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

So I've got a block/spell block version of this going now with the Anvil, Rathpith, and Rainbowstride and thought I'd come back and give a report.





The build works great. It does what it's supposed to do. Right now, I have to choose between Grace and Hatred, and I don't have my CoDT setup yet (will probably replace the culling setup). I also have to choose between added fire and life leech. There's a huge amount of lost DPS with those two swaps.

With the Anvil in, it's nearly indestructible to non-chaos damage (though chaos DoT as a map mod is small enough not to matter). Seems to have issues with low regen maps, because of artic armor. But other map mods, not a problem. Ran a vuln, turbo, -max, undead promenade, blundered into the boss while dealing with 20+ skellies and zombies (and the obligatory necro), tripped a batch of auric collosi, and had to burn a few flask charges. Otherwise, just sat and took the beating.

The bigger issue - clear speed. In max tank mode, it doesn't clear fast or run fast to begin with, and on a map like the one I mentioned (vuln plus tons of mobs) you get stun locked for days. That's the bad news. The good news is, it doesn't matter. Tempest Shield and Anvil damage reflect kills off the things beating on you eventually, and you'll get a few casts off here and there. And nothing hurts. (I don't even quite have max block yet, only 76%/74% right now, with one more node required.)

I'll be grabbing Unwavering as soon as I can to fix this problem.

I do have the option to switch to a Kauri Ward/Hatred/Added Fire to still have a pretty tanky, but much faster and higher DPS scion for easier content like less obnoxious maps and Piety farming.

So thanks ZiggyD, for the build idea. It's been a lot of fun playing with it, and it works fantastically well, even without perfect gear.

Currently running this build in Nemesis, quite glad, it doesn't took me too much currencies to gather some decent gear and the tankiness/dps ratio is pretty good.

My number one advice would be, if you don't have a 6L but only a 5 L for endgame like I do, is to grab an higher level EK gem once you're in late merciless. Towards endgame, spell gems tend to run behind your actual level. For example, at level 65, my EK was just level 16, but at level 64 you're already able to use a level 18 EK, which is a fairly good DPS boost to start grinding docks/catacombs and 66-67 maps. So basically you have two options : 1/ give an EK gem to one of your higher level friends and he will level that gem for you in high level maps, 2/ buy one. I ended up buying a level 18 with 17% quality EK gem in Nemesis for 21c.

My gear and what I paid for it for some pieces:

What is a reasonable DPS for lvl 65? My EK is at 2600 DPS but I feel that the clear speed is still really slow. My gear isn't the best as I am running on Domination and I am poor.

Gear

"

Shieze wrote:

What is a reasonable DPS for lvl 65? My EK is at 2600 DPS but I feel that the clear speed is still really slow. My gear isn't the best as I am running on Domination and I am poor.

Gear

Spoiler

So long as you have no spell damage on the shield, no cast speed on the wand, no cast speed and/or spell damage on the amulet, you won't have a lot of DPS. What's more, your EK is just level 16, so give that some more XP.

It gets better, no worries.

So well, i just got riped at 68 :/
As it was the first time playing again since beta im quite satisfied... but what i dont quite get...
I was doing pretty well... 3k dps, tons of armor (about 50% reduction) had 3 auras with 600 mana left, 55/75/73 resists i think...
Running through the normal game content was no problem... got some dmg dealing with Storm Herald Nemesis Mod Rare Mobs, but nothing that could make me worry. So i though well fuck this stupid xp grinding, lets see how a map works out... ran a harmless one, tropical island with monsters gaining endurance charges and some patches of ice. Ran through it without any problems, encountered the boss, one second lag, 3 hits later i was dead

is it normal to have such differences between normal game and map bosses? is it realy necessary to grind till lvl 70+ before starting playing maps? Was my gear too bad, was i too low level or did i just screw it? :D
Well as i realy liked this char and got my previous gear still in stash i guess i will give it another try.. any suggestions with gearing what to do better?

So I sort of used this build as a core and combined it with the next build I really wanted to play: power siphon. Currently lvl 68 and doing moderately well. I got Cloak of Defiance and have run into some dex issues after respeccing out of MoM. Decided to pick up Charisma instead to get the dex nodes and so I can hopefully run Vigor + Clarity + Discipline + Hatred (and maybe Tempest Shield). Mana is finally starting to ramp up so that I can level Arctic Armour. I feel very odd about this char. On one hand I feel like I have terrible defensive stats, but then I look at my stats and see ~30% chance to block (Tempest Shield), ~35% chance to dodge, 40% flat damage reduction (Cloak of Defiance) and whenever I party everyone else drops like flies and I just chill in the back crit'ing away.

I asked around before I made this build and most people said that the points would be spread too thin. After seeing how many points I get back after acquiring Cloak of Defiance (I thought it would've been much harder to get, could definitely have planned better) I think this build will turn out all right.

Strangest thing is I think either no one is really running Wander's nowadays or every Wander goes CI instead.

Regardless, here's my entirely random rant about a build no one else seems to be running based on this EB + MoM w/ AA EK build. And it's working not half-bad.

I do find it a little hard to get resistances though. I like to play the "blue challenge" where I keep as much of my gear magic rarity as I can and because I'm using the uniques and because I need to focus gear towards mana and mana regen at least in some way my resists aren't capped. Not the biggest deal in the world but I can't solo piety atm which makes me sad.

Would this build work well in 1 week nemesis race? Or getting at least 5L chest and all the gems would be quite difficult?

"

Leapp wrote:

Would this build work well in 1 week nemesis race? Or getting at least 5L chest and all the gems would be quite difficult?

Should work fine. If you know how to trade even a bit, it's easy to get gear.

Why are we using Iron Reflexes?

Is it to allow us to use Evasion/ES gear as well as Armour/ES?

If sticking with Armour/ES is it ok to skip it? Any other benefits?

"

duztdruid wrote:

Why are we using Iron Reflexes?

Is it to allow us to use Evasion/ES gear as well as Armour/ES?

If sticking with Armour/ES is it ok to skip it? Any other benefits?

I assume it's mainly because we're using Grace, but if you don't intend to use grace either then i guess it's not necessary to get iron reflexes.