Slirche's EK Mana Regen/IR Guide *UPDATED

*Updated Guide 3/14/2013 with a new superior talent spec.

Hi, I would like to share my EK marauder with you guys. I am level 84 in hardcore playing almost purely solo in maps. I have soloed rare maps up to level 72 easily. Level 66 maps usually only take me 5 minutes.

First off, I would like to show how my marauder is different from other EK marauders.
I use clarity and mana regen gear so that my mana regen is higher than mana per second of ethereal knives. This allows me to spam curses, skeleton totems, and bear traps easily as well. This allows me to save a link on my EK as I do not need mana leech or blood magic. Because I have 4.4 % life per second, I usually do not use life leech either unless it is a reflect map. The other important part of my marauder is Iron Reflexes with determination and grace and inner force. This gives me ~20k armor without a granite to counteract reflect and to be very very tanky. I strongly believe this is the best "fair" EK build. I might work on a new EK build if I ever get the new unique Shavronne's Wrappings, but without that, I believe this is the best.



Here is my EK's damage. It is supported with faster casting, faster projectiles, added fire, and iron will. I sometimes switch one of these for life leech for reflect maps. Whether added fire is better or iron will is better depends on a couple of factors. Iron will does not have a mana multiplier but generally added fire damage adds more damage. At my strength levels, iron will is actually giving me more damage than added fire does anyways without the extra mana multiplier but the damage it adds is physical making reflect harder but vulnerability more effective on it.


Here is my defense bar. The auras I am using are hatred, determination, and purity and also blood magiced grace and clarity. Even though it might feel too expensive to blood magic grace and clarity, it is well worth it. My talent tree aims to maximize my life to make sure I can afford to blood magic these auras. Note that I have 127.5 mana regen per second and my EK uses 126.56 mana per second.

Old Spec(Not as good, here for reference)




I have a new edited talent tree which I believe is better. It is very easy to expand this as you level up past level 85 as well. It reaches inner focus very late since it goes all the way around, the best thing to do as your leveling is to get to inner focus fast after iron reflexes and then pick up health nodes later.

Bandits :
I got 40 life in normal, 12% physical damage in cruel, and 1 talent point in merciless.

Gear :
Here is my gear that I am using. Kaom's Heart is probably a big upgrade, your choices after that is to just use a 4 linked ek with faster casting, faster projectiles, +1 red gem or to use a 6 linked 2 hander like a staff possibly with good spell caster stats and/or +1 level to gems. Geofri's crest unique helm is probably a viable alternative way of using ethereal knives once you get Kaom's heart because of the 4 links and +1 level of gems but having no life.

The final notes I have are which other skills I use. I use vulnerability and enfeeble both linked to faster casting depending on whether I want the damage or defense. Vulnerability helps with bear trap as well whereas projectile weakness does not.

I use a 2 bear traps linked to added fire damage and culling strike.

I use a skeleton totem with faster casting for when I need it, although sometimes I go through 4 or 5 maps without ever using this once. If you have Kaom's Heart, it is very likely you will drop this.

The final pieces of gear are for auras. Grace and Clarity are fully leveled and blood magiced/reduced mana. Determination, Purity, and Hatred are reduced mana. Purity is not mandatory, feel free to switch out for vitality or haste as long as you can cap resists elsewhere or even get elemental adaptation.

Feel free to ask me any questions here.

Good EK build

dont know how this is superior to using blood magic. you cant run 150% mana reserved auras

Thanks for the build, Starting a EK guy today because my guildy made me jealous with his marauder EK build lol. Going to def follow your build when making my own creation, Thank you for the helpful information sir!

Awesome build man, im trying to roll something very similar. Did you use EK throughout the entire time of leveling up?

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UppercutPhoenix wrote:

Awesome build man, im trying to roll something very similar. Did you use EK throughout the entire time of leveling up?

I used a silverbranch with poison arrow until merciless ledge (note this is before the nerfs to poison arrow). I switched to EK at around level 50 because I had some good EK gear around that level.

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prettycoolguy wrote:

dont know how this is superior to using blood magic. you cant run 150% mana reserved auras

You can still use 110% reserved mana auras with this build. Blood magic costs a support gem(probably two support gems as you have to use life leech I believe as well), and also I have no idea how you would use bear trap and curses with 150% auras with blood magic support gem on your ek, unless you blood magic those as well, which is many links saved with my build.

I just updated this guide with a new talent spec, the pictures are new too. The new spec is a lot better, still using mana regen and iron reflexes, picks up a lot more health nodes and easier to expand as you level up.