[1.2] Whaitiri's Flickering Viper [Atziri proof]

Hello there, welcome to my Flickering Viper guide!

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1. Passive Tree


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2. Bandit Rewards

Kill All
Help Kraytin
Help Alira/Kraytin*

*If you don't plan to use Flicker Strike, help Alira.

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3. Gems

6L: Flicker Strike* - Melee Splash - Multistrike - PCoC - Inc Crit Damage - Melee Damage on Full Life
4L: Viper Strike - Multistrike - Inc Crit Damage - Melee Phys on Full Life
4L: Cast when Stunned - Enduring Cry - Immortal Call - Inc Duration
4L: Reduced Mana - Discipline - Herald of Ash - Hatred
3L: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Blood Rage
3L: Assassins Mark - Enhance - Faster Casting

*Flicker is optional. If you want, you can use Viper Strike instead.

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4. Equipment

Our main stats are Energy Shield, Crit and Accuracy, get as much of this as possible. You can get Evasion on gear, but it works just aswell without. Atleast 25 Strength and 17 Dex are needed on gear for max. level gems, more is always welcome.

Weapon: High Physical Damage, Attack Speed and Crit is what you should look for. Bino's is a good, but pricey allrounder.

Shield: Anything with high ES and Resistances. Kite Shields with 12% implicit Resistances are always a good choice. If you use CoE, Rathpith Globe is a decent choice.

Chest: High ES and Resistances. If you have trouble with "Chrom-RNG", choose Hybrid chests, especially Ar/ES-based for easier melee colours.

Helmet: A few choices here. First, and most obvious one is simply a rare helmet with high ES, Accuracy and Resistances. However, as we need Freeze Protection with CI, Alpha's Howl is a viable choice too and may let you run an additional DPS-aura.
Last but not least, Crown of Eyes. It comes with good ES, Accuracy, Leech and all increased Spell Damage modifiers will apply to the physical, elemental and chaos part of your hit! However, only use CoE together with a good spell damage shield.

Gloves: As of now, the obvious choices for any melee crit build - Maligaro's Virtuosity for those on a lower budget, and Atziri's Acuity as the end of all things. Always remember: Acuity = Skill
Rampage players can also use Shadows and Dust, which come with free Mana Leech and may let you drop Mind Drinker.

Boots: Rainbowstrides. There's no better boots for block-based CI builds (even though this build doesn't get THAT much block).

Belt: A rare Chain-, Heavy Belt or Rustic Sash with ES and Resistances works. Good additions are Armour and Strength. Auxium is a great endgame choice and gives needed Freeze Protection.

Rings: Diamond Rings with Accuracy are your way to go. Any ES, Leech, Resistances, Flat Damage (especially Physical) and Attack Speed are good additions. Jewelry are also a good spot for Strength & Dexterity rolls. If you don't have one of the other two Freeze-protecting uniques, you'll have to give up one slot for Dream Fragments.

Amulet: Go all out on Crit mods here - Global Chance and Multiplier. The other, viable affixes are the same as on rings. We do not use Eye of Chayula as main amulet, but it's advisable to always carry one with you, incase you get stunlocked and are out of flask charges.

Flasks: It's all about Surgeon's Flasks here. Suffixes should be 2x Steadiness, 1x Staunching and if you don't use unique flasks, 1x Warding and 1x Grounding.
Flask Bases should be either Granite or Jade, whatever you prefer/have access to.
Good unique flasks to use are Rumi's Concoction and Atziri's Promise.
If you don't have any Freeze Protection, carry 1-2 "of Heat" flasks.

*Note: You have to get one of the three Freeze-protecting uniques for reliable endgame performance.

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5. Leveling

No matter if you plan to level as Witch or Shadow, start a Shadow - he gets Viper Strike as first gem! If you plan to continue as Witch, run to Lioneye's quick, store the VS gem in your stash and switch chars.

Witches start with 14 Dex, starting daggers better than the Glass Shank need a bit more. Use any spell until you can equip a Jade Amulet, which caps dagger dex requirement for a while. Around Lv50, you may temporarily take the +30 Dex node for a dagger upgrade.



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6. Gameplay

Cast Blood Rage and start madness. Flicker through packs and use Viper Strike for tougher single targets, aka. whatever stays alive in your rampage. If you get stunned, use your Steadiness flask and continue. As long as you keep leeching, you're safe.

Maps take 5-10 minutes to full-clear. I tested and killed all Map Bosses besides the 79 Vaal Temple ones. Got one of them down, but the other two raped me after getting buffed-up.
With exception of Blood Magic, all kinds of mapmods and combinations are possible.

Atziri is possible and fairly easy even with middle-tier gear. Uber Atziri however isn't possible, or atleast i couldn't beat her.

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7. My Gear




Note: I'm not playing this build anymore, thus most stuff sold/not verified.

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Thanks for reading my guide. Post questions and concerns in comments.

Expanded the thread a bit, will work on a more complete write-up over the next days.

Looks Indeed solid, but if its do'able early game, i cant tell before 1.2 comes out ^_^

Gl & Hf

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grindabo wrote:

Looks Indeed solid, but if its do'able early game, i cant tell before 1.2 comes out ^_^

Gl & Hf

Thanks! Will try around and see how well it works with lower tier stuff. Assuming (or rather, hoping) with a solid, benchcrafted dagger you can get really far into endgame.

Do you think you could start by taking the ES nodes with this new tree or should we still expect to level as a life character and respec in Merciless?

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mustafa2812 wrote:

Do you think you could start by taking the ES nodes with this new tree or should we still expect to level as a life character and respec in Merciless?

I assume (read: hope) that the changes to base life per level in combination with masters allow to viably level as an ES-based char now. This however, highly depends on how early said masters let us benchcraft relevant ES mods on gear.

Starting to type out the full guide now, stay tuned!

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Enki91 wrote:

"

mustafa2812 wrote:

Do you think you could start by taking the ES nodes with this new tree or should we still expect to level as a life character and respec in Merciless?

I assume (read: hope) that the changes to base life per level in combination with masters allow to viably level as an ES-based char now. This however, highly depends on how early said masters let us benchcraft relevant ES mods on gear.

Starting to type out the full guide now, stay tuned!

Ya after looking at the tree I was really impressed with the early ES nodes. I honestly think it could be doable as well, especially with the masters. Looking forward to the guide. I'll definitely be using it even though I will probably never attain those uniques/a good ES 6L.


Also with 4 off colors required, even on a 4L, for leveling do you think you could get away with a AR/ES chest? If not what other solutions to this problem do you think would be possible for someone short on currency (as anyone would be in the beginning of the league)?

I would actually recommend a hybrid chest, i just happened to have this Regalia i couldn't pass on. Took a little fortune to get the right colours.. :'D

Will mention budget/selfcraft solutions in the gear/leveling section.

looks great! Think I've just found my first build for 1.2 :D

Will defo try to get that new Crown of Thorns ASAP!

Wondering though whether it is worth prioritising the chaos damage nodes just south of the shadow start or "Corruption" north of Ghost Reaver over something else, perhaps the hybrid life/ES nodes or "Flaying" and the nodes leading up to it?

Thanks! And goodluck with that :D

I think the Entropy Cluster will be enough, and prefer higher initial physical damage for leeching purposes. But i must admit i haven't done the math on this, and people seem to have different opinions on the correct formula, and thus effectiveness of either nodes.
Once i have gathered enough regrets, i'll try around a bit which is the most effective way.

Oh and btw. guide finished, finally!