[0.11.2] Flicker Samurai - Ranger Build Guide [updated]

It's a tiny little bit off-topic but, I switched from 2W daggers to 1H axe + shield on my CI ranger, and I'm now much much more using my flicker strike ( 4Linked : melee physical + melee full + melee splash + flicker strike ), and it's quite efficient actually !
I have like 14 points spent for axes and the nodes to get to them, and maybe 10 for other offensive stuff ( including frenzy charges ), so it's not much, but I'm gonna get more of it =)) ( and need a better 1H axe too ! )

After wanting to do a flicker build for a while, I finally did get a Terminus, so I decided to use the respec on my Ranger to try this. I'm still only in Act 2 on Merciless, but it's a lot of fun.

I just wanted to give this a bump and say how awesome it, and the OP are for making it. I love it already and I still need the chaos resist to be able to use Blood Rage with it... But it's way better already than the cleave stuff I was doing before. And I can actually survive doing so!

Added a 0.11.0 video - lunaris temple run; also have started quick switching to a bow with frenzy linked with GMP and Faster attacks, to get the inital frenzy charges more safely - it's a small thing but it helps greatly if the monsters are very dangerous.

hey nice build and something ive been wanting to do now i have a good 1st character.

you state that at the start you should make you way over to the duelist starting nodes and i was wondering does that mean this build would work fine starting as a duelist, unless im missing something.

if i did start as duelist what would you recomend aiming for first? im guessing making my way over to iron reflexes.

Thought I should give an update after the 1.11.1c update, since it had some fairly large effects on the build.

The good

DPS has gone up by a fair margin, with frenzy & power charges, my single target frenzy damage is 18k, while flickerstrike is on 28k.

A very important to note change was the fix on the melee splash gem - this makes an enormous amount of difference when fighting groups of enemies - I've found that often if the enemies are clumped tight enough (for example this happens on those little bugs that burrow in the ground) I can insta-gib an entire group (generally only happens to white enemies, however this was happening on some lvl 68 maps).

The bad

The downside (and there is kind of one), is that when before, elemental reflect did virtually nothing to me, now that melee splash is fixed, it hurts all that much more, ESPECIALLY against tightly clumped enemies. Even when your only elemental damage is coming from anger/wrath/hatred, it still hurts with 75 all resistances - hurts, but is still very manageable.
Physical reflect is even more dangerous than before, and if you desync and flicker off-screen into a physical reflect pack, or have low armour. it's a very easy to way to die. Enduring cry + immortal call is a pre-requisite if you want to kill physical reflect rares

has anyone thought about trying a flicker strike dw dagger crit stacking build?? using dw daggers and stacking crit instead of 2h??

Zeekin,

Thank you for taking the time to write this character guide and provide your knowledge for us less "studied" players. I being one of those of us that isn't too familiar with RPGs is trying hard to have fun with a non-cookie cutter build.

Could you write me a PM, or post in your guide here, an explanation of how the skills work together to create the build we see posted? I understand I'm the minority here and most players are far more experienced, but a "how to play this build" would be exactly what I need.

I currently play with a "dual wield" sword ranger so I'm familiar with the concept, just need to understand the power charges and "combos" of this build.

Thank you again!

"

ZaFaR wrote:

Zeekin,

Thank you for taking the time to write this character guide and provide your knowledge for us less "studied" players. I being one of those of us that isn't too familiar with RPGs is trying hard to have fun with a non-cookie cutter build.

Could you write me a PM, or post in your guide here, an explanation of how the skills work together to create the build we see posted? I understand I'm the minority here and most players are far more experienced, but a "how to play this build" would be exactly what I need.

I currently play with a "dual wield" sword ranger so I'm familiar with the concept, just need to understand the power charges and "combos" of this build.

Thank you again!

Power charges do nothing asides from increase your critical strike chance and thus your damage output, they're not necessary but are a really nice damage increase.

Flicker-strike normally has a cooldown, however you can expend a frenzy charge to bypass the cooldown - which is how this build works.

Bloodrage grants you a frenzy charge with each kill - allowing you to keep frenzy charges up near indefinitely (you might run out on bosses or other really high HP enemies).

Grace/Wrath/Anger/Hatred auras are also not mandatory, however they grant a really nice bonus to damage and defence - for e.g. cold damage bonus from hatred increases by a direct % of your physical damage, and when you crit with it on, it often freezes the targets rendering them unable to attack back.

The critical weakness curse is also not mandatory, but it increases your damage output by a crazy amount.

You use enduring cry + immortal call for physical reflect enemies. This becomes mandatory once your damage reaches a point where your damage becomes so great that you start killing yourself versus physical reflect.


How to play it:
1. Turn on blood rage
2. Build frenzy charges with 'frenzy' skill (optionally can do this with a bow for safety)
3. Hold down flicker-strike on enemies


Hope this clears some of it up.

Been playing this build for a little while at mid high levels but with the new patch I'm a bit lost with my respec.

IR after the nerf doesn't seem as appealing as the dodge route + Heart of Oak for 30% stun avoid but I don't even know if you can dodge or more importantly, be stunned, while flickering. I know you can be inbetween flickers obviously but mid animation getting stunned would be disastrous.

Would I give up too many stats going for Eye of Chayula? The reduced life makes me hesitant but avoiding stun would save me a few skill points not to mention the obvious safety of stun immunity.

Is Ondar's Guile necessary if you're going dodge? Seems like most projectiles won't hit if you're flickering around and most dodge builds won't be going that far down the tree.


Honestly I don't even know whether to go with melee dmg nodes or eva/life nodes at the ranger start area, I'm basically lost atm.

Before the patch I was planning on using Vaal Pact to combat reflect monsters. Came up with

As a 'skeleton' build but as you can see it uses way, way too many points to be a viable option.

Anyone else playing flicker that can shed some light?

I'm currently testing this variation of the build that using acrobatics - since basically all my gear was evasion and IR is a lot worse now, so I thought I'd give it a shot.



I've run about 8 maps and my reactions is positive for now, still waiting for RNG to raise its ugly head and strike me down (after which I'll probably respec back into IR)

for reference my evasion chance is currently 47% (plus 30% dodge, 20% spell dodge)

Things I've noticed since the patch
(old -> new)
chance to hit 86% -> 92%
flicker dps 28k -> 32k (mostly thanks to chance to hit I think)
things die -> things die noticeably faster

and to deal with reflect, I use immortal call

edit: updated the OP with both armour and evasion versions of the build

edit2: evasion not viable for map bosses, brutus/kole/spider is guaranteed 1-shot if they hit you, not really possible to have a big enough health pool to make acrobatics worthwhile, back to the [nerfed] IR.