[2.5] Hilarious Scolds-Zerphi-Flicker Strike Build - Fast Clears & Frenzy Charge Sustain vs Bosses!

This build uses flicker strike to proc Cast When Damage Taken (several) to cast a diarrhea of spells. Not HC Viable.


"
Inspiration came from:

Scold Breath:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1753462
Cast on Last Breath:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1632595

...and WormBlasterIII
WormBlasterIII taught me that for damage in PoE, Quantity > Quality


I had originally planned a flicker strike build around the newly buffed Raider Ascendancy node "Way of the Poacher". But I hated how flicker strike ran out of charges against some bosses. Then I thought...How can I flicker forever with this new node? ...The result is that I use CWDT to proc a variety of spells to "hit" the enemy, which each hit gives 20% chance to get a frenzy charge (vs rare/unique enemies). So against bosses you're constantly on maximum frenzy charges!

Yes. The "Way of the Poacher" works with spells too!

Flicker vs Cyclone - Why use flicker strike and not cyclone?
Spoiler
I know that most Scold's-Zerphi-CWDT builds uses cyclone (or leap slam). Cyclone and leap slam seems to be able to reach the lvl20 CWDT damage requirement (mana cost requirement) easier. So why go Raider and Flicker Strike?

Flicker strike does have many advantages over the other builds:
- Flicker strike with lots of frenzy charges can attack VERY fast. This will proc CWDT much more often.
- Attacking very fast with flicker makes things harder to hit you
- Also makes you clear maps really fast by flying across them pooping spells.
- Great for bosses by just holding down right click as your spell diarrhea sustains your frenzy charges
- Also great for breaches as you don't have to target anything in the claustrophobic disaster. Flicker strike auto targets! There's nothing to fear when you lag as flicker will auto target all the enemies for you.
- You can still proc lvl20 CWDT easily by using the correct gems and jewels.




Advantages
- Clears maps really fast - big aoe, big damage.
- Holds right click to clear things.
- Zerphi, Flicker, Acrobatics is good survivability when put together, as things can't hit you and you heal up instantly.
- Can sustain flicker strike on bosses with permanently maximum frenzy charges.

Disadvantages
- You'll lag. A lot. And need a relatively good computer to not freeze in breaches.
- Desync will be there even if you use lock step, as flickering at 11APS isn't good for you.
- You'll kill yourself a lot when you aren't used to pressing Zerphi's before attacking.
- You literally cannot see anything at all. Your screen is filled with spells. X-Bearers will suck.

How the build works - Mechanics
Spoiler
The build uses several mechanics in game, which I will explain below:
1) Way of the Poacher - 20% chance to gain a frenzy charge on hitting a unique/rare. As explained above, we use CWDT to proc lots of spells in order to gain keep up all charges at a boss.

2) How to proc CWDT? Use Scold's Bridle, which does 400% of skill mana cost to you as physical damage.

3) How to hit yourself hard enough to proc CWDT? Lots and lots of Fevered Mind Jewels. And a 6L Flicker Strike setup so your mana cost is very high.


4) How to not commit suicide while using Scold's - Use Zerphi's Last Breath Flask. How this works is that you FIRST take 400% of mana cost as damage, and then heal back 800% of mana cost with Zerphi's. As such, you must have enough life to take the first hit before healing it back. If you don't, the first hit from Scold's may kill you.


5) How to keep your mana low so Zerphi's is always active? Get the "Mind Over Matter" node on tree. This will make 30% damage you take be dealt to mana rather than Life instead. With such high mana cost of your skills, your mana cost is always 0.

6) How to attack with Flicker Strike with 0 mana? Use a 6L Flicker Strike setup with a LEVEL 1 BLOOD MAGIC. YES LEVEL ONE. DO NOT LEVEL IT UP. If you level up your blood magic the mana cost will decrease. This is no good for proccing high level CWDT.

CWDT has a internal cooldown of 250ms. This means flicker strike must attack just under 12 times (11.99x attacks per second) a second (with multistrike) in order to maximize your damage. When you achieve this you'll lag really hard as you'll proc around 10 spells 4 times a second.

Frenzy charges are important! They give attack speed to help you reach the limit of 11.99 attacks per second, and they also grant 4% more damage per charge. This is a HUGE damage boost to your spells.

Elemental Focus node is great, as you proc so many spells, something is BOUND to crit in the last 8 seconds.



Stats
Spoiler
Coming soon!


Current Gear
Spoiler


What to look for in your gear
Spoiler

Do not get any armor on gear - otherwise it will reduce damage taken from Scold's to proc your CWDT.

You will need INT on gear to use Scold's. Get INT on gear by crafting - you won't need that many resist as you will be using mostly rare gear.

Helm: Scold's Bridle - this is essential.
Gloves: 75+ Life with necessary resists.
Boots: 75+ life with necessary resists. 30% Movement speed increase.
Body: MUST be a 6L. Tabula Rasa is a great option. You have many other slots for resists.
Weapon: Best would be a SCEPTRE with the "Essence of Hysteria" (~27C when I bought it) crafted mod "10% chance to cast Level 20 Fire Burst on Hit". Why? Because just like the "Way of the Poacher", this works with spells too. The base damage of this is extremely high as well, which makes both your single target and AOE much much better.
If this is too expensive, use a Doryani's Catalyst.

Shield: 90+ life and spell damage.
Rings: Best would be Unset Rings with 65+ Life and resists.
Amulet: One with +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charge with 70+ Life and maybe resists. Ones with just Frenzy Charge and Life are not too expensive.
Belt: Huge slot for life. Try to get one with 120+ (or even 140+) life with Reduced Flask Charges used (important!! - this lets you use Zerphi's Flask 3 times instead of 2 times). Increased flask duration is a great mod to get too.

Flasks:
Zerphi's Last Breath - DO NOT QUALITY THIS FLASK. +Quality only makes it heal more mana, it does not increase the flask duration.
Atziri's Promise gives a good damage boost.
Dying Sun gives plenty of AOE but is real expensive.
Silver flask gives onslaught and increases attack speed so you can proc CWDT faster. Also with Raider, Onslaught will help remove all status ailments if you completed your Uber Lab to get Avatar of the Veil node.
Quicksilver helps you travel between packs.
Life flask (best with sapping to remove mana) to heal up in case you ever forget to use Zerphi's.

Jewels: Fevered Mind Jewels with high spell damage increase.



Gem Links - Updated 20-Jan-17
Spoiler

Level all gems to level 20.

Body 6L: Flicker Strike - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Life Gained on Hit - Increased AOE - Blood Magic (This one is just for reference, the links don't really matter - you just need to stack a bunch of the most expensive mana multiplier gems) Again, do not level the blood magic gem.
You can also consider using Fortify and Faster attacks, if your mana cost is sufficiently high. Although fortify will reduce the damage you take by 25%, you can still do enough damage to yourself using jewels to proc high level CWDT. If so, then you'll have a much higher EHP pool as you'll take less damage from monsters too.

Weapon (with fire burst mod): Controlled Destruction/Fire Penetration - Concentrated Effect - Elemental Focus
Weapon (without fire burst mod): CWDT - Spell - Spell
Shield: CWDT - Arctic Breath - Elemental Weakness (this is a very useful curse to have)

Ring: Anger
Ring: Blood Rage (This is good help for starting a fight to get your mana to 0)

Glove/Boots/Scold's (links no need to be in this setup)
CWDT - Increased Duration - Blade Vortex - Firestorm (This gets you 20 stacks of BV in boss fights which enhances damage significantly)
CWDT - Bladefall - Ice Nova - Glacial Cascade
CWDT - Vortex - Freezing Pulse - Elemental Focus

Note: Discharge CAN work. But it isn't great as it expends all your frenzy charges. Make's your attack speed slower, proc speed slower, and makes the flickering experience not smooth. I personally don't recommend it.


Tree - For Level 91 - Bandits are: Oak - Passive - Kraityn
Spoiler

New Tree updated 16/1/2017
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIBAQBeAO4EswUtBbUILgthDPIUIBUgFyYZjhm0HNwi4iP2Kk0s6S2DLlMwcTB8MtE1kjfUOkI64TwFPC09_D7PPydB0EMxRA1FR0WdR35H4krIS3hM_02STeNQR1FHU1JWSFhjWhpfP19wYqxlTWebaPJqk2wIbIxuqnTteoR67311g1-DbYPMhTKGs4zPjX2Nv48amuCbjZ2qogCjiqQ5pcumV6cIrj6vbLTFtfK3Pr02vea-p8BmwuzDM8auyPDQrdNv037UI9gk2L3awdvn3ajkUevu7T_tg-4O7w7veu988B_xivJF9kj2o_4K_o_-ug==?accountName=Xymordos&characterName=TheSwagKing

Old Tree for reference:
Spoiler
http://poeplanner.com/AAQAAPUSIwB4m40ILu2DGY4AXtN-fXX-uu967g4j9k2SjX0wfFFHPs-95o2_1CO-p2VNvTZHftrBWhp07QUtLlPTbzWS2L3-CkMxwzOjihm0RA3I8C2DFSD2oyzphrPwH6IABLPAZgW1wuy0xWKsbIydqgzypcvyRTrhpldN4_6PN9TtPzwF73xqk0z_eu_r7oUyHNyPGqcI2CRWSDLRRUea4EWdU1Jo8q9sC2HGrjwtg1-3PoPMtfJuqkrIPycqTQDuR-Ii4qQ5OtgnL5BVGjjsOIV7ZlSCm5o7n9-uPmeb5FFQR-8OFCAXJnqE0K1B0F9wg208vtjVAAAAAAA=




Leveling
Leveling is difficult. Starting skills suck for Ranger and I worked along with Frost Blades and a lot of Elreon Jewelry. The tree only have life nodes, which makes it difficult to do damage at early levels. I prefer melee so I changed to Earthquake/Cyclone later on. Spells may work too but I've never tried.

Playing the Build
Use Anger to get nice damage boost for spells.
Before entering a fight, use Blood Rage a few times to get your mana to 0. Use Zerphi's Last Breath and just hold right click. Press Zerphi's every 5 seconds or so to make sure it doesn't run out in battle. Note: If you kill a few mobs on your first flicker and don't get charges back, run to a safe place and wait for the flicker cooldown to go away first before trying again. If you hit a rare/unique mob, you're almost guaranteed to get most of your charges back to start continuously flickering again.

Against bosses, when flickering, activate Vaal Molten Shell for a big damage boost.

Reflect WILL kill you. Don't flicker for too long on mobs with high hp.

When you go this build, be prepared to die a lot when you start using Zerphi - you'll forget to press it every 10 seconds. Also, every time you level up, your mana heals to full and Zerphi stops. If you are in the middle of flickering you'll die.
Guild #YoloSwag <SWAG>
HSC: SwaglordYolomancerII
Time zone: GMT +8 (Hong Kong)
Last edited by Xymordos on Jan 20, 2017, 2:53:13 AM
Last bumped on Jan 27, 2017, 8:58:58 AM
HAH!
I must try this masochist build!
dis mah sig.
"
InSaNeOo wrote:
HAH!
I must try this masochist build!


Do try if you have the time and currency! (And a nice computer)

My favorite part is sustaining max frenzy charges vs bosses :P
Guild #YoloSwag <SWAG>
HSC: SwaglordYolomancerII
Time zone: GMT +8 (Hong Kong)
Small bump
Guild #YoloSwag <SWAG>
HSC: SwaglordYolomancerII
Time zone: GMT +8 (Hong Kong)
Hahaha

And I thought my 200% movespeed cyclone QotF Scold's was the best version of the build

I'll have to try this. Did you consider doing Oro's flicker with other classes?


Edit: WOW, thanks for giving me the idea. I'm going to respec my self-curse Juggernaut to Oro's Flicker with Vaal Molten Shell and try it out.
Last edited by SasquatchBrah on Jan 14, 2017, 1:08:36 PM
Question for you

Does it appear that scold's activates off of all three multistrike hits on flicker strike, or just the first?
Hope this build works well for you :)

Just the first hit of flicker procs CWDT, since only the first hit of multistrike costs mana. But using multistrike has a few benefits:

1) Huge mana cost boost
2) Lots of attack speed to help you reach the CWDT proc rate cap of 11.9APS
3) When you flicker really fast it's hard for enemies to hit you.

I haven't tried Oros Flicker. I tried regular dagger flicker back in Anarchy and Heges flicker last league. Both were very fun.
Guild #YoloSwag <SWAG>
HSC: SwaglordYolomancerII
Time zone: GMT +8 (Hong Kong)
Last edited by Xymordos on Jan 15, 2017, 10:35:42 AM
You sir are a GENIUS!

I have done Besersker CWDT builds before this seems to be even better.
As long you keep those flasks up, many riperonis.
I've changed the tree and gem setups to be the current version I'm using. I found that using acrobatics and phase acrobatics gives an overall smoother gameplay.

Gem links also updated to give more spells and damage.
Guild #YoloSwag <SWAG>
HSC: SwaglordYolomancerII
Time zone: GMT +8 (Hong Kong)
Xymordos what do you think about using Rapid Assault asc. vs Avatar of the Veil?
Veil gives use 40% increased elemental dmg and 10% spell dodge (total of 40%) - Great survivability (can't be frozen,shocked,ignited) and gg dmg
While Rapid Ass. will provide with 40% inc. att. speed and 20% cast speed. MORE SPAM DIARRHEA!

also I see you swapped Herald of Ice for ANGER, better deeps?
dis mah sig.
Last edited by InSaNeOo on Jan 16, 2017, 6:49:28 AM

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