1.2.0 /// Bashar EK Tank : 28,000 dps : 6,500 life

I really am intruded by this setup and take on EK. EK has been my favorite build in POE ever since day one, it's just such a staple, safe, and efficient cost effective build if you're starting out.

My next character I think I'm going to give this build a go, test it out with the same setup, just not the very endgame gear of course. Non Empowered/lvl 20 versions of everything is still very viable you said? AA, EK, 4L only, etc?

With EK I've usually gone with Vulnerability or Projectile Weakness as my offensive curse and Enfeeble as my defensive curse (I play hardcore). I'd probably swap out the Faster Casting for Enfeeble and change Warlord's Mark to one of the two above.

Speaking of which, how is that CWDT setup working for you? Most people tend to use something like CWDT + Enduring + Immortal + Inc Duration, do you feel the skeleton/Warlord's is safer for this build?

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Tempada wrote:

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

the new op flasks will help for sure. Im playing rampage atm so I've not had a chance to properly sort out my gems but I'm probably going to put warlord mark in my codt. Manually cursing with Warlords Mark is going to give you enough leech if you need it.

Warlord's Mark is a good idea, but what about maps where enemies can't be cursed? Do you wear Doryani's Invitation as your main belt? Does that tiny amount of life leech make much of a difference?

Flask Digression

The flask situation is interesting in that there are now legacy flasks in Standard. A legacy Sapping Sanctified Life Flask recovers more life per second than a Sapping Eternal Life Flask (although the Eternal grants you 3 uses while Sanctified only gives 2). I wish that the Sapping mod wasn't nerfed and the new flasks scaled a little differently.

Finally, what about mana and mana regen? What you have on the tree seems low. It's perfect for your gear, but I feel like lots of people will have trouble running level 20 Arctic Armour (let alone up to level 25).

1% leech makes a lot of difference over 0 for sure. But no, I don't use the belt as my main belt, I don't have any leech, I only use the Doryanis for reflect maps. Since we dont have Diamond Flesh any more I think I'm actually a tiny bit under capped on lightning, so if I were to play the build right now I'd probably use the Doryanis till I can divine something or swap a bit of gear to cap on lightning.

I used to play an Iron Will Ek marauder at the start of open beta, dual wands, blood magic gem, I never used leech on that build either despite spending about 300 life per sec casting. I think leech is over rated for casters with solid defenses. This Shadow is way more tanky than the old IW Marauder, and far more dps, outside of reflect maps I've never felt the need for it.


I dont have any mana regen on amulet or shield, if theyre lacking then id suggest full es shield with mana regen and also regen on amulet. If they need to then they will have to go all the way down to the first node of the witch, its another 2 points they will have to shave off something, probably the scion life wheel for softcore or the crit nodes on hardcore. I mean, its not like I skipped on mana regen nodes, they just dont exist on the right of the tree, not a lot can be done about it.

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instantdecay wrote:

I really am intruded by this setup and take on EK. EK has been my favorite build in POE ever since day one, it's just such a staple, safe, and efficient cost effective build if you're starting out.

My next character I think I'm going to give this build a go, test it out with the same setup, just not the very endgame gear of course. Non Empowered/lvl 20 versions of everything is still very viable you said? AA, EK, 4L only, etc?

With EK I've usually gone with Vulnerability or Projectile Weakness as my offensive curse and Enfeeble as my defensive curse (I play hardcore). I'd probably swap out the Faster Casting for Enfeeble and change Warlord's Mark to one of the two above.

Speaking of which, how is that CWDT setup working for you? Most people tend to use something like CWDT + Enduring + Immortal + Inc Duration, do you feel the skeleton/Warlord's is safer for this build?

I never use immortal call on codt for any build, Id rather have full endurance charges up permanently myself, but a lot of people live by it so fair play, whatever works for you. I'd use proj weakness for an offensive curse, but again its preference. With my step I don't have time to curse, killing the mobs takes the same amount of time as cursing them, but again if you don't have this level of gear you got to do what you got to do. If you cant run AA at a very high level but your damage is high then codt immortal call is probably a very good idea, esp in hardcore.

I hear beyond league is pretty unforgiving, I would prioritise defense and survivability at every stage over there. I get 18k dps using lvl20 gems in a geofris hat, though thanks to my guildleader Fox thats maybe not as budget an item as it used to be. Back at the start of open beta when Etup was number 1 on hardcore he had like 8.5k dps Ek, which was decent at the time, but I have loads more than that unarmed with a 4 link. Ziggys recent beginners Ek thing he had 7k dps in 5 link and was hoping to get 10k dps with empower in a 6 link, I dont want to say its a bad build but... yeah, ur gonna have more deeps, life and survivability than that build imo. I think that was pre 1.2.0 but this build was still clocking +6k life and 24k dps before 1.2.0. It is what it is, he was making a beginners build with mom, I get why he did it the way he did it but I think this way is better. That said, I didnt make this build for beginners, this was a build primarily designed for the items I have, the chest is mirror worthy and a lot of the other items would be extremely expensive in any league, way beyond what ziggy has access to so fair play, he was dealing with what he had and what he has experience with which is mom type builds that spec very little of anything outside of aura nodes. Hes a really smart guy and a great player so I wouldn't take anything anyway from him, hes a really positive thing for poe and Im glad hes doing what hes doing.

Well, I just died to a misclick. Thought I'd have time for one more tornado shot instead of moving, and got one shot by the Orchard boss. Grr, note to self. Don't do this boss as an evasion char since his attacks are unavoidable.

Time to reroll as a scion, going to try this build.

Thanks!

Geof is about 13-15 chaos on Beyond so that's pretty affordable. I'll report on in the build once I hit 60+ and start playing without godly endgame gear.

I'm currently working on a character using this build going the 4L Geofri's route (Empower > Added Fire in that red slot for me so far). I'm using a pure ES chest just so I can sustain a low-level AA for the time being. I still feel a bit squishy but my DPS is high enough in Cruel Act III to make up for it. All in all, I'm loving the build so far.

That said, I'm wondering what to do on the weapon front. I've been shopping around for a solid wand similar to the one in your budget section, but I'm not having any luck finding anything nice for a reasonable price.



The first wand is what I'm using now, and the second is what I plan to use at 59. What are your thoughts on using a Divinarius? No cast speed or projectile speed, but a nice spell damage mod and a very strong spell crit mod that can really leverage that "crit lite" aspect of the build. Am I better off sticking with a wand?

Edit: Bought a cheap Divinarius for testing and it looks like the answer is "Yes, you're better off with a wand." Although tooltip didn't really change, I felt the loss of projectile speed and felt the loss of cast speed even more. I also didn't feel like I was critting any more often, despite the 25% crit chance I had with it equipped.

Getting ready to kill Merci Piety and although I still feel a bit squishy, I'm going strong. Thanks for a solid build :D

I'm playing this mostly self crapped gear with a geofris/added fire, no empower ATM. Only lvl 62 but was hoping you could give me an idea of what kinda dps/defense I should be aiming for and at what level to creep into maps? EK a little over 4k dps with hatred or around 40% armour with grace cause I can't run both yet. Also haven't put AA in lineup yet only got about 70 mana regen per sec.

My experience with ek shadow pretty ripful. This tanky build may do the trick.

HI, can you please post a video to show the build in action?

Heya, running this build in beyond right now. It's working well. Running the budget version, I spent less than an exalt in total on gear.

Stats at 82:

Passive Tree: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYAAF4DHgX5BiMHHgguCPQOSBGWFSAWvxmOH0Ej9iSdJpUppSoLKk0s6S9vMZ4yATWSNj064T8nSVFKfUrITZJN404qVUtW-lcrW69d8mHiYlpirGegakNqjGsXbIxtGW1sbqpwUnC7cNVzs311f8aCHod2idOMNo19j_qVIJUulwabJp2qoqOi2aOKplew2LIZtUi18rvjvOq9gsBUwfPEosgUy73PetN-2L3ZE9sL3Q3mged06NbsGO2D7g7vevDV8-r1b_zF_o_-ug==

Life: 4871
Mana: 3054

Leoric 4-link with EK, Added fire, Echo, Faster Casting all level 18.

(Note. You won't get more damage with a 5-link with Fproj, and you won't get more damage by swapping out added fire with 0 empower in leoric.)

I can run AA with Hatred/Grace/Clarity on level 18 if I don't run around too much and rely solely on my AA.

This is a run of a 70 Pier with the stats above

http://www.twitch.tv/flume_/c/5137808

my english is not very good
i made a block version,based on my block flameblast templer


https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMA6QLfilcr_rNtGWpDwFQI9L2CvOqCEN-wAuMHpUmyLJy4k836fIMRLdsLgh7B85Ugaxf56ILHKPrr7saeEH8Mfdi9_gq3PkGHMZ6mVzrh8kXjajbp-tKnCBZvJKrnC52uGmwnYQbp875RYE99gFZ-4qmVZp4aOKeEkFXAGvAfxYp8uzrY7DiiAF4fDPfp1a9sBx4Rln_GoqNJUfDVlS5d8g5INj3jhJ2qbIxirP8cS40egbTFtUhtbB9BBiMWvwMeYeImlYw2VUsV5_Brc7PIFPVvaoyi2bDYU1JFnZrg

i want to know will phy reflect be a problem for 0 armour?
how much phy dmg is each hit ?and when crit?
spell block work for the reflect of ek,or normal block?
your skill tree have little mana regen ,and just enough regen for you,becouse your gear is great,not good for most people,and too many dex,with my version,i can run harted,herald of ash,tempest shield,clarity

Wow thank you for the great footage Flume! Now I'm even more motivated to play my EK shadow ;)