Is remove trap ever a good skill to use?

[Puebles]

I originally played on a busy shard and was heavily involved in factions. I buit a faction thief, on the template given me. The template included remove trap. I moved shards and no longer am involved in factions. So, I never used my thief. I also never used the remove trap skill except when training. I actually bought pinks and ate the last 32.0 skill points, because it is the most boring skill to raise!!!!! I stoned off the skill.

Ok, scene set.

With the new Exodus dungeon a group of us have been getting keys and killing Exodus every evening. I thought it would be fun to actually use my thief to get the keys. I was right. I highly recommend it. I found that your spidey senses tingle when you are within a six or eight (never really measured) tile space containing the box. So I find the middle, detect hidden, there is the box.

My original (and current method) is pick lock, back away, cast telekinisis on box , cast invis, cast telekenisis on box, cast invis, hide, loot box. There are always two traps on the chests; poison and dart. The poison from the poison trap often cannot be cured with potion, petal, or arch cure. I have protection on as their are many spell casters that will disrupt you. Also, I find that the immediate hide after the invis does two things.
1. You are hidden, not invised (duh), so there is no invis timer. What a surprise the first time, cause I forgot.
2. Casters will still cast on you after you are invised and after you are hidden. Although the graphics show you are hit, and sometimes you take damage, you are not revealed.

BTW, I get two to three times the keys that my cohorts get.

Sometimes the box  is located on stairs and you cannot see the box to cast telekinisis. So, how to open? I went to my soul stones and put remove trap back on. I tried remove trap on approximately 20 chests. I successfully removed the trap once. I often fail with the message that I was lucky and did not set the trap off. But, 19 of 20 times I eventually set off the trap.

So, Is remove trap ever a good skill to use?

[NObama]

Seems like you just answered your own question.

I will say, however, that I found your write-up very helpful regarding the Exodus keys.  Can you be a little more specific as to the 'spider sense' thing - is that just you, or are you getting some message in game, perhaps through detect hidden?

[gimlet]

When you have high detect hidden you get a nessage when you approach a  hidden box of goodies.

[NObama]

When you have high detect hidden you get a nessage when you approach a  hidden box of goodies.

Splendid - thank you.

[Puebles]

Yeppers.....it seems that the range is roughly a 7by7 tile box (so it could be 6x6 or 8x8). Basically, when you get the message that you sense something hidden nearby, you have found one edge. Move in three spaces and turn left or right so that you can move at least 8 or 9 spaces. Then move back slowly towards the last location. Stop when you get the message again. Move another three spaces. You should be within one tile of the hidden box.

Use the skill Detect Hidden and click the ground next to you. You never get a fail message, but you may fail to make the box appear and you are told that there is nothing hidden. Keep using the skill and clicking a new tile around you. The box will eventually appear and could be exactly where you clicked the first time. This is why it is best to find the center of the 'sensed' area before detecting hidden. This assumes a flat surface. If the box is on the stairs, and you are not, you may never detect it. So, if you are right next to stairs and fail three times, try again after moving onto the first step, etc.