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

Updated early Oct. Getting a lot of PMs about this so trying to keep info current in this thread so I don't get so whisper slammed.

What about Atziri?

Hi, awesome build! I am at Level 60 now and am going alright with Mightflay and a 5L ES chest (except that reflect phys bosses still f*ck me). I was just wondering why you recently removed Vaal Pact from your passive tree? I thought VP was a pretty large part of the build, do you not need it any more?

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dr460nf1r3 wrote:

What about Atziri?

No chance. For flicker to survive Atziri you'd need almost all mirror'd gear and almost 10k ES. There are builds for that, this isn't one of them. You should probably look at a good 1v1 build. This excels at trash mobs and clear rate then suffers with high health bosses (cannot proc frenzy).

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Arkanzeries wrote:

Hi, awesome build! I am at Level 60 now and am going alright with Mightflay and a 5L ES chest (except that reflect phys bosses still f*ck me). I was just wondering why you recently removed Vaal Pact from your passive tree? I thought VP was a pretty large part of the build, do you not need it any more?

I built this twice and found the one with the Witch ES notables was more survivable than the one with Vaal Pact. Either would do. There aren't a lot of situations where you're losing ES at a rate faster than you're recovering it (leech). While VP restores it in rapid chunks it's rare that you're losing it at a significant rate. More likely you're going from full health to no health in an instant and not spending a lot of time in between. Hence why I lean toward increasing that max ES rather than restoring it rapidly. In a perfect world - Atziri's gloves.

Updated for 1.3
Added video
blah blah

im 47 and im starting to worry the volls + mightflay becoming a crutch for me.

I have only 700 ES and about 900 life and I am so worried about switching to CI. I am trying to hit all the ES nodes I can but I will be gimped on the crit stuff and especially after I drop volls.

So questions,

How much ES should i have for CI going into MERC? Currently in end of Cruel and only dying to big physical hit bosses because my gear is weird evasion/es/armor with nothing focused. Resists are okay, if i get another reduced mana reserve node and drop the volls i'll have enough to run the ES aura also.

Dying in merc will be a pain to lose so much exp over and over.

advice?

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Darkenspirit wrote:

im 47 and im starting to worry the volls + mightflay becoming a crutch for me.
I have only 700 ES and about 900 life and I am so worried about switching to CI. I am trying to hit all the ES nodes I can but I will be gimped on the crit stuff and especially after I drop volls.
So questions,
How much ES should i have for CI going into MERC? Currently in end of Cruel and only dying to big physical hit bosses because my gear is weird evasion/es/armor with nothing focused. Resists are okay, if i get another reduced mana reserve node and drop the volls i'll have enough to run the ES aura also.
Dying in merc will be a pain to lose so much exp over and over.
advice?

For the longest time I managed with only 2200 ES and Abyssus. Discipline will up this significantly so think about leveling this now if you're not already running it.
Yes, you're in the difficuly 'twilight-zone' of not having passives aligned with equipment and not yet ready for end-game gear. I have found on the 2 times I've progressed through here, that waiting until I could 'xp farm' Docks was about the right time to go to Chaos Innoc. Always plan ahead for your ES gear. I made the mistake of going CI with almost no ES gear and was in a rut for a while. Chest and shield is where the majority of it comes from so look there first.

Most of all, HANG IN THERE, it's totes worth it.

Added video guides

Yep, I fear I went CI too early.

I took CI when I had 800 ES, 1300 with Aura. This was Level 50.

The last 10 levels were brutal but I've been doing ledge runs with 1k ES (had to go Hatred + HoT to kill things before I got hit). This got significantly better after I rolled Surgeons on my Granite and Evasion Flask and I hit both of them before engaging any pack.

I still have to reroll my flasks though, I dont have remove bleed or frozen and I've died too many times to both.

I need to replace the chest but Im trying to hold out with volls until level 62 where I can use occultists.

Anyways awesome build right now, its fun as shit. I am having an absolute blast right until I lose 10% of my exp. Then It slowly ramps up again, its been a roller coaster of feels and I am loving it.

Also, how the fuck do you handle allies cannot die? I get trashed!

EDIT: just read the updated one. Speaking of breaking into Haku's house and stealing his plasma, I didnt have cyclone or whirlwind. As soon as the room became flooded with RAGING SPIRITS, I immediately said fuck that when i forgot flicker strike drops the plasma.