I Cast Magic Missile! - Cantrip's guide to Ethereal Knives 2.0

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erosx wrote:

Hey guys, I've been talking to Cantrip for a bit now and we talk a lot about EK and things that would work, we play pretty much opposite ends of EK as crit and non-crit, therefore I'm going to post my thoughts and setup for crit EK.

This is cool, and I love that dps. I'd totally be wearing Ming's Heart too if I didn't take Acrobatics. A few thoughts:

1) Have you tried four cast speed nodes instead of Master of Force? That might give you more dps.

2) Maybe you could drop Pledge of Hands eventually. You could get more dps from a nicely rolled wand and shield combo, plus a shield is better for defenses.

3) I used Cloak of Defiance for a while. It's super tanky if you don't mind giving up a gem slot for Mana Leech, but it's frustrating to use it without the leech since powerful hits can lead to AA deactivation and death. You have so much dps that maybe using Mana Leech wouldn't be so bad.

I'm with Cantrip on Acrobatics, though. You (almost) never have to worry about reflect (double physical reflect can be a surprise but it's never killed my level 92 character), you rarely get hit by spells, and your character is speedy since you can drop Grace in favor of a nicely-boosted Haste. It makes for a really well-balanced build. The only downside is that it can be hard to get chaos resistance, but I haven't actually needed it.

I'm *sort of* at the opposite end of the Acrobatics spectrum, however. We both love our aura power, but Cantrip goes for damage while my build plays it safe with a Life Leech gem and more mana so I can use a lvl 23 AA or Cloak of Defiance if I want to. I'm not a fan of relying on curses for leech since I often battle curse immune creatures, and I like barely having to worry about potions, aside from Rumi's Concoction around bosses (Rathpith Globe + Rumi's Concoction gives me a 58% chance to block spells and 66% chance to block attacks).

Thank you for posting the build :)

More options for viable EK are always great. As an aside, got 2 gear upgrades, starting to scratch the 40K DPS wall. Maybe it's time for Empower 4?

Level 93 FTW, if anyone had any doubts this is tanky :D

Bump.

Current Side project - Chaos Arc:

need advice

i want to play a block version

use ming's heart +blood rage
and rathpith globe+stone of lazhwar for block

aura: hatred,tempest shield,herald of ash,clarity

passive

Block for EK = awesome idea. Especially Spell Block.
Ming's Heart + Blood Rage? Not so great idea.

Your auras sound ok.

As for the tree... Might work. I'd start as a Shadow, as the Witch starting area isn't great for EK (unless you're going for Crit EK). Take a look at some of the Max Block/Spell Block guides (Incinerate and Arc mostly, I think) and combine those with your tree. In general, looks good.

Guide Proliferation!

The Arcane Archer - Chaos Arc

I'm trying to follow this guide, but since i'm back from a year or so of time away from the game, i screwed up: used the build on a lvl 39 shadow i had with free respec tree. Only now i see this is a build designed for Rampage, not for standard league. So i'm asking for suggestions, as it's clear that some rampage specific item are needed in this build, like those OP gloves, for tweaking it into standard league.

Nice build, btw ;)

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Nanoef wrote:

I'm trying to follow this guide, but since i'm back from a year or so of time away from the game, i screwed up: used the build on a lvl 39 shadow i had with free respec tree. Only now i see this is a build designed for Rampage, not for standard league. So i'm asking for suggestions, as it's clear that some rampage specific item are needed in this build, like those OP gloves, for tweaking it into standard league.

Nice build, btw ;)

Honestly, you don't need those gloves. They are a nice crutch for leveling, but that's all they are. Tree is fully viable for any league, HC or SC.

PM me ingame when you get the chance, I'll help you make the changes you need (Regrets / Gear) on Standard.
My IGN is in the sig.