[2.0] - Krippi's Crit Ethereal Knives - [Tempest]
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Welcome to my Crit EK guide!
About Me
Hello my name is Krippi. You may know me from my stream (twitch.tv/nl_krippi) or from my World First Hardcore Diablo 3 kill. I am an avid player of the aarpg/mmo genre. One of my favorite aspects is to theorycraft and make spreadsheets/basic models for damage/survivability for the characters I play. Which fits in perfectly for POE! I have been playing poe off and on since beta, but for the past 4-5 months it has been my primary game. I only play hardcore temp leagues and with each new league I like to try out a new build/something different. For those who just want the basic gem and skill tree...
TLDR
Witch Skill Tree Shadow Skill Tree Bandits - Oak - Alira - Krait
Gems
6 Link - EK-Faster Proj-Spell Echo-Added Fire-Faster Casting-Crit Multi or Phys to Lightning 5 Link - EK-Faster Proj-Spell Echo-Added Fire-Faster Casting You can also add Life Leech instead of other gems if you desire. Why Play This Build?...It's Insanely Fun!
Why shoudn't you play this build?
[spoiler="Gameplay"] Random Maps
[/spoiler] So what's actually going on and how does it all work? Let's take a closer look... [spoiler="Mechanics"] EK is somewhat unique in the fact that it is a physical projectile spell. This means it scales slightly different from other spells. Damage Scaling EK scales directly from "Increased Physical Damage" nodes and not "Melee Physical Damage" nodes. Additionally it scales from spell damage like most spells. Elemental damage will not scale EK, but will scale any other elemental damage attached to the spell via heralds/auras/added damage. Since EK is physical you can use Hatred, Herald of Ash, Added Fire Damage, and Physical to Lightning, but not Physical Projectile Attack Damage. EK has a 1.25% damage multiplier on added damage, so it makes good use of added damage gems. Range Scaling The distance EK shoots is based on projectile speed. The more you have the farther it shoots. Around 75% proj speed will cover most of the screen. EB, MoM, ZO This build utilizes the new Eldritch Battery's mana protection effect and Mind of Matter's new placement. EB causes your energy shield to protect your mana instead of life. This means anytime you cast a spell it will take your ES before your mana. Mind over Matter causes 30% of the damage you take to go to mana, but if you have EB, EB will have it take from your ES first. So what this allows you to do is reserve all of your mana for auras/heralds and use your ES to cast your spells. The problem with this is you do not naturally regenerate ES and if you take damage your ES will go away even quicker. This is where Zealot's Oath comes into play. ZO converts your health regen into ES regen. Your natural health regen even with a couple % from the tree is not enough to sustain your ES. To aid in regen you use the unique, The Blood Dance Sharkskin Boots. This allows you to get frenzy charges on kill and causes frenzy charges to give you 1% life regen per charge. So with 4-5 Frenzy charges and a couple % from the tree you now have 6+% ES regen. This is enough to support your spells and random damage you take. Additionally enduring cry has a small health regen effect. If this is used often it helps supplement a large loss of ES. TL;DR: Blood dance gives ES regen via ZO to allow us to recover ES. Note: Mana regen does not effect ES regen. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Gem Setups"] [spoiler="Main Damage Gems"] There are several ways you can setup main gems, but it depends on your colors/links. The base gem links are EK-Faster Proj-Spell Echo-Faster Casting Gem Options
Another option if you get a wand with proj speed is to drop the faster projectiles gem and add another higher game gem, so eventually your links might look like... EK-Spell Echo-Faster Casting-Added Fire-Empower-Crit Multi/Phys to Lightning [/spoiler] [spoiler="Support Gems"] [spoiler="Aura Gems"] When first starting out you will prob want dual herald to augment your flame totem in addition to your EK. Initial Auras Herald of Ice-Herald of Thunder End Game Auras Herald of Ash-Hatred or Herald of Thunder-Hatred or Hatred-Arctic Armour Use the second combination if you need a way to shock. The difference in tooltip is minor and shocking adds much more. The third is used when you want more survivability, but I have not used it. CoH Curse on Hit-Assassin's Mark-Herald of Ice I found HoI to be the optimal way to get power charges. I had trouble with HoT due to the range on it and EK. I typically was offscreen killing and HoT never got a chance to hit mobs. Also EK can't hit more then 9 mobs at a time so if there is a large clump you are almost guaranteed to apply assassin's mark. Also if you are using Hatred/Arctic Armour Combo and need Thunder to shock you can use that instead, but power charge generation might be sporadic depending on how close you let mobs get. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Movement"] Flame Dash-Faster Casting or Whirling Blades-Faster Attacks-Fortify I enjoy Flash dash much more then lightning warp. FD is much more responsive and faster; it allows you to get out of sticky situations LW would not. You can use whirling blades if you have a dagger equipped. I add fortify just in cause you hit a mob you get the benefit, typically you don't want to be that close. It can prove useful on some boss that hit hard, but don't 1 shot you. Like dark woods Oak. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Misc"] CWDT Setups Cast When Damage Taken-Warlord's Mark-Increased Duration-Immortal Call I like to have CWDT @lvl 14, because this means it's not wasting my endurance charges unless I need them and immortal call will last longer. You can switch Warlord's mark for temp chains or enfeeble or whatever. I like how warlord's mark gets me life back after I take damage, so I am not relying only on pots. Golem Flame Golem-Minion Life or Chaos Golem-Minion Life I prefer Flame Golem as I like damage, but you have plenty of it in reality and Chaos Golem will provide a survivability boost. Last Gem Slots Decoy Totem Enduring Cry Cast this frequently to maintain charges and regen ES. Vaal Haste You can keep this up pretty much 100% with the unqiue jewel Chill of Corruption. This has an 80% chance to give you a vaal soul on enemy shatter. Frenzy This is important to keep frenzy charges up on bosses with no adds. Proj Weak Gives free pierce to help kill ally can't die, and just extra damage if you want to toss it up for the lawls. Temp Chain or Enfeeble Helps with survivability if needed. [/spoiler] [/spoiler] [/spoiler] [spoiler="Gear"] General Rules
[spoiler="Head"] Option 1 - Rare ES or Arm/ES Prefixes: Life, % ES, Flat ES, Hybrid ES/Stun Recov Suffixes: Resists Option 2 - Rat's Nest I would only use Option 2 if I was on standard and did not care about dying and just wanted massive tooltip. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Body Armour"] Option 1 - Rare ES Prefixes: Life, % ES, Flat ES Suffixes: Resists Here is where you get the bulk of your ES for MoM and mana use. Try to get as high ES as you can with high life. Option 2 - Lightning Coil Great for damage reduction, but reduces your ES quite a bit. This means you need a high ES shield to pair with it. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Gloves"] Option 1 - Rare Arm/ES or Armour Prefixes: Life, % ES, Flat ES Suffixes: Resists, Strength Option 2 - Maligaro's Option 3 - Surgebinders I prefer Option 1 for the most part, but super late game maligaro's are amazing if you don't mind giving up some life. Option 3 is solid, but falls short of the others imo. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Boots"] The Blood Dance Boots It is the only required item for the build. It fuels our ES regen and gives us frenzy charges. Ultimately we want to have it corrupted for +1 frenzy charge. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Amulet"] Option 1 - Rare Base doesn't matter much, but you might need some dex/str. Prefixes: Life, Spell Damage, %ES Suffixes: Crit, Crit Multi, Cast Speed, Resists Option 2 - Victario's Acuity Allows for easy power/frenzy charge generation and gives good damage and proj speed to go with it. Option 3 - Karui Ward Cheap neck for free proj speed and dex to maintain EK without faster proj. Also these are fairly cheap so you can vaal orb them in hopes to hit +1 curse. I always use my neck as a stat stick for crit/crit multi. Early on you might need to trade in crit multi for resists. Typically I searched for a neck with 60/70+life, crit multi, and open suffix. This allowed me to craft on ~30% crit from elreon. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Rings"] Rare Diamond Ring Prefixes: Life,ES, %ES Craft Suffixes: Crafted Crit, Resist, Strength Ming's Heart Gives us 60% Chaos resist and chaos damage, but it does come at the cost of life. I like having one, but it is not necessary. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Belt"] Option 1 - Rare Rustic Sash Prefixes: Life, Flat Armor, Flat ES Suffixes: Resists, Strength Option 2 - Headhunter Belt A rare rustic will serve you well until the GGG belt of headhunter. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Shield"] Option 1 - Rare Prefixes: Life, Spell Damage, ES Suffixes: Resists, Crit chance for spells, Crafted Cast Speed The other option is to dual wield, but you lose out on life and the small chance to block for crit multi or proj speed and a little more spell damage/cast speed. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Wand or Dagger"] Option 1 - Rare Prefixes: Spell Dmg, Spell Dmg/Mana, Added Lighting Damage to Spells, Added Damage to Spells Suffixes: Spell Crit, Cast Speed, Crit Multi, Proj Speed You can use a Wand or Dagger. The nice thing about a dagger is you have more crit and the ability to whirl around, but at the cost of cast speed. Cast speed might be a little less dps, but it makes the character feel better and more responsive. Also I find that a wand is ideal for late game. If you get 40 proj speed on a wand you can easily replace your faster proj gem for a much more powerful one. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Jewels"] Option 1 - Rare Prefixes: %Life, Spell Dmg Suffixes: Crit Multi, Spell Damage, Proj Speed, Proj Dmg I find that jewel nodes are also a 6/7% life node, so on all my jewels I typically want life and then whatever damage stats I can get. Proj speed is also good if you have swapped out faster projectiles gem. Chill of Corruption This is a unique jewel that has an 80% chance to give vaal soul on enemy shatter. This is essential if you want to keep vaal haste up 100%. [/spoiler] [/spoiler] [spoiler="My Gear"] This was my gear when I was testing a new weapon in aqueducts and died to a game crash on the 2nd pack :/ Was in the process of upgrading a few pieces gloves/belt/shield. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Flasks"] Besides the damage flasks are what make crit amazing. They are practically permanently up. Health Flasks I have been finding I like to have one healing over time flask since I have no health regen and one instant pot. The healing over time heals for more for those times where I get viper strike or any degen effect. It is essential to have a bleeding flask, I am finding I wish I had two bleeding flask, but currently have one of Heat of boxes. You can also roll a surgeon's eternal of staunching to keep a flask constantly up. This is what I use to do for my CoC. Utility Flasks Here you will most likely want a Surgeon's Quicksilver of Warding, Atziri's Promise, and Taste of Hate.It is good to also keep around a Surgeon's Topaz of Grounding for shocking ground maps or added damage maps. I also have a fire flask for added fire maps if I feel it is needed. Atziri's Promise is one of your key flasks imo. It is your main form of leech and in conjunction with ming's heart you get a good amount of life leech. Also it boosts your damage. Taste of Hate speaks for itself. It is the best flask in the game. It reduced damage, boosts resists, and gives you a free hatred. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Spec"] Witch Skill Tree Shadow Skill Tree I find the witch to be slightly superior to shadow. The main difference is the witch gets spell damage at the start and the shadow gets physical damage and +12 life. In the end the shadow life node is roughly 40 life. The spell damage from the witch can scale your added herald damage and wand damage, where the physical does not. So all in all we are probably talking about a couple % dmg increase for 40 life. You can pick which you like better. The witch can also go hybrid or low life much better then the shadow can if you decide to change it up. Leveling Builds Leveling: Typically I level characters with Flame Totem + Firestorm and then transition into EK for AoE and Freeze Pulse for single target or whatever you find the easiest til mid to late 60s. While leveling I pretty much jump life node to life node and sometimes pick up big dps/crit nodes. I typically pick up my jewels nodes last, unless I have great jewels. It is easy to trade a couple points here and there to work in the jewels if they are more valuable. Also it is important after level 30 pots to roll seething or bubbling. They are key to your survivability. Also don't forget a granite. I like to roll it with staunching. [spoiler="Witch Progression"]
[/spoiler] [spoiler="Shadow Progression"]
[/spoiler] [/spoiler] Well I hope you enjoyed my guide. If you have any questions ask them here and I will stop by time to time or message me directly. You can also visit my stream. Things to still be added
Updates: 8/24 - Added my gear 8/25 - Added some more gear selection Last edited by Krippi#0512 on Aug 25, 2015, 11:27:04 AM
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hi, trying out your build right now. Pls keep this Thread updated :)
Thanks in advance! Last edited by Vaalyrian#4935 on Aug 12, 2015, 7:05:22 AM
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Heya ,looks like a great guide and build gonna try playing it! thanks! :)
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Hi Krippi,
Is life regen mod worth it for this build? or the value range existed is too small to matter? Second question is wouldnt wand be a safer choice since the frenzy will be a range projectile instead of melee hit (dagger frenzy)? |
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[I DIED SO I WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATING THIS POST]
I began this build and tried it out. Along the way I tailored it to my own play style and preferences. This is what I've come up with to change the build in a way I like. I am playing on Tempest. At the moment I am level 86. My EK is 5L 66.8k dps with all charges up (4 Endurance, 5 Frenzy, 6 Power... 37.6k dps with no charges) Current Tree: My current tooltip:
Spoiler
 My current gear:
Spoiler
I chose the same Bandits. Oak (40 life) - Alira (5% cast speed) - Kraityn (+1 max Frenzy Charge) --The Skill setup I use is very similar-- Etheral Knives - Spell Echo - Faster Casting - Added Fire Damage - Projectile Speed Herald of Thunder - Herald of Ice - Assassin's Mark - Curse on Hit CWDT - Increased Duration - Immortal Call - Summon Ice Golem Enduring Cry - Increased AOE Flame Dash - Faster Casting Hatred I reserve 100% of my mana. Using the EB/ZO/MOM combination to never need the mana. *WARNING* Under no circumstances should you ever run a Phys or Ele Reflect map. The damage you take in return hits your ES (because of MOM) and causes you to not regenerate your ES enough. You will not be able to cast or gain charges. *WARNING* I use 3 health flasks, 1 quicksilver, 1 granite. 2 of the Health are Instant. UNIQUES I USE: The Blood Dance - Surgebinders The Blood Dance: As Krippi mentioned. These are needed to keep your ES from evaporating. They are amazing. Surgebinders: At max charges this build is giving (5 Frenzy, 4 Endurance, 6 Power) I gain a total of 30% Elemental Damage, 42% Spell Damage, 28% Physical Damage.... (My Surge binders are 6/7/7%) This is an INSANE damage boost if you actively keep your charges up... Insane damage for less life. Krippi thank you for the inspiration and basic outline of the build. It's by far my favorite build I've ever attempted!! Please respond if you have anything to say about the build, add to it, constructive criticism, etc etc. Last edited by Achon26#0660 on Aug 20, 2015, 1:17:41 AM
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I've been playing this build almost exactly, but with The Restless Ward chest. It works, but you have to avoid any regen mod on maps. And they are common. I really, really, want the EB + MOM + ZO with restless ward to work, but I feel like it's just too weak compared to other options.
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Thanks for the guide.
Do you think an SC char. can get away with this build using a PoH? And what about CI on top of that? |
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Im runnnig The Restless Ward chest option with doedre flask so i have 4 endurance (helping oak) 4 frenzy and 3 power charge all the time and no mana issue.. its still feel pretty week so i tryed to switch with blood dance... i have all 1% life regen on tree and ( switched for a 5 frenzy charge ) and i always run out of es (1500es) any tips ?
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hi,
there's a jewel suffix called " of focus" which grants 2-3 ES per hit. could be interesting for your build. |
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" Switch your Merciless help to Kraityn. 1% Life regen is much better than what Restless Ward will give. Keep Blood Dance on, you don't need all the life regen on the tree. Look at the skill tree in my previous post to get an idea of what nodes are worth going after. Make sure you have the 1 Frenzy, 3 Power, and 1 End charge from the tree. 1500es is a lot. More than I have and I have no issues. Work on your positioning, don't get hit by monsters as much. As Krippi mentioned.. You getting hit hard = Your ES being drained = Not being able to cast. " It's not needed. It's interesting yes, although the life regen from Frenzy charges is more than enough to keep your ES up. The best stats for a Jewel revolve around (in no particular order): Spell Damage - Physical Damage - Projectile Damage - Projectile Speed - Life % Last edited by Achon26#0660 on Aug 17, 2015, 12:59:06 AM
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