[3.13] 🔥Oro’s Flicker Strike Raider🔥 | Top tier mapper/currency farmer | 10M+ DPS | All Content

Flicker Strike - Melee Splash - Multistrike - Elemental Damage with attacks -
Close Combat - Combustion

Flicker teleports you next to a nearby enemy and attacks it. Supporting it with Melee splash and Multistrike will allow us to bounce from pack to pack and destroy them on hit, clearing entire maps at breathtaking speed. The last 3 supports bring as much damage as possible to the equation.

Frenzy charge generation to sustain flicker: The downside of Flicker Strike is that it consumes 1 frenzy charge each cast to bypass its 2sec cooldown. This build will generate them extremely quickly, both from our Ascendancy and from the Oro's unique modifier, which gives us one frenzy each time we ignite an enemy. With >90% ignite chance and 3hits per Flicker thanks to multistrike, frenzies are not gonna be an issue - even against single targets.


And as a bonus, this lovely sword comes with up to 820 fire DPS !

Evasion: The blind aura from Flesh&Stone, coupled with your ascendancy and a couple of DEX bases will be enough to get to 90%+ evade chance (hard capped at 95% chance).

You need around 2200 Evasion on gear to get 95% evade without anything else, its a good endgame target but not necessarily very easy to get.

I recommend you to use a Jade Flask while working on it, which you can later replace by a DPS flask.



Dodge and Spell Dodge: Our second defensive layer, coming from the Acrobatics & Phase Acrobatics keystone, plus our Quartz Flask for 50% Dodge and 40% Spell Dodge. Pressing Vaal Grace will temporarily boost these numbers to their 75%/75% cap for 10 seconds (with Inc. Duration) - use it preventively in dicey situations.

Fortify: We generate the effect through the Fortify gem on the main link on a starter budget, and later on thanks to a well-chosen "Supported by lvl 10 fortify" corruption on our Oro's. Thanks to our passives, we buff the fortify effect by 20% for an overall 24% reduced damage from hits. Which makes our 6000HP pool (endgame) equivalent to 7900 without Fortify. Yeah, that's quite good.

Life pool: We do not pick a whole lot of increased life on the tree (+120-150%), but can make up for it thanks to numerous jewel slots and no mandatory uniques without life rolls. Take special care to only pick rares with excellent life rolls (T1/T2) to maintain an high life pool - you want at least 5500HP total once reaching T14+ maps.

With this build, it is important to have enough HP to survive something like a volatile flameblood in the face. You won't be able to dodge 100% of bad stuff when using flicker strike, so make your character able to facetank a big hit.

Life sustain:

The build will use life leech as the main source of life sustain. You initially get some by speccing the Blood Drinker notable, and then get it from your cluster jewels (Feed the Fury).

Basic leech is good enough for regular maps, but you'll want a bit more for challenging content. I recommend a Glorious Vanity - Ahuana jewel socketed right next the the Point Blank at the bottom right of the tree. It will transform into Immortal Ambition.



Immortal Ambition will improve your leech by making it not reset when reaching full life, so you can start recovering at 20% of your HP/sec after receiving a hit rather than having to wait for leech to ramp up again.


Life insurance: CWDT + Steelskin + Increased Duration will provide a good backup when shit hits the fan, basically granting you extra HP to survive a burst of damage. You can keep this setup at lvl 16-17 on a 4500HP pool (white, yellow maps) and raise it to lvl 20 when you reach 5500HP+.

As an emergency button, Vaal Grace will raise both Dodge & Spell Dodge from 50% to 75% for an overall 50% all damage reduction. Use it preventively when you suspect high incoming damage (facetanking juiced up metamorph or map boss, screen full of mobs in deep delirium...). Put it on the same link than your Steelskin to also benefit from Increased Duration, raising duration to 10sec.

This build deals 100% Fire Melee Attack damage using a 2H sword and will scale with bonuses related to those tags (Melee, Fire, Elemental, Attack, Two-hand...). In particular, buffs to Physical damage will not apply.

Overview: we will scale the high base fire damage on our Oro’s Sacrifice with :
- Anger Aura to bring even more flat damage
- A lot of increased damage / increased fire damage from tree and cluster jewels
- A shitload of Fire penetration (Up to -128% enemy fire resistance!)
- A lot of crit scaling from tree and cluster jewels
- Enough accuracy to cap our hit chance to 100%
- Onslaught with +100% effect thanks to ascendancy
- More multipliers from 6-7 Frenzy charges
- A 7th link through a well chosen Oro's corruption ("Socketed gems are supported by lvl 10 Fortify") once you'll have a few exalts to invest.

Offensive auras:
We will use both Anger and Flammability-Blasphemy as offensive auras, the latter coming at 0% mana reservation thanks to our Impresence Amulet.

Cluster notables: The build will use some Cluster jewels in the higher budget versions to optimise the DPS/passive point, gain life leech and get a corpse destruction mechanism. The latter is a very strong defensive tool, as it will prevent a lot of on death effects from triggering off. Do not fear the porcupines!

Here are the notables we are specifically interested in :



Totems:
As we are using a 2H, we will be able to play with a 2nd 6Linked skill in our chest. In our case, we will use a totem setup to boost our single target damage against bosses:
Ancestrall Protector - (Vaal) Ancestral Warchief - Multiple totems - Elemental Damage with attacks - Ruthless - Combustion (6th L)

These 3 totems will both buff you for a very significant DPS boost (40%+) and bring significant DPS on their own (600k+ shaper DPS per totem). At the end of the day, they will grant you close to 100% MORE single target damage!

6Linking your chest will however be a low priority compared to a lot of other stuff, so use a 5L (Jeweller's touch) to begin with. See gearing section.

Totems are very important for decent single target DPS with starter gear, do not skip them!

Fire penetration scaling:
We will use numerous sources of Fire Pen to get monster's resistance deep into the negative values, allowing us to reach insane DPS numbers.

-23% from tree + Master of Fire (cluster jewel)
-15% from our Wise Oak flask (be sure to have Fire res as your highest one)
-45% from Flammability
-20% from Combustion



And as we start to gear up a little bit, we will add on top of that :
- 15% from a Watcher's Eye
- 9% from a Warlord's Helmet

For a total potential reduction of -128% of enemy fire resistance! Some of the toughest enemies will be partially immune to some of these effects (Hexproof, 40% bonus elemental resistance...) but their resistance is still gonna be annihilated.



Crit scaling:
Oro's big downside is its low base crit chance, at only 5%. We will need to do some heavy lifting to be able to scale crit effectively, and that will be the most important DPS driver for high budget versions.

Assuming you have 400% increased crit chance, this low 5% base only gives you a 25% (= 5% *(1+400%))chance to crit overall. Not good enough to benefit fully from stats like crit multiplier.

As for all crit builds, we start with our trusted Diamond Flask, making our crit chance lucky (Rolls twice, picks the best).
This effect is super strong, as it will for example transform a 40% crit chance into an effective 65%!

Then, as our budget goes up, we will progressively look to add more base crit chance, coming from an Elder/Hunter's chest piece, a Bottled Faith Sulphur Flask and ultimately an Assassin's Mark ring (+1.5% crit chance).



The Assassin's mark is a second curse coming on top of Flammability, we will need a special stat allowing use to apply more than one curse to use it. It can come from a corruption of your Amulet (unrealistic), or from an harvest-crafted Hunter's Chest such as this one :



This last bit is obviously pretty luxury, you don't need that to make the build work!

Strike skills target one additional enemy : This effect will come either from the Tribal Fury notable, or from a influenced modifier on Hunter's Gloves once you have the cash (having both is overkill).



As we use the Melee Splash support, an additional strike on a nearby enemy will also splash on our main target for 60% of our damage.

This mean we actually get a 60% MORE DPS modifier from this effect as long as they are several enemies in range, which happens surprisingly often (packs, tanky Delirium rares, boss adds, twinned bosses...).

Granted, it wont boost your POB numbers against Shaper or Sirus, but in real life this is extremely effective and well worth the investment.

This build is extremely mana intensive for an attack build, flicker base cost being 57/cast, and your attack speed allowing you to get above 3 casts/second. Getting a fortify-corrupted Oro's will also raise the base mana cost to 68/flicker.

The build uses the Essence Sap notable to get some leech and raise the maximum amount you can leech per second.




On top of that, once you get your corrupted Oro's it's important to craft -9 mana cost on one of your rings (Elreon’s mod, prefix, you might need a crafting service). Getting it on both rings can smoothen mana a bit further, but is not mandatory.

Pantheon: Lunaris/Garukhan synergize well with the build for mapping. Nothing wrong to swap it for other options though, it's only minor buffs.

Bandits: Alira is the best choice for leveling and on starter gear. Once your have access to better items and no longer have resists issues, 2 passives points (kill All) will net slightly better results - use the vendor recipe to swap your choices.

Enchants:
• Best helmet enchant is 9% Flicker Strike damage/frenzy, which will net you 63% increased damage on 7 frenzies. 40% increased damage is good value as well and can be more reasonable in price.
• Several boot enchants are very nice for the build, so I'd suggest to use your divine fonts on them. Flat Fire damage or Attack speed if you killed recently are both good for mapping, Movespeed if not hit is always great, and extra Spell Dodge or 80% stun avoidance are very good if you like running super rippy delirious maps. Finally, extra Elemental Damage Penetration if you have not killed recently is excellent for bossing.

=> While nice, these enchants remain entirely optional. Don't waste time or money chasing them if you do not yet have a multi-ex item equipped in every slot.

Do I need more DPS?

When using flicker, it is important to be able to kill rares in a couple seconds maximum. If you spend more time on them, other mobs will be able to target you with a variety of spells, and your survability will suffer.

If you can't do that, it means you should be more careful with map modifiers, run lower tier content, or simply improve your gear.

DPS tricks on a low budget:
- don't stack adverse map modifiers (read map mods section)
- use your flasks, totems and infernal cry
- you can swap out melee splash for a DPS gem (Fortify or Ruthless) on a pure single target fight like a conqueror for a potent DPS boost
- you can put Fortify on your leap slam link to use a gem with more DPS on your main link (Combustion or Ruthless). Not super reliable, but it works.

Finally, I would argue that once you are able to dispatch most rares in <0.5s, getting even more DPS starts to be a little pointless. Sure, you'll spare a second on the map boss and be able to do conquerors in 4secs instead of 6, but focusing on survability (life pool, chaos resist, etc...) is likely to be more beneficial to your character at this point.

Do I need more life?

You want to aim for at least 5500 HP with the fortify effect up in T14+ maps. You sure can do them with less, but you will never feel comfortable as you will be in the one-shot range of a lot of effects and boss abilities.

If you insta-die on a boss, the most likely explaination is that you got hit by a mechanic you were supposed to dodge. It's hard to see whats happening while flickering, so swap to cyclone (see below), look at what the boss is doing and how to dodge it. Once you are familiar with the fight, it should be easy to do it again with flicker.

Filter: Use a very strict filter with a flicker build, you don’t want to stop every cast to pick up a jeweller’s. I personally only stop to pick stuff worth 1c or more, except for the loot explosion at the end of the map during which I will also pick up smaller currencies (alchs, GCPs, scours, chisels..)

Cyclone as a back-up skill:
The very same tree/gear also scale Cyclone by a lot, you can easily get to 4M+ sDPS with it. Ideal gem set-up requires some recoloring (see POB), but it also works fine with your default Flicker’s colors (Cyclone - Pulverise - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Fire Penetration - Immolate - Close Combat).

This will be useful when tackling content which absolutely requires precise positioning, such as Sirus or Uber Elder.

Cyclone is also inherently safer than Flicker, if a bit slower. This can be useful if you want to push for high levels (92+).

Obviously, once rich enough, you can have a second corrupted Oro’s on weapon swap with your cyclone set up.

A bit of bossing advice

Conquerors: use Cyclone on Baran until you have enough DPS to kill him under the 10sec of Vaal Grace. You can flicker down the other 3 if you are confident dodging the dangerous mechanics with it.

Elder/Shaper guardians: Cyclone make those fights easier. Dont understimate the map mods, they can be really tough if you are undergeared.

Sirus: an absolute pain for the build, you can't keep flasks up, can't really use totems and will have potato DPS. Life is hard. Use cyclone, focus on dodging shit and be patient. You can kill Sirus A5 with quite minimal gear (let's say 5ex ish) but it will take time.

Elder, shaper: Elder is easy, you can even use flicker for this fight. Use cyclone for shaper, you'll need a minimum DPS to not get overwhelmed on the final phases.


Know your limits :

Flicker strike feels godly the minute you start one-shotting everything. However, if you try to tackle hard content for your current DPS, you will find yourself jumping back and forth a lot, exposing you to lingering AoEs and the like. If you want to try something very difficult for your gear (let’s say a 100% delirium juiced up T16), Cyclone will generally feel safer than Flicker Strike.

Map mods you cannot do:
• Elemental damage reflect
• Cannot leech life/mana

Map mods you should not do (too rippy):
• -12% max elemental resistances
• Area contain patches of shocked ground (that increases damage taken by 50% !)

Map mods which significantly reduce your DPS:
• Elemental Equilibrium (everything will get +50% fire res after the first hit)
• +40% Monster Elemental Resistance
• Monsters are Hexproof

I'd recommend to avoid combinations of several of those - It's not that you can't do the map, but it might become a bit tedious if you are undergeared.


Pushing for high levels:
When trying to push for high levels (let's say past 92), I also recommend you to be really careful with the following things:

• You are relatively squishy when you enter a new area (no fortify, endurance charges etc...). Be careful not to get shotgunned to death at the first door of the map!
• Get some chaos resist for lvl 95+. +20% is perfectly fine.
• Focus on having 100% flask uptime in maps with curses. Vulnerability or Ele weakness are deadly!
• Sextant modifier "maps contain cluster of mysterious barrels", some explode and are deadly in 100% increased AoE maps
• Metamorphs and Legions in maps with Beyond, if you are unlucky you can spawn 10 rares at the same time with overlapping auras and get suddendly one-shotted.

From lvl 98+, I also recommend to you to use an alt to run rippy content (Sirus A8, Uber Elder, Cortex, waves 19-20 of Simulacrum...) while you push for lvl 100.


As stated above, Flicker Strike is not a safe skill. You WILL eventually jump back into a pack of bearers you half-slaughtered, of right next to an Ice Nova strongbox you just activated. Take note of your mistakes/overconfidence and don't repeat them when xp matters.

In 3.11 Harvest, I managed to lvl up to 100 in juiced up T14+ maps at Awakening lvl 8 applying the guidelines above.

Yes.

To elaborate a bit more, flicker can indeed make your life difficult when precise positioning is key. But even in a worst case scenario, you are only a gem swap away (or a weapon swap away, once wealthy) from transitioning to a Cycloner with multi-million shaper DPS and above average survability.

I completed all difficult challenges in delirium with this one and only character, including Sirus AL8, Uber Elder and 100% Delirious juiced up T16. Simulacrum 20/20 will be a joke.

Important configs to check/review for your own character :
- With or without flasks up
- With or without totems up
- Using frenzy charges, endurance charges, onslaught, fortify, crit recently, leeching, on consecrated ground (if using Bottled Faith)
- Sand stance
- Melee distance to enemy = 5 (flicker mechanic, activates Close Combat)
- Enemy ignited, on consecrated ground (if using bottled faith)

To simulate boss DPS, select "Boss" or "Shaper" in the config, and activate your totems. Add your totems DPS to your flicker strike DPS.

To simulate map clear DPS, select "Not a boss" in the config, deactivate your totems (you won't keep them up), and multiply your flicker strike DPS by +60% to take into account the Splash overlap from Melee Splash & +1 Strike gloves (or Tribal Fury notable)

The POBs featured in this guide were created with the POB Community Fork, v1.4.170.22
Be sure to use this fork to have proper calculation for Close Combat and Multistrike supports, among other things. Download it from here : https://github.com/PathOfBuildingCommunity/PathOfBuilding

No major changes in 3.13. The removal of the flat +5% evade chance on Rapid Assault ascendancy lead me to add Survivalist to all trees, but thats about it.

This build is highly customizable to your tastes. While the Oro's raider version is IMO the most survivable and straightforward, you can also consider:

- Using a Slayer, Berserker or Scion ascendancy instead of Raider. It usually means 30 to 50% more DPS, at the cost of a good chunk of survivability (60% ish evade chance instead of 95%) and a bit less movespeed.

- Using a physical weapon instead of the Oro's, with or without elemental conversion. It significantly raises the entry cost as you'll usually want a 6L Farrul's Fur and a 700+ phys DPS weapon, but it works extremely well at high budgets. A Terminus Est is a fine weapon to start with, and is reasonable to get even in SSF. Without a Farrul's, you will not be able to sustain frenzies on single target and will have to gem swap to cyclone for guardians and such.

As an example, I did all content and pushed to 100 with my SSF character Nurya_SSF in Harvest league, which used a physical variant of this build.

Another example is the phys-to-fire Berserker/Inquisitor Scion from Pirate_yar utterly destroying endgame content in this small clip recorded in Heist league. You can find the gear used in p45 of this thread.

I also provided detailed explanation about how to make work a physical to cold version in p73 of this thread. Feel free to experiment and share your sucesses!