EK Avoid/Block Legacy Witch | My signature character | by MirekLeFou

• Created back in Rampage League and before Block nerf, even now I consider this witch as my biggest success. She is, in fact, my highest level and the most versatile character, eventhough very simple and actually beginner friendly. In Rampage I gave myself a goal to create a character with highest survivability and damage avoidance possible. She performed extraordinary against the content I've built her for and made me really proud - Apex of Sacrifice, Death and Taxes, Poorjoy's Asylum, Mao Kun, 68 Museum, 76 Crematorium, 78 Courtyard, 78 Palace, Zana missions, you name it. She might not be the most damaging character you've seen and she struggles againts time limits, but she is the most reliable character I've made. If you're expecting to see crit 50k+ dps EK build, this isn't the place to be.

• People find Ethereal Knives very confusing and generally dislike it because it needs a lot of attention, and because many passives and items don't scale its damage. I love EK so I wanted to show how it's done with affordable unique items excluding unnecessary Ming's Heart.

• Despite the fact it's not a character with the most expensive items in the game, I invested a lot of currency in her. I wonder what is her estimated value now with Legacy Cloak of Defiance, 20/20 gems, alt art Rumi’s Concoction.

• If you wonder why do I make such a fuss about what might be very common and easy to achieve build, especially in Standard, I'm sure you have that one character you've always really liked too. I don't have stash tabs full of Exalted orbs. Understand that I played both Standard and Hardcore temporal leagues and dedicated myself to racing as well. From all the characters I've made and liked, she simply means a lot to me. She did my first Atziri and Death & Taxes kill.

• I spent a lot of Regrets on the passive tree to see how damage and survivability changes, I also spent hundreds of Chromatics on Alpha's Howl to find the best combination of auras. You either go ham with Heralds or defensive with Purities. It’s hard to balance it.

• She really isn't a crit glass cannon you would expect from a Standard character. She was build for a maximum survivability possible and because of using 6 unique items, she loses a lot of life and damage she would get from rare ones. She is, however, very versatile for both maps and challenging content.

http://imgur.com/a/vPjep#0

Level 92:
• Defence
- Life 3,889 | Mana 3,583
- Mana Regen 225,8
- Armour 276 (3%) | Evasion Rating 5,207
- Chance to Evade Attacks 34%
- Chance to Dodge Spells 16%
- Resistances 78% 76% 78% -60%
- Chance to Block Attacks 34%
- Chance to Block Spells 44%
- Block Recovery +40%
- Stun Recovery +45%
- Stun Avoidance 30%
- Chill Avoidance 33%
- Freeze Avoidance 108% - Cannot be Frozen

• Offence: 4L DPS
- 12,450 (with Herald of Ice)
- 16,037 (with Herald of Ice + Ash + Hatred)
- Casts Per Sec 4,4
- Crit Chance 11.8%, Crit Multi 165%

Read about the nature of the skill here.
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ethereal_Knives

EK is a Spell that deals physical damage, not an Attack. It’s a slow hard hitting skill that fires 10 projectiles, which aren’t affected by Lesser/Greater Multiple Projectiles. Only by Faster Projectiles, Fork and Chain. Odd, I know. You use Spell Echo or Faster Casting. Not Faster Attacks.
From the very beginning EK is slow and mana expensive but it doesn't take long to be playing with it comfortably. All you need is a wand with Spell Damage, Cast Speed, Projectile Damage, Rustic Sash belt, Karui Ward amulet for leveling, Hatred/Heralds and you’re set. Recommended curses are Vulnerability / Projectile Weakness / Assassins Mark.
Despite the hate EK gets, it offers very easy, comfortable and safe playstyle. EK stuns a lot, which makes it even better.
EK doesn’t always pierce, that’s why it’s often used with Projectile Weakness. It cannot shotgun.

EK: 5L Cloak of Defiance (EV/ES):
EK + Spell Echo + Faster Casting + Added Fire + Life Leech (+ Empower)

Lightning Warp: Wand:
LW + Faster Casting + Reduced Duration

CWDT: Gloves (AR/ES):
CWDT + Endurying Cry + Immortal Call + Increased duration

Auras: Alpha's Howl (EV):
Reduced Mana + Purity of Lightning + Herald of Ice + Clarity

Rathpith's Globe (ES):
Reduced Mana + Purity of Fire (+ Tempest Shield)

Other possible compinations:
Herand of Ice + Herald of Fire + Hatred / Grace + Clarity, Tempest Shield

Curses: Atziri's Step (EV):
Temporal Chains + Vulnerability + Increased AOE
Artic Armour

Items:


Flasks:

Level 92: http://poeurl.com/zgvMGKK
Skill tree planner 113pts 1.3.1d: http://imgur.com/moQGsL7

Keystones:
Eldrich Battery - Converts all Energy Shield to Mana
Ondar's Guile - Doubles chance to Evade Projectile Attacks
Mind Over Matter (Cloak of Defiance) - When hit, 30% of Damage is taken from Mana instead of Life

N: Help Oak (Life)
C: Help Oak (Physical damage)
M: Kill All (Passive point)

Not an issue. Can hardly be with all these defences and only 12-16k dps.

It took me a long time to make her work for Apex of Sacrifice runs and block nerf really hurt her when it comes to this map. I have more success with killing corrupted Trio than Atziri herself. Streamers tend to say that any build can do Atziri to stop annoying people from seeing it as the highest thing you can achieve in PoE. While it is partially true, in my experience it's a very challenging map that tests both your defences and dps. Vaals take a while to kill but they are the easiest part . When killing the trio, I always kill them in this order: Tentacle Miscreation, Cycloner, Dual Striker. I tank the Dual Striker or even Cycloner if I mess up and leave him as last. It’s all about Life Leech and flasks management there. In Atziri fight, I struggle with killing healing mobs fast enough. I use curses to help it. The split phase is where I'm forced to stand and tank all that damage. Now without block I really suffer. It is achievable, but not 8/8.

Pros:
+ EK is a damaging skill offering range, comfortable and safe playstyle.
+ She is a combination of pretty much all defences the one character can have and still do decent damage.
+ She is very versatile and performs extraordinary against challenging content – Maps with all kinds of extra damage, Death and Taxes, Poorjoy's Asylum, Mao Kun, Twinned 76 Crematorium while Temp Chained , 78 Courtyard, 78 Palace, Zana missions, etc. Before block nerf she was able to farm Apex of Sacrifice.
+ Nearly off-screen range.
+ She can hardly be hit by projectiles.
+ Cannot be Frozen.


Cons:
- She really isn't a crit glass cannon you would expect from a Standard character. She was build for a maximum survivability possible and because of using 6 unique items, she loses a lot of life and damage she would get from rare ones .
- Low Crit Chance 11.8%, Crit Multi 165%
- Block nerf affected the survivability but only for Atziri, not regular maps.
- Having -60% chaos resistance and quite low life regen, she does get hurt by chaos damage and degen.
- She isn't fast enough to complete Oba's Cursed Trove.