I Cast Magic Missile! - Cantrip's guide to Ethereal Knives 2.0

I have a couple questions:

1) What is PoL?
2) Why does OP say that a 5L chest piece is worse than a 4L?

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5L (worse than 4L as above) = EK / Added Fire / Faster Casting / Spell Echo / Faster Projectiles

Usually, the order of Auras is going to be Clarity => Hatred => Herald of Ash
After you get the Templar's aura nodes, you add Haste, since you can't run Clarity/Hatred/Haste without it (at least not easily).

Aura nodes have a cumulataive effect, getting just 1 or 2 doesn't have a strong impact, so I'd wait with those until fairly late (exception being the Shadow's Aura nodes, that add a LOT of Mana Regen).

My own gear has barely changed since I haven't had time to play, and I barely trade, but sure. I have 4 nodes wasted to max my resists at the moment, since my gear is poor, but that will change, later.

I don't believe in 20-40-60-80 trees, since leveling is an individual experience, but I'll post what I did, more or less.

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PoL = Purity of Lightning. I guess I should clarify that.
5L is worse than 4L with +1 Gems, since the 5th link adds (at best) 10% Cast Speed, 19% Damage, which is barely more than +1 to EK and all it's supports. In some cases it will still be better, such as when you have a q20, high level Faster Projectiles gem, and/or don't have Projectile Speed on your wand.

I also noticed in the build we get very little mana nodes so how can we sustain AA and have all our auras?

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asbo96 wrote:

I also noticed in the build we get very little mana nodes so how can we sustain AA and have all our auras?

EB and as much Mana Regen and ES/Mana as possible on gear. It's not as hard as you think.
Another trick to help sustain AA is to walk as little as possible, and use Lightning Warp to move longer distances - that saves a LOT of mana.

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ChillQuill wrote:

2) Why does OP say that a 5L chest piece is worse than a 4L?

A 4L with +1 to all gems is quite powerful for spells. I was levelling all the way up to 55 just using a 3L Lifesprig, because the +1 to the level of spell gems was just better than a regular 4L(Similar DPS, but the 3L had a much lower mana cost). Another benefit that +1 to all gems has, which no one's really able to take advantage of in the new leagues yet is that it increases the level of a socketed Empower, effectively making the +1 to all gems act as +2 on active gems, even further increasing the damage a 4L can do vs. a 5L and 6L.

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CantripN wrote:

Current DPS: ~10000
Buffs: Clarity / Haste / Hatred / Herald of Ash / Arctic Armor

By the way, what's that number go down to without Haste? You seem to be doing quite a bit more damage than me, and aside from Haste, your gear is only slightly better than what I'm running. I'm currently hitting about 5K with a level 15 gem, and you were hitting about 7K.

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asbo96 wrote:

At what point should you start using your auras and buffs? and in what order? like what buff should we start using first. Could you update the build with your current stats and with progessive passive points so like level 20, 40 etc... At the moment I've finised all the area around ranger and im heading up towards EB do i pick up the aura nodes on the way or just ignore those till endgame?

Thanks for the build btw

I've been having a blast with EK, and all I bought was Lifesprig wand.

Here's what my progression has been like:



I only ran with EK + Faster Projectiles on Lifesprig, and Herald of Ice, that's it. Until late 40's, then I got all the Aura nodes and I went with Clarity, Hatred and Haste. Looking for a way to sneak in Herald of Ash.

BTW, keep leveling all of your future gems off hand or something so when you switch or something you'll have it all ready.

When I went to lvl 53 and upgrade my EK to Geofri's Crest my DPS went off the charts, from barelly 1.2k (which was absolutely fine and I didn't have any real issue) now I'm at 4.7k and damn... things are just melting.

Made some small tweaks, will update more tomorrow, when I have more time. We now have a theme song!

Updated my stats and gear. Feel free to post your progress!

I'll be interested to hear how you do once you get into level 72 and above maps. I'm surprised that you're running Haste instead of Determination. Have you had any deaths? Even with Grace, IR, MoM, and AA, I can still be downed in certain level 71 and 72 maps if I'm not really careful. Magic packs of Devourers in higher level maps are especially nasty.

There's something sweet about those level 73 and level 75 maps; they generally don't pose much of a threat at all.

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Tempada wrote:

I'll be interested to hear how you do once you get into level 72 and above maps. I'm surprised that you're running Haste instead of Determination. Have you had any deaths? Even with Grace, IR, MoM, and AA, I can still be downed in certain level 71 and 72 maps if I'm not really careful. Magic packs of Devourers in higher level maps are especially nasty.

There's something sweet about those level 73 and level 75 maps; they generally don't pose much of a threat at all.

So far, no deaths in those kinds of maps. I'm sure you'll fare better against Physical Damage than me, though. Last time I did MoM + Coil + AA, I could take *any* amount of Physical, without Grace, even.

For Devourers I just pop a Granite at once, and I'm usually fine. That said, at level 72 I tried to do Orchard (66) - got one-shot by the boss at melee range, at 3200 HP (max res, AA leveled). WTF?!