[1.3] Dulahan's flicker. 375k melee splash dps, Blood magic and Mana version

Tags: Flicker strike. Autotarget. GG Clearspeed. Low life. Crit. Frenzy charges. Blood magic. Mana.
Desync. Expensive. Not a starter build. Not a leveling build.Soloplay.

Context
I have always wanted to do a flicker build, and I realised slightly modifying my ST char I could do it. With 1.3 some nodes which said "increased critical strike with melee weapons" were changed to "increased melee critical strike". This forced me to have a dedicated character if I wanted to flicker, which I decided it was going to be my lvl 91 scion. Also, I believe there aren't that many endgame flicker builds, so hopefully this helps someone.

With the launch of path of nerfs, Mortal conviction and crit were hit, so the build took a huge crit in the ass. We are talking about a 30-40% dmg loss, but the build is still very good. I have put the tag soloplay because when I play flicker I always solo, so I cannot go past speculating about party play. I believe (0 numbers done), if you want to do 6 man parties all the time, look for a CI build

I link gear first, because tree depends on capping crit, and capping crit depends on local crit from weapon and global crit from gear, and there aren't that many good crit nodes now, so it really makes a difference. For example, my weapon is a ST weapon, not a flicker weapon. There are better weapons with higher crit and higher average damage but less attack speed, which suit flicker better.
Don't look at gems!



Crit capping
Loath bane has 9.21 local crit, so I need 931,4 increased critical strike to cap the 95% crit chance. I have 36 from amu, 33 from acuity, 29 from one diamond ring and 38 from the dagger itself. Also flicker has a 80% implicit inc crit chance, so that reduces it to 715 inc. crit chance required from passives and power charges. Remember all of this changes if you have a different weapon!, so you'll have to adapt according to that.

Gem setup for 6L
I'm using a 2B/2R/2G shavs because I share it with another build, so I cannot change it. My suboptimal gem setup is
flicker - multistrike - melee splash - pcoc - crit dmg - additional accuracy

Ideally, what you want is a 3R 2B 1G shavs.

flicker - multistrike - melee splash - pcoc - crit dmg - wed gives highest dps.
flicker - multistrike - melee splash - pcoc - crit dmg - melee phys gives higher leech, while reaching decent dmg (due to more phys and less ele dmg)

Main differences between BM and Mana

1. Mana has more free passives to customise (you can get more multi, more es, more crit chance, more accuracy or rush the all res notables. BM is way more rigid. Also, mana uses less passives overall, so next statements might be wrong if you invest points to fix them

2. Mana has virtually no resource cost. You instaleech thanks to coe. You naturally have mana regen so you can whirling around. This makes it better regarding quality of life and frees up a flask slot.

After some test with BM, you don't have to worry about hp as long as you are killing. This means you might run into trouble in big parties with low dps, because your life on kill doesn't proc fast enough. But you also need to sustain frenzy charges in both cases, so you usually avoid big parties anyway.

3. BM has more dps. You gain anger and can empower wrath (lvl 26 wrath vs lvl 21 on mana version.

4. BM uses rainbows instead of lioneye's Paws. Rainbows have ES, 20% all res, a minimum of 6 spell block (with worst rolls) and a maximum of 18 spell block (with rumi's up). Also have positive movement speed against the -40% from paws. If you want to pick an item which is far from your position, you'll notice it.

5. BM has more ES. Rainbows have decent ES, and can empower discipline (lvl 26 discipline vs lvl 21 on mana version)

6. BM runs stronger aruas, and runs more. Than means parties will love you more. On the other hand, a mana build can leech auras from other people, greatly increasing its power.

I did more tests, and the overall difference between BM and mana seems to be:
BM has around 18-25% more dps, more es (due to boots and auras), 28% more all res (due to boots and faith of steel) BUT uses 14 more passive points. So you have 14 extra passive points in mana version to try to make up for that.
Some other not so evident things to consider:

1-BM has more ele and less phys dmg (which turn into less leech, but passive contains 3% extra leech, which makes it better.

2-BM has more "base" dmg and base crit (without charges), Mana has more crit multi and more accuracy. This is important because with flicker you want to oneshot first mob you hit to keep charges going.

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BM VERSION

Best class depends on gear. If we could reach lvl 110, witch would be always better due to having access to better nodes. But there is a core (which depends on your gear), and scion gets to the core faster than witch.

My scion tree
http://poeurl.com/y8w9e8C (435 CC, 685 with 5 PC)
We get the needed crit chance, all aura and buff effect nodes and some ES nodes.

Auras
Math here
Empowered discipline and wrath
Anger, hatred, herald of thunder, herald of ash, purity of elements
Total 2x emp 60%, 2x 60%, 2% heralds, 1 40% 80% hp reserved --> 222 unreserved hp (depends on your level)
You could also add herald of ice and gain some dmg, but then you would have only 133 unreserved hp.

Damage calculations

My suboptimal setup with add accuracy:
22193 average damage per hit * 3 attacks per frenzy charge (multi strike)-->66,579 AoE dmg per frenzy charge
22193 average damage per hit /0.08 attack time --> 277,412.5 AoE dps

Highest dps (wed):
29970.4 average damage per hit * 3 attacks per frenzy charge (multi strike)-->89911.2 AoE dmg per frenzy charge
29970.4 average damage per hit /0.08 attack time --> 374,630 AoE dps

Balance between leech and dps (melee phys):
26186.3 average damage per hit * 3 attacks per frenzy charge (multi strike)-->78,558.9 AoE dmg per frenzy charge
26186.3 average damage per hit /0.08 attack time --> 327,328.75 AoE dps

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MANA VERSION

Which >> anything else

Witch tree (405 CC, 705 with charges)
http://poeurl.com/y8xakRs

Auras
math here

Discipline, hatred, Wrath, herald of thunder, herald of ash, purity of elements
Total 3x 60%, 2% heralds, 1 40%
87% mana reserved --> around 130 unreserved hp

I actually had a CI Zealot's Oath build, but then realized it doesn't work without Acuity. I modified it to this LL flicker tree (no BM) for you.

Edit:
Removed mind drinker.

Updated. In the end the nerfbat hurted a lot, but I think the tree is pretty definitive, and if it changes something will be just to personal preference.

"

Zhen wrote:

I actually had a CI Zealot's Oath build, but then realized it doesn't work without Acuity. I modified it to this LL flicker tree (no BM) for you.

Edit:
Removed mind drinker.

Well, CI is very different from low life. By going CI you miss at least 3 auras and the blood rage bonus. I'd say is just another build.

all elemental auras and no wed?
no melee phys dmg??
get a flicker dagger mate, loath is a st, reave... dagger so you wont need acc or even pcoc.
and ci is superior for flicker...melee on full life(+melee phys dmg which scales insanely with hatred), much more es, can use immortal call and you wont get wrecked in pvp.
shavs is just for soloing in your case. that attackspeed doesnt matter cause of multistrike and in full party you will have trouble killing stuff cause of low dmg, so you will run out of charges, and with wed+meleedmg you wont even be able to sustain the cost with bm.
you also dont even have frenzy in your gear. need to completely rethink your build mate. gl.

I've seen this build in action it's amazing! Clear speed! DPS! Nice guide m8! ;D

Let's go one by one.

"

busybee7 wrote:

all elemental auras and no wed?
no melee phys dmg??

You are 100% right. Sadly, I'm a "slave of my past", so I cannot change dagger or shavs colours because I want to use them for my other builds too. If some day I get wealthy enough, I'll buy a 2nd shavs.
Ideally, what you want is a 3R 2B 1G shavs.
flicker - multistrike - melee splash - pcoc - crit dmg - wed gives highest dps.
flicker - multistrike - melee splash - pcoc - crit dmg - melee phys gives higher leech.
Since a friend borrowed me a shavs to do a test, I'll update main post and tittle with new dps numbers.

"

busybee7 wrote:

get a flicker dagger mate, loath is a st, reave... dagger so you wont need acc or even pcoc. and ci is superior for flicker...melee on full life(+melee phys dmg which scales insanely with hatred), much more es, can use immortal call and you wont get wrecked in pvp.

I disagree with this. I've written the build from the perspective of soloing. And when soloing, I have enough damage per hit to sustain flicker. This means that the insane aps buff from blood rage, and the higher aps dagger lets me kill slightly faster, and move way more faster. What you say is probably right if you play 6 man flicker, but I don't.

"

busybee7 wrote:

shavs is just for soloing in your case. that attackspeed doesnt matter cause of multistrike and in full party you will have trouble killing stuff cause of low dmg, so you will run out of charges, and with wed+meleedmg you wont even be able to sustain the cost with bm.
you also dont even have frenzy in your gear. need to completely rethink your build mate. gl.

This is more or less the same party vs solo argument. I've played with 4,5 and 6 frenzy charges before. Now I run 3 because I realised I don't need them except against some bosses.

How is your Flicker Strike sustainable with LGOH or Life Reg
And how much ES do you have?

"

iEternity wrote:

I've seen this build in action it's amazing! Clear speed! DPS! Nice guide m8! ;D

thanks man!

"

How is your Flicker Strike sustainable with LGOH or Life Reg
And how much ES do you have?

Sadly, I miss weapon, gloves and boots now (they were shared with a friend before). I'll speak from my memory

I didn't need any life regen, Lust for carnage was enough to sustain flicker with my old dps. But after some time I decided to take shapper (1 point) for quality of life improvements, just to be able to whirling blade freely and free up a flask slot. Now I have way less dmg, but I still can sustain it without any problem. Obviously this is SOLO

About es, I had 5.8-6k, depending on which rings I was using.


Also, I wanted to play some CI flicker myself to have a more solid opinion about the LL vs CI, so I used the free respect on a lvl 93 witch. Those are my conclusions:

1-CI has A LOT more es than LL. I didn't have a good 6L armour, and had like 6.4k with tabula. 900 es vaal regalia would push it to 9k+. So, CI is better on the road to lvl 100


3-LL has higher dps.

4-LL has higher aps --> faster WW --> faster map clears.

5-LL has higher desync due to higher aps.

6-CI has better frenzy charges management. Totally irrelevant solo, but if you play in 6 man 78s, definitely go CI.

Ty very much....:)
this results are with flasks or without?
and with Shavronne's Revelation would it be possible to run mele physical or even Physical to Lightning
the life reg would be around 200 hp/sec
What do you think?



:)

Numbers were without flask.

Shav's is a bad ring for this build, you are way better with a ring that gives you dps, es and resis.
As for last question, I don't quite understand what do you ask about melee phys or phys to light.