U4GM What Makes Flicker Strike Builds Tick Slayer Raider Champ
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Flicker Strike in Path of Exile: compare Slayer, Raider and Champion builds with real gear tips for frenzy sustain, mapping speed and boss damage—great for beginners and endgame pushers.
Flicker Strike isn't a "build" so much as a bargain you make with the game: you press one button, your screen turns into a slideshow, and you hope you didn't blink onto a corpse explosion. It's hilarious, it's stressful, and the whole thing lives or dies on how clean your Frenzy Charge loop is. If you're short on gear early, or you just don't feel like farming forever, plenty of players quietly top up key pieces through U4GM so they can get back to actually mapping instead of staring at trade tabs.
Slayer and the "I refuse to fall over" feeling
Slayer is the pick when you want Flicker to feel unfair in your favour. The big deal is overleech: you take a nasty hit, your life globe dives, then it climbs back up while you're already full and still leeching. That safety net changes how you play. You can stay on the boss longer, make mistakes, and not instantly get deleted. Bane of Legends is also wild—culling at 20% makes bosses feel like they've got a hidden timer. The common endgame kit leans hard into charge automation with Replica Farrul's Fur, then you stack damage with things like Ryslatha's Coil and Darkray Vectors. It can be pricey, yeah, but the payoff is real: big DPS, solid life, and fewer "what even hit me." moments.
Raider and the pure speed addiction
Raider is what you run when you want the map to disappear. Frenzy Charges don't just add damage here, they add pace—Way of the Poacher and Avatar of the Slaughter make every charge feel like another gear in the engine. You'll phase through packs, pop out behind them, and keep going before the loot filter's even finished singing. The catch is simple: you're betting your life on not getting tagged. Evasion and Phasing are great until they aren't, and one random physical smack in a juiced map can end the run. Raider's amazing for fast farming, Heist, and "one more map" sessions, but you'll feel the fragility the moment you try to stand still for an Uber mechanic.
Champion for steady hands and fewer deaths
Champion is what people pick when they're tired of the death recap screen, or they're still learning what's safe to ignore. Permanent Fortify is boring on paper and incredible in practice, because Flicker puts you in danger nonstop. If you go Impale, Master of Metal adds a chunk of flat damage that makes early gearing feel way less painful. Progression is smoother, too: campaign, early maps, even tougher tiers don't feel like a coin flip. The ceiling can be lower than a fully kitted Slayer or Raider, but it scales better than folks think if you invest into clusters and clean rares, and it stays comfortable while doing it.
Picking your poison and keeping charges alive
Most Flicker choices come down to what annoys you more: dying, or slowing down. Slayer sits in the middle with bossing confidence, Raider races for profit, and Champion gives you room to breathe. No matter which you choose, you'll quickly notice the same priorities: attack speed, life, and a charge engine that doesn't sputter when the fight gets messy. Lots of players run Aspect of the Cat setups for that reason, because the build feels awful the second charges drop. And when you're ready to finish the setup without weeks of trade sniping, it helps to know where to grab the missing bits, like POE 1 iteams for the last upgrades you're still chasing.