[3.25] Tarekis' Facetank Flicker Trickster - Ultra Tanky All-Rounder - CI ES Stacker



3.25:
Final version before league release, I'll be busy with private and professional stuff until at least Saturday, hopefully will be able to update anything that needs updating.

Important notes on points that might get changed / are different from previous leagues:

• Frenzy is no longer available, you need Frenzy of Onslaught, which could be a bit annoying if you use it for too long you instead remove frenzy charges, be careful there.
• APS is substantially lower than previously. Any attack speed league-specific content (e.g. uniques) gives is up for consideration. You could perma run haste instead of wrath for APS > DMG, but watcher's pretty much is pointless then.
• We'll get new armour bases, potentially knocking out the item bases for Gloves, Boots, Helmet and Body Armour. If new bases have higher base defence values, we're gonna use those instead, remains to be seen.
• We quad generate rage: Crushing Fist (or Eviscerate if for some reason the 2000+% damage effectiveness isn't actually good) + Rage, Rage on Hit, Rage on Enemy Hit, Rage on Mark Stun. That should be good if the 0.5s rage generation cap doesn't fuck things up.
• Dread Banner for block cap, as we "only" have 65/47 after the Versatile Combatant changes, but it might not be good without the lingering buff node, which I planned to take, but might not be worth. Banner mastery does give 8% inc enemy damage taken, but the opportunity cost of not getting Rage Mastery is probably too high.
• We have a open jewel slot from losing Perandus, a new jewel could be very valuable, currently slotted a regular abyss we use already.
• No more totems, only the usual Berserk and Vaal Haste APS cooldowns, potentially Ancestral Cry if you want to absoultely self-press the buttons and not automate them.
• No more easy culling strike, it is what is.
• We can now fit CWDT+MS, so PoB warrior'd max hits, especially with my alternate full-tank version is getting a bit stupid, up there with some of the best tank builds. With higher block ceiling, this build got even tankier.

I will not be able to play on league-start, so updates from my side will be delayed.

Most links are currently outdated from 3.24 or before.

PoB: [3.25] Link
Please always check PoB notes before anything, all up-to-date information is always maintained there!

The PoB has general notes, leveling, gearing, and crafting advice. If you're familiar with PoE, you should be able to easily copy the build with the PoB alone.
For details about how the build works, and why which gear choices are made, read this guide.

Videos:
• TBD

Older Videos


[3.23] Video Guide
The guide is from 3.23, but since only some things changed at the core of the build, this is still helpful. I will try to update this, but since I have limited time it might take a bit.

I'm not a content creator, so expect some rambling, but this does go into the details and why some decisions are made, in case you either want to not read or don't understand why I built some specific thing.

1. Overview

Pros
Spoiler
Very Tanky
➕ Optimized to facetank, turn off your brain
➕ Good DPS
➕ Deathless 30 Wave Simulacrum, etc. (if the mods aren't rippy you can facetank Krosis Slams)
➕ Won't die to almost any one-shot
➕ You are now a chad flicker strike enjoyer
➕ Base concept also works with other skills if you want to play some other melee skill instead (LS of arcing + nimis seems to work great)
➕ Can push tankieness even further with major investment up to 40k phys/ 100k ele max hits



Cons
Spoiler
➖ You might get motion sickness, it's flicker strike
➖ Bosses sometimes take a few seconds if they are beefy, all non-uber content is totally fine
➖ Without Awakend Multistrike you rarely run out of Frenzy Charges when there's only 1 Enemy, pretty non-issue tho


With proper investment you can kill Ubers with it, but it's not nice at all, you die to some slams, uber shaper is annoying as hell, etc.
Flicker Strike bossing is generally a bad experience tho, especially if you don't have an instant movement skill other than leap slam socketed, uber shaper is really really annoying, etc.


Changes
Spoiler

3.25
Spoiler

Getting some big changes to this build (and all melee builds) in 3.25, mostly good changes.
The core concept of the build stays the same as always.

RIP Frenzy. Only the alternate frenzy can be used to regain some frenzy charges, but it does remove all frenzy charges IF you are clumsy and hit max frenzies with the Frenzy skill instead of flicker. Also it's gated behind lab, so that's quite annoying.

Melee League: The damage effectiveness of Flicker Strike was buffed heavily, which means the added damage coming from Ephemeral Edge are ~twice as strong now! We're not affected by mana issues thankfully, flicker cost was actually reduced.

Block Changes: Many changes for block, Versatile Combatant was buffed, and max block is now 65/65 instead of 50/50, which is wonderful, but also puts a bit of pressure on getting spell block maxed or high. A changed block mastery helps (removed some damage per atk block, instead grants spell block per atk block), and Dread Banner should probably fill the gap since the Banner mastery is pretty strong.

Totem Removal: No more totems! Melee totems were finally removed, no more getting panopticon, no longer relying on a flimsy totem to stay alive, with the above melee changes the damage is just built into flicker, meaing some passive points will be freed up.

Rage rework: It seems rage generation is way more accessible now, but no longer grants attack speed. Remains to be seen how nice this change this actually is.

Overall, we're losing attack speed, which is rough, and makes atkspd abyss jewels in DE even more valuable.

Retaliation skill rework: New retaliation skills seem decently strong, possibly a good setup with the new rage mechanic, but still seeing what makes sense.

Banners: "Banner are the new totems". Dread banner fills the missing gap to get spell block maxed, and with the mastery we can apply another 8% increased damage to enemies, which is a rare modifier, and scales very well.

Perandus Pact: Does not go core, losing a fat ES boost, but something will be a decent substitiute. Choosing a bread and butter allrounder abyss in there for now.

Tree Changes:
Changed block mastery, moved mana reservation wheel to benefit from lethal pride, banner wheel instead of totem buff, removed perandus from socket.


3.24
Spoiler

No major changes for this build up until now. New mods tho.

We can now get +1 frenzy gloves and satisfy most of shock avoid with boot suffix.
The new perandus jewel is amazing for this build, throw it in socket near Iron Reflexes, pretty good successor for TWWT.

Losing charms and TWWT simply removes damage (culling, ele pen, enemy increased from conc ground) and fortify, which you can source from elsewhere, or drop altogether for less max hit.
We sadly won't get honoured tattoos, which would be awesome for this build, but we still can get cold res and evasion ration on the dex pathing nodes, which frees up cold res on gear.

To regain culling and fortify there is the option to drop the free slot for portal/vaal haste for a 4-totem link and make the totems do culling strikes. I think this is a sensible change.
Fortify on the other hand is a bit harder to get, there's only really either the Eater Body Armour implicit, which replaces the wrath effect/energy shield implicit, or temple-corrupting until fortify+resolute technique, which is insane to target-farm.
I changed the chest implicit to fortify as it's the most feasible option to get fortify, and really, what's 3% damage vs 20% less damage taken from hits. Hyperoptimize with double-corrupted EE with RT/Fortify. Very pricey, but get a base EE (perfect roll, price won't matter when doing this), enchant attack speed quality and throw at temple until you get the correct corruptions. RT/atkspeed is also very nice, could be worth getting instead too, and using fortify implicit instead.



Cost

I expect starting cost for a full gear set to be around the same as in the last few leagues. You can league-start this, please read on for that part.

You'll need about ~20d for a good intial gear set, depending on the prices. VotS was unearthed by a few other builders in 3.23 and thus gained popularity, no more cheap niche item. I usually spend around 50d for kinda optimized gear, and then spend some more if I'm feeling it (I always do).

You can get it online for a relatively small budget, but expect a significant DPS decrease.
The only absolutely required items is uncorrupted Ephemeral, everything else you can just use low tier versions and deal with less ES/DPS, and save up for a Aegis and asap and Voice Amulet next.
It is league-startable, but you have to level with blade trap until you can get together some decent ES, and it's not as smooth as other league starters. Check PoB for notes.

2. Mechanics
Spoiler

Offensive
Spoiler

• High Energy Shield adds max Lightning Dmg trough Ephemeral Edge.
• Corruption Implicit makes all hits hit, never crit.
• Voice of the Storm makes non-crits Lucky, Precice Technique + CI makes them do 30% more dmg.
• Abyss Jewels for more added flat lightning.
• Bottled Faith and Mark makes Enemies take increased dmg.
• Tons of Exposure and Penetration.


Defensive
Spoiler

• Relatively high Energy Shield (7k+)
• High Evasion converted to high Armour
• 50/50 Block
• Massive ES regain on blocked hits (~1200-1500 ES)
• High Leech + ~12% of ES on kill
• Immunity to Bleed/Corrupted Blood & Elemental Ailments & Chaos Dmg


Frenzy Generation
Spoiler

This build relies entirely on frenzy charge generation on hit. This works smooth enough, you don't need farrul's for flicker, you didn't need it before it was introduced either.
That is also the reason for taking the sword cluster, which is pretty mediocre, but provides chance to generate on hit plus block.

Whenever you do bosses where you spawn to the boss only and have no trash mobs beforehand where you can get your frenzy charges up you'll need to use the frenzy skill to get your charges up, then use flicker.
Sometimes when you do not have woke multistrike yet, you will run low on charges, at which point you should top your charges up with frenzy again, I usually do this around 5/8 charges, but it rarely happens, and only against single target.

To prove this works here's the math:

The relevant calculation here is against a single unique enemy (usually a map boss), because splash/additional hits, 8% on kill + 20% on block + this calculation is enough to sustain against mob packs anyways.

• 25% from 20% quality Flicker Strike
• 10% from hits against marked enemy
• 8% from hits against unique enemy

That makes 43% chance to gain a frenzy charge on hitting a marked unique enemy.
You hit 3 times per expended frenzy with regular multistrike, 4 with awakened multistrike.
That means you have a 81.48% chance to gain a frenzy charge whenever you expend one (aka pressing flicker strike), or 89.444% with awakened multistrike.
This only accounts the probability to gain at least one frenzy charge. You will also be getting two or more per expended frenzy charge on occasion, and thus generally maintaining max or at least close to max frenzy charges with awakened multistrike.





3. Skill Tree
Spoiler
The skill tree starts being somewhat complete at around level 75, skip the damage nodes and get mechanic-enabling nodes and especially jewel sockets ASAP.
For a leveling and a full 95 and 100 skill tree check the PoB: [3.25] Link


4. Leveling
Spoiler
Check the PoB for progession on tree + gear + gems: [3.25] Link


5. Gear
Spoiler

For all rare crafting guides check the PoB: [3.25] Link

Example Gear Set (pretty optimized from 3.23)
Spoiler







Gearing details
Spoiler

Refer to the PoB for gear progression, example gear and crafting guides.
I keep them up to date there, as it's easier to do it in one place only.
Here are the details of what you want for your gear assuming you have at least some budget so throw at the build.

Main-Hand:
Spoiler
Ephemeral Edge, Corrupted with Resolute Technique
Without the corrupt, it will feel bad

Off-Hand:
Spoiler
Aegis Aurora, plain and simple

Helmet:
Spoiler

Once you run Stormshroud, get Torment Essence Mod
Prefixes: you want as high ES as possible, if you want to increase DPS veiled chaos prefixes for +2 AoE
Suffixes: Shock Avoid (if Stormshroud), Ele Res / Int


Gloves:
Spoiler

Gloves can have vastly different mods, there are many good options, e.g.:
- the "default" flicker gloves with +1 frenzy, +non-vaal strike targets
- pure ES, pure Res
- ES/Res + atk spd/dmg


Boots:
Spoiler

Again, high ES prefixes, res/int suffixes
If you want to (you probably don't need it, but some people prefer it, get movement speed instead of ES hybrid, but you'll be flickering+leap slamming anyway, so I never do)

This is the most buyable non-jewellery slot of them all, if you can get a good deal you might wanna buy instead of craft.


Body Armour:
Spoiler

High Evasion & High Energy Shield Sadist Garb OR Bronn's Lithe
You can make your life easy and just opt for Bronn's, might make capping resistances more annoying tho.


Belt:
Spoiler

High-rolled Darkness Enthroned with DPS Abyss Jeweles OR Crystal Belt with ES, Flask Effect, Ele Dmg (Res if you need it). Check PoB for a Belt

For obvious reasons (up to double stats) you want your best jewels in here, you might also get away with increasing the effect of bleed avoidance on a jewel (explicit + corruption implicit can mean 100% avoidance from one jewel).




Amulet:
Spoiler

Voice of the Storm, Annoint Tribal Fury for clear



Rings:
Spoiler

Left Ring Slot is Shavronne's Revelation for some fat flat ES.
Right Slot is some rare ring with whatever your build lacks now.

Just finish off your build with whatever you need from ring, and get ES & Damage if you're res capped.
You can build your ring spamming Torment or Woe and hoping for the best, or just buy one.
I simply searched for ES, flat lighting, ele w/ atk, ele/lightning %dmg and bought the best price/value one.



Flasks:
Spoiler

Bottled Faith (only inc dmg% mod is important, ignore crit)
Vessel of Vinktar (pen variant) (only run this if you have Stormshroud)
Jade, Silver, Basalt or Stibnite
Prefix isn't that important, charge gained on hit is very neat as you can keep flask uptime against single target fights that hit often, but as long as it's not inc/red effect you're pretty fine
Suffixes should be %atk spd, %evasion, %armour or %ms.



Jewels:
Spoiler

Explanation TBD, check PoB

Lethal Pride:
Essentially just get the Indimidation Chance Node, then as many Double Damage Chance as possible, and maybe Strength to complete requirements.


Watcher's Eye:
Lightning Pen
%inc Lightning dmg if you can
+3 mod if you're rich


Stormshroud:
It's cheap this league, grab some ele ailments umminity


The Perandus Pact
Get one with
Passive Skills in Radius also grant 3% increased Energy Shield
and use it in the socket near Iron Reflexes

Cluster:
Ye old Feed The Fury + Fuel the Fight + Martial Prowess
Swap Martial for Heavy hitter to make it like 3d cheaper, lowers your DPS only slightly

Search

Abysses:
Those aren't that min-maxed as the DE jewels, especially because it's harder since you want corrupted blood immunity and %shock avoid on them.




Mageblood:

Spoiler

I can’t recommend getting Mageblood if you don't already have one and want to cram it into this build, or you‘re willing to spend a few hundred divs more on top of MB for ultra-optimizing, especially int-stacking.
This build was made and optimized without consideration for MB, and it could probably do more in other builds. However, it obviously still works, and I personally won't be using one until I can throw money around without care as I don't see that much worth in it.

I added some items in PoB for Mageblood but they are a bit stale from 3.23, so wait a bit until I get to it if you want to see more item updates for 3.24 and how that could improve the build.

In the PoB you can see items that are slightly improved over their default variants because they don't need to have as much resistance as previously.
Especially the Chest is important to swap out for a double-corrupted Bronn's, inc damage and +2 duration is the best combo. You will lose quite a bit of Armour and a ton of ES, but that's mostly fine. You will be less tanky with a MB, but still manageable.
Getting a good roll and especially good base percentile is unlikely, so you will essentially just have to deal with lower rolls. You can do it for the meme and try it yourself at the temple and get pretty lucky like I did last league: Gud Bronn's (still less DPS tho because ES instead of +2 duration)

Your gloves is the other item you might want to swap out.
You want to get double-elevated (or warlord-only elevated) gloves that have +frenzy and +strike targets, optimally with atk spd and a lucky third prefix that's either ES (if the base is INT) or melee dmg.
The best option would be corrupted +1 gloves so you get +2 frenzy instead of +1, but it's insanely expensive to craft those. If you do decide to go that route, you might be better off asking someone that crafted those before. If you do, you might just go Ice Bite Paradoxica Flicker instead, it's not tanky, but it does up to 40 times the DPS of this build, hence also costs tons.
With MB you can ignore resistances here, so anything good you get like int is just on top.

Then, if your budget is high, you can get a mirror-tier Precursor or actually Mirror a Shako Ring and Kalandra's Touch it.

Otherwise, simply change out Attributes/Int for resistances since you do not need them that much.

I talk about MB at the end of the video guide as well, it might give you some understanding on the matter too.

Last edited by Tarekis on Jul 26, 2024, 6:21:16 AM
Last bumped on Jul 25, 2024, 4:31:52 PM
First comment reserved because traditions
Hey man just a few questions may I ask:
1. Can I implement Mageblood into the build?
2. Does clear suffers without melee splash in links?
Thanks in advance!
"
maxQQ wrote:
1. Can I implement Mageblood into the build?


Yes you can go mageblood, you'll obviously want to make different choices on your non-belt slots if you go Mageblood, since you won't be needing resistances and can just shove in some DPS suffixes instead.
I didn't make a specific route since most people won't go MB and DE is easier scaling for less money, for Eldrich Items you only really have Int on suffixes, so you might want to check out influenced items, especially for gloves, you'll surely want to get the mentioned "default flicker gloves".
Something like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1746hni/chimeric_hand_the_perfect_flicker_strike_gloves/
Probably less busted but along those lines; should have guides for crafting around or you can buy them off trade.


"
maxQQ wrote:
2. Does clear suffers without melee splash in links?

It does not suffer at all, no, that is what the Tribal Fury Annoint is for, it essentially is Melee Splash in a Notable, you also have +Strike Targets from Gloves which layers with Tribal Fury to shotgun enemies.

Last edited by Tarekis on Jan 6, 2024, 6:48:00 AM
Deleted
Last edited by Etherios55 on Jan 5, 2024, 5:49:19 AM
Hey! Thanks for sharing this awesome build. Finally got my hands to this. Now I'm in a flicker community. Can you share your loot filter please?
How do you sustain frenzy charges?
"
UltraReality wrote:
Hey! Thanks for sharing this awesome build. Finally got my hands to this. Now I'm in a flicker community. Can you share your loot filter please?


You're welcome, glad you enjoy it :)

I'm just using NeverSinks Uber Strict with Abysses displayed because I run Simulacrum.
You can get it at filterblade.xyz.
Last edited by Tarekis on Jan 6, 2024, 11:41:13 AM
"
Voltreffer wrote:
How do you sustain frenzy charges?


By hitting things with frenzy gain chance, no Farruls shenanigans, the goold old way.

43% per hit to gain a frenzy charge: 25 from frenzy 10 from marked enemy 8 from unique
You hit 3 times per expended frenzy with multi support, 4 with awakened multi
That means you have a 81.48% chance to gain a frenzy charge whenever you expend one (aka press flicker strike), or 89.444% with awakened. This does not account you getting lucky and getting two or more in one flicker strike attack.

Then on top of that 8% on kill and 20% on block.
Against many enemies you never run out.

If you are hitting a very beefy enemy math rules you will run out of frenzy at some point. Frenzy is planned in the build for when you run out of charges, or go low, 0.5 seconds of hitting frenzy inbetween and you're up again should it happen. You can see it in my Simu fight against Kosis, look for my skill bar flashing the secondary skills (that's where I have frenzy allocated).
Idea: lose some AS and damage by switching to flicker of power with romira's banquet? this will make charge management work flawlessly regardless of scenario and allow you to drop multistrike. Thoughts?
Last edited by Stoyicker on Jan 6, 2024, 3:00:54 PM

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