Place a fire trap that explodes when an enemy approaches, causing [RAP * 0.1 + X] to [RAP * 0.1 + Y] Fire damage and burning all enemies for Z additional Fire damage over 20 sec to all within 10 yards. Trap will exist for 30 sec. Only one trap can be active at a time.
Place a fire trap that explodes when an enemy approaches, causing [RAP * 0.1 + X] to [RAP * 0.1 + Y] Fire damage and burning all enemies for Z additional Fire damage over 20 sec to all within 10 yards. Trap will exist for 30 sec. Only one trap can be active at a time.
Explosive Trap is the only trap that can deal damage to more than one mob.
Against mobs that split into smaller mobs, such as the Razzashi Broodwidow in Zul'Gurub, drop this trap in the middle of the group to deal lots of damage. Feign Death afterward if necessary.
Entrapment (SurvivalTalent): Gives your Immolation Trap, Frost Trap, and Explosive Trap a 5% chance per rank (5 total ranks) to entrap the target, preventing them from moving for 5 sec.
Clever Traps (Survival Talent): Increases the duration of Freezing and Frost trap effects by 15%-30%, the damage of Immolation and Explosive trap effects by 15%, and the number of snakes summoned from Snake Traps by 15%-30%.
Resourcefulness (SurvivalTalent): Reduces the manacost of all traps and melee abilities by 20% per rank and reduces the cooldown of all traps by 2 sec per rank. (3 ranks total).
This is used in a few situations. Use it if you'd prefer a higher initial spike of damage with a short DoT rather than Immolation's long DoT. Another use is to pre-damage mobs when you have an unavoidable group pull. In groups, it is best used when faced with a large group of grey mobs. Almost always hit Feign Death after the trap is triggered. The textbook example for the proper use of this trap is Herod in the Scarlet Monastery. After he dies, several low-level mobs run into the room. They hit hard, but have glass jaws. An explosive trap combined with another group member's AoE is guaranteed to take them out before they hit anyone.
Explosive Trap trades with Immolation Trap for the best damage per second to a single target (depending on what level you are). Ultimately though, Immolation Trap will do the most damage per second to a single target but Explosive Trap will be better for multiple mobs. Even though this is true though, you will want to use Immolation Trap more often due to the horrendous mana cost of Explosive Trap.
Explosive Traps are also useful when fighting Elementals, as elementals generally have heavy armor and are immune to stings.
They are very useful in all aoe type situations and if you place them in front of the priest in a situation where healer aggro seems likely they will almost always divert mob/s going for the healer to you.
Explosive trap can give the hunter enough burst aggro to momentarily hold the aggro of multiple mobs off a warlock or mage doing heavier sustained AoE. Aspect of the monkey is a must in this scenario, coupled with Deterrence. Aspect Of Dragonhawk will work as well.
Hunters with Readiness can arm two Explosive Traps at once. However, the first one must be triggered before the second is used, since only one trap can be active at time. Armed with two Explosive Traps and Volley, Hunters can deal massive AoE damage.
Hotfix (2009-04-16): "T.N.T. should now properly increase the damage of Explosive Trap. [1]"
Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20):Trap Mastery now only increases periodic damage done by Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap
Previously increased all damage.
Patch 1.7.0 (2005-09-22): Fixed a bug where lower level versions of Explosive Trap were being resisted more than they should be.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Fixed a bug where the trap's effects suffered inappropriate damage reduction against high level targets. In addition, damage caused by this trap should no longer kill opponents in duels.