Ethereal Knives

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janus408 wrote:

Self Cast Crit EK Scion, currently level 79, 19K DPS, 35K with Doryani's Flask and Vaal Haste up, up time on both is constant. Really fun to play but reflect SUCKS~!

Edit: Using Hatred, Herald of Ash and Frost, Tempest Shield and Clarity, I might swap Tempest Shield for Heralt of Thunder when I get a chance to fuck around with one. I'll post a build vid when I get my gear optimized.

Look at my sig for my EK guide. I offer various ways to deal with reflect (main one is not doing crit :D).

And I also get to 43K DPS without Crit, so there's that.

How do you deal with mana cost for Ethereal Knives? Is Mana leech support the only way?

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Evantis wrote:

How do you deal with mana cost for Ethereal Knives? Is Mana leech support the only way?

Either Clarity + EB, and get enough Mana Regen / ES / Mana, or Blood Magic are also viable.

Once one of my most love skills, now lost all its flavour. Left out by the 1.3 patch. Damage can be okey with MUCH effort.

Hardly useably with traps. Fireing into 1 mob instead of the whole pack gets you to RQ. Mines too slow. Crit possible, but much investment needed, then you OS yourself to reflect.

Castspeed build feels okey, but takes 4 unreplaceable skillgems allready (EK-FC-Echo-FaProj) and does not leave enough room for others.

Lifeleech is still unreplaceable. Only Doryanis Belt offers 1% and that does not cut it AT ALL.

The Quality Bonus is teribad in comparison to others (why no proj.speed?).

Its a solid starter Skill, but so is Flameblast.

Seems like EK got left behind when more elemental nodes were added and monster ele resists were nerfed. The Heralds were added but are a difficult option when already running Hatred. Just buff the base crit chance already!! It would bring it from obscurity but still requires an investment. Come on now how you going to give a knife spell only 5% base crit chance??

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CantripN wrote:

And I also get to 43K DPS without Crit, so there's that.

To be fair, isn't that with EK lvl 21, Empower lvl 4, and a +1 to level of socketed gems Tabula Rasa?

EK can deal nice damage, but you REALLY have to push it in a way that most people can't afford and in a way that isn't on par with other spells. You pretty much have to use Empower, corrupted gems/items, or Void Battery to surpass mediocre damage in the current meta, which is ridiculous. I understand why people are asking for a buff.

I feel like Cantrip and I have pushed non-crit EK to its limits, and I've watched many people attempt crit EK with solid gear and lackluster results. My conclusion is that EK is comparatively underpowered. At least a non-crit EK build can get acceptable dps while taking enough mana/mana regen on the tree to run both Arctic Armour and Acrobatics... but you still need very good gear to do it!

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Necrogue wrote:

Just buff the base crit chance already!! It would bring it from obscurity but still requires an investment. Come on now how you going to give a knife spell only 5% base crit chance??

No, buff base damage or increase cast speed so all EK builds can benefit.

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Vincendra wrote:

Lifeleech is still unreplaceable.

That's not entirely true, at least in softcore (I wouldn't remove the Life Leech gem in hardcore). You can drop Life Leech for Empower and use Warlord's Mark in a CwDT setup to make up for it. Atziri's Promise helps too.

Hatred! + HoT! + HoI! + HoA!

Pain Augment!

Added Fire!

236% cast speed!

240% increased damage!

20,238.5 DPS Wow! Wow! Wow! Much deeps! Very Faceroll!

Why isn't everyone using this opie op spell??

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Necrogue wrote:

20,238.5 DPS Wow! Wow! Wow! Much deeps! Very Faceroll!

Why isn't everyone using this opie op spell??

That's like an 11 on the sarcasm meter. I do hope EK gets re-evaluated for 1.4. Almost nobody seems to be using this underpowered skill anymore.

I really do feel a buff to the base range, freeing up the Faster Projectiles support, would be the most this should take to bring to the same level as other skills. Another boost that would be of help, is Chance to Pierce as a Q bonus or built-in.

My idea: 30-40% MORE Range, 2-3% Pierce per Q (instead of 15% Proj Damage, or in addition).

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CantripN wrote:

I really do feel a buff to the base range, freeing up the Faster Projectiles support, would be the most this should take to bring to the same level as other skills. Another boost that would be of help, is Chance to Pierce as a Q bonus or built-in.

My idea: 30-40% MORE Range, 2-3% Pierce per Q (instead of 15% Proj Damage, or in addition).

This sounds awesome. I hope GGG considers more range and some chance to pierce (without lowering current damage levels, of course).