[3.1] UberDan's INSANE Flicker Strike! HC viable, 8k+ HP, sanic clearspeed
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I'm not Dan, I'm just writing a guide for his awesome Flicker Strike build.
Dan's profile: DanDontAsk PoB of Dan's char: https://pastebin.com/ghtg28fE Dan's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dirtydan79
PREFACE
Flicker Strike normally revolves around Critical Chance using something like Terminus Est for generating Frenzy Charges, but that requires investing many points in damage clusters on the tree and that means less survivability.
With the new Abyss gear we are able to reach insane Elemental damage values by stacking as many Abyss jewels as we can. They provide both damage and life and the pathing to them allows us to pick up a ton of Life nodes. This build can have over 8k Life and great survivability. I have personally done Chimera, Hydra and Phoenix with 1 damage mod with level 19 0% gems and average gear. It's also a VERY fast map cleaner, on par with Cospri CoC Discharge or Autobomber.
HOW DOES IT WORK
Frenzy charges are generated with the following combination:
A sword with chance to Bleed applies Bleed on the enemy --> the Golden Rule Jewel reflects the Bleed back to us --> as long as we're bleeding, the Red Trail Boots give us a Frenzy Charge. Simple, effective.
PROS AND CONS
PROS:
* Works very well on a budget up to around T14 maps, including speed-farming Shaped Channel/Strand/Atoll/Toxic Sewer/Waste Pool/Vault * Can do all maps including T16 Guardians easily with good gear * Never-seen-before tankiness on a Flicker character! * "Pretty good" clearspeed 4Head * Barely affected by any map mod, except for No Leech and Elemental Reflect * VERY FUN! CONS: * Becomes very expensive if you're going for all the best gear * Can't run Elemental Reflect or No Leech * Can't do Atziri/Uber Atziri due to the nature of Flicker. Untested on Shaper but I'll try it sometime soon. * May kill itself if using Headhunter * May cause eye/head aches or seizures. The Flickering playstyle is not for everyone.
FAQ
* Wouldn't the self-bleed kill us?
Nope. The Bleed damage is based off of Physical damage, which we have almost none of. You'll never feel it at all, especially with Slayer's overleech. * Why not use a Headhunter? Funny enough, that tiny amount of Physical damage that we use to apply a Bleed on ourselves is actually enough to one-shot ourselves in cases where we are very-well-fed on HH Rare mobs... So, sorry, the self-bleed can actually kill us. * Why Herald of Ash? We don't crit because of Elemental Overload and we don't shock/chill/freeze because of Elemental Focus. This renders both Herald of Thunder and Ice as a small boost to flat Lightning/Cold damage, nothing more. On the other hand Herald of Ash takes our MASSIVE overkill damage and turns it into a sick AOE burn. * Why Puncture? For the rare situations where we have no Frenzies (for example when re-entering a map after a trade or on bosses with long invulnerability phases), we can instantly get a Frenzy charge with a single hit. What makes this build so tanky? Stacking of multiple defensive mechanisms: 200%+ Life on tree 12-14 Abyss Jewels with Life 73% Dodge and 63% Spell Dodge with Acro + Phase Acro + Vaal Grace Decent Evasion 20% block CWDT + IC + Enfeeble Balanced Wise Oak Basalt / Stibnite * How do I balance the Wise Oak? There's no easy way... But you can use Master crafting to your advantage - if your rings or amulet have an open Suffix, you may be able to recraft a resist until you hit the perfect value. You can also find Abyss Jewels with Life + Damage + Resist/Double-resist (That's what I've done, check the Jewels in my Gloves) * Why not take the Brutal Fervour ascendancy? It gives Immunity to Bleed while Leeching, which means we can't generate Frenzy charges. * Which expensive items are mandatory for this build? Which aren't? Only Lycosidae is mandatory to avoid missing. The rest of the gear can be replaced with budget variations (see below).
SKILL TREE AND ASCENDANCY NOTEABLES
Bane of Legends - Become quicker with free Onslaught and and Cull at 20%
Impact - Adds AOE damage to your Flicker. With Daresso's Passion you can start Flickering happily as early as level 43! Endless Hunger - Keep leeching long after you're done fighting Headsman - More Damage and AOE Vaal Pact - Slayer and Vaal Pact go hand-in-hand Acro+Phase Acro - We have a ton of Life and it'll be Full most of the time thanks to overleeching and Dodging. Elemental Overload - With 0 crit nodes on the tree or gear, this is the obvious choice. Who can say no to 40% MORE damage?
BANDITS
Kill all.
PANTHEON
Major: Soul of Solaris - Protection from Crits, AOE, Shock and Burn.
Minor: Soul of Shakari - Immunity to Poison!
GEAR AND GEMS
The linked gear is what I was using while writing this build. At this point I already killed T16 Guardians and felt like the build is really powerful. Now I have better gear (see below) and it melts everything.
WEAPON
Rare Sword with high Attack Speed and Chance to Bleed: This is the best way to proc Bleeds on yourself to generate Frenzies. More speed means more hits from your overpowered Abyss Jewels. Having some more flat Elemental Damage helps greatly as a high-rolled sword can be equivalent to 3-4 more well rolled Abyss Jewels. Improvements: 1) better attack speed roll and/or using a faster base sword with a Chance to Bleed suffix roll. 2) better flat Elemental rolls and/or WED% prefix Blood Rage - Increased Duration - Vaal Grace Blood Rage gives us more attack speed. Vaal Grace allows us to AFK in a T16 pack of Bearers. Not even kidding!
ARMOR
5-linked with the built-in Elemental Penetration gives us an insane damage boost because the build uses all 3 elements for damage. We also gain a ton of Life by using 14 Abyss Jewels and an extra Abyss socket. Improvements: N/A Flicker Strike - Multistrike - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Elemental Focus - Ancestral Call / Damage on Full Life Swap Damage on Full Life in instead of Ancestral Call when killing a tanky boss (most won't require this with proper gear)
HELM
2 more Abyss sockets and Flicker damage per Frenzy charge, huge damage. Improvements: 1) Obviously, a 2 socket version. Ancestral Protector - Puncture Ancestral Protector gives us more Attack Speed; use it near a boss to melt it instantly. Puncture allows us to quickly apply Bleeds in the rare cases where we are out of Frenzy charges (for example if we re-enter a map or if there's a long animation or invulnerability phase)
GLOVES
2 more Abyss sockets, some Life and Maim+Intimidate if we socket our Jewels correctly. Improvements: N/A Wrath - Herald of Ash More damage and our overkill damage will spread as extra fire damage to whoever is left around to receive it
BELT
2 more Abyss sockets that become 50% more effective. Put the best ones you have in here for extra bonus. Improvements: If you're struggling with Resists and/or Wise Oak balance, a well rolled Life/WED%/Resist Stygian Belt can be very useful
BOOTS
Without these Boots we wouldn't have Frenzy charges to use Flicker. They also provide 40% MS because we're constantly bleeding. Improvements: 1) Corrupt +1 max Frenzy Shield Charge - Leap Slam - Fortify - Faster Attacks Use Shield Charge to close the gap between packs quickly, Leap over obstacles, gain the Fortify bonus while fighting bosses and do it quick! :)
OFFHAND
Never miss a hit and Shield Charge for days. Improvements: N/A Cast when Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Enfeeble Gain immunity to Physical damage and reduce the enemies' Damage and Accuracy whenever you take a hit
RINGS AND AMULET
As much WED% as possible to amplify our flat elemental damage. Resists to balance your Wise Oak. Life wherever and as much as possible. Improvements: 1) Literally any random rings+amulet would probably be better than what I'm wearing now...
FLASKS
We're using 3-elemental types of damage so a perfectly balanced Wise Oak is another huge source of damage and defense. Atziri's for extra damage and leech, Basalt and Jade for more defenses. Make sure you have of Warding and of Heat. A life flask of Staunching to stop heavy bleeds. If you want to go faster, you can use a Quicksilver instead of the Basalt/Jade. Improvements: 1) Alchemist's Quicksilver of Adrenaline is great if you just wanna go fast
JEWELS
Whatever flat Elemental damage you can get your hands on + Life
BUDGET ALTERNATIVES
Tabula Rasa or any 6-link chest works fine. Instead of swapping Damage on Full Life vs. Ancestral Call, you can keep DoFL in permanently and swap Ancestral Call around with Ruthless for boss-killing.
Helmet and Gloves can have 1 Abyss socket, it's not a big deal.
MY CURRENT GEAR
Last edited by Zoxjib#5083 on Feb 6, 2022, 4:32:02 PM Last bumped on Oct 31, 2018, 7:35:28 PM
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Reserved
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This build is dope. I recently made it myself and I'm enjoying it a lot. For the pantheon choices though I think Solaris is probably better in general because of the reduction to critical strikes you get when you capture the souls for it.
My gear:
Spoiler
I need to optimize my flasks a bit and continuously upgrade my jewels. The Writhing Jar works pretty well with this build in between packs when your overleech has stopped but you are still taking damage from Blood Rage. |
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Glad you're liking it!
You're right about the Pantheon, Solaris is indeed better and also what Dan was using. Fixed! I never felt the need to leech in between packs because I get from pack to pack pretty much instantly. Also - BR is placed in the weapon precisely for the purpose if easily disabling it by weapon-swapping. |
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" Nice, I didn't even think about that. It's going to make my life easier. |
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if you're wondering how dan died, he died to phoenix apparently animation bugging and cycloning in place or something of the sort.
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Could you maybe give a comparison of this build with other Flicker builds (Terminus, Oro's, Oni-Goroshi, etc.) in terms of strengths and weaknesses? Would help a lot to decide on a version of Flicker.
Also one question: Is the 20% chance to inflict bleeding (Weapon) on the enemy really enough to reliably not run out of Charges while mapping (bad luck streaks)? Ironically, this Frenzy Charge mechanism works better against bosses, while Terminus is the other way around. Thanks :) ign: PhrozenFlame Last edited by cocomoloco#6500 on Jan 16, 2018, 7:10:25 AM
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" The bleed chance is enough. The only time it can get a bit derp is if you don't inflict bleed on your first flicker. You can just puncture the first mob in a map if you want to be safe though. I have never ran out of frenzy charges while mapping. |
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A couple of questions for you Dan.
1) How would inquisitor do with this setup? 2) Is going crit a posibility? |
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It would be a completely different build.
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