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

Where would you start as scion? I have to reroll my old AA/EK/MoM scion and your build looks fun. Also, nicely explained =)

Hey,

@Focusix: I currently run 6 auras/heralds. Discipline, Clarity, Hatred, Haste, HoA, HoT (with Clarity lvl 21 and one 60% aura on life). It's possible to add Herald of Ice with something like 60 mana left, which is sufficient to cast it. However, due to desync, even if my mana regen exceeds my mana drain per second, casting gets delayed and feels clunky.

So I skip running HoI. With the new deterministic lockstep system that avoids desync, maybe it would work out better.

Regarding Wrath instead of Haste: Wrath only adds damage to attacks, not spells like EK. Therefore, it would be pointless to use it.


@toadFromKyoto: As Scion, it's equally fine to take the mana regen + cast speed nodes to reach "Path of the Savant", or the spell damage nodes to reach "Carrier". From there, you can simply copy my witch tree. As a rule of thumb, with the finished tree and all auras up, 3% cast speed roughly equals 10% spell damage in terms of raw DPS. All else equal, I prefer spell damage, as it gives EK more punch without increasing its mana drain. But with the 20% mana regen node at the Scion start, both options seem decent.

Also, thanks for the positive feedback ;)


@Dnarris: Thanks for sharing your experience. How is it going for you in the meantime? 1.5k ES is extremely low (way way too low for Merciless), but with Discipline, 4k ES should actually be quite easy to obtain while wearing a Solaris Lorica.

Oh my bad, though anger/wrath will affect ek projectiles.

Btw, recently on elemental equilibrium maps noticed more damage but since my character and my heralds have no quality i can't test it on 74+ maps.

Since this build have ee unlocked just for one skill point would you consider it?

Hi,

Started your build a couple of days ago, seems good so far (I'm at ~50 atm). After 5 tries I corrupted my Redbeak with Culling Strike, which is sweet, plus I've got some nice ES gear, so hopefully my survivability will be nice in endgame. Just a couple of questions:

- DPS is starting to become an issue, sometimes taking 3 casts (6 technically with Spell Echo) to kill things. My current 5L (in a Solaris) is: EK - Spell Echo - Faster Proj. - Faster Casting - Life Leech. Is there any extra ways to increase damage?

- This is my first character where I'll have to respec a decent amount of points for my "endgame" build, so how do I go about this? What nodes should I take out and how?

Thanks a lot mate :)

EDIT: Also, mana regen? Any tips on getting a decent amount so I don't run out of mana so quickly? Running clarity atm.

Hey all,

@Focusix: I don't really see how EE could be beneficial (rather to the contrary), as we hit our targets with elemental damage of all types (Hatred gives cold damage, Herald of Ash fire damage, and Herald of Thunder lightning damage).

Therefore, the only thing that should happen is that monsters get +25% to their resists with EE. So not a good idea I think ;)


@CVRTIS: Congrats on the corrupted Redbeak! This should push your clear speed quite a bit.

What's your current DPS? The gem setup seems quite optimal (maybe you can change Faster Projectiles for Added Fire Damage if you can cope with the reduced range).

Other than that, get quality on your support gems, try to obtain a level 21 corrupted EK gem (but that's really expensive and not always up for sale), and run Herald of Ash plus Herald of Thunder.

For a decent mana regen, you need some mana (or increased mana regeneration rate) on your rings and maybe also on your shield. There are some options on the tree, too. But most importantly, Clarity needs to be maxed.

I cannot really help you with the respec (apart from what's written in the leveling section). Just buy some Regrets and do it.

Good luck!

Hey habkor,

Thanks again for the great build. I have been using it and it has gone pretty well so far. How does this build fare versus Atziri or Uber Atziri?

Also, I am level 67 and ever since I did the low-life respec, I am finding mana regeneration a problem. Before, I could just hold down the EK button and it would go continuously but now it after about 10 casts, I run out of mana and have to give it a second or so before I can start casting again. I am running Clarity, Discipline, Herald of Ash and Herald of Thunder but I am not running Haste or Hatred yet as I don't have the life/mana to support those. I have all the mana regeneration nodes you recommend but I wondered if there is something I am missing. Or maybe I just need higher max mana to boost the regeneration?

Hi,

If you know what you are doing and have very solid gear (Shavs, high ES helmet + shield, capped resists, plenty of +spell damage), and if you are lvl ~88+, then Atziri should be viable.

I have experimented with her a bit, but so far, I have not managed to take her down (Vaals and Trio are manageable, though). My internet connection and laptop are pretty bad however, so it should be possible. But the build is definitely not optimized for farming Atziri.

Uber... I would forget about it. Not possible I think.

Regarding your mana issues: try to get some +mana on your rings or shield/helmet. Also, Clarity should be maxed, and the more aura effectiveness nodes you have, the better.

With the passive tree that I posted, I can perma-cast level 21 EK supported by Spell Echo, Faster Casting and Life Leech (+increased IIR, IIQ).

If it's too annyoing at the moment, simply spec out of two damage nodes and allocate them to +mana/mana regeneration nodes.

Hope this helps :)

Since I'm only around level 50 my DPS is just under or around 2k, haven't specced into lowlife yet and not running the best weapon or whatever. Currently the auras I'm running are Clarity (level 12ish) and then either HoT or Hatred. Haven't tested out running HoA or Haste at the moment, I guess I'll try to get those on ASAP. I guess I'll try to get some quality on my supports too.

Thanks!

Thanks habkor for the suggestions. I ended up deviating a bit from your extended levelling and went a little out of order to cover stat prerequisites so that could be my problem. With patch 2.0.0 possibly removing the buff nodes, there will be a few extra points to work with. Do you think that getting Zealot's Oath would be helpful for this build or would the amount of life/ES leech make it irrelevant?

"

CVRTIS wrote:

Since I'm only around level 50 my DPS is just under or around 2k, haven't specced into lowlife yet and not running the best weapon or whatever. Currently the auras I'm running are Clarity (level 12ish) and then either HoT or Hatred. Haven't tested out running HoA or Haste at the moment, I guess I'll try to get those on ASAP. I guess I'll try to get some quality on my supports too.

Thanks!

Hey CVRTIS,
When I was levelling this build, I just started running Haste and Clarity together when I hit level 75 and rearranged my skill tree a bit. The problem was that you need all of the suggested reduced mana reserved nodes and fairly high level reduced mana and blood magic gems to be able to run both at once. Personally, I found Clarity to be the more useful of the two. Haste does add to your DPS but I found it did not add that much for me by itself (the Pain Attunement obviously added a fair bit) and I ran out of mana too quickly without Clarity so I found that my killing speed went down even though my DPS went up because I had to wait for mana or use flasks to constantly refill my mana with Haste on.

HoT and HoA reserve less mana than Hatred so I was running them together for a long time and didn't start running Hatred until really late in the game and that was a big mistake for me. The chill and freezing potential of Hatred would have saved me a lot of grief had I used it earlier.