[3.25] Tarekis' Facetank Flicker Trickster - Ultra Tanky All-Rounder - CI ES Stacker



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PoB: [3.25] Link
Please always check PoB notes before anything, all up-to-date information is always maintained there!

Remember to not just use the pobb.in link alone, but open the acutal PoB (pobb.in can open the web version) since it has more information that isn't displayed in pobb.in.

The PoB has all the info you need:

Explanations in notes, leveling trees, gearing & tree and skill tier sets, and crafting advice. If you're familiar with PoE, you should be able to copy the build with the PoB alone.
For details about how the build works, and why which gear choices are made, watch the video guide where I explain things in detail as much as possible.

Gameplay Videos:
[3.25] -13% Max Res Sanctuary T17
[3.25] Deathless Simulacrum on Mid-Tier Gear (~30d)
[3.25] AlchN'Go T16 on Starter/Budget Gear (~6d)

Older Videos


[3.25] Video Guide
[3.25] Build Update (14.08.24)
[3.25] Crafting Guide

I'm not a content creator, so please don't expect something professional you're used from streamers.
I guess I'm a content creator now? Doing my best tho, it should be pretty nice to follow that guide.
This guide goes into the details and why some decisions are made, in case you either want watch instead of read or don't understand why I built some specific thing. I might have missed a detail or two, I made it as complete as possible.

1. Overview

Pros
Spoiler
Very Tanky
➕ Optimized to facetank, turn off your brain
➕ Good DPS
➕ Deathless 15 Wave Simulacrum, etc. (if the mods aren't rippy you can facetank Krosis Slams)
➕ Won't die to almost any one-shot
➕ You are now a chad flicker strike enjoyer
➕ Base concept also works with other skills if you want to play some other melee skill instead
➕ Can push tankieness even further with major investment up to 40k phys/ 100k ele max hits and more



Cons
Spoiler
➖ You might get motion sickness, it's flicker strike
➖ Bosses sometimes take a few seconds if they are beefy, all non-uber content is totally fine tho
➖ Without Awakend Multistrike you rarely run out of Frenzy Charges when there's only 1 Enemy, pretty non-issue tho


With proper investment you can kill Ubers with it, but it's not nice at all, you die to some slams, uber shaper is annoying as hell, etc.
Flicker Strike bossing is generally a bad experience tho, especially if you don't have an instant movement skill other than leap slam socketed, uber shaper is really really annoying, etc.


Changes
Spoiler

3.25
Spoiler

Getting some big changes to this build (and all melee builds) in 3.25, mostly good changes.
The core concept of the build stays the same as always.

• Frenzy is no longer available, you need Frenzy of Onslaught, which could be a bit annoying if you use it for too long you instead remove frenzy charges, be careful there.

• APS is substantially lower than previously. Any attack speed league-specific content (e.g. uniques) gives is up for consideration. You could perma run haste instead of wrath for APS > DMG, but watcher's pretty much is pointless then.

• This one hurts but it seems attack speed flask suffix has been removed. Substituting with Tincture, which is very strong, it's okay to use, but another button to manage.

• New armour bases are absolutely busted, especially considering quality changes. Get "Necrotic Armour", "Warlock Gloves", "Lich's Circlet", "Warlock Boots". Prepare for really high ES!

• We generate rage with: Rage on Hit, Rage on Enemy Hit, Rage on Mark Stun. That should be okay if the 0.5s rage generation cap doesn't fuck things up.

• Block Changes: Many changes for block, Versatile Combatant was buffed, and max block is now 65/65 instead of 50/50, which is wonderful, but also puts a bit of pressure on getting spell block maxed or higher, default is now 65/47. Unsure if this is any good, a pefect replica Reckless Defence exactly puts us at 65/65, or we could just leave it at 47 spell.

We have a open jewel slot from losing Perandus, a new jewel could be very valuable, currently slotted a regular abyss we use already. Light of Meaning is essentially a renamend Perandus

• No more totems, only the usual Berserk and Vaal Haste APS cooldowns, potentially Ancestral Cry if you want to absoultely self-press the buttons and not automate them.

• We can now fit CWDT+MS, so PoB warrior'd max hits, especially with my alternate full-tank version is getting a bit stupid, up there with some of the best tank builds. With higher block ceiling, this build got even tankier.

Tree Changes:
Changed block mastery, moved mana reservation wheel to benefit from lethal pride, banner wheel instead of totem buff, removed perandus from socket.
Moving back for Light of Meaning


3.24
Spoiler

No major changes for this build up until now. New mods tho.

We can now get +1 frenzy gloves and satisfy most of shock avoid with boot suffix.
The new perandus jewel is amazing for this build, throw it in socket near Iron Reflexes, pretty good successor for TWWT.

Losing charms and TWWT simply removes damage (culling, ele pen, enemy increased from conc ground) and fortify, which you can source from elsewhere, or drop altogether for less max hit.
We sadly won't get honoured tattoos, which would be awesome for this build, but we still can get cold res and evasion ration on the dex pathing nodes, which frees up cold res on gear.

To regain culling and fortify there is the option to drop the free slot for portal/vaal haste for a 4-totem link and make the totems do culling strikes. I think this is a sensible change.
Fortify on the other hand is a bit harder to get, there's only really either the Eater Body Armour implicit, which replaces the wrath effect/energy shield implicit, or temple-corrupting until fortify+resolute technique, which is insane to target-farm.
I changed the chest implicit to fortify as it's the most feasible option to get fortify, and really, what's 3% damage vs 20% less damage taken from hits. Hyperoptimize with double-corrupted EE with RT/Fortify. Very pricey, but get a base EE (perfect roll, price won't matter when doing this), enchant attack speed quality and throw at temple until you get the correct corruptions. RT/atkspeed is also very nice, could be worth getting instead too, and using fortify implicit instead.



Cost

This isn't meta by any means but more and more people are picking it up, and while I'm happy you guys enjoy the build, that means the prices are more competetive!
Especially good abyss jewels and Lethal Prides are gone very quickly with perfect rolls on LP going for 100d now.

You can league-start this, please read on for that part.

You'll need at least ~20-30d for a good intial gear set, depending on the prices.
RT EE is going trough the roof, historically high. Self-corrupt it if you're short on currency.

Depending on how you settle in crafting this is more or less, or if you manage to get some steals, or if the market for a specific item is in too high demand. If you buy items instead of crafting, expect costs to skyrocket.

Be smart about moving stats like bleed and shock avoid to sockets where you can get a good deal and move, might save you a lot of divines.

You can get it online for a relatively small budget, but expect a significant DPS decrease.
The only absolutely required items is uncorrupted Ephemeral, everything else you can just use low tier versions and deal with less ES/DPS, and save up for a Aegis and asap and Voice Amulet next.
It is league-startable, but you have to level with blade trap until you can get together some decent ES, and it's not as smooth as other league starters. Check PoB for notes.

2. Mechanics
Spoiler

Offensive
Spoiler

• High Energy Shield adds max Lightning Dmg trough Ephemeral Edge.
• Corruption Implicit makes all hits hit, never crit.
• Voice of the Storm makes non-crits Lucky, Precice Technique + CI makes them do 30% more dmg.
• Abyss Jewels for more added flat lightning.
• Bottled Faith and Mark makes Enemies take increased dmg.
• Tons of Exposure and Penetration.


Defensive
Spoiler

• Relatively high Energy Shield (7k+)
• High Evasion converted to high Armour
• 50/50 Block
• Massive ES regain on blocked hits (~1200-1500 ES)
• High Leech + ~12% of ES on kill
• Immunity to Bleed/Corrupted Blood & Elemental Ailments & Chaos Dmg


Frenzy Generation
Spoiler

This build relies entirely on frenzy charge generation on hit. This works smooth enough, you don't need farrul's for flicker, you didn't need it before it was introduced either.
That is also the reason for taking the sword cluster, which is pretty mediocre, but provides chance to generate on hit plus block.

Whenever you do bosses where you spawn to the boss only and have no trash mobs beforehand where you can get your frenzy charges up you'll need to use the "Frenzy of Onslaught" skill to get your charges up, then use flicker.
Keep in mind that Frenzy of Onslaught removes your charges when you use it too much. The base version no longer works with Swords, you need to use the alternate version.

Sometimes when you do not have woke multistrike yet, you will run low on charges, at which point you should top your charges up with the Frenzy of Onslaught skill again, I usually do this around 5/8 charges, but it rarely happens, and only against single target.

To prove this works here's the math:

The relevant calculation here is against a single unique enemy (usually a map boss), because splash/additional hits, 8% on kill + 20% on block + this calculation is enough to sustain against mob packs anyways.

• 25% from 20% quality Flicker Strike
• 10% from hits against marked enemy
• 8% from hits against unique enemy

That makes 43% chance to gain a frenzy charge on hitting a marked unique enemy.
You hit 3 times per expended frenzy with regular multistrike, 4 with awakened multistrike.
That means you have a 81.48% chance to gain a frenzy charge whenever you expend one (aka pressing flicker strike), or 89.444% with awakened multistrike.
This only accounts the probability to gain at least one frenzy charge. You will also be getting two or more per expended frenzy charge on occasion, and thus generally maintaining max or at least close to max frenzy charges with awakened multistrike.





3. Skill Tree
Spoiler
The skill tree starts being somewhat complete at around level 75, skip the damage nodes and get mechanic-enabling nodes and especially jewel sockets ASAP.
For a leveling and a full 95 and 100 skill tree check the PoB: [3.25] Link


4. Leveling
Spoiler
Check the PoB for progession on tree + gear + gems: [3.25] Link


5. Gear
Spoiler

For all rare crafting guides check the PoB: [3.25] Link

For my current build check out my Characters. 3.25 Character: "SoK_TarekisFlicker"

I will no longer mainain two versions of the same info, gear will only be explained in the PoB from now on.

Mirror Chest
Spoiler

Mirror Service info down below (0d fee, only tips)



Outdated Example Gear Set (pretty optimized from 3.23)
Spoiler








6. FAQ
Spoiler

While I like to try helping out everyone, I cannot keep answering the same questions over and over, I will ignore all questions in the FAQ, so please check here first:

How do I craft gear?
Spoiler

The PoB notes has crafting guides. I'll try to do a crafting video too, but please rely on the guides for now, idk when I will get to it.


How does frenzy generation work?
Spoiler

Section 2 of this guide explains how that works. It's also explained in the video guide in detail if you want to take the time to watch it.


Can this do Ubers?
Spoiler

Yes, but. Flicker bossing is bad, if you want to do it once for challenges, sure. But this build isn't good at farming them. Exarch and Eater are way easier, but Shaper and Maven are absolutely horrid to fight with flicker because of their degens.


Can this do T17s?
Spoiler

Yes.
More info to follow, but some info on T17 mods:
These are some mods grouped into reasons you don't want them on your maps:

Oneshots.
• Area contains Unstable Tentacle Fiends (creates huge AoEs that usually oneshot)
• Rare Monsters have Volatile Cores (creates exploding orbs that follow you on mob kills, that usually oneshot)

Extremely annoying.
• Monsters have +#% Chance to Block Attack Damage (You can run those maps IF you change your tree specifically for the map and swap in the attack cluster near Iron Reflexes for the "Monsters cannot Block your Attacks" Mastery, otherwise you have a 9-50% chance to hit, depening on your tree)
• Players and their Minions deal no damage for 3 out of every 10 seconds (Just very annoying and makes the map giga clunky)
• Players have #% reduced Action Speed for each time they've used a Skill Recently (Unless you have One Step Ahead this is annoying as you slow down considerably)
• Area contains Drowning Orbs (Annoying orbs that slow and instakill you after some time standing in them)

Extremely rippy. These should be pretty self-explanatory, no resistance means high elemental damage and no Defence means no ES.

• Players have -#% to all maximum Resistances
• Monster Damage Penetrates #% Elemental Resistances
• Players have #% less Defences
• Monsters gain #% of their Physical Damage as Extra Damage of a random Element

Conditional.
Monsters reflect #% of Elemental Damage (if for some reason you don't have Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks running T17s, OR you are annoyed if you kill yourself with a leap slam)



How much does this cost?
Spoiler

This is explained above, and an outline of investment levels are available in the PoB notes. Prices change, and I can't keep this up to date, but they should stay relatively in the same ballpark.


I can't find that Lethal Pride. What do I do?
Spoiler

I have a few searches preconfigured in the PoB notes. They say what that Lethal Pride version does for this build, so you can search for something in your budget. If for some reason none of those are up for sale, you can't afford them, or you want to check if you can find something better, use the Link at the very bottom of the PoB notes, and search for another version. Remember to tick on all Conquerors as it doesn't matter, since we don't allocate the Keystone.


Should we take One Step Ahead?
Spoiler

IMO it's mostly pointless to get One Step Ahead since it's just a bit better than the implicit on boots in terms of damage unless you're running slow-heavy content.

The only practical reason to get One Step Ahead is the additional slow immunity (cannot be lower than 108%), so if you are annoyed by slows or run content with lots of slows, you can consider it.
You can either get One Step Ahead Jewels for more Energy Leech on the Pathing node, or Soul Drinker Jewels for more Attack Speed on the Pathing node.

If you manage to free two Jewel slots you could get "Opportunistic" instead, PoB warriors will be disappointed because it doesn't reflect it in PoB, but it's 25% more boss damage.


What mods do we have to avoid?
Spoiler

While you can theoretically run all of them, each of those mods are big hit to your survivability, or just disable your build troughout the map (frenzy steal).

• Players have #% less Armour Players have #% reduced Chance to Block
• Monsters steal Power, Frenzy and Endurance charges on Hit
• Monsters cannot be Leeched from

Situational:
• Monsters reflect #% of Elemental Damage (if you do not have Awakened Elemental Damage with Attack Skills)
• Players cannot Regenerate Life, Mana or Energy Shield (simply because it can be annoying if you run out of mobs to leech from, hitting with default attack will leech you up again and you can continue tho, well unless it's ele reflect)
• Players have #% less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield (if you don't have instant leech yet)
• Monsters have #% increased Critical Strike Chance +#% to Monster Critical Strike Multiplier (if you're not very tanky yet this is the most dangerous modifier, but later on it doesn't matter anymore, unless layered with max res reduction and multi phys as ele)


How do I get the Uber Tank / Mirror Chest?
Spoiler

Mirror Service is up! To get the chest you need to bring a Mirror so I can mirror the item for you, but I charge no fee. If you can, tips are appreciated.




Recombinators are back. Doryani's?
Spoiler

No.
The problem with Doryani's is that while your DPS goes higher you die to exactly one thing: Lightning DoT. That is your kryptonite and will delete you, and IMO that is pretty stupid to take on a tank build.
The only way to fix that is getting a 100% lightning as cold/fire Greatwolf's. If you don't mana siphons and eater mobs will delete you. You either have to git gud, or accept that you chose to have an Achilles' tendon.
If you like that, go ahead and do it, but I'm not theorycrafting Doryani's anymore until it gets changed, as I've already played it and didn't like it.


What content should I farm? What is your atlas Tree?
Spoiler

I theorycraft builds, not currency strats, not sure if I'm a good advice here. This build can do almost anything, short of ubers.

It will do some content better than other, e.g. Legion I find very annoying with Flicker. E.g. Simulacrum lends itself because the rewards can be very good, and only select builds can both clear and tank Simulacrums.

I personally run Harvest, with this Atlas and Cornucopia, Doubling, Corruption, Conversion and Escalation Scarabs in 8mod T16 Guardian Map Rotations, and sometimes I run Simulacrums.


I can't kill Maven. How do I do that?
Spoiler

As mentioned above, Maven and Shaper, but especially Maven are horrid fights to do with flicker. You can swap to something like double strike for the maven fight.


Is Headhunter good? Is Mageblood good?
Spoiler

In short: No.

Headhunter is fun, but not really good, physical builds benefit from Headhunter way more than this Lightning Build. If you like to do it for the zoomies, you can go HH, but it's more of a meme than a solid choice.

Mageblood less so, we have 3 very strong unique flasks/tincture that we'd have to cut down to just the tincture. With change on hit prefixes the uptime of the flaskes is very high already, so more or less you're losing two unique flasks and a belt slot for essentially some armour. Attack speed suffixes are gone so that's pretty RIP for MB for this build.

MB will be valid for when I transition to the Uber-Tank version and finish the mirror chest, but first I need to make a couple hundred divs more.


Where does the rage come from?
Spoiler

Rage on Hit on the Midgame tree, and preferrably from the Lethal Pride on higher end versions saving you a few points.
Also, if you just remove that node and keep the rage configured in PoB you're just misconfiguring PoB, that actually loses you DPS.


I can't flicker. I'm stuck randomly and I don't know why.
Spoiler

There are a few explanations.

• You don't have any frenzy charges. 1 Frenzy charge doesn't mean you have one to spend on flicker, that is just the minimum you have. You need 2 frenzy charges to spend one on flicker. They can be removed by some monsters.
• You are slowed. If you are running Simulacrum or Delirium there are some nasty slows. Especially those three: 1 2 3
Check one Step ahead for a fix if you really want.
• You don't have instant leech and are running out of mana from your CWDT and tinctures.

There are some good ways to identify if those affect you.

When your characters complains about cooldowns "Just need a moment to catch my breath." it's that you're out of frenzy charges.
You can check your debuff bar to see if those debuffs listed above affect you. Keep in mind that there are other debuffs like Proximity Shield that also slow you, this isn't a full list.
When your characters complains about mana instead "Low on mana!", you need more leech.


Is Vaal Flicker good?
Spoiler

No.

1. The Damage Vaal Flicker does is applied at the end of all strikes. That means you are waiting until your damage is applied while you're just staring at your character. Usually you'll just kill the boss before the vaal skill is even over.
2. It's hard to get Vaal Flicker at Level 21. Level 21 is way more useful because it has higher damage effectiveness.

Last edited by Tarekis on Nov 11, 2024, 9:00:52 AM
Last bumped on Nov 14, 2024, 8:14:13 PM
First comment reserved because traditions
Hey man just a few questions may I ask:
1. Can I implement Mageblood into the build?
2. Does clear suffers without melee splash in links?
Thanks in advance!
"
maxQQ wrote:
1. Can I implement Mageblood into the build?


Yes you can go mageblood, you'll obviously want to make different choices on your non-belt slots if you go Mageblood, since you won't be needing resistances and can just shove in some DPS suffixes instead.
I didn't make a specific route since most people won't go MB and DE is easier scaling for less money, for Eldrich Items you only really have Int on suffixes, so you might want to check out influenced items, especially for gloves, you'll surely want to get the mentioned "default flicker gloves".
Something like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1746hni/chimeric_hand_the_perfect_flicker_strike_gloves/
Probably less busted but along those lines; should have guides for crafting around or you can buy them off trade.


"
maxQQ wrote:
2. Does clear suffers without melee splash in links?

It does not suffer at all, no, that is what the Tribal Fury Annoint is for, it essentially is Melee Splash in a Notable, you also have +Strike Targets from Gloves which layers with Tribal Fury to shotgun enemies.

Last edited by Tarekis on Jan 6, 2024, 6:48:00 AM
Deleted
Last edited by Etherios55 on Jan 5, 2024, 5:49:19 AM
Hey! Thanks for sharing this awesome build. Finally got my hands to this. Now I'm in a flicker community. Can you share your loot filter please?
How do you sustain frenzy charges?
"
UltraReality wrote:
Hey! Thanks for sharing this awesome build. Finally got my hands to this. Now I'm in a flicker community. Can you share your loot filter please?


You're welcome, glad you enjoy it :)

I'm just using NeverSinks Uber Strict with Abysses displayed because I run Simulacrum.
You can get it at filterblade.xyz.
Last edited by Tarekis on Jan 6, 2024, 11:41:13 AM
"
Voltreffer wrote:
How do you sustain frenzy charges?


By hitting things with frenzy gain chance, no Farruls shenanigans, the goold old way.

43% per hit to gain a frenzy charge: 25 from frenzy 10 from marked enemy 8 from unique
You hit 3 times per expended frenzy with multi support, 4 with awakened multi
That means you have a 81.48% chance to gain a frenzy charge whenever you expend one (aka press flicker strike), or 89.444% with awakened. This does not account you getting lucky and getting two or more in one flicker strike attack.

Then on top of that 8% on kill and 20% on block.
Against many enemies you never run out.

If you are hitting a very beefy enemy math rules you will run out of frenzy at some point. Frenzy is planned in the build for when you run out of charges, or go low, 0.5 seconds of hitting frenzy inbetween and you're up again should it happen. You can see it in my Simu fight against Kosis, look for my skill bar flashing the secondary skills (that's where I have frenzy allocated).
Idea: lose some AS and damage by switching to flicker of power with romira's banquet? this will make charge management work flawlessly regardless of scenario and allow you to drop multistrike. Thoughts?
Last edited by Stoyicker on Jan 6, 2024, 3:00:54 PM

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