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

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pegr wrote:

One thing comes to my mind. What about this aura setup : Grace - clarity - herald of ash - herald of ice - discipline. Shouldnt be clarity run on health instead on mana? How bad is that.

Yes, that you could do. You'd need Clarity + Blood Magic + Reduced Mana, so the question is where would you put it? You could drop the skeletons, although they're pretty useful.

So i died on my first two attempts to run this build. So far level 39 and 45. Dying on desync to storm call beyond monsters. But im lost now. The first time i rushed for EB while grabbing those life nodes north from shadow area. Then i went for IR through the evasion wheel grabbing hired killer on the way for later respec. Then i died. I felt like i need little bit more health. So next time i went through trickery but then northwest and my goal was the life wheel next to scion grabbing life nodes along the way. But in both cases, my dmg and health pool sucked. Yes i had really shitty gear (first time i had to level with ST because the only good item i got was a 2h sword) and those were my first characters in this league and i got pretty unlucky on gem drops (had to buy all support gems so im left with basically no currency). So im asking if you can tell me any tips on leveling, any recipes i should craft when im low on gear and what is the route you went while leveling this char (if its not something like facebreaker/that legendary bow route). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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pegr wrote:

So i died on my first two attempts to run this build. So far level 39 and 45. Dying on desync to storm call beyond monsters.

Ugh, I'm sorry. Storms are nasty and desync's the worst.

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I felt like i need little bit more health.

Try this early on:


After that, alternate between moving towards Heart and Soul (EB while you're over there), Path of the Warrior, and Iron Reflexes. Since it sounds like you really need the life, you might avoid going near Inner Force and instead head through Sentinel to grab Constitution sooner. A later tree might look like this:


Damage is trickier at first, but you should be able to level up with EK. If there's any way you can buy a Karui Ward Jade Amulet, do so. The increased projectile speed extends the range of EK and makes it easier to keep away from enemies. Wanderlust Wool Shoes are nice for the mana regen, movement speed, and Cannot be Frozen bonus. Crest of Perandus Pine Buckler is amazing early on for its high life and block chance (I think I used that thing into Merciless). The first two are very cheap items (1 Chaos or less, offer Alts instead since Chaos doesn't drop till later). Perandus is maybe 3C, but again, you can probably buy one with Orbs of Alteration.

Beyond that, make sure you grind levels to stay ahead of your enemies and build up currency. Keep running Ledge in Act 1, Fellshrine Ruins in Act 2, or Docks in Act 3.

Hope this helps!

Tempada, I just respecced into Acrobatics. I respect your opinion on this, so take a look, lemme know if you got ideas for what to retrain else or following levels.

I'm planning on getting more Life after the Physical Damage node, or maybe the Projectile Penetration nodes (all at once with retraining, at 90ish). Thoughts?

Mana regen is tough, but I have a bit more than 280, so it'll do.

Oh anyway, I just died on desync again so Im gonna do rampage instead of beyond.Gonna try the dps version of the build. But because its softcore Im probably gonna cut grace in favor of something else and i will go for MoM. Something like clarity - hatred - ash - discipline probably.
And one thing came to my mind while farming for some gems. For my purposes of MoM and 4 auras build, scion would probably be much better. I did something like this:
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAA2L356EGHtz7-CoLHgwlvnspKD6tTNZu1wzoaj_ba-wkZih9BAx4Wv1VLYeImlYw2lwYtg_66u-PEovrSVdZk5xcvgKQWbySqNunjasDjS1fxsyj66-4ppU4qW6_dDSzpFSAqTUp9h3ZnoPzFrEdRTH1bDkh_xhGWwfOio9sLgh5JUfDVlS4HHmpDwFS86msXlSAI9B2q4YhGcV3ysZAtqNtZt9ZXyeq6tAwNfKZXMZ7yRTrhj0YdFLiTpwhwu-wYj_oc3JMntUgGI4UydPEY2w==

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pegr wrote:

And one thing came to my mind while farming for some gems. For my purposes of MoM and 4 auras build, scion would probably be much better. I did something like this:

Spoiler

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgAA2L356EGHtz7-CoLHgwlvnspKD6tTNZu1wzoaj_ba-wkZih9BAx4Wv1VLYeImlYw2lwYtg_66u-PEovrSVdZk5xcvgKQWbySqNunjasDjS1fxsyj66-4ppU4qW6_dDSzpFSAqTUp9h3ZnoPzFrEdRTH1bDkh_xhGWwfOio9sLgh5JUfDVlS4HHmpDwFS86msXlSAI9B2q4YhGcV3ysZAtqNtZt9ZXyeq6tAwNfKZXMZ7yRTrhj0YdFLiTpwhwu-wYj_oc3JMntUgGI4UydPEY2w==

That tree can work in softcore, although I'd still go with a Shadow. Playing as a Scion saves you 1 point, but you'll be doing more damage by starting as a Shadow. Cast speed trumps spell damage (12% cast speed is better than 30% spell damage), plus you get two elemental damage nodes at the Shadow start that boost Hatred, Added Fire Damage, and Herald of Ash.

I was thinking more about the access to sovereignity, which would lead to the 34% reserved mana reduction. Im gonna try it and see what comes out of it. Sure, the dmg will be lower, but probably still enough for fast mapping. Gonna give it a try then will sum up my thoughts about it. It should be finished around level 75.

thanks for this guide, i built a shadow ek on rampage based on this
i already had an EK marauder before, but it ate ass since it had no damage compared to this
i really like this one

i'm thinking about buying that atziri belt & going with empower on EK (instead of LS)
guess with lvl 20 gems + empower i'd hit 20-21k dps
dunno if the leech is enough tho

here is my char in case anyone's interrested: (lvl 87)

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Flutt3r wrote:

thanks for this guide, i built a shadow ek on rampage based on this
i already had an EK marauder before, but it ate ass since it had no damage compared to this
i really like this one

I'm glad you're enjoying the build. Thanks for sharing your tree and gear!

Your tree is almost exactly where I was a couple levels back. I finally caved and got rid of those Witch damage nodes in favor of more life, and it worked out great. My dps with nearly maxed gems (quality included) is about 20k (I could go higher if I re-equipped Ming's Heart or got rid of Cloak of Defiance and used Herald of Ice/Ash), but my life is less than yours because I use Alpha's Howl and my shield doesn't have any hp. I'll probably switch over to Rathpith once I get the right colors on the shield, though.

Does Herald of Ash work wiht ek? EK is a spell but has phy dmg.