[1.3] [Pony's] Cheap CI FlickerStrike Shadow - Physical to Lightning!

thanks man , been looking for a flicker build that isnt super expensive :)
Also , can u post ur current gear? could be a good guide for gearing.
And btw , could u also post the most optimal 4L linking , 5L linking and 6L linking?

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Randomed wrote:

thanks man , been looking for a flicker build that isnt super expensive :)
Also , can u post ur current gear? could be a good guide for gearing.
And btw , could u also post the most optimal 4L linking , 5L linking and 6L linking?

Have another read of the very 1st post. All that you have asked is covered in there (albeit briefly). If it's not clear let me know and I can break it down a bit for you.

Leveling flicker can be hard, particularly now due to the VP nerf. Hang in there, it hits vtec lvl 55 -> 82

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gfwatcher wrote:

Current lvl 81.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABLEFfQW1DPIOSBB7ES8RlhUaFdcWvxrbG60eGiEDJJ0k_SgqKwosvy9vMFQ74T3iPs9HBkjuTGBRR1ZjVupW9V9qYlpjQ2XxZ2dtGXBScFZwu3iueUh943_Ghq6H24hCjb-QG5Vml9CZV5mamhOdo58noqOly6Z_pyunNLGztMW1SLb3t9O5Prl8u3y95r46wFHBAMHFwfPC7MNt037VANeG18vZE9sa227b1OL344TnVOn-62PsGO1B8uHz6vVL-WP8q_-T

Try dropping Arm Wrestling for Heartseaker (and Throatseeker if you can manage it). Unless you have an INSANE phys dagger the crit damage will get your far better DPS than the added phys on Arm Wresting does. Also consider going back for Mental Acuity. Actually, you are pretty lean on Crit-chance. Are you holding close to 95% Crit chance?

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ep0nymous wrote:

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Randomed wrote:

thanks man , been looking for a flicker build that isnt super expensive :)
Also , can u post ur current gear? could be a good guide for gearing.
And btw , could u also post the most optimal 4L linking , 5L linking and 6L linking?

Have another read of the very 1st post. All that you have asked is covered in there (albeit briefly). If it's not clear let me know and I can break it down a bit for you.

Leveling flicker can be hard, particularly now due to the VP nerf. Hang in there, it hits vtec lvl 55 -> 82

ah yes , got it.
Haha , if i can't handle certain problems always got friends to help out :D

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ep0nymous wrote:

Try dropping Arm Wrestling for Heartseaker (and Throatseeker if you can manage it). Unless you have an INSANE phys dagger the crit damage will get your far better DPS than the added phys on Arm Wresting does. Also consider going back for Mental Acuity. Actually, you are pretty lean on Crit-chance. Are you holding close to 95% Crit chance?

I've been playing around with poebuilder and thinking about dropping Arm Wrestling for crit multi. Good point.
No, I'm far from 95% crit chance. My next acquisition will be a Bino's Dagger. Still need to sell some stuff.

I also have been looking to Mental Acuity for a long time.
What do you think it's better?

3 points for (because that's what I will need to reach Mental Acuity):

- 50% crit chance (the node with 20% crit chance aside Assassination, plus two 15% crit chance nodes in the Bloodthirst area)
or
- 30% crit chance, 40 int and 20% mana regen

solution 1:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABLEFfQW1DPIOSBB7ES8RlhXXFr8Z1RrbG60eGiSdJP0oKisKLL8vbzBUMww74T3iPs9HBkjuTGBQQlFHVmNW6lb1X2piWmNDbRlwUnBWcLtw1XiufeN_xoauh9uIQow2jb-QG5Vml9CZV5mamhOdo6IuoqOly6Z_pyunNLGztMW1SLb3t9O5Prl8vea-OsBRwQDBxcHzwuzDbdN-1QDXhtfL2RPbGttu29Ti9-OE51Tp_utj7BjtQfLh8-r1S_lj_Kv_k__e

solution 2:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABLEFfQW1DPIOSA_EEHsRLxGWFdcWvxnVGtsbrR4aJJ0k_SgqKwosvy9vMFQzDDt8O-E94j7PRwZI7kxgUUdWY1bqVvVfamJaY0NtGXBScFZwu3DVeK5943_Ghq6H24hCjb-QG5Vml9CZV5mamhOdo6Kjpcumf6crpzSxs7TFtUi297fTuMq5Prl8vea-OsBRwQDBxcHzwuzDbdN-1QDXhtfL2RPbGttu29Ti9-OE51Tp_utj7BjtQfLh8-r1S_lj_Kv_k__e

I have a good experience using CI/VP Flickerstrike build, so i want to put my opinion about main flaws of this one:
1. Build. It's far from optimal. You take any crit chance node you can, but you completely ignore physical damage / attack speed nodes in Shadow's starting area as well as accuracy notables. You also ignore 30% shield defences nodes, despite they add MORE defence per node, than ES clusters you got. You didnt take Unwavering Stance, despite amulet slot is WELL worth 6 points spent, and you need extra strengh anyway (64 isnt enough). And if you want to use evasion, i see no items, that will give you at least decent amount of it. And you actually dont need evasion with CWDT IC.
2. Gear. You completely forgot to mention about accuracy. It's essential to have accuracy on gear for attack build, that depends on crits. Since you propose to use abyssus, accuracy on rings is must-have. You also completely forgot about mana management. Flicker Strike is an expensive ability, and it hits really fast, so your mana pool will be drained very rapidly. Mana leech with your normal mana pool (without a good boost from items/passives) is NOT enough to sustain Flicker Strike.
3. Auras. You didnt even mentioned, which ones you use.
4. To stack shock on boss, you should deal a good amount of lightning damage with your attack. A mere 1-50 damage from ring wont do. Added lightning damage gem can make work sometimes, but not always (but you dont use it).

Hm , is running IR and grace a good idea then?

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

Spoiler

I have a good experience using CI/VP Flickerstrike build, so i want to put my opinion about main flaws of this one:
1. Build. It's far from optimal. You take any crit chance node you can, but you completely ignore physical damage / attack speed nodes in Shadow's starting area as well as accuracy notables. You also ignore 30% shield defences nodes, despite they add MORE defence per node, than ES clusters you got. You didnt take Unwavering Stance, despite amulet slot is WELL worth 6 points spent, and you need extra strengh anyway (64 isnt enough). And if you want to use evasion, i see no items, that will give you at least decent amount of it. And you actually dont need evasion with CWDT IC.
2. Gear. You completely forgot to mention about accuracy. It's essential to have accuracy on gear for attack build, that depends on crits. Since you propose to use abyssus, accuracy on rings is must-have. You also completely forgot about mana management. Flicker Strike is an expensive ability, and it hits really fast, so your mana pool will be drained very rapidly. Mana leech with your normal mana pool (without a good boost from items/passives) is NOT enough to sustain Flicker Strike.
3. Auras. You didnt even mentioned, which ones you use.
4. To stack shock on boss, you should deal a good amount of lightning damage with your attack. A mere 1-50 damage from ring wont do. Added lightning damage gem can make work sometimes, but not always (but you dont use it).

Wow a lot of things to cover off here. Some really good insight and I appreciate your thoughts and comments. All of these things have been considered at length and I've had a LONG time for final tweeks in my current build. Your assessment is welcomed and worthy of a my response. So, from the top:

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

You take any crit chance node you can, but you completely ignore physical damage / attack speed nodes in Shadow's starting area

Since Crit is so OP it's essential to run as close to 95% as possible. The benefits of status ailment (freeze, shock and poison etc) are HUGE. This coupled with the massive raw damage increase means it's optimal in terms of DPS to get my x% crit dagger to run close to 95% in full flight. I have added and removed crit chance passives as required when I change my dagger and am currently 94.5% chance to crit with the current passive tree I linked. Also, please note I have updated the passive tree to include the APS and phys nodes you mentioned. My current tree includes them. Previously I had used the Int nodes to get away from the shadow start point as quickly as possible in order to pickup Crit asap. Now I have respec'd 'Haste' etc as you pointed out.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

You also ignore 30% shield defences nodes, despite they add MORE defence per node, than ES clusters you got.

Current shield is based primarily around Spell Damage (CrownOfEyes turns shields into Inc Damage)and Res not ES This means my ES gains from off-hand aren't great so stacking off these with passives isn't optimal at this time. The ES passives I have taken are usually coupled with either EV or +Res% increases. With Flicker EV is actually REALLY helpful since you rarely ever get swung at more than once and if you can evade that 1st incoming attack you will almost certainly kill the mob before it attacks a 2nd time meaning a good chance to evade greatly reduces you ever taking any damage. Great for Mobs, not so good for map bosses...

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

You didnt take Unwavering Stance, despite amulet slot is WELL worth 6 points spent

Still considering this. Adding Crit and Phys damage to a necklace would be awesome but at the expense of 6 passives I'm not so sure. Unwavering also means you ALWAYS get hit. So Chayula is 'unwavering stance' without the 'cannot evade' curse. And the +all attributes and added rarity is nice to have. If I were to throw down 40ex on a good necklace I'd certainly do some good theory-crafting with unwavering but it would be stiff competition against 'chance to evade'.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

you need extra strengh anyway (64 isnt enough)

64 goes 165 with current gear and that's sufficient for lvl20 STR gems. Much less and I the CWDT sets can only go lvl19. The DPS boost from STR isn't worth spending passives and its plainly not required for HP.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

if you want to use evasion, i see no items, that will give you at least decent amount of it. And you actually dont need evasion with CWDT IC

I find CWDT IC doesn't proc enough to save my bacon all the time and without End-Charges it's never up long enough to ensure immortality. I could possibly generate more End-charges to overcome this. As for EV, as I have mentioned before I find it REALLY useful to negate that 1st swing. I encourage Sin Trek boots for mid-game builds which should give around 2400EV standing. Put a Inc EV % on one of the pots and this should boost over 3K which is the 'sweet-spot' before serious diminishing returns start to really kick in. I don't want to drone on about EV, it's not great, AR and ES are better to have if possible, EV is a nice-to-have, a free benefit of many of my ES passives.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

You completely forgot to mention about accuracy. It's essential to have accuracy on gear for attack build, that depends on crits.

Chance to hit a lvl84
mob is 81%. Chance to hit an actual mob I'm likely to encounter is pretty much a certainty. This build picks up so much Dex in traveling passives that I needn't ever actively go picking more up. I consider added accuracy a complete dump-stat when chance to hit is already pretty much maximum.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

You also completely forgot about mana management. Flicker Strike is an expensive ability, and it hits really fast, so your mana pool will be drained very rapidly. Mana leech with your normal mana pool (without a good boost from items/passives) is NOT enough to sustain Flicker Strike.

Outside of Mind-drinker I've only needed to pick up another 2% leech elsewhere (gear) to sustain flicker. At 4% leech of roughly 16k physical (per sec) I get plenty of mana back, the only issues are occasionally the rate of leech particularly on '50% reduced' maps. Usually this is overcome in a large extent by the blue pot which is used with all other pots every encounter. NB flicker cost is usually about 80Mana. With this I can run Purity and Hatred no issue.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

Auras. You didnt even mentioned, which ones you use.

Yeah I did, it's there in the 'Build Basics and Gems:' muck. NB I also normally run Purity as well.

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MortalKombat3 wrote:

To stack shock on boss, you should deal a good amount of lightning damage with your attack. A mere 1-50 damage from ring wont do.

Shock is very much a nice-to-have and I can gaurantee that even a TINY amount of added ele damage will stack really well against bosses. To test this, try adding a tiny amount Fire damage to your flicker and watch how much burn you inflict. Simply because your APS is so high you'll apply short periods of status ailment sufficient to stack multiple times on bosses.

Thanks again for your thoughts. You obviously have plenty of experience with flicker, if you have some spare time add me to your /friends list and we can do some in-game build work.

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Randomed wrote:

Hm , is running IR and grace a good idea then?

Grace is great if you can sustain the mana burn. More APS LOOKS like more DPS but often doesn't pan out that way due to the cost to maintain more strikes per second. Far better to run the Hatred passive and freeze-lock your enemies. If you can run a 2nd Aura I suggest Discipline.

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gfwatcher wrote:

No, I'm far from 95% crit chance. My next acquisition will be a Bino's Dagger. Still need to sell some stuff.

You're def on the right track with your build and you'll get the final tweeks right in time, don't get too caught up with the DPS info as that can often lead you toward APS which is sometimes a mistake (long story).

I just wanted to touch on the Bino's Dagger thing. You are already going to be doing poison through 'Adder's touch' and since poison doesn't stack (like shock etc) you'll get no ADDED benefit from the daggers explicit mods. To this end it's really only good for it's great crit and good phys stats. If you are going to spend 20ex on a dagger you can certainly get better phys and similar crit on a good rolled Kris or Demon Dagger. I'd rethink this spend a little if I were you.