[PoE2] A Most Ambitious Flicker Warp Build Concept for Path of Exile 2 Early Access

[@snoobae8553]

UPDATE: Check the announcement tab of our discord (link in video description) for updated info on this build going into EA. Data-mining has begun as the game is available for download now. Looks like the passive notable for power charges on shocking chilled enemies has been deleted. Triggered spells cannot gain energy (unsure if they can gain energy for other meta gems outside their own). Flickerstrike nerfed pretty hard too from 3 to 2 attacks per power charge. There's a lot of nerfs for a lot of potential builds by the looks of it. Some things seem to be improved, however. The passive tree has a lot of goodies still. A preliminary look leads me to believe the build will still function at its core with just less flickerstrike uptime. An emphasis on shocks is still very strong for all the meta gem triggers.

[@RealAshjit]

where's the sauce for Triggered spells not being able to gain energy ?

[@snoobae8553]

@ it’s in the description under one of the tabs on PoE2db gem description section.

[@RealAshjit]

@@snoobae8553 oh Damn I see, this sucks so much 🥲 Was looking forward to making a trigger build.

[@kappele7]

Can we ask for an updated tree and maybe a potential fix for power charge generation I would like to start with a similar build.

[@snoobae8553]

@@kappele7 Yeah, I just put a couple links in the announcement tab of my discord. In description of this video.

[@MWaever]

If nothing else, that thumbnail gives Sirgog a run for his money.

[@snoobae8553]

I got at least a few creative bones in my body.

[@gkaskavelis]

Love ya Snoo 😊 didn't have time to do any research for Invoker and I was thinking to go blind on Freeze only Monk but a combo looks so much more interesting. Thank you so much ❤

[@troymuni6120]

Outstanding build Snoo...loving it thank you

[@GrandpaWazi]

For the attribute nodes what are you adding? Should we be adding more Dex? Or add Str for better amor choices?

[@snoobae8553]

Ended up needing a bit of Int for the curse and trigger gems. Strength not much at all unless you have to wear strength gear for some reason.

[@Zombgetsu]

"I am the thunder" - Angry grandpa level percussions going off in the background.

[@Dargor_]

... And I shall stand! Nice build idea

[@Nikky9s]

Great plan so far!! I'm playing Chayula, but gonna steal a lot of you skill gem idea. Thanx Snoo

[@Rimasleovivaldis]

I had similar idea but mine switches power charges to frenzy to go for rain of arrow invoker monk. ES/HP hybrid with Eternal youth with few flask notes to help keep ES up and leech to heal hp

[@lucagenovese7207]

Hmmmmmmm, i like this, i want my monk with a bow as well

[@tally_f80c64]

Since we get Elemental Expression as a skill, it needs a slot in our 9 skills, right? Sounds like it will be a aura? I kinda struggle in generel with all the Auras / Cast on / Normal Skills to fit into 9 slots :(

[@alistairbolden6340]

No the skills gained from ascendance are extra and do not take one of the default 9 slots.

[@alistairbolden6340]

Flicker strike is a lvl 52 skill. Also energy skills do not generate energy for themselves, but the build idea is not bad at all, I think most Invoker monks will include Flicker as one of their skills. Archmage looks like it will provide a lot of extra spell damage to our spells that proc without adding any mana cost to the majority of our abilities I would put life tap on Eye of Winter to avoid its large mana cost as I plan to self cast it, I think the critical weakness is to important to be left to a meta gems proc. Keep in mind while using Flicker strike you cannot gain power charges, not from Flicker nor from any other source during Flicker, so you will be using Flicker a hell of a lot less than you are assuming you will but still quite a lot. By end game hopefully I have enough energy gain and crit chance that 1-2 cast of Eye of Winter into a pack will trigger CoC and that will spray the screen in lightning giving me the power charges to flicker, my melee attacks from flicker are also going to trigger melee CoC and CoS for Forst Nova and Freezing Pulse and Ark to prevent rares from dealing much damage to me, and because Ark with chain support is now going to be extremely high damage spell. I plan to use the ascendancy choices that remove elemental resistance, give me cast on melee CoC as an extra meta skill, give me extra spirit from my chest for all the meta gems I plan to use and the one that gives energy regen. For weapon swap I would use dagger with a bunch of extra crit, spell damage and aliments on it for casting Eye of Winter and a shield for shield charge and active block + a war staff with crit and damage mods for flicker and other monk attacks such as tempest strike. I will be more of a spell caster than you but they are similar builds and will have similar passive tree's. What do you think about the option of picking up a block cluster and glancing blows? As long as there are good nodes along the rout. The idea of lightning warp I really like and will try to use in my own build as a way of getting extra shocking ground.

[@snoobae8553]

Thanks for the response. I did mention and anticipate not gaining power charges during Flickerstrike, which is why I suspect I'll be using one other skill between Flickers, rotating them in as needed. So I think we're in agreement there. I'm curious why you think Archmage is going to cost no extra mana for most spells in meta gems. Lifetap might be a good idea as you mentioned. Critical Weakness is definitely strong, but I suspect I'll be able to use Eye of Winter in Invocation often enough to keep it up. Although I'm not sure how long Critical Weakness lasts. I also anticipate a decent chance especially with the spirit ascendancy point I might find myself going more of an Invocation/Cast on spell caster build than anything else in the end. That would be wild. I haven't given defenses a lot of thought yet. I suspect that will come primarily through gear, which we know little about still. Weapon swap would likely be a caster weapon to link it to all the spells in the meta gems.

[@alistairbolden6340]

@@snoobae8553 a few things make me think that the gems you slot into meta gems don't have a mana cost, the first are the gems themselves, they all have a spirit cost and an energy cost but no mention of any mana cost or multiplier, another is the recent end game trailer, around 19:40 into the trailer an example of a cast on ignite with firestorm was used, the witch clearly pays the mana cost to use fireballs that trigger the gem but dose not seem to pay any mana cost for the firestorm. If we do have to then the only real option will be to life tap the most expensive setup and invest more into mana than I would like to or give up on Archmage. That could make the build quite bad at bossing sadly. It would mean a great deal of the builds damage potential revolves around Flicker. The monk in the game same game play trailer is using the cast on melee crit ascendancy quite often and it does not seem to be nuking his mana unlike when he simply holds down Flicker strike. Flicker itself costs 13-112 mana I anticipate its high cost posing a real problem even with liberal potion use. Mana leech support may be a required gem in our Flicker setup early on.

[@Wonderwall627]

thanks for the skill links in description! Gives me some good support gem combos to think about.

[@snoobae8553]

That was the goal. Thanks!

[@ajaj1947]

I'm gonna start with blood mage. Good luck all in Poe2 ;)

[@missinkaddikt749]

super helpful video. sounds like it could be insane if it all works out

[@thira1982]

Quick question, what do you think about adding orb of storms during campaign if it can proc from tempest flurry? I can see increase limit, spell echo, controlled destruction, inc aoe being really good supports for that skill

[@luismartins8598]

orb AND bell? could work maybe but like snoo said the monk skills mostly dont have the tag of lightning so the bell is probably better

[@snoobae8553]

I think I wouldn't do that unless I were automating it. Falling Thunder and Siphon Strike are Lightning skills, so maybe early this would be a decent setup. IF it turns out the rotation really just Flops between those two or the most part, then I can see trying it.

[@GeoffBuckley]

Really love flicker strike builds, Hoped to check yours out, but noticed you mentioned to go to your discord site, unfortunately the link is invalid.

[@paulc5389]

For ES sustain I'm tempted to try and add in low cost melee minions and grim feast. The minions only job being to die and drop ES remnants. Possibly none permanent casted minions with cast on shock to provide a more consistent flow of remnants.

[@snoobae8553]

I didn't look into that but I'll try to remember it as I begin my journey!

[@paulc5389]

@snoobae8553 I've no idea if it's viable lol. If the remnants scale say based on the life of the thing that drops them for example. But it's the only way I could see to get ES other than emo monk leech, meditation or normal recharge.

[@Casevil669]

As CI character you can take lingering illusion, they will die to anything including ground effects and generate power charges.

[@snoobae8553]

Good point. I don't think I'll run CI unless ES leech recovery is easier than anticipated. Chayula monk I would have.

[@venenifer3569]

I don't think this will work, the skill says "copies that are destroyed by an enemy will grant you a Power Charge", and with CI I suspect the copies will spawn already dead because 20% of 1 life will be rounded to 0, and that's not an enemy killing it

[@Casevil669]

@@venenifer3569 If that's how the math works out sure but I definitely plan on testing it, I would expect it to have a minimum positive value of 1hp - if it works I'm going Chayula, if not Invoker

[@yabar777]

Which damage type you are going to scale? Spell ? or are they just utility?

[@snoobae8553]

For now I’m thinking of them as utility, certainly to start with. But it could turn hybrid where super convenient options are available like going into the north of the tree. It’s interesting the game is encouraging people to hybridize in all kinds of ways. Going hybrid spell and attack would also let me take advantage of the strongest support gem options from each angle.

[@yabar777]

sadly flicker changed 3 hit to 2 hit per power charge. shock chilled enemy gain power charge is changed to critical strike chance

[@snoobae8553]

@@yabar777 Yep, a lot of build concepts got nerfed. Core build still works pretty well I think. Just isn't giga broken now. Actually there's some gear that allows for passive power charge generation too in later stages.

[@wisconsincrhunter5614]

Sadly that harmonic generator passive doesn't exist in the gaining power charges way

[@snoobae8553]

Yep, I've been working around it fine. About to drop a video on what went down day 1.

[@hazaard_]

thanks for guide! 👍

[@snoobae8553]

guide|theorycraft|plan|setup

[@yesir1726]

the elemental invocation setups seems insane, almost too good to be true. ill let you test this one first ;)

[@wrath8]

I stand with Snoo!

[@Nobody-hc1rw]

If PoE1 learned me something is that i trust the Snoo We have entered the hardest stage: the last 24 hours.

[@andrewwerfs2839]

Hey Snoo , glad u made that video , i was curios about the Merc Grenadier stuff but i could have a problem with the new ammo - reload system so i choose to follow your monk flicker strike , its something new but still familiar so a good middleground and there will be plenty of time to check out other classes with a solid farm base in the monk. lets have some fun with the EA

[@snoobae8553]

I'll see you on stream then. :D

[@andrewwerfs2839]

@@snoobae8553 you can be sure of it , im trying to get the monday and tuesday off to completly no life the EA , im pretty sure i can convince my boss to it , so lets hope your streaming a lot .

[@joegeekohler]

Could i potentially also use this setup without flicker and replace with something else?

[@snoobae8553]

Yep

[@paulc5389]

Sounds fun. Keep in mind you won't be able to chain power charged flicker strikes as you can't gain power charges during flicker strike. Edit: must remember to watch all of videos before commenting lol.

[@snoobae8553]

hehe

[@emm3x285]

Thomas Gross is the best Path player ever.

[@ЕвгенийПедяш-щ1б]

From what I got so far is that - the skills activated by energy (i.e. triggered by meta gems) can not generate energy. Cant exactly pinpoint where I heard that - was one of the youtube streamers that had a ggg comment from twitter or reddit in his video. So the whole endgame plan to do the shocks by Elem Invocation might fail

[@snoobae8553]

I see. That's only one layer of the interaction though. It would make more sense to me if effects from inside the Invocation cannot refill energy for that specific meta gem, but still can for the others. Or if all energy sourced in similar ways is divided evenly amongst all eligible sources. Even if no energy can be gained from a skill inside a meta gem for any other meta gem, those skills would still contribute heavily to shocks/chills/charges. Their energy just wouldn't fill up nearly as quickly. I hope it works that way as a worst-case.

[@troymuni6120]

A+++ thumbnail that was epic LOL

[@oneof13forestpeople97]

Masterpiece thumbnail

[@izvrix]

Seems like harmonic generator was changed

[@snoobae8553]

Yeah, check pinned comment for update.

[@purdo84]

Flicker Strike is Level 47 and requires a level 10 uncut gem to craft

[@Barret_Gaming]

Fucking awesome theorycrafting!!🫠🫠

[@luismartins8598]

Very cool to know that one of my favourite content creators is going for the same archetype as me. A couple toughts: 1. I would think that harmonic generator (should maybe be an ascendancy node? its goood) would benefit from a rotation of skills that starts by chilling. 2. It requires playtest but maybe cast on frozen or even crit due to relatively high base crit be better than shock. COS seems kinda bad because the per skill wording. We will see. 3. I was thinking freeze build up could be good so that we could naturally chill enemies with a "normal attack". just an idea on how we chill in the early game. Have you considered it? 4. if an enemy is on shocked ground and we remove the shock with siphoning, do we get to go again? 5. I think the beginning of the tree with attack speed is very important because the faster we attack the faster we cycle to the good stuff of the rotation. Also you can get the stun resistance which I believe will be important. 6. Have you considered going down the tree for giantslayer and getting the emboldened avatar wheel? maybe catalysis? Will be checking on you regularly, make sure to keep us posted ;) EDIT: with this many ailments I definitly have to give avatar a try. IGN:BossBender?

[@snoobae8553]

There's a lot of great stuff in here. Thanks for sharing! I also wonder if I'll be compelled to treat it more like a spell caster build in the end. If only "cast on . . . " functional gems had "attack on . . . " with them. Maybe someday. :D 1) I can see the developer's mindset on Harmonic generator. "Let's actually give the players a way to generate power charges at an infinite rate, but let's also restrict it to two elemental ailments and a 20% chance." This is the kind of thing I live for as a gamer. Finding the weak spots in the game design and pushing the limits on it til it inevitably has to be nerfed. 2) I might use Cast on Shock cause it's less spirit cost than CoC and it would better regulate power charges being dumped into Charged Staff. 3) I don't really know how chill and freeze are going to feel. Definitely looking forward to testing that one. 4) This I considered early on and have to assume it probably does count. There is a small possibility that the game is programmed to not count any "on effects" from grounds though. I have faith it will. 5) Yeah I'm already looking at that. The version of the tree I saw didn't even divulge what was over there. 6) Whether going south or north from East probably has more to do with whether I go Life or ES. Both have a lot of things to offer. I haven't looked into the south side so much yet. We still have annoints, but I could see that going into 20% instant leech.

[@oxenham7560]

is there a world where we can just make siphoning strike shock and have it consume its own shocks?

[@snoobae8553]

This is one of the first questions I had on my question to figuring all this out. Siphoning Strike is a two-part attack if the first function takes place. I think it's fair to assume the secondary "lightning shockwave" can hit and shock other nearby enemies, but it might not have the chance to hit the enemy it's sourced from. I noticed this shockwave has a pretty small radius, so I'm curious to see how it performs with AoE gem linked.

[@oxenham7560]

@@snoobae8553 fair enough.. maybe its just my poe 1 brain trying to shave off skills to click.. nice video tho, thanks as always!

[@summer-0209]

one more problem, flicker is all phys, we cant promise flicker can all convert to lightning, sad.

[@subtlefps]

I came for the tooltip.

[@Кулити-в7г]

cost multiplier 200% on heightened curse support it surely must increase reservation multiplier

[@snoobae8553]

Maybe. If so, I'll likely just slot in Clarity instead.

[@Rico-ij9gu]

damn sir we have the same idea

[@oneof13forestpeople97]

Yessssssss

[@colehodgson7352]

Goat

[@Shanky4all]

the thumbnail !!! + first comment

[@BaMnupKo]

i would be really concerned with taking literally 0 dps passives for your first 20-30 passives

[@snoobae8553]

Yeah I'm probably going to go the damage ones in the sister pair starting area initially. Didn't see the other passive tree which had those populated at the time.

[@basedcringe9000]

Is he standing in that thumbnail?

[@Noxxvideos]

Snoobae rat tail when?

[@snoobae8553]

I used to have long hair actually.

[@Noxxvideos]

@@snoobae8553 100k Map Showcase with hair before and after.

[@Ben_L314]

Wow so you thought of the most obvious build thats right on the surface for monk? Great job mate. How long did it take you to "theorycraft" this?

[@snoobae8553]

I dunno, maybe about 30 hours.

[@obscurside3652]

link to your YT and starter build plz