Flicker Strike Slayer Build Guide - Path of Exile 3.24

Flicker Strike has always been one of the meta builds in Path of Exile. When used, your character zips through packs of monsters and kills them with ease. Although it is not exactly a build that you'd want to start the league with, the Slayer ascendancy class allows you to take advantage of Flicker Strike in a way that doesn't involve a ton of investment to begin with.

In this build guide, you will learn how to create the Slayer variant of Flicker Strike. This guide teaches you what items you'll need and the gems you're going to work with. A Path of Building (POB) link will also be included so that you can try this build yourself.

So without further ado, this is our complete build guide for the Flicker Strike Slayer in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Why Slayer?

Flicker Strike Slayer

For quite some time, a lot of people would play Flicker Strike using the Raider ascendancy class. Well, there are a few reasons why this has been the case. For one, the Raider allows for easy Frenzy Charge generation with Way of the Poacher. Frenzy Charges are further elevated with Avatar of the Slaughter.

In addition, the Raider has an easier time capping spell suppression thanks to Quartz Infusion. Players can utilize Rapid Assault for free and easy access to Onslaught, which is useful if Replica Farrul's Fur is not within reach.

However, while the Raider certainly has access to some pretty good ascendancy notables, this class requires heavy investment to really shine. In fact, you'd have to invest multiple mirrors worth of gear to be able to enjoy the Flicker Strike Raider.

Frustrated by the fact that the skill can only feel comfortable with heavy investment, the PoE community has come up with a way to use Flicker Strike that's more accessible to a lot of people. That's where the Slayer variant comes in.

Unlike the Raider, the Slayer is an ascendancy class in Path of Exile that's all about destroying enemies before they even hit you. This class has some very interesting notable passives that truly complement Flicker Strike.

The first is Impact - an ascendancy notable that increases your accuracy rating and melee strike range. Moreover, you deal up to 15% more melee damage to enemies based on proximity. This means that the closer the foe is to you, you deal increased damage to them. With Flicker Strike, you're pretty much up close and personal with the enemy anyway, so you'll always take advantage of everything Impact has to offer.

After finishing the second labyrinth, you can take Bane of Legends. With this, you'll have no problems taking on unique enemies because your Flicker Strike Slayer can deal 20% more damage. On top of that, this ascendancy notable provides you with 10% more damage if you've killed an enemy recently. Because of how Flicker Strike is used, you'll be slaying enemies 90% of the time, therefore, this damage bonus is active almost always. As an added bonus, you cannot take reflected physical damage. This enables you to run maps with the reflected physical damage mod without worry.

For your third ascendancy notable, you have a couple of options depending on your current equipment. If you don't have the endgame gear yet, you can take Brutal Fervour. This is essentially the life overleech that Path of Exile players are talking about. If you don't know, you're constantly leeching life and mana from your enemies because of your gear. Brutal Fervour just makes it so that the life leech effects are not removed even if your HP is already full. Besides that, this ascendancy notable increases maximum recovery per life leech by 100%. You take 10% reduced damage while leeching as well.

If you have access to Replica Farrul's Fur, then it's recommended that you take Masterful Form over Brutal Fervour. The reason is that Masterful Form increases your maximum Frenzy Charges by one. But more importantly, your maximum Endurance Charges are always equal to the number of Frenzy Charges you have. For example, if you have seven Frenzy Charges, then the Endurance Charges you have are about seven as well.

In the endgame, this build will utilize a high critical strike chance to decimate your opponents. For this reason, your last ascendancy notable passive should be Overwhelm. This passive actually serves two purposes. For one, it reduces the critical strike multiplier of nearby enemies by 30%, thus improving your survivability. Furthermore, your base critical strike chance for attacks with weapons is 8%. Voidforge is your endgame weapon for this build. This thing has a base critical strike chance of 5%. With Overwhelm allocated, that 5% chance is increased to 8%, which is quite huge in calculating your overall critical strike chance.

Slayer Ascendancy Notable Passives

Once you have enough currency, you can take all of the five ascendancy notables mentioned above by purchasing a couple of Forbidden Jewels with a matching modifier. Purchase the most inexpensive set you can find.

The only major disadvantage to the Flicker Strike Slayer is that it doesn't have easy access to spell suppression chance, unlike the Raider. Because of this, you have to take on a "hit fast, hit hard" approach. You could say that offense is the best defense in this case.

Basics

Flicker Strike is an attack skill in Path of Exile. When used, you teleport to nearby enemies to deal damage while looking so cool in the process! Now, the said skill has an innate cooldown, but this can be bypassed by spending a Frenzy Charge. Since you have so many ways to generate the charges, you'll have no issue with Flicker Strike's cooldown whatsoever!

Now, the most important unique item that elevates Flicker Strike to new heights is Replica Farrul's Fur. Unlike its normal variant, this version grants you Endurance Charges rather than Power Charges for improved survivability and damage.

Replica Farrul's Fur should be paired with a rare item (most commonly a crafted Unset Ring) that has the "Aspect of the Cat" skill. This will be discussed at length in the gear section of the build guide.

Next to that is Voidforge. This unique two-handed sword allows you to deal incredible amounts of pain. With this equipped, you gain 700% of the weapon's physical damage as extra damage of a random element (fire, cold, and lightning).

Despite the nerf, Kaom's Spirit is still a viable option in 3.23, though it is no longer the best-in-slot. You could equip it but you have to make sure that you put as many "Regenerate Life per Second" mods wherever possible. Using this allows you to generate Rage, which then grants you the ability to use Berserk for more damage.

You can replace Kaom's Spirit with self-crafted double-influenced Spiked Gloves. These gloves do not give you Rage generation. However, they do provide you with one additional maximum Frenzy Charge and the mod "Non-Vaal Strike Skills Target 1 Additional Nearby Enemy," which is pretty insane for map clearing.

With the introduction of the new Transfigured Gem, Flicker Strike of Power, you now have a way to generate Power Charges as well. This gem is very powerful, especially early on when your critical strike chance is not capped at 100% yet.

The Flicker Strike of Power got buffed in Patch 3.24 in that it now provides a 50% increased critical strike chance per Power Charge, up from 30% previously. This is amazing, especially early on when you do not have access to endgame gear yet.

Because of the gear you're going to equip for this build, you can stack the following mods to improve your damage:

• Added Physical Damage
• Critical Strike Multiplier
• Increased Elemental Damage
• Added Elemental Damage (preferably cold)
• Increased Attack Speed

Playstyle

This build is pretty fun to play! When you arrive in a new map or area, you activate Blood Rage for a sizable boost to your attack speed, as well as the ability to gain Frenzy Charges on kill. Then, you simply hold the right mouse button (where the Flicker Strike skill should be) and move around the map searching for packs of monsters. Then, watch your character slice through them without a problem! If no foe is around, use Leap Slam until you find one.

When you come across tougher enemies, drop your Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief totems to increase your attack speed and damage, respectively. If you have a Vaal Flicker Strike, use that to deal with such foes as well.

Flicker Strike in Action

Gear

The Flicker Strike Slayer is a build that's mostly composed of unique items, with only two or three rare pieces of gear. Here are the things that you need to equip in order to enjoy this build to the fullest:

Weapon

Voidforge is arguably the best weapon for the Flicker Strike Slayer; only bested by a Paradoxica and rare shield that requires a ton of investment to obtain. This weapon has all of the goods that perfectly suit the build, such as:

• 5-8% Increased Attack Speed
• 90-100 to Maximum Life
• Your Elemental Damage Can Shock
• Gain 700% of Weapon Physical Damage as Extra Damage of a Random Element
• 20% Increased Area of Effect for Attacks
• Deal No Non-Elemental Damage

The main highlight of this weapon is the "700% of physical damage as extra damage of a random element" mod. By scaling flat physical damage, Voidforge has the power to eliminate enemies that dare stand in your way.

What's more, your damage can shock enemies, making them take even more damage. The 20% increased area of effect also helps with map clear since it enables you to hit more monsters at once.

Voidforge can be obtained by defeating the Uber Elder. Alternatively, they can be purchased with Divine Orbs from the PoE trade website.

Body Armor

This build without a doubt cannot function as comfortably as it can be without Replica Farrul's Fur. This unique Triumphant Lamellar grants the following:

• 100-150% Increased Armor and Evasion
• 80-100 to Maximum Life
• +2 Seconds to Cat's Agility Duration
• Gain Up to Your Maximum Number of Frenzy and Endurance Charges while you gain Cat's Agility
• You Have Onslaught while you have Cat's Agility

Replica Farrul's Fur requires you to have the "Aspect of the Cat" skill. This is a mod that can be added to a rare item through Beastcrafting. To open up your gear slots for better items, you should place Aspect of the Cat on a rare Unset Ring. Crafting this ring will be discussed further in the appropriate section of the guide.

Aspect of the Cat Skill

If you're still starting out, you can actually use the normal version of Farrul's Fur. It is significantly cheaper than the replica and the only major difference is that you gain Power Charges instead of Endurance Charges.

Helmet

Because Voidforge allows you to deal more damage by scaling physical damage, the Abyssus is a good complementary piece for the build. This unique Ezomyte Burgonet not only grants flat physical damage to attacks, but also boosts your melee critical strike multiplier by a considerable degree. Here are its stats:

• 20-25 to All Attributes
• Adds 40 to 60 Physical Damage to Attacks
• 100-125% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• 100-120% Increased Armor
• 40-50% Increased Physical Damage Taken

The additional attributes provided by the Abyssus certainly help you equip gems that have a high INT requirement.

The only disadvantage to wearing this unique helmet is that it increases the physical damage you take by 40-50%. For this reason, you'd want to acquire one that has below 45% increased physical damage taken so as to not make enemy hits too dangerous.

Because of the new Transfigured Gems in 3.23 Affliction League, you no longer have to worry about any helmet enchants. As a result of this change, however, you do not have access to the "9% Increased Flicker Strike Damage per Frenzy Charge" enchantment anymore. Fortunately, the other support gems you use for the main attack skill have been buffed in some capacity, so the loss of the helmet enchant is not too big of a deal.

Gloves

The nerf to Kaom's Spirit in the previous league is just too hard to ignore. It works pretty much the same as the previous versions, albeit you now need 300 life recovery per second (instead of 100) in order to generate just a single point of Rage. While you can still equip this if you want since it enables you to use Berserk, this is no longer the best in slot.

Its replacement is now a self-crafted pair of double-influenced Spiked Gloves, specifically one with the combined Hunter and Warlord mods. If you want to craft it, you must first obtain two pairs of Spiked Gloves - one with a Warlord influence and the other with a Hunter influence. The crafting process is a bit lengthy, so I will divide the crafting process into three to make it easier for you to follow.

For the Hunter-influenced Spiked Gloves

1. Use an Orb of Scouring and an Orb of Transmutation to transform the gloves into a magic (blue) item
2. Then, spam it with Orb of Alteration until you get the mod "Non-Vaal Strike Skills Target 1 Additional Nearby Enemy." This may take about 1,000 Orbs of Alteration, so be patient
3. Once you have the mod, use a Regal Orb to turn it into a rare (yellow) item. Then, set it aside for now
4. Alternatively, if you have a ton of Wild Crytallised Lifeforce (Purple), you can utilize Harvest Reforge Attack to get the same mod as well

For the Warlord-influenced Spiked Gloves

1. Follow the same step as above to achieve a magic (blue) item
2. Spam the gloves with Orb of Alteration until you get the mod, "+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges"
3. Use Regal Orb to turn into a rare (yellow) item

Now that you have the influenced modifiers that you need, the next step is to use an Awakener's Orb to combine the two. Doing this not only merges both of the mods together but it will give you a bunch of other affixes as well. If you still have open slots, you can use your Crafting Bench or Exalted Orbs to fill them up.

After following the above steps, you should have something like this:

Since both of the desired influenced modifiers are prefixes, you can put “Prefixes Cannot Be Changed” from the Crafting Bench if you have an open suffix, then use an Orb of Scouring.

After that, lock the prefixes again and use a Veiled Orb. Bench-craft “% Increased Attack Speed While Focused” and then head to Jun to unveil. You are looking for the mod, “30% Increased Elemental Damage if You’ve Dealt a Critical Strike Recently, 22% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance.”

Once you get the said veiled modifier, bench-craft “12% Increased Attack Speed” and call it a day. To finish the gloves, use an Exalted Orb to fill the last remaining suffix.

Of course, if you do not want to go through the hassle, you can just spam Exalted Orbs after combining the two influenced gloves and be done with it.

The self-crafted Spiked Gloves are an incredible replacement for Kaom's Spirit. Sure, you lose the ability to gain Rage, but what you get in return is something that scales really well with Flicker Strike, Replica Farrul's Fur, and the "Aspect of the Cat" ring.

It is important to note that if you have the Hunter-influenced modifier, you cannot use Vaal Flicker Strike. Otherwise, the said prefix will not do anything.

If you’re pretty tight on budget and you’re unable to craft the Spiked Gloves yet, you can swap Kaom’s Spirit with Tanu Ahi. This thing gives you the ability to gain Adrenaline and Onslaught for more attack speed.

Boots

The Flicker Strike Slayer utilizes Frenzy Charges for offense and defense, so it's a good idea to stack as many of them as possible. That being said, the Darkray Vectors is a unique pair of boots that increases your maximum Frenzy Charges by one, making it ideal for the build. You gain other benefits too, such as:

• 40-70% Increased Armor and Evasion
• 10% Increased Evasion Rating per Frenzy Charge
• 20-40% Lightning Resistance
• 5% Increased Movement Speed per Frenzy Charge

In addition, you have the option of corrupting the Darkray Vectors with Vaal Orbs. Here are the corrupted implicit mods worth getting:

• +1 to Level of Socketed Gems
• +2 to Level of Socketed Duration Gems
• +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems
• #% Increased Maximum Life
• +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems
• Regenerate 100 Life per Second while Moving
• +#% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
• #% Increased Movement Speed

Ralakesh’s Impatience is a viable alternative to the Darkray Vectors. Although you lose one additional Frenzy Charge, what you do have in return is that you’ll always count as having the maximum number of all charges, these being Endurance, Frenzy, and Power Charges. This effect synergizes with other unique items.

While Ralakesh’s Impatience got a sizable nerf in Patch 3.24 with the removal of the movement speed modifier, it still remains one of the best boots to use on the Flicker Strike Slayer.

For instance, when you have Ralakesh's Impatience equipped, you can use the Wyrmsign gloves to gain permanent Rampage. Aside from that, you have the option of using Arn's Anguish to get the effects of Brutal Charges, unlocking the ability for you to deal triple damage!

Rings

As previously mentioned, to unlock the full potential of Replica Farrul's Fur, you need to craft a rare Unset Ring that contains the Aspect of the Cat Skill. To do that, get an Unset Ring with an item level of 85. Ideally, run some Alva Temples to acquire an Unset Ring that has the "+74-78 maximum mana/0-8 to Total Mana Cost of Skills" prefix so that you'll have space for another mod.

Before you can add the Aspect of the Cat skill, you must capture Farrul, First of the Plains to unlock the recipe. Alternatively, you can purchase the itemized monster from the trade website if you don't want to be bothered to hunt this ferocious beast yourself.

When you have the necessary stuff, you can find the crafting steps below:

If You Have Alva Temple Unset Ring:

1. Make sure that you have an open suffix to craft the Aspect of the Cat Skill
2. If you don't have an open suffix, use an Orb of Annulment and hope that the mana mod mentioned above is not removed
3. Once you have an Unset Ring with a suffix slot open, head to the arena located in the Menagerie
4. Interact with the huge circle at the center of the arena then place your Unset Ring
5. In the search bar, type "Farrul" and then select the said beast
6. After that, you'll have to beat Farrul and its minions to have the Aspect of the Cat Skill added to your ring

If You Don't Have the Alva Temple Unset Ring:

1. Get a rare ilvl 85+ Unset Ring
2. You can use essences to craft the ring. You have a few essences to choose from: Deafening Essence of Greed for life regen, Deafening Essence of Loathing for increased critical strike chance, or Deafening Essence of Spite for some INT.
3. Spam the Unset Ring with the essence of your choosing until you're happy with the mods. Just make sure that you have an open suffix to craft Aspect of the Cat
4. After that, just repeat steps 3 to 4 above to get the desired skill.

Later down the line, you must replace the Alva Temple Unset Ring with a synthesized version that has "+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges" as an implicit modifier. Take note that this particular piece of jewelry is not cheap, so you should be ready to spend a boatload of Divine Orbs to acquire one.

For your other ring slot, equip the Circle of Guilt. This unique synthesized iron ring can only drop from Synthesis Bosses, including the Altered Synthete, Augmented Synthete, Rewritten Synthete, and Twisted Synthete.

Having said that, the ring can roll two random modifiers that affect Herald of Purity. You only need to be concerned with these ones:

• Herald of Purity has 40-60% Increased Buff Effect
• Herald of Purity has 30-40% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency

You could replace the increased buff effect mod with "4% Additional Physical Damage Reduction while Affected by Herald of Purity" if you want more survivability.

Since Circle of Guilt is a unique synthesized iron ring, you have access to some pretty cool implicit modifiers that will enhance the damage of Flicker Strike. Obtain one with the following implicits:

• +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges (Best)
• +# to Intelligence
• #% Increased Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage
• #% Increased Global Physical Damage
• #% Increased Elemental Damage
• #% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance
• #% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• #% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
• #% Increased Maximum Life
• +# to All Attributes
• #% Increased Damage with Vaal Skills
• Regenerate # Life per Second
• Regenerate #% of Life Per Second per Endurance Charge
• Gain # Life per Enemy Killed
• #% Increased Evasion Rating per Frenzy Charge
• #% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills
• #% Increased Evasion Rating

Amulet

For the amulet, the absolute best-in-slot is the Stranglegasp. It is a unique onyx amulet that allows you to insert three additional anointments for a total of four. You can anoint it with the following:

• Whispers of Doom
  • You can apply an Additional Curse
  • Requires 3x Golden Oils
• Frenetic
  • +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges
  • Requires Azure Oil, 2x Silver Oils
• Forces of Nature
  • Attack Damage Penetrates 10% of Enemy Elemental Resistances
  • Requires Verdant Oil, Azure Oil, Silver Oil
• Panopticon
  • Attack Skills have +1 to maximum number of Summoned Ballista Totems
  • 50% increased Effect of Buffs your Ancestor Totems grant while Active
  • 30% increased Totem Damage
  • Requires Amber Oil, 2x Golden Oils
• Disemboweling
  • 50% Increased Melee Critical Strike Chance
  • +25% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
  • Requires Verdant Oil, Violet Oil, Golden Oil
  • Note: Replace Panopticon with this one if you have low critical strike chance

The reason why Stranglegasp is the best for the Flicker Strike Slayer is that you can actually try to "brick" it with a Vaal Orb, thus turning it into a rare amulet. Once you do this successfully, you can then use a Tainted Mythic Orb to transform it into a random unique amulet. The resulting amulet will still have all of the four anointments present in the original!

Now, the three unique amulets that you need to go for using the above method are Carnage Heart, Yoke of Suffering, or Replica Dragonfang's Flight. Get any of these and you have the perfect one for the build!

If the budget is tight, you can use Yoke of Suffering for now and anoint it with Frenetic (Azure Oil, Silver Oil, Silver Oil).

Belt

The Flicker Strike Slayer build can gain huge benefits from two unique belts: Mageblood and Arn's Anguish.

Mageblood is the preferred option for a more balanced build since four of your magic utility flasks will have permanent uptime. But, Arn's Anguish is actually not bad at all!

Equipping Arn's Anguish gives you the ability to gain Brutal Charges instead of Endurance Charges. Each Brutal Charge grants a 3% chance to deal Triple Damage. If you have seven Brutal Charges, that translates to a 21% chance to deal huge amounts of damage to your enemies!

Keep in mind that because Arn's Anguish converts all of your Endurance Charges, your survivability suffers as a result. But, if you just want to get as much damage as you can, then this is a great alternative to the Mageblood for sure! You just have to sort out your defenses elsewhere if you're going this route.

If you want to keep the effects of Endurance Charges intact, you can wear Arn’s Anguish along with the Ralakesh’s Impatience unique boots.

For the budget version, you have several options to choose from. Ryslatha's Coil increases your physical damage range so that your overall damage is more consistent.

Perseverance increases your attack damage based on your armor or evasion rating, whichever is the lowest on your Flicker Strike Slayer. Not only that but you gain Fortify for improved defense, and Onslaught for more attack speed.

The Magnate allows you to deal double damage or even triple damage if you have at least 400 strength. If you're going to use this, you might have to put more STR mods on your gear wherever possible to take full advantage of the belt's unique effect.

And lastly, Belt of the Deceiver grants you the ability to intimidate nearby enemies, making them take more damage as a result. It also provides some elemental resistances, life, and global physical damage. And oh, you also take 30% reduced extra damage from critical strikes!

Flasks

Your main flasks for this build are:

• Diamond Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Jade Flask
• Granite Flask (for bossing)
• Quicksilver Flask (for mapping)

In terms of flask mods, aim to get the following:

• 17% Increased Attack Speed during Effect
• 60% Increased Evasion Rating during Effect
• 55% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked during Effect (for Stormshroud)
• 34% chance to Freeze, Shock, and Ignite during Effect (for bossing)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed during Flask Effect (for mapping)

If you have a Mageblood, make sure to use Enkindling Orbs until you obtain 70% increased effect of flasks. Also, roll each of your magic utility flasks using Orb of Alteration for the "25% Increased Effect" explicit mod.

The last flask depends entirely on your needs. If you're new to Flicker Strike, it's highly recommended to take a Life Flask, preferably with the "Seething" mod on it to heal your HP instantly when used.

Once you get comfortable with the playstyle, you can replace the Life Flask with a Bottled Faith. This unique Sulphur Flask creates a Consecrated Ground when activated. Monsters that step on the affected area take increased damage. Moreover, you have increased critical strike chance against enemies that are on the Consecrated Ground.

Jewels

The Watcher's Eye is a staple in many builds in Path of Exile. That is also the case for the Flicker Strike Slayer. Since you will be using Precision and Hatred as your main auras, you should get a Watcher's Eye containing mods that get activated whenever you have these buffs active. Here are some suggestions:

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier While Affected by Precision
• +% to Increased Attack Damage While Affected by Precision
• Gain a Flask Charge When You Deal a Critical Strike While Affected by Precision
• % Increased Attack Speed While Affected by Precision
• +% to Critical Strike Chance While Affected by Hatred
• % Increased Cold Damage While Affected by Hatred
• Damage Penetrates % Cold Resistance While Affected by Hatred

Large Cluster Jewels allow you to get some incredible passive skills that are normally not found on the passive tree. That said, you should get a Large Cluster Jewel with the "Axe/Sword Attacks Deal 12% Increased Damage with Hits and Ailments" as a base. Then, obtain any of these mods to improve the Flicker Strike Slayer build:

• Martial Prowess
  • 20% Increased Attack Damage
  • 6% Increased Attack Speed
  • 15% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
  • 20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills
• Feed the Fury
  • 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life
  • 30% Increased Damage While Leeching
  • 15% Increased Attack Speed While Leeching
• Fuel the Fight
  • 8% Increased Attack Speed
  • 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Mana
  • 20% Increased Damage While Leeching
• Calamitous
  • 30% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
  • 10% Chance to Freeze, Shock, and Ignite
  • 15% Increased Effect of Non-damaging Ailments
• Bloodscent
  • Attack with Axes or Swords Grant 1 Rage on Hit, No More Than Once Every Second

The good thing is that the passive skills above all have the "Attack" tag on them, which means that you can roll the Large Cluster Jewel on your Harvest Bench with the "Reforge Attack" option until you get any three of the passives on the list.

To help you get a high base critical strike chance (before Power Charges), we recommend that you use Medium Cluster Jewels as well. Get one with "15% Increased Critical Strike Chance" as a base. Because the mods you are looking for have the "Critical" tags on them, you can use your Harvest Bench's "Reforge Critical" option until you get Pressure Points and Basics of Pain. Other viable alternatives include Quick Getaway, Magnifier, and Skullbreaker.

The Flicker Strike Slayer, admittedly, does not have a high HP pool. Therefore, it is crucial that you reach ailment immunity as soon as you can. One of the ways to achieve this is by using the Stormshroud unique Viridian Jewel. When you have this inserted into a gem slot, any modifiers that increase "Chance to Avoid Being Shocked" translate to "Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments" as well. For this reason, you want to add as many "Chance to Avoid Being Shocked" mods via flasks or base jewels until you achieve 100% ailment immunity.

Base jewels are a great way to address any deficiencies you may have on the build. That being said, here are some of the modifiers to look for when purchasing these jewels:

• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Two-handed Weapons
• +% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• +% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Reduced Effect of Curses on You

The Lethal Pride is a timeless jewel that can provide you with a lot of amazing mods for the Flicker Strike Slayer, such as:

• 30% Increased Melee Critical Strike Chance
• +15% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
• You take 10% Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes
• 5% Increased Strength
• 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life

As a start, purchase a Lethal Pride jewel with at least two crit chance nodes and one crit multiplier node. The double damage node, while very appealing, is only worth it if you acquire a Lethal Pride with at least three double damage nodes. Otherwise, you're better off focusing on the crit mods instead.

When you reach the endgame, you can get your hands on the Forbidden Jewels set. Refer to the ascendancy portion of this build guide for more information.

Gems

With the items you have equipped, it is quite easy to get the right socket colors. Most of the gems used in this build require red sockets, but there are several that need blue or green sockets as well.

Weapon

• Flicker Strike/Flicker Strike of Power
• Close Combat
• Awakened Multistrike Support
• Trinity
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
• Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support

This is your main attack setup. With the introduction of Transfigured Gems in 3.23 Affliction League, the base version of Flicker Strike is actually pretty good now. But, you do have the option of using Flicker Strike of Power, especially if you want a reliable way of generating Power Charges. With Power Charges, you can easily reach the 100% crit cap, enabling you to deal the most amount of damage with every hit.

Now, it is important to note that Flicker Strike of Power now uses Power Charges instead of Frenzy Charges to bypass the skill's cooldown. That is why you still need to have a relatively high base crit chance, with at least 65% as the bare minimum, to ensure that you gain enough Power Charges to keep your Flicker Strike up at all times.

Close Combat is a support gem that grants you more damage against enemies based on how close they are to you. This gem is a perfect complement to the build because Flicker Strike teleports you to melee range to hit your foes. Despite the removal of the "Divergent" alt-quality version of this gem, Combat Support is still quite good for this build.

Awakened Multistrike Support is vital to the build. What it does is it repeats Flicker Strike hits three times, dealing more damage with subsequent attacks. It's highly recommended to get the Awakened version as it allows you to execute an additional, more damaging strike. Now, if you don't have the currency yet, you can go with the non-awakened version, though keep in mind that it only repeats Flicker Strike twice.

Since Voidforge essentially converts all physical damage to a random element, you can take advantage of Trinity Support. This gem not only increases the elemental damage of Flicker Strike, but it also empowers the said skill gem to penetrate up to 16% elemental resistances. The last part is quite helpful, particularly when fighting against enemies that have naturally high elemental resistances. You don't even have to stress about Trinity's mechanics while playing this build at all. So long as you hit something, you'll always have all of your resonance up.

Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks is pretty self-explanatory. It increases the elemental damage done by your Flicker Strike by up to 39% at Level 5. However, the reason why you'd want the awakened version of this gem is so that you cannot take reflected elemental damage. This, coupled with the Slayer's Bane of Legends ascendancy passive, makes you immune to all types of reflected damage!

Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support, as the name implies, provides a "more" damage multiplier to Flicker Strike, meaning the damage is calculated multiplicatively instead of additively. At max level, the awakened version of the gem grants you a 10% chance to intimidate enemies for several seconds on hit. Intimidate, in Path of Exile, is a debuff that causes the affected target to take 10% increased attack damage.

Because Kaom's Spirit has effectively been nerfed in 3.23, you have the option of swapping Combat Support for Rage Support. This is so that you can gain Rage comfortably to activate Berserk.

If you are struggling with mana, you can replace Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks for Inspiration Support. This particular support gem also gives you an added benefit by improving your critical strike chance per Inspiration Charge (max 5).

Body Armor

• Precision
• Hatred
• Herald of Purity
• Blood Rage
• Berserk
• Enlighten Support (Lvl 4)

Because of the removal of alt-quality gems in Patch 3.23, the gems that you're going to put in your body armor are vastly different from previous Flicker Strike Slayer builds. You can use the body armor to now put in your aura gems along with Enlighten Support to have enough mana to activate them all.

Precision is a must-have for this build as it provides you with a significant boost to your accuracy rating and critical strike chance. Hatred gives you more cold damage, as well as extra cold damage. If you do not have Enlighten Lvl 4 yet, you might not have enough mana to have both of these auras up. If that's the case, you can replace Hatred with Herald of Ice for the time being.

Herald of Ice not only grants you added cold damage but you shatter enemies with your Flicker Strike hits as well. This helps with your clear speed immensely.

Since you are using Voidforge as your main weapon, Herald of Purity gives you a "more" physical damage multiplier and is, therefore, a good gem to include in the build.

Blood Rage and Berserk are two abilities that can give you a considerable increase in attack speed and damage. If you do not have a reliable way of generating Rage, you can swap Berserk for something useful like Enduring Cry, Determination or Flame Dash.

Helmet

• Leap Slam
• Faster Attacks Support
• Immortal Call (Lvl 3)
• Cast When Damage Taken Support (Lvl 1)

Since Kaom's Spirit is no longer the best-in-slot gloves, you can forgo Vitality and Enlighten Support in favor of Leap Slam and Faster Attacks.

Leap Slam is your main travel skill. Jump around the map to find juicy packs of monsters and use Flicker Strike to deal with them in an efficient manner. Faster Attacks is a support gem that makes Leap Slam feel much smoother to use.

Immortal Call linked to Cast When Damage Taken Support is just a means of improving your survivability. Immortal Call reduces the physical and elemental damage you take by 26% at level 3. CWDT triggers the previously-mentioned gem automatically after taking damage. The cool thing about Immortal Call for this build is that its physical damage reduction and buff duration are enhanced based on the number of Endurance Charges it has removed. Thanks to Replica Farrul's Fur and the Aspect of the Cat Skill, the Endurance Charges you've lost are replenished quite easily, making Immortal Call's downside virtually unnoticeable.

Take note that Leap Slam and Faster Attacks Support should not be linked together with your Immortal Call and CWDT setup. Use Orb of Fusing until you have only Leap Slam-Faster Attacks Support and Immortal Call-CWDT.

Gloves

• Ancestral Protector
• Vaal Ancestral Warchief
• Maim Support
• Multiple Totems

Despite the removal of Phantasmal Ancestral Protector, you are still going to use its base version for that attack speed bonus. That 20% more attack speed bonus that the Ancestral Protector provides is just too good to pass up.

Vaal Ancestral Warchief is a totem that you can drop to increase your melee damage. Use the "Vaal" part first before you drop your other totems so that all three can be placed on the battlefield.

Multiple Totems is a support gem that enables you to use the Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief totems together.

Maim Support is just the icing on the cake. All enemies hit by your totems have a chance to be maimed, effectively reducing their movement speed by 30%.

Boots

• Assassin's Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Lifetap Support
• War Banner

As a Flicker Strike Slayer, you want to capitalize on critical hits to ensure that you slay enemies without a hitch. That said, Assassin's Mark. increases your critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier against cursed enemies. Mark on Hit Support is a mandatory piece of the puzzle as it automatically casts Assassin's Mark for you whenever you hit a rare or unique monster.

With the removal of mana cost reduction modifiers in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, you have the option of replacing Assassin’s Mark with Poacher’s Mark to make activating skills a bit more bearable.

Poacher’s Mark is amazing for the Flicker Strike Slayer because killing cursed enemies grants you a Frenzy Charge guaranteed! Besides that, every time you hit the affected monsters, you regain some life and mana in the process.

Because you are pretty tight on mana, adding Lifetap Support just makes sense. Instead of using mana to cast Assassin's Mark, you spend a bit of your HP in the process. Don't worry, you won't feel the pain because of your insane overleech.

The last gem slot can be any gem that you want. However, we believe that the War Banner is a great complementary gem for the build mainly because it improves your accuracy and nearby enemies take increased damage as well.

Ring

• Less Duration Support

For the Flicker Strike Slayer build to work comfortably, you should use Less Duration Support wherever you've placed the Aspect of the Cat Skill. Since you've put it on your Unset Ring, you should slot it in there. To understand why you need to use Less Duration Support, you must first learn the mechanics of Aspect of the Cat.

Activating Aspect of the Cat grants you two alternating buffs: Cat's Stealth and Cat's Agility. For this build, you only need to concern yourself with the latter since you're using Replica Farrul's Fur. Basically, whenever you have Cat's Agility on, you gain maximum Frenzy and Endurance Charges.

That said, Cat's Stealth lasts for four seconds and Cat's Agility has a six-second duration. You want to reduce their duration so that it won't take long to cycle between them. That's where Less Duration Support comes in. With this support gem slotted in your ring, Cat's Stealth only lasts for two seconds before Cat's Agility gets activated with a four-second duration.

If you've used Immortal Call recently, you don't have to worry about your Endurance Charges since the unique effects of Aspect of the Cat/Replica Farrul's Fur replenishes those charges in just several seconds.

Passive Tree

Passive Tree for the Flicker Strike Slayer

Build Variations

The Flicker Strike Slayer is actually a versatile build. It has a few notable variations that you can try for yourself. Here are the most recommended:

Oro's Sacrifice

Oro's Sacrifice

Among the variations of the Flicker Strike Slayer, this is the most inexpensive. It utilizes Oro's Sacrifice as the main weapon. This unique two-handed sword deals no physical damage. Instead, all of your damage is converted to fire, which means that this thing gives you the ability to burn enemies with each hit.

Aside from that, you gain a Frenzy Charge every time one of your hits ignites an enemy. When used along with Blood Rage, you have an easy way to gain charges without all of the expensive items!

Unlike the original build mentioned above, there are some key differences in this version. First of all, the support gems for your Flicker Strike are different, swapping Trinity and Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support for Awakened Fire Penetration and Immolate Support.

In addition, Hatred and Herald of Purity are replaced by Anger and Herald of Ash for some flat fire damage and increased fire damage, respectively.

Because Oro's Sacrifice is pretty cheap, you can corrupt the two-handed sword for some amazing implicit modifiers, such as:

• Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 10 Momentum
• Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 10 Fortify
• Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 10 Additional Accuracy
• #% Increased Attack Speed
• #% Increased Area of Effect
• #% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
• #% Increased Global Accuracy Rating

Oro's Sacrifice Version Passive Tree

Rakiata's Dance

Rakiata's Dance

The Rakiata's Dance is a two-handed sword that provides huge flat cold and lightning damage. But, the main draw of this weapon is that it treats enemy monster elemental resistance values as inverted. For example, if the enemy has 50% fire resistance, that is changed to -50%. Take note that this unique effect only applies to hits with this weapon.

To complement the flat cold damage from Rakiata's Dance, the helmet you should equip for this variation is Heatshiver. This unique leather hood not only gives you a boost to fire and cold resistance, but you also gain 30% of cold damage as extra fire damage against frozen enemies, which is pretty huge! Since this build has a high critical strike chance, you'll be freezing monsters without a hitch! Although this helmet was nerfed in 3.23, it is still a viable option if you're using Rakiata's Dance.

Now, there are two distinct support gems that are linked to your Flicker Strike gem in this version. The first is Ice Bite - a support gem that enhances your Flicker Strike to gain a 15% chance to freeze enemies on hit. The second support gem is the Endurance Charge on Melee Stun. This grants you more damage per Endurance Charge.

This particular build is actually quite tanky thanks to Petrified Blood and Immortal Call. For your main auras, you have Hatred and Herald of Ice to boost your cold damage. Precision is also present, though it is linked to Arrogance Support so that you can fit it into the build.

While this variant of the Flicker Strike Slayer is good, you have to be willing to spend some currency because it uses some expensive items, namely Impossible Escape, Unnatural Instinct, Elegant Hubris, and the Mageblood belt.

Additionally, you can fit two large cluster jewels that have the notable passives Martial Prowess, Feed the Fury, and Fuel the Fight for improved damage, leech, attack speed, and accuracy.

Rakiata's Dance Version Passive Tree

Forbidden Shako

Forbidden Shako

If currency is not an issue and you want the best possible version of the Flicker Strike Slayer, then go for Forbidden Shako - a unique Great Crown that can be acquired from Oshabi, Avatar of the Grove. What makes this helmet great is that it can get the following mods:

• Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 10 Added Cold Damage
• Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 35 Ice Bite

Because the Forbidden Shako contains a plethora of mods in its pool, getting the desired ones is actually pretty hard to do. That's why a Forbidden Shako with these mods costs a ton of currency!

The reason why those specific mods are highly coveted is that having both of them on the helmet allows you to use a one-handed sword and shield instead of a two-handed weapon. Speaking of which, your main weapon is Paradoxica with "Attacks with this weapon Penetrate % Elemental Resistances" and "Attacks with this Weapon deal Double Damage" as explicit modifiers.

Your shield is a synthesized one with "+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges" as an implicit. You can use a Titanium Spirit Shield as a crafting base so that you can roll flat cold damage. You can craft the shield using any essence of your choosing. Utilize the shield as a way to cap your resistances or improve damage, whichever you need for your character.

This version of the build uses a lot of expensive jewels, including:

• Stormshroud
• Impossible Escape
• 3-mod Watcher's Eye (Hatred/Precision)
• Elegant Hubris
• Forbidden Jewel Set
• Thread of Hope (Large)
• Intuitive Leap
• Inspired Learning
• Two Rare Large Cluster Jewels (Martial Prowess, Fuel the Fight, and Feed the Fury)

Since fitting the Immortal Call and Cast When Damage Taken Support combo is not possible in this build, your survivability is improved by using Progenesis. This sort of acts like Petrified Blood, albeit for a short duration only. Basically, when this flask is active, 25% of life you've lost from damage taken is spread over four seconds rather than being dealt in an instant.

Forbidden Shako Version Passive Tree

Tattoos

The Wildwood Ascendancies have been removed in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. Even though it is sad to see them go, you can take solace in the fact that GGG may bring them back to the game in the future.

In the meantime, you can populate some of the nodes on your passive tree with Tattoos. That's right! Tattoos from a couple of leagues ago have returned, albeit with some adjustments.

Anyway, here are the Tattoos that we recommend for the Flicker Strike Slayer:

• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior

  • 5% Increased Physical Damage

• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warmonger

  • 5% Increased Melee Damage

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout

  • 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot

  • 2% Increased Movement Speed

POB

Flicker Strike Slayer (Main)

Oro's Sacrifice Version

Rakiata's Dance Version

Forbidden Shako Version

Final Thoughts

There you have it! The Flicker Strike Slayer is an inexpensive way to experience one of the fastest builds in the game. It has multiple variations that you can try depending on your current budget, which makes it quite appealing!

Flicker Strike allows you to zoom around the map, jumping from one pack of monsters to the next. With all of the gear mentioned in this guide, the damage potential of this build is immense! We're talking about 30+ million damage, with the possibility of reaching 300 million with Paradoxica/Rare Shield and the Forbidden Shako!

The good news is that this build is still quite viable even after the changes that were implemented by GGG in the 3.24 Necropolis League!

So, if you’re looking for a build that you can use for fast mapping and bossing, then the Flicker Strike Slayer is definitely one of the best in the game!

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Insane damage potential

+Culling Strike due to Slayer ascendancy passive

+More affordable to put up than the Raider version

+Good Sustainability due to Slayer's overleech

+Able to clear maps within three minutes

+Viable league starter

+Still great in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Some items are expensive

-Hard to cap spell suppression

-Uses a lot of unique items, which makes capping resistances a bit challenging