[2.6] ScummyNinja - An Ethereal Knives build

So, hey! First "guide" I post on here. Bear with me and my English!


Many of you will ask: What, EK? It's 2017!
To be fair, I love EK. It is one of my favorite skills. I haven't seen a nice EK build in a while so I thought of something nice. Note that this build is not a league starter as it is quite costly.

I delete all my characters except one or two at the end of every league so that's why I cant't link a character or gear (except for the rings I sold it all and am left with 1-2 chars for end of league shennanigans and the likes).


I will remake this character in Legacy and try out the threshhold jewel and then I can link Items and screenshots to the guide when I got it up and running again :)



The core of the build is being a Pathfinder. We will be doing a poison EK build using this league's most broken flask: Sin's Rebirth. With free poison while flasks are up this makes one hell of a combination! Add a Witchfire brew on top and melt all the things. :) I was able to easily clear T15 Core at lv 76/77 with 48% more Monster Life.

Pros
- Fast
- Fun
- Non-Meta (Kinda?)
- Sin's Rebirth requires level 14

Cons
- Expensive
- Bad until Normal lab has been completed (Poison during Flask!) :(
- Expensive

Why is it so expensive?

That's relative, really. It is most definitely not a league starter, as it needs quite a hefty investment.

Core of the build:

Gear:

Spoiler

Belt:
Crystal belt preferably with 120+ total ES, some resists, Reduced Charges Used and Increased Flask Duration (We can craft Flask Duration if necessary but not Reduced Charges used!).

Rings:


Chestpiece:
Shavronne's Wrappings (We want to go LowLife)

Amulet:
Presence of Chayula (BiS Amulet for us: Chaos res, Stun immunity, ALOT of ES)

Gloves:
Winds of Change (Can be very expensive with high rolls)
If you do not want to use Winds of Change, use Shadows and Dust or Fingerless Silk Gloves

Helmet:
The Vertex (With EK projectile speed Enchant).

Weapon:
Dagger with high APS/iAS, Spell Damage, Global Crit, Lightning Damage to Spells

Shield:
Any High ES and Spell-Crit Spiritshield (500+ ES is fine, Spellcrit is most important to reliably curse packs with HoI)

Boots:
Any high ES Sorcerer Boots that fill your resistance needs (No Movement speed required which makes those dirt cheap.)


I ended up with 8k Energy Shield with Winds of Change (9-10k with ES Gloves).
If you want more Energy shield you can reach 11k with the Scion ES Cluster, 16 points left to invest on the road to level 100!



Gem Links:
Spoiler

6L (Chest):
Ethereal Knives -> Increased Critikal Strike Chance -> Faster Projectiles (Slower Projectiles for Bosses if you prefer, unnecessary though!) -> Controlled Destruction -> Added Chaos Damage -> Empower (Level 4! Otherwise not worth it and you may take increased critical damage until you can afford one / corrupt one)

Note: I didnt include a faster casting / Spell Echo because it simply is not needed. You can swap out Atziri's Promise for a Silver Flask if you want more cast speed, however!

4L (Vertex):
Herald of ice -> Curse on Hit -> Assassins Mark (PowerCharges) -> Enhance (Level 4 will be level 5 in Vertex (52% Total Quality on all the Gems, which is ALOT of Difference!)

3L (Weapon):
Whirling Blades -> Faster Attacks -> Fortify (Optional)

3L (Shield):
Enlighten -> Arctic Armor -> Discipline

The rest is your average Cwdt and the likes. Free to preferential taste.

Aura calcs:
https://poe.mikelat.com/#4_uSb/pZft.XnRd/ajzc.6/9b.gZb




Flasks:

Spoiler
Sin's Rebirth (Core flask)
Witchfire Brew (Core Flask)
Vinktar's (Core Flask for mana Sustain and Life leech; added Spell Damage variant)
Atziri's promise
Last Flask up to preference, but preferably a Chemist's Diamond Flask of Staunching



Jewels:

Spoiler

Focus on Energy Shield, Projectile Speed, Global Damage and Cast speed.

Optional Mods: Spell Damage, Cast speed while holding a shield, Physical Damage and Projectile Damage

Good jewels run a high price tag (as usual :( )



Bandits:

Spoiler

Normal: Kill all
Cruel: Phys Damage (Oak)
Merciless: Powercharge (Alira)



Passive-Tree (Done at lv 84)

Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIDAQHRAx4HHg5IDlwPqw_EES8RUBGWFe0WvxbzF5YZihslHU8fQSBuJIsknSY8KgsqOCsKLR8vnTW5O3xBlkQNRX5HBklRSbFLrkyzUDBUvVxAXIpd8l9qYlpjQ2qMavpsCG0ZcFJ1_XvXf4B_ln_GhG-ExYnTjDaP-pMnlSCVLpaLlwabtZ63n22hIqEvokCio6LZpyuus6_rsNi1SLjKuZO-isHzwwnDOsSiyBTI8NAf0NDQ9dN-1ELVudfP2VvbXtvn35jpAumY62Pr9e9674jv6_DV8W3xivId8uH0-PVv-Tf_EA==
Last edited by Yeenaa on Mar 5, 2017, 9:18:41 PM
Last bumped on May 23, 2017, 6:18:12 PM
Interessting build. But it seems a bit squishy to me, how much ES do you have in final gear?
# Silvershell - Level 42 Shadow - Ledge Cruel
# Sanctified Mana Potion - Level 72 Shadow - Catacombs Merciless
# Flameblast Totem - Level 52 - Ledge Merciless
# Boneshaper - Level 62 - Crypt Merciless
# Shrapnelbearer - Level 84 - Crematorium Map
"
Snoobl wrote:
Interessting build. But it seems a bit squishy to me, how much ES do you have in final gear?


I almost scratched 10k ES (Being Lowlife).

It was not squishy at all, given Vinktars is present.

I will remake this character in Legacy and try out the threshhold jewel and then I can link Items and screenshots to the guide when I got it up and running again :)
"

The core of the build is being a Pathfinder. We will be doing a poison EK build using this league's most broken flask: Sin's Rebirth. With all the flask effect increases we will be getting a whopping 45% Physical damage as extra chaos damage (Yes, Flask effect works on the Unholy Might buff effect of the flask ;) )


Do you have any evidence of this?
Unholy might should be Boolean, like "you have onslaught", "your crits are lucky", etc.
there is no integer on the flask. you have it or you dont. you can't have onslaught 50%more, then having onslaught.
"
Casia wrote:
"

The core of the build is being a Pathfinder. We will be doing a poison EK build using this league's most broken flask: Sin's Rebirth. With all the flask effect increases we will be getting a whopping 45% Physical damage as extra chaos damage (Yes, Flask effect works on the Unholy Might buff effect of the flask ;) )


Do you have any evidence of this?
Unholy might should be Boolean, like "you have onslaught", "your crits are lucky", etc.
there is no integer on the flask. you have it or you dont. you can't have onslaught 50%more, then having onslaught.


It may have been just a coincidence, but when I used Sin's rebirth i got more damage than from shadows and dust's unholy might. I will soon get another SIN's rebirth and I can test it again when I re-level this char. I'll take it down for now cause you really made me insecure about that part now :P
"


It may have been just a coincidence, but when I used Sin's rebirth i got more damage than from shadows and dust's unholy might. I will soon get another SIN's rebirth and I can test it again when I re-level this char. I'll take it down for now cause you really made me insecure about that part now :P


Thanks for the guide.

Just curious

when you say "Dagger with high APS/iAS, Spell Damage, Global Crit, Lightning Damage to Spells"

Do we need the "lightning damage to spells", or just "lightning damage 1 x 1" is fine.

For example:



something like this okay?

just wondering because i'm following this guys build: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/adrinatoren/characters

he's 98 in hc ladder, using EK nova
"Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym
Last edited by monkuar on Mar 14, 2017, 8:52:47 AM
"
monkuar wrote:
"


It may have been just a coincidence, but when I used Sin's rebirth i got more damage than from shadows and dust's unholy might. I will soon get another SIN's rebirth and I can test it again when I re-level this char. I'll take it down for now cause you really made me insecure about that part now :P


Thanks for the guide.

Just curious

when you say "Dagger with high APS/iAS, Spell Damage, Global Crit, Lightning Damage to Spells"

Do we need the "lightning damage to spells", or just "lightning damage 1 x 1" is fine.

For example:



something like this okay?

just wondering because i'm following this guys build: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/adrinatoren/characters

he's 98 in hc ladder, using EK nova


The "Lightning damage to spells" is the one that applies the damage to our EK spell. The other one just to attacks. It is not a must and the dagger is fine for now, but it does help with winktar leeching :) Also the base of the dagger should preferably be an imperial skean or an ambusher for their higher base attack speed (faster movement skills = faster clearing). Again, that's just a QoL for the "feeling" anyways, it is not a must. Keep that dagger for now and farm up until you can afford something like this:

http://poe.trade/search/okorikiomohoni

THen you can look to minmax and start to look for some with crit multi aswell but those will be expensive (1ex+ with those mods, even on sh*t rolls, sadly).

Hope that helped and you got an idea on what to look for :)

I have not yet started my re-enactment of this character, but I feel like I will do that today or tomorrow :)
"

The "Lightning damage to spells" is the one that applies the damage to our EK spell. The other one just to attacks. It is not a must and the dagger is fine for now, but it does help with winktar leeching :) Also the base of the dagger should preferably be an imperial skean or an ambusher for their higher base attack speed (faster movement skills = faster clearing). Again, that's just a QoL for the "feeling" anyways, it is not a must. Keep that dagger for now and farm up until you can afford something like this:

http://poe.trade/search/okorikiomohoni

THen you can look to minmax and start to look for some with crit multi aswell but those will be expensive (1ex+ with those mods, even on sh*t rolls, sadly).

Hope that helped and you got an idea on what to look for :)

I have not yet started my re-enactment of this character, but I feel like I will do that today or tomorrow :)


Ty so much. So the "Adds Lightning Damage" is not the same as "Lightning Damage to Attacks"? But wait, isn't the regular lightning damage added it to our spells too? So if we can find that and a "added to spells" it basically means more DPS?
"Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym
"
monkuar wrote:
"

The "Lightning damage to spells" is the one that applies the damage to our EK spell. The other one just to attacks. It is not a must and the dagger is fine for now, but it does help with winktar leeching :) Also the base of the dagger should preferably be an imperial skean or an ambusher for their higher base attack speed (faster movement skills = faster clearing). Again, that's just a QoL for the "feeling" anyways, it is not a must. Keep that dagger for now and farm up until you can afford something like this:

http://poe.trade/search/okorikiomohoni

THen you can look to minmax and start to look for some with crit multi aswell but those will be expensive (1ex+ with those mods, even on sh*t rolls, sadly).

Hope that helped and you got an idea on what to look for :)

I have not yet started my re-enactment of this character, but I feel like I will do that today or tomorrow :)


Ty so much. So the "Adds Lightning Damage" is not the same as "Lightning Damage to Attacks"? But wait, isn't the regular lightning damage added it to our spells too? So if we can find that and a "added to spells" it basically means more DPS?



No :P

The "Adds # Lightning Damage" adds the damage to the weapon. Damage from weapons never works with spells, only with attacks (like Blade Flurry for example).

"Adds # lightning damage to attacks" is added directly to the attack, not through the weapon which the attack bases off of.

"Adds # Lightning damage to spells" is the only flat spell damage a weapon (well, some weapons, not all can have such mods, for example swords and axes) can give us.

It is confusing to get to know this but once you understand how different mods interact with different skill types you'll be fine! Additionally, you'll get a feeling for what kind of drops are worth keeping and what is not, as well. :)
Last edited by Yeenaa on Mar 14, 2017, 10:42:16 AM
Awww I see..

I get it now, thank you!

I was getting confused because I have a dagger:




And kept thinking why is lightning damage getting added to my tooltip. But then I have a "to spells" roll... lol that's why!
"Good thing they nerfed the carto, it wasn't fun to find one in every map." - Haborym
Last edited by monkuar on Mar 14, 2017, 11:15:37 AM

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