



Flicker Samurai





This is a build that centers around the usage of the new melee gems: Melee Splash, Multistrike and Power Charge on Critical. Using high crit chance/multiplier combined with critical weakness it's possible to deal very high damage meaning you can wipe out white/champions in seconds, allowing you to sustain frenzy charges via blood rage, and continuously cast flicker-strike.



Video Footage:



Footage for 0.11.0 (adding more over time)



Lunaris Temple Run

Spoiler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPxu254zDyc



Footage from 0.10.7 (and earlier)

Spoiler

Spoiler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKgSQl5l3nU



Dried Lake

Spoiler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJiMKuOn5lQ



Mountain Ledge

Spoiler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_fbkylc3s



Springs map

Spoiler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAxROq84qWs

Overgrown ShrineDried LakeMountain LedgeSprings map

Pros



Spoiler +Low level areas, docks and under extremely easy, you can clear these areas in under minutes

+Requires you to think and micro your character, manage your potions and curses, and keep a vigilant watch on your health at all times; the opposite of a braindead build like FP maruader or EK shadow (I guess this could also be considered a con :P)

+Fun to play and level up

+Can be built as either a ranger or a duelist

+Makes use of 2 handed swords (coolest looking weapon imo!)

+Elemental reflect maps are no problem

+Generally very quick to kill enemies; because flicker locks-on to enemies you're not going to be hitting the air as with many melee builds

+High crit chance means that surgeons flasks are very effective, and and crit multiplier gives very large damage increases

+Very high armour (from evasion)



Cons



Spoiler

+Physical reflect maps are not possible, and you need to use immortal call to avoid 1-shotting yourself on physical reflect rares

+Hard to gear for - to get to the point where *I* currently am, it required what I would consider a significant investment into character itemisation.

+Multi-strike combined with flickerstrike causes you to desync; often your client will get out of sync when using this ability, meaning you end up somewhere else than your client tells you and it rubber-bands to where you *really* are.

+Requires chaos resistance

+You will die: very glass cannon - if you have an unstable connection, or get frustrated dieing, I would not recommend this build as even seconds spent out of position can mean death.

+Not for hardcore league

+Many map mods will be a struggle (to name a few): monster life, monster damage, extra damage as x% elemental damage, additional projectiles (sometimes), vulnerability & reduced life/mana recovery.

+Incoming damage is nearly impossible to predict, and will often be in the form of large bursts, as such you can have some *very* bull$#!+ deaths (e.g. if you flicker *into* 10 projectiles in a row)

+There is a very fine line between this build being semi-viable and completely unplayable.







Current build - level 81



Armour Version

Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBAF4EfgUtBbUG7gguDPIOSA6tFfAY2xmOGtshYCP2JpUppSyFMgk0NTWGNj06WDqzPs9AoEOcR35JO0p9UEJRR1VLVvpaGlpIW69gS2HiYxdjQ2VNZ6Bqk217bmlwUnTtdPF674TZhxmHdohrjDaNfY2_kAqXcJkrm42dqp65oi6ly6c0qn-quKvFtUi2QbnNvYG95r6nwA_AUcEHzerSTdN-1FLVANXt137dDeOE51TndOsU7YPuDu9O73rv8PDZ8-r5Y_zF



Evasion version: Not viable for map bosses, good for leveling however.

Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4EfgUtBbUG7gguDPIOSBXwGNsZjhrbIWAj9iaVLIUwcTIJNDU1hjY9OkI6WDqzPs9AoEd-Sn1LeFBCUUdVS1b6WhpaSFuvYEtjF2NDZU1noGqTbXtuaXBSdO108XrvhNmHGYd2iGuMNo19jb-QCpdwmSubjZ2qnrmiLqXLpzSqf6q4q8W1SLZBuc29gb3mvqfAD8BRwQfGos3q0k3TftQj1FLVANXt137dDd2o44TnVOsU7YPuDu9O73rv8PDZ8-r5Y_zF





Bandits



Spoiler Normal: 40 HP

Cruel: 18% physical - more than you'll get from any one skill point (not counting the sword specific ones you need to spend many points to get to)

Merciless: Power charge



Build Order

Spoiler For leveling I would recommend going for the duelist nodes first, taking any health nodes along the way, securing berserking, iron reflexes and diamond skin. Then head upwards and get acceleration and master of the arena and the life nodes above it. At this point do not bother getting the sword nodes as leveling up you're likely to find better weapons of all different kinds.



By now you'd be (I'd estimate around 30), & start going upwards from the ranger tree and start getting the crit nodes. Always prioritise health nodes over everything else. Once you're happy you've enough crit from the shadow area you can start taking the sword specific skills in the duelist tree area and after that can take the flat physical % damage increase nodes near the duelist start.



By this stage you should have the basic skeleton of the build (roughtly lvl 60-70) and can start filling it out grabbing the remaining crit nodes / heath nodes / damage nodes.





Skill+Support Gem combinations:



Spoiler Main attack: (1) Flicker strike (20%) + (2) Power Charge on Critial (quality optional) + (3) Additional Accuracy (20%) + (4) Increased Critical Strikes (quality optional) + (5) Multistrike + (6) Melee Splash

Curse: Critical Weakness

Buffs: Enduring Cry + Immortal call (quality helps a lot) + Increased Duration (quality preferred)

Single Target: (1) Frenzy + (2) Faster attacks + (3) Melee Physical

Movement: Leap slam

Auras: (1) Grace + (2) Wrath + (3) Anger + (4) Reduced Mana

Auras: (1) Hatred + (2) Purity + (3) Reduced Mana





Itemization:



Spoiler

Malachai's: Used for putting on auras

Maligaro's: Greatly increase your crit chance/multiplier

Abysuss: Insane crit multiplier

Terminus Est: While it won't allow you to keep frenzy charges up permanently, it comes close, and goes a long way towards filling the gap when you can't get charges via blood rage. Very good cheap weapon until you can find something better.

Spoiler



+You'll need at least around 50-60% chaos resistance to break even with blood rage degeneration, given the amount of near-death experiences you're likely to have, it's a very bad idea to be in battle with 4% (or more) health draining away per second.

My Chaos resistance comes from my rings:



+As much health, resistances and evasion you can get +There are three uniques which greatly help the build:Malachai's: Used for putting on aurasMaligaro's: Greatly increase your crit chance/multiplierAbysuss: Insane crit multiplierTerminus Est: While it won't allow you to keep frenzy charges up permanently, it comes close, and goes a long way towards filling the gap when you can't get charges via blood rage. Very good cheap weapon until you can find something better.+You'll need at least around 50-60% chaos resistance to break even with blood rage degeneration, given the amount of near-death experiences you're likely to have, it's a very bad idea to be in battle with 4% (or more) health draining away per second.My Chaos resistance comes from my rings:+As much health, resistances and evasion you can get



My Gear:



Spoiler





Summary



A build that can often be annoying due to RNG & desync, but for me at least, the fun outweighs the frustration. Not really viable for end-game maps, but they are do-able.

Some credit needs to go to zekerferc where I first saw the flicker+multi mechanic and usage of terminus est.



Questions and build critique are much welcome. This is a build that centers around the usage of the new melee gems: Melee Splash, Multistrike and Power Charge on Critical. Using high crit chance/multiplier combined with critical weakness it's possible to deal very high damage meaning you can wipe out white/champions in seconds, allowing you to sustain frenzy charges via blood rage, and continuously cast flicker-strike.Footage for 0.11.0 (adding more over time)Lunaris Temple RunFootage from 0.10.7 (and earlier)Armour VersionEvasion version: Not viable for map bosses, good for leveling however.A build that can often be annoying due to RNG & desync, but for me at least, the fun outweighs the frustration. Not really viable for end-game maps, but they are do-able.Some credit needs to go to zekerferc where I first saw the flicker+multi mechanic and usage of terminus est.Questions and build critique are much welcome. "there is no spoone" - The Matricks Last edited by Zeekin on Jul 17, 2013, 10:03:35 AM Posted by

Zeekin

on on Quote this Post

First, Thanks for the crediting me :)



Can you provide your stats? I am really curious about your Dps, total combined damahe, mana and armour.



I had some doubts about Power charge gem but it seems it works really well. I will definitely drop Voll's and get a nice chest.



I am not sure about Accuracy gem though. I never saw my flicker missed, maybe it's the insane attack speed I am not sure. Anyway %40 extra crit chance is good but I would defintely swap it for Melee Physical Damage.



About Astramentis, no doubt it's really good but is it really necessary? I never happened to have one but I think that there are better amulets out there. I mean, an amulet with %50+ crit multiplier, some life and resistance and maybe some crit chance may yield better dps and survivability.



Also, you can use The Covenant instead of Malachai's.



I still think that , a better 2 hand sword would work better than Terminus. I never tried this build with another sword, as I am completely broke :) Maybe, you can try. I know you tried this build with Marohi, but how about a high aps, crit and phy damage 2H sword?



Anyway, I can easily say that this build is the most enjoyable and also addictive build I have ever played. And I played with a lot of builds, including the mainstream ones ( fp, la, ek, cleave ) and many weird experimental builds of mine :) If only, this build had better survivability in high level maps.







Posted by

zekerferc

on on Quote this Post

" zekerferc



Can you provide your stats? I am really curious about your Dps, total combined damahe, mana and armour.



I had some doubts about Power charge gem but it seems it works really well. I will definitely drop Voll's and get a nice chest.



I am not sure about Accuracy gem though. I never saw my flicker missed, maybe it's the insane attack speed I am not sure. Anyway %40 extra crit chance is good but I would defintely swap it for Melee Physical Damage.

First, Thanks for the crediting me :)Can you provide your stats? I am really curious about your Dps, total combined damahe, mana and armour.I had some doubts about Power charge gem but it seems it works really well. I will definitely drop Voll's and get a nice chest.I am not sure about Accuracy gem though. I never saw my flicker missed, maybe it's the insane attack speed I am not sure. Anyway %40 extra crit chance is good but I would defintely swap it for Melee Physical Damage.



You are right, but consider that I'm using a pure evasion chest at the moment - rolling RRRBBG would be extremely unlikely! I don't have the guts to try it, getting 2 red 2 blue was hard enough haha.



Accuracy gem is not bad though, I am pretty certain you can miss with flickerstrike, at least the DPS tooltip seems to indicate as much - my chance to hit goes from 88% to 80% (dps drops by ~10%) when I remove it, and max level accuracy gem gives over +1000 accuracy



stats using melee physical instead of melee splash:

Spoiler

evidently a very large damage increase, but I simply dont have the space at the moment!



my total armour is currently 9.5K and over 10K with frenzy charges



" zekerferc

About Astramentis, no doubt it's really good but is it really necessary? I never happened to have one but I think that there are better amulets out there. I mean, an amulet with %50+ crit multiplier, some life and resistance and maybe some crit chance may yield better dps and survivability.

About Astramentis, no doubt it's really good but is it really necessary? I never happened to have one but I think that there are better amulets out there. I mean, an amulet with %50+ crit multiplier, some life and resistance and maybe some crit chance may yield better dps and survivability.



stats with astra:

Spoiler





stats with this:



Spoiler



If I had a really nice crit neck with enough attributes for my other gems I would definitely use it for the damage boost, I've not put much effort into looking for one but maybe I will now. Main reason I was using astra was just because I had one and it was easy to max my gem requirements.



" zekerferc

Also, you can use The Covenant instead of Malachai's.



I still think that , a better 2 hand sword would work better than Terminus. I never tried this build with another sword, as I am completely broke :) Maybe, you can try. I know you tried this build with Marohi, but how about a high aps, crit and phy damage 2H sword?



Anyway, I can easily say that this build is the most enjoyable and also addictive build I have ever played. And I played with a lot of builds, including the mainstream ones ( fp, la, ek, cleave ) and many weird experimental builds of mine :) If only, this build had better survivability in high level maps.

Also, you can use The Covenant instead of Malachai's.I still think that , a better 2 hand sword would work better than Terminus. I never tried this build with another sword, as I am completely broke :) Maybe, you can try. I know you tried this build with Marohi, but how about a high aps, crit and phy damage 2H sword?Anyway, I can easily say that this build is the most enjoyable and also addictive build I have ever played. And I played with a lot of builds, including the mainstream ones ( fp, la, ek, cleave ) and many weird experimental builds of mine :) If only, this build had better survivability in high level maps.



If I had a higher phy sword to try, I would definitely try it out, and that would give a big dps boost for sure.

You are right, but consider that I'm using a pure evasion chest at the moment - rolling RRRBBG would be extremely unlikely! I don't have the guts to try it, getting 2 red 2 blue was hard enough haha.Accuracy gem is not bad though, I am pretty certain you can miss with flickerstrike, at least the DPS tooltip seems to indicate as much - my chance to hit goes from 88% to 80% (dps drops by ~10%) when I remove it, and max level accuracy gem gives over +1000 accuracystats using melee physical instead of melee splash:evidently a very large damage increase, but I simply dont have the space at the moment!my total armour is currently 9.5K and over 10K with frenzy chargesstats with astra:stats with this:If I had a really nice crit neck with enough attributes for my other gems I would definitely use it for the damage boost, I've not put much effort into looking for one but maybe I will now. Main reason I was using astra was just because I had one and it was easy to max my gem requirements.If I had a higher phy sword to try, I would definitely try it out, and that would give a big dps boost for sure. "there is no spoone" - The Matricks Last edited by Zeekin on Apr 21, 2013, 3:02:12 AM Posted by

Zeekin

on on Quote this Post





I replaced my amulet & weapon with the below and my DPS (tooltip) has gone from 8.9K up to 13.3K, so a pretty large margin.







It certainly makes a difference in kill-time (makes mountain-ledge map feel like it's the ledge zone) and as a result it's far more survivable versus smaller groups of monsters, however with the larger groups it's a serious problem, as the larger the group -> the damage is spread around more -> less enemies die ->run out of frenzy charges -> stuck in the middle of a big mob pack -> dead, the more enemies also means much huger chance of desync (and resultantly death).



If I manage to get the sword linked (5 or 6), I will definitely consider using a secondary skill to compliment flicker strike for whittling those larger groups into a more manageable size for flickering.

Update:I replaced my amulet & weapon with the below and my DPS (tooltip) has gone from 8.9K up to 13.3K, so a pretty large margin.It certainly makes a difference in kill-time (makes mountain-ledge map feel like it's the ledge zone) and as a result it's far more survivable versus smaller groups of monsters, however with the larger groups it's a serious problem, as the larger the group -> the damage is spread around more -> less enemies die ->run out of frenzy charges -> stuck in the middle of a big mob pack -> dead, the more enemies also means much huger chance of desync (and resultantly death).If I manage to get the sword linked (5 or 6), I will definitely consider using a secondary skill to compliment flicker strike for whittling those larger groups into a more manageable size for flickering. "there is no spoone" - The Matricks Posted by

Zeekin

on on Quote this Post

Nice thinking and interesting build.

Thx for sharing it.



But I will try it only if the desync problem is not so frequently happening.

Desync is fatal for melee chars, especially for those with less defensive abilities.

Also after watching your video, I fould that the playing style may possibly make me dizzy for the high-speed changing scene.



Anyway, it is a fun build and good guild.

Wish GGG fix desync and I can experience the samurai. Posted by

kutreels

on on Quote this Post

im trying to do this build in a modified form. what's your plan for the 120 points? right now its 98/120. just more crit and lives, or add in some magic defense? Posted by

wherezmytofu

on on Quote this Post

" wherezmytofu im trying to do this build in a modified form. what's your plan for the 120 points? right now its 98/120. just more crit and lives, or add in some magic defense?



just more health, the remaining crit nodes are just not worth it, and the three I take down near the ranger tree are debatable, I mainly took it for the extra 30% crit multiplier (large dmg increase).



118 point build (-2 from the bandit rewards) would look like this

Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBBH4FLQW1Bu4ILgzyDkgOrRGWFfAY2xmOGtsc3CFgI_YkPCT9JpUnqSi1KaUshTIJNDU1hjWSNj06WDqzPs9AoEOcR35JO0lRSn1OyFBCUUdVS1b6WhpaSFptW69gS2CIYVJh4mMXY0NlTWegapNte25pcFJw1XJ-dO108Xrvf8aE2YcZh3aIa4w2jX2Nv5dwmSubjZ2jnaqeuZ_Loi6ly6c0p1yqf6q4q8Wv67VItkG5zbyfvYG95r6nwA_AUcEHypDSTdN-1BnUUtUA1e3Xft0N44Tjn-dU53Ttg-4O707v8PDZ8-r5Y_yr_MU=



308% increased HP in total.



(Good luck ever getting level 100!) just more health, the remaining crit nodes are just not worth it, and the three I take down near the ranger tree are debatable, I mainly took it for the extra 30% crit multiplier (large dmg increase).118 point build (-2 from the bandit rewards) would look like this308% increased HP in total.(Good luck ever getting level 100!) "there is no spoone" - The Matricks Posted by

Zeekin

on on Quote this Post

" Zeekin " wherezmytofu im trying to do this build in a modified form. what's your plan for the 120 points? right now its 98/120. just more crit and lives, or add in some magic defense?



just more health, the remaining crit nodes are just not worth it, and the three I take down near the ranger tree are debatable, I mainly took it for the extra 30% crit multiplier (large dmg increase).



118 point build (-2 from the bandit rewards) would look like this

Spoiler http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBBH4FLQW1Bu4ILgzyDkgOrRGWFfAY2xmOGtsc3CFgI_YkPCT9JpUnqSi1KaUshTIJNDU1hjWSNj06WDqzPs9AoEOcR35JO0lRSn1OyFBCUUdVS1b6WhpaSFptW69gS2CIYVJh4mMXY0NlTWegapNte25pcFJw1XJ-dO108Xrvf8aE2YcZh3aIa4w2jX2Nv5dwmSubjZ2jnaqeuZ_Loi6ly6c0p1yqf6q4q8Wv67VItkG5zbyfvYG95r6nwA_AUcEHypDSTdN-1BnUUtUA1e3Xft0N44Tjn-dU53Ttg-4O707v8PDZ8-r5Y_yr_MU=



308% increased HP in total.



(Good luck ever getting level 100!) just more health, the remaining crit nodes are just not worth it, and the three I take down near the ranger tree are debatable, I mainly took it for the extra 30% crit multiplier (large dmg increase).118 point build (-2 from the bandit rewards) would look like this308% increased HP in total.(Good luck ever getting level 100!)



thx. i'm new and was informed from a higher level that my currnet build was very bad. i really like the playstay from your video :D thx. i'm new and was informed from a higher level that my currnet build was very bad. i really like the playstay from your video :D Posted by

wherezmytofu

on on Quote this Post

Thanks for sharing your build. Have you tried this in level 70+ maps in groups of 4 or more people? Sadly, me and others have tried flicker extensively, using terminus, marohi and other high end gear, but have been unable to make it viable for group play in high level maps. It's just too hard to keep the charges up. Not to mention desync, which is a real killer for flicker right now.



I wish this weren't the case!



Petrov. Posted by

mrpetrov

on Alpha Member on Quote this Post