[2.1] Apathae's Flicker Poison Blade Vortex

hey, i want to try this build out and i was wondering at which level / with which items i should switch to flicker strike?

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LiquidPirateCat wrote:

hey, i want to try this build out and i was wondering at which level / with which items i should switch to flicker strike?

I definitely wouldn't start using flicker strike until you also have multistrike to link to it. I think the only limitation to start implementing it is you character's damage relative to the area you're in. Since you're getting your frenzy charges on kill (which are consumed to bypass flicker strike's cooldown) from running blood rage. If you aren't quite killing mobs simply from teleporting around a bit, it might not be time quite yet to start.

So it'll vary from person to person, as your character levels up and especially your spell gem, your damage will improve and the madness will ensue. The camera will jerk all over the screen and once it tears back into place from out of bounds nothing will remain but the corpses of your enemies and mirrors of kalandra.

First off, leveled to 75 with this build and it's so amazing, thanks for the guide.

I found that flicker strike wasn't very important until merciless, before then it's more important to use your links to get curse(s) if you have to choose. I one shot everything up to merc with just whirling blades + 10 stack.

One thing I did note struggling with was HP in early endgame. Constitution / Discipline and Training are insanely powerful before you get max life on most of your gear.

Chaos Damage completely wrecks me. I end up having to spend a lot of time bladefalling against adders/porcupines etc. I'm guessing that's why you opted for ming's heart?

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tjc128 wrote:

First off, leveled to 75 with this build and it's so amazing, thanks for the guide.

I found that flicker strike wasn't very important until merciless, before then it's more important to use your links to get curse(s) if you have to choose. I one shot everything up to merc with just whirling blades + 10 stack.

One thing I did note struggling with was HP in early endgame. Constitution / Discipline and Training are insanely powerful before you get max life on most of your gear.

Chaos Damage completely wrecks me. I end up having to spend a lot of time bladefalling against adders/porcupines etc. I'm guessing that's why you opted for ming's heart?

Yeah that's where the "cleaving" mechanic comes into play. When running and gunning, the necessity of having as many blades becomes less important as long as you're mobile. Whirling Blades seems more obvious against groups of enemies where oddly enough Flicker Strike is more noticeable against a single target (even if it's great for clear speed). Even if you don't have frenzy charges from the trip to a boss fight, pre stack a lot of blades and sort of watch their health after you teleport a few times against a single target (The merveil highlight I added to the video section kinda demonstrates that).

That's why I didn't recommend this build for hardcore, even if you follow the tree that picks up more life on the tree, you still have to be a bit careful early on until you're able to flesh out the right rares, life as a Shadow is definitely a luxury sometimes even if that tree variation gets up to 216% life (assuming you have 7% jewels). 256% with a 40% belly of the beast!

Ming's Heart is definitely a double edged sword. The extra damage is nice, and the huge amount of chaos resistance it provides can almost put you neutral after the penalty in merciless. The -15% life is a huge problem though, it's not something I'd use "just because it has chaos res" but as something end game to consider for more damage if you're comfortable with the life penalty.

My current character if I use a rare life belt and a rare life ring sits just over 5k life. Ming's Heart drops it to about 4600, if my talisman had a life roll on it, it definitely wouldn't be as noticeable.

From personal experience, part of the reason I opted to grab Mind Over Matter initially was because I had such an easy time through the whole game but once I hit about act 3 merciless, I started to hit a wall, my damage was fine but my defense definitely wasnt as I was at that awkward level and being early in the league I didn't want to spend a lot of currency on rare items I knew I was going to replace later. In the grand scheme of things, that keystone will always add a bit of effective life to a mana-centric self caster even if you reserve a lot of it. It's nothing more than some one-shot protection (which this game is notorious for) and the half instant mana flask lets me dip right out after that stuff goes down.

I definitely don't like the porcupine guys either, but if you get the luxury of running an off hand bino's kitchen knife in its current state you don't really have to think about a whole lot. If you watch the orchard highlight video I added in the first post, you can see me just plowing through a bunch of porcupine guys with both blood rage and righteous fire going and the regen from the knife makes all that stuff way less scary. Until then, don't forget that you're a poison build, cleave through them once and then run behind a wall; I still find myself doing that. lol

What are your thoughts on using the blood dance boots to generate frenzy charges instead of using blood rage? This gets rid of degen problems too correct?

If that works, what would you recommend to switch out for blood rage?

What are your thoughts on using Voll's Protector as a chest? Is it worth the investment or is it too squishy, even with immense life regen?

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eHinro wrote:

What are your thoughts on using the blood dance boots to generate frenzy charges instead of using blood rage? This gets rid of degen problems too correct?

If that works, what would you recommend to switch out for blood rage?

Blood Dance would be a preference thing. It provides the one dexterity roll you need, regen per charge, and would provide the benefit of generating frenzy charges on kill, yes. I opted to not use them as the degen wasn't really an issue and rare boots would cover more of my resistances and provide another source for a life roll. The other downside is that Blood Dance reduces the effectiveness of frenzy charges by cutting how much additional cast speed they provide, you need the speed to stack more blades when you aren't killing, the extra damage at low life is more conditional and not as useful.

Originally I had considered trying to corrupt +1 Frenzy Charge on Darkray Vectors which would've added a lot of extra dodge chance and the extra cast speed and damage per charge. The Frenzy charge duration reduction is a little bit annoying, but if you're running and gunning fast enough you may not even notice it.

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theoddphantom wrote:

What are your thoughts on using Voll's Protector as a chest? Is it worth the investment or is it too squishy, even with immense life regen?

Defensively, Voll's Protector is terrible and isn't necessary for this build at all. If you're using Assassin's Mark, your up time for power charges is pretty much permanent. Voll's also cuts your mana pool in half which is a huge negative. That being said, plain white armor with sockets would be better for this than Voll's ever would be.

So I just came across your build and while I have not read all of it yet I wanted to compliment you on how well written it is! Very no-nonsense with excellent non-technical explanations. Love it :)

wow. while there are maaaany blade vortex builds out there and i've gone a different direction with my own, the inclusion of flicker strike didn't even cross my mind. thats absolutely genius. testing it out and it works INCREDIBLY well.

i generate charges with poacher's mark curse on hit on a 2ndary blade vortex setup, and its amazing together. definitely helps you zip around and destroy everything much faster

are the 4 points to phase acrobats after that first node or its good cause u are up and close to monsters with the vortex. currently lvl 45 lvling up fast . just thinking about the 4 points but they do look good