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

I am about to start a toon in Hardcore in this game for the first time, started in Dom first till i got to know what i was doing.

I was reading through the things and some comments, watched a little bit of the videos but i got bored of watching them and was just like "get to the point" (sorry i am having a bad night lol).

Could i get like...an updated leveling guide on where i should put my skills and such? i just do not want to mess up and have to refund a shitload of points later on lol.

Also i read that this games hardcore is different...as in you die you do not lose your toon you just go to standard, that is a stupid idea imo lol, if i die in hardcore i am deleting it and rerolling as it should be!

I started this build in Nemesis (or one closely related to it)and made it to level 56 before ripping due to not paying attention. x.x It was pretty easy and felt like I couldn't die. Thanks for the build, thinking about retrying it too!

Just curious about EK with Fork - does it have any interesting behavior like overlapping sprays from forked projectiles or is it just superfluous?

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Harlequon wrote:

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

+1

I did start out going for the templar side though, and havent reached IR yet - and there's a few dex nodes on the way there.

Love the build - thnx for the guide!

It took me a while but I've finally found a flaw in this build.

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Leoj wrote:

It took me a while but I've finally found a flaw in this build.

Spoiler

manually casting arctic armor every time you zone alkdjalsdjlkasjdklajsd so annoying "oh i'm taking damage must have forgotten AA again" :(

Linking it to faster casting helps.

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Vodkaholic wrote:

Just curious about EK with Fork - does it have any interesting behavior like overlapping sprays from forked projectiles or is it just superfluous?

You get pretty good clear speed on larger packs with fork but I think it's not worth the damage loss at end game. I know some people level with EK+Fork though. The main thing is it effectively makes your EK knives travel further and deeper into packs as each fork counts as a new projectile start point.

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Wackofalltrades wrote:

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Harlequon wrote:

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

+1

I did start out going for the templar side though, and havent reached IR yet - and there's a few dex nodes on the way there.

Love the build - thnx for the guide!

Good call! Scion is a bit annoying for early main stats, I think I probably did this while levelling - I just can't remember it. And yeah, getting the Karui Ward early on helps a lot.

I'm a bit confused. The Passive Build tree and the tree in your video differs. In the normal Passiv Link, you aren't going down to projectile Damage. In the Video, you are going down to. Could you please Explain this to me?

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pr1mus wrote:

I'm a bit confused. The Passive Build tree and the tree in your video differs. In the normal Passiv Link, you aren't going down to projectile Damage. In the Video, you are going down to. Could you please Explain this to me?

I asked before, and respecced the points there into the upper cast speed/spell dmg ones and the dps gain was a bit noticable but gained more mana (at level 77). So overall at lower levels projectiles are better to get access down, then loose them.

LE: To clarity, use the projectile damage in the start because you will be leveling with ST, then loose them once you have EK and feel like your damage needs a bit more casting/spell.