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

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Mateo_swe wrote:

If i were to switch out the life-leech gem for some dmg boost gem, what other life leech options are there that works with EK?
Does life leech stats on items work?
Does life leech on passive skillnodes work?

As EK is a spell and a special one also, i don't really know what work here.
Maybe the life-leech gem is a must, or??

For end-game content, Life Leech is a must. Life Leech on gear/nodes does NOT work with spells, so that's a no.

My gear, For this build

This is a really great and safe build for anyone starting PoE out (and probably more experienced too), not to mention while playing it I've met and befriended quite a few ZD EK scion followers aswell.
Is this a cult? If this isn't a cult, it should be a cult. It has all the makings of becoming a great cult.

Ripped two scions while still learning the ropes of the game, but so far so good third time's the charm eh? What I've liked most about this build is that because of the relative simplicity of gear requirements and the different synergies within, I've been able to learn to play a new game in the way I love doing it most, by playing it and knowing that the build will work once I figure out how to make it work, and once I figure out that, I'm going to be in a better place to start figuring more stuff out for the future.

My current gear (I managed to socket and link my chest myself even)



Defensive stats with lvl 22 Grace/EK Tooltip DPS with lvl 21 Hatred.



Without Hatred, tooltip dps is 6915,3.
While grouped with Hatred from someone else (because of Alpha's the people I map with prefer me to run Grace) EK tooltip dps is around 9500-9800. Level 2 Empower drops tooltip dps with 400-500 compared to running my now 20%/18 Iron Will, waiting for it to hit level 3 to see if it's an improvement over Iron Will or not.
Solo I still prefer to run Grace over Hatred, swapping Enfeeble for Vulnerability in safer maps for more deeps trough debuff. Slow and steady works out fine for me.
Should maybe get another pair of boots with green socket instead of blue for Temp Chains/Projectile weakness for solo play, been using Enfeeble and Vulnerability mostly because if I'm grouping, they feel like the more obvious choice for better synergy with other physical damage dealers and rechromming every time I swap from grouping to solo or vice versa feels like a terrible idea.

Passives so far



DPS would probably be abit higher if I would have focused harder on minmaxing my gear and taken Nimbleness before Path of the Savant (there was some reason why I did this think it was the maxmana=survivability>castspeed train of thought) and the extra lifenodes.
Unreserved mana feels good as it is where it is at 1400ish, together with where my health is sitting at atm I feel it to be a comfortable buffer when it comes to taking damage.
I'm stil rather sensitive as a player when it comes to high damagespikes, better safe then sorry.

I don't think I could have wished for a better way of getting started with this game, I've learned tons and had fun on the road!

I read somewhere that there is one unique ring who gives life and mana leech for spell casters.
I think it was a berek's but im not sure.
Is there some unique who gives this ability?

Hey i just have a question for the build,i fid it really amazing but do you think that Moonsorrow wand would be good for it?

Not sure how good it is for the build but I found a Moonsorrow and I've been using it. I may just be unlucky on wand drops but I have not found an upgrade for it yet.

I am still low level,only 37,but i am still using spectral throw cause i cant seem to find a good wand around my lvl to use

It is no problems to wait a little longer before switching to EK.
I took EB, MoM and IR nodes all at once and i was waiting very long before i took these steps.
As ST works very good at these levels it doesnt matter.
Try to lvl up your EK gems in some free spots if you can so you dont start up with so low damage.
Also, the wand dont need to be yber good, but it is nice to have some projectile speed besides spell damage.
I still dont have any cast speed on my wand yet but i hopefully can upgrade soon.

I'm currently at lv67 with 3.2k mana (600 not reserved, running Hatred/Grace/Discipline), 1.6k HP, and 3.1k DPS on EK
Am I doing good so far?

Im running Haste instead of Disipline to get some more DPS and it works decently.
I have so bad luck with 6 linking my armour and are using a 4-link right now.
That's why i want to use haste aura temporarily.
I have about 3k DPS, about 3k life and just enough mana to run all auras.
I wish there was a simple way of getting a lot of fusings, now im farming blues to get them.
I have terrible bad luck with this, maybe i have to buy a 6 link armour of the right kind instead.