Ethereal Knives - Low Life and Crit - Guide 2.1
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Disclaimer: This is WIP and will be updated/ made pretty when I actually play the build
 So you dropped a Shavs and want to use it but don't want to spend much more on Gear. This might be a build for you if you enjoy being a cool ninja-guy that throws magic at monsters. The build can be done with Witch, Ranger, Scion and to some extend Shadow. For this guide the focus will be on the Ranger Start as it offers good Life and will be easy to respec from Life version into Low Life. It might also be a hipster build as there wont be many spellcasting Rangers around.  Pros:
Cons:
 Final Tree Ranger - 114 Points Easiest way to transition for Life to Low Life Scion - 115 Points Gets 1 more Jewel Socket Witch - 112 Points Fewer Points needed Shadow - 114 Points wouldn't recommend but doable Leveling As previous mentioned the Leveling guide is done as a ranger because its easier to switch at Level 75. I recommend leveling with Flame Totem and Searing Bond as we don't want to invest in Damage and focus on survivability early on. 25 Points - First we grab Life-Nodes 45 Points - After that we get even more Life 66 Points - Not much more Life left so now we get Energy Shield and Manaregen 85 Points - Back to the Ranger start to prepare for switch Switch from Life to Low Life To do the entire respec you need 23 respec points you can get all of them from quests. I designed the tree so that you the respec isnt to awkward and you only have to take of the life and invest the points you get as shown below. 97 Points - Level 75 this is what it should look before the switch 97 Points - Level 75 after the switch. Right now you probably expect to have all the Crit-chance and Damage but that might not be the case as we invest all our passive skill refund points to get sustain and survivability. The same hold true for you next couple levels where you want to finish up the witch area. After this begins the fun. Now you basically only have the Crit-Nodes left and one Jewel Socket. Bandit Rewards Normal: Kill all - 1 Skillpoint Cruel: Kill all - 1 Skillpoint or Help Oak - 16% Physical Damage Merciless: Help Alira - +1 Powercharge  Gearing Life This part only applies until you get to 75. Some Uniques you should consider getting for leveling categorized by their type.
Weapons/ Shields
Fencoil has Crazy amounts of Life and Damage, note that the damage is universal and you don't need to utilize the Trap. Not much to say about Lifesprig. Most of the time I end up slapping Flame Totem in it with two supports and leave it at that. Crest of Perandus hast great amounts of life. Regen is always nice and Blockchance doesnt hurt either
Helmets
Just some Helmets with great resistances
Boots
Again just easy Life, Res and Stats We need the Lioneye's Paws for the endgame because of the "Cannot be Stunned" and great stats
Jewelry
Thats the best ones I can think of right now. For the rest of the Gearpieces just use Rares and Magic Items with as much life and resistance as possible. Gearing Low Life Note that these are for now just the items I have on Standard and do not represent the right colors and Gems. I will update them as I get them on Talisman. Uniques
Helmet
It hurts to give up our Helmet because it could give us so much Energy Shield. But Alphas Howl gives us the Cannot be Frozen and 8% reduced Mana Reserved. Freeze and Stun chance is based on the amount of life you have and we don't have a lot of it so we need it. The 8% reduced allows us to run our Auras so we really cannot skip Alphas Howl .
Body armour
 Pretty much cant skip this one. Shavronne's Wrappings gives a huge amount of Energy Shield and of course the needed Chaos Damage does not bypass Energy Shield. The 10% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge is also very welcome as it is one of our main points in defense. If you are really poor and cannot afford Shavronne's Wrappings you can get this Body armour: I did a Low Life build in the Warbands League and got to ~4k Energy Shield. I was very squishy and wouldnt recommend doing this. Not at all viable for Hardcore and you cant do higher maps with it as you get oneshot by most Monsters.
Boots
We get Lioneye's Paws for Cannot be Stunned when on Low Life and the Huge amount of stats it gives us is also very important so that we can use Alphas Howl and some Skillgems with out wasting Suffixes on our Rares. The 40% reduced Movement Speed when on Low Life is annoying but we will be using Lightning Warp or Whirling Blades for 99% of to manage with this stat. In an Ideal World we corrupt the Boots to get either +1 Frenzy Charge or Cannot be knocked back.
Belt
Doryani's Invitation (Physical Variant) can be very good if we can afford to pick up the Ghost Reaver Keystone above Shadow which will gives us much needed defense as it provides us with 0.2% of Physical Damage Leeched as Life And a good amount of Resistances. But we can always skip that rely just on our Energy Shield Recharge Rate and just get a Rare Belt.
Amulet
Victario's Acuity could be consinder but we already have so many Uniques and it is super expensive on standart and even more so in temporary leagues as it isn't greatly desired. You are better of just getting a Rare Amulet.
Gloves
If through some sort of miracle you can afford to cast Ethereal Knives with Voidbringer Gloves go get them but we already are low on Mana so I wouldnt recommend you getting them. But they have a decent amount of Energy Shield so there is that. Rares Now here it gets a little more complicated. I will explain as we go over each slot.
Wand vs Dagger
This part you have to decide for yourself I am just going to explain the Pros and Cons of using either Weapon. With Daggers you get more Critical Strike Chance through the Implicit and With Wand a little more Damage with the Spell Damage Implicit. You can also get Projectile Speed +% which Dagger don't give and we want to be as far away from the Enemy as possible and this greatly helps out. On the other Hand Daggers give us an additional Layer of Defense when we use Whirling Blades and Fortify. Both of these Improve your Gameplay by a lot. Now in 2.1 Ethereal Knives will get Projectile Speed +% per Gem Level after Level 1 so right now Dagger seem to be the better option. Keep in mind while deciding between the two that there are some really sweet Wand MTXs I listed the Affixes in order of Importance. This should make it easy for you to find the need Gear on poe.trade. Use the new "Count" option that exists and you can put in all the mods you want, look for e.g Count min. 3 and you will find items that have at least 3 of your desired Affixes. Ideally you want +1 to Number of Curses on your Amulet to take Poacher's and Assassin's Mark.
Wand
Best Base is the Prophecy Wand X% increased Spell Damage X% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells X% increased Projectile Speed X to Mana X% increased Mana Regenration Rate
Dagger
Best Base is the Platinum Kris X% increased Spell Damage X% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells X to Mana X% increased Mana Regeneration Rate
Gloves
Best Base are Sorcerer Gloves X to Energy Shield X% increased Energy Shield X% to Elemental Resistance X Mana Gained on Kill
Rings
None of the Bases for Rings are bad, except for Unset and Coral X% to Elemental Resistances X to Energy Shield X% increased Mana Regeneration Rate X% increased Cast Speed X to Mana -X to Mana Cost of Skills x to Intelligence (x to Stats) (X to Evasion Rating)
Amulet
Thanks to our Boots the Implicit will hopefully be irrelevant (there is still a chance that you will need some STR for Added Fire/ Blood Magic Support Gem. There is also a lot to chose from here and its up to you to decide whats best for your Character at the moment. X% to Elemental Resistances X% increased Global Critical Strike Chance X% increased Spell Damage X% increased Energy Shield X to Energy Shield -X to Mana Cost of Skills X% increased Mana Regeneration Rate X% increased Cast Speed X% increased Life Leech Rate X Mana Gained on Kill (X% increased Evasion)
Shield
Best Base is the Titanium Spirit Shield X to Energy Shield X% increased Energy Shield X% to Elemental Resistances x% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells X% increased Spell Damage X to Mana X% increased Mana Regeneration Rate (X to Stats)
Belt
Best Base is the Chain Belt X% to Elemental Resistances X to Energy Shield X% increased Flask effect duration X% increased Flask Charges gained -X% reduced Flask Charges used Jewels Energy From Within Brittle Barrier This one is debatable as it might make you prone to oneshots but ill have to play with it to see if its worth it.
Rare Jewels
We have a couple good options here X% increased Projectile Damage X% increased Spell Damage X% increased Projectile Speed X% increased maximum Energy Shield X% increased maximum Mana X% increased Mana Regeneration Rate X% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells X% increased Critical Strike Multiplier for Spells X% increased Chance to Freeze X% increased Cast Speed X% increased Attack and Cast Speed X% increased Cast Speed while holding a Shield X% increased Physical Damage X% increased Damage X% increased Global Critical Strike Chance X% increased Global Critical Strike Multiplier Flasks For your regular Magic Flasks make sure to get them white so you only need 4 Glassblower Baubles to get them to 20% quality and dont have to worry about it later. For your Unique Flasks you want: There might also be some cool new Unique Flasks in 2.1.  Gems are not in Order of Importance Helmet GBBR Hatred - Clarity - Chaos Golem - Fortify
138 Dex
Because Alphas Howl is so hard to color you might consider changing Fortify with Minion Life depending on what you hit first.
Gloves GGBB Herald of Ice - Poacher's Mark - Curse on Hit - Assassin's Mark Boots RRRR Cast when Damage taken - Molten Shell - Warlord's Mark - Vaal Disciplin Body Armour GGRBBB Ethereal Knives - Chain - Added Fire - Faster Casting - Spell Echo - Critical Strike Multiplier Dagger GGR Whirling Blades LvL 1 - Fortify - Faster Attacks Wand BBR Flame Dash - Faster Casting - Increased Burning Damage Lightning Warp - Faster Casting - Less Duration Shield BRG Arctic Armour - Blood Magic - Disciplin
20% Quality
This is in order of how much you need them Ethereal Knives Chain Spell Echo Added Fire Damage Faster Casting Curse on Hit Increased Duration Chaos Golem Fortify Increased Critical Damage Lightning Warp/ Flame Dash Less Duration Herald of Ice Faster Attacks  For now I can just give you a rundown of the stats from the skill tree and some Gear stuff Energyshield: 217% Tree 62% Int 23%-27% Energy from Energy From Within wich gets you up to 302% and more ES Critical Strike Chance: 400% Tree 300% Power Charges More comming soon.  Comming Soon  Q: Will People Ask Question? A: I hope so. Q: Your grammar and spelling is terrible. A: Feel free to point out errors so I can correct them Q:That Last one wasn't even a question. A: This one isn't either as they are only Placeholders at the moment. Last edited by TheBreadbird on Jan 18, 2016, 8:00:29 AM Last bumped on Mar 8, 2016, 9:11:11 AM
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Last edited by TheBreadbird on Dec 14, 2015, 9:31:39 PM
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I have no expirience at the matter, but I guess you will cap your crit chance pretty soon, wouldn't be bit of multi better than chance?
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwIAr-vn6vkzlwYZisSiwzr7CZu19tpfsITFGo_KSm-egwmcpEZxsZCHE7QM4YgtqHcH6rqycMrTHaq-gA18KlO-iv5JkyehL3_G74h71xGWoqP5Nw5IBx7B8w_E189d8uOElS5cipUgO3xJsSoLKwoN0fDVLR-4ynBSES8DHmNDj_pJUR1PTLOJ0-tjH0Hr9TW5IG6us9AfBAdFfow2tUjDCRFQpytQMEGW7-vr5B8CDly5k20Z214FQtD1Xyo2xWr68h3ZWyyci3obJVWuAW9LrkSr4vfpAo-mhEjfioIQXGvDbd-w
edit: I've respecced node I shouldn't respec, correction Burn all the orbs! Last edited by skuadak on Dec 10, 2015, 8:28:59 PM
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" EK only has 6% crit chance so we are not actually capping anything, I will add the math of that to the stats section later. Crit Multi is very nice, yes that is why I pick it up as a gem instead as the tree is already pretty point hungry especially when it comes to mana and mana regen which we can't really give up (~60 Mana per cast in a 6L) |
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hey there, would you recommend this for the not so experienced players? Like will i have problems leveling with this? I wanna try this build for the upcoming talisman leagues. Let me know what u think pls. Thanks in advance
Last edited by Vaalyrian on Dec 11, 2015, 10:38:22 AM
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" I tried to write it in a way so that new players can understand and follow it easily (Its my first real guide so I dont know if I did a good job at it). I dont know how new you are so Id say maybe look at it for you second build in this league as it can be quite expensive. I wouldnt recommend you starting with this build until you get the Body Armour needed for this build Last edited by TheBreadbird on Dec 11, 2015, 11:48:47 AM
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" okay, thank you very much :P | |
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Sorry if this question sounds dumb but I am clueless when it comes to PoE, but where does the low life come into play?
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" Low Life is when you have 35% or less of your total life left (not counting Energy Shield). |
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How you can survive in 75+ tier maps without vaal pact and life leech gem?
I play LL in standard,and the end game it's really horrible without leech. LL don't have an high amount of es,so you can't mitigate the damage with high pool of es. Maybe i miss something? Sorry for bad english |
