Ethereal Knives Trickster [2.3] Atziri Destroyer 10-15ex build Max Evasion, Max Dodge + Block

Hello everyone to my guide for Ethereal Knives Trickster. Fast clear speed, High survivability, High damage. If you like old school EK builds like me this is the one for you!

What's the main idea of the build?
At the start of Perandus league I wanted to develop a build that can run all map modes without any problems. So I've started and now with the 2 extra points the build looks finished to me.
The build is based around Evasion, Dodge, Spell Dodge, Spell Block which gives you enough defense to almost never get hit. The damage of the build is coming from EK by scaling spell damage, projectile damage and cast speed.

Why Trickster?
This looks the most logical class for dodge build. Provides 4 small nodes with cast speed for damage and attack speed witch will help Whirling Blades. And you know, more mobility = more survivability. Frenzy charges also increase the same stats as well as giving you so much damage. Walk the Aether node also gives 20% attack and cast speed which should be up about 100% of the time.
Shade Form is helping the build in so much ways:
1. 500 flat evasion is amazing. Almost another evasion piece of gear.
2. 250 ES and 20% more chance to evade while not on full es. Combined with Blood Rage makes an insane combo. You can get it going without any need of ES in items.

Late game's build defense?
At the end I finished the build with about
30k evasion (70% chance to evade) + 20% more chance from Trickster + Enfeeble
75% dodge and spell dodge (With Vaal Grace)
22% spell block with Stone of Lazhwar + Saffell's Frame
79% Fire resistance / 80% Cold Resistance / 79% Lightning Resistance
(Saffell's Frame, +1 to max Cold res from passives)
Fortify(Linked with Whirling blades)
3 Endurance Charges
~4000 effective Life

What Auras do you run?
Graces - Provides a lot of evasion
Warlord's mark - Life Leech + Endurance Charges
Enfeelbe - It's just too good defense to ignore

So let's start breaking down the build from the beginning > Leveling
You can use EK from the start to the end and it's working so well.
levels 1-10 just regular EK skill
levels 6-10 1st link should be added lightning or added cold. Depends on links
levels 11-20 You should get Faster casting somewhere in the setup
Herald of Ash + Herald of Ice/Thunder also helps a lot. I did not find any problem running 2 of them at low levels
levels 21-40 You can consider using Reverberation Rod for Spell Echo
Levels 41+ When you finish Act 4 you should start looking for your 4 link and 5 links and start playing around with the overall auras and links of the build.

Here are Passive points in leveling and the most effective paths


Total Charges:
8 Frenzy
3 Endurance

Bandits:
Normal - 40 Life
Cruel - Passive
Merciless - Frenzy

Core Items of the Build
1. Hyrri's Ire - High Evasion, Dodge + Spell Dodge
2. Alpha's Howl - High Evasion, +2 levels to Aura's, Cannot be frozen
3. Atziri's Step - High Evasion, 30% move speed, Spell Dodge (Corrupted +1 to Frenzy charges)
4. Saffell's Frame - Some Block, Spell damage is good, 4% to all resistances is insane!
5. Stone of Lazhwar - Filling the block to 100% converted, (Corrupted to +1 to curses)
Gloves, Rings, and Belt -> Filling resistances and life for the build. - Currently using Doryani's Invitation(Phys version) as cheap option for tri res belt.
400-450 evasion gloves with life and resists should be fine.

Weapon - Fast dagger(for whirling blades) With Spell damage.
Main priority > Attack speed + Spell Damage
Secondary > Added damage to spells

Flasks
1. Life( Anti Bleed )
2. Rumi's Concoction
3. Taste of Hate
4. Atziri's Promise
5. Last one is optional(Curse removal works really well)

Golem
Chaos for Physical damage reduction or Flame for Damage. Optional, not linked to any minion support.

Gem Link Setups:
Dagger - Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Fortify
Gloves - Blasphemy + Enfeeble + Warlord's Mark + Enlighten
Helm - Grace + Increased Duration + Vaal Haste + Vaal Lightning Trap
Boots - CWDT + Immortal Call + Increased Duration + Vaal Grace
Shield - Blood Magic + Golem + Clarity
Ring - Blood Rage( Cannot find another place to have it atm)

Vaal Lightning trap is awesome to get target's shocked.
Hatred instead of Grace is also really good for a greedy players

EK Setup
4 Link - EK, Spell Echo, Pierce, Faster Casting
5 Link - EK, Spell Echo, Pierce, Faster Casting, Faster Projectiles
6 Link - EK, Spell Echo, Pierce, Faster Casting, Added Fire Damage
6 Link - EK, Spell Echo, Pierce, Faster Casting, Life Leech
It's up to you. If you want defensive 6 link go for it. In the other hand 45% of phys added as fire is quite nice.

Jewels
Unique Jewel: Conqueror's Efficiency
Main priority -> Life
Secondary -> Spell Damage, Projectile Damage, Cast Speed, Increased Damage.

High resistances and some spell block and spell dodge are enough to sustain elemental reflect maps.
Immortal Call provides enough defense from physical reflect to run it without any problems
Haven't found any problems running any map mods so far.
Whatever gonna one shot you will one shot you anyway but actually so much evasion and dodge sometimes save you from getting one shot.
Endurance charges and fortify are enough to save you for first hit until immortal call proc.(Ofc same thing goes here, whatever one shot you, one shot you and the only thing you can do is avoid getting hit. Getting hit by Corpse explode, or Core Malachai's slam with 200% bonus damage, or dying to something stupid is not build's fault but player's.)

The only bad feel about the build is the mana that it uses. It's kinda weird before you get level 3 enlightens going on. If somehow you get level 4 the build gets amazing.
It has just so much attack speed and cast speed. The clear speed is awesome

Average tooltip that I'm getting with Level 21 gems for EK setup was about 95k tooltip with Vaal Haste up, Atziri's promise, The Sorrow of the Divine and Flame Golem, With Hatred Aura instead of Grace

The build can be a bit pricy. It's not recommended for people with low budget.
The cursed amulet and boots cost a few exalts. 6 Linked armor is also expensive. Since you resistances and life depend on jewelry you need as much as possible they can be kinda expensive too. The average cost of the items I have atm is about 12ex

I would like to hear your opinions on the build and any ideas about it.
Thanks for coming to check it!

Basically running this build pretty closely. Feeling very tanky with enfeeble warlords and fortify. And doing very good damage with the frenzy charges from blood rage. Was wondering what you thought about rathpith instead of saffells. More block is really nice, as well as the HP. Also what do you think about a Lightning Coil for phys mitigation over ire.

Nice build overall man.

I've played a bit with Coil and I don't feel its necessary because I'm not getting hit that often to make a huge difference.

I think the 4% to max resists are way better than 10% life because the life is not that much anyway.

Hi! Just trying the builds right. Question: I have a well rolled Queen of the Forest chest piece with 1870 eva and my Hirry's Ire is 1900 eva. Due to the resistances on the QotF, I'm thinking that it would be better to use it. Any tips on that?

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opethsland wrote:

Hi! Just trying the builds right. Question: I have a well rolled Queen of the Forest chest piece with 1870 eva and my Hirry's Ire is 1900 eva. Due to the resistances on the QotF, I'm thinking that it would be better to use it. Any tips on that?

Oh, adding to that, I just realizad my Hyrri's Ire is legacy, giving me acrobatics, which the build already gets from the tree, so no discussion I shouldn't be using the one I have.

I levelled to 72 so far and the main problem I see is keeping enough mana to continuosly cast EK, specially when you face hexproof mobs and don't get the mana leech from Warlord's Mark. With bosses that don't spawn many adds it can be a problem too. The fact that you need to stay relativelly close to the enemies in order to curse them is also dangerous.

I'm feeling squishy right now, with only 3.4k HP and I don't see the dmg the build seems to provide.

Struggling a little bit to farm Dried Lake in parties cause it takes so much time to kill enemies. EK is only 9.4k dmg. Using a 5L eva chest cause I can't afford a 6L Hyrri's and change the rings and gloves in order to face the resistances losses. Here's my actual gear:

"

opethsland wrote:

"

opethsland wrote:

Hi! Just trying the builds right. Question: I have a well rolled Queen of the Forest chest piece with 1870 eva and my Hirry's Ire is 1900 eva. Due to the resistances on the QotF, I'm thinking that it would be better to use it. Any tips on that?

Oh, adding to that, I just realizad my Hyrri's Ire is legacy, giving me acrobatics, which the build already gets from the tree, so no discussion I shouldn't be using the one I have.

I levelled to 72 so far and the main problem I see is keeping enough mana to continuosly cast EK, specially when you face hexproof mobs and don't get the mana leech from Warlord's Mark. With bosses that don't spawn many adds it can be a problem too. The fact that you need to stay relativelly close to the enemies in order to curse them is also dangerous.

I'm feeling squishy right now, with only 3.4k HP and I don't see the dmg the build seems to provide.

Struggling a little bit to farm Dried Lake in parties cause it takes so much time to kill enemies. EK is only 9.4k dmg. Using a 5L eva chest cause I can't afford a 6L Hyrri's and change the rings and gloves in order to face the resistances losses. Here's my actual gear:

could you try a wand with +100% spell damage and +10% faster casting suffix. physical mods do not affect your EK DPS. also replacing faster projectile with controlled destruction will improve your dps .

Get a high spell damage weapon with probably faster casting. That will increase your dps a lot. As most spells in the game, they scale most of the gem level so keep upgrading EK and it should start feeling good.

"

I levelled to 72 so far and the main problem I see is keeping enough mana to continuosly cast EK, specially when you face hexproof mobs and don't get the mana leech from Warlord's Mark. With bosses that don't spawn many adds it can be a problem too. The fact that you need to stay relativelly close to the enemies in order to curse them is also dangerous.

I'm using Clarity on Blood Magic to keep my mana up since the HP of the build is not that important

This is one of the setups that I've tried and It has a lot work to be done on it. But I've done Uber on it without getting hit.
I still need the helm enchant, boots corruption and a good dagger since Consuming Dark is stupid for this build(its just cheap spell dmg option)

I can't see the ascendancy skill points