[Theory] Full Fire Conversion Ethereal Knives

So today I finally bought a Pyre. This gave me the chance to try something I've been wanting to do ever since I saw the ring: A 100% conversion to fire EK. How?

• Avater of Fire. This is important, as it converts 50% of your non fire damage to fire damage.
• will convert 25% of the remaining 50% physical damage to fire damage.
• will convert the final 25% of your physical damage to cold damage.
• will convert all cold damage (including hatred) to fire damage.

I had a marauder sitting around who went from being an EK caster in Open Beta to a mediocre flicker striker during the Domination/Nemesis cycle. Since he was my highest char left with a free respec, and he'd been used as EK before (meaning he had the proper bandit choices of Oak, Oak, Passive), I decided to use him. Since my build goes directly into the witch start, that class could be used as well.

Current build

Planned Build -- level 87
258% Life
32% Spell Damage
20% Spell Elemental Damage
81% Fire Damage
12% Cast Speed
31% Block
12% Spell Block


I scrounged up what gems and gear I could, but many of the gems I had left are low level. I'm currently only getting 4.2k DPS and I know at least part of that is because of the aforementioned gear/gem levels. However, I am looking for opinions on the build and the 100% fire EK idea itself.

Links:
EK / Echo / Blood Magic / Life Leech / Added Fire (are there better links for a 5L?)
CWDT / Enduring Cry / Immortal Call / Increased Duration (yawn)
EK / Spell Totem / Added Fire / Faster Casting (Haven't tried this yet but maybe it's a good idea to supplement my damage with a totem?)
Elemental Weakness / Blood Magic / Portal
Hatred / Haste / Reduced Mana (Damage auras)
Can't really think of anything else. Vaal haste maybe?

Gear:
Armor gear. With no Iron Reflexes and no room for defensive auras, I will be trying to cap res and get as much armor as possible.
Pillar, Pyre, Hrimsorrow. Reasons listed above.
Hrimnor's Resolve? 29% Increased Fire damage on the one I've got stashed.
EDIT: Other helm choices: Geofri's Crest (a cheap aura booster), Alpha's Howl (an expensive aura booster). Dunno if the aura levels will increase my DPS further than Hrimnor's damage though. I doubt it.
Rustic Sash. Extra phys damage before conversion.
+1 Curses amulet. I've noticed the shitty enfeeble on Pillar overwriting my ele weakness fairly often. This is bad.
Weapon: Whatever I can find with the most spell DPS.
Other than that it's just a matter of life, res, armor.

Looking for thoughts, criticisms, ideas etc.

Concept is pretty interesting, but why would you go for fire damage over physical? Usually phys is a better damage source since you don't have to deal with fire res, which a LOT of mobs have.

I'd definetly use "Fire Penetration" in the 5L.

The only reason to convert physical damage to fire damage I can imagine is to get another (not paper DpS) damage multiplier by getting monster resists below zero.

I was also wondering if this is actually viable. I mean - let's face it:
You're using up 3 item slots for quite underwhelming uniques. And the only outcome of this setup is that you deal fire damage instead of physical. I'd really like to see someone compare the damage output.

The only good reason I can think to convert physical damage into fire damage is the burning damage, but i dont know if the initial hit would be high enough to get a big burn.

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marco150 wrote:

The only good reason I can think to convert physical damage into fire damage is the burning damage, but i dont know if the initial hit would be high enough to get a big burn.

I don't know. A high Q Elemental Weakness Gem can lower the enemys resistance by 60% (up to nearly 80% with Enhance). Now add 35% Fire Penetration. I believe that it could be very viable. As I said, I'd really like to see this build in action.

Full fire conversion from physical, i would say, is largely pointless. Fire is mitigated by a % resistance, usually a decently high one later in the game. Physical is mitigated by armor, which is naturally pierced when you do high enough damage.

Full conversion for ethereal knives doesnt offer any real benefits in my opinion, full fire damage infernal blow lets you make all your damage the same and use weapon elemental to support it, but in this case you get more meager benefits.

The best concept like this i can imagine for EK is using three headed dragon + Pyre, Between hatred and added fire you have over 70% added elemental (Fire, which shocks now) and up to over 100% if you have boosted auras.

Full conversion into fire like this is probably just gimping yourself a bit in this case, But i will say - You should really try ele-prolif (For a burn) with bear trap while your at it, might be pretty awesome.

TL;DR : Probably awful for EK, but possibly cool for bear trap.

Also, + Avatar of Fire will give you a fullscreen 100% fire EK.