Dual Totem Dual Curse EK Witch level 83 6.1k dps ( Video and Guide )

Thx again for your comment Uni, you're confirming what I was more or less thinking.


I mostly solo at the moment or duo with people I know, witch or ranger.


Personally i'm not looking after a "faceroll" build as you state it but it just felt like I'm not able to use my build optimal just because of the incinerate charging.

Right now, in the map levels i'm fooling around, it's not THAT big deal, i'm afraid allthough that in a few levels , when I start lvl 70 maps or higher it might become a bigger problem.


Anyway, thx again for your comment.

This build looks sweet and I want to try it out. Just wondering if this alternative makes sense and is it worth losing the survivability (for softcore). I was thinking of trading the health nodes near static blows for inner focus and an extra +10 dex node:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBAP0CcQLjBLMHpQx9DkgQfxEtEZYUTRSwFecXUBmFGjgabCQ8JKomlSepLJwspy0fMtE26TlSOjA62ESrRUdG10lRSbJMLU3YTm1QQlVLVa5XK1gHWfNaK1ptXcZd8mBtbRlte3BScNVzs3yDfll_xoFvghCCHoM4iEKMNox2jmSOvo-mkFWdgJ48ogCiLqKjo_KnXKeEtQS1SLb6uJO8N8AawFHB88aezfrVT9sL3fPed9-w42rjhOQi7DjwH_Br8h33pg==

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someonenum2 wrote:

This build looks sweet and I want to try it out. Just wondering if this alternative makes sense and is it worth losing the survivability (for softcore). I was thinking of trading the health nodes near static blows for inner focus and an extra +10 dex node:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMBAP0CcQLjBLMHpQx9DkgQfxEtEZYUTRSwFecXUBmFGjgabCQ8JKomlSepLJwspy0fMtE26TlSOjA62ESrRUdG10lRSbJMLU3YTm1QQlVLVa5XK1gHWfNaK1ptXcZd8mBtbRlte3BScNVzs3yDfll_xoFvghCCHoM4iEKMNox2jmSOvo-mkFWdgJ48ogCiLqKjo_KnXKeEtQS1SLb6uJO8N8AawFHB88aezfrVT9sL3fPed9-w42rjhOQi7DjwH_Br8h33pg==

I would say you can do that. With better gear you can increase your survivability as well. I have the same amount of defensive nodes as the OP and I still felt squishy at times. But then again, my gear wasn't fancy at all.

I always wanted Inner Force, too. But didn't find a way to get it without losing too much.

But still, your build should be fine. Just play carefully or get some nasty HP gear and you'll be fine.

I converted from 'flame totem' after this thread.

4 linked gems gives comparable performance. 5 linked gems is HIGHLY recommended, but it's not cheap. My new chest piece set me back 4 Gem Cutter's Prisms. The gems themselves were also somewhat expensive. I think EK is suitable for high level characters.



Here's a quick lowdown on EK.

R Spell Totem (required)
G Ethereal Knives (dmg is considerable at high levels, but the spell doesn't shoot far)
G Faster Projectiles (to give EK distance, NECESSARY)
B Faster Casting (improves DPS, necessary)
G Chain/Blind/Fork

Have low mana? Use Fork.
Have high mana? Use Chain (+200% cast cost, but way more DPS)

There's a lot of talk about how EK has 10 knives per cast, but only one hit is possible against a single target. This appears to be inaccurate. EK does quite a lot of damage against single mobs, (so it seems that more than one blade can hit), however it's probably 2 or 3 at max. Comparatively, flame totem was much faster against single mobs. Against a full group, EK feels up to 1x faster, maybe 1.2

When changing to an EK setup, I didn't have to change my points much, but I did suddenly spend a LOT on mana so that I could use Fork... and at this time, I still don't have enough mana left over to use supporting auras such as Anger. (It became clear pretty quickly that Eldritch Battery could be something that I'll need in order to unlock the full potential of EK... but that means even more expensive equipment to compensate).

I have read that 'blind' is particularly effective with EK, however I am running out of slots, and wishing I had 6L instead of 5... which means even more expensive gear. Flame totem is easier to max out, but once you've hit that limit, EK is the next step toward higher DPS.

For survivability, I blind bosses with:
R Spell Totem
B Fire Storm
G Blind

Some bosses are hard to kill without a friend to help me DPS, and I have heard some people talk about having a secondary DPS spell available for single mobs.

After some testing, it appears that chain is a terrible skill to use with this, but fork is ok. However it appears that the best thing I can do is probably to find something that modifies damage instead of modifying the projectiles themselves. The spell has 10x projectiles, that's one hell of a shotgun, it's guaranteed to hit everything, and hits mobs standing behind each other.

I am about to experiment with 'point blank'

After researching all available gems. Here's what I plan on checking out.

Supports
R Iron Will, 5STR = +1% physical dmg for projectile skills, 200 STR = 40%!!
G Point Blank, 120% cost, 50% more damage for close targets, less for distant targets. (I don't know if this works with EK, I'll test it.)
R Added Fire Dmg, 130%, 39% DMG
G Culling Strike, 110% cost, 22% DMG, only -1% speed when leveled. (consider it up to 32% since 10% or lower is an instakill)
R Life Leech, 7% (better than Life Gain on Hit) (make totems stop dying)
B Added Chaos Dmg, 150% cost, 100 DMG per hit
G Added Cold DMG, 140% cost, 58.5 dmg per hit (not as good as added fire dmg, but may chill enemies)

Some of my notes are based on my stats as far as how much I can level gems, (I'm at about 102 for each stat so this is referencing near max level gems).


Auras
G Hatred 30% (25% additional physical dmg as cold dmg)
R Anger 65 fire DMG/hit, 164 reserved
G Haste 40% (6% move, 13% attack, 13% cast), amnt reserved is ________?

To max my auras, I might use 'blood magic' or try out 'eldritch battery' and focus on the auras that reserve a fixed amount instead of a percentage. Reduced mana will become important for that, as well as putting skill points into 'reduced mana reservation'. Note that using aruas means that if you're a summoner and a dual curse, you're running out of spell slots quickly.

For gear, I plan on grabbing a unique that allows additional curses so that I can run three curses at once.

Curses
R Warlords Mark (life leech 7%, mana leech 3%), could keep totems alive
G Projectile Weakness (lv 14, 125 dex: 53% pierce, 21% knockback, 56% less evasion, 31% dmg)
B Temporal Chains (34% slow)
B Elemental Weakness (49% weak to all elements to improve elemental damage auras)
B Enfeeble (-39% accuracy, -39% crit, -39% crit multiplier, -34% dmg); Way better than 'temporal chains'
B Vulnerability (stun -14%, block/stun -30%, ES delay 54%, ES regen 69%, DMG 34%)

Greetings fellow exiles

I am working towards a variation of this build and would really appreciate some feedback / critique on it. All credit to zekerferc for this very interesting build, my first experience with dual totems was hypershatter's awesome dual ice spear spectre build - played on default. I feel I've had enough practice to try a dual totem on HC now, but wanted to try EK for more damage - and life instead of CI.

Just to refresh zekerferc's final build :



Here is mine :



Please note the major differences are skipping Acceleration and Celestial Walker in favor of going towards the Marauder life regen Troll's Blood and Diamond Skin nodes, but I wonder if I have spread myself too thin this way? I also respec a few of the top left highway nodes inward a bit - with the way my tree is set out now it leaves a few options for the last few points..

so EITHER :

1. More cast speed / spell damage near the shadow area
2. 5 points for Extra spectre and Lord of the Dead (nod to hypershatter spectre variation)
3. Go for inner force
4. Take more life nodes near Marauder area or where I have not finished life clusters.

So again, am I spreading myself too thin or am I on the right track for a decently survivable HC dual EK totem build? Reason I rushed towards all resistance nodes etc was to allow more leniency on gear for IIR/IIQ so this could potentially be a farming character for alts.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, please list any glaring weaknesses or perhaps specify if I have wasted points and whether there are much stronger options I am missing? Also if I AM on the right track, which of the 4 options above would you recommend for the last few points?

Thank you again zekerferc and hypershatter for your inspiration.

One last thing - to fasterfind - the poster before me, have you managed to do any of the testing you said you would do on the various support gems for this build? I am interested in your findings ;)