TbXie's Flicker Strike Raider Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheons (PoE Necropolis)

Ascendancy (Ranger – Raider)

Way of the Poacher

Raider is an Ascendancy that really wants to get to the Eternal Labyrinth as fast as possible. The ascendancy choices are just so hard to pick from and honestly, that’s not even because they’re that great, but moreso because they’re all so incredibly balanced and all three paths lead to the node you really want. This means there’s no way of acquiring the ones you really want in 3 Labs, and you’ll always need a 4th.

We opted to go the Frenzy Path first and the Phasing Path later. Way of the Poacher gets you a decent chunk of Damage through Frenzy Charges while leveling, both when clearing and on bosses. Additionally, it leads to Avatar of the Slaughter, which is a must-have by the time you get all your Flicker Gear on.

Note: If you are leveling with Twink Gear and are going to get a Labyrinth carry as soon as you’re done with the storyline, and are 100% sure you can get your 8 Ascendancy Points before you’re grabbing all your gear, I would argue that going the complete inverse way is better. So if you’re doing that, you should probably pick up Avatar of the Veil First, followed by the 4 nodes to Avatar of the Slaughter.

Avatar of the Slaughter

So, at this time, in Cruel Lab, right at around level 50, this node probably doesn’t do as much for you as you’d hoped, but once you pick up all your Gear, Frenzies in the tree and so on, this node is just a must-have. 32% Movement Speed, 80% Evasion, 32% Attack Speed and 80% Attack Damage is just pretty nuts to have! Therefore, I think going this path is better if you’re not positive you’ll get to your 8th Ascendancy Point by the time you want to start Flickering!

Quartz Infusion

I debated a while about going the other side of the Ascendancy and pathing towards Avatar of the Chase instead of Avatar of the Veil, but ended up just taking this one mainly because of the Cold Exposure on the next Ascendancy Point. That was the tipping point, as I think this route is a little more reliable on bosses. Anyway, Quartz Infusion is the enabler of the next notable by granting us Phasing permanently. Additionally, getting Dodge and Spell Dodge here, which is a rare thing to find, is really nice for our overall tankiness.

Avatar of the Veil

So, whereas it can sound annoying to have to do all the Labs to get to the full power level of your character, at least this offers you another big power spike when you eventually get there, as opposed to builds who really are more of a “just pick whatever’s leftover and it does something”. Avatar of the Veil, as stated, after much debate was the pick here mainly because of the Exposure it applies on bosses.

Since the build is focused on Dodge and doesn’t have the HP pool to tank hits, you can’t reliably use things like Frost Bomb, Frostbite, and so on, on a Cast when Damage Taken and rely on it to kill bosses, which, eventually, I wanted this build to do. If I was purely playing this as a mapper, I would most likely have gone for Avatar of the Chase, but since I wanted this to be an all around strong character, the exposure was just too much.

Last but not least, getting Elemental Ailment immunity is nuts. People heavily underestimate how often a nasty Ignite can hurt you badly or how often they actually die because they are on Shocked ground or get Shocked by a source of incoming Lightning Damage. On top of all of this, enemies lose 15% of their accuracy, which makes them virtually irrelevant given the amount of Evasion you have.

Bandits

There really only is one option here: you want to kill all. You’re super starved for Skill Points so you’re helping Eramir for the 2 extra skill points.

Pantheons

Major Gods

Brine King is probably your best pick. You kinda don’t want to get permanently stunned and since you have a low amount of Life, that’s very possible.

Minor Gods

I would recommend Soul of Yugul to cap out curse immunity together with a Reduced Curse affixed on one of your magic flasks.

Upgrading your Pantheons

Whilst upgrading your Pantheons never hurts you, it’s not that important for this character. If you have nothing else to do at some point, sure, why not, but it shouldn’t be something you focus on or spend a lot of time on.

Pantheon powers can be upgraded by using Divine Vessel in the Map Device while you are activating the particular Map that contains the boss you need. Once you’ve killed the boss and captured his soul, you need to deliver the Divine Vessel, which’ll be filled up in the map device, to Sin in Oriath.

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