[2.2] I Cast Magic Missile! - Cantrip's guide to Ethereal Knives / Bladefall. 7K Life, 100K+ DPS!

Sorry i must be blind, where's 2.1 tree for EK, not bladefall? Also i'm kinda surprised with all that long way through stat nodes to warrior's blood. I guess, we just don't need anything useful anywhere near, right? I'm still kinda nervous about not getting more manareg nodes :D (i'm talking about bladefall tree).

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fatelessguy wrote:

Sorry i must be blind, where's 2.1 tree for EK, not bladefall? Also i'm kinda surprised with all that long way through stat nodes to warrior's blood. I guess, we just don't need anything useful anywhere near, right? I'm still kinda nervous about not getting more manareg nodes :D (i'm talking about bladefall tree).

The tree doesn't really change for 2.1, just depends on the need for mana a bit for the path, and we skip Sniper.
Bladefall is cheaper than EK, so even easier with mana.

Leveling with EK is super easy.

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Cig wrote:

Depending on how much mana regen we actually need with War Mark, you can run Hatred/AA/War Mark/and lvl 13-16 Clarity, with the Charisma cluster, and a level 3 Enlighten. Which I imagine will work perfectly fine for most things, and on curse immune maps you can just swap out Blasphemy with a level 20 Clarity, and you're good to go there as well.

This will be my plan at least, since I play on HC, and AA was pretty integral when I played this during Tempest.

It seems you and a few others are HC players and have experience with this build - wondering outside of what you mentioned above with 2.1 in mind, is there anything else we need to adjust for the new HC Talisman league?

I assume we follow the same try as listed but go for something like a Lighting Coil, swapping the suggested Gems around on reflect maps? I'm just wondering if there's anything else to note while leveling/end-game which may apply to us HC players or in general when things are expensive?

I see it was mentioned that taking the Charisma nodes is a wise choice pre-lvl3 Enlighten - any other tidbits.

Thanks for a great guide aswell!

All the HC players I know that got to 90+ with this build were using Tabula +1, actually :D

Charisma is indeed an option to ease leveling and for LATE end-game (to add AA).

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CantripN wrote:

All the HC players I know that got to 90+ with this build were using Tabula +1, actually :D

Charisma is indeed an option to ease leveling and for LATE end-game (to add AA).

Haha @ Tabula - good to know!

My only concern (and this is from coming from a background of playing whimpy ranged/brain-dead builds) is a) Melee and b) Reflect (not having had to worry in the past). I assume with 'smart' thinking, and switching of Gems as listed in OP (do you suggest/differ you Links at all for HC out of interest?) I should be safe?

With regards to the tree/leveling - is there any tweaks you are personally doing for the new HC league tomorrow?

Thanks so much for the prompt reply CantripN!

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Deathlythoughts wrote:

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CantripN wrote:

All the HC players I know that got to 90+ with this build were using Tabula +1, actually :D

Charisma is indeed an option to ease leveling and for LATE end-game (to add AA).

Haha @ Tabula - good to know!

My only concern (and this is from coming from a background of playing whimpy ranged/brain-dead builds) is a) Melee and b) Reflect (not having had to worry in the past). I assume with 'smart' thinking, and switching of Gems as listed in OP (do you suggest/differ you Links at all for HC out of interest?) I should be safe?

With regards to the tree/leveling - is there any tweaks you are personally doing for the new HC league tomorrow?

Thanks so much for the prompt reply CantripN!

Melee you have Whirling Blades + Fortify + range :). You don't DO melee unless you're cocky and suicidal, not in scary maps. You can take most hits, but it's smarter to just not be in range.

Oh, and skip Lightning Warp, get a Flame Totem with GMP + Blind and an unspported Flame Golem. That's great for not dying.

Reflect won't kill you from Rares, and treat map mods as I described. We need to see if adding Life Leech is needed or not with the War Mark Aura, and it's possible Atziri's Step will help (need to test a bit).

I can give you a few tweaks to save a point or 2 while leveling and then respec back, but it's pointless overall. Only difference on HC is I'd get Fortify + Whirling up sooner. Your range is your best defence overall.

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Deathlythoughts wrote:

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Cig wrote:

Depending on how much mana regen we actually need with War Mark, you can run Hatred/AA/War Mark/and lvl 13-16 Clarity, with the Charisma cluster, and a level 3 Enlighten. Which I imagine will work perfectly fine for most things, and on curse immune maps you can just swap out Blasphemy with a level 20 Clarity, and you're good to go there as well.

This will be my plan at least, since I play on HC, and AA was pretty integral when I played this during Tempest.

It seems you and a few others are HC players and have experience with this build - wondering outside of what you mentioned above with 2.1 in mind, is there anything else we need to adjust for the new HC Talisman league?

I assume we follow the same try as listed but go for something like a Lighting Coil, swapping the suggested Gems around on reflect maps? I'm just wondering if there's anything else to note while leveling/end-game which may apply to us HC players or in general when things are expensive?

I see it was mentioned that taking the Charisma nodes is a wise choice pre-lvl3 Enlighten - any other tidbits.

Thanks for a great guide aswell!

Didn't really change anything. Used the same stuff Cantrip did, +1 Tabula, +1 Frenzy Blood Dance, and rares. Ended up with around 66-70k damage, depending on the gems, and right about 7.1k life. That was at lvl 89.

Only thing I might do differently this time, is drop a jewel slot for Sniper and Nullification. It's not the most efficient, but I like Proj Speed, for the added safety, and with EK now getting more proj speed, and Winds of Change, it should get back to right around where it was with Faster Proj.

Cantrip's right, wont need AA til very end game, Lvl 79+ maps, more than likely. Just at that point, I'd prefer a bit extra protection if I can get it lol.

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Cig wrote:

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Deathlythoughts wrote:

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Cig wrote:

Depending on how much mana regen we actually need with War Mark, you can run Hatred/AA/War Mark/and lvl 13-16 Clarity, with the Charisma cluster, and a level 3 Enlighten. Which I imagine will work perfectly fine for most things, and on curse immune maps you can just swap out Blasphemy with a level 20 Clarity, and you're good to go there as well.

This will be my plan at least, since I play on HC, and AA was pretty integral when I played this during Tempest.

It seems you and a few others are HC players and have experience with this build - wondering outside of what you mentioned above with 2.1 in mind, is there anything else we need to adjust for the new HC Talisman league?

I assume we follow the same try as listed but go for something like a Lighting Coil, swapping the suggested Gems around on reflect maps? I'm just wondering if there's anything else to note while leveling/end-game which may apply to us HC players or in general when things are expensive?

I see it was mentioned that taking the Charisma nodes is a wise choice pre-lvl3 Enlighten - any other tidbits.

Thanks for a great guide aswell!

Didn't really change anything. Used the same stuff Cantrip did, +1 Tabula, +1 Frenzy Blood Dance, and rares. Ended up with around 66-70k damage, depending on the gems, and right about 7.1k life. That was at lvl 89.

Only thing I might do differently this time, is drop a jewel slot for Sniper and Nullification. It's not the most efficient, but I like Proj Speed, for the added safety, and with EK now getting more proj speed, and Winds of Change, it should get back to right around where it was with Faster Proj.

Cantrip's right, wont need AA til very end game, Lvl 79+ maps, more than likely. Just at that point, I'd prefer a bit extra protection if I can get it lol.

Thanks both Cant and Cig for replying re-HC questions!

Looking at links in the OP, one thing I notice is surprising a lack of CWDT setups and Endurance Charges - is that simply because we aim to never get hit? All my previous builds (still playing on the assumption not to get hit) used CWDT - Immortal and/or a 2nd CWDT with Molten Shell etc.

EDIT: I'm silly aren't I... this is because we're EVASION based right :P?

Also when playing in a Mapping group where Blasphemy + War Mark + Enlighten will probably be wasted due to another melee overlapping Auras/Curses - what would you suggest here?

Would it be wise to switch AA in early - maybe instead of Lightening Warp for HC?

Cig - You mentioned taking Sniper + Nullification (good suggestions thanks!) - but am a little confused about saying because of Proj Speed. Why would that be something 'HC' related, or do you mean generally something you are doing for kill speed increase?

Thanks!

You get End charges from Warlords Mark, so you're more often than not have all 3 up. If you're grouping with a melee, not using War Mark, I'd probably just drop Blasphemy all together and run the highest level Clarity you can, and use AA. No point in just have unreserved mana, since we don't benefit from it in any way. If someone in your group is using Enfeeble, or Temp Chains, you might even think about using Herald of Ash, instead of AA.

Proj speed for HC, so I can stay further away from the shit I'm trying to kill lol. If you don't have to get close, then you are much less likely to get hit!

You can always drop stuff for a CWDT if you want, I never used the Frenzy last league, so it wont be in my links, and I very rarely used Flame Totem with Blind after say 72ish maps, once my damage was good enough to never really have time to worry about the mobs getting close enough to hit me.

The only problem with CwDT is that we have nothing worth using with that ;)