[2.1] Ethereal Knives MF Build. Effectively >90k DPS, >20k EHP, 300 IIR, 43 IIQ, Triple Blasphemy

Bump. Finally I've had time to update this thread -- 2.1 gave us a huge buff. Atziri deathless? No problem :)

Yay for the update. I have a few questions though:

1. Why don't you run blasphemy + warlords mark? It allows us to drop life leech and use empower.
2. Did you consider goldwyrms or sadimas for more IIQ?
3. How about bladefall? Since this build is non-crit, wouldn't it be perfect? I'm still trying to decide.
4. Could you maybe put up a video?

Hi, regarding your questions:

1. I'm actually not fully decided in that respect. My main concern are curse-immune monsters and the reduced curse effectiveness versus map bosses / Atziri. Also, a leveled Projectile Weakness, together with +30% curse effectiveness from the tree and Blasphemy, gives something like 38% more damage. Even a level +4 Empower would yield less additional damage. Things would be different however if Warlord's enabled us to drop Clarity, and use Herald of Ash instead. I'll have to do some more testing.

2. Especially Goldwyrm is great if you need additional mana regeneration (losing 100% IIR hurts, though). Sadima's (or also Aurseize) give a nice additional bonus to MF, but I prefer more ES through regular rare gloves. It's up to your choice.

3. I'm leveling Bladefall currently and will give it a try soon. The great thing about Bladefall is that it doesn't require projectile speed, but scales with area of effect, which would of course synergize greatly with the Blasphemy curse setup.

4. I have installed and set up OBS video recording software lately and will try to put up a video soon. The quality was not amazing, unfortunately (but much better than in the video I recorded long time ago, somewhere buried in the "Earlier Updates" section).

Bump. Added a Gorge run and further updated the thread.

Also, you must realise not everyone can get or afford a +1 curse chayula, like me. My plan is to have 2 curses (warlord's mark + projectile weakness/temporal chains) supported by increased area of effect.

I am very interested in your thoughts on bladefall. What might you change in the gem setup and skill tree?

EDIT: Just realised how big the increased mana multi on increased aoe was. I'm dropping it for enlighten I think.

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habkor wrote:

Bump. Added a Gorge run and further updated the thread.

I love you for this build, did not had so much fun with mf build in a long time, flame totems should go to hell.

LMK how you decide about BF^^

I run a BF low life 3cruse build atm but (in my eyes) you can not "aim" monsters so well and cover the areas as I guess EK does. I also like the fact about IIQ and IIR on ur build.

Hello. Can you explain your DPS before I'll start this build?

Where you can achieve 90k? I mean, I understand Projectile weakness but something it's missing to me

@Assassin2000:

With this build, you'll be able to afford a +1 curse Chayula in no time ;)

Lately I did some testing using Warlord's Mark instead of Projectile Weakness (swapping out Life Leech for Added Fire Damage, since I don't own a lvl 4 Empower currently), but I was not particularly impressed. At best, this yields a slightly lower effective DPS, and doesn't add much (if any) survivability. If I can somehow make this work with Haste instead of Clarity, things might look different.

I also tried out Bladefall, but it felt too clunky for me. Admittedly, the damage vs. bosses and rares is much higher, though. You can find a modified tree below - we just skip all projectile damage nodes and substitute them for AoE nodes.

Bladefall tree

Regarding the gem setup, if you want to keep full MF, I would probably go for
Bladefall - Spell Echo - Concentrated Effect - Life Leech - IIR - IIQ, but I have the feeling that Bladefall works much better with 5 proper links. So I'd also swap out IIR for Controlled Destruction. In a full 6-link setup, I'd probably add Empower or maybe Faster Casting.


@Asag: Thanks so much! I'll upload another video later tonight.

@massta86: See above. But I should probably experiment more with Bladefall before I make a final decision.

@Qwatayean: I currently have around 70k dps tooltip. Maxed Projectile Weakness gives 29% more damage, but with 30% increased curse effectiveness, this becomes >35% more damage. And 70k dps * 1.35 > 90k dps. The baseline 70k dps come from my tree, gem setup, and gear. Hope that makes sense now.

Thanks! Now I get it how it is. Since you've didn't post any image stats I was in doubt before making the build