Cold & Chaos Ethereal Knives

The build ultilises the Chaos conversion mechanic. This means that mod such as "Gain x% non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage" or "Gain x% elemental damage as extra chaos damage" will add extra chaos damage for each elemental damage conversion stage. In this build we will have 2 conversion stage:

Physical -> Lightning -> Cold

100% of our Physical would be converted into Lightning damage. With 2 Call of The Brotherhood rings, our damage would be 20% lightning and 80% cold and an extra chaos resulting from the physical -> lightning and lightning to cold conversion

This means we try to get as much of the 2 mods "Gain x% non-chaos damage as extra chaos damage" or "Gain x% elemental damage as extra chaos damage". We shall discuss later how to get these mods in the gearing section.

Since our damage is mainly Cold and physical. Occultist's Void Beacon lowers enemy's chaos and cold resistance so it synergises well with our build. Forbidden Power maintains us power charges for us to crit. I won't even analyse Wicked Ward and Vile Bastion as they are undisputed the best nodes for CI build out there.

Ascendancy progression
Void Beacon -> Wicked Ward -> Vile Bastion -> Forbidden Power

Current my damage sitting at 1.3M DPS without flask and 2.7M DPS when flasks are up. With 21/20 EK, the numbers are 1.4M DPS and 3M DPS respectively. (All at 15 stacks of Wither)

https://pastebin.com/TuP4Bqiv

The chest is best in slot for everything of our build. Incandescent Heart is such an underrated unique. It provides 20% elemental damage as extra chaos damage which could even compete with Eternity Shroud in term of damage. The chest also NULLIFIES 25% elemental damage when we go CI which is huge in term of defense as most of the most dangerous map mods are in elemental. The only downside of the chest is its low ES value but that where Occultist comes in with its huge bonus on flat ES to compensate.


Our main aura will be Wrath alongside Discipline. The jewel allows full conversion from Physical to lightning. Also since later on we will deal a fair amount of damage in lightning thus it will helps with our mana leech. These 2 mods are must have. Any other relevant mods would be a plus. The jewel is not that expensive and currently go for 70c-2ex each. I got mine for 85c only.



2 Ring of the Brotherhood for our Lightning to Cold conversion. Normal version is good enough thus fairly cheap.

Get the enchant "30% increased Ethereal Knives Projectile Speed" as it will make our EK covers pretty much the whole screen. It is a huge improvement in QoL and they are still very cheap atm. I got the base for a mere 15c and craft it.



Most important mods here is the "Non-chaos as extra chaos damage". Try to get the mod along with high flat ES (40+) and % ES (20%+) resistance or crit multi here is valuable add-on. It is best to buy base with Strength/ Dexterity or both as implicit as we need stat for our gems


A pair of ES gloves with a spare prefix to craft "physical to lightning" conversion mod. Try to get resist as well


Get one with 30% movement speed and resist


High ES resist and a Str/Dex roll for stat



Try to find shield last as it would be the piece where u get all remaining resistance and as high ES as you can afford



This is where most of our damage come in. Best base in the profane wand as cast speed scales well with our build. Attack faster -> more chance to crit - > more damage

A much more budget weapon while you saving for the big shaper Profane wand is any wand/sceptre with spell damage and crit chane/multi. This would still get you about 1.5M DPS when all buffs are up (I have also input the budget wand in my PoB for your reference)



It is best to get either "Energy From Within" Jewel or "Ring of Blades" with the corrupted implicit "Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted upon you". This allows us to drop a bleed flask and get Atziri's Promise which is a huge DPS increase for us. I personally have never died due to bleeding with this set-up



This is my flask set-up. Replace either Taste of Hate or Atziri's Promise with a bleed immune flask if you don't have corrupted implicit "Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted upon you" on Jewel.

Alira