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

Is there a way for the scion build to run grace, hatred, descipline and clarity?

I need disc/clarity to run my AA, and I switch the G slot around but, when is it possible? What lvl reduced mana and how many mana reserved reduction? I have almost all but the 5% by scion.

And how man much is needed for MoM to be effective?

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_Elminister_ wrote:

Am I right when assuming that Evasion is better than armor for this build?

Going evasion allows you to capitalize on at least +50% Evasion Rating from the evasion wheel on the skill tree, and you can run Alpha's Howl. But it makes rolling colors on your chest and Cast When Damage Taken links more difficult. If you do armour/energy shield instead, there's no reason to head towards Iron Reflexes, I'd even stay away from Mind over Matter to save a ton of points. There's nothing wrong with doing a mix of evasion and armour if you take IR, the only downside is that you aren't getting the most out of the evasion nodes I mentioned earlier.

I personally prefer all evasion/energy shield gear (with Iron Reflexes; evasion without Acrobatics is nowhere near as good as armour, although you could potentially use Hyrri's Ire and skip Iron Reflexes altogether).

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fs84 wrote:

Is there a way for the scion build to run grace, hatred, descipline and clarity?

I need disc/clarity to run my AA, and I switch the G slot around but, when is it possible? What lvl reduced mana and how many mana reserved reduction? I have almost all but the 5% by scion.

It's most definitely possible (especially with Alpha's Howl), although Mind over Matter may not be worth taking if you run four auras. When it's possible depends on your mana, how much % reduced mana reserved you have, and what level your Reduced Mana gems are. Use this resource to calculate what you need.

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_Elminister_ wrote:

Hi everyone, I'm playing this build in Ambush and loving it. Very few deaths so far.

I have a few questions.

1. When's the right time to pick up Mind over Matter? My mana is at 1700 right now, 800 left after auras and mana regen at 140. I was thinking of reaching 2k mana and then taking MoM.

2. Am I right when assuming that Evasion is better than armor for this build? With pick a few nodes that increase Evasion rating, so in general our gear and flasks will provide us with slightly more evasion than armor and then all that evasion gets converted to armor. So, the right choice would be to pick up EV/ES gear and Jade flasks?

3. Can this build be used for MF-ing?

4. Why is projectile speed so important?

1. I'd say once mana regen is high enough (pick up EB\MOM at the same time) and about 400+ mana reserved

2. No, armor is better in nearly every case

3. Guess it can since you only need the chest for 1 dmg spell (EK)

4. Increases the range of EK

Now my question:
How viable is EK currently, i barely see any builds with it from other people. Most seem to go totems \ searing bond, cast on crit \ wands might be stronger as well then EK? Especially in larger groups?

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foojin wrote:

How viable is EK currently, i barely see any builds with it from other people. Most seem to go totems \ searing bond, cast on crit \ wands might be stronger as well then EK? Especially in larger groups?

In reality, there's about 100 better builds than this one for group play, this one is specialized for soloing maps (As far as I can tell, high survivability, decent damage), in groups you will have the lowest dps, and probably the least usefulness, in the current meta.

That being said, I love EK and love soloing maps, so I'm happily using this build at the moment.

p.s - Once you /eventually/ get a 6L with 20/20 gems and a level 3 Empower, your EK dps will be pretty large, still not even really close to most other skills, but you'll at least be doing damage in groups. I'd predict 15-20k EK dps, fully geared, level 95+

Oops, noticed i messed that up, read the discipline description wrong (somehow I thought it was recovery instead of just energy shield) How good is it to run discipline while using eldritch battery, Just increases max mana while giving less available to get a higher recovery speed of mana per second? A good idea, to have in a build or more likely a stop gap measure while grabbing more mana regen speed nodes / items?

I died to whites and another DC at lvl 34 shawdow. sigh probably never get off the ground in HC, Hey I was wondering why not grab sentinel, it's right there.

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Aim_Deep wrote:

I died to whites and another DC at lvl 34 shawdow. sigh probably never get off the ground in HC, Hey I was wondering why not grab sentinel, it's right there.

You do get some passive respec points from quests / orbs of regret. If it'll help you at the time you can always grab it then respec it later. a lot of this is streching out for every bit f reduced mana reservation from aura's


Honestly the build should be looked at as kind of a guideline, fliping 1-2 points around won't make it a vastly different build so tweak it a lil if you want/need to.

Im going to try the shadow version of this build, has anyone tried it? Im afraid its not tanky enough during merciles and i might die easy against Invasion bosses.

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JerryVoy wrote:

Im going to try the shadow version of this build, has anyone tried it? Im afraid its not tanky enough during merciles and i might die easy against Invasion bosses.

Ziggy is himself doing this as Shadow now since the nerf of the life wheel and early scion nodes made it less favourable. There are examples of passive trees in the last few pages as well as Ziggy's video of his current build.

I am myself currently in Merciless and there are some Invasion bosses that hardly even deal damage to me (Revenant only deals damage with Searing Bond), some are like Corrector that can be easily kited with decent movespeed (Karui + boots + maybe nodes). But some are invaders that I would run from with many character (f.e. Cintiq without CI? No thanks). Nothing in the normal content feels overly threatening.

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_Elminister_ wrote:

Hi everyone, I'm playing this build in Ambush and loving it. Very few deaths so far.

I have a few questions.

1. When's the right time to pick up Mind over Matter? My mana is at 1700 right now, 800 left after auras and mana regen at 140. I was thinking of reaching 2k mana and then taking MoM.

2. Am I right when assuming that Evasion is better than armor for this build? With pick a few nodes that increase Evasion rating, so in general our gear and flasks will provide us with slightly more evasion than armor and then all that evasion gets converted to armor. So, the right choice would be to pick up EV/ES gear and Jade flasks?

3. Can this build be used for MF-ing?

4. Why is projectile speed so important?

Question 1: You are ready for MoM, very much so. I am using MoM with slightly less mana but 170 regen, and it feels good.

Question 2: Yes, in the tree we use there is a greater benefit in defense by picking flat evasion. It's basic Iron Reflexes stuff.
In the context of the trade-off, I can understand that using Chromes to get a 6L EV/ES to be RRRGGB is not as easy as an AR/ES 6L.

Question 3 I have no practical answer to. The build has its need when it comes to stats on gear, it's up to you what to revoke. Losing mana regen/cast speed etc. etc. to fit in Andvarius would not suit me. If you are more interested in MF than EK, the build is prob. not optimal.

Question 4: Projectile Speed is basically a great defensive stat. The range EK is able to get with a few basic extra projectile nodes/items (Karui ward, gem, Ballistic Node) is both amazing as offense as it is defensively. The importance of getting it on a wand is so you can free up your amulet slot for something that gives us even better stats, higher up on our priorities.

Thanks! I finally added Cast on damage setup to my build and the difference in survivability is insane! I didn't really have any issues before, but now it's off the charts. And now with MoM added also, I feel super tanky.

One additional question. Ziggy's Scion gear in the guide has Culling Strike - Item Rarity - Bear Trap. What's up with that?