3.5 Iron Fortress Flicker Juggernaut
 PATH OF BUILDING LINK CHARACTER LINK: FlickerDRIVEMkII VIDEO PLAYLIST For this build I had two main goals, use the Iron Fortress unique and Flicker Strike. It turned out to be a solid build with decent offenses as well as excellent defenses. It can handle most content in the game but struggles in some areas such as betrayal mechanics because of how Flicker Strike works. PROS: • Flicker Strike • Decent DPS and clear speed • Very Tanky • Cheap Uniques CONS: • Flicker Strike • The Iron Fortress • Craft your own rares MECHANICS
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The main idea behind the build is to utilize uniques and ascendancies that offer bonuses from strength. By stacking strength we can use the Iron Fortress to its utmost potential.  Repentance gives a global Iron Will which causes the 2% melee physical damage from 10 strength to become 2% spell damage as well. The Iron Fortress increases this bonus to 3%. Crown of Eyes causes spell damage to apply to attacks (not just physical!) so it can scale the fire damage from Brutus' Lead Sprinkler. For every 10 strength we gain: • 5 life • 3% increased spell/attack damage • 4-7 fire damage with attacks • 10 accuracy • .05% attack speed • .2% attack block The build also utilizes a standard Golden Rule-Red Trail setup to sustain the frenzy charges required of Flicker Strike. Because the majority of the damage is fire, you don't have to worry about physical conversion as the self-bleed is negligible. OFFENSE
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Here is the damage of various setups when fully buffed for Shaper DPS. I have several setups as Flicker Strike can't do everything. There are occassions where you will need to switch into a different melee skill to gain range or larger AoE. • Flicker Strike (Map Clearing) +520k • Flicker Strike (Single Target) +730k • Tectonic Slam +800k • Double Strike +300k Here's what the damage should look like while map clearing with triple charges and flasks. • Flicker Strike (Map Clearing) +390k • Tectonic Slam +600k And here's the damage with only Frenzy Charges and Blood Rage. This is the bare minimum buffs you will have when fighting something. • Flicker Strike (Map Clearing) +230k • Flicker Strike (Single Target) +320k • Tectonic Slam +350k • Double Strike +130k Vaal Double Strike will add a considerable amount of single target DPS and Vaal Ancestral warchief will have some DPS as well. DEFENSE
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 Picture with flasks and Endurance Charges. The build has wonderful defenses due to the Juggernaut ascendancy. The high chaos resistance allows it to tank any chaos damage easily. • 7K life • 8K armor (23k flasked) • 45% physical damage reduction (60% flasked) • Fortify • 42% attack block (62% flasked) • 8% reduced elemental damage taken • Arctic Armour The high defenses as well as the ability of Flicker Strike to move away from most hits allows you to just hold the button down for most of the game. One shots are still an issue (with the exception of physical damage) so you will have to dodge things for the end-game. GEAR
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Because the build has many uniques it will have to lean on rares a lot for our minimum requirement stats. This includes the heavy intelligence cost of Repentance as well as reaching the resistance cap. The good thing is that all of these uniques are cheap but getting the correct mods on rares as well as corrupting uniques (which isn't necessary) takes quite a bit of time and investment. I've spent around 1ex on the uniques (corrupted already). For the rares I spent considerably more, most of it from crafting. The Iron Fortress It took me around 7 prophecies before I could get a good strength roll. At the time high strength rolls were around 1ex but by doing the prophecies I spent maybe 5c. I suggest you just make one yourself and save up for the headache of 6l. The white sockets aren't necessary but they are useful for changing skills. Crown of Eyes I'm unsure if the power charge corruption is worth it (which I'll go into later). Flicker Strike or Arctic Armour enchants are also good but since no one enchants this unique you'll have to either chance it or do your own lab runs, neither of which seem to be worth it. The blind and life corruptions would be good as well and more obtainable. This is the sole source of life and mana leech. Repentance I believe the frenzy corruption is the best option. Life and crit chance are good as well. Brutus' Lead Sprinkler I'm unsure if investing into power charges was the right move. The very low proc chance (5% of 67% when flasked) means that there isn't power charges up all the time, especially when needed during boss fights. The attack speed or crit implicits are probably better. Astramentis It's needed for Repentance. The Red Trail These provide the frenzy charges as well as some nice physical defense. I forgot to get an enchant on them, ele pen would be nice. Rings As said before we need specific stats on our rares. INT and resists are our #1 priority with strength and life coming second. Belt Don't bother with cyclopean as a decent elder heavy belt will give much more. The attribute% mod itself is very rare so be warned if you try to craft it. Shield I crafted this one using essences. It has all the stats that are needed. The Archon Kite Shield base is both for resistances and the spell damage mods. The Golden Rule You don't need the corrupted blood implicit. It's nice to have since I do not carry a bleed flask. Corrupted blood is rare enough and not a threat as long as you're leeching. It was the most expensive unique that I purchased. Jewels The important mods to look for on jewels from greatest to least are: • Bleed Chance (combined value of at least 10%) • Intelligence (for Repentance) • Resists • % maximum life • Critical Multiplier • Strength You can forgo the bleed chance mods if you want to spend two points heading towards the Red Storm notable. Watcher's Eye A fire penetration Watcher's Eye would be a great boost to DPS. Unfortunately I couldn't afford losing a jewel as my resists and int just barely met the requirements. GEMS
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Flicker Strike Elemental Damage with Attacks Multistrike Melee Splash Fire Penetration Elemental Focus Not much to say. Multistrike and Melee Splash are pretty much mandatory for Flicker Strike unless you're a Slayer or not relying on Flicker Strike to do damage. Melee Splash can be switched with Ruthless for single-target damage. Tectonic Slam Elemental Damage with Attacks Fire Penetration Ruthless Multistrike Elemental Focus The Tectonic Slam setup. If you don't have white sockets you can use Faster Attacks instead of Ruthless. Tectonic Slam is needed for some bosses and Delve. Vaal Double Strike Elemental Focus Fire Penetration Multistrike The backup single-target 4l. This is mainly used for Vaal Double Strike as supplementary DPS against bosses. However, double strike is useful in some circumstances even though it doesn't reach the same level of damage as Flicker Strike does. In situations such as Betrayal Fortifications or procing self-bleed it is very helpful. Shield Charge Faster Attacks Fortify Originally I used Leap Slam but during the Shaper fight I found it to be too slow to use. Shield Charge is much faster both for mapping and dodging at the cost of getting stuck on rocks and unable to jump gaps. Summon Ice Golem Immortal Call Cast when Damage Taken Ice Golem will increase crit rate, accuracy, as well as attack speed due to the Undeniable ascendancy. CWDT means you never have to worry about re-summoning it. Anger Arctic Armour Vaal Ancestral Warchief Blood Rage Not much to say here. They're all good buffs to damage and defense. Vengeance Chance to Bleed Power Charge on Critical Combustion I'm unsure about using this setup. It's used to passively give self-bleed, power charges, and fire resist debuff. I'm not sure how effective it is and Combustion might be better used with Shield Charge to more reliably provide the debuff. TREE/PANTHEON
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Refer to the top of the thread for the PoB link. The build is spread thin across the left side of the tree grabbing as much crit, life, and resists as it can. It has 6 jewel slots with the possibility of two more for 3 points each. Resists are an issue with the build and I've taken as much as I could from the tree. There's potential for more with the Diamond Skin and Faith and Steel notables. The mana cost nodes from Tireless and Versatility notables ease the heavy mana requirements of Flicker Strike. The Unrelenting Ascendancy is great for mapping, especially against chaos damage. However, its usefulness is pretty much nothing when using Tectonic Slam. Unbreakable would probably be a better choice if you plan to use Tectonic Slam a lot. Soul of Arakaali Mainly taken for reduced DoT and the recovery rate buffs. The recovery rate is extremely good as IC will stop all damage from both bleeding and Blood Rage. With Armala this means that the chaos resistance is capped against DoT. Soul of Shakari Taken for further chaos defenses. You won't have to worry about chaos damage at all. SUMMARY
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Overall it's a pretty solid build with good defenses and offenses. I estimate the cost for setup should be around 4ex not including the cost of 6l (more if you get a Watcher's Eye) but it depends on the market for corruptions and rares. The build has very good defenses against both physical and chaos damage but is lacking versus elemental damage. With only the Unrelenting ascendancy and Arctic Armour as protection over the normal 75% resists. This is further hindered by the lack of spell block in the build. I'm also undercapped against elemental weakness, although this issue is mitigated easily by a curse flask. The damage has room to improve but not by much, at least in the build's current form. It is capable of tackling all content (perhaps with some deaths) with the exception of Uber Elder. POTENTIAL CHANGES
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Flicker Strike isn't optimal with the use of The Iron Fortress. Using a different melee skill should be stronger as you wont have to invest in Frenzy Charges, bleed, boots, and a jewel slot. As previously stated investing into Power Charges may not have been the right decision. Using only 3 instead of 5 might be better. PCoC with Orb of Storms may be better to reliably have Power Charges during a boss fight. The Celestial Judgement notable gives a lot of DPS for the cost of 4 skill points. It will also provide 20 int to help with Repentance requirements. Last edited by Sie_Sayoka on Jan 7, 2019, 7:22:42 AM Last bumped on Aug 26, 2023, 1:59:07 PM
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This looks awesome can't wait to see the finished product!
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I'm aware that it's mostly for the meme, but unless something has changed, strength's melee physical bonus doesn't double dip with Iron Will and Crown of Eyes.
However, CoE should still scale the fire damage from Brutus' Lead Sprinkler, so that's fine. Kinda sounds like I'm not making any points here, but the Iron Will CoE interaction (or lack thereof for physical damage) isn't inherently obvious, and is good to keep in mind. Maybe it does double dip while using The Iron Fortress? Haven't tested it myself, and I doubt it, but it's something to keep in mind. Last edited by Geti on Jan 6, 2019, 1:18:53 AM
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The guide is now finished.
" There is no double dipping. Every 10 strength normally provides 2% melee physical damage. With Crown of Eyes and Repentance it will give 2% attack damage instead. A 2% bonus is given in both instances. |
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" Yup, makes sense, thanks for confirming. Just for clarity's sake, the bonus is 3% for both with Iron Fortress right? | |
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Yes.
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Hello I have a question - I'm using the same mechanic (chance to bleed + red trail + jewel) to get frenzies for my flicker strike CoC build - though I don't have nearly enough bleed to sustain my flicker. No idea why.
https://pastebin.com/uicGdccn I made sure I have phys damage to attacks so cospris "no phys" is overriden. I also tested it with regular rare weapons, can't sustain bleed. Comparing to your refresh rate of bleed, mine literally proccs like at 1/3 the rate or less. Do you have any ideas as to why it is so? I'm not sure. I'd really, really appreciate the help, I love flicker strike and I'd really want to make it work with my CoC. What can be the problem here? I have 20% chance to bleed on attacks from jewels. | |
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The build would actually be better without The Iron Fortress, right?
Given that the vast majority of your flat damage is elemental (coming from Brutus' Lead Sprinkler), the %melee physical damage increases from strength won't be applying to a large base, resulting in a negligible amount of damage. The Crown of Eyes + Repentance combo is super nice though! |
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" We've talked over PM but did you figure it out? " Better defensively with a Loreweave, yes. Better offensively, no. Repentance and Crown of Eyes mean that the bonus physical from strength becomes bonus to melee attacks, thus you get 3% melee damage which will apply to elemental attacks. |
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" Oh wow, really? Is this the way it works? I don't see why. The base stat you get from strength is: "Every 10 strength grants 2% increased melee physical damage." Iron Will from repentance gives: The bonus will be +1% increased Spell Damage for every five points of strength. Then Crown of Eyes turns it into: "Increases and Reductions to Spell Damage also apply to Attacks" Iron Fortress states: "Strength's Damage Bonus instead grants 3% increased Melee Physical Damage per 10 Strength" So wouldn't you be getting: 1% increased spell damage (applied to attacks by crown) per 5 strength 3% increased melee physical damage per 10 strength (not applying to sprinkler ele) ? Last edited by lucksickle on Feb 5, 2019, 4:21:11 PM
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