Impatient Man's Guide to Early Flicker Strike

(26.1.18) Updated for 3.1

Beginning may be a bit wonky but if you know what to do it's actually pretty easy. Start off by getting Frost Blades as your main levelling skill (your first reward from Tarkleigh).

For the weapon always pick whatever has the highest attack (axes, swords or claws, but usually the daggers have the highest atk).

In 3.1 we got access to this funny gem (lv 4 required):


Linked with FB makes two ancestral spirits appear beside you and use this skill, so it's like you go ninja and attack along with your clones. Makes levelling extremely easy :)

Now, why Frost Blades?
For one, it's my favourite skill to level with.
Secondly, it's half melee half ranged.
Thirdly, after hitting the initial target the projectile forks and HOMES on the nearest target in a fan range behind the first. And the number of shrapnels only increases as the skill levels up.

IMO that makes this the perfect skill to lvl with because it clears packs very easily and fast.
Side Note: If you have an attention span of a ferret and suddenly prefer to use Blades instead of Flicker, then check this guide:


For those with some currency:
If you have a bit of cash you should consider getting these:


The whole lot should cost you about 10 alchemy orbs (sans Tabula and Meginord's which are about 10 and 1 chaos respectively)

Why these?
Hat: Goldrim - ele resistances and some IIR on the side, which is good
Armour: Tabula Rasa - a white 6-link, this can be used till late game, but preferably swapped for something better as you amass some currency
Gloves: Lochtonial Caress - ASPD, life and increased mana. Charge's chance is just fancy bit, helps but not much.
Boots: Wanderlust - Movement speed
Belt: Meginord's Girdle - Str, life and added damage to attacks
Amulet: Karui Ward - Movement speed and some str
Rings: Blackheart x2 - 5% increased phys dmg? yes plox.
Weapons: Redbeak x2 - this is just a cheap starter weapon, but you can go with whatever you like.
Other: Portal gem - usable from lv 10, it's a fancy way to get around without the need to have portal scrolls cluttering up your inventory. At a price of 1 chaos, you can either get it or not, it's entirely up to you.

This setup (minus weapons) will last you practically the entire Normal difficulty.

Woo, you can finally get your Flicker Strike!

...Buuut it's pretty much useless at this stage. Just put it into a green socket and level it when you can.

You can use

to keep your mana up, but don't level it too much or it's gonna reserve too much of your MP pool.

Also get

for movement purposes.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is where the fun starts. So make sure to get these:

BR is a buff/debuff that gives you a chance to get a Frenzy charge when you kill a monster and applies a life leech to attacks, but it drains HP when it's active so if you're not hitting enough make sure you have life flasks ready.
Frenzy is an attack that gives you a Frenzy charge when you hit a monster.
Herald of Ash makes the enemies you kill explode, it gives you a bit more AoE.

Flicker Strike's cooldown can be bypassed by expending a Frenzy charge, so these two skills coupled together make sure that you have enough charges to run FS.

Link these skills like so:


This gives our attacks a bit of AoE.


And this makes movement a bit quicker.

For the remaining slots use whatever support gem you wish. Some good choices include:


Of course this still makes FS play a bit choppy, and it drains mana like crazy, but it's the earliest when you can use it to level.

Get 2x:

These are fun, they are strong AND they make your hits unavoidable, so it's like you have Resolute Technique without spending a skill point.
Nothing much else, just continue levelling.

GET ONE 2x OF THESE:

It's a cheap sword (like 1 alch if not cheaper) but it comes with a built-in Multistrike! Just pop your Flicker Strike - Multistrike links into this and watch the fun begin!

Multistrike is like Spell Echo, it makes your linked skills hit two additional times for the mana price of 1 cast.

Just sit back, relax, and watch your character zoom from monster to monster leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

You can now easily lv with this setup until lv 38

At this level you can equip this beauty:

This ring gives you #mana for EACH enemy you hit, essentially solving all your mana problems. The only real downside to it is that it occupies both ring slots, but we can live with that.

Finally, get this:

This is where your Tabula Rasa comes in handy, you can easily link skills however you want, but these are the core:

For supports, you can add whatever you like.