Spike Trap

Spike Trap is a Tier 2 Demon Hunter skill, which requires a character level of 3. It is sphere thrown onto the ground that, when triggered by movement, erupts into a whirling device of spinning blades that damage nearby targets.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]

Spike Trap Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Demon Hunter
Skill Description:
A bladed trap that cuts targets.
Skill Details:
Type:	Damage
Quantity:	None
Effect:	Target
School:	Physical
Mana cost:	Low
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	Unknown
Cooldown:	None
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Demon Hunter throws a sphere onto the ground that, when walked over, springs up into a whorl of blades and shadow, cutting any enemies in the vacinity.

Skill Design

Spikes once sprung.

The skill works similarly to those found in the Assassin's set in Diablo II. It is a trap that, when thrown onto the ground, can be triggered by enemies who walk over or near it. It is best used in tight quarters to help control or "herd" the movement of the enemy.
Much like the Wizard's Hydra, you can only have a set number of traps active at any time.

Skill Rank Table

Rank: 1/5 Lay a trap that arms after X seconds and triggers when an enemy approaches. The explosion does X-X damage per second to all enemies within X feet for X seconds.

You can have a maximum for X traps active at one time.

Skill Rune Effects

None known.

Development

This skill was first shown at BlizzCon 2010 as one of the originals when the Demon Hunter was unveiled. Wyatt Cheng had this to say about it^[1]:

One of her themes is going to be traps and gadgets. This is not unlike some of the Assassin gameplay you might have seen in Diablo 2. In this case we want to sell again the shadow theme and the gadgets theme. We just take an ordinary trap spell, weave in some Shadow themes and the art kind of brings out the flavour, differentiates her from the other characters. Another thing I really like about Spike Trap is it has that sense of preparation. We want the player to know that the Demon Hunter is somebody that goes to sleep at night and dreams about killing demons. She wakes up in the middle of the night and goes "Oh, I have this great idea for a trap that will be awesome for killing demons", goes back to sleep, wakes up and kills a lot of demons. That's her thing.

Graphics

It goes up to 11.

Spike Trap is one of the skills from the Demon Hunter's kit that emphasizes the shadowy nature of her abilities, along with other skills like Entangling Shot.
She throws the metallic sphere onto the ground, and it sits there with a billowing black smoke rolling off of the top of it until an enemy approaches. When the trap is sprung, it erupts into the air as swirling ethereal black blades with a red glow to them, lobbing blood and body parts everywhere.