[3.25] Holy Flicker Strike Necro [League start > All content] All content is done. PoB updated

Alright, finished reading patch notes and watching stream.

Boy there are A LOT OF changes and new possibilities, so much so, that I struggle to even grasp it all and make a coherent post. So lets just stick to the basics.


Holy relic gem

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First things first – the elephant in the room. Holy relic alt quality gem confirmed. We don’t know what its gonna be, but since SHR is a utility gem, its most likely gonna be DPS version. What kind of dps – we don’t know. Hopefully its cooldown reduction. See later why.

TL;DR – wait for the gem patch notes!

Necromancer Ascendancy
Got a massive rework. Again. Poor Gladiator players.

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Mindless Aggression now gives 10% more damage and 20% more life instead of 30% increased damage. This is a 5-6% DPS buff on top of early life for AG and specters. Very nice.

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Bone barrier was deleted from the game. As well as our hopes to get skills on left click back. This is… well I have several things to say about this.

LEFT CLICK REMOVAL – BAD part here.

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Bone Barrier will now grant 1% of minion damage leeched to player as life.
This is straight up giga broken and if you don’t know how broken it is – your relics only need 0.4 life leech to become immortal. If you leech 1% of both of relics damage, you’ll be permanently leech capped. Combine it with instant leech mastery that should give you 800~ INSTANT HP on STARTING ITEMS PER RELIC HIT. This is why I hope SHR trans gem is the one with cooldown recovery. The faster they hit, the better it gets.

It also opens up a lot of options to build into. Since you pretty much have infinite life recover at all times – Zealot’s Oath is suddenly good. Petrified Blood is a valid option. Glancing blows opening up.

TL;DR
A lot more options to experiment with the build, but before we can do that – basic build suffered a massive Max Hit loss. It may not be too bad, but early game will be noticeable.


MISC CHANGES

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We still don’t have desecrate trans quality gem. This is a huge QoL downgrade for this build as you will have to manually cast desecrate on bosses.

Aura specters seems to still exist. That means we potentially could fee a slot for aura. Huge deal if we go Petrified blood route.

Tattoos are back! But only the basic ones. Sadly the one that gives all stats is not included. Still, its pretty damn good as you have: resist, block, reduced curse effect – and potentially opening up the usage of Supreme Ostentation.

Rare monster slightly easier to kill. A very nice change. No more Phys reduction on Cycling elements. Soul eater nerfed. If we get a good DPS gem – mapping gonna be a smooth as butter.

Slain Rare monster gives increased Gem Experience – removed. Be ready to buy lvl 20/21 gems asap.

FARMING CHANGES, PROGRESS, LEAGUE PLANS

HUGE loot nerf and enemy density nerf.

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So… not only we are having an Affliction withdrawal. We also have the following:
No more sextants – meaning no more extra packs of monsters
Scarab strongbox removed (now it’s a random box mod)
Slaying Enemies close together can attract monsters from Beyond this Realm can no longer roll on the maps
Rare monster loot conversion gutted, scarab conversion (and bunch of others) removed

What this result in - (prolly reddit tears) the feeling of not getting anything from your maps. The loot gonna be concentrated in league mechanics, and if you are not doing those you will be very poor. But to do that you need first unlock a fair bit of passive points.

And that is ALSO gonna be hard because - Wandering path removed – harder to progress map tires.

LEAGUE MECHANICS CHANGES

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On top of loot nerfs, some league mechanics also got a reduction in value
White map essence nerfed a little bit. Its still prolly gonna be alright, but it was touched. In places.

Stacked deck nerf – rewards that dropped cards now drop decks. Stacked decks are now worse.

With all the above in mind – my advice – heist or expedition for early league. No one gonna have anything and heist uniques, even bad ones, will sell like hot pies for 1-2c.

Expedition is something Im a fan of, because not only you get just raw currency to buy stuff, you can also craft gg early or even late game items with Rog.

You also prolly gonna sit in low level maps a lot longer because of the changes, so its perfect for both heist and expedition as you not gonna fall too behind for farming.

Specializing in map sustain and map farm is another great strategy. Both because you gonna need a lot of passives to progress atlas, but also – because more map drops = more t17 maps. And t17 maps will be very important to unlock core mechanics like 5 slots and uber boss fights. You gonna need a lot of them and you only have 4% chance per map drop to get one. Making a dedicated map farmer is a good idea.

And finally once you get stronger 2 other options that Im gonna aim for
Scarabs is a hot topic and everyone gonna want some. That means Skittering delirium orbs gonna be really hot. Deli orb farming is something this build was decent at. Pair with expedition for extra enemies when strong.

The number of additional Bosses summoned by the Destructive Play Atlas Keystone Passive is now higher if there are fewer monsters remaining in the Map, Final Map Boss in each Map to have a 25% chance to drop an additional Scarab, Map Bosses have 100% increased chance to drop a Conqueror Map" (previously 30%). Bosses affected by wisps – all that just screams to do Maven boss rush. But it’s a bit more… complex that deli orbs farm, as it will require a GOOD DPS as well as running different maps fast.

Breach got QoL, but from the looks of it at cost of reduction in loot. Still – gonna try it out at some point. Always love farming breaches. But most likely gonna be bad.

MAPS

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Good maps removed: City square, Colonnade, Mesa
Good maps added: Belfry, Tower, Toxic Sewer

My plans - to live in toxic sewers.

TL;DR – loot is gone, map progressing will be hard, grab all map sustain nodes, focus on league mechanics right after – expedition, heist good options. Save for upgrades – wait till someone figure something out.
So there is that. Hope you had fun reading it. See you on gem reveal to confirm if we are so back, or its over.

My first reaction to patch notes:

With the change to Unholy Might for the phys to chaos conversion. Poison Holy Relic came to mind.

The Automation gem could solve the Desecrate + Bone Offering need for Trigger Weapon.

The Severed in Sleep + darkness enthroned for the poison chance ghastly eye jewels.

Unholy Might + Severed in Sleep gives 85% to wither.

Asenath's Gentle Touch + Despair corrupt makes easy double curse on hit set up for poison damage.

Auras would be the Envy from the weapon + defensive. Sounds like petrified blood could be nice with the bone barrier leech

That's all I came up with,

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eyeyue wrote:

My first reaction to patch notes:

With the change to Unholy Might for the phys to chaos conversion. Poison Holy Relic came to mind.

The Automation gem could solve the Desecrate + Bone Offering need for Trigger Weapon.

The Severed in Sleep + darkness enthroned for the poison chance ghastly eye jewels.

Unholy Might + Severed in Sleep gives 85% to wither.

Asenath's Gentle Touch + Despair corrupt makes easy double curse on hit set up for poison damage.

Auras would be the Envy from the weapon + defensive. Sounds like petrified blood could be nice with the bone barrier leech

That's all I came up with,

Unholy might - literally downgrade for poison since physical damage could poison to begin with. You just lost 30 as extra and that's it.

Automation only works on Instant skills. Both Offerings and Desecrate are not instant skills.

What you could try to do is chaos hitting relics, and I will look into it with chaos res reduction and whatnot. But I doubt it scales better than pure phys.

I still would like to revisit this build again since it was the first build that made me reach endgame and comfortably at that. The build influenced me to such a degree that other than one failed attempt at playing melee slam build, I've only ever made builds with similar Flicker-like (cwc-bodyswap in my case) playstyle since then without resorting to playing actual Flicker builds. So if a build isn't stationary and mobile at the same time I dont even look at it , lol.

But looking at some of the previous posts I didnt think about it before, but I guess some of the 3.22 changes really affected the build. I imagine transfigured HR and/or new graveyard crafting mods MUST be really good for HR Necro to make up for the lost power and be as comfortable as I remember it being in Archnemesis league.

I also hoped that this upcoming league mechanic wont require as many millions of DPS on a build like Affliction did but looking at the 3.24 stream dispelled those hopes. Seems like you'd need pretty big single target numbers for someof the craziest monster mods you pick before the map, affliction wisps Atlas keystone for map bosses, T17 + new (pseudo) Uber farming and whatnot.

With that in mind I'll probably wait and see from the side for at least one more league before trying the build again seriously. I play one build per league and dont want to gamble TOO much. Glad to see Fire_Archer is still active so I'd be able to read on how the build performs after yet another big upcoming changes.

https://pobb.in/cikYd6Z01O_Y
Any ideas how to improve it more without clusters

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AncorTm wrote:

https://pobb.in/cikYd6Z01O_Y
Any ideas how to improve it more without clusters

This is... a little bit out of my zone of knowledge. Guardian build and with a cyclone too. Those are two things I avoid for a reason. But I'll try to give you some general tips.

Opening up and all my screen is orange. Too many uniques is usually not a good sign.

First of all - your cyclone is just giving you maim. Do you really think its worth it? It forces you to use Stampede - meaning you are missing out on brittle ground - a massive boost to crit.

Then there is Scourge. It pretty much just gives you 70 inc minion damage. You could slap an essence on a weapon and have same (or even better stat). And imagine if you had +1 all skills with it too.

Animage guardian could help a lot.

Spirit offering would help a lot.

Curse would help a lot. Or two. Or even three. Vulnerability, Assassin's mark, Punishment.

But the main problem is that Holy relic scales massively with + to levels and you decided to both not get + levels from chest, going incandecent, and not get levels from 2 handed weapon, going Aegis.

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MrCinos wrote:

I still would like to revisit this build again since it was the first build that made me reach endgame and comfortably at that. The build influenced me to such a degree that other than one failed attempt at playing melee slam build, I've only ever made builds with similar Flicker-like (cwc-bodyswap in my case) playstyle since then without resorting to playing actual Flicker builds. So if a build isn't stationary and mobile at the same time I dont even look at it , lol.

But looking at some of the previous posts I didnt think about it before, but I guess some of the 3.22 changes really affected the build. I imagine transfigured HR and/or new graveyard crafting mods MUST be really good for HR Necro to make up for the lost power and be as comfortable as I remember it being in Archnemesis league.

I also hoped that this upcoming league mechanic wont require as many millions of DPS on a build like Affliction did but looking at the 3.24 stream dispelled those hopes. Seems like you'd need pretty big single target numbers for someof the craziest monster mods you pick before the map, affliction wisps Atlas keystone for map bosses, T17 + new (pseudo) Uber farming and whatnot.

With that in mind I'll probably wait and see from the side for at least one more league before trying the build again seriously. I play one build per league and dont want to gamble TOO much. Glad to see Fire_Archer is still active so I'd be able to read on how the build performs after yet another big upcoming changes.

Always happy to see you :D Your attack speed onslaught flask teck is still hoding is one of the biggest parts of the build.

Changes really took a big hit on damage and a lesser hit on mibility (becauseyou need to cast desecrate now and then). With teaks I did it aaalmost feels the same as before in terms of utility.

The damage loss WAS a big deal because enemies would just run over you if you don't kill them fast enough. With leech addition... I don't think this will ever be the case. With leech, petri blood, or maybe some other tweaks it should become so tanky that low damage would not even matter

And the best part is - low damage might still not happen, because of trans gem version.

All and all - just wait for gem, it will make or break the deal for pretty much everyone I think. Also check out the latest vids in my comments before - just to confirm that its same old flicker boom zoom

Dude, relic is back. wake up.

Ok everyone calm down.

Holy relic gem is out and it opens up a lot of possibilities. A lot lot. So to not get overwhelmed with all the options lets just stick to the basic PoB and let other people figure stuff out during the league, shall we?



PoB updated to 3.24 - https://pobb.in/hx_GkgNN0t9P

A quick look at the new gem

1) It’s a single gem variation. Meaning it should be relatively easy to get it and get it very early. Big plus.

2) No longer heals. This sucks. But on paper it was only giving about 2% life regen to minions. It’s a lot, but nothing critical. Player healing loss is more noticeable, but we now have leech, so who cares.

3) Maximum 3 holy relics. That’s 33% more damage

4) 20% cooldown recovery (comes with quality I assume) – Already huge QoL change, but that also means that Ashes is back as BiS putting us to 53% cooldown recovery rate with massive DPS boost of another 30-40%

5) Another quality of life – Holy nova now casted on the enemy instead of on the holy relic. This effect comes with Astral Projection ring and is very powerful on totems. For out build – not so much, but I guess it will feel a LOT smoother to flicker, shield chare. Or even use traps or bow if you feel spicy.

The result of the changes is that we got our damage back to about the same level (a tiny bit higher) than before.
Presumably, you can also start rocking new Holy relic as early as you do uber lab. So that’s a smoother transition to red maps where damage usually tanked down.

Now lets talk about downsides and build progression


For the leveling I can recommend Vennto’s addition to the guide – Absolution leveling. But don’t hesitate to peek into other content creators leveling guides. All necros typically have the same tree

https://pobb.in/RhZoKTG5DhlJ
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHSKgIFmF80
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdGIMG_IBlE


Little bit of a rant.


League start and few words of guidance.

Make sure you check the videos on how build plays. This might not be your cup of tea.

Use the discord or forums for your questions. Link your PoB when asking.

If you didn’t like this build – you can always reroll into ANY of witch classes by doing lab again. Or just switch to other minion builds with relative ease.

Stick to PoB in every detail. We got cooldown reduction back, and that means you need specific gem levels of your attacks – check FAQ/PoB

Invest into defenses early, you should not struggle with damage granted you have a new gem. Aegis, Forbidden Jewels, capped block should be your priority.

Speaking of priorities – here is a list from last league


Animate Guardian/Specters – may be squishier than last time. This build were able to start using them from like lvl 16 of the gem. Be careful. If you are not confident in your AG get the gem to at least lvl 19.

So that’s all I wanted to say. See you at league start! Lets hope the gear stays cheap.

Surely this is still HC viable :)