





INTRODUCTION



Hey guys, this is my build guide for my Cospri's Malice Flicker Assassin currently in the Essence league. This build harnesses the high attack speed of Flicker Strike to proc multiple overlapping Ice Novas that shatter enemies.



This build is extremely fun to play and destroys through content extremely fast (reaching 300 million experience per hour easily).



This build has an moderate budget, with the only expensive component being Cospri's Malice itself (currently around 4ex). Defensively, we have high Evasion rating, Block, AA, Dodge and Spell Dodge. We also have Life Leech and a moderately high life pool.





VIDEO



Tier 13 Gorge at level 84



http://youtu.be/ZLgbTHef29M









OVERVIEW



Pros:



+ Insane clear speed

+ Very Flashy

+ Very Fun

+ Defensive

+ Freezes Whole Screen



Cons:



- Truly shines when all the pieces of the build come together.

- Can't Run Elemental Reflect and Blood Magic maps.





SKILL TREE



Shadow - Assassin



Passive Tree (For level 91)



Ascendancy Points: Unstable Infusion, Deadly Infusion, Ambush, Assassinate.



Bandits: +Life, +Attack Speed, +Power Charge





LEVELING TREE



Levels 1-34



Passive Tree (For level 34)



Levels 34-61



Passive Tree (For level 61)



Levels 61-91



Passive Tree (For level 91)





SKILL TREE EXPLANATION



Generally on our skill tree, we take elemental, crit and weapon damage where efficient. Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics are used for defense and we also take 2% Life Leech from the tree. We also take 6 power charges to maximise the benefit from the ascendancy.



Attack Speed is not gotten as much, so it is important that we get some on jewels. However, make sure you do not exceed 10 APS or else you will go pass the cooldown of Cospri's Malice.



Deadly Infusion gives us a huge crit chance bonus and Ambush/Assassinate help a lot to get the build going. Assassinate is great against bosses.



With the crit from the skill tree and some on our gear/assassin's Mark, with a diamond flask, we should be able to maintain 95% crit easily.





JEWELS



Jewels are a very important component of our build. Try to get cold damage and attack speed on them. Also try to get crit multiplier, accuracy and critical strike chance. I highly recommend getting life on your jewels. If you can't find any life jewels, then it would be best to take some more life nodes to compensate. My current skill tree assumes that you are getting life on your jewels.







SCREENSHOTS



Flicker DPS







* 9 APS, so the DPS is around 100k with Cold Penetration





Ice Nova DPS







*100k DPS with 9 APS



Therefore, the total DPS is around 200k, since we trigger the Ice Nova on the Flicker.





Defense at level 87









GEAR









GEAR EXPLANATION



Spoiler Weapon



Our Weapon is Cospri's Malice which is mandatory for this build. Inside Cospri's Malice we put Ice Nova. Cospri's is the most expensive component of this build and generally fetches for around 2 exalts. The 257 intelligence requirement is something to note when choosing gear. The blade has a cooldown of 100ms so make sure your APS is below 10 or your procs become unco-ordinated.









Shield



For our shield, we ideally want a shield with high evasion and life. Resistances are important too. I got my current shield for very cheap, but I recommend getting one with over 1000 evasion if possible.









Helm



For our helm, we ideally want a helm with some evasion and accuracy. High Life and resistances are great as well. But it is very good to try and find a helm with the enchantment "Blood rage has a 30% additional chance to grant a frenzy charge on kill". This will help a lot with sustaining your Frenzy charges for Flicker Strike.









Chest



For our chest a 6L is preferable, but a 5L works fine as well. If you can afford it, try to get a 6L Kintsugi or Lightning Coil as they will improve your defense by a lot. With essences, you can also craft some pretty neat rare chests as well.









Gloves



For Gloves, we need a Facebreakers. The damage it provides is insane. 90% crit multi is huge considering that we are almost always hovering around max crit chance. If you can afford Atziri's Acuity, you can try using that. The instant leech will allow you to run elemental reflect maps as well.









Boots



For Boots, we generally want boots with some good evasion. Try to get high intelligence on your boots if you can, as it helps a lot when meeting the 257 intelligence requirement of the sword. Get high Life and resistances. Movespeed isn't that important since we will be using Whirling Blades.









Amulet



For the Amulet, we want an amulet with high crit multiplier. That is the most important affix. Then try to get good accuracy, crit chance, life and resistances if you can. Also get some stats such as strength or intelligence where necessary. Added cold damage and weapon elemental damage is also great to have.









Rings



For our rings, we want diamond rings if possible. If you can't get diamond rings, try to get some good resist rings. Try to find good accuracy rolls and resistances. Also get intelligence to meet the Cospri's requirement. Added cold damage and Weapon elemental damage are also pretty nice to have.









Belt



For the Belt, we want a leather belt with high WED. Try to get high Life and resistances if you can as well. If you can get some flask mods, that would be really nice too.









Flasks



Flasks are very important for this build and a lot of our defense and survivability relies on our flasks. I recommend having one seething divine flask and one eternal flask. Diamond flask is essential to maintaining a very good crit rate and should be up almost all the time. Sapphire Flask is nice vs reflect packs and jade flask is good for tanking bosses. But you can also fit in an Atziri's Promise where necessary. Stibnite Flasks and Basalt Flasks can also be substituted into the build.







Our Weapon is Cospri's Malice which is mandatory for this build. Inside Cospri's Malice we put Ice Nova. Cospri's is the most expensive component of this build and generally fetches for around 2 exalts. The 257 intelligence requirement is something to note when choosing gear. The blade has a cooldown of 100ms so make sure your APS is below 10 or your procs become unco-ordinated.For our shield, we ideally want a shield with high evasion and life. Resistances are important too. I got my current shield for very cheap, but I recommend getting one with over 1000 evasion if possible.For our helm, we ideally want a helm with some evasion and accuracy. High Life and resistances are great as well. But it is very good to try and find a helm with the enchantment "Blood rage has a 30% additional chance to grant a frenzy charge on kill". This will help a lot with sustaining your Frenzy charges for Flicker Strike.For our chest a 6L is preferable, but a 5L works fine as well. If you can afford it, try to get a 6L Kintsugi or Lightning Coil as they will improve your defense by a lot. With essences, you can also craft some pretty neat rare chests as well.For Gloves, we need a Facebreakers. The damage it provides is insane. 90% crit multi is huge considering that we are almost always hovering around max crit chance. If you can afford Atziri's Acuity, you can try using that. The instant leech will allow you to run elemental reflect maps as well.For Boots, we generally want boots with some good evasion. Try to get high intelligence on your boots if you can, as it helps a lot when meeting the 257 intelligence requirement of the sword. Get high Life and resistances. Movespeed isn't that important since we will be using Whirling Blades.For the Amulet, we want an amulet with high crit multiplier. That is the most important affix. Then try to get good accuracy, crit chance, life and resistances if you can. Also get some stats such as strength or intelligence where necessary. Added cold damage and weapon elemental damage is also great to have.For our rings, we want diamond rings if possible. If you can't get diamond rings, try to get some good resist rings. Try to find good accuracy rolls and resistances. Also get intelligence to meet the Cospri's requirement. Added cold damage and Weapon elemental damage are also pretty nice to have.For the Belt, we want a leather belt with high WED. Try to get high Life and resistances if you can as well. If you can get some flask mods, that would be really nice too.Flasks are very important for this build and a lot of our defense and survivability relies on our flasks. I recommend having one seething divine flask and one eternal flask. Diamond flask is essential to maintaining a very good crit rate and should be up almost all the time. Sapphire Flask is nice vs reflect packs and jade flask is good for tanking bosses. But you can also fit in an Atziri's Promise where necessary. Stibnite Flasks and Basalt Flasks can also be substituted into the build.



LINKS AND GEMS





Ice Nova Setup





For Ice Nova, the above setup is used. Make sure the Ice Nova setup is inside Cospri's Malice. Cold Penetration is important, Increased Critical Strikes is optional. I prefer it for more consistency, but you can replace it with Controlled Destruction or Added Cold Damage.





Flicker Strike Setup





This is the Flicker Strike setup. MultiStrike, WED, Melee Splash are mandatory. If you have a 5 Link, you can choose between Cold Penetration or Added Cold. Added Cold actually provides a substantial damage boost (50%), since we don't have a lot of flat cold damage.





Single-Target Setup





For Single Target I like to use Double Strike, but Frenzy works too. Whichever you prefer. Make sure your APS is below 10. With Double Strike, every time we attack we release an Ice Nova, so we can proc up to 10 Ice Novas per seconds, which melts down bosses very well.





Mobility Setup





This is the standard mobility setup with whirling blades. Blood Magic allows you to whirl without mana and Fortify gives some good defense. Try to get a 20/20 Faster attacks and 20/20 Whirling Blades later on if you can, for maximum whirl speed.





Aura Setup





This is our Aura setup and we use Assassin's Mark, Arctic Armour and Herald of Ice. Assassin's Mark gives us 20% more damage when we crit, generates power charges and also increases our crit chance by a fair bit. The mana gained on kill helps a lot towards sustaining our mana pool. AA is a great defensive tool, and Herald of Ice gives us some more flat cold damage and the nice explosion effect.





Utility Setup





Bloodrage is essential for granting us Frenzy Charges. The degen is offset a bit by 1.6% life regeneration from the tree. Our Ice golem is important because it provides us with valuable bonus accuracy. This is why it is important to keep it alive with the minion life support gem.





LEVELING



Generally, just use Ice Nova, Freeze Pulse or Ice Spear to level.







Use items such as Reverberation or Amplification rods.







Once you get to level 50, if you have a good elemental weapon with good crit, you can transition to flicker strike (Goddess Scorned is a great budget item to use, get an Elegant sword from a vendor and follow the recipe to obtain a great budget weapon). Use Flicker Strike - WED - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Added Cold in a 5L Armour. This setup will carry you until you get your Cospri's Malice.



For the Skill tree, finish all the nodes at the Shadow area, then path to the Witch area, and then go to the Ranger Area.



Grab the Jewel sockets and Frenzy Charges once you have grabbed all the main passive points. If you feel squishy, you can grab more life nodes first, but if you want more damage, then you can grab the damage first.





THE END



Hey guys, this is my build guide for my Cospri's Malice Flicker Assassin currently in the Essence league. This build harnesses the high attack speed of Flicker Strike to proc multiple overlapping Ice Novas that shatter enemies.This build is extremely fun to play and destroys through content extremely fast (reaching 300 million experience per hour easily).This build has an moderate budget, with the only expensive component being Cospri's Malice itself (currently around 4ex). Defensively, we have high Evasion rating, Block, AA, Dodge and Spell Dodge. We also have Life Leech and a moderately high life pool.Insane clear speedVery FlashyVery FunDefensiveFreezes Whole ScreenTruly shines when all the pieces of the build come together.Can't Run Elemental Reflect and Blood Magic maps.: Unstable Infusion, Deadly Infusion, Ambush, Assassinate.: +Life, +Attack Speed, +Power ChargeGenerally on our skill tree, we take elemental, crit and weapon damage where efficient. Acrobatics and Phase Acrobatics are used for defense and we also take 2% Life Leech from the tree. We also take 6 power charges to maximise the benefit from the ascendancy.Attack Speed is not gotten as much, so it is important that we get some on jewels. However, make sure you do not exceed 10 APS or else you will go pass the cooldown of Cospri's Malice.Deadly Infusion gives us a huge crit chance bonus and Ambush/Assassinate help a lot to get the build going. Assassinate is great against bosses.With the crit from the skill tree and some on our gear/assassin's Mark, with a diamond flask, we should be able to maintain 95% crit easily.Jewels are a very important component of our build. Try to get cold damage and attack speed on them. Also try to get crit multiplier, accuracy and critical strike chance. I highly recommend getting life on your jewels. If you can't find any life jewels, then it would be best to take some more life nodes to compensate. My current skill tree assumes that you are getting life on your jewels.* 9 APS, so the DPS is around 100k with Cold Penetration*100k DPS with 9 APSFor Ice Nova, the above setup is used. Make sure the Ice Nova setup is inside Cospri's Malice. Cold Penetration is important, Increased Critical Strikes is optional. I prefer it for more consistency, but you can replace it with Controlled Destruction or Added Cold Damage.This is the Flicker Strike setup. MultiStrike, WED, Melee Splash are mandatory. If you have a 5 Link, you can choose between Cold Penetration or Added Cold. Added Cold actually provides a substantial damage boost (50%), since we don't have a lot of flat cold damage.For Single Target I like to use Double Strike, but Frenzy works too. Whichever you prefer. Make sure your APS is below 10. With Double Strike, every time we attack we release an Ice Nova, so we can proc up to 10 Ice Novas per seconds, which melts down bosses very well.This is the standard mobility setup with whirling blades. Blood Magic allows you to whirl without mana and Fortify gives some good defense. Try to get a 20/20 Faster attacks and 20/20 Whirling Blades later on if you can, for maximum whirl speed.This is our Aura setup and we use Assassin's Mark, Arctic Armour and Herald of Ice. Assassin's Mark gives us 20% more damage when we crit, generates power charges and also increases our crit chance by a fair bit. The mana gained on kill helps a lot towards sustaining our mana pool. AA is a great defensive tool, and Herald of Ice gives us some more flat cold damage and the nice explosion effect.Bloodrage is essential for granting us Frenzy Charges. The degen is offset a bit by 1.6% life regeneration from the tree. Our Ice golem is important because it provides us with valuable bonus accuracy. This is why it is important to keep it alive with the minion life support gem.Generally, just use Ice Nova, Freeze Pulse or Ice Spear to level.Use items such as Reverberation or Amplification rods.Once you get to level 50, if you have a good elemental weapon with good crit, you can transition to flicker strike (Goddess Scorned is a great budget item to use, get an Elegant sword from a vendor and follow the recipe to obtain a great budget weapon). Use Flicker Strike - WED - Multistrike - Melee Splash - Added Cold in a 5L Armour. This setup will carry you until you get your Cospri's Malice.For the Skill tree, finish all the nodes at the Shadow area, then path to the Witch area, and then go to the Ranger Area.Grab the Jewel sockets and Frenzy Charges once you have grabbed all the main passive points. If you feel squishy, you can grab more life nodes first, but if you want more damage, then you can grab the damage first. Last edited by cookees on Oct 17, 2016, 5:31:49 PM Last bumped on Jan 20, 2017, 4:44:30 AM