ZiggyD's Etheral Knives Mana Shield Scion/Shadow Build Guide - Hardcore (Updated for 1.1)

If you get Ballistic Mastery (amazing range and DPS boost for EK), you can also get a nice mana geyser and enough extra reduced mana reservation cost that with Alpha's Howl you can comfortably add Tempest shield (+ Blind) to your build for a big tankability boost. Not sure its worth the loss off all the HP and armour nodes at Templar start to get it though...

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tavirosu wrote:

Are the scion early projectile damage nodes (the 4 down ones) worth giving up and going for the 4 upper faster casting + Path of the Savant ones?

ps: For late game, lvel 75+.

Yeah for late game I found they were better. I originally did route through the proj damage nodes but ended up saving a few points by going through the mana nodes instead - which are more important for this build. At level 85 right now I actually need slightly more mana and damage is fine (I dont even have empower yet and it's over 7k)

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chowriit wrote:

If you get Ballistic Mastery (amazing range and DPS boost for EK), you can also get a nice mana geyser and enough extra reduced mana reservation cost that with Alpha's Howl you can comfortably add Tempest shield (+ Blind) to your build for a big tankability boost. Not sure its worth the loss off all the HP and armour nodes at Templar start to get it though...

Yeah I tried every possible way to route through ballistic mastery because I really wanted it but no matter how I looked at it - it just wasnt worth the investment. We still reach the edge of the screen with faster proj + a proj speed wand though (or a Karui Ward while levelling).

I read your post in your voice.

Damn you.

Hey Ziggy,

You come through in the clutch again. For my first poe character and now my first league character.

I am wondering why you grab Iron Reflexes if you grab Armor/ES gear. Wouldn't that make Ev/ES better? Or at least make IR pointless?

Thanks!

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KeenSenses13 wrote:

Hey Ziggy,

You come through in the clutch again. For my first poe character and now my first league character.

I am wondering why you grab Iron Reflexes if you grab Armor/ES gear. Wouldn't that make Ev/ES better? Or at least make IR pointless?

Thanks!

Grace..

Makes sense. Assuming the focus on armor is for the nodes by the templar tree then.

Thanks for the reply.

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iMbaQ wrote:

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KeenSenses13 wrote:

Hey Ziggy,

You come through in the clutch again. For my first poe character and now my first league character.

I am wondering why you grab Iron Reflexes if you grab Armor/ES gear. Wouldn't that make Ev/ES better? Or at least make IR pointless?

Thanks!

Grace..

Yeah Grace alone is worth it.

It does have some side benefits though, like running Jade Flasks and using some EV/ES gear while levelling (I had an EV/ES 5Link for a long time).

Just as a levelling consideration, it might be better to grab the 30 DEX node on the right hand side of the tree seeing as you'll have access to it a lot earlier - even with a jade amulet, I'm struggling to keep bear trap up to date, which is an immensely useful skill vs. troublesome rares (and linked with added fire does a lot of burst).

Loving the playstyle so far though, feels really solid :O

Agreed. I actually did the same thing until I got back down to the dex nodes and put it elsewhere.