[2.0] Tempada's AAA EK: An Ethereal Knives Guide | 30-60k+ Non-Crit DPS | Affordable | HC Viable

<< Passive Skill Tree >>

DPS: 43k (61k with Atziri's Promise + Taste of Hate)
Life: 4793, 182/sec regen, 680 ES
Mana: 1818 total, 161 unreserved, 224/sec regen
Evasion Rating: 2314
Chance to Dodge Attacks: 40%
Chance to Dodge Spells: 30%
Chance to Block Attacks: 8%
Movement Speed: +38%

Ethereal Knives (EK) is a spell that fires 10 projectiles at once and deals physical instead of elemental damage. Unlike most spells, it can be supported by Added Fire Damage, Hatred, Herald of Ash, and Physical to Lightning. These gems add elemental damage and make it possible to buff EK through elemental nodes on the tree. EK can also be buffed by physical, projectile, and spell nodes, making it one of the most flexible skills in the game.

Since spells always hit, you don't need to worry about accuracy. Since damage mostly comes from leveling gems, you can excel with inexpensive gear. Tree pathing is efficient for both offense and defense as a Shadow (or Templar). Crit chance is ignored in favor of a more defensive spec, but this isn't detrimental to our power. Essentially, EK allows us to build an affordable and well-rounded character.

Pros:

-Hardcore viable
-High damage potential for a low-crit build
-Deadly against mobs
-Inexpensive, possible to play self-found
-Reflect is easily countered
-Many "auras" at once (AA + Clarity + Hatred + HoA + HoI)
-Unlike with most spells, damage can be increased by Taste of Hate

Cons:

-EK is a weak single target skill until it and most support gems are properly leveled
-A 5L chest or 4L item with the "+1 to Level of Gems" mod is highly recommended for endgame
-Getting the right amount of mana regen can be a balancing act
-Best as a solo build

AAA = ACROBATICS + ARCTIC ARMOUR

Taking Acrobatics followed by Phase Acrobatics on the tree allows us to dodge both attack and spell damage.

Arctic Armour (AA) is a gem that provides significant protection from physical and fire damage when you're standing still. Since using EK roots you in place, you'll often have protection.

Acrobatics, Arctic Armour, shield block (unless you equip Pledge of Hands), potions, and a high life pool are our primary sources of damage mitigation. This is supplemented by armour, energy shield, or evasion on gear.

Hardcore players: I highly recommend Lightning Coil (or Cloak of Flame while leveling) as your body armour for the extra physical damage protection, and I would use a dagger (with shield) in order to make use of Whirling Blades + Fortify. Keep Fortify active at all times when in battle. You might also rely on Enduring Cry for a steady supply of endurance charges.

A Note on Mind Over Matter

Mind Over Matter (MoM) provides all-around damage mitigation by allowing your mana pool to absorb 30% of every blow you take. It sounds great, but it's ultimately a pain because it requires unusually high mana regen and limits the number of auras you can use. In short, don't bother with MoM. If you insist and take the passive or, better yet, use Cloak of Defiance for its built-in MoM, you will eventually need over 500 unreserved mana to support it.

SKILL TREES

Shadow offers higher damage potential, while Templar offers a little more life/mana and an easier start.

Hardcore players: Templar is recommended.



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BANDIT REWARDS

• Normal: help Oak for +40 to base life
• Cruel: help Oak for +16% physical damage since it makes EK significantly more powerful
• Merciless: kill all for the skill point

LINKS

Ethereal Knives

6L: EK + Spell Echo + Faster Casting + Added Fire Damage + Faster Projectiles + Empower/Life Leech*

5L: EK + Spell Echo + Faster Casting + Added Fire/Life Leech* + Faster Projectiles

4L: EK + Spell Echo + Faster Casting/Faster Projectiles + Added Fire

Faster Casting will give more dps than Faster Projectiles in a 4L setup, but Faster Projectiles may be preferable if you don't have "increased projectile speed" on your wand plus the Sniper and Ballistic Mastery passives.

*It is possible to drop Life Leech by using Warlord's Mark and Atziri's Promise, but it's not recommended except in the 4L version where you need all the dps you can get.

Auras

Clarity + Hatred + Enlighten (these three ideally in Alpha's Howl) + Arctic Armour + Herald of Ash + Herald of Ice

The above setup must be spread across two items. You may not have Enlighten, and without it you won't be able to use every gem listed, but equip them as you can in the given order, with Clarity being your top priority and Herald of Ice being least important.

Cast when Damage Taken

CwDT lvl 6 + Enfeeble/Warlord's Mark lvl 9 + Summon Skeletons lvl 12 + Frost Wall lvl 13
and
CwDT lvl 20 + Summon Chaos Golem

Use Warlord's Mark if you don't link EK to Life Leech. Remove Frost Wall if you play with random people; it's really obnoxious and can get them killed! I can't be bothered to manually cast the golem, so I link it to a max level CwDT and throw my Heralds in there too.

Movement

Lightning Warp + Faster Casting + Less Duration (in most cases)
or
Whirling Blades + Fortify + Faster Attacks (only if you use a dagger; recommended for hardcore)

Remaining Gems

The rest of the gems are up to you. If you play hardcore, find a spot for Enduring Cry. Decoy Totem is excellent as well.

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GEAR BREAKDOWN

I'm going to give you a rundown of what I think is ideal, but you can tweak it to your playstyle.

Amulet

Shoot for cast speed or increased spell damage on top of life, mana/mana regen, and resists as necessary.

Belt

Get a Rustic Sash (up to 24% Increased Physical Damage) with life, optional armour, and resists. Strength is nice too.

Also worthwhile is Doryani's Invitation. With up to 30% increased physical damage, it has more power, triple resists, and a bit of physical damage leech, but it's not exactly cheap and it lacks plain ol' life.

Body Armour

Ideally you want life and resists as necessary on a hybrid chest. However, you can wear pretty much any item as long as you're happy with your life, resists, and socket colors. Try Belly of the Beast, Lightning Coil (recommended for hardcore, but it can be hard to get enough resists unless you drop one or both Herald gems and use Purity of Lightning instead), Cloak of Defiance (hardcore only, I'm not a big fan), or a rare es/armour or es/evasion chest. If you're masochistic (because of socket colors) or using Pledge of Hands, Lioneye's Vision could be fun for the pierce chance.

By the time you're mapping, a 5L (or a 4L item with the "+1 to Level of Gems" mod, like Geofri's Crest) is recommended for both damage and survival. A 6L is definitely not necessary, but it's icing on the cake.

Boots & Gloves

These are pretty basic. Look for life and necessary resists first and foremost, and your boots should have +30% movement speed by endgame. Some items have mana as well.

Helmet

Alpha's Howl is highly recommended for its reduced mana reservation (required if you want to run all of the auras listed above) and increased aura power.

If you want to stick with a 4L EK setup by late game, try to get Geofri's Crest or a 4L corrupted item with the "+1 to Level of Gems" mod.

If you're on a budget and having trouble with mana and mana regen, try Mindspiral. A rare helm is fine if you don't have any uniques available.

Rings

Life, mana regen, mana, cast speed, resists as necessary.

Shield

Here you probably want a rare es shield with with life, spell damage, and resists as necessary. Mana and mana regen are great too. Don't forget that you can craft cast speed, just know your affixes so you can tell when it's possible.

Rathpith Globe Titanium Spirit Shield is an excellent, or even better, alternative. It has lower damage potential than a basic spell shield, but the life, energy shield, and spell block more than make up for it. Pair it with Rumi's Concoction to really pump up your spell block.

Weapon

A wand is perfect for EK. An ideal explicit stat roll (back in 1.3) included Increased Spell Damage, Increased Cold/Fire Damage (to boost Hatred or Added Fire Damage), Increased Cast Speed, and Increased Projectile Speed. Projectile Speed is less important in 2.0 since a quality EK gem grants it, and it's hard for me to say how the new flat spell damage compares to increased damage... Mana or mana regen is also nice.

Pledge of Hands is an excellent alternative, at least in softcore. In hardcore, I would actually shoot for a dagger. Unfortunately it won't have cast speed, but a dagger lets you use Whirling Blades + Fortify, which is great for survivability.

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LEVELING GEAR

Perandus Signet / Blackheart / Le Heup of All

Karui Ward (awesome for the projectile speed) / Atziri's Foible

Crest of Perandus

Doedre's Tenure / Lochtonial Caress

Wanderlust

Ezomyte Peak / Mindspiral for when you hit level 37

Tabula Rasa

Map mods to avoid like the plague

"Players have Blood Magic"
"Players cannot regenerate Life or Mana"

"Players recover Life, Mana and Energy Shield 50% slower" is obnoxious but doable if you replace Faster Projectiles with Mana Leech. Pro tip: move around with Lightning Warp in these maps to conserve mana and keep Arctic Armour active at all times.

Reflect is rarely a problem, just be cautious around reflect packs in reflect maps, and MoM or Cloak of Defiance users should be extra careful since reflect packs can drain mana and deactivate Arctic Armour.

Unless you use Lazhwar, Rainbowstride, or Rathpith Globe, you probably won't have any spell block. This means you cannot facetank the tougher magic casting bosses. On second thought, don't facetank any advanced enemy! Kite, use Purity of X auras, keep a Skeleton Totem active, and use flasks wisely. Skip a boss or avoid an enemy if you don't think you can handle it.

Things that kill me

Devourers when using Iron Reflexes (they're much easier with Acrobatics). A surprise attack by a blue/magic mob of these fugly worms has a good chance of ending you before you know what's happening, namely in high level maps that roll "increased monster attack speed", "monsters fire 4 additional projectiles", and/or "extra damage as cold/fire/lightning". Pop a Granite Flask or Lightning Warp out of there and hope for the best. You can also get screwed by fast-hopping maws, especially the Mutated Maw boss. And be wary of yellow/rare strongboxes; Lightning Warp away right after you activate them. These are my fears aside from some map bosses, a couple rogue exiles in tight spaces, and crazy map mods.

For when you hit level 37.

The corrupted part is overkill. I use a Tabula Rasa to level up all my characters.