Level 100 Crit Flicker Strike Berserker^3.22

Notes

FAQ:
Can I leaguestart as this build?
	I wouldn't recommend it.

Why not?
	Flicker strike is notoriously not an easy build to leaguestart, and this specific variant has even steeper requirements, including mandatory uniques. There's ways to ease into this build from a standard Oros/Terminus Est build but that takes some know how.

What kind of build is this?
	This build is a speedmapper. It's meant to clear maps as fast as possible. It can also used for magic finding (40-50% quant / 60-120% item rarity) in T16 heavily juiced content.

What content is it good for?
	Invitation farming, strongboxes, shrines, expedition, abyss, breach, harbinger, ritual, mirror of delirium, harvest, incursion, lab running. The more expensive versions can eventually scale and excell at more difficult content such as uber lab running, 5-way timeless conflicts, wave 30 simulacrum, or 100% delirious maps with Wandering Path.

What content is it bad with?
	(Uber) Bossing, beasts, essences, legion, blight, delve, or anything that requires you to attack in place, follow a path, or kill a target in an instant. The more expensive versions can attempt some of this content, including guardian boss farming for Maven invitations, but uber bosses remain outside of the scope of this build.

How does this build work?
	This build uses the Trauma support gem to add absurd amounts of flat physical damage while shrugging off self-hit damage by borrowing Juggernaut's Untiring. Trauma damage is then pushed further by investing heavily in defensive stats resulting in an incredibly tanky flicker build.

Isn't Skill Effect Duration really good for this build? Why not stack skill effect duration?
	Because there's an opportunity cost to everything. Blindly stacking skill effect duration yields less damage than stacking different sources of damage multipliers, like attack speed, increased damage, more damage, critical strike, or impale. More importantly, reaching the attack speed cap of 30.3 attacks per second will dratically slow down the damage scaling of the build. This is more obvious when planning around the Berserk buff. If the attack speed cap is reached, the 20% more attack speed component of the buff will be completely wasted.

Why is trauma self-hit damage so low/high?
	This build locks trauma damage to 50% of unreserved life as a design choice to avoid problems with the common monster mod "Cannot regenerate life above 50%". Ideally you'd lower the gem one level further just to be on the safer side, specially if you can't rely on flasks, but this option is left up to the player. Also, bigger number better.

Why is there a -10% Physical Damage Reduction custom modifier?
	Because there's a non-zero chance that you'll drop adrenaline for a second while at maximum stacks and take signfinicantly more trauma damage from the missing 10% physical damage reduction. The custom modifier helps to build around this scenario.

How do I use this guide?
	Check the Tree, Skills and Items tabs and make sure you match the passive tree sets, skill sets, and item sets. If you see your DPS "jump" up or down drastically there's something wrong and you probably mismatched the sets. If you are struggling with Trauma, make sure you constantly check [Calcs] -> [Flicker Strike] -> [Skill type-specific stats] -> [Self hit damage] and double check that you are not taking over 50% of your unreserved life in damage.

Why are there skill setups without the Berserk buff?
	While a great buff on it's own, Berserker does have a limited uptime and self-hit constraints that end up dragging the average damage of the build down. This is hardly a problem when the build has a mandatory ramp up time, but if you are interested in higher consistent damage with less button presses, the option is there. Do remember that Berserk lowers damage taken by 20% on demand for roughly 11 seconds with 4-5 seconds cooldown, and maintaining that buff up constantly can end up saving your life often.

What pantheons should I use?
	For major god use Brine King for freeze immunity until you can get ailment immunity from gear. Switch to Lunaris afterwards for the reduced elemental damage taken if hit recently. For minor god use Grukthul in general, as it is a very reliable source of physical damage reduction.

What enchants should I use?
	Increased Flicker Strike damage per Frenzy Charge is good in general, but if you plan to use Berserk then you'd want Increased Berserk buff effect. For gloves, Commandment of Ire is absolutely amazing and borderline mandatory to make the build not feel clunky vs. single target. For boots, mana cost reduction becomes mandatory once you swap out your rare amulet and lose the mana cost craft.

Can I play this build as a Raider/Slayer/Jugernaut/etc.?
	You can only play this build as Berserker (with Untiring) or Juggernaut (with Blitz), provided you have the appropiate Forbidden Flesh/Flame jewels. Slayer and Raider would have to solve the attack speed / recovery problem in a very different manner.

Why only X total life? Are all Flicker Strike builds complete glass canons?
	Most core items have no life on them and are very hard to swap. Tanu Ahi and Doppelganger Guise are BiS for scaling damage, but don't have any maximum life rolls in them. That said, this build eventually becomes incredibly tanky against all forms of damage by stacking sources of reduced and less damage taken, gains a regeneration rate of "yes", and can withstand a lot of punishment compared to other glass canon flicker strike variants. It's not quite immortal but it comes very close to it.

Why does the Default option use Frostbreath? Why does the build switch to Brightbeak?
	Without Forbidden Flesh/Flame jewels, the build can only really sustain trauma through a combination of multistrike, instant leech, and poacher's mark. Using Frostbreath helps because of its lower attack speed and double damage mod. Brightbeak is a better choice once trauma damage has been solved with the Forbidden jewels.

When can I swap to Brightbeak?
	As soon as you get your Forbidden Flesh/Flame jewels with Untiring. It's possible to do this earlier but you'll need to downscale the trauma support gem down until you can handle it.

Why does this build not use Awakened Multistrike? Isn't it good for flicker strike?
	Multistrike is a necesary evil at low investment. It's used for frenzy charge sustain and trauma handling. Awakened Multistrike would just be a very expensive DPS loss.

Why does the build not use Ancestral Protector/Warchief in the more expensive setups? Why use them in the first place?
	Ancestral Protector is useful early on to boost the attack speed of the build and push towards the trauma DPS ceiling without investing heavily in skill effect duration. Without multistrike this totem is not needed, and while you could use Ancestral Warchief for more damage, using totems feels incredibly clunky without the extra +7 seconds buff duration of Dawnstriders and Totem Mastery.

Can I use "Damage recouped as life" instead of the Forbidden Flesh/Flame jewels?
	You'd need 100% damage recoup to substitute the Forbidden jewels. This is incredibly difficult considering the gear options available. Anything less and the build would not work. Stacking recoup is not particularly useful if you are already using Untiring properly.

Why do I sometimes stop attacking entirely?
	You are running out of frenzy charges or mana. Minimum Frenzy charges don't count. There's several situations that can contribute to your build not generating enough charges, including enemies being "Evasive" or blocking your attacks, you being blinded, monsters stealing charges on hit, etc. It's recommended to keep a fully leveled 20/20 Frenzy gem with you to deal with these situations as the damage of this gem matches Flicker Strike damage profile.

Why is there an unlinked Less Duration support gem in the default setup?
	The Less Duration support is mandatory and is socketed in the same gear slot as the Aspect of the Cat aura (shield). This causes the aura to switch between Cat's Agility and Cat's Stealth at a faster rate and resets your frenzy and power charges to your maximum.

Why do I sometimes run out of mana?
	With the CWDT + Mark setup enemies attacking you can sometimes trigger the mark too often causing you to go out-of-mana before you start attacking. This should not be a problem 99.9% of the time, specially after you invest into damage recouped as mana from the passive tree. You may also need mana cost reduction in your flasks and boots enchant if you are playing a magic finding versions which lacks the craft on their rings.

Why do you use hydrosphere on the CWDT Default setup?
	Hydrosphere can potentially generate frenzy charges vs. marked targets. Flicker strike can also hit the sphere every 1 second, for an additional shot at a frenzy charge. It's not much but it helps.

Why switch from Hydrosphere to Enhance support then?
	A level 4 Enhance gives Poacher's Mark an additional +6% chance to gain a frenzy charge on hit vs. marked targets. The extra chance is way more consistent than hydrosphere. Eventually this gem will be repurposed to provide utility through alternate quality gems, so it's very useful to get anyway.

Can I use a level 3 Enhance support?
	Yes. You can start with a level 3 Enhance if you can't afford the higher level gem. It's better than Hydrosphere, but a level 4 Enhance is still worth the long term investment.

Why use an Abyssus? Doesn't this helmet increase trauma damage?
	While Abyssus does increase trauma self-damage, it provides a hefty chunk of critical strike multiplier and flat damage which can greatly help the build on a budget. Additionally, the extra damage is not a problem when the build is using multistrike. Once the build switches to The Red Trail and drops Multistrike, trauma self-hit damage explodes so Abyssus has to go.

Why is Vaal Molten Shell / Immortal Call / Phase Run slotted but not enabled?
	To avoid padding DPS or EHP. Immortal Call, for example, drastically lowers self-hit damage, which is good but if you where to balance trauma self-damage around it you would die whenever it goes on cooldown. Berserker is only enabled on setups with Divergent rage, since it allows for constant Berserk uptime. Non-berserk setups use different support gems and push damage further.

Can this build sustain "permanent" Berserk buff?
	It's possible but not passively, unlike Kaom's Spirit would. The choice of gloves enchant (Commandment of Ire) paired with Crave the Slauger and Phantasmal Vengeance, can enable a rage generation rate of +4 rage per second with minimal interaction. Attacking with Divergent Rage can further boost rage generation to +7 rage gained per second, for a total of +11 rage/s. This ends up being enough rage generation to use Berserker as soon as it comes off cooldown.

Why swap Vaal Molten Shell for Divergent Immortal Call?
	Vaal Molten Shell becomes less useful when you drop multistrike as your attack speed increases because it will mostly absorb self-damage. Immortal call, on the other hand, has a duration limit but not a damage limit, and with enough attack speed it's possible to stack 5+ endurance charges during Immortal Call before it becomes a problem. Divergent Immortal Call is better to protect against elemental damage, as physical damage and chaos damage are not really a problem.

Why does the Magic Finding versions use such drastically different flasks?
	The magic finding setups have to compensate for the lower max life by increasing max hit. The easiest way to do this is by stacking sources of less damage taken, and that includes elemental flasks. It's also important for the build to not rely on flasks for armour stacking since eldritch altars can shut down flasks entirely. If you find yourself struggling with heavily juiced content, consider lowering the difficulty of the content (opt out of Wandering Path) or use less magic finding pieces in your gear (start by dropping Sentari's Answer).

Why do I randomly die during maps?
	Either trauma damage or elemental damage, most likely. You can read the death message to confirm if it was trauma self-damage (it will mention sudoku). With that in mind, here's a long list of stuff that can contribute to your death:
		* [Map mod] Reflects physical damage
		* [Map mod] Cannot regenerate
		* [Map mod] Reduced life recovery
		* [Map mod] Reduced aura effect
		* [Map mod] Less armour
		* [Map mod] Monsters can steal charges
		* [Map mod / Debuf] Temporal Chains (more effect duration = more trauma stacks)
		* [Map mod / Debuff] Vulnerability (increased physical damage taken)
		* [Debuff] Increased damage taken (multiple sources, notably Delirium, Beyond, and Essences)
		* [Monster Mod] Reduced life regeneration (certain essences and redbeasts)
		* [Monster Mod] Cannot regenerate life (Trial of the Ancients)
		* [Monster Mod] Cannot regenerate life above 50% (Common mod)
		* [Altar] Reduced flat armour and evasion
		* [Altar] Reduced physical damage reduction
		* [Altar] Reduced defenses per frenzy charge
		* [Altar] Reduced recovery per endurance charge
		* [Archnemesis mod] Cannot regenerate life above 50%
		* ... And of course, just large amounts of incoming damage.
	The reason as to why has to do with how the build interacts with trauma. If anything upsets the mitigation, recovery, and self-damage balance you'll (very) quickly notice it. Some of this problems can be built around (ie: immunity to curses, shock immunity), but some have to be conciously avoided.

How can I lower trauma damage?
	Sometimes, missing a little bit of armour (from bad prefix rolls) can result in the build not being able to use the recommended settings. Assuming you follow the build guide correctly, the only real option you'll have left is to lower the level of the Trauma support gem. This guide provides the recommended Trauma gem levels, but if you are struggling with self-damage lower the gem further by vendoring the gem with one orb of scouring (the support gem cannot be corrupted). Remember that flasks contribute a decent amount of armor to your build, and if they are not active you may randomly implode.

How important is Fortify? Should I use the fortify gem or passive tree nodes if I can't get it on my weapon?
	It's very important. Reduced damage taken is a more damage multiplier for this build because it allows you to use higher Trauma gem levels. If you have to, swap a support gem over taking the passive points. The Fortify gem gives 19% more melee damage at max level, making it a solid gem choice. You can also use a large mace/scepter cluster jewel to provide fortify on hit if you are using a mace.

Help, how do I level this build past level 93? (I keep dying)
	Use the Wellspring of Creation atlas notable, stop juicing your maps, stop clicking altars, and lower the max level of your trauma support by 2 or 3 gem levels. Wellspring of Creation in particular helps a lot and does not drastically affect your mapping time because the build.

Can I use Headhunters / Inspired Learning / Behead with this build?
	No, the moment you steal Soul Eater you'll be dead within a second. Soul Eater extra attack speed scales Trauma stacks way too high and the build can't handle it.

Can I use Taste of Hate / Lightning Coil and convert physical damage to elemental to increase my defenses?
	No and it should avoid it like the plague. Because of how Untiring works only physical damage taken contributes to your regeneration. Also it's better to defend with 87% to 90% physical damage reduction than to defend with 75% elemental resistances.