[2.2] I Cast Magic Missile! - Cantrip's guide to Ethereal Knives / Bladefall. 7K Life, 100K+ DPS!

Decided to forever abandon using HoA, instead getting yet more Life and Damage. From EK being an Aura build, I went to not having a single aura passive!

Over 7000 Life now, around 60K DPS.

Tree

Gear:


Explanation:

Good day sir!

First of all thank you for ur build! Worked awesome while leveling with lifesprig and getting g.crest at 50s in tempest, absolutely HC viable and i would recommend it for every1 (just don't forget to mitigate heavy physical with granite flasks and such until u get ur hands on LC or other good gear). I'm lvl 77 now, having 13k tooltip dps on EK with hatred, AA and clarity up. Having absolutely no problems sustaining mana with just 80 unreserved, started leveling my enlight.

So i wanted to ask for an advice what should i upgrade next items wise and what to grab in the tree? (2 jewels and 5th frenzy charge i guess).

This is my current tree and gear. Thanks a lot in advance and again thanks for the build! Didn't want to play all those totem\cyclone\incinerate, so this build was like a breath of fresh air!





Sry for my not fluent english and any mistakes made.

Ah and these are my jewels (i guess i need to roll all of them hp\phys damage\projectile damage)

Also, i know, it's not an atziri build at all, but would u recommend something in that case? May be change some gems just for atziri fight? I thought of dropping hatred for smth like purity of fire, ruby flask of course, but can't think of EK setup for the fight. (I'm not going to do it anytime soon, before like lvl 90+, but probably wanna give it a try if i'm still alive by that moment)

Happy to hear you're doing well. :D

For gearing up, I suggest always being on the lookout for cheap and good Jewels (you want Life + 1 damage mod + damage mod / resistances / mana regen / reduced mana cost).

Good damage mods for Jewels:
Increased Spell Damage
Increased Spell Damage while holding a Shield
Increased Projectile Damage
Increased Physical Damage
Increased Damage
Increased Cast Speed
Increased Cast Speed while holding a Shield

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Tabula +1 are relatively cheap on both leagues at this moment, so that's never a bad idea if you can afford it (but you may need Mana Leech / Rallying Cry for a while).
I'd first upgrade my gear/jewels so I don't need Resist on my chest, grab as much Life+Mana Regen on top of that, and then try and get that Tabula +1.
The spell shield is quite nice, but could use more Mana Regen, Spell Damage and a Mastercraft for Cast Speed.
The dagger is fine for a while.

If you're planning on using a Lightning Coil, start investing heavily into Lightning Resist gear/jewels.

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As for Atziri... I've done an Atziri run with this build (a few levels ago, with worse gear), no deaths or issues at all until Split+Mirror phase, where I ended up dying to stupidity on my part. In short, stand in the middle, use Slower Projectiles perhaps, and avoid killing yourself.
Didn't change anything with Auras/gear AT ALL for it, except more Life Flasks with Anti-Shock for the Vaal Fight.
Atziri viable? Yes.

Thanks again for ur advice! Gonna try to improve according to it :)

Got +1 Frenzy boots, will update when I level to 92.

Nice Guide man, you are going a very different route then me with my EK Build. Your Life Pool is Impressive, but relying on Acrobatics and a bit Evasion is nothing for me these days. Reflect should be a big Problem, even with phys to light (as you mentioned). I think a shot into a Thornflesh pack should end the Journey quickly, so awareness is key :D

cheers

Reflect doesn't kill me, not even on maps or Thornflesh (at least not in 1-2 shots). But I do need to pay attention, no question.

The upside is that people with worse gear than me won't have any issue with Reflect, it's just my DPS is based partly on amazing gear and Jewels, putting me in mild risk (nowhere near Crit EK, and very manageable).

If people made it to 91 on Tempest with this, it's HC viable, don't you worry :D

Updated for level 92, you can see what I did at late-end-game. Life and DPS are crazy now :D

awesome guide!

thanks a lot for this guide, just recently came back to the game and going to try out this build!