[1.2] Rathik's EK build +40k DPS/52.3%Crit/+375% Multiplier. Anti-Reflect. "The Immortal Shuriken"

Hi.
"
Update 22/09/2014

I had some time to revise the build.

Best links are GRRBBB in this order

"
EK + Life leech + Power charge on crit + Added Fire Damage + Spell Echo + Faster Casting


Scion is out, Shadow is in.

Up to 40k DPS now with EK. Check screenshot.

Screenshot (taken with tabula rasa, I am having the worse luck with chroms ffs)
Spoiler


Current Gear and gem links.


Current tree using herald of ice and fire. 104 skill points.


Currently theorycrafting this build which is most likely to be the base build.

Dropping the armour and life nodes of templar and getting Quick recovery and Blood drinker.
Life should be the same and 40 more mana regen.
You loose 8% resist and 46% armour and 25% ES which is not a big deal.
You also get some DEX nodes which means you can drop a 30 DEX node.


Here is the base build, 97 skill points.


If you good gear and don't need mana you can drop the 4 nodes below Deep wisdom and cross over by taking 1 INT node right above Heart and Soul. You will save 3 skill points.

You have to drop herald of ice. About 1600 DPS with Void battery and 8 charges up. 700 DPS with no charges. Not a big deal.

Now from here we have some options.

1) Grab 6 cast speed nodes. Witch and Shadow nodes give 12% cast speed and Mental Rapidity Nimbleness also give 12%. Probably weakest option but it does remove the mobility issue you get from using spell echo a bit.

2) Grab the 5 physical damage starting nodes from shadow and have 2 skill points to spare. Physical damage also boost your cold and fire damage. 57% physical and 12 life.

3) Grab Frost Walker, Fire Walker, Celestial Walker and Elementalist for more res and elemental damage. (Probably best choice because it will help with itemization.)

4) Yolo mode. Grab a 6L Voll's Protector and replace PCOC with Increase Critical Damage. If the rest of your gear can keep you alive, handle your mana and have a 6L Voll's go for it. I don't got one so I can't try it but the DPS output should be insane.
Add also The tree dragons helmet for shock stacks with fire damage.


I am kinda out of currency and out of regrets so I can't test all of these.
If someone is willing to help by testing his own build please start a discussion here.

I would love some input.

Regards


"
Updated 29/08/2014

Witch skill tree updated. Still working on Scion.(Scion seems to have lots of draw backs, needs more skill points to make the build work, I might remove it from the guide.

Build got a bit of a buff in DPS, defenses and mana regen.

Spell Echo provides a bit more DPS than faster casting but it depends on the cast speed you have from your gear/skills points.

Herald of Ash adds lots of dps (up to 2k DPS with 8 charges). Trying to level the gem up to see how good it is even though the burn is not really useful on this build. If you can handle the mana I would definitely use it.


"
Updated 24/04/2014
Nothing changed for this build. It actually got buffed a bit for DPS and defense.
You have more spell damage now from the witch starting point and you have access to Elemental Adaptation (+2% max all res).
You also can Throatseeker with only 3 skill points for a total of 45% critical multiplier.
I didn't even have to respec the character or edit the skill trees in the guide.

The build is 100% solid.

"
With the game release this build got a huge buff. Check the screenshots to see the differences. Eldrich Battery is not needed but its only 1 skill point if you want to use it.

With the combination of Cast on damage taken + Enduring cry + Immortal call and the fact that they lowered the reflected damage, reflect is not really an issue any more.

A spell I really like is ethereal knives. I always liked the idea of a spell caster doing physical damage. EK does just that, high damage with out uber gear.

The problem with high damage though is reflect. And since most casters out there go CI and EK does mostly physical damage, reflect is a big issue since its hard to stack armour on a CI build.
This setup uses life and armour to counter reflect and it does it pretty well.


This build is an alternative to wanderers build.
Personally, I think it does it better and cheaper. "30 exalted for a wand? No thanks.."

Important, read first.
Spoiler

A lot of people keep asking me the same questions over and over, mostly about gear.
There is a section in the guide that talks about gear and how to optimize it.
Stop linking me items and asking me if is OK to use and what to upgrade first.
Read the guide, take a look at the gear that I am using and how I am itemizing and try to match it or surpass it. Use common sense please.

Use http://poe.xyz.is/ to shop for gear, flip items, make profit, etc.
If you are playing PoE and not using this website you are simply failing.

Also learn to use wiki http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Path_of_Exile_Wiki

Also gem combinations, if you want to use another gem use it, stop asking if is going to work or not, test it your self.
If your DPS is low and your gem is still at level 15, well duh, the answer is right there, your gem is low level, go farm some more EXP.

For the skill tree, if you want to go out of your way to get something, for example resist, just go ahead and take it if you need it.

I don't mind answer questions but a lot of questions that I get, simply are not worth replying to or have already been covered in the guide.

Regards

Skill trees

WARNING.
Think twice before taking "Spell Power" (40% crit multiplier for spells) and Arcane Potency (30% critical strike chance 20% critical strike damage)
You should balance your armour with your damage output.

DO NOT cast Critical Weakness on reflect monsters.



Leveling Section
Spoiler

If you are a new player to the game read this first. Courtesy of Mr. maladeth, Mr. Beedon.
Apparently I was wrong. New players can easily pull this build off. Good stuff.

It needs to be said, that I leveled this witch using my power leveling guide. You can find the link in my signature. Its a lot faster.

Depending on your gear, you might need to get some DEX/STR faster, mana and mana regen and maybe some resistance which you can respect out of it when you optimize your gear.

Also you can drop some mana regen skill points depending on your clarity level.

If reflect is an issue avoid taking critical multiplier nodes until you have enough armour.

Item recommendation
"
Spoiler
"
The most important information I can give you about items is this:
http://poe.xyz.is
Use it as much as you can, I can't stress this enough. Its by far the best way to find the items you need.

Vendors recipes
"
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vendor_recipes
You should learn this by heart.

If you are just starting this game you should pick up and sell every magic (blue) and rare (yellow) items you come across and vendor it for orb of alterations or other recipes.

8 orb of alteration = 4 jewelers orb = 1 fusing
8 orb of chance = 2 scouring = 1 regret
3+ linked item with 3+ different color socket = chromatic orb
These are a vendor recipes. Fixed price, you should never ever trade for lower.
Do not ever buy orb of alchemy from vendors.

These items will greatly boost your EK damage. You must use them together to over come the cast penalty. Dirt cheap.

Suggested leveling EK links, EK + Faster casting/Spell Echo + Added fire damage/Power charge on critical + Life Leech/Faster Projectiles/Mana Leech

Auras
At level 10 use Clarity
At level 31 add Hatred + Reduced mana
ALWAYS double check before you level Clarity, make sure you have enough mana to cast EK.
"
Rare Daggers under level 40
http://poe.xyz.is/search/henareyonyetam
Rare Wands under level 40
http://poe.xyz.is/search/ohitazutihasik
Doedre's Tenure Velvet Gloves
http://poe.xyz.is/search/umetarukousido
Stone of Lazhwar Lapis Amulet
http://poe.xyz.is/search/azuikikoyusobi
Blackheart Iron Ring
http://poe.xyz.is/search/onahokamokamam
Wanderlust Wool Shoes (Optional. Mana regen, can not be frozen, movement speed)
http://poe.xyz.is/search/woninzuratarit

Must have items. They simply will make your leveling easier.
"
Crest of Perandus Pine Buckler (Best leveling shield in game, grab one ASAP, dirt cheap)
http://poe.xyz.is/search/omenaarumanana
Goldrim Leather Cap (huge resists)
http://poe.xyz.is/search/udotiharetorer

Optional.
"
5L armors under level 40. As cheap as 3 chaos
http://poe.xyz.is/search/mekanohahitona


Witch
"

Scion
"

Current gear. Really not that uber. You can also dual wield daggers or wands. Void battery works great if you have one.

Bandits
Spoiler

Help Oak for life
Help Oak for physical damage
Help Alira for power charge

Gems, links and socket colors
Spoiler

"
I suggest your first 20/20 gem should be Ethereal Knives and second Power Charge on Critical.

6L Armour.
Most versatile color combo is GGRRBB
"
Ethereal Knives + Faster Projectiles + Added fire damage + Iron Will + Power charge + Faster casting/Spell Echo

With this color combo you can do all type of maps.
Replace Added fire with Life leech on elemental reflect maps.
Replace Iron will with Life leech on physical reflect maps.
Replace Faster projectiles with Mana leech on no mana regen maps.
On low regen maps use Iron Will over Added fire damage due to the mana cost.

Less versatile combo GRRBBB, you can't do no mana regen maps.
"
Ethereal Knives + Added fire damage + Iron Will + Power charge + Faster casting/Spell Echo + Increased critical strikes

Suicide mode, Increased critical damage instead of Increased critical strike.
A 20/20 Increased critical damage will add 223.5 critical multiplier.
One shot rare mobs? Yes please!!!

5L armour
Most versatile color combo is GGRBB
"
Ethereal Knives + Faster Projectiles/Mana Leech + Added fire damage/Iron Will/Life leech + Power charge + Faster casting/Spell Echo

Auras
"
Determination + Hatred + Clarity + Reduced mana

Level Arctic Armour according to your mana regeneration. You don't have to max it. Even a level 10 Arctic Armour is very powerful.
"
Arctic Armour + Critical Weakness + Empower/Increased area of effect/What ever

Don't level this Cast when damage taken gem.
"
Cast on damage taken(level 1) + Enduring Cry(level 5) + Enfeeble(level 5)

You should level these Cast when damage taken gems according to your life pool.
It should be around 20% of your life. Somewhere in the range of level 8-10.
You have to figure the level yourself.
"
Cast on damage taken + Molten Shell + Life leech + Increased Duration/Concentrated Effect

"
Cast on damage taken + Immortal Call + Increase Duration + Decoy Totem


Gear optimization
Spoiler

Weapon
"

80% crit implicit dagger or 20 spell wand, personally I prefer dagger.

Prefix
spell damage (best prefix)
spell damage + mana (second best)
mana

suffixes
spell crit chance (best suffix)
critical multiplier (second best)
mana regen

This dagger will probably be mirror worthy, assuming high mods, so good luck getting that.
Might as well get a void battery for 8-10 exalted.

Thus said, if you like to craft, you can make a godly weapon with only alts and regals

70-74 spell damage, 100-109 spell critical, any from the affixes listed above.

Shield
"
15 spell damage shield, Fossilized Spirit Shield is the highest level shield with 15 spell damage

Prefix
life
spell damage
energy shield or mana

Suffixes
spell critical chance
mana regen
resist or intellect

You can also go for more defense with an armour/es shield like an Archon shield or even Lionseye if you dont need the mana.

Helmet, Gloves, Boots
"
Preferably you want armour and armour/es items but if your mana pool is enough to run your auras you might as well go for pure armour to mitigate reflect damage.

Look for life, armour, resist, strength, mana, ES, movement speed for boots.

5 Strength = 1% spell damage from Iron Will and also 2.5 life

Belt
"
Rustic sash, heavy belt or leather belt.

Look for life, armour, resist, strength, mana, ES

Rings and Amulet
"
Avoid iron rings, gold rings, coral amulet, gold amulets if you can.

Look for life, mana regen(important), resist, strength, mana, ES
Spell damage, critical chance, critical multiplier for amulets

Chest
"
The highest armour the better. Astral armour seems to be the better choice because of the extra resist. It will make easier to itemize the rest of your items.

Look for life, armour, resists, strength.


Gameplay and requirements
Spoiler

"
Arctic armour is the bread and butter of your survival vs rapid physical damage and rapid fire damage. Which means you need to balance your mana regeneration.
A level 20 AA drains 38.3 mana while standing still plus 191.4 when moving for a total of 229.7

Check http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Arctic_Armour for more details.

Make sure you have enough mana regen before you level your gem.

If you want to calculate your mana regen with excel use the following formula.

A2 = total mana (with discipline aura)
B2 = total mana regen (from items and skills)
C2 = mana regen from clarity

=SUM((A2*1.75/100)*(100+B2)/100)+(C2/100)*(100+B2)

Formula goes in D2

"

Stacking cast speed will not up your DPS if you don't have enough mana regen to spam EK.
Avoid stacking cast speed. The slower you cast the more time you have to react vs reflect. EK has a low range so its really hard to miss reflect monsters, you can also remove faster projectiles to be extremely safe.

"

Always carry a granite flask of iron skin with you. With my current gear + 3 endurance charges + granite flask of iron skin I have:
48% from gear and Determination
6% Molten armour
12% four endurance charges (converted to 6 seconds of physical immunity)
26% from granite flask of iron skin when used with no endurance charges or molten shell

Defense tab shows 89% damage reduction.

Also have a flask with " of warding" suffix. Curses can mess you up.

"

On reflect maps, depending on how good your gear is, lower your damage, replace iron will or added fire damage with life leech.
If you are not using tempest shield it means you have a 4L item free. You can always go with a single target elemental spell like fireball, freezing pulse, ice spear etc.



On low mana regen maps, if you like, you can replace faster projectiles with mana leech. You should have a second lower level AA to match your mana regen.

On no mana regen, AA has to be off and use mana leech and 1-2 hybrid flasks.

"
On elemental reflect maps, replace added fire damage with iron will so you take less elemental damage. Also if you are using molten shell, BEWARE of the explosion, it can create a huge damage spike, specially if you are surrounded by many monsters. It is best to disable molten shell in elemental reflect maps.

"

Do not go crazy with critical multiplier.
With total 300% multiplier you can one shot normal monsters in a six man solo and thats with out critical weakness curse.
And you will easily have 50%+ chance to crit.
With the current gear I have

37.3% base
17.5% with 7 power charges (2.5% crit per charge)
9% with critical weakness

63.8% total

and that is with a wand, with a dagger with implicit 80% crit you will add 4% crit.


Screenshots
Spoiler
Defense tab

http://i.imgur.com/BpiNzPk.png
Spoiler

Offense tab

http://i.imgur.com/t3jo9JM.png
Spoiler


Old Screenshots
Spoiler
Spoiler
Defense tab

http://i.imgur.com/qmVckGa.png
Spoiler

Offense tab

http://i.imgur.com/2L7fn8Z.png
Spoiler


Video HD available
Spoiler
Post CWDT nerf, physical reflect + vulnerability map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDj_d2uBMQ

Face tanking Dominus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK0953K9M4A

Face tanking Kole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imy2kkoD5uo

Vulnerability, half regen, ele and physical reflect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl0AYtLAmFc

Reflect maps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPr0O343aR8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo6JY8UAuuo

Vulnerability, elemental and physical reflect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwnl4rwJJ9M

No regen, elemental reflect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXFCvyIamQQ

Blood magic, physical reflect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExMkVsv-VpA

Strand 71 map
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8eyp9MLEPA

Leveling videos
Spoiler

Lunaris Six man solo

Beta Videos
Spoiler

Solo playing, Face tanking Kole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_so6OHdemzQ

Reflect map. Used a variation of gems and weapons to show the damage reflected.
This not how I play by the way :). I intentionally have put my character in bad positions :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPSsPJwtgn8

Reflect and no regen map
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caCiLwMDuvM

Critical hits on reflect mobs, 2 critical hits, 1 normal hit. Lost 2.3k life.
No flask or endurance charges. 8 power charges on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbf0jkGmcRg

Another
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFUBgwbHMt0



More info coming soon.

Regards
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288
[2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981
[2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603
[2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556
Last edited by Rathik2 on Aug 9, 2015, 4:02:51 AM
reserved
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288
[2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981
[2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603
[2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556
reserved
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288
[2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981
[2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603
[2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556
Your build is low on life.
TBH I cannot find any ultra DPS and survival in the video.
Can you show more?
ign: thirsty_guy
GMT+8
http://www.twitch.tv/ray1122
"
jeppesu wrote:
Your build is low on life.


If you need more than 3500-4000 life to survive in this game then you doing it wrong.
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288
[2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981
[2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603
[2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556
"
raytkh wrote:
TBH I cannot find any ultra DPS and survival in the video.
Can you show more?


Nop, one shotting most monsters in a six man solo group is the best I can do, sorry.
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288
[2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981
[2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603
[2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556
Last edited by Rathik2 on Oct 2, 2013, 3:46:30 PM
I believe monster life would only be increased if the players are in close proximity.
Based on the quantity of items dropped on your video I think they are just same as single player game.

edit *correct me if I am wrong*
ign: thirsty_guy
GMT+8
http://www.twitch.tv/ray1122
Last edited by raytkh on Oct 2, 2013, 3:49:26 PM
"
raytkh wrote:
I believe monster life would only be increased if the players are in close proximity.
Based on the quantity of items dropped on your video I think they are just same as single player game.

edit *correct me if I am wrong*


You are wrong :)

Monster life increases when another player is in the same instance regardless of where he is.
You do not get any extra drops or extra exp if they are not in proximity though, that is correct.

You can test it your self.
IGN Riokar | My guides
[2.0]Non legacy Mjölner. Uber down. -thread/1474288
[2.0]Shatter Chuck Lite COC -thread/1324981
[2.0]SRS Magic Find Culler. Uber capable. /w budged build -thread/1406603
[2.0]NEWBIE MF/DPS Summoner -thread/479976 | Power leveling guide -thread/522556
Last edited by Rathik2 on Oct 2, 2013, 4:04:55 PM
I found it interesting!!
Excellent damage output and survival.

What does this build require gear wise? And how does it work?
Guide please :)

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