[3.13] Poison Flicker Strike CI Pathfinder
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So you might have looked at the title and asked yourself, what the actual crap is this supposed to be? And yet still you came! So happy that you could make it! Welcome to my first build guide and to start off a little bit of history of this build.
I started trying to make this build work back when Apep's Supremacy came out. From the start of that league I tried several things. At first I was using Occultist, because that was the only way I could get enough Energy Shield while using the chest piece that gave the damage the build needed. The item was Dendrobate, something that was not needed for this version. Still damage was lacking and at the time the inability to curse totems (Which meant Elder Portals) made the build feel kinda weak. So I swapped it to Trickster when they moved Wicked Ward into the tree, and while the damage was a bit better, I was still greatly lacking on Survivability and curses were still a problem. So I shelved the idea. This league they announced removal of Curse immune creatures (Took a bit, but it was finally patch fixed) with the added bonus of moving Whispers of Doom to a spot where we can reach it! So I dusted off the notes, went to PoB, and went back to the drawing board. After a few Eureka moments (Pathfinder Poison Prolif, Stun Avoidance flask Craft, Cluster jewel Mod Vicious Skewering) I came to a build that I figured would work and wanted to try. I would like to note that by no means is this full 100% original. There was a build preview during Incursion of a similar build that didn't focus on Poison Damage. These were at the time build in a void from each other, and while I did eventually take a peak at their build, this was never intended as building off what they did. 3.13 Changes
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So with 3.13 Pathfinder lost a bunch of damage nodes that effected this build. This adds up to about 90k Boss DPS on PoB. About 10% of the Boss DPS damage. That said with the addition of Harvest back into the game, making better gear should be able to cover this difference. Other than that, nothing I have seen for the new uniques make any difference for the build. Video
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As was requested, I threw together a video of this build clearing a T16 Map. Forgive my poor video creation skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCAoL5fz0uk Pros and Cons
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Cons: - Inability to control what you are attacking - Inability to know where you are at any given moment - Backtracking is going to happen - Bosses aren't super friendly when you are standing on their toes - Can't do Physical Reflect - Possibly Seizure inducting Pros: - Immunity to Curses - Immunity to Elemental Ailments - Immunity to Chaos Damage - Immunity to Bleed Damage - Killing things while being Stationary at all times - Pretty Tanky - 1m Shaper DPS! - Great Clear - 78% Elemental resists - Block 55%/Spell Block 22% - Attack Dodge 17%/Spell Dodge 47% - Physical Damage reduction 48% - Evade Chance 54% - 336 ES regen and 273 ES Leech/On Hit - 80% Stun Avoidance - Possibly Seizure inducting How the Build works
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So the core of the build is the interaction between these two items: With this combination any bleeds you inflict are reflected back to you, then anytime you hit something while bleeding, you gain a Frenzy charge. Now Bleeding would normally just kill you if you left it on that long, but with this shield Bleeds on you deal Chaos Damage, and we are CI! So immune to the damage. Now The next part is tricky. You need to inflict bleed without sacrificing a gem. Three options exist for here, Vulnerability Curse (Which isn't great, hexproof maps are impossible) a weapon with bleed on it, and Cluster jewels. Currently I'm using these jewels, but will have suggestions for improvements to get a weapon. Lastly we get to skip out on needing Melee Splash because of Pathfinder's Poison Proliferation and A massive Plague Bearer. This makes clear ridiculously easy Required Items
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Stops you from dieing from self Bleed Needed to generate Frenzy Charges Needed to reflect bleeds to yourself So I would suggest starting off with Both these, Find a Megalomaniac that has Vicious Skewering and something else that is good for you. Good is anything that grants Life leech, Energy Shield, Chaos Damage, Dot Multiplier, etc. Then get a Large Cluster Jewel that has Vicious Skewering on it as well. If you can I would suggest finding Veteran Defender as a second mod on the Jewel This isn't so much as build defining as it is the best weapon for you for a very long time. How to level as this build
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Don't.
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Okay, you can but I would advise doing something like Cobra Lash with Herald of Agony, Get Max Life nodes along the build path and when you are able to switch over do so. But seriously, level as something else and then switch to this. Flicker is nearly impossible to level as and this build wants to be CI when it starts down in the Ranger area. My Gear
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Path of Building
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https://pastebin.com/wXjpr7Ss Gearing Info
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Your hands are pretty tied here. Pretty much every rare needs as much Energy Shield as you can get while still making your resists, which Thread of Hope makes harder. Rings and Amulets: Try to get Flat Chaos or Flat Physical on these if you can, but don't stress too hard. You are going to need to work for your Strength requirements and Resists Focus those first and later maybe try to grab one with these. Gloves: As much ES and resists as you can get. If you can find something with Attack Speed and an open Prefix you are golden. Craft +AoE Gems on it and your Plague Bearer will live here. Helmet: As much ES and Resists as you can get. Body Armor: So you want Evasi....nope, As much ES and resists as you can get. You should be able to get a bit lucky here. People drool and fight each other for Explodey chests and you my friend, don't care about using the explode crutch! Belt: As much ES and resists as you can get. Try to get Flask duration and Flask Charge stuff here if you can. You may also need to get some of your strength here Large Cluster Jewel: Vicious Skewering is a Must to start, try for a second notable of Veteran Defender. Eventually you should be able to find a Jewel with a third notable that is good. Make sure to try to get an 8 node if you can Medium Cluster jewel: Circling Oblivion and Vile Reinvigoration are your friends. If you can get good small passive mods too great! 4 node is best, you can deal with a 5 node, more than that just adds points Small Cluster Jewel: Savior The Moment is delicious and makes this spot. 2 node is love, 2 node is life Weapon: You will need something like this to beat Wasp Nest If you get this, instead of crafting % Physical you can craft %Physical and 20% Bleed. This will let you drop one of the two Vicious Skewering. Wherever you drop it from I would suggest Feed the Fury Notable as its replacement. Gem Links
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Body: Flicker Strike (Divergent) - Multistrike - Deadly Ailments (Anomalous) - Poison - Awakened Added Chaos - Awakaened Unbound Ailments Anomalous Deadly Ailments is more damage than Awakaened. Awakened Multistrike is better...but who can afford that? Multistrike and Poison are required. So if you are on a 5L, Whatever color you are missing, Drop Deadly Ailments or Unbound Ailments) Helmet: CWDT 1 - Blade Vortex 8 - HexTouch - Temporal Chains Gloves: Plague Bearer - Empower - Enhance - Increased Area of Effect (Divergent) Shield: CWDT 1 - Immortal Call 1 - Increased Duration Weapon: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify Boots: Vaal Discipline - Malevolence (Divergent) - Artic Armour (Divergent) - Elemental Proliferation Ring: Precision 7 I put 7 cause that was a mana cost that worked for me, play with this a bit if you need. Budget options
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So if you are doing this on a tighter budget, here are my suggetions - Aul's Uprising can be replaced with any Rare, and you will need to drop Malevolence from the build. - Watcher's Eye this can be replaced by a watcher's eye that just has Spell Block with Discipline. If you are doing this the low level precision isn't required, but still helps out. - Transcendent Mind, This isn't required to make the build work and can be replaced with any damage jewel Last edited by Rheavon on Jan 20, 2021, 3:13:29 PM Last bumped on Apr 8, 2021, 9:13:46 PM
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Not going to lie, I was hoping for at least some discussion or comments...I guess I will just let this die. I will say for the record I am super proud of myself for getting this to work. If anyone eventually wants to reply, please message me as well cause I'm probably not going to keep checking this thread if no one is interested at all.
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" Listen, I get it. And you can be proud to get something like this working, since it proves that you understand the mechanics of the game and found a way to make them synergize together. Here might be a problem with the build: Your Main Skill has no poison interaction whatsoever. And from a traditional standpoint you are trying to pick a gem, and make it work as best as possible. Trying to go the poison route with a gem that does not synergize with poison means you waste ressources to make it work, rather than make it strong. And if I may - just comparing the basic poison dps you can reach with Viper Strike, Pestilent Strike or Venom Gyre outclasses this by far. This is not supposed to diminish the work you put in it, but in the end it is just sort of a "meme"-build, that just shows how flexible and versatile path of exile is. Still, best regards and good job man. | |
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Meme or not, I'm playing this next league xD. Great job man!
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Great job Rheavon!
I´m always looking for new interesting builds to try and play, and you made a really cool one. It´s not always about making the most optimal overpowered combination of skills. We´re playing this game for fun, and this build looks pretty fun to play. So congrats on putting the build together, and thanks for sharing it; really appreciate the guide. | |
" " Thank you guys :) If you have any problems with the build feel free to send me a message. I'll try popping in here from time to time to see if anyone is looking for assistance Last edited by Rheavon on Dec 15, 2020, 8:18:14 PM
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So thus far it doesn't look like much has changed for this build. It does look like the build lost about 90k Boss damage from Pathfinder changes. This might be able to be made up in optimizations and other changes. I will keep an eye on new items to see. That said with Harvest back, it should be doable to make much...much better rares which might cover for the loss in damage.
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Figured I would share this for anyone else reading. A question that was sent to me
" and my response. " Last edited by Rheavon on Feb 19, 2021, 11:42:44 AM
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I love the idea of this build, and am impressed with your version of it! I have been trying to put together an Apep’s Supremacy trickster flicker strike, but I haven’t been able to really make it work. If you don’t mind me asking, what were your findings with trickster? I thought of perhaps converting physical -> cold to double the effectiveness of the ascendancy node that gives extra chaos dmg, but was never able to generate significant DPS.
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" So I tried making it as both and Occultist and as a Trickster. The big convergence of problems is you need melee splash so your 6L Flicker is going to be doing less damage, to counter this I tried to use Dendrobate armor, but found that even with Trickster's Evasion to ES from Escape Artist that I could never get enough ES on the build. Especially since you are hard locked to Non ES boots. Going Pathfinder means I don't need to use melee Splash as Pathfinder gets poison prolif to get the poisons on as many things as you can, and use a Full ES Armor. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I wasn't able to get it to work out very well without sacrificing a lot of Max ES |
