[3.2]Farrul's Flicker - Blink like a cat | Tanky | Insane clear speed | Perm charges

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HylianSage wrote:

I plan to add a lot more to this guide if enough people show interest, so make sure and ask any questions if you have them! Have fun blinking away exiles.

~Hylian

Hey, I am interested, so thanks for providing this guide.

I didn't see you mention bandits so I went for the points. My reasoning is to pick Alira if a build utilizes all 3 of her buffs and this doesn't need the mana gen.

You could also add a section about jewels, like what stats to aim for. I can check that in PoB, but as a writer expect your readers to be lazy :)

And about your gem setup: I feel like this could be optimized. There is no curse Enfeeble in it, which I consider a big oversight. Could be attached to the CWDT, maybe even a Blasphemy (Enlighten?).

I picked up the tip to run Blade Vortex on CWDT on reddit, which seems nice but may be redundant with Farrul's Fur.

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Solmyr77 wrote:

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HylianSage wrote:

I plan to add a lot more to this guide if enough people show interest, so make sure and ask any questions if you have them! Have fun blinking away exiles.

~Hylian

Hey, I am interested, so thanks for providing this guide.

I didn't see you mention bandits so I went for the points. My reasoning is to pick Alira if a build utilizes all 3 of her buffs and this doesn't need the mana gen.

You could also add a section about jewels, like what stats to aim for. I can check that in PoB, but as a writer expect your readers to be lazy :)

And about your gem setup: I feel like this could be optimized. There is no curse Enfeeble in it, which I consider a big oversight. Could be attached to the CWDT, maybe even a Blasphemy (Enlighten?).

I picked up the tip to run Blade Vortex on CWDT on reddit, which seems nice but may be redundant with Farrul's Fur.

I took Alira for the crit multi, and the resists are nice. At level 95 we are 3 points away from any jewel socket so if you don't plan to level past that the two points from kill all don't help much. I updated the guide, thanks for pointing out I missed that.

I'm going to overhaul the leveling section and add what gear to look for like jewels very soon per peoples requests.

You are absolutely right about adding enfeeble to the CWDT set-up. You just need to drop portal to do so. The additional less chance to hit synergizes amazingly well with all the blind and dodge/evade. I don't think blade vortex is necessary.

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HylianSage wrote:

I took Alira for the crit multi, and the resists are nice. At level 95 we are 3 points away from any jewel socket so if you don't plan to level past that the two points from kill all don't help much. I updated the guide, thanks for pointing out I missed that.

I'm going to overhaul the leveling section and add what gear to look for like jewels very soon per peoples requests.

Yes, Alira is always nice. If and when I get to 90+ I will look into PoB myself for some tree optimization. I had to make the call early in the game so I went for the points per my reasoning above. Your reasoning is fine, if there is no notable to get for 2 points, there is no point in taking the points ;)

A good leveling section is a rare thing but I consider them quite valuable. You're good regarding the trees, but your explanatory words only cover a1-a3 imo. Beyond that point I started to die quite often. To this day, I have leveled 3 Shadows total and their death count up to and including Kitava has always been very high compared to my other chars. So I suppose some extra defensive measures are in order to level this class. Smooth sailing was achieved by around lvl53 after equipping Belly (lvl46), T-Est (51) and some rare items to replace the lvl1 uniques and Elreon jewelry. Cruel lab was no problem with T-Est and after that, Flicker got through zones quite fast thanks to Swift Killer.

So what's missing is some kind of middle section between Dominus and T-Est. Are there relevant leveling uniques (not weapons)? Of the lvl1 uniques, only Goldrim appears to be worthwhile throughout the entire campaign.

I also think you're better off with Brightbeak (x2) from being able to equip it to switching to Cyclone (Looks like 2h Swords have a better reach for that? like D2 WW back then).

First of all, thanks for the guide.
I was looking for something fast after bringing my boss killer totem chieftain to 93 - and this one provides if you get the gear. Unfortunately I am dealing with crappy internet and delay is my main killer for FLicker builds. Some 6-link luck would be nice as well.

What is your take on gloves?
I got lucky today and yesterday with Shaper's Touch and Atziri's Acuity.
Personally, I prefer Shaper's Touch since they give us Energy Shield and + Int (currently sitting at 109 but need 111 for lvl 20 Crit gem...) etc, given that your resistances are capped otherwise. I didn't test Atziri's yet, but they would cover missing int and add heaps of crit and sort of constant Vaal Pact in fight.

I haven't really attempted any endgame (elder, guardians, atziri) with this one yet, T15 bosses can be quite tough depending on the map mods. Uber lab with easy Izaro is ok.

As for leveling:
You should add Stygian Vise as belt (can give you good dps and life boosts with the right gem + res and evasion; unfortunately good rolls are insanely expensive). Same goes for Tombfist which are a decent leveling item, more so with a lucky curse corruption.

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bierdurscht wrote:

First of all, thanks for the guide.
I was looking for something fast after bringing my boss killer totem chieftain to 93 - and this one provides if you get the gear. Unfortunately I am dealing with crappy internet and delay is my main killer for FLicker builds. Some 6-link luck would be nice as well.

What is your take on gloves?
I got lucky today and yesterday with Shaper's Touch and Atziri's Acuity.
Personally, I prefer Shaper's Touch since they give us Energy Shield and + Int (currently sitting at 109 but need 111 for lvl 20 Crit gem...) etc, given that your resistances are capped otherwise. I didn't test Atziri's yet, but they would cover missing int and add heaps of crit and sort of constant Vaal Pact in fight.

I haven't really attempted any endgame (elder, guardians, atziri) with this one yet, T15 bosses can be quite tough depending on the map mods. Uber lab with easy Izaro is ok.

As for leveling:
You should add Stygian Vise as belt (can give you good dps and life boosts with the right gem + res and evasion; unfortunately good rolls are insanely expensive). Same goes for Tombfist which are a decent leveling item, more so with a lucky curse corruption.

Atziri's Acuity should be BiS for this build, shapers touch not so much. Rare gloves work just fine though, spiked gloves with attack speed especially.


I'm in the process of moving currently so sorry if I've been slow updating the guide, been absurdly busy :/.

Found the first hole in your tree :)

At Fangs of the Viper you have 3 travel nodes to the south when you could connect to Blood Drinker going north and then east. That's +1 passive point for your build which you might turn in at that very spot for Nullification.

Great idea, this looks like a very fun build!

Thoughts on going Raider instead of Trickster in SC?

I am looking at the Raider with Avatar of the Chase and Avatar of the Slaughter. Speed!?
I am comparing to the Trickster with Harness of the Void instead of Escape Artist.
You would have to start with %evasion/life nodes and skip the %phys/chaos in the shadow tree.
Slightly different pathing required.

Raider v/s Trickster

This might not be important, but the Raider has easier Frenzy sustain against rare and unique mobs.
Same amount of Frenzy Charges. One less Power Charge for the Raider. Raider has to use Blasphemy or HoI+CoH or OoS+PCoC/CoH or a CoH-ring with Assassin's Mark to generate PC.

Raider
+ 62% evasion and 17% max life (ranger start)
+ 60% evasion (Raider small asc nodes)
Constant Onslaught with 200% effect...
+ 80% attack speed (2x Onslaught, WotP, AotS with 10 charges)
+ 60% movement speed (2x Onslaught, AotS with 10 charges)
+ 70% attack dmg (RA, AotC, AotS with 10 charges)
+ 25% MORE chance to Evade Melee Attacks during Onslaught (AotC)
+ 25% MORE chance to Evade Projectile Attacks during Onslaught (AotC)
- Flicker Strike costs 46 mana!
- Cannot reserve 100% of your mana!
- Therefore might require expensive helmet enchant and/or Enlighten 3/4.

Trickster
+ 70% increased Damage (SK with 4 PS and 10 Frenzy)
+ 56% global phys and 56% chaos dmg (shadow start)
+ XX% MORE dmg as chaos, potantially double-dipping? (HtV)
+ 36% attack speed (Trickster small asc nodes, WtA)
+ 20% MORE chance to evade, 10% dodge and spell-dodge, 10% ms (GD on full ES)
+ Movement skills cost no mana!
+ Reserve 100% of your mana!
- Blood Magic support required on non-movement skills
+ Trickster <3

Looking at the above, Raider gets a lot higher evasion, life, attack and movement speed. To me although I am not very experienced with Flicker Strike it is mainly about speed. Will mana cost be an issue for the Raider if she handles mana reservation and gets one leech node in the tree? Just how important (and conveniant) is Weave the Arcane? The Trickster has higher scaling of base dmg with both %increased phys/chaos and %MORE added as chaos. Thoughts on this?

Cheers!

After checking PoB I will try to reply myself.

With your gear but my tree for SC (basically marauder-Disembow instead of Scion wheel) I get:

The Raider needs +2 skill points to get out there.
The inital ranger nodes put the Raider at 5700 life while the Trickster gets around 5400.

Rounding numbers from here.
The Trickster reaches 15 aps if energy shield recharge started recently.
If recharge did not start recently then the Trickster is at 13 aps (12.5 without Onslaught).
The Raider with Onslaught reaches 14 aps.
No big difference.

Depending on whether ES recharge started recently or not,
the Trickster deals some 10-25% more damage (!)

Movement speed factor for Raider x2 and Trickster x1.75.
Chance to evade Raider 75% (15k) and Trickster 73% (12k).
Dodge/Spell-Ddoge Raider 74/75 and Trickster 75/75.
No big difference imo.

I think Trickster is the obvious choice! :-)

Looking forward to following this build.

You can certainly try out raider if you like, I don't think it would be bad at all. I wouldn't take the frenzy charge generation on raider, you honestly do NOT need help in that department, that is one of the best things about using farruls. You could go avatar of the chase and avatar of the veil though, could be worth trying. You also have to consider you'll need to drop an aura and have adequate mana leech to sustain flicker, and that movespeed means pretty much nothing to this build.

Just a reminder: I'm in the process of moving so I don't have much time to update stuff, but after I'm settled in I can elaborate on the build a lot more.

Currently been shopping for this build and got most of the items I would say but my DPS seems so low compared to yours in PoB.
Could you have a look at my character and tell me what I am doing wrong, why do you have sooo much more DPS than me?