Flicker Strike Invoker Build Guide
Welcome to the Flicker Strike Invoker Endgame guide. Generate massive amounts of Frenzy Charges from Combat Frenzy by Freezing and Electrocuting enemies. Convert them to Power Charges with the Resonance Keystone.
Every time you have Power Charges, spend them on Flicker Strike to rapidly dash and annihilate screens of enemies with a combination of Charged Staff, Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder.
Defensively, this Invoker build gains access to a huge amount of Physical Damage Reduction from …and Protect me from Harm. It also builds a healthy Energy Shield pool that can be doubled due to the Grim Feast; making you incredibly durable while being unable to control your character during your Flicker Strike.
So if you want to zip around entire maps, leaving trails of shattered corpses in your wake. This Path of Exile favourite is the build for you.
You do not need specific resistances on any item, just get the required total resistances amongst all gear combined. You need to cap your Resistances at 75% unless otherwise specified in the guide!
Path of Exile 2 is currently in early access, this means rapid development including frequent changes to builds as there are balance fixes and we learn more. Pin this page to be notified of any updates.
This guide assumes you are at least level 68 and have completed Act 3 Cruel, to learn more about the leveling process check out our leveling guide.
Skills
- Charged Staff consumes power charges and adds a large flat Lightning Damage buff. It also causes your attacks to produce a shockwave, this drastically improves the quality of life for your Tempest Flurry. Maintain this buff at all times.
- Tempest Flurry attacks rapidly to take advantage of this build's mechanics.
- It is linked with Electrocute to begin generating Power Charges.
- Charged Staff fires a shockwave dealing Attack Damage on every Attack.
- Tempest Bell deals a large amount of area damage every time it is hit.
- Flicker Strike consumes all of your Power Charges on use to dash to a nearby enemy and strike it. For each Power Charge consumed, you strike 2 additional times. This means when consuming your 7 Maximum Power Charges, you can dash up to 15 times.
- Perpetual Charge and Gem Quality play a crucial role as collectively they grant a 55% chance for Flicker Strike not to consume charges.
- Tempest Bell should mainly be used against high Health targets. It can also be used when being swarmed by enemies to deal large AoE damage.
- It is also very easy to Freeze and Electrocute Tempest Bell. This allows you to gain Power Charges more easily against bosses.
- Herald of Thunder linked with Cold Infusion, Ice Bite and Glaciation is your main source of Freezing enemies as having a high uptime on Ice Bite significantly helps with your chance to Freeze.
- Combat Frenzy is how you generate charges. Freezing, Electrocuting or Pinning an enemy grants a Frenzy Charge no more than once every 1.6 seconds. The Frenzy Charges are then converted to Power Charges with Resonance.
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Ailments
- Ailments are essential for the Flicker Strike Invoker to function, as it is the primary method to generate Power Charges (See Combat Frenzy above). With optimised gear and additional Support Skills the process is trivial, but before then here are the things you should know;
- Shock/Freeze; allows you to trigger Herald of Thunder. This then freezes enemies due to the Support Skills used. As this is your primary method of freezing enemies, it is vital to shock enemies in order to activate the effect. This is done most effectively by having, a large amount of Lightning Damage from Charged Staff, the inherent conversion on your Lightning Skills and the Conduction support.
- To Freeze enemies you need to deal Cold Damage, the size of the hit directly impacts how much of the targets Ailment Threshold you deal.
- This counts for things like Critical Hits, which after your 3rd Ascendancy Sunder my Enemies… also causes you to ignore enemy Elemental Resistance making the difference of a Critical Hit vs a Non-Critical Hit extremely high.
- Any Cold Damage added to your Quarterstaff Attacks also gets scaled by +#% increases to Damage. Meaning your ability to Freeze is not only the result of your base Cold Damage but reliant on the increases to your damage in general.
- If you're on an entry level of Gear and finding it difficult to Freeze the enemies with the Skills shown, use the alternative setup with Ice Strike to consistently Freeze enemies before improving your gear.
Skill Rotation
Start of Map
Single Target
Passives
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Ascendancy
Learn how to complete the Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos to earn your first 2 Ascensions with our Ascension Guide!
- Lead me through Grace… causes you to gain Spirit per Energy Shield and Evasion on your Body Armour. This should be one of the first gear pieces you craft or purchase to reach enough Spirit to use all of your Passive Skills.
- …and Protect me from Harm is crucial for defence, allowing you to gain additional Physical Damage Reduction based on your Evasion Rating.
- Sunder my Enemies… is a huge DPS increase. It also means you do not have to spec any penetration nodes.
- I am the Blizzard… adds additional Cold Damage and makes it easier to Freeze mobs.
Gearing
This is how to build your Flicker Strike Invoker
Offensive Scaling
- Flicker Strike does not inherently convert any of your damage. Look for additional Elemental Damage added to attacks through your Rings and Gloves.
- Cold Damage is essential to be able to Freeze enemies, this can be obtained through multiple sources;
- # to # Cold Damage on your Quarterstaff
- Damage added as Extra Cold Damage from Essence of the Mountain.
- # to # Cold Damage added to Attacks on your Rings and Gloves.
- Melee Skill Levels massively increase your damage but substantially increase your Mana Costs.
- Critical Strike Chance increases your damage greatly due to Critical Strike Damage Bonus and Sunder my Enemies…
Defensive Scaling
- Your suffix modifiers on your gear are very important as they have to fill a lot of mandatory rolls for the build to perform well.
- Cap your Fire, Cold, Lightning and Chaos Resistance.
- +# to Dex or Int to reach attribute requirements.
- +#% Physical Attack Damage leeched as mana.
- …and Protect me from Harm is a very powerful defensive tool for Invoker Monks. It sets your Physical Damage Reduction to that which it would be if you had as much Armour as you have Evasion Rating.
- Subterfuge Mask allows you to get a sizeable amount of Energy Shield from your helmet without negatively impacting your overall Evasion Rating.
- Your Body Armour is also important due to Lead me through Grace…. To reach the minimum spirit requirements of 180 for this build you need a hybrid Evasion/Energy Shield Body Armour that gives at least 600 Evasion Rating and 240 Energy Shield. If you only have 180, remove Cannibalism and Clarity.
- Energy Shield is huge for mitigating damage from 1 shots. Evasion can only help you against Strikes and Projectiles, for everything else you're relying on your pool of Health and Energy Shield.
- Grim Feast allows you to overcap you Energy Shield in maps to up to 2x the value making you much more durable to ground effects and slams that are otherwise unable to be evaded.
- If you are still struggling check out our Survival Guide for additional useful information!
There are 2 solid options for your Flicker Strike Weapon,
Option 1;
- Expert Crescent Quarterstaff or Expert Gothic Quarterstaff
- +% Physical Damage
- Adds Physical Damage
- +% Elemental Damage with Attacks
- + to Critical Strike Chance
- +% to Critical Strike Damage Bonus (This is a multiplier to your Critical Strike Damage not additive)
- Attack Speed
- 2x Iron Rune
Option 2;
- Expert Crescent Quarterstaff, Expert Crackling Quarterstaff or Expert Gothic Quarterstaff
- Adds Fire/Lightning/Cold Damage
- Adds Fire/Lightning/Cold Damage
- +% Elemental Damage with Attacks
- + to Critical Strike Chance
- +% to Critical Strike Damage Bonus (This is a multiplier to your Critical Strike Damage not additive)
- Attack Speed
Atziri's Disdain with a Power Charge corruption is the best in slot for this build as it grants a massive amount of Energy Shield. However, it does cause a percentage of damage taken to bypass Energy Shield. Make sure you're using Cannibalism or allocate Life from Death to sustain any damage dealt to life.
Use a Rare Amulet with the following modifiers;
- +% Maximum Energy Shield
- +% Evasion Rating
- Increased Rarity of Items Found
- All Attributes
- Resistances
- Critical Hit Chance
- Catalyse with 20x Carapace Catalyst.
Rings are an amazing slot in Path of Exile 2 due to Ingenuity and Breach Rings..
This build uses one Unset Ring to gain an additional Skill Slot. The other Ring can be any Base Type with a Breach Ring being the best to be used with Ingenuity in the future. They can also benefit greatly from Catalysts as "to All Elemental Resistances" has a Fire, Cold and Lightning tag.
Ring 1 - Try to get matching Resistance and Damage types to gain more from Catalysts.
- + to Maximum Life
- Fire/Lightning/Cold Damage added to Attacks
- +% to All Elemental Resistances
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance
- Increased Rarity of Items Found
Ring 2 - Get a different Elemental type from Ring 1 and again try to get matching damage and resistance types.
- + to Maximum Life
- Fire/Lightning/Cold Damage added to Attacks
- +% to All Elemental Resistances
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance
- Increased Rarity of Items Found
The Body Armour for this build is very important due to Lead me through Grace….
To reach the required spirit cost for all Skill Gems, excluding Cannibalism and Clarity, you need a body armour with at least 600 Evasion Rating and 240 Energy Shield.
Blink is a very nice addition as you don't have the greatest movement speed. This requires an additional 60 Spirit bringing the needed spirit up to 210 to socket this skill.
For the remainder of your gear look for;
- Resistance (ideally this should be whichever individual Resistance you didn't get on your Rings)
- Dexterity / Intelligence
- Chaos Resistance
- Maximum Life
The best in slot late game are the Hand of Wisdom and Action from Xesht. They grant a massive amount of attack speed and flat lightning damage, scaling with your Dexterity and Intelligence.
Alternatively look for a Rare pair of Gloves with the following modifiers until you can purchase them;
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage added to Attacks
- Attack Speed
- + to Melee Skill Levels
- + to Maximum Life
- Increased Rarity of Items Found
For your Boots, prioritize Movement Speed, as more often than not you'll be backtracking through piles of enemies to pick up all your loot.
- +% Movement Speed
- + to Maximum Life
- +% Chaos Resistance
- +% Elemental Resistance (ideally this should be whichever individual Resistance you didn't get on your Rings)
Jewels are very powerful in Path of Exile 2 early access. For this build there are 2 very good modifiers;
- Get 1 Ruby with "Rage gained on Melee Hit" and "Area of Effect"
- Get 1 Sapphire with "2% Mana gained on Kill", "Critical Hit Chance" and "Area of Effect". This allows you to remove the Siphon Passive Skill.
- Look for Emeralds with the following mods in order of importance.
- Critical Hit Chance
- Damage against Rare and Unique enemies
- Attack Speed with Quarterstaves
- Attack Speed
- Critical Strike Damage Bonus
- Damage with Quarterstaves
The best in slot belt for this build is Ingenuity but it is very expensive. Until you can afford a well rolled one, use a Rare Belt with the following modifiers;
- + Charm Slots
- Thawing Charm
- Stone Charm
- Silver Charm
- Elemental Resistance
- Chaos Resistance
- + to Maximum Life
There are a few powerful Unique items for this build that grant massive bonuses or allow it to shine much more before reaching high levels of gear.
- Polcirkeln causes your enemies to shatter as though frozen which is massive for Herald of Ice. This will single handedly carry your clear until you reach high levels of gear where it becomes rather obsolete.
- Hand of Wisdom and Action represent around a 20% damage increase over a rare pair of gloves but lack defensive modifiers and rarity. They are also extremely expensive. If you have a pair however, and need more damage, these are a great option.
Atlas Passives
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Learn about the endgame activities available to you in Path of Exile 2 with our guide!
FAQ
Find answers to commonly asked questions and dive deeper into the Tempest Flurry Invoker Build's mechanics.
Good Notable Passives to Distil are;
- Stormcharged (Best)
- Vulgar Methods
- Overwhelming Strike
- Tainted Strike
A Physical Damage staff is much more damage in the Endgame. Early, going for an Elemental Quarterstaff with "# to # Cold Damage added" and a 80%+ Elemental Damage added to attacks roll will carry you until you make a better Phys weapon.
This build does a good job of destroying screens of enemies in seconds, as well as one shotting Rare Monsters, but it's very easy to get overwhelmed in higher level maps. These are the things you can do to increase defense;
- Cap your Elemental and Chaos Resistance.
- Increase your Life pool.
- Use the highest Tier Evasion/Energy Shield Armour Bases. A higher Evasion Rating value also grants additional Physical Damage Reduction due to …and Protect me from Harm.
These are the best sources of Cold Damage;
- Flat Damage Rolls on Rings or Gloves
- Essence of the Mountain
- Cold Infusion
- Ice Bite
- Cold Damage on Quarterstaff
Remember that all your sources of "Extra Damage as Cold Damage" is scaled by all of your total damage. So simply having higher DPS from Jewels and Levels can make a big difference.
Mana sustain can be made very easy with a few different choices within the build;
- A "Physical Attack Damage leeched as Mana" affix on your Gloves or Ring
- Inspiration support as your 6 link with Tempest Flurry
- Siphon
The simple answer is, no. Serpent's Egg reduces the interval between casting Flicker Strike with a high number of Power Charges.
In practice, the additional attacks aren't always relevant and simply casting Flicker Strike with any number of Power Charges is fine. You more often than not, run out of monsters to dash to before you run out of Power Charges.
- Relic: 15% increased Mana Recovery from Flasks
- Venom Drought: Stun Threshold
- Cruel Relic: 15% increased Life Recovery from Flasks
- Cruel Venom Drought: +10% Chaos Resistance
Video
Summary
- Flicker Strike is a fan favourite from Path of Exile and is phenomenal at rapidly dashing through Maps. Combined with Charged Staff, Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice it does more than enough damage to obliterate screens of enemies whilst dashing to the next.
- Place Tempest Bell whenever available on bosses for a massive damage boost.
- Evasion and Energy Shield allow you to utilize Ghost Dance as well as granting you Spirit from your Body Armour to enable all of your Passive Skills.