Level 94 Crit Flicker Strike Slayer^3.25

Notes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
BEGINNER FRIENDLY GUIDE TO FLICKER STRIKE
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1. Guide Overview
	a) Who this guide is for
	b) Short Intro/Summary to Flicker Strike
	c) Strengths/Weaknesses of Flicker Strike
	d) League start viablility
2. Is Flicker Strike good at farming current league (Settlers of Kalguur) content? 
3. Levelling Tips and Passive Trees Overview
4. Changes for BOSSING
5. Items (priority mods etc.)
6. Skill Gems Setups and Alternatives
7. Pantheon/Bandits
8. Effective Atlas strategies for Flicker Strike
9. Map modifiers to avoid
10. SSF/Hardcore Viability
11. Ubers/T17 Capability
12. A bit about myself and my PoE experience (guide creator, Kusnier)

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BUILD/PLAYSTYLE OVERVIEW
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Flicker Strike is an extremely fast build that blows up screens of enemies before they have a chance to react/deal any damage to you.
The build struggles with extremely high health enemies (e.g. 10x Essence Monsters, Uber Bosses, T17 bosses etc.) 
as they are likely to one-shot you before you kill them, but the build melts everything else, including regular/non-pinnacle bosses 
(we melt e.g. T16 bosses, Catarina, Guardians, Maven Invitations etc.)

WHO THIS GUIDE IS FOR:
This guide is for beginner players new to Flicker Strike who are looking for a simple, yet detailed, starter guide for a fun build to blast T16 maps without worries.
We will not be aiming for a 50M+ DPS build here with crazy corruptions, 50 div jewels and complicated Cluster Jewel setups etc.
Instead we try to put together a simple yet fun build for beginners that can blast T16 maps and only needs a couple uniques and rares with mostly only life/resistances.
If you are a very experienced player, you are probably better off cooking a Flicker Strike variant by yourself with help of poe.ninja. 

I'd say this guide is perfect for someone who has played maybe 2-3 characters in PoE so has a bit of knowledge but not enough to make their own build.

STRENGTHS:
- Extremely fast mapper, can blast 120%+ qual T16 maps with ease in under 2 mins (including blowing up bosses)
- Extremely easy to play, 1-button playstyle
- No need to dodge anything
- Very cheap to get started (early/yellow maps), but can scale into a map blasting beast with high investment (50~+ div)
- Extremely fun/satisfying playstyle for a lot of players
- Reflect immune
- Can handle all map mods (some better, some worse of course) which means you don't even really need to read map mods when blasting if you don't want to

WEAKNESSES:
- Requires an expensive rare unique (Replica Farrul's Fur, 20d~) to really come online (plays fine before then, more on that in levelling and skill trees section)
- Will randomly die on ocassion, unlikely to get much higher than level 95
- Bad at pinnacle content (Uber bosses, T17 bosses, Ravaged Blight etc.)
- Some people complain about nausea from the constant flicking/teleporting, personally I've never experienced this so not sure if people are just joking/exaggerating
- Can be CPU intensive when you go very juiced zoom zoom

LEAGUE START VIABILITY:
I always Leagustart with Flicker Strike to blast through my atlas and get currency for a 2nd character that's a solid all-rounder/bosser to complete Ubers etc.
However, Flicker Strike can struggle a bit in the middle of Atlas progression (T10-12~+) before you get your Replica Farrul's Fur, which goes up in price a lot over the first week.
So I would say league starting Flicker Strike is perfectly fine if you're gonna play a lot (read: no-life) for the first few days and get your character online before prices get out of control. 

If you hit a wall at some point during league start, consider running white T6 Essences strat, that is guaranteed solid currency that should be very easy and get you your items in time.

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FLICKER STRIKE IN SETTLERS OF KALGUUR
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Key element of Settlers of Kalguur progression is gold generation - and good news - Flicker Strike is one of the best builds out there for gold generation.
You can blast T16 maps on repeat, gold is gathered automatically when flicking around.
On my character, I can get around 250-300k gold/hr just by blasting T16 maps, this is more than you can reasonably spend.

In addition, once pushed to endgame, Flicker Strike is easily able to kill any of the Settlers of Kalguur bosses.

So, Flicker Strike is overall excellent at pushing all of the current league content.

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LEVELLING TIPS AND PASSIVE TREES
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Flicker Strike is not a great skill to level with until we have a semi-reliable way of Frenzy Charge generation and a solid DPS weapon.
However, I hate waiting until level 65+ to switch as I prefer using my target skill as early as possible.

In this guide we start with Frost Blades until level 38, at which point we switch to Flicker Strike.
Flicker Strike still doesn't feel that great around 38-45, but after level 45 it really starts coming 'online' once you 
get a decent weapon with a couple good mods and you start to blast through everything (other than act bosses).

Please note: Do not expect to go deathless in campaign. Especially on Act 6-10 bosses you will pick up a few deaths, just keep jumping in.
If you are really struggling, you can use Double Strike on Bosses. It can be used with the same support gems as Flicker.
I usually finish campaign with 10-20 deaths total.

ACT III SIOSA/LIBRARY
Make sure to complete the optional library quest and pick-up Fortify Support and Poacher's Mark from Siosa.

SWITCH FROM FROST BLADES TO FLICKER STRIKE
Around level 38 I recommend to switch (you might consider waiting until after killing Malachai as he can be tricky with weak Flicker).
You will need to Refund 11 skill points from the Frost Blades Tree - this is now easier than ever with the Respec for Gold with Faustus in Kingsmarch.

You will want to have a Poacher's Mark/Mark on Hit setup and the Disciple of the Slaughter/Tribal Fury notables when switching.
Herald of Purity is also a must at this point.
Make sure to start always using Blood Rage.

From around level 40 start looking at crafting a Two Handed Sword or Axe. Identify all level 40+ bases of such weapons and if 
they have a couple solid mods (+ flat/% damage/Attack Speed/Crit Chance) consider crafting some more damage on it with your hideout crafting bench.
(Note: at this level +elemental dmg on weapon is perfectly fine, just make sure not to use brutality support yet)

FIRST 4-LINK
Ideally your first 4-link will be 2R2G for Flicker Strike - Multistrike - Added Phys - Close Combat
but if you happen to loot 3R1G that's also fine, switch Close Combat for Fortify support, you will have more survivability.

TERMINUS EST AND FARRUL'S FUR + ASPECT OF THE CAT
Try to pick up/buy Terminus Est Unique Sword as early as possible (Level 51 req) and use it until you get Farrul's Fur (probably level 80~).
When you get Farrul's Fur, you should look into getting a high pDPS Two Handed Axe.
Aim for 700+ pDPS axe to start with, and 1000+ pDPS axe as your endgame goal.
Obviously do not pick up the Axe Mastery Cluster until you switch to a Two Handed Axe.

Also, when you get Farrul's Fur, you need to have an item with 'Grants Aspect of the Cat'.
Try to buy a cheap one for now and craft/buy a more expensive one later.

Switch Poacher's Mark to Assassin's Mark at this point.

LEECH CLUSTER JEWEL SWITCH
When you get your large Cluster Jewel with Feed the Fury/Fuel the Fight, you can unspec from the Leech Mastery cluster on tree.

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CHANGES FOR BOSSING
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Once you have scaled your damage high enough, majority of standard bosses are trivial and simply blow up
(e.g. T16 map bosses, elder guardians, shaper guardians, sirus bosses, catarina etc.)

However, there are a couple small changes you can make to make your bossing more effective if you wish.
I personally do the below when I'm planning to run a bunch of Maven invitations (Elderslayers, Formed etc.).

1. I spec into Vaal Pact. This is awesome against bosses and with your fast attack speed makes you basically immune against small hits/DOTs.
2. (Very optional, don't feel you need to do this) Switch from Impact to Headsman or Overwhelm ascendency points (depending on your needs)

In general, any Maven Invitations (other than Feared) should be trivial for an optimised Flicker build even with 80%+ Quant.

Obviously, this is not a bossing build so don't expect to blow up Ubers or T17 bosses, but it's a perfectly good build for non pinnacle content bosses (so 95% of them).

P.S. Vaal Pact can actually be really good for mapping too, although it's risky when there's lots of on-death DOT effects. 
You should also try it out for mapping to see how it feels.

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ITEMS
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WEAPON
Until you have Farrul's Fur or Replica Farrul's Fur, you should be using Terminus Est for frenzy generation.
Once you have Farrul's fur, you should switch to a Rare Two Handed Axe with as much pDPS as possible. 
Attack speed/Crit chance/crit multi/double damage are some of the best suffixes.

For base you ideally want an ilvl 83 Fleshripper, but a Despot Axe is also OK.

HELMET
Life
Accuracy
Resistances
Armor
Reduced mana cost/increased reservation efficiency (exarch/eater Influence + Implicits)
Possibly: Grants Aspect of the Cat skill (Get it on Gloves or Helmet)

Alternative: Abyssus unique (but need to solve mana/res elsewhere)

CHEST
Replica Farrul's Fur is absolute best in slot. Until you can afford it, it's fine to use the cheaper non-replica version.
6-link it.

GLOVES
Best in slot are Hunter/Warlord Spiked Gloves with +max frenzy charges/strike against nearby enemies, but it's quite expensive
and not strictly necessary so I can't recommend those for a beginner.

For more standard Rare Gloves look for:
Life
Resistances
Attack Speed
Armor
Accuracy
Possibly: Grants Aspect of the Cat skill (Get it on Gloves or Helmet)
Exarch/Eater Influence + Implicits

BOOTS
Darkray Vectors Unique Boots (1c)
(Aspirtational: +1 Max Frenzy Charges Corruption)

AMULET 
Attributes (as much Dex/Int as possible)
-mana cost of non-channelling skills craft
Life
Resistances
Annoint Fervour

RINGS
Life
Resistances (Best place to get some Chaos res, ideally you want to have at least 30% net Chaos res)
-mana cost of non-channelling skills craft
Accuracy
Any missing attributes
(You can also get some insane Circle of Guilt rings here but that's too advanced for this guide)
(Aspirational: +Max Frenzy implicit rings are best but insanely expensive)

BELT
Rare Stygian Vise
Life
Resistances
Armor
Accuracy
(Aspirational: +% max Life (Hunter influence))

JEWELS
+life/%life
Damage mods (use PoB item finder for best DPS jewels)
(You can also look for a solid Lethal Pride Jewel)
Watcher's Eye with +%Attack Damage while affected by Precision is relatively cheap
Can go crazy with some insane Watcher's eye (Aspirational, huge budget)

CLUSTER JEWELS
Large cluster jewel with Feed the Fury/Fuel the Fight/Martial Prowess passives
Small Cluster Jewel with Uncompromising passive (to enable 4 link Aura setup with Enlighten)

FLASKS
Divine Life/Sulphur/Granite/Silver/Diamond

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SKILL GEMS
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Main 6 link:
Flicker Strike - Multistrike (Awakened) - Melee Physical Damage (Awakened) - Close Combat - Fortify - Brutality (Awakened)
(I recommend 6 linking your Replica Farrul's Fur when you get it, as you will keep that forever. 
You are more likely to continously upgrade your weapon and there's no need to 6-link it) 

Auras 4 link:
Enlighten (Level 3) - Pride - Determination - Flesh and Stone
(Before you get Enlighten Level 3 + Determination reservation cluster jewel, you should replace Enlighten-Pride with a shout, e.g. Enduring Cry/Urgent Orders setup)
(Can consider Herald of Purity instead of Pride depending on Watcher's Eye/Circle of Guilt Rings for high budget builds)

Automation 4 link setup:
Important: This setup needs to be placed in the item that has the 'Grant Aspect of the Cat' modifier.
That's because the Less Duration support significantly improves the charges generation with Farrul's Fur/Aspect of the Cat interaction.
Automation - Berserk - Molten Shell - Less Duration
(If you want more control on using Berserk, you can unlink it from the automation setup, personally I prefer not having to press it

Curse-on-Hit 3 link: 
Assassin's Mark - Curse on Hit - Lifetap
(Use Poacher's Mark from level 38 until you get Terminus Est/Farrul's Fur, only then switch to Assassin's Mark)

2 link Portal:
Cast on Death - Portal
(Massive QOL especially during early mapping, once your build is properly online and you're blasting T16s it should be fairly rare to die, but still happens on ocassion)

2 link movement:
Leap Slam - Faster Attacks

1 link (single) gems:
Blood Rage (pop at the start of the map)
War Banner (place down at bosses)
Precision (doesn't need to be level 20 if you are struggling to fit everything in with mana)

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PANTHEON/BANDITS
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MAJOR
Soul of the Brine King (for freeze and chill only as we are stun immune anyway through Unwavering Stance)

MINOR
Abberath (especially when running Exarch Altars)
Ryslatha for bossing (not super necessary so don't worry if you forget to switch)

BANDITS
Start with Alira for all res while levelling, switch to kill all (extra skill point) in endgame once you have surplus resists (Usually around level 90~)

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ATLAS STRATEGIES
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Flicker thrives on 'fast' content, so anything that slows you down significantly should be avoided.

Personally I run:
- Scarab Drops (with inc chance to Carto and Ambush)
- Shrines (some of them make you insanely busted)
- Map Drops (Destructive Play, Synthesis, Conquerors, Guardians)

Other solid strategies for Flicker Strike:
- Delirium
- Eater/Exarch Altars
- Legion
- Incursion (Alva)
- Betrayal (Jun)
- Breach
- Beyond
- Amazing for T6 Essence farming (can be tricky in T16s if you get an absolutely giga juiced essence)
- Harvest (can be tricky when super juiced)

Strategies to avoid:
- Expedition (too many mods that brick your build)
- Ritual/Ultimatum/Blight/Abyss/Harbinger (all too time consuming)
- Delve/Heist/Sanctum (too much risk of a random death losing progress)

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MAP MODIFIERS TO AVOID IF POSSIBLE
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- Monsters steal charges on Hit (worst one, avoid this one if possible especially on Maven invitations)
- Cannot Leech from monsters (especially when running Vaal Pact, bricks the build then)
- Reduced life recovery (manageable but sometimes can be annoying)

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SSF/HARDCORE VIABLE?
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Hardcore?
Come on. You know the answer.

SSF?
Kinda? You will need Replica Farrul's Fur and 'Aspect of the Spider' craft, both which are very hard/time-consuming to farm in SSF.
If you are fine with farming those, you will be able to get everything else in SSF no problem.
Definitely wouldn't recommend it for beginners though.
Personally I would only play Flicker in SSF if I already farmed Replica Farrul's on another character.

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T17/UBER VIABILITY
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You can absolutely blast regular monsters in T17s the same way as T16s. 
However, you can't really kill any of the T17s bosses, which takes away a lot of the profit from T17s, so overall I'd say it's not worth it.

Ubers also aren't really viable.
I think with some small changes you could maybe clear a couple Ubers (Exarch? Eater? Uber Elder?) 
but need to be a very good player with top tier items in all slot to even attempt, so out of reach for most players.

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A bit about me and my PoE experience (guide creator, Kusnier)
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Hey! Thanks for checking out the guide!

I've been playing PoE for around 8 years now and Flicker Strike is by far my favourite skill.
I usually do 36/40 challenges each league and absolutely love the game.

I also run a YouTube channel and a fansite for another video game, Tibia, a 25 year old MMORPG.
There I've been making guides and helping beginner players for many many years so I have a bit of experience in how to present information and teach newcomers how to play :)

You can check out my YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/@Kusnierr

Feel free to ask any questions about the guide on my youtube or our Discord server:
https://discord.gg/n6jbK8TZNZ

If this guide is well received (please leave constructive critisism!), I'll be sure to keep making more Path of Exile content!

~Kusnier