[3.0] How to Flicker. Two Handed Weapon Edition!

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saucefar2 wrote:

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kewkie wrote:

After around 20 hours playtime I'm now lv 67, minus all the trading and some breaks etc.

Since I didnt have that much currency I have to say, I needed to trade a lot in order to upgrade my gear a bit, that's what I currently have:

Spoiler

Cost: Around 1ex and 20chaos, and some self-found.

What I definitely need is better mana management, even with poachers mark I sometimes struggle with the mana, maybe a good amulet, we will see.


But now, I'm addicted to PoE again :/ ... damn.

You must have issues maintaining your frenzy charges, the blood dance gives you a chance to gain one on kill which made all the difference for me.

Maximum frenzy charges are nice too, unless you have made changes to the build i don't think it works very well in comparison.

What do you mean? :/

I use blood rage with increased duration which works pretty well so far, at least when i can keep my movement speed up and get some enemies, but so far i hadnt issues with my frenzy charges.

edit: I see, you meant because of the dragonscale boots. But still, no big issues here.

Since im helping a friend whos new to the Game to start leveling a bit i think ill give this a try in HCP so i got 2 Questions.
1. Would it have any effect when i link CWDT with flame Dash and also Immortal Call or would IMMO just be a waste since im dashing away from the source of damage?
2. Would Champion be the number 1 option in HC or would you still prefer the Slayer?

Think this is the well written guide i´ve read yet and just wanted to say THANK YOU!
Awesome job, keep it up!

Ty for the fast reply, can i just link IC in addition or will it negativeley affect the Flame Dash in any ways?

I think Slayer is vastly superior to Champion. Few reasons:
-First, while both spare a gem, you don't get the same benefit. The slayer "lose" the benefit from Melee splash gem, meaning he get less AOE radius from it (compensated from the +20% aoe radius) and less aoe damage. But the trash cleaning is not the main problem of flicker, far from it.
While the Champion "lose" the benefit from Fortify gem, you lose 50% increased melee physical damage. It's not huge, but it's not negligible either.
Also, Melee splash is 160% mana multiplier and fortify is 110% mana multiplier, meaning the Champion will spend 45-50% more mana per flicker with exactly the same linking. The mana leech node is great, but it is not sufficient by itself for a Champion (you need some mana max for sustaining with the 20%/s).
Also, even if it's not really relevant in HC, you can run a flicker link without fortify, you can't without melee splash. So, you are "stucked" with a fortify in case you can only afford a 4L - 5L, while you are not as a Slayer.

-The Slayer get more damage (72% increased + 5% as against 40% increased and 10% as), not including the bonus from the fortify gem.

-The slayer get AOE radius, which is also great if you are using Cyclone for monotarget (counteracting the concentrated effect).

-The slayer is immune stun, the champion is not unless he uses Unwavering stance (and if he does, he loses Stibnite flasks)

-And not losing leech at full life is really, really, really nice.

The champion get:
-The defense when he is low life. But you are playing with a 2H, so, don't expect so much from it. It's only good with Granit/Jade.

-Perma fortify, which can be nice when you take damage while you can't use flicker for some reasons.

But the advantages of the Slayer are much greater IMO.

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KorgothBG wrote:

First of all melee splash gem vs melee splash effect from Slayer:

1. The slayer's effect actually has much lower AoE radius compared to the gem not just because of the 20% more AoE radius at level 20 but on top of that because of the 10% increased aoe radius from a 20% quality gem.

You also get 20% aoe radius with the slayer node. So if the champion has a 20/20 splash, you have 132% aoe radius vs 120, if he has a regular lvl 20 splash, it's 120% vs 120. It's not "much lower". It's, at worst, 10% inferior.

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KorgothBG wrote:

2. 20% less splash damage isn't something to cry about but we can't brush it off as if its nothing.

That's right, but still.

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KorgothBG wrote:

You also give way too much credit to the "cannot be stunned" bonus. With big enough life pool ( not even crazy large one ) you are practically unstunable. Yes it is useful but it is not a big selling point honestly.

A 1000 damage hit on a 5000 hp pool is 40% chance to stun. Not really "unstunnable" to me :/

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KorgothBG wrote:

You've missed to count in the "Status ailments are removed when you reach low life" - which can in fact save your life.

Well, you should have statut immune flask in your belt (at least anti frost). Nobody care about Ignite, and while shock may be really annoying, the same argument can be used. With a large enough life pool, you shouldn't be shocked, especially not in a case where removing it once would do the difference. To be shocked one whole seconde (a signifiant duration), you need to take 83,3% of your life pool in raw lightning damage.

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KorgothBG wrote:

As for the mana ... idk man ... look at my gear look at my tree ... 0 mana issues 100% of the time.

With a 55 mana/3hit flicker and 8 attacks/s, you may have issue, since you need ~750-800 mana max to sustain that. Good for you if you are ok.

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KorgothBG wrote:

With all that said i disagree that the Slayer is vastly superior ( when it comes to HC ), maybe slightly better. But as always that's just my opinion and i don't claim that it's 100% universally true. :)

Well, it's just the champion bonus are situationnal (movement speed in a flicker build, a whole "what if" node which doesn't work at all if you take a huge hit at 40% life, stucked with defensive gem even when you could be farming in a safe zone more efficiently), when the slayer grants always useful bonus.