[0.9.13] Ethereal Knives Crit Witch (CI Cookie Cutter Edition)

@PeculiarBias

1. I keep my Clarity at a level where I can have roughly half of my mana pool free. Without some insane gear you cannot indefinitely spam EK, but most of the time you shouldn't need to, and you can always have a mana pot or two on you if you need some more uptime with it.
2. Balancing stat requirements is more or less of an issue on many builds. When I don't have the gear for it, I usually take a +30 dex or str point and respec out of it later.
3. A mob can have multiple status ailments, ie it can be frozen and burning at the same time.

@LumduL

Life on hit only applies to attacks, not spells.

Sounds like a great build for people to run with in Open Beta, it's very gear dependant though with the specific Spell Damage daggers, and Volls etc...

And I noticed you were to use Phase Run as your movement?

If im correct I heard they were removing this gem from the game and replacing it with Flasks that are similar? I could be wrong, but it's something I heard.

Other than that, it's a nice build & I was just wondering with EK using physical damage, is there a possibility this could be used as a Leech for energy shield too? Just for that extra survivability.

Thanks, Danny.

Why would you spend 3 points on 12% all res when the same points could get you 24% from Kraityn?

Updated gear. Probably won't level this anymore before OB though. I know it works. I have some things I want to try but I'll wait and see if there is a passive reset for them.

Not actually using the Purity btw, just leveling it up. And yeah, shame not using the 5-link for anything better, but rolling the colors needed for EK and its supports would probably be impossible on a int chest. If someone has 1000 or so Chromatics to spare, maybe. :D

@Motting

Should have updated gear, not using Voll's anymore in the CI version, neither would I use it again in a EB build unless they nerf Diamond Flasks. Probably anyway. Without Voll's its not very gear dependant at all. Even with Voll's it wouldn't really be, there is trading after all.

I use Phase Run yeah, like everyone. :) It's not integral to this build though.

Could use a Life Leech gem and fit in Ghost Reaver but honestly I don't see a reason to.

@Ulve

2 points for 12% all res and it is not mutually exclusive, you can take both Kraityn and those points if you want. There are points for it. I wouldn't be surprised if resistance penalties got worse in the future.

Anyway, I see it as a point of flexibility. Gear can cover your resistances on its own pretty much, but depends on finding the right gear. So while two Kraityn rewards would be 16%, you cannot respec out of that reward if you find gear that gets you where you need to be. Yet anyway.

This build looks like a lot of fun and it's something I think I wanna try out, but I have one question:

Since it wraps around to the Shadow starting area, would this build be viable for starting as a Shadow as well?

you dont have problems killing unique moobs without single target skill?

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adajehuty wrote:

This build looks like a lot of fun and it's something I think I wanna try out, but I have one question:

Since it wraps around to the Shadow starting area, would this build be viable for starting as a Shadow as well?

Of course, why not? It actually reaches exactly the starting point of a shadow. Of course you get things at a different time, but in the long run it will be the same.

Hey man. Did not even see this post when I joined a few weeks back.

I'd suggest not going CI in open beta. Just becuase if it's nerfed no foul. I'm glad you ditched voll's because that item is garbage :(. You can make up the dmg from the crit you gain with a better chest piece and different nodes.

The only suggestions I would make are these:

Consider going double totem double curse with this.
Get another reduced mana gem and use your blood rage knives on your 5l chest, splitting your auras to 2 pieces.

Another thing you could explore is running all 3 elemental auras and grabbing as much added elemntal dmg as possible. There might not be enough nodes for this since you want to get high crit and crit multi but past lvl 70 thats where most of your dmg increase is going to come from.

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Lachis wrote:

Hey man. Did not even see this post when I joined a few weeks back.

I'd suggest not going CI in open beta. Just becuase if it's nerfed no foul. I'm glad you ditched voll's because that item is garbage :(. You can make up the dmg from the crit you gain with a better chest piece and different nodes.

The only suggestions I would make are these:

Consider going double totem double curse with this.
Get another reduced mana gem and use your blood rage knives on your 5l chest, splitting your auras to 2 pieces.

Another thing you could explore is running all 3 elemental auras and grabbing as much added elemntal dmg as possible. There might not be enough nodes for this since you want to get high crit and crit multi but past lvl 70 thats where most of your dmg increase is going to come from.

I do have a EB version in mind with more auras that I would like to try and which I think could be more powerful than my last one. But it all boils down to what changes there will be in OB, in regards to flasks and CI mainly. I'll just wait and see. Probably will make the final decision as I'm reading the patch notes, but I have toyed around quite a bit with different EK builds.

Totems are fun for sure, double totem is something I'd heavily consider especially on a EB version that will need to do more kiting.

The integer damage elemental damage auras will not add to spells though, only attacks. Hatred is the only one that works on EK.

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huma69 wrote:

you dont have problems killing unique moobs without single target skill?

I won't be threeshotting lvl 68 Vaal anytime soon, it's not that kind of build. :D But with totems and/or a separate EK without Chain/Fork for single targets, uniques are not a problem. If the unique is in the middle of a large pack of mobs, you will hardly need to switch over to single target even.

I think you are better off going with no CI and EB. Maybe looking into ghost reaver at higher levels.

CI will hopefully get changed. I think running a few more auras and switching your ES nodes to life will make this build work well. A leveled up iron will with some good fitness nodes...

I also think that if you go this route you should be a templar. I find that with a heavy heart, hybrid starting trees are 100% better than the solid ones :(. I will no longer be playing a witch and am abandoning all 3 of my HC witches to become a templar and a shadow.