[Nemesis] HP EK Scion - Arctic Armor + EB + MoM - 5+ Auras

The build utilizes max level Arctic Armor + lots of armor from evasion/armor + Mind over Matter to be extremely resilient. Using lots of mana reservation nodes + alphas howl you are capable of running up to 5 auras + EK/other skills purely off of mana. With the Prism Guardian shield you are capable of running even more depending on how much HP you are willing to reserve. This is updated frequently, update log is at the bottom of this post.

Keep the great questions/critiques coming! I don't have the answer to some of the stuff yet as I won't know until I get this guy geared up and into late game to actually test them. But as soon as I do it will give me a lot of options to try and I will post what I learn back in this thread.

THIS GUIDE IS THAT, A GUIDE, DON'T FOLLOW IT BLINDLY AND FFS ADJUST YOUR SKILLS DEPENDING ON THE SITUATION!

Passives

Recommended 109 Points - Originated by hokieneer - UPDATED 11/21/2013 10:09AM
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABCGcRlhUgFm8W8xcvGDwZhRmKGo8c3B0UHaoelCHDJDwkqiY8J6ko-imlKk0s6S2DLagvby-dMZ41kjbpOuE_J0GHRZZFnUZxSVFKfUrITeNOKlXGVdZWLVfhWm1br2TnZ6Buqm-ecLt6qn1bf8aApIIegseDCYd2iPGPRpDWkyeTOpcGmuCbtaKjplenCKdcrD-sWax_sZC0DLXytz631riTvSfB88M6xKLKSs9l0NDZE9sL21ncV90N4Yjjaudj6yzr7vF28kX22vll-ej60vsJ_MX-Cv6P

Keystones
Eldritch Battery
Iron Reflexes

Health
250% increased maximum Life
20 to maximum Life
1% of Life Regenerated per Second

Mitigation
50% increased Evasion Rating
28% to Chaos Resistance
24% increased Evasion Rating and Armour
10% to all Elemental Resistances

Damage
48% increased Spell Damage
27% increased Cast Speed
20% increased Projectile Speed
15% increased Projectile Damage
12% increased Physical Damage
10% increased Attack Speed
6% increased Movement Speed

Other
230 to Intelligence
150 to Dexterity
130 to Strength
120% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
96% increased maximum Mana
54% increased effect of Auras you Cast
41% reduced Mana Reserved
24% increased Radius of Auras
20 to maximum Mana
3% increased Effect of Buffs on You

I recommend doing a variation of this. It has everything you would want, and goes right beside or near a lot of different options that you can pick up (mana/life/ES/resists/evasion). A possibly really powerful option would be to try Mind Over Matter, I am not sure about it but it has potential. Some adjustments will be made to this. Due to AA concerns I have removed Inner Force from the recommended path. Once again feel free to not do this and choose your own path!!
Old Builds

More HP
Spoiler
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABBH4FLQX5CGcRlhLhFSAV8BbzGYoajxvIHNwdqh6UIcMkPCY8J6kppSpNLOktgy2oL28vnTGeMgE1kjpYOuE_J0CgQYdDMUZxSVFKfUrITeNOKlYtV-FaUlptW69b9F4TYEthIWegbBZuqm-ecLt07Xrvf8aCHoMJg9uE74cZh3aI8ZDWkyeXBpsmm12btZ65oqOjiqZXp1yomqw_rFmsf7GQshm0DLXytkG3PrfWwfPDOsSiykrOcc962RPbC9tZ3FfdDeGI52PyRfKX9tr5Zfno-wn8S_zF_gr-Sf6P

Keystones
Eldritch Battery
Conduit
Iron Reflexes

Health
272% increased maximum Life
20 to maximum Life
2.5% of Life Regenerated per Second

Mitigation
28% increased Evasion Rating
24% increased Evasion Rating and Armour
22% to all Elemental Resistances

Damage
48% increased Spell Damage
41% increased Projectile Damage
27% increased Cast Speed
20% increased Projectile Speed
16% increased Physical Damage
10% increased Attack Speed
6% increased Movement Speed

Other
230 to Dexterity
160 to Strength
140 to Intelligence
120% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
48% increased maximum Mana
42% increased Radius of Auras
42% increased effect of Auras you Cast
25% reduced Mana Reserved
20 to maximum Mana
1 Maximum Endurance Charge

More Aura stuff - Courtesy of Shumped
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABBH4FLQX5CGcRlhLhFSAV8BZvFy8ZihqPG8gc3B0UHaoo-imlKk0s6S2DLagvbzGeMgE1kjpYPydBh0MxRnFKfUrITeNOKlXGVdZWLVpSW69eE2BLYSFk52egbRluqm-ecLt07Xrvf8aApIIegseDCYTvhxmHdojxj0aTJ5cGmyabXZu1oqOjiqZXpwiomqxZrH-sr7GQshm0DLXytkG3PrfWuJPB88M6w4bEospKz2XPetDQ2RPbC9tZ3Q3e5eGI52Pnkevu8pf22vno-tL7CfzF_gr-jw==

Keystones
Eldritch Battery
Iron Reflexes

Health
206% increased maximum Life
20 to maximum Life
2.5% of Life Regenerated per Second
Mitigation
28% increased Evasion Rating
24% increased Evasion Rating and Armour
20% increased Defences from equipped Shield
12% to Chaos Resistance
10% to all Elemental Resistances
10% additional Chance to Block with Shields

Damage
41% increased Projectile Damage
36% increased Spell Damage
20% increased Projectile Speed
16% increased Physical Damage
10% increased Attack Speed
6% increased Movement Speed
6% increased Cast Speed

Other
230 to Intelligence
220 to Dexterity
120% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
110 to Strength
54% increased effect of Auras you Cast
41% reduced Mana Reserved
32% increased maximum Mana
24% increased Radius of Auras
20 to maximum Mana
1 Maximum Endurance Charge

Should I take Mind Over Matter?
If you have 700+ unreserved mana, YES. I recommend running both Grace + MoM, this section is just an example to show how powerful MoM is. Mind Over Matter (MoM) is an extremely strong defensive node. In fact I think it is one of the strongest defensive "abilities" in the game. As everyone knows armor is less useful the harder you get hit. Late-game low damage physical hits are completely negated by Arctic Armor, and very high damage hits crush your armor making it a lot less useful:

Armor Calculation: Armor/(Armor + (12*Damage))

Scenario 1 - A monster hits you for 2000/4000/6000 physical damage in one hit. I am assuming you are not using Jade/Granite flasks and have 0 Endurance Charges up.

2000 damage
No MoM (10000 armor): 10000/(10000+(12*2000)) = 10000/34000 = 29.4% reduction = 588 reduced damage.
MoM(0 armor): 2000*0.3 = 600 maximum reduced damage

4000 damage
No MoM (10000 armor): 10000/(10000+(12*4000)) = 10000/58000 = 17.2% reduction = 688 reduced damage.
MoM(0 armor): 4000*0.3 = 1200 maximum reduced damage

6000 damage
No MoM (10000 armor): 10000/(10000+(12*6000)) = 10000/82000 = 12.2% reduction = 732 reduced damage.
MoM(0 armor): 6000*0.3 = 1800 maximum reduced damage

More realistically you will not have 0 armor. Grace at most will give 3104 evasion * 1.74 (passives) = 5400 evasion. If you have 10000 armor with Grace you will have 4600 without it.

4000 damage
No MoM (10000 armor): 10000/(10000+(12*4000)) = 10000/58000 = 17.2% reduction = 688 reduced damage.
MoM(4600 armor): 4600/(4600+(12*4000)) = 4600/52600 = 8.7% = 350 reduced * 0.3 = 1095+350 = 1445 maximum reduced damage w/ 350 minimum. In this scenario you only need 338 unreserved mana for MoM to mitigate as much as Grace will.

As you can see as long as you have 700+ unreserved mana, even with 0 armor MoM mitigates as much or more damage than having 10,000 armor. Flasks/Endurance Charges will scale up slightly better with Grace, but won't make a noticeable difference.
Gems/Auras
These are listed in order of importance regarding support gems.
EK + Faster Projectiles + Life Leech + Added Fire + Faster Casting + Empower
Bear Trap + Added Fire Damage + Culling Strike
Clarity + (Purity/Haste) + Reduced Mana
Hatred + Grace + Discipline + Reduced Mana
Enfeeble + Arctic Armor + Lightning Warp + Faster Casting
Enduring Cry + Molten Shell + Devouring Totem + Cast on Damage Taken

Defence-wise Mind Over Matter is better than any aura (assuming you have max resists). So unless you are running one of the Purity auras or Haste for more DPS (or running auras for a party) you should only run 4 auras and leave the rest of your mana as a buffer for MoM.

EK costs 45 mana base (probably around 48 base with empower). This means in a 6L EK will cost 48 * (1 + 0.3 + 0.2 + 0.1 + 0.25 + 0.3) = 103.2 mana
Aura Math

Mana Reservation
No Alphas Howl
41% from passives. Level 20 Reduced Mana Gem = 71% reduced
60% * (1-0.41) * 0.71 = 25.134% reserved/aura
40% * (1-0.41) * 0.71 = 16.756% reserved/aura
440 * (1-0.41) * 0.71 = 184.316 mana reserved for Clarity

You can run three 60% auras (75.402%) + one 40% aura (16.756%) + Clarity (depending on your mana) = 92.158% reserved + 184.316 mana. You will need around 3500+ mana to run everything off of mana. With clarity on HP anything over like 1500 mana is enough.

With Alphas Howl
60% * (1-0.49) * 0.71 = 21.726% reserved/aura
40% * (1-0.41) * 0.71 = 16.756% reserved/aura

You can run four 60% auras + Clarity (depending on your mana) = 86.904% reserved + 185.316 mana. You only need about 2200 mana to run everything off of mana.

Prism Guardian - http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Prism_Guardian
This is where things get REALLY interesting. This unique opens up a lot of different options depending on what you want to do.
Aura Stats at lv20

This does not include the +2 to levels from Alphas Howl so they will be even stronger. Formula is Aura Effect * 1.57 for you and Aura Effect * 1.54 for party. Only did the math for the party as the extra 3% for you is negligible.
Clarity - 37.268 mana regen for party.
Grace - 3104.64 evasion for party.
Discipline - 489.72 energy shield for party.
Hatred - 55.44% of physical as extra cold for party.
Purity of Elements - 41.58 all resist for party.
Purity of (Fire/Lightning/Cold) - 60.06% single resist + 4.62% max resist to party.
Determination - 78.54% increased armor for party.

Arctic Armor
Arctic Armors mana cost as well as effects are both boosted by the 21% from Inner Force.
Mana Drain: 38.3 -> 47.49
Moving Mana Drain: 191.4 -> 237.336
Damage Reduction: 189 -> 234.36

As you can see it is a pretty huge mana drain increase. Depending on your mana regen I would suggest NOT taking Inner Force unless you can sustain it!
Leveling/Gear

You can level the entire way with EK + Fire Trap (early) + Bear Trap. Get these from making another character and going up to Mud Flats quest. Takes 10 minutes.


After this just go for what you need next. If you need more defence/offence, get that. If you want to take IR take that. If you want to go for EB go that route! Very flexible.

Level 41
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAACGcVIBg8GYoajymlKk0s6S2oMZ41kj8nQYdGcUp9SshN404qVi1br2egbqpvnoLHgwmHdojxkzqbtaZXrFmsf7GQtfK3PrfWvSfDOspK21ndDedj9tr56PsJ_MX-Cv6P
At this point you should be able to run Clarity + 60% aura (I'm using Hatred) on your mana and never run out or even need pots. I will probably head over to the Templar tree next (after conduit because I mostly play in a party with friends), I need to run some math on auras and different levels of the reduced mana gem first though.

As you can see my gear is mostly CRAP. I have pretty decent resists but am lacking HP/Armor. I am trying to find a decent RRGG 4L to use EK with so I can use my Life Leech gem. This will be a huge boost to my survivability. That being said I am facerolling everything pretty easily.

Level 53
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAACGcVIBg8GYoajx6UKPoppSpNLOktqDGeNZI6sz8nQYdFnUZxSn1KyE3jTipWLVfhW69b9GegbqpvnnqqgseDCYd2iPGPRpMnkzqa4Ju1plenCKxZrH-xkLQMtfK3PrfWuJO9J8M6ykrbWdxX3Q3nY-vu9tr5Zfno-wn8xf4K_o8=
'

I am 100% self found at this point still. Since my chest is garbage I plan on buying a 5L to replace it with soon. Haven't had any problems at all (playing is a party of 3). Really hoping to run Grace soon (6 passives), if not I should be able to with a lower level Clarity.

Level 62

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAACGcRlhUgFy8YPBmKGo8c3B0UHpQo-imlKk0s6S2oMZ41kjqzPydBh0WdRnFKfUrITeNOKlXGVdZWLVfhW69b9GTnZ6Buqm-eeqp_xoCkgseDCYd2iPGPRpMnkzqa4Ju1plenCKxZrH-xkLQMtfK3PrfWuJO9J8M6ykrPZdDQ21ncV90N52Pr7vba-WX56PrS-wn8xf4K_o8=


I wouldn't recommend taking the cast speed nodes I took, just wanted to test the dps increase. Other than that it feels pretty solid at this point. I have 1.4k dps, 2.8k life, ~50% phys reduction, and 75/75/75/-41 resists (w/o my 4 endurance charges).

Bandits - I will be Oak's best buddy. Help him in all 3 difficulties for 40hp, 18% physical damage, and 1 Endurance Charge. Getting passive points are another option of course.

Gameplay Videos

Big thanks for Demonskye for providing these!
Lunaris 3 + Piety: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ex3QbGeugY&feature=youtu.be#t=1m30s
Domi Kill (only takes about 3 minutes for all minions + Domi)- http://youtu.be/CC_tSMRfAWM
Dunes run (4 minutes) - http://youtu.be/HsUK0X7e3Cc

Thanks to Aux for the inspiration behind the build: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/484146

Update Notes
Spoiler
Updated skill tree/gems/auras! - 10/24/2013 9:06AM
Added aura calculations - 10/24/2013 2:21PM
Added leveling area - 10/24/2013 11:22PM
Added Aura skill tree/aura math - 10/25/2013 8:31AM
Added recommended skill tree w/ inner force - 10/25/2013 1:48PM
Removed Tempest Shield info - 10/28/2013 5:38PM
Adjusted Recommended tree to get more Evasion nodes - 10/29/2013 3:24PM
Added Aura stats/Arctic Armor calculations - 10/29/2013 5:25PM
Adjusted levelling skill tree - 10/30/2013 8:50AM
Removed Iron Will from Bear Trap - 10/30/2013 1:11PM
Updated Recommended tree - 10/31/2013 8:24AM
Updated Recommended tree, removed Inner Force(more HP, less evasion) - 11/3/2013 5:25PM
Switched Iron Will for Empower on 6L EK gems - 11/5/2013 9:26AM
Added current tree and gear - 11/5/2013 10:30AM
Added Level 53 info - 11/11/2013 9:57AM
Updated Purity/aura math info to remove max resistance - 11/14/2013 12:50PM
Updated aura reservation section lots/Added Prism Guardian section/updated EK mana cost - 11/15/2013 11:30AM
Added Level 62 info - 11/21/2013 8:32AM
Added gameplay video section - 11/27/2013 8:45AM
Added MoM section - 11/27/2013 11:22AM
IGN: Dmillz
Last edited by Dmillz on Nov 27, 2013, 2:49:52 PM
Yeah your plan sounds good, I'm building HP EK with Scion as well.

The auras won't work, at best you can get 5% x 2 mana reservation reduction nodes from Scion on your way to EB, and then take another 5+10% from Ranger area, for total of 25% reduction.

That will only allow you to get about 2 auras at best, and I think the benefit of Temp Shield is too low to justify it.

Maybe can fit 3 auras if gear is really good to boost the mana, but I think a lot of mana is required to keep casting EK and MoM for taking dmg too.

I would probably go with Grace or Determination or Discipline 2 out of 3 and go from there.

The plus side is abundance of life nodes southwest of Scion, so I think Scion is probably slightly better to build with than Ranger now.

Also allows for future contingency if Ranger gets nerfed or other skills benefit Scion more. Scion is just a lot more flexible.
IGN: AchiLize
Achi's Quality Shop https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/602552
Last edited by biralo on Oct 23, 2013, 6:54:15 PM
You're right I miscalculated and thought I was running 1 less than I am. Well craaap. Going to have to do some recalculation.
IGN: Dmillz
You want to run tempest shield without Blind, the only reason you're actually running tempest shield.

You want to play with double bear traps even though double bear traps was nerfed quite a long time ago.

You want to run 3x 60% auras on 28% reduced mana reserve ALONG with tempest shield and a high level clarity to be able to run AA. It might be possible if you head all the way to the left of the tree to get the large reduced mana cluster by the templar tree but you're sacrificing a lot for that.

Also it doesn't seem like you've even tried to optimize the skill tree. You're walking 4 extra points down to golem's blood than you have to if you just ran from IR, for some reason you think the 6% block chance nodes at the start of the scion tree for 4 points is better than the 10% block chance and 20% increased defences from the shield cluster above Golem's blood. You're for some reason taking cast speed instead of the spell damage from the start of the tree even though the spell damage nodes would be a lot more helpful. For some reason you're taking the 1.2% hp reg and 12 (!!!) hp for 4 points instead of just taking the 1 strength node to gain direct access to the huge HP circle and the Shaper point.

It's actually amazing how awkward that tree is laid out.

If I wanted to reroll AA EK with Scion I'd probably do something like this

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABBH4FLQX5CGcRlhLhFSAV8BZvFy8ZihqPG8gc3B0UHaoo-imlKk0s6S2DLagvbzGeMgE1kjpYPydBh0MxRnFKfUrITeNOKlXGVdZWLVpSW69eE2BLYSFk52egbRluqm-ecLt07Xrvf8aApIIegseDCYTvhxmHdojxj0aTJ5cGmyabXZu1oqOjiqZXpwiomqxZrH-sr7GQshm0DLXytkG3PrfWuJPB88M6w4bEospKz2XPetDQ2RPbC9tZ3Q3e5eGI52Pnkevu8pf22vno-tL7CfzF_gr-jw==

It's a very rough build and whether the adventure towards the templar tree is worth it or not is very discussable. It does allow you to get your auras down to under 25% which makes running 3 of them fairly easy. If you skipped the templar part you could get the shield nodes from the ranger tree and pick up some more hp which could be a better alternative.
Holy crapballs your points about optimization are right. I really appreciate you taking the time to kick my ass in the right direction. Currently working on a revamped version. New plan is to run clarity(bm gem), grace, hatred and arctic armor. Decided against going into templar tree and opted for more hp and such since I won't be running so many auras.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABBH4FLQX5CGcNjRGWEuEVIBXwGYoajxvIHNwdqiQ8J6kppSpNLOktgy2oL28xnjIBNZI6WDrhPydAoEGHQzFGcUlRSn1KyE3jTipWLVpSWm1br1v0XhNgS2EhYetnoGwWbRluqm-ecLt07XpTeu9_xoIegwmD24TvhxmHdojxkyeXBpsmm12btZ65oqOjiqZXp1yomqxZrH-sr7GQshm0DLXytkG3PrfWwfPDOsOGxKLKSs5xz3rZE9sL21ndDd7l4YjnY-eR8kXyl_ba-ej7CfxL_MX-Cv6P

That's what I'm working with now, still tweaking a bit though. I've never really ran an AA build before so I'm not sure what kind of regen I will be needing to support it so I'm sure this will change as I go. Once again, THANKS!!!
IGN: Dmillz
Last edited by Dmillz on Oct 23, 2013, 7:57:46 PM
I'm curious, whats your plan with this build? Will you go south first for Iron Reflexes/Survivability, or will you rush north for EB first?
IGN : Soulripe
Soulpyro
(Ambush)
Last edited by soulw1nd on Oct 24, 2013, 12:55:25 AM
IGN: AchiLize
Achi's Quality Shop https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/602552
But there are no +evasion nodes. Are you sure this build gives you enough armor?
Wow way better response than I expected.

"
AlcMule1 wrote:
I'm curious, whats your plan with this build? Will you go south first for Iron Reflexes/Survivability, or will you rush north for EB first?

South definitely. I'll post a couple progression trees today though!

"
soulw1nd wrote:

Overall looks pretty decent, don't have time to look into detail at all the skills you took, I'll try to get to that on my lunch break. As for Ranger start, I'm not a fan with this patch. I feel that it just has too many wasted nodes compared to scion/marauder.
IGN: Dmillz

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