[3.0] I Cast Magic Missile! - Cantrip's guide to Ethereal Knives. Rage Mage Edition!

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Much of the DPS is from gear and jewels, in terms of Increased %. Also, Vulnerability / Temp Chains / Proj Weak, and the Shock from Vaal Lightning Trap. The Leech and MORE damage MORE than make up for the lost Increased in the end, especially for sustain and not needing to rely on curses or flasks for life/mana.

I'm going to assume Poison is dead unless something massive changes. While it is probably possible to play EK with Poison, Elemental EK just seems superior in most ways now.

@cantrip , for a Berserker EK build like this in 3.0, would you try going Crit? It seems like a stretch in the skilltree to pick up all the good crit while starting at the Marauder.

ele conversion is definitely the way to go in 3.0. On a budget, Brutality is a great substitute, but you're definitely losing out on damage. playing around in beta, I think the only use of Brutality is do to Bleed focused builds.

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CatOfGreatness wrote:

@cantrip , for a Berserker EK build like this in 3.0, would you try going Crit? It seems like a stretch in the skilltree to pick up all the good crit while starting at the Marauder.

ele conversion is definitely the way to go in 3.0. On a budget, Brutality is a great substitute, but you're definitely losing out on damage. playing around in beta, I think the only use of Brutality is do to Bleed focused builds.

Crit is just... not good :)

I've made a 3.0 build for this, but I'm waiting for the 3.0 final patch notes to arrive to post it. It works GREAT in the Beta.

@CantripN I'm returning to PoE after a near 2 year break (ending with the Tempest league) where I played your excellent Scion/EK "I Cast Magic Missile" build (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1326677), HC viable all the way to lvl 90 where I left it off (alive :D). Thanks for that great build!

Hence, naturally, I return to look for a HC viable CantripN/EK build! I really like the non-crit approach, as I'm currently following a EK crit build that will make me sorry soon enough.

So how about this build, is it good to go for 3.0 HC? At a quick glance, I see lots of survivability (as for the previous builds), so I guess HC viability is embedded into it, but I also see you mention above that poison is dead in 3.0, so I guess the page 1 guide isn't entirely up to date.

However, based your most recent comment above, I interpret it as if the updated guide is on its way? :) Meanwhile, since I'm planning to follow the future guide, what character should I start leveling with? (Elementalist = Witch? I missed Ascension so I'm not quite following the discussion above).

Thanks again for your great builds and guides!

Still Berserker 100%, you can follow my current char (Cantrip) to see what I'm doing for now. It's MoM + Acro, and it's converted to Cold Damage (90% Phys to Cold).

Welcome back, and may the odds be ever in your favour!

This is the Path of Building link for now: https://pastebin.com/aqzaDEKi

You can add Vaal Pact if you prefer that over massive regen and Righteous Fire.

Thanks for the quick answer and the felicitation (feels like I will really need the latter with all new content and mechanics, Ascension trapdeaths just comes to mind ...), as well as the PoB-link & char-reference! Nice with the Orb of Storms/Arcane Surge helper btw.

I'll take the opportunity to fire away some questions:

1. Back when I played last, I used Chaos Golem for phys. reduce; is Stone Golem/life regen. always a better choice here/now? (If I remember correctly I used CG with a rationale to reduce one/two-shot risk from single hard-hitters, mostly in late game).

2. New bandit award: Oak for the phys. dmg? Or Kraitlin for the cast speed? (Even Alira's flat mana regen. is nice, but a waste for the crit. multiplier).
EDIT: I see from PoB that you chose Oak (Y)

@CantripN: I'm shooting another few questions regarding the build :)

1. In the PoB link you gave me we haven't picked, as far as I can see, any +1 frenzy charges passives (such as Savagery or Fervour, which are nearby). Are we content with fewer frenzy charges at the gain of more direct damage passives?

2. Now, this will probably never happen, but given that I would reach endgame and find myself with a cloack of defiance (as is equipped in your PoB build), I guess we could free the 4 MoM/Inspiration nodes in favour of something else? I don't see too large penalties removing these four in your PoB build.
- Vaal Pact for a ridiculous Life Leech/On Hit Rate? (4 points to reach)
- Savagery and Fervour for +2 frenzy charges? (4 points to reach)

Thanks again!

No, you take MoM anyway, for the crazy good mana passives behind it. Vaal Pact is great if you give up RF. I prefer RF most of the time. Frenzy Charges aren't reliable for bosses.

Stone Golem lets you run RF fairly easily.