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

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Bimor89 wrote:

Hey,

EK-Nova was my favourite build last league and i was pretty sad as i heard they buff boss hp by a lot because EK pretty much sucked at single target.
I really like complete builds that can farm maps without problems and don't struggle much on ST.
Now I stumbled over your guide and I have to say I'm pretty impressed how well crafted it seems. Sadly there aren't videos to see it in action

I have a few questions regarding it:
You wrote that guardians are a piece of cake. Is it really true? ;) Can you run them smoothly and deathless? Like I said I still have that lowish single target damage in mind with an awful high amount of mana consumption

How about map clearspeed? Generally EK-nova is really great for farming but i don't see the high runspeed or fast leap slam.

Are you very tanky? If I look at the numbers I see high dodge chance with over 9k effective health, that seems impressive ;)

Thanks in advance

The single target is pretty good taking like 10 to 15seconds on hard-core for tier 6 bosses but I'm running lvl 19ek on a 5link pledge. My dps is around 30k in hideout without hatred. Yes this build is really tanky but still running that basalt. Getting a taste of hate will be so good for this build.

Anyway hi Cantrip I've been following your guide for a few seasons now and I love how you always come up with a way To make the best use of one of my favourite skills work!

I had 2 questions regarding the build.
Why do you use cloak of defiance instead of belly or kaoms? 10% taken from mana seems meager and I need to take the nodes behind Mom anyway so it's not like saving 4 skillpoints.
Have you tried pierce on a 6 link? It seems like so much qol and the more damage ain't bad on it, because often times I'm hitting a group a few times to get through with 1 piercing projectile. Do you play softcove hence you jump into packs and are able to clear better that way? I'm too scared to do that on hardcore. Haven't been able to try pierce yet because I don't have a 6link pledge.

Anyway thanks a lot for the builds you're putting out.

Best regards,
A fellow EK lover

@Bimor89 - I'll start off and say that Guardians are easy for me with my current gear. It might not be as true with much worse gear, as they are a DPS/Defences/Skill check, and my skill level isn't Mathil :).

This build has no single-target issues if you build it right, at all. That said, if you do it without understanding the mechanics you'll end up with 10% of my DPS - everything needs to work together, Flasks/Arcane Surge/RF/Jewels/Gem Levels... I've seen too many people just buying the gear and pressing play without using it right, and failing. While I've seen people with half my gear do Shaper.

Guardians are deathless if I play smart, yes. Chimera and Minotaur are a joke, and I just face-tank those. Phoenix and Hydra you need to dodge some stuff, but otherwise easy.

As for clear speed, of course a Pathfinder will clear faster, since it moves faster. If you want, you can use a Quicksilver and clear quite fast just by walking, as one click clears the screen eventually. I clear fast enough for my standards, but this isn't Vaal Spark / Pathfinder / Explosive Arrow.

As for dying? Other than well rolled Guardians, Vaal Temple, Uber Atziri and Shaper, I'm only at any risk from Reflect.

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@tehwhiteboi - Blade Flurry is a very different build. I don't know what you've been reading/smoking, but no.

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@tiasim - Hey, mate! Glad to see you're doing ok for yourself in HC!

Cloak of Defiance isn't a must, you can even use Kaom's Heart or a Belly of the Beast. It's just that it's the only way to reliably run Righteous Fire on this build, which adds a LOT of DPS, and it also sustains mana easily without any problem.

Pierce is certainly a viable option for a 6L, but Empower 4 is simply better. Pierce would free up a jewel, so it's certainly an option! If I get to level 100 (gl with that :D), I'll grab the +2 Pierce on the tree and use a Rare Jewel.

I do jump into packs usually, which makes the Nova shine, yes. Only if there's a lot of them. It's quite safe, most of the time.

By the way, my tooltip in the h/o without any buffs is just 75K, so don't take too much stock in what it says there :D

Keep on shooting!

Ok so after seeing RF gives 39% more multiplier i had to try out cloak of defiance.
To me it felt a bit clunky but maybe that's just my preferred playstyle. I kept degening mana and hp unless I had a ruby flask up.
Maybe I'm missing something am I still supposed to degen mana and life with every item equipped and node taken?
For softcore i would use the 39% more damage from RF. Just making sure I did it right because I certainly don't want to miss out on that kind of damage.

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tiasim wrote:

Ok so after seeing RF gives 39% more multiplier i had to try out cloak of defiance.
To me it felt a bit clunky but maybe that's just my preferred playstyle. I kept degening mana and hp unless I had a ruby flask up.
Maybe I'm missing something am I still supposed to degen mana and life with every item equipped and node taken?
For softcore i would use the 39% more damage from RF. Just making sure I did it right because I certainly don't want to miss out on that kind of damage.

I don't degen at all. I degen like 40 mana/sec without Arcane Surge or Leech, and I regen with those :)

For better QoL and clear speed, I swapped to Shield Charge. Be warned, this change lowers your damage, even with quite good gear - it takes better gear than mine to beat a 6L Pledge. Once I fix my jewels fully, with the gear below (which is GG) it's about 6% less damage.

Trying out Glacial Cascade, might try BV later, too. Glacial Cascade clears a bit slower obviously, but it does massively more damage, and it lets you use Rare gloves.
If Shaper is doable but annoying on EK, it's really very easy on Glacial Cascade. Damage is at least 70% more...

I'm going to be doing a crit, life/armor based version. Do you not think Pierce is required? Other ek builds i've seen from inquis and such use Pierce.

Also - do you think phys to lightning will be ok instead of the gloves? I'll be running hatred as well. I really want to use Winds of Change for my gloves, for clearspeed - thanks!

So basically, your build is nothing like this one, and you're asking for advice?

You'd have to try and see. If you're running HoI, maybe Pierce is a good idea, hard to say. It's gonna be very different in play, gear and otherwise.


Winds of Change are indeed an option if using phys to light.

I decided against using phys to lightning because my buddy is going to be running EE on his righteous fire build - so i need to build cold, phys, or fire. But on the same hand, i still want to use Winds of Change for the proj speed.

Whats your clearspeed like with no proj speed or pierce? Seems like it would be slower.

And it really isn't that much different, it's the same skill gem, I just think evasion sucks lol.