Slayer Terminus Est Flicker - Good leaguestarter? - All content down

Use lacerate until level 51 and when you get a Terminus Est and start flickering,
or read:

You can level just fine with flicker as soon as you get it in A1 at level 10.
Flicker/melee splash/Added fire damage - 3L + melee damage in A2 (4th link)
Leap slam in another item, will get faster attacks.
You need a strong 2h Axe - best dmg base at start and should be used until you get Terminus Est and you start getting sword nodes - you can do the rustic sash recipe or get lucky with an essence - I got lucky on that.
After that, every 10 levels, upgrade your weapon, rest of the gear does not really matter (get some life/res though) until you hit merciless - you need resists once you hit merciless so it's a big gear check.
Gameplay: Flicker, leap, repeat, get quests done, go to next area.

In act 2 you will get Faster Attacks - link to Leap Slam.
Also you will be getting Blood Rage - after this you should be fine and the leveling will go a lot smoother.
At level 38 you replace added fire damage with multistrike (or, if you got a 5L you will just add multistrike to your setup - not recommended until you solve your mana issues).
Level 51 is where the fun begins: get a Terminus Est, rolls don't matter at this point.
I also recommend getting the Normal Labyrinth done at this point = Bane of Legends is soooo strong.
Continue leveling up to Merciless, when you hit Dried Lake, go do Cruel Lab (is lvl 55) - get Impact and remove the melee splash gem. your level should be 65 or more to be comfortable in cruel lab.

Start farming Dried Lake, gather currency - no chaos recipe please.
5L your Terminus Est, gather currency and start getting your slots.
Eventually at lvl 72+ you can start doing low tier maps.
Merciless Lab should be doable at lvl 75 rather easy, depending on your gear.
Uber Lab is recommended to be done after level 80, when your gear is quite decent (for a league starter).

Tree with 23 skill points:
www.poeurl.com/bjtf
Tree with 50 skill points:
www.poeurl.com/bjtg
Tree with 65 skill points:
www.poeurl.com/bjtd
Tree with 80 skill points:
www.poeurl.com/bjtg
Tree with 95 skill points:
www.poeurl.com/bjti

My gear - for mindless mapping:



For the shaper fight (or guardians except Chimera)- replacing fortify with melee damage on full life and Devoto's with
This will burn down Shaper/guardians really fast :)
I use Devoto's for Chimera and for mapping cause it's ... fast :)

I must insist on getting a pair of Atziri's Acuity gloves.

Those kinda make or break the build - for the T16 content, Shaper, Uber Atziri. BUT mostly for the INSTANT mana leech they provide (yep, that is correct).
You will be fine up to T14 without them, using a good pair of rares or Maligaro's Virtuosity.
But.
After that, you will be hard pressed to get a pair of Acuity.
Because they are a must for the build to work.

Let's do a gear breakdown.
You can start with rares, HP on every slot is a must, the setup will be changed a bit after you get your endgame gear.

Weapon - 5L Terminus Est - Endgame: 6L Terminus Est: 255%+ increased damage and 74%+ increased critical strike.

Helm - start with a Rare with resists/life - Endgame: Devoto's or Abyssus.

Neck - cheap Carnage Heart - Endgame - Near perfect rolled Carnage Heart

Chest - high life (with some resists) - Endgame - Kaom's Heart with 20% Chance to Avoid being frozen.

Belt - rare with high life, some resists - Endgame - The Retch ( 60% increased flask duration, 15% movement during flask effect AND extra damage for leech = perfect for Slayer) - Headhunter is nice but NOT NEEDED for this build.

Gloves - rare with high life, attack speed - Endgame - Atziri's Acuity

Rings - rares with life, accuracy rating, lots of resists, Elemental Damage with Weapons and/or Added phys damage. Rings are your source of accuracy - sword has 360, tree has 200, you need at least 320 flat accuracy on 1 ring for the build to be ok on this part.

Boots - rares with life, resists - Endgame - Darkray Vectors with +1 frenzy charges corruption.

Jewels - resists, % life, 2 damage mods: best mod would be attack speed with (2H)swords.

FLASKS

Lion's Roar
Taste of hate - it has 30% chance to avoid being frozen with kaom's and tree: 58% chance to avoid being frozen - has to do the trick (worked fine for me, never died to being frozen)
Atziri's Promise - 25/15 should still be cheap.
Diamond flask - depending on your last flask slot: can be of Grounding - remove shock, or it can be of Iron Skin - 90%+ armour (works great since lion's roar is a granite flask)

Last flask: I went for Sin's rebirth as it gives the most damage versus bosses.
You can use a Vessel of Vinktar but you only get 1 use and it sucks versus bosses (even with The Retch's extra flask duration, you will have very few bosses you can burn in 8seconds)
Legacy vinktar is OP and would be better than Sin's rebirth.


The Helm discussion:
Abyssus
vs
Devoto's

While leveling, I recommend using Devoto's 100% of the time.
The movement speed, the extra attack speed, minor chaos resists - make for a great overall helm.
Also it gets around 60 dex = 120 accuracy - very important.
You will not be dealing insane amounts of damage but you need to be safe while leveling, and that extra movement/attack speed help.

After you reached your leveling goal - you can start using Abyssus.
I do recommend using Abyssus with fortify in your 6L, it feels better.

There are certain fights that require Devoto's and some fights that (for me, personally) Abyssus feels better.

Let's break them down:

Flicker / Melee physical damage / Increased Critical Strikes / Multistrike

These 4 gems will not be changed as long as you are using Flicker

When using Abyssus, while mapping, you will use Physical to Lightning(anti physical reflect protection) and Fortify. You will also replace Herald of Ash with Arctic Armour

When using Abyssus, for the shaper fight, you will use Increased Critical Damage and Melee Damage on full life. - This is the best damage setup there is and will burn down Shaper VERY fast.
You cannot use this setup while mapping because 1 Physical reflect Rare = 1 crit - insta death.

Abyssus works great for Chayula breach, using Physical to Lightning and Fortify.

Other than that, Devoto is your go to helm, you can play around with the gems.

Gem setups:
All gems should be lvl 21/20 unless specified:

6L - Terminus Est 1G3R2B - Flicker / Melee physical damage / Increased Critical Strikes / Multistrike / Fortify / Increased Critical Damage.

4L Devoto's Devotion 2R2G - Hatred / Herald of Ash / Leap Slam / Blood Rage
or
4L Abyssus 1R3G - Hatred / Arctic Armour / Leap Slam / Blood Rage

4L gloves (or boots) 2R1G1B - lvl 12 CWDT + lvl 14 Ice Golem + lvl 15 Assasin's Mark + lvl 20(21?) Ancestral Protector

There are 2 different setups for Sin's Rebirth or Vinktar:
1- Sin's rebirth
4L gloves (or boots) 1R1G2B - lvl 1 CWDT + lvl 5 Blade Vortex + 20/20(23?) Power charge on crit + Vaal Lightning trap

2- Vessel of Vinktar
4L gloves (or boots) 1R1G2B - lvl 1 CWDT + lvl 5 Blade Vortex + 20/20(23?) Power charge on crit + level 8 Ice Spear

The Helm Enchant will be Uber lab enchant: "9% increased flicker strike damage per frenzy charge"
If unavailable, 40% increased flicker strike damage is close enough.

Please understand that the build is quite level hungry and I do not recommend considering the build finished until you hit level 93. Level 97 is not hard to do these days and it is recommended (unless you go for lvl 100 and enjoy the complete tree)
the level 93 tree is: www.poeurl.com/bjd8
the level 97 tree is: www.poeurl.com/bjd9

The gear choices are quite simple and obvious, 3 side notes:

Kaom's heart brings 500hp (legacy version would be AWESOME, would add 1.5k life at level 100 with finished tree)
Vessel of Vinktar - is very strong (legacy version would be AWESOME, would add alot of damage via The Retch belt and with 2x usage it would be good vs bosses too).
Sin's Rebirth, while expensive is well worth it if you can get it. Vaal Lightning trap will do the job versus the hardest bosses.

That being said, the game is in a poor state at the moment:
I died 4 times from level 99 to 100 to volatiles in Poorjoy runs, random 1 shot is not acceptable when flickering at 15 attacks/second, especially when you have 7100hp and permanent fortify up.
And do not give me that "hover over them and stop attacking/run away" bullshit. You cant see them with 100 spells being cast on the screen and when everything goes so fast.
Ok, I suck at dodging slams/flameblasts ("cough, Uber Atziri is hard for me :( "cough") but random deaths to volatiles while not being a glass cannon is not acceptable, especially when you see ES builds cruising the game like a walk in the park.