pretty much the entire screen in shrapnel.  This would be more useful if your Hatred pool were larger, but at least this way you’re generally not going to reach the limit on the number of traps before you’re done setting them out.

Sticky Trap (30 Hatred): Attach a shrapnel bomb to the target enemy.  When that enemy dies, it explodes and deals 404% weapon damage to all other enemies within 8 yards.  You may only have 3 Sticky Traps active at a time.

This permutation doesn’t play like Spike Trap at all- it plays more like an opposite of Marked for Death, and you should use it as such when dealing with groups of enemies.  The damage is very nice for a Demon Hunter skill, and considering that the main thing you want to do as a player is kill enemies, there’s no way you’re going to stop trying to trigger this thing.  Again, the Hatred cost is a bit impairing, but in this case it’s unquestionably worth it if you’re dealing with decently close formations of enemies.

Long Fuse (30 Hatred): Lay a trap that arms after 2 seconds.  When triggered by an approaching enemy, it deals 371% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards.  You may only have 3 Spike Traps active at a time.

If you like Spike Trap but wish the damage were higher, this is probably your best rune choice.  It’s a little more dangerous to use thanks to the -very- long arming time, but one of the large things you can invest in as a Demon Hunter is battlefield control, so a lot of Demon Hunters won’t mind the delay all that much.  If you’re more centered on damage, though, you should probably step aside from this for Sticky Trap or even a different Device skill.

Lightning Rod (30 Hatred): Lay a trap that arms after 1.2 seconds.  When triggered by an approaching enemy, it deals 275% weapon damage as Lightning damage to one nearby enemy that bounces to up to two other enemies in sequence.  You may only have 3 Spike Traps active at a time.

If your problem with Spike Trap is that its area of effect is too small to catch multiple enemies in, this form will make sure it deals damage to more than one demon at a time.  This isn’t so great against tightly-packed mobs, though, so it’s really a matter of what you tend to run up against.

Scatter (30 Hatred per trap): Lay multiple Spike Traps that arms after 1.2 seconds.  When triggered by an approaching enemy, it deals 275% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards.  You may only have 3 Spike Traps active at a time, and this skill will lay as many of those three traps as you are able and can afford the Hatred cost of.

This basically acts as a timesaver.  If you don’t always want to use all the Spike Traps that you can, though, it’s mostly just going to waste your Hatred.  The value of this is pretty debatable- on the one hand, the traps will be near each other and will all arm simultaneously with no lag in between.  On the other hand, you don’t always want to spend the full 90 Hatred for the traps.  This rune choice really depends on just how much you like your Spike Traps.