PoB: https://pobb.in/fzYZq87yrEfB

After trying out Smite, I was left in a weird spot. I liked the damage of Smite, and the clear was okay, but it just doesn't hit the spot like flicker does. I wanted to experiment with Coiling Whisper on a flicker trickster, and it's been working well! This is based off of Tarekis' Flicker Trickster, so credits to him for a good base to start with.

Pros:

• 90m DPS (w/ 45 Soul Eater Stacks + Berserk up, easily done on bosses!)

• 89% All Res

• 47k Phys max hit WITHOUT molten shell

• Fast and fun!

Cons:

• Cannot run "steal charges" mod (You can potentially use Smite of Divine Judgment on these maps if needbe)

• Flicker is still weird on some bosses (Swap in Double Strike of Momentum)

• Have to start Bladefall of Trarthus at the beginning of the map

So, to begin with, Coiling Whisper requires some investment on melee characters. Firstly, you need a 4L curse setup (Temp chains, Hextouch, Bladefall of Trarthus, Less Duration (20/23 is cheaper and the same as 21/20!)) Make sure Temp Chains and Hextouch are 1/0, do NOT level them.

Secondly, we need to get skill/curse duration reduction. The easiest way I've found to do this is with a Magebane Impossible Escape. This'll let you allocate "Window of Opportunity" which will reduce our hexes to below the trigger rate of Bladefall. You may be able to do this without the impossible escape (anointing Window of Opportunity instead of Tribal Fury), but in my opinion, it's worth the premium price.

Lastly, curse limits. While we can't use curses anymore, we can still use a mark. The downside is that our mark still is limited by our curse limit. To get around this, we will need a Whispers of Inifinity with an additional curse implicit. You can get these for ~10-15d with a lower roll. I paid 45div for my roll.

One last thing I want to note is "Warrior's Legacy". This ring lets us target a previous location when we use Flicker Strike, however, we lose 20% attack speed as a result. Thankfully, due to our Soul Eater stacks, this downside is hardly noticeable. Due to a recent update on this item, the range required for this effect was halved. This results in our flicker (for the most part) hitting TWICE, dealing double damage (depending on the size of the target). You can see for yourself in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhIkaIDf5cs

I've configured our Kineticist merc in the PoB, but we're effectively using the typical Doryani's Setup, alongside with Kaom's Binding, Sentari's Answer for free curses (Unclear if the curses affect enemies, so I have not configured this in PoB), and a Defiance for survivability (Perquil's Toe is an option, but losing our merc can feel brutal and didn't feel worth the risk.)

There are several rooms of improvement here, here are a few below that are relatively easy to solve:

• A better Ephemeral Edge, a 15% would result in 12% more damage!

• Better ES gear, especially boots.

• Better corruptions, especially on our Ephemeral Edge but also we can eek extra damage with getting pen on our jewels

• Finding +1 cold res somewhere else, potentially rolling it on our chest or taking a node on the tree?

• Slightly more damage with your eldritch implicits, but most of the useless ones of my gear simply do not have anything that would benefit us much.

Things that are ABSOLUTELY NOT NECESSARY

• Abyssal Socket in our gloves - I just got lucky crafting these. Just sub out the abyssal socket and get corrupted blood on any of your other jewels.

• Corruption on Coiling Whisper - Just wanted to get a little more rarity, costs about a div.

• Shock Boots - You can instead take out the rarity on your flasks and replace it with avoid shock, letting you free up your suffixes on your boots for something else.

I'd love to see criticisms and feedback, so let me know what you think! Also, feel free to reach out in game with any questions or suggestions. My IGN is "Doctor".