Flicker Strike

Made a cool little matrix type build with a flickerstrike witch. I was using daggers with the highest crit-rate available. Had a very high crit rate and used flickerstrike to gather power charges quickly. When I had max power charges I used lightning warp to aoe and take out archers and large groups. I used temporal chains to slow enemies. Planned on getting chaos innoculation with a very large energy shield rating late game combined with blood rage for faster gathering of max power charges. Also planned on getting the curse passives for permanent and double curses.Also used tempest shield for added defense if needed.

I reconised two things with this skill

Ones in a while when I have a enemy in target, thet is in range and anouther enemy is cloder then the target, I attak the enemy that is closer and not the enemy in target.


And the other thing is, if you are using Flicker Strike without having an enemy in target, you are jumpuing around to that enemy that have the most HP. Therefore you are jumping around without killing anything.
I would be nice to make it diffrent, i an point that you arent jumping all over the place.

I play a dagger/shield ranger build; my skills are Frenzy, Viper Strke, Detonate Dead, Frost Wall, Temporal Chains, Phase Run and Flicker Strike. I hear a lot of talk on global of people relying solely on Flicker Strike, which I think is lame, and it will be unbalanced (as is) in PvP, so I think it should have a cooldown time of some sort.

Quoting myself from Chopatron's dps project thread :

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zriL wrote:

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__Z__ wrote:

I also understand that this skill is very difficult to precisly balance( especialy in pvp of course)
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Personally, I don't understand why it's so difficult to balance. This skill is already too good of a mobility skill, so it should be used primarily as such. What's fun with flicker strike is to jump from ennemies to ennemies voluntarily, to cover the distance between them faster, brainless spamming to jump randomly and look at ennemies dying isn't fun in my opinion, that's why this skill shouldn't be able to have such dps. The solution is pretty simple, nerf the damage to the point it's still useful for distance covering while dealing decent engagement damage, but useless for spamming because there would be better skills to use in combination with FS. An other way to prevent spamming FS would be to increase manacost...

"

zriL wrote:

Quoting myself from Chopatron's dps project thread :

"

zriL wrote:

"

__Z__ wrote:

I also understand that this skill is very difficult to precisly balance( especialy in pvp of course)
!

Personally, I don't understand why it's so difficult to balance. This skill is already too good of a mobility skill, so it should be used primarily as such. What's fun with flicker strike is to jump from ennemies to ennemies voluntarily, to cover the distance between them faster, brainless spamming to jump randomly and look at ennemies dying isn't fun in my opinion, that's why this skill shouldn't be able to have such dps. The solution is pretty simple, nerf the damage to the point it's still useful for distance covering while dealing decent engagement damage, but useless for spamming because there would be better skills to use in combination with FS. An other way to prevent spamming FS would be to increase manacost...

too much mana makes it useless as a "run away skill", and nerfing it makes it useless as a combat skill; this is why I have discerned a cooldown time as the answer.

I'm trying to make this work. I really am. But with the lack of bonus eva/frenzy charge and 2 less charges... This skill seems to have become more of a one time use gap closer. But with a duelist closing that gap and not moving again = death :( I really hope to see some work done with this skill in the future. But none the less keep up the same work.

Chaos was totally unsafe before with a mediumly stuffed FS build (whatever can be said about FS imbalance...) now i'll not even dare to put a feet on Chaos with FS as main attack skill..............

I think the concept of this skill is great, however not as useful as expected.

One thing I think that must change is if I click a target when out of range, I should run to the target until I'm in range and then strike. As it is now if I click a target and wait I will just run up to the target, but won't trigger the skill.

This may sound odd, but I think this would be better off as a support gem. Adds teleporting strikes to a single target melee skill. If you had this concept of a skill with something such as viper strike, frenzy, dual strike, ect. it would compliment eachother nicely.

Despite what some others have said regarding this skill being "hold button to win", the reality is that this skill is "hold button to roll for victory or death" with the odds of survival predominantly dependent on a players equipment and partially dependent on their build.

The very nature of completely random targeting ensures this skill can only ever be a mindless gamble perceived by everyone as either overpowered or unfeasible.

If you try to balance it for players with godly gear you guarantee it is unfeasible for everyone else. If you try to balance it for the average player you guarantee it is completely over powered for those with godly gear.

With no control you cannot fairly balance this skill.
Please consider at least testing the semi controllable system I described in my previous feedback on page 6.

Allowing the player to influence the location around which random targets are chosen allows this skill to remain viable for all players when balanced for those with high end gear. This is because the player becomes responsible for managing the degree of risk they adopt in prioritising their targets and positioning their character.

Players with weaker gear can adopt a lower risk strategy by keeping to the fringes of combat while players with better gear can test their durability and luck by wading deep into the hordes.

As for PvP, I don't see the problem. My suggestions are:

1) Balance vs player damage of all melee dash skills so that slower closing skills deal more damage. Flicker Strike would therefore be weaker than Leap Slam.

2) Balance range of all melee dash skills so that slower closing skills have greater range. Flicker Strike would therefore have the shortest range due to instant closing.

3) Require explicit targeting of other players. Flicker Strike would therefore remain fun for PvE without being rediculous in PvP.