ZiggyD's Etheral Knives Mana Shield Scion/Shadow Build Guide - Hardcore (Updated for 1.1)

Just here to say thanks for the awesomely fun build.

Haven't read the whole thread so not sure if this has been mentioned before.

Why do you have the two +10 strength nodes in between the wheel of health nodes and the Shaper node to the left of the Scion's starting point? You don't actually need them to get to anything as you get to shaper via the mana nodes from the starting point. If you desperately need the strength why not just get a +30 for one point?

But anyways, i'm doing a very similar build with the Lightning Coil unique and your guides have been very helpful in making a very fun to play but effective character. Thanks!

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maffa50 wrote:

Haven't read the whole thread so not sure if this has been mentioned before.

Why do you have the two +10 strength nodes in between the wheel of health nodes and the Shaper node to the left of the Scion's starting point? You don't actually need them to get to anything as you get to shaper via the mana nodes from the starting point. If you desperately need the strength why not just get a +30 for one point?

But anyways, i'm doing a very similar build with the Lightning Coil unique and your guides have been very helpful in making a very fun to play but effective character. Thanks!

Check again ;) They connect us to the bottom half of the tree (to get IR and MoM).

Ohhh yes that's right, you don't have the projectile damage nodes ^_^ my bad.

Just want to get confirmation on one mechanical aspect of the build. Do you get to 'double dip' with evasion that has been turned into armour with increased armour from the tree (instead of just increased evasion)? IE, does the 520 evasion that I gain from my chest piece get increased by the increased armour nodes that have been taken, seeing as it gets turned into armour by Iron Reflexes?

Also, have you beaten Merc Dominus with this character? I got absolutely destroyed by Cruel Dom an had to get a buddy to come and help me out. Any tips for the Dom fight that are specific to this build?

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maffa50 wrote:

Ohhh yes that's right, you don't have the projectile damage nodes ^_^ my bad.

Just want to get confirmation on one mechanical aspect of the build. Do you get to 'double dip' with evasion that has been turned into armour with increased armour from the tree (instead of just increased evasion)? IE, does the 520 evasion that I gain from my chest piece get increased by the increased armour nodes that have been taken, seeing as it gets turned into armour by Iron Reflexes?

I can't help you on fighting Dominus with this build as I haven't yet started playing it (I plan to start tomorrow).

But I know for certain that armor and evasion nodes do not double dip with iron reflexes. The formula is as follows:

total armor = ((base evasion * %evasion nodes) + (base armor * %armor) * %armor and evasion)

So basically base evasion is increased separately from base armor, then they are added together and increased once by "armor and evasion" nodes....if you don't have IR, you would simply remove the base evasion portion out of the above formula, if you build an evasion character (no armor) then remove the base armor portion out (and it's "total evasion" instead of "total armor")

So I've got one huge question. Where exactly do I go first?

It seems like Going Shaper, Life Wheel > EB then maybe rush to MoM?

You only have the one skill tree.
It'd help to have a progression setup like most other builds (at least for me)

Or a text progression at the least, it's mostly because with all the buff/mana reserve type things I don't know if they should wait or be picked up. I mean one 5% Reduced Reserved could be huge.

I'm a simpleton when it comes to this game. I need the simple breakdown on how to get the "core" pieces. From there I can figure it out the only issue is I'm afr

Hey I was doing some theorycrafting and I think you can significantly improve your build with some minor changes, namely speccing more heavily into auras.

As it stands now you have to choose between hatred/grace/haste + discipline + clarity with the right setup it should be possible to run all 5.


Build: (uses the same amount of points as your currently posted build.)



Pros:



Cons:



While I think what you currently have is good for getting to end game and farming up some currency, I think transitioning to this build would give your character more offense, more defense, and bring more to a party, let me know what you think.

By my calculations you would need 3900 mana to be able to run all those auras and still have 700 unreserved for MoM. I'm not sure how achievable that would be after losing the 80% increased energy shield from the templar area as well as the energy shield from the helm slot. The 15% energy shield reduction from Ming's Heart would make this even harder.

Also in the situations where you would be running grace in ZiggyD's build, he would have a lot more amour due to the 104% increased armour that you're losing.

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Xavr0k wrote:

By my calculations you would need 3900 mana to be able to run all those auras and still have 700 unreserved for MoM. I'm not sure how achievable that would be after losing the 80% increased energy shield from the templar area as well as the energy shield from the helm slot. The 15% energy shield reduction from Ming's Heart would make this even harder.

Also in the situations where you would be running grace in ZiggyD's build, he would have a lot more amour due to the 104% increased armour that you're losing.

Yeah this is my exact reasoning behind not going the route that fatshady suggested.

Hey Ziggy :)

are you still going to Eldritch Battery through this way:



or are you going through the upper Portion from left to right (through "Deep Wisdom")?