[2.1] Ethereal Knives MF Build. Effectively >90k DPS, >20k EHP, 300 IIR, 43 IIQ, Triple Blasphemy
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[Update July 2, 2016]:
Since Scion got trashed by patch 2.3, I made a new variation of this build on a Trickster (Shadow). I think that this is probably the strongest and tankiest version of the build so far. See https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1695677. [Update April 15, 2016]: As of 2.2, I have stopped playing this build on my Witch, and have fully transitioned to Scion (due to its awesome Berserker subclass with free 1.5% Life Leech and 10% more damage, as well as +40 Strength). You can find the new version of this build here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1648258. [Update January 21, 2016]: I tested a new variation of the build today which brings Enfeeble to 45% less monster damage, but even more importantly, Temporal Chains gets pushed beyond the cap of 75% less monster speed (for this, a level 4 corrupted Enhance is needed). Although I lost some ES, the build feels insanely tanky now. (Think 7k * 1/(1-0.75) * 1/(1-0.45) > 50k.) I've uploaded another video of me doing Springs with 40% less regen (I swapped IIQ for Reduced Mana to counteract this), as well as increased monster life and damage. On top of that, I chose Domination as Zana mod. See Springs. [Update January 19, 2016]: Uploaded another video and added a video section to the guide. As you can see, Plateau with Enfeeble, -Max res and Beyond is a trivial exercise. You can also sense the loot explosion that is typical for the build. [Update January 13, 2016]: Added a video of a Gorge run I did earlier today. Elemental reflect, but otherwise trivial mods (I didn't alter my gem setup for this). Unfortunately, the quality is not perfect, and I experienced some serious Internet lag in the middle (crappy wireless connection). I will try to add a couple more videos shortly. I'd be happy about tips how to improve the video quality. See Gorge. [Update January 12, 2016]: Added a mapping section and updated a few sections. [Update January 8, 2016]: Hi everybody! Sorry it's been forever since the last update, but it took me a while to figure out how to get the most out of 2.1 (and December was a busy month ;)). What are the main changes? (1) First of all, with all the aura reservation and radius nodes, this build is really predestined to abuse the new curse support gem Blasphemy. This is how I obtain the insane numbers found in the title: As defensive curses, I use both Enfeeble and Temporal Chains. With 30% increased curse effectiveness from the tree and quality Blasphemy, we receive 30% * 1.3 = 39% less damage from any source of monster damage (and that's not even counting reduced monster accuracy and crit chance), while all monsters are slowed by >50% with max. quality Temporal Chains. With currently around 7.5k ES, my effective health pool (EHP) is thus much higher: a conservative estimate is given by 7.5k * [1 / (1-0.39)] * 2 > 20k EHP. As offensive curse, I use Projectile Weakness, which effectively works like a 35%+ "more" multiplier. This pushes my tooltip dps of around 68k to above 90k. (2) Since this is a non-crit build, using "Controlled Destruction" as new support is a total no-brainer. Even a lvl 5(!) Empower would be weaker. So my new gem setup is EK lvl 21 - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Life Leech - IIR - IIQ. For challenging content, it's possible to swap out IIQ for Added Fire Damage, or swap out both IIR and IIQ and put in 20/20 Faster Casting + Reduced Mana. This is my preferred variant for tackling Atziri (see further below). (3) In order to run my three regular auras (Empowered Discipline; Clarity and Hatred) and the three "blasphemed" curses, some clever socket recoloring and passive tree changes were required. Essentially, I had to drop Herald of Ash + Haste (Projectile Weakness is stronger than both combined) and Arctic Armor (the build is super tanky now anyway). (4) Farming Atziri is now a piece of cake. Vaal duo and Trio are a joke, and it's possible to facetank Atziri (even more so with a Ruby flask). The only real danger is to one-shot oneself by attacking Atziri's mirror form during her split phase. You can find my new tree and gear/gem setup below. Earlier updates:
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[Update November 7, 2015]: It's been forever since the last update, but I have continued to work on the build. Here are the most important changes: (1) I realized that dropping Life Leech doesn't work very well for end-game maps. The auto-curse setup is simply not reliable enough in tougher maps. Hence, I have reverted to using Life Leech. If you only want to run Piety/Dominus or Dried Lake, the old curse setup with Warlord's Mark works just fine. (2) I have obtained an Eye of Chayula amulet with +1 to curses (mine cost me around 5 Exas back then). In my CWDT-setup, mobs are currently cursed with Enfeeble + Projectile Weakness. This setup is really flexible though. It ranges from full damage (Projectile Weakness + Vulnerability), medium damage/defense (Enfeeble + Projectile Weakness), to full defense (Enfeeble + Temporal Chains). Just mix and match as needed. My helmet with the curse setup is also new and helps to cap my resists. See below for further gear changes. (3) I've optimized my gear: Instead of using Redbeak with Culling Strike, I'm now using a high spell damage + cast speed wand with increased projectile speed. This allows me to drop the Faster Projectiles gem and replace it with Empower or Added Fire Damage. Of course, this required recoloring my Shavs. Moreover, I'm now using a shield with less defense, but massive amounts of spell damage, with cast speed master-crafted on top of it. This pushes the damage through the roof. In order to compensate for the loss in ES, I've swapped my Aurseize gloves for high ES gloves with some IIR on top. The additional dexterity and chaos resistance are nice, too. Finally, I stablized my mana drain with two new rings, each of which come with very high mana regeneration rate. I have now enough mana regeneration such that I can even run EK 21 - Spell Echo - Life Leech - Added Fire Damage - Empower 4 - IIR. (My belt and boots stayed the same) (4) I've optimized my tree and jewels for the new setup. The changes are quite minor, though. Maybe more important is that I've switched my Normal Difficulty bandit reward to the skill point. With all the +Intelligence I have stacked and the increased mana regeneration rate, the +60 mana is not necessary anymore. Here you can find my new tree (I'm now level 93): https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMBAx4GIw18DkgPqxEvEVARlha_Fy8ZihqPGyUc3B1PHaofQSSLJLApTyo4KlMrCiycLKYtHy2oL28y0TQKNbk3ZkSrRUdGcUlRS65Ms1WuVdZcil3yX2piWmTnZlRmnm0ZcLtyD3vXf8aApIIQgwmExYx2jxqPpo_6kNaTJ5RvlSCXBpmam7WePKEvoqOnK7GQsnC0DLUEtUi297cxvoC-isBmwfPDOsSiytPQH9DQ1abZE9lb34rfmN-w4YjkIukC6rrrY-vu7Bjv6_DV9tr60vsJ_knBxVhaUilV4LiTKPpXyaEi9Pg=?accountName=habkor&characterName=Calypsae (5) I've obtained a lvl 4 Empower to further boost my damage by replacing Added Fire Damage. This is pure luxury and not needed for the average player. My damage boost was around 5% for a cost of 24 Ex. --------------------- [Update July 27, 2015]: After toying around with the tree and gem setup a bit more, I can proudly announce that the build is now ready to play with the big boys ;) Basically, I figured out two things: (a) We can swap out Life Leech for Added Fire Damage (or Empower lvl 3+), as a setup of CWDT (lvl 1) + Warlord's Mark (lvl 5) + Immortal Call (lvl 3) provides more than sufficient leech and damage protection in dangerous situations. On top of that, I also use a leveled Warlord's Mark (lvl 16 currently) to self cast pre-emptively. Even more survivability is gained by swapping out Herald of Thunder (whose added damage is quite weak anyway) for Arctic Armour. (b) The new jewels are quite OP. Even modestly good ones are at least worth three skill points that would otherwise be allocated to damage nodes. As a result, I'm now using 6 jewels, with the potential to add a 7th one at level 93. You can find the jewels I'm currently using in the new tree setup. --------------------- [Update July 22, 2015]: I have posted a first rudimentary update of the build to version 2.0. Long story short: I think it has been buffed quite a bit. The most important changes are the new skill tree and aura setup. Also, I've switched back to using Faster Projectiles instead of Faster Casting in response to the nerf of Clarity. More updates will follow shortly. --------------------- [Update March 28, 2015]: I have added a rudimentary leveling section showing a possible skilltree progression. The gear is now also up to date, and I'm explaining the gem setup in more detail. --------------------- [Update January 10, 2015]: I have uploaded a 5 min Gorge run in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the build. You can find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiQW6C7rimU&feature=youtu.be Sorry for the bad quality, I was recording on 2-year old laptop. ------------- [Update January 8, 2015]: I have optimized the passive tree by investing in more reduced mana reservation / aura effectiveness nodes. Also, I have obtained a 21/20 corrupted EK gem. With lvl 88, this pushes my damage above 21k DPS (by each of the 10 EK projectiles) and allows me to run one (or even two) additional Heralds on mana, and a level 22 Clarity on life. The latter allows me to skip 4 mana regeneration nodes on the tree, although the 40% node "Shaper" (close to Inner Force) would still be needed with Added Fire Damage instead of IIQ as support. NEW: Videos (added January 2016)
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NEW: Introduction (updated January 2016)
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The idea of this build is to utilize a spell which scales well without massive gear investment, hence allowing us to stack large amounts of IIR and IIQ while maintaining decent DPS and map viability. I currently have no problems running maps up to tier 13 (have not tried higher ones yet), however a few map mods cannot be run or require minor gem adaptions (see the corresponding section below). Since the buffs from patch 2.1, most map bosses can now be done as well. As the title suggests, our main skill will be Ethereal Knives (from now on EK). This is a projectile spell which scales with -Physical damage -Spell damage -Projectile damage -Cast speed These are the main damage nodes we can pick up from the passive tree. From my experience, going crit requires too much gear and passive investment and is not recommended. This holds even more so now with the awesome "Controlled Destruction" support gem. I further push the character by going low-life (Pain Attunement keystone for 30% *more* spell damage), employing three auras (Hatred for damage; empowered Discipline and Clarity to boost the ES-pool and mana regeneration), and auto-cursing enemies with three(!) curses (Enfeeble and Temporal Chains for survivability, Projectile Weakness for offense - all linked to Blasphemy). NEW: Current skilltree (lvl 94; updated January 2016):
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https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMAAx4NfA5ID6sRLxFQEZYV7Ra_Fy8YahmKGo8bJRzcHRQdTx2qH0EkiySwKPoqOCsKLJwspi0fLagvbzLRNAo1uTdmRKtFR0ZxSVFLrkyzTm1SKVS9Va5V1lXgV8lYB1haXEBcil3yX2piWmTnbRlwu3X9eC9713zlf8aApIIQgwmEb4TFjxqPRo-mj_qQ1pMnlSCWi5cGm6GbtZwyoS-io6XEpwinK7GQtAy1SLiTvoC-isBmwcXB88M6xKLK09Af0NDUQtW52RPZW9-K35jfsOGI6QLquutj6-7sGO_r8NX22vrS-wn-SQ==?accountName=habkor&characterName=Calypsae NEW: Current gear (updated January 2016):
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NEW: Gear requirements (updated January 2016):
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In order to survive maps, you will require * 4L+ Solaris Lorica (in order to sustain Chaos damage) * A high 350+ ES shield * A high 200+ ES helmet * Eye of Chayula amulet for stun immunity * High level EK gem (lvl 20 would be good) * Spell Echo, Life Leech and Controlled Destruction as support gems * Cast When Damage Taken + Immortal Call in order to mitigate physical damage spikes * At least Enfeeble as permanent curse. Preferably also Temporal Chains and/or Projectile Weakness * Preferably two level 3+ Enlighten supports + one high level Blood Magic support to run the auras/Blasphemy curses * Recommended: Flame Golem, Decoy Totem and Vaal Discipline as utility gems * Other gear such that you can cap your resists Also recommended for non-wealthy players is to use a Redbeak unique 1h-sword to massively boost damage (since we are on low life). Only amazing wands in the multiple Exalteds range can surpass this 1 Chaos unique. A very nice (though more expensive) option is to use a corrupted Redbeak with Culling Strike. This corrupted mod applies globally and hence pushes the effective damage by around 11%. NEW: Gem setup (updated January 2016):
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***Body*** EK - Spell Echo - Life Leech - Controlled Destruction - IIR - IIQ (typical) or EK - Spell Echo - Life Leech - Controlled Destruction - Added Fire Damage - IIR (for full damage or in leagues). Drop IIR/IIQ if you only have a 5L/4L. I'm currently more than mana-stable with the first setup, and run a minor mana deficit with the second (this can be overcome with reallocating two nodes on the tree). Faster Casting can also be an attractive option, but it requires a much higher mana regeneration (Goldwyrm boots might work). You can use it together with Reduced Mana (instead of IIR and IIQ) to tackle hard maps or Atziri. ***Auras on Life*** Hatred (max level) - Clarity (max level) - Blood Magic (lvl 20) ***Aura on Mana*** (optimal in a +1 gems Wondertrap/Aurseize/Goldwyrm) Discipline (max level) - Empower (as high as possible) - Enlighten (lvl 3+) ***Curses on Mana #1*** (requires 4l) e.g. Blasphemy - Enfeeble - Temporal Chains - Enlighten (lvl 3+) ***Curse on Mana #2*** e.g. Blasphemy - Projectile Weakness (maybe add Enlighten if you lack unreserved mana) The above leaves us with 5-6 free gem slots, which are recommended to use for ***Defense*** CWDT (lvl 1) - Immortal Call (lvl 3) ***Golem*** Flame Golem ***Utility*** e.g. Vaal Discipline, Decoy Totem and Flame Dash / Lightning Warp / Phase Run Jewels (added November 2015, still up-to-date)
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Cobalt Jewels are by far the most useful and easiest to roll. For maximal damage, I recommend the following: [Prefix] Two of those: Spell Damage While Holding a Shield (up to 16%), Cast Speed While Holding a Shield (up to 5%), Physical Damage (up to 16%) [Suffix] Two of those: Projectile Damage (up to 12%), Spell Damage (up to 12%), Cast Speed (up to 4%), Attack and Cast Speed (up to 4%), Increased Damage (up to 10%). Other useful (non-offensive) stats are [Prefix] Mana Regeneration Rate (up to 15%), Increased Mana (up to 8%), Energy Shield (up to 8%) [Suffix] Reduced Mana Cost of Skills (up to 5%), Projectile Speed (up to 8%), various resistance mods, various +stats mods. Leveling (outdated)
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It's been quite a while since I've leveled this build, but from what I remember, I used EK from the very beginning and always had a fairly solid defense and damage output. Personally, I didn't spec into low-life/ES before lvl 65 or so. In order to pull that off, you need to invest in some life nodes while leveling. At a point investment of about 85, you can then transition to low-life using your respec points from quests. With the suggested progression below, you will need exactly 10 respec points when transitioning to low-life. Here you can find a rough suggestion how to allocate your passive skill points when following my "life first"-route. 20 points:
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https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwMB37CCEI-mRKtVriyc34rpAv6zVyu9gm0ZCPTAVGpDvOoi9GwLkyd_xg== 40 points: 60 points: 85 points (before transition to low-life): 85 points (after transition to low-life): 100 points: 108 points (core build completed): 112 points Current stats (outdated)
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Offence
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 Defence
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 Misc
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 NEW: Bandit rewards (updated January 2016):
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Normal: Skill Point (preferred) or Resistances. Mana is really helpful early on, but becomes redundant at high levels. Resistances can be helpful with unoptimized gear. When in doubt, probably take the skill point, or mana for convenience (and respec in late game). Cruel: Physical Damage. Cast Speed should give a marginally higher damage boost, but the build is constrained anyway by its mana drain. When in doubt, take Physical Damage. Merciless: Skill Point for sure. NEW: Support gem options (updated January 2016):
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If you are playing in the temporary leagues (where the IIQ support is not available) or if you want to push your damage, swap out IIQ for Added Fire Damage or Empower lvl 3+.
The ultimate damage setup is EK - Spell Echo - Controlled Destruction - Life Leech - Empower 4 - Faster Casting / Added Fire Damage, but it is very mana hungry and could only be sustained with some gear and tree modifications (Goldwyrm boots; some passive points reallocated to mana regeneration nodes). NEW: Optimal gear (updated January 2016):
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Corrupted 21/20 Ethereal Knives gem. Helmet: As high ES as possible, IIR+IIQ, resistances, mana, intelligence. Chest: 6L legacy Shavs. A +1 gems Shavs would be crazy good, especially when using Empower. Shield: As high ES as possible, very high spell damage, resistances, master-crafted cast speed, intelligence. Weapon: Wand with high (100%+) spell damage, flat mana, mana regeneration, projectile speed, cast speed. Amulet: Eye of Chayula with +1 Curse. Belt: Either a well-rolled physical Doryani's Invitation (as I use), or (better) a 24% physical damage Rustic Sash with resistances, strength and energy shield. Or the mirrored Golden Obi with 30% IIR, if you can get your hands on it :) Gloves: Very high ES, IIR+IIQ, resistances, dex/str. Boots: Corrupted Wondertrap with +1 Gems. Rings: High mana regeneration rate, IIR/IIQ, flat ES, master-crafted ES%, Intelligence, missing resistances. NEW: Mapping (added January 2016):
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This build is quite strong for an MF-variant and can tackle most difficult maps. The following map mods cannot be run (or are simply not worth it): Blood Magic, No Regeneration, No Leech The following map mods can be run with minor gem adaptions: (1) Physical reflect. Swap out Controlled Destruction for Physical to Lightning. You may want to replace IIQ with Added Fire Damage to compensate for the damage loss. You may also want to consider replacing Projectile Weakness for Arctic Armor. (2) Reduced life/mana regeneration rate (up to 60%). Simply replace IIQ with a leveled "Reduced Mana" support gem. They are super cheap now. (3) Monsters are immune to curses. Can be done as is, but better to switch out the curses for Haste, Arctic Armor (instead of Projectile Weakness and Temporal Chains), and Herald of Thunder (instead of Enfeeble). The following map mod poses no threat and doesn't require any gem adaptions: Elemental reflect. Please let me know if you have any questions... I will try to answer them in time :) And of course, I'm happy about any feedback and suggestions. I'm still trying to improve this build and it's certainly far from being finished. So thanks for reading and enjoy :) Last edited by habkor on Jul 2, 2016, 2:08:15 PM Last bumped on Aug 22, 2017, 4:57:59 PM
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Bump. Nobody interested in an active self-cast, high MF build? Feel free to tear the build apart if you think it sucks ;) I'd especially be happy about any suggestions how to improve it...
Last edited by habkor on Mar 28, 2015, 12:24:05 PM
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ur build is also so good dude.but right now the low life summoner/arc/rf/flame totem is the new trend.its just that those builds have easy going playstyle .
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What about using aurseize/goldwyrm/perandus/andvarius and dropping Haste for PoE + a herald? Seems like youd have more MF and comparable DPS.
All my builds /view-thread/1430399
T14 'real' clearspeed challenge /1642265 |
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Thanks, that's an interesting suggestion... I haven't thought about using Perandus Signet at all. However, I see some potential issues. I guess that even when using Purity, losing the resistances from my current rings and -15% from Andvarius will lead my resistances to be uncapped. Also, dropping Haste (or Hatred) results in quite a major damage reduction (from 17k to 14.5k I think; cannot test it at the moment). And finally, I might have to pick up a 30 dex and 30 str node to fulfill my gear requirement.
Also, keep in mind that the rings I'm currently using are quite crappy. Getting 50 IIR on each (using gold rings) with additional stats should be achievable with some investment. | |
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And if you were to switch the Corrupted Redbeak with culling how would you go about culling would you just use ek and gem culling ? or would you just use power siphon to cull ?
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Pretty new to the game and am following your build.
Already lvl 39 atm. This is what my skilltree looks so far, i'll be reaching the ES nodes first, then the damage ones and finally the aura ones when i'll be higher level and can sustain more than one aura. Finding the gear with all those red gems is a pain. I'm a bit confused about the added fire damage gem in your weapon with the totem, what is the purpose of that? It's a support gem and the totem does no damage at all, so i'm a bit confused as to why it's there. The decoy totem is a very interesting tool when fighting stuff, pretty nifty so far, donno how it will last in mercyless tho. Also, why 2 faster casting gems on the same curse? it wont make it cast any faster (they don't stack?) Anywho, so far leveling isn't too rough, hopefully i'll get more currency in order to afford what i need. I managed to get a few items but making the socket link and the proper color will drain my ressources :P https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMA37CCEFWuRKuPpiyc_rPpAt-KvYJXK20ZNbkRUKcrHU8tH8HzlSB_xqKjEZYOSF3yKwq295ma62MRL7VIS64bJdlbvjoQe9sa53RtbAcelS7w1UlRj_rQ0EcG2-dfag== | |
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@ssc
If you insist on culling while not using a corrupted weapon, you can either recolor your body armor and swap out IIR/IIQ for Culling Strike as support, or you can indeed use a second spell supported by Culling Strike (or Power Siphon) in order to at least be able to cull bosses/rares. @bwotha Hope you are enjoying the build :) The supports in my weapon and shield are just there to get leveled. I use Decoy Totem as a decoy when opening strongboxes and fighting bosses, and Warlord's Mark for additional life leech when needed (e.g. against physical reflect packs). Let me know if you need any further assistance! Last edited by habkor on Dec 25, 2014, 11:28:59 AM
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what's your life and survivability like?
what are your clear times like? |
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I would gladly see some info about the slots and gems to put in them. ie. 4L EK + xxx + xxx + xxx. Ya know what I mean. That would help.
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