Trap Ability

I sat down to try and sharpen my JASS back up to a working standard only to realize how out of the game I am.

My intent was to write a simple trap ability, that when used at a point would place an invisible trap down. Then use a timer to detect when a unit comes within 200 units of that trap, check if the unit is an enemy/neutral and then use a dummy caster to ensnare that unit.

The problem I'm running into is whether or not to use a timer system (like TT). TT describes that its only to be used for rapid timers <0.1sec expiration time, which wouldn't be necessary for my implementation (probably .3 - .5 would be fine).

Also as I side note I was interested in writing it using the xe modules, which is a whole other level of questions I run into.

Check out other Timer Systems is my advice.

In your advice? What advice?

No don't use that. That's 2 years old. Use Vexorian's TimerUtils library in the Code section of the Resources.

Would it not be simpler to just use a summoning spell with 0 duration, to summon the trap wherever. Make the trap a unit with no movement and 200 range. Catch when the trap attacks (or damages if you're that way inclined) and then trigger the ensnare, remove trap, done?

That is the easiest approach for non-timed traps. Just give the trap a 1-1 attack (if you want to trigger the damage all yourself) and detect its attack, then do stuff.