I have to say that the first two abilities you get from being a musketeer are not all that helpful.

Trap? I can only put it on an unused space, and HOPE that an enemy steps on it. That would be okay, if I was assured the enemy would be eliminated, but except for very low characters, it doesn't. So, some enemy comes back, sets off the trap, and can still attack Gee...thanks a lot for nothing.

And then the trap doesn't work on anything which floats. Jellyfish, Batacuda, Flying Fish...forget it. They float right over it. No help at all.

Now, the baracade would be nice, IF I could fire through it. Which I can't. So, I set it up, ruin my view, and enemies just step around it. This might be good if I had a decent range in which to set it up, so I could put it in front of their ranged weaponry experts, but that only lasts until they step around it.

These two are pretty useless.

Well you can't use them straight forward, muskateers are masters at controlling the board your suppsoe to use these traps and such to move your opponents to the desired location, which to a muskateer would be anywhere you can fire.

Those 2 abilties you refer to as useless have many many good uses sorry to burst your bubble but i played through the game using both to the end game. Sure they may seem useless to someone looking for BIG damage and special effects but guess what they are a strategic tool not meant for outright killing mobs but rather setting you up for easier kills with ranged or strategic attacks. For instance i love to block bottle neck areas so mobs have to go all the way around to get to me by that time i can use a number of ranged abilities and attacks before mobs get to me, i can buff my companions or move to a better vantage point. That little trap you start out with gets better as your pirate levels i have done 1600 damage with it at level 50 and almost 2k damage with the 4x damage one and the scatter trap hits 5 squares in an X and does an average of150-600 damage each. Traps are awesome if you know how to use them. If the mobs go around a trap move yourself or your companions till they do go through it especially if you low hitpoints and about to die run and evade until they fall into the trap so to speak. Give it some time try it several different ways until you get the feel as to where to put the trap. Advice on trap placement: Set up traps next to your characters ther you are not going to move much or are gonna be stationary like ranged companions or put the trap in a square where you going to move a companon right in fron of it so the mobs come for them and set it off. hope this helps the traps are the best weapon a musketeer has trust me when you reach mooshu if you dont use your traps you will fail alot of battles, cause they do alot fo damage when used right. Good luck pirate. PS. At level 25 qnd 50 you get your best traps the bombs thet hit 9 spaces in a square these are very nasty to the mobs and it seems to me they go out of theirway to hit every one of them. The bombs that dont hit any enemies stay in the square till they are hit, so use that to your advantage.