[0.11.6] How to Flicker. Guide for a Flicker Strike build using a dagger and a shield.

THIS BUILD IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED BY ME!
(I will porbably revive it one day)





Hello and Welcome to my Guide for a Flicker strike Duelist. I’ll try to explain everything about it, answer every question, give advices etc. etc. I’ll update the information in this thread when it has to be updated. With this build you’ll be able to solo pretty much every map and every boss in Path of Exile. This is not a theorycraft thread and everything in this guide is tested!

Check out my other build
"How to smash Heads. Guide for a Facebreaker build using IB and DB"
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/445390/page/1
"How to Flicker. Two Handed Weapon Edition!"
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/528011




Primary Attack


Utility attack


Main Buff skill


Auras


Support gems and auras prioritized

Main attack skill
- Flicker strike+ Multistrike+ Melee Splash
- Flicker strike+ Multistrike+ Melee Splash+ Blood Magic
- Flicker strike+ Multistrike+ Melee Splash+ Blood Magic+ Melee physical damage
- Flicker strike+ Multistrike+ Melee Splash+ Blood Magic+ Melee physical damage+ Added Fire Damage

Auras
1st - Hatred
2nd - Purity
3th - Determination
4th - Tempest Shield



What is Flicker Strike and what it can and can't do.


Pros.
+Very High Damage
+Very High Attack Speed
+Provides some extra defense agains projectiles just because you teleport around.
+Good Quality of the Gem

Cons.
-Physical Reflect troubles due to the high physical damage
-Awful Desync
-Bad in a party
-Item dependant



Frenzy gives you a frenzy charge per hit. It provides the initial frenzy charges that you'll need before start flickering like crazy. You will need atleast 1-2 frenzy charges before you just hold down the "Q" button (my Flicker strike is bind there). It is dangerous to just jump in a pack hoping that you'll instantly kill a monster. It usualy happens but when it doesn't you will can alot of troubles. You can swap flicker strike for frenzy as a solution to the so called "party problem" with the Flicker Strike. Less damage; less attack speed; harder to survive but still you can run with frenzy instead of flicker strike if you want to.



Blood Rage is the buff ability that makes this build possible. It grants you a frenzy charge when you kill an enemy and gives you large amount of life leech(10% at level 20 with 20% quality). The drawback is that deals % of your maximum life as chaos damage to you(3.8% at level 20). It is even worse because you need to have Vaal Pact(Instant life leech but no life regeneration) so you wont be able to compensate with life regeneration. So you'll need alot of chaos resistance from items(helmet; boots; rings; belt etc.) It's cool that the duration of the buff resets when you kill an enemy so you wont spam it every 10 seconds.




Hatred - you will have alot of physical damage and that will result in alot of bonus cold damage from this aura.
Purity - what can i say? Increased maximum resists? Check! Elemental resists that will allow you to spend your passive points elsewhere? Check! It's a must!
Determination - A great aura especialy now when the monsters deal less damage and armour is more usefull.
Tempest Shield - with the three auras above you'll have some mana left so you can use that aura(just 25% mana reserve without mana reduce support gem) for the bonus block chance(4%)

You can spend 3 points in the passive skill tree and it will allow you to use Haste instead of the Tempest Shield.



Current passive skill tree (97 points at level 80)


Well what can i tell you about the skill tree? You must get all modes that will give you an extra Frenzy Charge. Take alot of critical strike chance and multiplier nodes. The cool thing about using a dagger is that it has a high critical chance base and you have plenty of dagger nodes that will give you critical cahnce and multiplier AND physical damage. You need Vaal Pact ofcourse. Other than that spend some points into block, put some in resists(if you need any i've reached the cap just from items), put some in attributes(only if you need them) and everything else into life! With this tree you will have so many life nodes to grab that you just won't have enough free skill points to get them all(i have 6 more to take just with 6 skill points and even 10 more for 15 skill points) You wont need extra accuracy from the tree - your dexterity will be enough. Until you can use Blood Magic Support Gem i'd suggest to take the Mana Flows passive.

Skill tree per 10 skill points




Life+ Resists( especialy Chaos Resist)+ Crit bonuses+ some bonus damage thats what you'll need

Weapon - You'll need a high physical dagame dagger. The attack speed is not that important(it still is ofcourse) look for a dagger with extra critical chance. Now why a dagger? Because it has awsome passive nodes for a dagger and with a dagger you can reach high critical chance very easy. I've tried with a sword and with a 380+ dps staff but the dagger is just the best weapon for this build.

Shield - Lioneye's Remorse. High block chance; high life; high armour. Best shield for this build if you ask me!

Body Armour - 5 or 6 linked Astral plate with high life and nice resist(chaos resist if possible) is the body armour for you.

Helm - Life + Resists+ Armour... some accuracy would be nice.
I've used Abyssus for some time. It will give you alot of DPS with physical damage bonus and the very high critical multiplier BUT the drawback is just too much to swallow.

Boots - Life + Resists+ Armour... some movement speed would be nice

Gloves - Life + Resists+ Armour... some physical damage and attack speed would be nice
OR Maligaro's Virtuosity for extra crit. I use The Maligaro's Virtuosity

Belt - Leather Belt or Rustic Sash with extra Life+ Resists

Rings - Prismatic rings with life and resists if they have physical damage or attack speed or life leech they will be even better

Amulet - Same as the Rings. You could use The Anvil( i don't). You could use a Carnage Heart but the -25% max life is too much of a drawback for me.

Flasks - Diamond, Granite and Quicksilver Flasks. Make sure that some of them have "dispell frozen"

My Gear




Normal
Personay i like to help Kraityn on normal because the 8% all resists are always helpfull and in almost all cases will save you one passive skill point( wich will give you 6% all resists so you get 2% bonus resists). Helping Oak will be a very good choice aswell, it's always good to have more life. The bonus mana from Aliara is useless ofcourse.
Cruel
The attack speed bonus that Kraityn will give if you help him is completely unnoticeable so my advice would be not to help him.The extra physical damage from Oak is a good choice. Aliara here is useless for you... once again. Killing all bandits would be a good choice aswell.
Merciless
Kraityn All the way. Extra Frenzy charge is the best thing you can get!



Add some art( as in my other buildhttp://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/445390/page/1)
Add skill tree per 10 points
Level up my character
Add price on the items that you'll need



Like this guide? I've helped you out somehow? You like my account name(that's how i've got my closed beta key)? You want to make me happy? You just feel generous?
Donate a buck or two. It would be greatly appreciated!
I will use the donated money to support GGG, because they deserve it! :)

Q.1 You havn't mentioned any curses at all! What's with that?
A.1 I am a lazy PoE player. Running around Cursing People casting Enduring Cry etc. is just not for me. If you are not like me i'd suggest you to use Critical Weakness for more damage or Enfeeble/Temporal Chains for more survivablity or even Warlord's Mark for more Life leech and Endurance Chrages. Note that the beauty of the Flicker Strike build is to never stop flickering... keep that in mind.

Q.2 No Endurance Charges Realy?
A.2 Yeah Really. I never liked the idea of just running around casting Enduring Cry every 10 seconds it is so... boring... besides you don't really need the charges you'll do just fine without them. But if really want them feel free to use the Enduring Cry. Note that the beauty of the Flicker Strike build is to never stop flickering... keep that in mind.

Q.3 Why a Duelist
A.3 The Duelist is in a great starting position for this build. He is in the midle of it and thats just great. You could run this build with a Marauder or Templar too with a few small changes on the tree.

Q.4 Not running Grace and Iron Reflexes?
A.4 Yes i don't. You wont get alot of armour from it(escpecialy ow with the nerf of the Iron Reflexes) Besides you'll have to spend 4 passive skill points just to get the IR and you can use them better. And on top of that you'll have to reserve some of your life to run Grace... thats not a good trade... not a good trade at all

Q.5 Why Blood Magic Support Gem. Why don't you just use mana?
A.5 Well due to your attack speed you just won't have enough mana to cast non-stop. And thats a bad thing.

Q.6 Why don't you play in hardcore like all the cool kids?
A.6My PC is slow and my Internet is unpredictable. The last thing i want is to spend time and effort into something and then lose it all due to uncontrollable circumstances. Aside from that i should tell you that this build is completely viable in hardcore. The only deaths that i have are due to FPS randomly dropping to 0, unbearable lag or my desire to progress alot faster then i actualy can ( example: Kill Piety on Cruel at level 40 with alot of deaths just because i want those 2 skill points and i want to get to Ledge Merciless as fast as i can). Add the terrible desync with the Flicker Strike skill...

Q.7 Why Vaal Pact and not just Life regeneration.
A.7 Physical reflect mobs. Without Vaal Pact you will onehit yourself

Q.8 Is the Life Leech from Blood Rage Enough?
A.8 Yes, it is. If you have more it would be even better.

Q.9 Blood Rage and Vaal Pact is a very unpleasant combination with that chaos damage, how do you handle it?
A.9 Life Leech and ALOT of Chaos Resist and constantly attacking things. I've never died or had any problems due to the Blood Rage drawback. Not even once!

Q.10 What Map Mods should i avoid?
A.10 Physical Reflect can still be nasty. Blood Magic. Don't do the map version of the Vaal Overseer. When you attack him with flicker strike he always hits you with the lazer AND with the mace... you just can't dodge his attacks.

Q.11 How about the Bringer of Rain? Can it be used here?
A.11 It's true that it offers 7 Links BUT you don't need the Blind and the Faster Attacks and you'll have to sacrifice Added Fire Damage... and thats alot of damage. But if you don't have a 6L Astral Plate or a good 5L Plate + nice helm you should use the Bringer of Rain. Atleast it is cheaper!

Q.12 Is 23k dps enough?
A.12 It is enough. Keep in mind that 50% of your hits will be criticals with 411% crit multiplier!

Q.13 3250 Life seems low...
A.13 Well it's enough to keep you alive. You will rarely die. And every skill point from level 80 will go into life nodes. And you will reach 4k+ life when you reach level 85-86

Q.14 Duelist/blood magic based or shadow/CI based build is better for a flicker strike build (dagger and shield)?
A.14 If you pay a CI based build you'll still need Vaal Pact (but it's so far away for these classes) or you'll just keep killing yourself. The mana is a problem aswell unless you spend some extra points into mana related nodes. But the biggest drawback is the colours of your sockets. It's nearly impossible to get RRRRRG with a Energy Shield based body armour. I've tried with a GGRRBB but it's just not that good, the damage is alot less.
Less Damage -> more flicker strikes to kill -> less frenzy charges -> dying often
The good things are that you'll no longer worry about the Blood Rage chaos damage effect and chaos resist and you'll have more Energy Shield as a witch/shadow than life as a duelist.

Q.15Why dont you Take the blood magic passive instead of using the blood magic gems?
A.15With the Blood magic Passive the mana cost is less indeed(not that it's really any problem)
and you'll have 1 free support gem slot
BUT(and its a big "BUT") Blood Magic Passive means NO Hatred; NO Determination; NO Purity; No Tempest Shield! And if you want to use any of the X mana reserved auras ( not the X%) you'll have to reserve life... and with this build it's extremly hard to reserve your life
And ofcourse you need to spend extra passive skill points to get it

Defenses


Flicker Strike(no frenzy charges)


Flicker Strike(7 frenzy chrages)

"

konflict1 wrote:

do you think it is better for a flicker strike(dagger+shield) build to be duelist/blood magic based or shadow/CI based?

Good Question. It's really hard to answer because i've tried a CI Shadow and a CI Witch (the witch is better if you ask me with the shadow you waste some skill points in the start) and didn't like the endgame results. You'll still need Vaal Pact (but it's so far away for these classes) or you'll just keep killing yourself. The mana is a problem aswell unless you spend some extra points into mana related nodes. But the biggest drawback is the colours of your sockets. It's nearly impossible to get RRRRRG with a Energy Shield based body armour. I've tried with a GGRRBB but it's just not that good, the damage is alot less.
Less Damage -> more flicker strikes to kill -> less frenzy charges -> dying often
The good things are that you'll no longer worry about the Blood Rage chaos damage effect and chaos resist and you'll have more Energy Shield as a witch/shadow than life as a duelist.
I must admit that i don't have insane ES items. They are good but not that good if you ask me so maybe with better gear a CI based Flicker Strike build would be better. Unfortunatly i can't test it now (not enouth currency) and i won't test it anytime soon.

"

Stuuut wrote:

Wouldn't Blood Dance boots be good for this build?

Unfortunatly they won't. I've used them when i wasn't using Vaal Pact. But i've died 20+ time due to physical reflect suicide. Your critical damage is so high that you'll just onehit yourself. And the worst part? You can't just pass by the reflecting mobs. You'll be flickering around and suddenly BOOM onehit suicide!
The only solution to that problem is Vaal Pact and with it you can't regenerate life wich is the only good thing about the Blood Dance Boots.
As for the X% chance to get a frenzy charge... its just not enough.. with no Blood Magic you'll run out of Frenzy Charges in seconds.