EK Witch help- cannot progress anymore

Skill build

I'm running a lv68 Etherial Knives witch (power charge on crit, spell echo, +crit damage on knives) with all 3 heralds, clarity, and mana regen to sustain level 9 arctic armor.

With max power charges, my DPS peaks at around 8k. Defensive statwise, I have 1960 hp, 628 energy shield, next to no armor and 600 evasion. Max fire and cold resist, 55% lightning and -40 chaos resist- its low, but I make it work by running 3 life flasks to keep my health as high as possible (I don't have life leech) until I get proper sockets for an armor.

Problem is, I can't even do white 66 maps without losing more xp than I gain, even doing multiplayer sessions I gain negligible amounts of xp and next to no loot- I have fuck all in terms of currency and I can't stand doing docks anymore.

Any advice? I really enjoy the game, but the fact that I cannot progress even slightly is keeping me from wanting to play more.

My items:

And if it matters, my potions:

"

I have 1960 hp

There's your problem right there, that's way too low to start mapping, you just don't have a big enough buffer to absorb serious hits, 2K life is barely enough for cruel. Go for at least 3K life, 4K being the comfort zone.

"

I don't have life leech

And here's another. You can't rely on flasks only.

Other than that, go with easy maps for starters, like tropical island, grotto, arcade, mountain ledge, ghetto, reef, springs...

Also your gear isnt good enough.
What are you playing? Rampage? Normal?
I might be able to help you with some gear that is at least better than what you have.

You damage, you say 8k is more that enough for low maps.
For low lvl maps half of that is enough.
Change some damage nodes to lifenodes and make sure you have at least 75/75/75 resists.
Maybe run a purity of elements aura, that will fix your resistance.

I don't play EK witches but some things for you to consider

1. All characters need max resists by Act 3 Merciless - period. So that 55% Lightning resist has to be brought up to 75% right away.

2. All gear should be max socketed and linked. If you aren't making use of all your sockets and links then you aren't sure about what you are doing -- which brings us to point number 3.

3. Follow a build guide. There are EK witches, Scions, Rangers, pick a guide to follow that is well written and that you want to play. You need a plan.

4. Life/HP is needed on all pieces of gear that can have it. Armor should have + 80 HP, Rings and amulets + 40, all other gear as much as you can get. HP is needed on gear or there is nothing for your HP skill points to increase.

5. That Carnage Heart amulet is a nasty piece of gear and doesn't work with EK becasue gear leech works only for attacks - not spells. Per the PoE wiki "Like all other spells, only the Life Leech and Mana Leech support gems will grant leech effects to Ethereal Knives. All other forms of leeching work only on physical damage from attacks."
So get a good amulet with resists, +HP, and spell damage.

Well I could go on but you really need to grab a build guide, replace what gear you can, and probably farm for awhile to make some currency.

"

Skywalkerfx wrote:

5. That Carnage Heart amulet is a nasty piece of gear and doesn't work with EK becasue gear leech works only for attacks - not spells.

He says he has no leech, so I assume he wears it for '+ to all stats' and resists, I think that shows best how broke he is.

To OP:
Agreed with Mateo on damage, you shouldn't get too fixated on DPS if the clear speed is good enough, hell, I've been doing 73-4s with under 5K on my area skill. And don't get too bummed when playing in large parties if you see others killing stuff and you can't do a thing, sit back, enjoy the ride and pretend you're doing something :)

Your boots can have four sockets, your shield can have three. I'd suggest to use some jeweller orbs to get the max number of sockets and some fusings to get the links. About the helmet and the gloves I'm not sure.

Using a shield but not putting points into shield clusters and not using Tempest Shield imho is not so efficient. I'd at least skill Sanctuary (between the Sovereignty and Purity of Flesh clusters below) to get +22% elemental resistance while holding a shield. Then Purity is not necessary to be up all the time, but you can use Tempest Shield instead. Put points out of some crit nodes and skill them later.

I assume that you don't really need a lvl 17 Clarity gem to always have enough mana. I play a lvl 68 Witch too (though not EK but Arc) and Clarity lvl 8 is sufficient. I have similar health and ES (1.9k / 900) and die only seldom.

Low armor probably is your biggest problem, so you'll want to have a skill, that prevents most phys dmg mobs from reaching you or grabs the attention. I recommend to either use a normal totem (searing bond, decoy, shockwave, etc), a minion gem (skeletons) or a Frost Wall spell totem.
Furthermore you'll want a passive defensive oh-shit gem setup, that protects and also gives you the visual hint that's better to drink a potion or move away, like Cast when damage taken+Molten Shell+Warlord's Mark. Actually this setup often saved me, because of the clearly visible molten shell I'm more alerted, MS adds much armor where nearly no armor was before and WM grants life and mana leech.

My lvl 77 EK Witch in Beyond only has a measily 6k DpS but to my own surprise it is enough for most situations and i even feel able to contribute in map groups. At first i had similar problems to your build but then i changed a few things to get a better balance of offense/defense. .

In your case i would suggest switching Added Fire for Life Leech for now. It always blows to have to give up DpS but this will help your survival immensly. Also definitely get the Practical Application notable in the Witch starting area. Not only will it give you +20 to str and dex but also make you much less susceptible to stun while casting - so basically the whole time.
You should also get a cast when damage taken setup to help you agaist burst damage and reflect. CWDT + Enduring Cry + Immortal Call + Incr. Duration will work really well for your build but there are of course many options.
Besides that, you need a bunch more hp or you will get 1-shot eventually. 2.5k is the bare minimum for a ranged char, 3k+ is recommended and 4k+ is pretty safe. Since your ES isn't that high you could also consider going for Eldritch Battery to greatly boost your mana for a higher level Arctic Armor.