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

Hi everyone,

would you suggest this build for starting fresh over in the new HC League in february?
It seems like it´s not that heavy gear dependend, or would you recommend just staying spectral throw for farming gear for the more interesting builds xD

Thanks in advance

Hi Ziggy and thx for a nice build.

Im currently starting in Nemesis using this build and have come to about lvl 35 so far.
I have some questions:

The support gems "reduced mana" & "inc. duration" doesn´t affect Artic Armour according to the WIKI.
BUT, the skill "Inner Force" in the skill tree does affect AA and i guess all skill nodes who are inc. buff effects works.
According to the WIKI "Inner force" affects both the physical & fire damage reduction as well as the mana drain when still and moving.
Have anyone tried this and can comment on how effective inc. buff nodes are on artic armour?
Also what is this base duration on AA?
Do you need to recast AA every base duration (2.9 sec at lvl 20)?

I still use Spectral Throw but will switch over to EK as soon as i find the skill gem.
As i just started i Nemesis/HC i have no gear at all except what i find when playing/leveling up.

At higher levels, isn't cold and lightning damage a problem as the AA works on only phys and fire damage?

"

Feanturo wrote:

Hi everyone,

would you suggest this build for starting fresh over in the new HC League in february?
It seems like it´s not that heavy gear dependend, or would you recommend just staying spectral throw for farming gear for the more interesting builds xD

Thanks in advance

I did this build for the just concluded week race and I's say it's a very good first build in a fresh league. I switched to EK just before normal Dominus (~lvl38) without mana problems. I ended up level 70 just shy of 48 hours played solo. I only traded for a reduced mana at about level 45 that helped a lot with respect to the MoM and running both grace/clarity. When going into merciless I grabbed the three convenient 18% res nodes below scion starter area. At the end I was able to run grace/hatred/clarity and had almost 2K dps/3K hp/7K armour/75% all res without any especially great gear.

I would say this is a great starter build for a new league as the damage scales well without influence of gear meaning you can craft/choose your gear purely on the defense stats.

Cheers

If someone knows if taking "Inner Force" (and other increased buff nodes) is good, plz let us know.
Hard to know how much they will affect the Artic Armour.
Maybe they are very good.

"

Accunster wrote:

I did this build for the just concluded week race and I's say it's a very good first build in a fresh league. I switched to EK just before normal Dominus (~lvl38) without mana problems. I ended up level 70 just shy of 48 hours played solo. I only traded for a reduced mana at about level 45 that helped a lot with respect to the MoM and running both grace/clarity. When going into merciless I grabbed the three convenient 18% res nodes below scion starter area. At the end I was able to run grace/hatred/clarity and had almost 2K dps/3K hp/7K armour/75% all res without any especially great gear.

I would say this is a great starter build for a new league as the damage scales well without influence of gear meaning you can craft/choose your gear purely on the defense stats.

Cheers

Awesome thx. Definetly what i was wishing to hear ;)

"

Mateo_swe wrote:

If someone knows if taking "Inner Force" (and other increased buff nodes) is good, plz let us know.
Hard to know how much they will affect the Artic Armour.
Maybe they are very good.

Provided the additional mana drain from Arctic Armour doesn't gimp you, it's fine to take Inner Force. Give you slightly more mitigation / mana drained. It's also 21% increased effect from auras, which is not negligible.

So taking "Inner Force" node will affect Arctic Armour neagtive, giving it higher mana drain?
I thought the increased buffs would boost the damage reduction and also lower the mana drain.

So it boosts the damage reduction aswell as increases the manadrain.
Or have i got this wrong?

I know it affects both dmg reduction and mana drain but not in what direction (negative or positive).

"

Mateo_swe wrote:

So taking "Inner Force" node will affect Arctic Armour neagtive, giving it higher mana drain?
I thought the increased buffs would boost the damage reduction and also lower the mana drain.

So it boosts the damage reduction aswell as increases the manadrain.
Or have i got this wrong?

I know it affects both dmg reduction and mana drain but not in what direction (negative or positive).

It increases both.
You get more damage reduction, at the cost of more mana / second.
Note that Inner Force also works for auras, boosting their effect by 21%, but doesn't increase the amount of mana reserved.

Hey guys! I'm playing in domination league. I started playing some days ago and i'm following this guide for my EK.

What do you think i'll have to change next? This is my current gear (i'm lvl 46)



Ty in advance!

This is for late stage mappers (73+)

I've decided it is too late in Nemesis to reroll, and just continue on with this guy (level 81).

I've got 10ex in pure/mixed currency lying around. I'd like to dump it all in and see how far I can get.

The challenge is that there are SO FEW upgrades now available, and many people seemed to have stopped/slowed down playing, so shops are posted, but closed lol.

I can get unique upgrades however. So my question:

Should I stack spell block and push into 74+ maps (I play solo)?

There is literally nothing left to do with the currency, other than dump into maps.

My gear, despite working really hard, I cannot find decent upgrades that make sizable differences.


Ideas are appreciated.

Edit: I guess I could buy GCP and get quality on my gems...