[2.3] Crit Staff Flicker Strike Marauder

The initial idea was to create a crit build which would use a 2h weapon for massive single hit damage. Flicker was chosen as it is one of the most fun skills to play with in the game, it evades most of the attacks, and significantly increases clearspeed compared to most other skills.
Abyssus was used to double the damage, and various physical damage reduction sources are used to mitigate its drawback.

The character can be started from zero, however for optimal operation at least 5L is required, preferably 6L. It doesn't require any uniques to be playable, you can play with all rare gear, but again, Hegemony's Era is highly recommended, as it is the optimal weapon for this build.



[2.3] T12 Shipyard (+Vulnerability)
[2.1] T10 Necropolis

Stats

Life: 4600
Armour: 12500 (without double body armour Ascendancy passive)
block: 25%

Hideout dmg (auras only):
Flicker Strike average dmg: 13100, APS: 5.6, DPS: 73360
Ancestral Warchief DPS: 32000

Fully buffed dmg (charges, Blood Rage, ToH):
Flicker Strike average dmg: 27100, APS: 8.4, DPS: 277640
Ancestral Warchief DPS: 90000



* [2.3] Main build, Juggernaut, high armour + IR, lower damage + life

* [2.3] Berserker, no armour, higher damage + life, much better life/mana leech

Ascendancy

Class: Juggernaut
Pros: high armour, nearly infinite Immortal Call, nearly permanent max endurance charges, tons of free accuracy, reduced elemental damage taken
Cons: lower life and damage

Passives, in order of taking:
Undeniable - provides all the accuracy you will ever need, so that you won't have to get it on jewellery, but if you choose to do so, you will also get some attack speed out of it.
Unflinching - gives +1 endurance charge, and a chance to get the charge when you are being hit, so that even without running Warlord's Mark you can still gain endurance charges.
Unrelenting - you will gain a max number of endurance charges every time you get at least one. This means max duration immortal calls nearly every time! Also reduced elemental damage taken while at max charges, and some minor increased damage buff.
Unbreakable - doubles the armour value of your body armour.

Alternative class: Berserker
Pros: high damage, extremely high life leech, high health pool
Cons: no armour, endurance charges are slow to regain after Immortal Call, increased overall damage taken, requires to get accuracy on gear

Passives, in order of taking:
Pain Reaver - replaces Warlord's Mark, allowing you to run a different curse.
Cloaked in Savagery - grants massive life leech when you take a noticeable hit, allowing you to outleech the damage taken vs single targets such as bosses.
Crave the Slaughter - speeds you up when you take a hit.
Aspect of Carnage - take 10% more damage, deal 40% more damage.

Build Mechanics

Flicker Strike is the main attack, requires at least 5L. Since the Ice Bite is used, Flicker is mostly self-sustaining, and you can even run curse immune maps.

Leap Slam is used to gain Fortify, and as a first backup attack.

Frenzy is used to gain charges when you're out, and as a single-target attack when flickering can get you killed, such as in quite a few boss battles.

Blood Rage is used to gain additional Frenzy charges, life leech, and attack speed. Do not forget to recast it when it goes out, not doing so will no doubt get you killed at some point.

Auras used are Hatred + Blasphemy with a cure of your choice. I personally use Warlord's Mark for life/mana leech and consistent generation of endurance charges. This, coupled with Juggernaut's ability to gain max charges every time you get at east one, allows for nearly unlimited Immortal Calls as long as you keep killing.

Enlighten lvl 3 allows you to also use Herald of Ash, provided that you also take 4 aura nodes. For this is is also beneficial to have a second 5L, this will allow you to have more unreserved mana.

Optionally you can use Vaal Grace for defense or Vaal Lightning Trap for more dmg vs bosses.
However in order to do so you will have to sacrifice some gem slot from the recommended setup.



[5-6L] Flicker Strike - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Melee Phys Dmg - Ice Bite (+ Inc Crit Strike Chance)
[4-5L] Hatred - Blasphemy - curse (Warlord's Mark) - Herald of Ash - Enlighten lvl 3 | Herald of Ash is not used if you don't have Enlighten
[4L] Frenzy - Melee Phys Dmg - Faster Attacks - Added Fire / Multistrike / Poison
[4L] Leap Slam - Fortify - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic
[4L] CwDT - Inc Duration - Immortal Call - Blood Rage (max lvl, self-cast)

For Berserker's version with Kaom's Heart , combine Frenzy and Leap Slam in a 4L:
[4L] Frenzy - Leap Slam - Melee Phys Dmg - Fortify
Replace Increased Duration gem with Herald of Ash, if you can use it (requires Enlighten lvl 3)



* For Berserker ascendancy armour and evasion do not matter, so pick gear with that in mind

Helm - Abyssus - tons of dmg+crit, high armour
Rings + Amulet - rares, life+resists. Added flat phys dmg is also useful.
Belt - life, resists and armour. useful: increased phys damage. Ideally corrupted for +1 endurance charge.
Weapon - physical dmg staff with high crit chance.
Hegemony's Era is ideal for price/performance ratio, it has +1 max Power Charge too, any upgrades on it will cost significantly more.
Body armour - Lightning Coil, or any body armour with high armour or/and evasion values. For Berserker - Kaom's Heart.
Gloves - rares with life+res if you can't cap resists. You can use Maligaros for more dmg, but they provide little armour and no life/resists.
Boots - Darkray Vectors. Buy ones with close to max lightning res. Once you have them, continue buying new ones and corrupt them until you get +1 max Frenzy charge. For corruption buy 30+ lightning res ones.
Special Flasks:
Lion's Roar. More dmg. If you can't get one - Atziri's promise.
Taste of Hate - more dmg + defense. If you can't get it - use a Basalt flask of Iron Skin.


Bandits

Normal - Oak (max life)
Cruel - Oak (phys dmg)
Merciless - Krait (frenzy charge)

Map Mods

* No Regen - you don't notice it
* Blood Magic - not recommended, as you lose the ability to freeze without Hatred, and therefore get less frenzy charges
* Phys Reflect - reroll
* Ele Reflect - deactivate Hatred and HoA, and use Poacher's mark curse for frenzy charge generation
* Vulnerability - you mostly don't notice it with Juggernaut
* 60% less mana and life recovered - annoying, interrupts Flicker Strike, either put it on Blood Rage gem or deactivate HoA (if you use it) to get more free mana. Having a jewel with +3 mana gained on hit helps too.
* Enemies are Hexproof - make sure you have % life and mana leech on jewellery and/or jewels, can also use Life Leech gem

V.nice

Could you take some screens of your buffed dps

"

D0ndarion wrote:

V.nice

Could you take some screens of your buffed dps

Added the screens. These are quite representative of final damage on 6L, unless a significantly better jewellery is used, which I can't really find for an acceptable price.

To these numbers add around 25-30% more damage from Ass Mark, all enemies are cursed due to Blasphemy.

For 5L subtract around 15-20% damage from missing Increased Crit Strikes gem.

Using this build atm, level 43. Having lots and lots of fun with flicker! I am having a bit of trouble sustaining my frenzy charges though. Is it something which will get better by leveling up or is there any tricks to it?

Edit, im only using blood rage atm.

"

ArgMcVarg wrote:

Using this build atm, level 43. Having lots and lots of fun with flicker! I am having a bit of trouble sustaining my frenzy charges though. Is it something which will get better by leveling up or is there any tricks to it?

Edit, im only using blood rage atm.

Blood Rage alone isn't really enough, its only 25% chance.

You need either Ice Bite gem, Poacher's Mark, or Blood Dance boots.
However, Poacher's is a poor option since Assassin's mark is needed for power charges + crit chance and damage, so that leaves the other 2 options.

Of course getting charges with Frenzy skill directly works too when you run out, but that's annoying and dangerous.

"

Shajirr wrote:

"

ArgMcVarg wrote:

Using this build atm, level 43. Having lots and lots of fun with flicker! I am having a bit of trouble sustaining my frenzy charges though. Is it something which will get better by leveling up or is there any tricks to it?

Edit, im only using blood rage atm.

Blood Rage alone isn't really enough, its only 25% chance.

You need either Ice Bite gem, Poacher's Mark, or Blood Dance boots.
However, Poacher's is a poor option since Assassin's mark is needed for power charges + crit chance and damage, so that leaves the other 2 options.

Of course getting charges with Frenzy skill directly works too when you run out, but that's annoying and dangerous.

I will get a 5l and try it with Ice Bite, thank you!

How would you recommend the tree to look like the moment you can equip hegemony's era?

Also why dont you take the power charge bandit reward?

"

thereaper25 wrote:

How would you recommend the tree to look like the moment you can equip hegemony's era?

Also why dont you take the power charge bandit reward?

Don't know how much points this would be, something like this I guess:

84pt Tree

This is assuming you don't have Taste of Hate/Coil.
Versatility can be dropped if you have good accuracy on jewellery.

Endurance charge for tankiness. Sure you can take power charge instead if you want, but the more endurance charges you have the more effective they become.

Example:
50% phys mitigation - you take 50% phys damage
75% phys mitigation (improved by 1.5 times) - you take only 25% phys damage (improved by 2 times)

Would a Daresso's Defiance work instead of a Lightning Coil?

"

Mobsy wrote:

Would a Daresso's Defiance work instead of a Lightning Coil?

Don't recommend using it, at least not in T9+ maps.

The character already has a way of getting endurance charges thanks to the Smashing Strikes keystone.
"You lose all Endurance Charges when Hit " - this mod is a problem because you don't really have much block and don't have evasion/dodge, so you will be losing charges pretty much every time you're hit.

In boss fights you will be mostly out of charges, because if there is not much stuff to kill then you will simply be losing all charges without regaining them back.

In conclusion - it can be a fun body armour to use while levelling, up to lvl 85 I'd say, but with intention of replacing it later on when survivability becomes a primary concern.