[3.25] Holy Flicker Strike Necro [League start > All content] All content is done. PoB updated
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Today we gathered up here to burry this build.
Again. Seriously, this happens way too often.  Quick summary: Damage and AOE enchants deleted, alt-quality (trigger rate) – deleted, mana reservation – deleted, alt-quality damage supports – deleted, desecrate – deleted, automation – deleted – now you have to manually cast your buffs. Damage is gone. Utility is gone. Everything is gone. What we got in return? Ahaha – nothing, get rekt idiot! See you next league! New PoB - https://pobb.in/7-8SS0_ETefN So for people who still want to try it out – I have a serious question. What are you doing? What ARE you doing? With your life? You could be playing SRS Guardian. You could be blasting legions with LA. Succumb to being meta slave! Now… for the unfortunate souls that are still not convinced to drop this build I have a few words of guidance before league starts. What to expect from this build
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If you don’t like it – you can reroll into Occultist or Elementalist. But please make sure you looked at vids to confirm this is how you want to play. Occultist or Elementalist both have strong and fun builds in case this one fails you. Decently tanky (unchanged with nerfs) – max block, good recovery, good phys reduction, okay-ish elemental max hit. Big circle phys spell hit damage. Worse than dot. Still decent damage, especially on league start. Fairy fast for mapping with flicker/shield charge setup and asenath explosion clear. Cost efficient – offmeta items are not expensive. Can do all content(?) – not sure about that after the nerfs, but prolly still can. Leveling WARNING: SRS leveling I’ve been doing has been deleted! Use Absolution to level up in acts. Follow Vennto’s guide.
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Using Animate Guardian and Specters This build can start using Animate Guardian early (gem level 17~ on a 3 link) – and I recommend you to do that. Because early Ailment immunity he provides is A LOT of stats for the cost. All you need is a shield, weapon and chest. Should cost you around 5c and you will never have to worry with flasks. To get proper Specters – used Global 6666, this guide Discord or MSG me in game and ask for specters. The first too options are preferred though. Build progression and build information I will be playing this build from day 0 and recording my progression in discord (with more or less real time) and in forum posts (delayed by a day or two) so you can have and idea of what items to upgrade first. Here is list of priorities from last league
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Level 21/20 Holy Relic
Tabula Rasa with +1 to level of socketed gems OR +2 to level of socketed MINION gems Asenath Gentle Touch Empower 3 Elegant Hubris with 2 or 3 Slum Lords +3 to Holy Relic amulet Aegis Aurora Awakened gems Skin of the Lords Forbidden Jewels Empower 4 How to read PoB
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 WARNING: Forum guide can be fairly outdated. Stick to PoB and use Discord/Forum for your questions. And don’t forget to link your PoB when asking something build related. You might be missing something crucial and I will gladly -make fun of you- point it out to help! So there is that. See you all at league start. Or not. Don’t force yourself. Its just a game. Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Dec 8, 2023, 1:41:46 PM
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So… I’m completely out of energy from playing too much so sorry about less detailed post.
The road so far  First thing I wanna say is that is was a rather bumpy ride Tweaks I really underestimated how much quality of life has been lost with just desecrate removal. And my solution to use spell cascade was not ideal. I came with a new one that feels much better now – using 2 separate desecrates while keeping the trigger on offerings. That way you have 100% uptime of DPS while mapping and on the boss you cast desecrate if you need damage boost. The loss of trigger rate also paying its tool, making using flicker a bit worse than before. It doesn’t “supercharge” you relics anymore and with how slow they trigger… It still works, and vaal flicker still clears nicely, but I switched to full shield charge and it works well too. So maybe give it a try. Progress 2 voidstones obtained, guardians are down PoB (two desecrates and shield charge) https://pobb.in/TNKW0r1IhAFd Day 0 map showcase (no gear, right after finishing acts) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eyD3ztha1o&ab_channel=AeriaDust How build looks after upgrades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz7AcBqkL5Y Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Dec 10, 2023, 11:39:24 AM
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AG upgrade time
Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Dec 11, 2023, 12:36:38 AM
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Few big upgrades after and build looking kinds okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMvD5ew9w6w&ab_channel=AeriaDust Set to farm up some expedition, deli orbs and abyses Abys was one of my experiments I wanted to try out this league - and must say it paid of exactly like I expected it to. Bunch of loot goblins, stygains and darkness belts are selling like hot pies. That + Tujen hooking me up with few divines let me do big upgrades like Aegis, Skin and Empower. https://pobb.in/G48u3PI3cKCM Another thigng I played with is Ylfeban's Trickery and... its kinda weird. It does work well on bosses and on juiced enemies. Anything that has like 100500 attacks per second or huge AOE gets instantly full stack of curses. The problem is - the rest of the time it doesn't do anything. So Leer Cast kinda just wins by being flexible and having 100% uptime. Still. With curse effect from dying breath, I will look how it performs on shaper and maven when I get to them. Because its kinda nice to have Punishment, Vulnerability, Enfeeble and Tempo Chains on priority targets with no investment into curses. Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Dec 11, 2023, 6:32:10 AM
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Alright, all bosses down, time to make some summary
1) Map clear. Kinda suffered a little bit, but still feels okay. Here is a showcase with mid-late gear Mid league map clear Pretty tanky, explosions feel just as good as before, but the trigger rate nerf means you have to stop and wait for it to kill rare monster. The loss of DPS also means that I can’t really use inc. AOE or Flesh Offering for speed anymore. Big sad. 2) Bossing. While on paper I have about 10 mill DPS, because we no longer have high trigger rate – the UPTIME of this damage suffered greatly. So even if the damage is respectable, the feeling of it is rather bad However – take a look at bossing showaceses: Conq Elder Formed Shaper 3) Ylfeban's Trickery. To put it shortly – unreliable. It works and could smooth out your progress by letting you not have 3xGolden oil anoint or Vixens, because on most bosses it will apply Punishment and Vulnerability But to put it onto so much RNG and hope that bosses attacks will constantly hit your AG is unreliable. Don’t get me wrong it happens. A lot. But when it doesn’t, I keep asking myself why do I no thave just permanent 50% in dmg. In summary – could be good on mid AG gear, 100% would replace it if I have Whispers of doom + vuln on hit Vixens. 4) New specters Now that’s a hot topic. Its kinda hard for me to estimate the value because I only experimented with one of them. But for the most part I say – unreliable. First of all – they prolly gonna go away. So I would not want to tie build to them Second of all – both AI and survivability is pretty damn bad on those. I was using Pain Artist. Aura range was always up even if I flicker too far. So that is very good. Aura strength is same as lvl 20 Zeal. Very nice. Extra crit multi bonus. Very nice. Specter died on Sirus fight. Instantly. Specter died in expedition encounter. The regular specters HP didn’t even move. Another part of the problem is that while having free aura sounds amazing, you don’t really have… anything else to take instead of your free aura slot. You could put in War banner I guess, but that’s about it. At least I could not think of anything of value. In summary: I don’t think I can recommend this build. With hum much I invested into it, it feel on a weak side. I still did all bosses and mapping comfortably, but there are much stronger and frankly – more fun builds out there. Guess we have to wait for trans-gems. That being said – I still need to do Feared, Sim 30 and Ubers. But I really doubt I can do Ubers honestly. Still. Will try to push to the limit and report when I do. PoB - https://pobb.in/GndWRyTzevuj Gear
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Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Dec 14, 2023, 6:26:31 AM
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this was the most fun shit i ever played now i am suffering from several stds
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All challenges are done and its time to wrap up the league
 Cant say I have a lot of info to share so lets just roll over key points Can do all content? Yes. Was it good league starter? Somewhat. Does it feel good in late/uber game? Not really. My current build https://pobb.in/EzzNN52BOONu Roughly estimated price on the current day – about 35~ divines, with biggest costs being Empower4, Skin of the Lords, fractured weapon, cluster jewels and golden oils. Charms
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Pretty much every end-game build should be using those, so here is my insight on charms
The stats that charms provide can be split on 2 categories – Standalone and Stacking. You can have multiple Standalone stats but only one stacking. My recommendations – stack damage. Two stats provide about the same effect – Mark effect and damage on consecrated ground. You want to have that stat on ever charm if possible. Standalone stats are more interesting. Onslaught with 5 allies nearby – must have - is basically free permanent onslaught – meaning you get a free flask slot – for Taste of Hate/Progenesis/Oriath end Movement speed can not be slowed – must have – this nullifies all the slowing effect from Ultimatums (maim, hinder), Sanctums (-50% move speed curse) and Delirium (tar, grasping hands) Can not be stunned by hits you block/when fortified – this lets you pick a different major pantheon. In my case – Arakali (to counter different degens). Lunaris is also an okay option to reduce damage by 6% Other good (and cheap) stats – max block, remove curse/ailments every 4 seconds. Specters For the most part unchanged - 2xHarpy, They of Tul (insanely good for ultimatum and sim30), Power Monkey. However, Power monkey can be replaced with Perfect Warlord. Extra regen and endu charges (lets you free enduring composure reuqirement) Ultimatum Ultimatum is hard. The downsides are mostly not a problem, but enemies scale REALLY hard on last waves, bot with damage and damage reduction. Its somewhat close in the feeling to wave 30 sim. And that’s in every map. There is also something that I can’t figure out but deal a metric load of elemental damage. Bastion of Elements is highly advised. As for ultimatum mods/strategy
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Try picking the safe stacking choices – Miasma (assuming you have capped res and/or Arakali pantheon – look Charms), Corrupted blood Blades (assuming you have CB jewel). You can get both to max level (careful with CB though)
Other safe mods: Ailment and Curse Reflection Bonus Chaos Damage (have capped chaos res) Buffs Expire Faster (offerings are not buffs) Hindering Flasks (if you have slow resist charm) Lessened Reach (your AOE does not affect relics) Lightning Damage from Mana Costs (does nothing) Siphoned Charges (lose endurance charges, not a big deal) Precise Monsters (we have no evasion) Deadly Monsters (Monsters always crit – nullified by AG Garb – ‘Never’ takes priority over ‘Always’) Resistant Monsters (we don’t do elemental damage), Siphoning Monsters (doesn’t do anything) Unstoppable Monsters (doesn’t do anything) Treacherous Auras (haven’t noticed it does anything) Annoying but doable mods: Stalking Ruin/ Ruin (does not apply ruin if you block a hit, but don’t take it too early, it still can stack even if slow) Totem of Costly Potency/ Totem of Costly Might/ Blood Altar (annoying damage over time) Unlucky Criticals (reduces relics damage but not by too much) Drought (no flask charges, not a huge deal) Occasional Impotence (no damage for 2 seconds, not a big deal) Lethal Rare Monsters (most of the time not a big deal, but spawns more tempo bubles) Prismatic Monsters (a lot of damage added to monster, but most of it is blocked, reduced by resists) Deadly mods (avoid): Stormcaller Runes/ Raging Dead/ Blistering Cold (those are not balanced at all and will oneshot you regardless of HP. Only take them to lvl 1 or 2) Limited Arena (there is some attack, or monster that covers entire circle in huge elemental damage hit. It will kill you, don’t take this mod) Reduced Recovery (makes you run out of mana – meaning you lose offerings. Level 1 is fine-ish) Less Cooldown Recovery (makes you lose offerings) Escalating Damage Taken/ Escalating Monster Speed (you take 50% more damage) Shielding Monsters/ Dexterous Monsters (monster block/suppress = you do no damage) Overwhelming Monsters (you take 90% more damage) Sim 30/Uber bosses I managed to do it on current build, but it was not comfortable at all. You just don’t have damage uptime AND have less damage. Nothing more to day about it You can do all content – just gonna be pain. Future plans Max out gear Experiment with AG items and new boots Make a video Hope for GGG to bring cooldown reduction to relics back. Afterword After very end game upgrades it start to feel like something. But I don't think I can recomend it still. Wait for buffs. If you do want to play it still here are few tips that made my gameplay a lot better 1) Get Bastion of Elements. When your damage is low you are more likely to get hit - 3k extra HP would do you a solid. 2) DO NOT USE SPELL CASCADE, holy shit top players that follow this guid using it. Its terrible. Stop it. 3) Get Vuln on hit curse on Asenath. That 10% extra dps in a clear set up really makes a difference. Aaaaand that's it. |
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Sad to see one of my favourite builds ever in such shambles - I was always one of the people saying it was indeed powerful, I cannot do that anymore with a good conscience with the recent nerfs and whats worse, it hits again mostly the off-meta stuff while stupid Bow-Meta-Warriors still run their completely unhinged Tornado Shot/Lightning Arrow. Will keep track if the build will maybe get something back in future updates.
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Moving on to more fun part of things
Beacon of Madness testing is done! And all I can say is that it’s a bit inconclusive. Its kinda hard to fit those boots in, especially in end game, but maybe for a mid game or even one of the early game white map farming it can be a powerbank So lets quickly get over what boots do and what we can do with them
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They give you 4 debuffs and in return grant you pretty much the power of Witch forbidden jewels. You can get Elementalist Shaper of Flames or Occultist Profane Bloom. Elementalist version is superior because you get all 3 confluxes AND boots require no dex. 4 debuffs are: 1) Reduced action speed – this downside is negated as long as your AG has garb 2) Reduced effect of flasks by 90% - honestly, not a big problem since this build does not rely on flasks too much 3) Reduced recovery of life and ES by 90% - this one partially negated by the fact that ES gain from Aegis Aurora is NOT AFFECTED by increases and reductions. However, it does hurt because you have no way to recover life. You can mitigate it, however, with life gain on hit from claw implicit. 4) 60% more damage taken. This one is not mitigated by anything, but since this build is max block and fairly tanky, it is possible to still run with that mod and not be dead. And lets not forget that you also losing Brittle ground – and that’s a 30% damage loss on single target. TL;DR – those boots is a no-go for now. However, experimenting with them and ability to combine 3 ascendancies on one character (Necro-Occultiest-Elementalis) lead me into tweaking build some more.  Since we have mediocre all-around build because of all the nerfs, might as well go full on mapping. So I present to you EXPLPSIONS Looks something like this What you need: 1) Shaper of flames with forbidden jewels 2) 3x killed enemies explode charms 3) Perfect Blood Demon to wear pride so you can use skitterbots 4) Profane proxy with Punishment 5) Cluster with Fan the Flames - can use megalo, but using just a regular 4-5 point rare lets you scale ignite a bit. What you get - 8-9mill single target DPS 600% of enemy life ignite explosions PoB - https://pobb.in/xWiLzVstRLAe Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Jan 6, 2024, 8:37:27 AM
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The new league closes in and I noticed I haven’t done a ‘Back in Time’ post yet!
 Oh how low the build has fallen. Or did it?.. Well this post will give you some insight on how the build feels on low investment and if its worth starting with it next league. CONDITIONS Since the last patch the build was nuked to the ground with removal of enchants, gem slots and alt-quality gem power. So todays ‘Back in Time’ conditions will be a bit softer then usual. (Additionally I stumbled over this Subtractem Video and if he can showcase build in t12 map, so can I. Anyway – this league ‘Back in Time’ conditions include: Level 77 character, No AG, Early Gear - https://pobb.in/whWScfGt5PCY Extra effect of map modifiers, expedition - https://poeplanner.com/a/hGA Something I wanna try next league is to do what a smart person would do – get basic gear, go back to t1 maps and farm the crap out of expedition. Video showcase – enjoy the engine update 5 fps and flashy lights. Overall it still performs decently well at the start, even after nerfs. The single target damage leaves more to be desired, but its easily fixed with Replica Dragonbutt amulet and +1/+2M tabby. That being said – lets go from past to the future. NEXT LEAGUE PREDICTIONS SKILL GEMS
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With 100 out of 500 gems left unreleased my hopes of getting transfigured Holy Relic gem and Desecrate gem is very high.
But knowing GGG (monkey paw curls) the transfigured version might not give anything that would fix the current issues. My wild guess is – and its based on GGG vision of removing skill gem alternating uniques – is that GGG is looking to remove Geofry Crest all together and put +1 relic on the gem itself. That would be both good and bad at the same time as it would mean that you could have 3 relics at once (with help of Ashes) but on a long ass cooldown. Still – in terms of dps 3x relic is still better than 2x with cooldown. Cooldown is much better QoL, so lets hope they bring that back. And of course they could always just randomly make some elemental scaling on relics making them absolutely garbage. Another alternative route – they could make holy nova strike from enemy instead of from relic, but I doubt they do that because its kinda goes against the skill mechanic. MF AND CHARM WITHDRAWAL
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Lets address the elephant in the room – everyone gonna be miserable. I’d say its of most importance to pick a build that doesn’t depend on high investment this league because we are most likely not gonna have as much power as charms gave us, and defiantly not going to have as much economy to work with for upgrades. SPECTERS
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While I HOPE the new specters wont go core, they just might. I mean its Necropolis league, come on. There prolly gonna be powerful aura specters out there. Luckily for us, we don’t depend on those. Unluckily for us – if they do go core, we don’t really benefit from them. AFTERWORD So here is my insight on league starting the build and on the upcoming league. Kinda hyped out and on hopium for transfigured Holy relic Gems. With how build is in current state – I would not recommend it for everyone, it really lacks that ‘destroy everything’ feeling you were having in early game. But that is for you to decide based on info I keep putting out. And of course – there will be more post, after we get more info, and right before league start, so stay tuned. Last edited by Fire_Archer#4037 on Mar 13, 2024, 3:27:48 AM
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