[1.3] HybridFlicker (life+es w/ Incandescent Heart)
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HybridFlicker: A Build Guide
 " Overview *** This build is currently out-dated for 2.0! ***
The Concept
Spoiler
The core of this build was always to be hybrid life and es. With the introduction of the hybrid life and es nodes, there has been a lot of talk about hybrid builds coming into the forefront of the meta. There are some out there now for sure, but it isn't as popular as it was hyped to be. Mostly, this is because it's still really hard to cap your chaos resistance... ...unless you want to use one a few chaos heavy uniques, that is. So that's what I chose to do! This is how I achieve my hybrid, chaos capped character:
There is a lot you can do with this core set-up. The choice of attack skill is very open. Apart from being tied to a Bino's of course. If you are ever bored of your current attack, just switch things up! That said, I personally feel that Flicker Strike is one of the strongest choices with this set-up.
I have tried out some other skills, too, and my thoughts on those are under the cut below.
My thoughts on different attack skills
Note: I've not included *every* attack here, just the more popular ones. Viper Strike: * Has a lot of synergy with a Bino's and is a very thematic skill with all the chaos/degen stuff going on. Suffers from the usual 'single target + melee splash' downsides. Your passive tree may want to change a little to pick up the aoe cluster at Witch and maybe even the degen cluster near Shadow. Molten Strike: * Can be a stupidly strong skill. Does fairly well as both a single target and aoe skill, too. The conversion to fire makes leech an issue, though. Might be worth picking up the 14% ele dmg node at Shadow start as well as going all the way to Trickery for more ele/crit. Static Strike: * Yet to try. Lightning Strike: * Yet to try. Spectral Throw: * A good option if you want the extra range it provides. The biggest drawback is the lack of projectile speed available, meaning your "extra range" might not be all that extra. Definitely pick up Sniper for two points, but Ballistic Mastery is a lot of travelling and may require some re-working to get. Cyclone: * Strong. Very strong. Mana cost is painful, though, and even off blood magic it can be a problem. Would require some work around to get that under control, but could be worth it. The Witch aoe nodes would be good to pick up. Reave: * Really not my cup of tea, but not a bad skill by any means. Cursing/Whirling Blades as much as I do, keeping stacks up sucks, so I'm staying clear. But use it if you like it! Again, Witch aoe nodes would help a lot. The other choice you have with this build is converting to low life or CI. Each has benefits and each requires some tweaking. If you want to go LL, I would ditch Incandescent for a solid ES chest and replace the shield with a Prism Guardian, picking up whatever extra aura(s) and other LL goodies you want. If you want to go CI, you can hang on to the Incandescent for the great ele defence, but your passive tree will need a lot of re-working to drop life, pick up CI, and find a new way to sustain your mana without reserving clarity off life. Passive Tree
Spoiler
102 Point Flicker Tree: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYAsNii2cgU9W9qjBa_sbMmle1BYeKmf7VIbWzz6pma53SlyzY9KgvrY9sa6NbssJ2qcFIRLxB7IuqMC2KsbIyJ0746IQO5fLTFcNVLxLt8Oq3b513yZfFvhEcGX2oOSNAJ_xzYdvb8EZZjQy1VuT5W9ac0f8YHHpAb6f6sZttuJ6kc3JUud_1wVgV9LOGX0JMnDY3w1dvUmhN9446KtAzviGwLSVFGceq6-Tci9IMJDXzXz20ZSbERUNlbNbkbJacrS67pAqKjD8Q7fLjK Important: this tree is for my standard, flicker version of the build! Depending on what skill you choose to run or if you want LL or CI, you may want to alter it slightly. I don't have any planned out trees for other versions of the build, but you can probably just edit off what I've got here.
Leveling Progression
Note: this is a rough estimate. Please, feel free to choose your own way (or even your own tree). This is here for people who absolutely need or want something to follow. ...from there, you can probably figure out the rest :) Gear
Spoiler
This build is planned with three uniques in mind, as well as one other that is suggested. Incandescent Heart * There are a lot of stats packed into this thing, but only someone playing hybrid can take advantage of them all. The life and es are obvious. The 5% leech is huge. The light stuff is actually quite nice if you decide to reserve some life. The Ele > Chaos doesn't technically "mitigate" any of that damage, since 75% ele going to 75% chaos is neutral, but splitting it between life/es means Bino's regen can be a good thing. Also a bad thing, if you are not on top of things. Ming's Heart (x2) * Pretty simple unique. Loads of (much needed) chaos resistance. Juicy, reflect-immune damage boost. The reduced life/ES hurts a lot less than you might think since we still get to combine both resources to make our total life pool. And hey, even together it's barely more than Carnage Heart reduces...so yea...there is that. Bino's Kitchen Knife * It's Bino's. Most people already know this item well. Solid crit dagger all around. But it works especially well here since it gives a way to top off our life after Ghost Reaver is taken. The chaos res may also be all you will need to cap after Ming's, too! Doryani's Invitation (Suggested) * The Physical version. It's basically just a nice rare belt. Strength is lacking on the tree, so the base helps cover that, and damage, tri res and leech are all great stats. This isn't required by any means. For the rare slots...
Note: If you can get one of your slots (boot/glove/helm) as a hybrid Armour/ES, it will be MUCH easier to roll four red sockets for your CWDT Immortal Call set-up. For flasks... I would recommend keeping an anti-freeze flask (on a Sapphire would be good) with you at all times, since hybrid builds tend to freeze quite easy. An instant life flask is a great help for those "oh shit" moments when your ES runs out, chaos/ele conversion is hitting you especially hard, or blood rage has slowly worn you down. Since your life pool isn't huge, something like Hallowed is great for the low cost per chug. A Surgeons Granite of Iron Skin is recommended for reflect, and can give you quite a boost if you have a couple ar/es pieces on. Atziri's Promise is a little lack-luster for this build since it is already chaos capped and should be hitting the leech cap as is. If you want it just for the damage boost, then go ahead. Skills
Spoiler
Current Set-up: Flicker Strike 5/6L Flicker + Multi + Melee Splash + Melee Phys + Inc Crit Dmg [+ Add Acc] * My flicker set-up. Fairly standard, I'm fairly confidant I won't change this 5L set-up around (unless I go HoA prolif). Multi and Splash are super important here. If I were to ever get a 6L, I would probably use Add Acc since I am lacking in that stat, the quality adds some nice crit, and it has no mana multiplier. 4L Frenzy + Melee Phys + Fast Att + Pwr Charge on Crit * If I ever run out of frenzy charges to flicker, this is how I get them back. It also keeps my power charges up on bosses and does decent single target. 4L CWDT (Lvl 9) + Inc Dur (Lvl 10) + Enduring Cry (Lvl 9) + Immortal Call * A mid-range CWDT that procs around 1k damage. You can tweak this higher/lower as you like. With a bigger effective life pool, you can afford to level up your CWDT a bit, and it means EC is usually off cooldown when it procs. 4L Blood Magic + Inc AoE + AssMark + Blood Rage * Curses can get expensive and we have a very limited around of mana, so these links give you a big curse that you don't have to be afraid to cast often. It's also a decent place to chuck in Blood Rage. 3L Reduced Mana + Hatred + Discipline * Auras. Simple enough. No reduced reservation nodes, so it's best to run two 60%, and these are the best two for the build. 3L Reduced Mana + Blood Magic + Clarity (Lvl 12) * Scale Clarity however much or little you need to to get your attack to work. It may take a good chunk of your life away, but it's a luxury Hybrid *can* afford. Good Gems to Quality:
Other Attacks
Currently don't have suggestions for alternate attack gem set-ups. Will provide some soon. Bandit Choices
Spoiler
The point is probably better in Normal, but since I do get a good chunk of % life and am hybrid, all life helps. Extras
My Stats
Current level: 81 Offence
Defence
My Gear
Videos
74 Gorge, Phys Reflect (Char Level: 80) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU-aDm-N9Ho * Reflect isn't a big issue for the build as long as you don't dose off.
My Other Builds
Current (2.0)
Spoiler
* [2.0] Hidden Potential Poison Arrow (100% magic gear!) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1330650 Out-dated (Pre 2.0)
Spoiler
* [1.3] Purple Rain; a shockingly chaotic Voltaxic Rift build https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1096864 * [1.3] The Green Tornado (10 Frenzy Charge, Crit Bow Frenzy Ranger) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1184004 * [1.3] POTCG DomBlow https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1119480 Last edited by Yordle on Jul 24, 2015, 5:03:07 PM
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Wow, glad to see that someone actually made a successful character out of IH life/es hybrid concept. Well done.
I thought about something similar but I tried to start as a templar/marauder with maces/axes and use Broken Crown main source of chaos resist. Never tried to implement it though. In years to come
You hear my name When darkness falls On judgment day | |
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Thanks! :) I still have a ways to go (terrible rare gear, for one) but I'm really happy with how well it is performing at 81.
I planned out a lot of different starts (even one with Zealot's Oath and no Ghost Reaver so Bino's healed my ES and leech my life) but anything I tried ended up so close to Shadow anyways. All the good dagger and hybrid nodes are right there. And Ghost Reaver is just a pain to path to otherwise. I hardly even leave Shadow now! | |
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Hey there, I recently made a CI Shadow - but prior to it was reading up on Incandescent heart and blah blah blah life story - anyway this build of yours was really interesting,
except, i wonder two things; Firstly after reading up on incandescent heart, mathematically it seems you only actually reduce overall elemental damage taken when your chaos resistance is 100, or when your resistance stats are OVER the 75 cap. So secondly, i am wondering if to actually make incandescent heart's elemental damage reduce actually reduce overall damage, if you need to run this build with Saffels for the +5 to all max resistance (and maybe a cheeky vaal'ed I.H with +1 max res if you can afford it/find one :P) I realize ES pool will take a big hit without a big fat ES shield bonus... also are you even getting near your elemental resistance cap? Maybe one mings is enough if you can find another good 30res on either gloves/belt/boots? which would leave 1 ring slot open to fill a res you where lacking and give some strenght stats which are always needed on a melee shadow build. Just my 2cents - let me know your thoughts! |
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Great to see a hybrid build with IH! I just wish it wasn't so expensive to build around...
" I think IH is only effective at reducing elemental damage if you play CI (I love my IH CI Incinerator, even if the clear speeds are lower than I'd like). Saffell's isn't worth it here because 1) it has low ES, 2) you'll be even weaker against physical damage since you can't block attacks, and 3) +4% extra chaos resist (+5% if you're lucky enough to have a legacy shield) won't reduce damage by all that much. Dreamfeather Elemental Cleave Ranger: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1087616 Last edited by Tempada on May 4, 2015, 10:43:19 AM
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Thank you both for the replies and interest in the build :)
IH is actually not used to reduce the elemental damage taken in this build. It just splits it up. I run 75% fire/cold/light res and 75% chaos res. That basically means that with IH, I take 75% of elemental damage off ES and 25% off life. I'm still taking the same amount of damage I normally would. In practice, by splitting the damage sources up, things feel a little less burst-y. With Ghost Reaver and a Bino's, I have a way to consistently get back BOTH ES and Life at the same time. Any damage I take from Blood Rage degen and the 25% of split elemental damage is instantly topped off by the Bino's on-kill effect, while my ES is constantly being leeched back as well. The IH gives life, ES and leech - plus keeps my light radius from sucking since I reserve some life for auras. The ele>chaos part isn't even that important (though, like I said, I feel like it makes things smoother overall). Last edited by Yordle on May 6, 2015, 9:52:46 PM
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