Ethereal Knives Marauder Guide for LegendsofToot

I wrote this short tutorial for LegendsofToot, from Reddit. I wanted to help him understand how EK works.



Credits go to Etup for teaching my friends and me how to play the Ethereal Knives role.

Playstyle:
You and I are going to be very tanky. I am talking about being able to stand in the front line and take hits from bosses, greater multiple projectile alchemist, and machine gun ladies.

Hard stat aims
Ideally we want to have the following stats by the time we hit level 80.
-6 Endurance Charges
-15k+ Armor
-4,200+ HP


Passive Tree


I think this passive tree demonstrates where we want to be sitting at around level 93. Listen dawg, our party members will love us if we can supply them with charges...
-Use Conduit
-Acquire high chaos resistance, using chest, helm, boots, gloves. Slot in Blood Rage.
-Use Enduring Cry liberally.


Gems: (note, we will be using a Wand with the Faster Projectiles affix)
EK + Blood Magic Gem + Life Leech + Faster Casting [4L]
EK + Blood Magic Gem + LIfe Leech + Faster Casting + Iron Will [5L]
EK + Blood Magic Gem + Life Leech + Faster Casting + Iron Will + Faster Projectiles [6L]



Gear
Shield: Lioneye's Remorse, or a high evasion/armor, life and resistance shield.
Weapon: Wand with high spell damage and projectile speed. Faster Casting etc are icing on the cake
Helm: High life/evasion/resistance
Boots: Life, chaos resistance
Gloves: Life, chaos
Belt: Life, armor, chaos
Rings: Life, all res or res, faster casting is gravy.

Love the guide thanks! Next step is leveling a Marauder and getting the gear. I always struggle with leveling strategies. Any tips for leveling up this build?

"

lanteam wrote:

Love the guide thanks! Next step is leveling a Marauder and getting the gear. I always struggle with leveling strategies. Any tips for leveling up this build?

My pleasure lanteam. For leveling, one could try using Leap Slam/Groundslam up until level 60. Then, as you find a 5L, you can use the Blood Magic gem to sustain your EK.

well master you know i rip with 79 to a fck client crash well ^^


my first point is dont run innerforce bro its really a waste of points`! conduit is another point but if you always grouping and like to share buffs its fine ^^

and for the gem slots better always go EK/BM/added fire/ironwill/fastcast/ 6l lifeleech perma or project if you dont have a wand with speed,

you really dont need life leech perma i had over 300hp reg with vita aura 5khp max res -60 chaos and easy did all kind of maps w/o life leech gem i just switch it for ref maps/hard boss/no reg


mfg flat

Nice guide. I'm doing EK with a witch and running level 20 arctic armour. Seems pretty stronk, and gives me some more flexibility in the supports I use, but means I have to drop AA in half regen and can't really do no regen at all. What sort of DPS/health/armour do you think is necessary for high level mapping?

"

FlatSpin wrote:

well master you know i rip with 79 to a fck client crash well ^^


my first point is dont run innerforce bro its really a waste of points`! conduit is another point but if you always grouping and like to share buffs its fine ^^

and for the gem slots better always go EK/BM/added fire/ironwill/fastcast/ 6l lifeleech perma or project if you dont have a wand with speed,

you really dont need life leech perma i had over 300hp reg with vita aura 5khp max res -60 chaos and easy did all kind of maps w/o life leech gem i just switch it for ref maps/hard boss/no reg


mfg flat

Yeah dude, it's a shame you ripped. GJ for rerolling though.

-Regarding Inner Force, I really like the 18% increase it provides to Grace, Determination, Vitality, Hatred, party auras (Haste), and flask charges. For 4 points only, I think it is invaluable. However, I did some testing and I think it's worth it to drop. I am able to invest those 4 skill points into 3 HP and 1 +30 strength.

Before:


After:


-Regarding the support gems, you can get enough regen to cover the cast if you have a high base HP, in which case you don't need LL. I think LL is very important to have in high level maps though.

Could you link your weapon off hand and your dps please? Would help a lot . Very good guide btw :)

"

ZzeDarKNesS wrote:

Could you link your weapon off hand and your dps please? Would help a lot . Very good guide btw :)

Thanks, ZzeDarKNess. I am using a staff which is 6 linked, because my chest piece has no sockets.

"

ZiggySobotka wrote:

Nice guide. I'm doing EK with a witch and running level 20 arctic armour. Seems pretty stronk, and gives me some more flexibility in the supports I use, but means I have to drop AA in half regen and can't really do no regen at all. What sort of DPS/health/armour do you think is necessary for high level mapping?

Good to hear. What's your experience with Arctic Armor like? I think one should aim for:
-15k+ Armor
-4,200+ HP
-70% constant damage reduction, through endurance charges and armor.
-DPS is a little hard to advise on, but perhaps more than 5,000.

"

MasterCard wrote:

"

ZzeDarKNesS wrote:

Could you link your weapon off hand and your dps please? Would help a lot . Very good guide btw :)

Thanks, ZzeDarKNess. I am using a staff which is 6 linked, because my chest piece has no sockets.

"

ZiggySobotka wrote:

Nice guide. I'm doing EK with a witch and running level 20 arctic armour. Seems pretty stronk, and gives me some more flexibility in the supports I use, but means I have to drop AA in half regen and can't really do no regen at all. What sort of DPS/health/armour do you think is necessary for high level mapping?

Good to hear. What's your experience with Arctic Armor like? I think one should aim for:
-15k+ Armor
-4,200+ HP
-70% constant damage reduction, through endurance charges and armor.
-DPS is a little hard to advise on, but perhaps more than 5,000.

Arctic armour is pretty insane if you can get the mana regen to leave it permanently on. Voidbearers and titty bitches do 0 damage, including GMP, chain, extra damage, vulnerability, etc. and single physical reflect does nothing, even without endurance charges. With 5 endurance charges up, double reflect doesn't hurt very much either. I guess it's not an advantage over someone without it who plays cautiously, but it's very noticable to me compared with playing without it.

I only have 13k armour, since I'm using a Rathpith (7k dps and extra mana with EB), but that'll go up with better gear. Health is at 4.7k and I'm playing path of life nodes from 85 to 96. Died at 86 on my last EKer to something AA would have prevented, so I'm giving it a go. Still trying to build up a 70+ base, so I can move up to higher maps permanently (highest I've done with this character is like 72). Maybe damage scaling in the higher maps will reveal some deficiencies in my build (like the fact that I can't really go Kaom's).

"

ZiggySobotka wrote:

Arctic armour is pretty insane if you can get the mana regen to leave it permanently on. Voidbearers and titty bitches do 0 damage, including GMP, chain, extra damage, vulnerability, etc. and single physical reflect does nothing, even without endurance charges. With 5 endurance charges up, double reflect doesn't hurt very much either. I guess it's not an advantage over someone without it who plays cautiously, but it's very noticable to me compared with playing without it.

I only have 13k armour, since I'm using a Rathpith (7k dps and extra mana with EB), but that'll go up with better gear. Health is at 4.7k and I'm playing path of life nodes from 85 to 96. Died at 86 on my last EKer to something AA would have prevented, so I'm giving it a go. Still trying to build up a 70+ base, so I can move up to higher maps permanently (highest I've done with this character is like 72). Maybe damage scaling in the higher maps will reveal some deficiencies in my build (like the fact that I can't really go Kaom's).

Thanks for sharing Ziggy. Arctic Armor sounds dope. Could you share your build with me?