[3.0] EK Nova Assassin - 3.1 Tree Updated

Thanks for the answers! I am still leveling so it's a bit guess work and improvisation to make this work + this is my first char so I am just studying the why's and compare it to what others have been doing.

Some more questions :)

1. I just got access to Immortal Call, now from the text it says to use the Endurance Charge. But do we have any build up? I understand that Warlord's Mark will create us some from killing mobs, but what about boss fights where I believe will be why we'd need some mitigation from getting one shot. Can you explain about this? Should we level the Immortal Call / Cast When Damage Taken ? Do we not want to level the CWDT in order to make the requirement to get hit low?

2. I am using vortex blade to build up power charges while I see some other people use Orb of Storms etc. Can you explain the pros/cons to this?

Would my dps go down if i replaced hatred with another blasphemy support + projectile weakness?

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GueRakun wrote:

Thanks for the answers! I am still leveling so it's a bit guess work and improvisation to make this work + this is my first char so I am just studying the why's and compare it to what others have been doing.

Some more questions :)

1. I just got access to Immortal Call, now from the text it says to use the Endurance Charge. But do we have any build up? I understand that Warlord's Mark will create us some from killing mobs, but what about boss fights where I believe will be why we'd need some mitigation from getting one shot. Can you explain about this? Should we level the Immortal Call / Cast When Damage Taken ? Do we not want to level the CWDT in order to make the requirement to get hit low?

2. I am using vortex blade to build up power charges while I see some other people use Orb of Storms etc. Can you explain the pros/cons to this?

I hope you're saying it is your first character this league because I wouldn't recommend this guide for a first time player. To expensive is the main reasoning why I wouldn't recommend it for a new player to the game.

1: CWDT + Immortal Call + Increased Duration is a common usage amongst tons of builds. And you're correct. Most people don't level CWDT or if they do they only level it to like level 4, bringing the damage required close to 1000~. And then you obviously level Immortal Call as close as possible to the level CWDT says it supports. And as a side note, you only need to worry about Immortal Calls level since it is the active skill. You can level Increased Duration all the way up to 20 and Immortal Call will still get triggered and use the Increased Duration.

CWDT(lvl 1) + IC(lvl 3) + ID(lvl 20)

Or if you want the higher damage trigger. Use this if you are worried about bosses more so, it also means you're more guaranteed to have endurance charges built up. And you will generate them with Warlords Mark during boss fights. I don't think there is a boss fight anywhere in the game that doesn't spawn adds during parts of the fight...kind of required to spawn them unless you have another way to generate flask charges.
CWDT(lvl 7) + IC(lvl 9) + ID(lvl 20)

2: If you aren't linking Power Charges on Critical Strike(PCoCS) to EK then the reason to use Orb of Storms is because of how the ability works. As for why Orb of Storms + PCoCS (I have increased crit strike linked to it as well but the author recommends linking faster casting though), Orb of Storms works a little different compared to most abilities out there. Usually with any ability that strikes multiple targets with a single attack all of the rolls(accuracy, crit, etc) are rolled only once for all the enemies it is hitting. Example: EK, either all of your blades are gonna crit or they aren't. You will never have some of the blades in a single attack crit and some not. But Orb of Storms for some reason treats each enemy in its attack as a separate hit. Which means there is 4 crit rolls per attack it makes, which makes it very good when combined with PCoCS and other trigger gems(like Curse on Hit is a common one combined with Orb of Storms).

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antintin wrote:

Would my dps go down if i replaced hatred with another blasphemy support + projectile weakness?

Well the only way to use this curse would be if you used an item or get the Keystone that allows for 2 curses per target. Hatred gives more DPS and it also serves another function since we're a crit build. It allows us to freeze and shatter all the time because otherwise we aren't dealing cold damage that can chill/freeze/shatter normally.

But I forgot about the pierce part of this curse, which could allow for more damage ultimately depending on what you put in Pierce Support Gems place. But even still, this requires getting an extra curse somehow which this build already has squishy potential so losing out on an item or passive points could be really bad.



I am not sure if the author would agree with me but for once I found this item actually useful(never ran a power charge build before). I only plan to use it for leveling since it is pretty shitty for end game but it is extremely cheap for a Power Charge generator since basically all other items/jewels that generate Power Charges are usually expensive.

Oh and FYI for anyone that's wanting/needing a working POE Wiki... I've been using
POE Wiki. Depending on what you're searching you might need to go back a little bit further in time but it is a way to let us see the tables again until Gamepedia fixes there shit(if they are even going to)... Since based on what I understand they aren't planning to fix the module shit, so the creators of the POE Wiki are trying to find another way to go about having the wiki(ideally without using Wikia is their plans).

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arokace wrote:

I hope you're saying it is your first character this league because I wouldn't recommend this guide for a first time player. To expensive is the main reasoning why I wouldn't recommend it for a new player to the game.

It is my first char! I always like doing dex based class, but yeah I can see that things can get expensive. I just got to end game tonight (beaten act 10) and I am at level 67. My gear isn't up to par and I am still using a 5 link chest build. I'll work on it little by little but so far I haven't spent any currency and sold some of my leveling gear for some alchemy here and there.

I plan to just do tier 1 and then tier 2 etc with it, slowly but surely just to taste the end game a little bit.

I will try orb of storms, seems like it'll work better than blade vortex to generate power charges. Btw will Faster Projectile Support work with Orb of Storm? I thought it wouldn't.

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GueRakun wrote:

It is my first char! I always like doing dex based class, but yeah I can see that things can get expensive. I just got to end game tonight (beaten act 10) and I am at level 67. My gear isn't up to par and I am still using a 5 link chest build. I'll work on it little by little but so far I haven't spent any currency and sold some of my leveling gear for some alchemy here and there.

I plan to just do tier 1 and then tier 2 etc with it, slowly but surely just to taste the end game a little bit.

I will try orb of storms, seems like it'll work better than blade vortex to generate power charges. Btw will Faster Projectile Support work with Orb of Storm? I thought it wouldn't.

I'd highly recommend finding another guide/ability that you're interested in that specifically says it is a cheap build/guide. Because as much as I love this game... this isn't a very user friendly game in terms of learning all you should know. Luckily they added the Help Panel in 3.0, that gives new players a lot of valuable information that was hard to obtain without playing the game. But even just learning about Item Filter, layout of the Passive Skill Tree, quests(and their rewards), ascendancy classes(the sub classes)... there's still quite a bit to learn ideally which takes some time.

And what I just said is the basic stuff to be honest. I am in no ways trying to turn you away from this game... because this game is what Diablo 3 should have been in my opinion(and a lot of others) but Blizzard being Blizzard just had to 'WoW-fy' the diablo series for some reason.

Sadly at the moment there isn't very many EK guides out there currently. But there are still tons of guides in general and a lot of them do state that they're 'cheap builds'.

As for one of the more 'advance concepts' you should look up mapping on the forums. I am sure there is a detailed guide somewhere. And I say that because ideally you shouldn't just run any and all maps you get. You should avoid certain maps and those maps change from season to season(league to league).... But with 3.1 I am sure the whole idea of what to avoid and what maps are the best to run is WAAAAY different with this whole "War of the Atlas" thingy going on... I haven't read up on how people are doing mapping yet but I imagine it is way different than it was pre 3.1



As for the Orb of Storms: Faster Proj doesn't work with it, just a gem I had currently in that piece of gear. Something else I started to do once I got rid of those gloves today and went with the authors CWDT(lvl 1) + Molten Shell(lvl 10) + Life Leech... I put Power Charge on Critical Strike with it and it is actually working very very nicely with keeping my Power Charges up:


Talking about that reminds me of something else you should get yourself familiar with too is the POE Marketplace... ie, POE.Trade and Currency.POE.Trade . Both are very useful for finding stuff you need. And as free as this game is there is one thing that costs cash that does make a massive difference with how well you can play the game... that is having more than the default stash tabs... Especially all these new fancy stash tabs like Currency and Map tabs... Stash Tabs are the one MTX buy I'd say that actually does have a big impact on gameplay. Everything else if purely cosmetic though.

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GueRakun wrote:

I plan to just do tier 1 and then tier 2 etc with it, slowly but surely just to taste the end game a little bit.

Here's a guide for Mapping in 3.1 (had to find it for myself too since this is my first character this league):
Guide to Mapping in 3.1

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arokace wrote:

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GueRakun wrote:

I plan to just do tier 1 and then tier 2 etc with it, slowly but surely just to taste the end game a little bit.

Here's a guide for Mapping in 3.1 (had to find it for myself too since this is my first character this league):
Guide to Mapping in 3.1

Thanks man. Yea I dabbled with the poe.trade a lot already. As for the labyrinth I have only done the first one and it yielded me a lot of currency. I think there's some ways to go with this character yet even when I have limited funds. I plan to make another tanky character but not now, I just spent a lot of time leveling and learning the game that way (I did them all solo and didn't look at boss guides except for Deodore the really nasty curse guy). I was fine doing the Zana daily and the initial map but I'll check the guide.

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I only plan to use it for leveling since it is pretty shitty for end game but it is extremely cheap for a Power Charge generator since basically all other items/jewels that generate Power Charges are usually expensive.

The reason why Power Charge on Crit is important is so you can sustain charges during boss fights. If you're okay with missing out on that, then any Power Charge on Kill item can replace that gem.

What are the hp/es/evasion threshold for doing low tier maps (1-5), if you guys happen to know? I am planning to do the Merciless Lab to finish ascendancy and see if any loots drop, but I will be doing the low tier maps after. Also, is 19k damage enough for them? I'll share my gear after my lab, so you guys can let me know which part would benefit the most from an upgrade.