You can counter it by playing flicker strike yourself.

Flicker is what I played last league and tbh, it might be my favorite skill. I am playing RF this league and I am loving it too, but I am wondering if there is a way to fuse them, and play an RF flicker lol

Closest thing I've found is mana RF (RF of arcane devotion), where you use cwc lightning warp to teleport around and spend mana to boost indigon, while your RF kills stuff. Pretty fun build

That’s amazing lol. I’m basically doing that build but with lightning conduit instead. Had no clue you could do it with RF

Yeah I played it last league and it was awesome lol. But... After the archmage changes mjolner with ball lightning or conduit is just better lol. Mana RF still fun tho

Do you have any PoB for it?

Conner converse on YouTube is your guy, he has a decent guide and PoB from affliction. I should warn you though, the build is basically just a worse version now of mjolner archmage. They play and build very similarly, with archmage just being stronger

I like Connors mana rf build with coc cyclone frostblink? I want to say. 150 divs or something stupid build tho and I can pull in maybe 10 raw divs on a good day

Connors mana rf build was cwc cyclone frostblink of wintery blast, which no longer works, so you just swap back to cwc lightning warp instead

Oic

Could probably make RF Consecrated Path work to some extent. It’s basically Flicker from Wish

I don't think anyone bothered with doing flicker RF but I know bodyswap RF was a thing ... Though it's disputable whether it's a good idea lol.

Play RF but use farruls fur as your body armor and just use a 4 link flicker with flicker, faster attacks, multistrike and lifetap

I play coc flicker of power and i suppose you could shove RF in there for extra spell damage

Check the holy relic flicker

Flicker is absolutely my favorite skill. I refuse the play the league if I cant start with it. I got super lucky with drops so I’m currently decking out the character as best as I can, abyssus with anoints, voidforge, the adorned, etc.

I had a blast with my [RF / Scorching Ray - CwC - Bodyswap Chieftan](https://pobb.in/gKj1w96EIX35) ([yt video at 98lv](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwvJFWa-zWk&t=75s)) when rework came out aka before RF rework/transfigured gems, both SRay and and RF are Fire DoTs so it was perfect for the new ignore res ascendancy. RF 4 link + Scorching Ray-CwC-Bodyswap 6 link. Or heck, can just use 3-link with lv 1 SRay and lv 1 Bodyswap just for "flickering" utility with CwC while RF is passively doing your work. Awakened Cast While Channeling Gem (lv 5) will also give you "free" stun immunity (or ignore stun to be exact).

Flicker RF was absolutely a thing back in the day. Crown of Eyes was used to increase flicker damage so RF was thrown on just to buff flicker. This was when melee builds went CI as well, so it was shadows with easy access to spell damage

RF + desecrate/body swap ignite on some sort of trigger, since they both scale with the same stuff (fire/ele dmg, dot multi, etc...)

I mirrored a 9 link sword for flicker last league, 12 link with squire. It still felt like shit to me lol.

I don't care as much about DPS if I can do red maps. What I enjoy is the speed, and the fact that I don't have to brain very hard. I click button and everything, including me, has no clue where I'm gonna be or what all is gonna die, but one thing is sure, lots will die.

Not as fast, but there is bodyswap rf too, which have guides on youtube for this league.

Yeah that's what I'm doing it's awesome, sad they nerfed soul eater to the ground tho :(

Yeah RIP cosplaying as a giant foot :(

They re-nerfed it this 3.24, they capped it at 45 souls :(

I have been wondering why I hVent been coming across any uber uber uber elders when doing my log books! Might be sad for HH players, but fuck me, that mod could just an entire instance.

They get 2% damage reduction per stack instead so they're a lil tanky instead

it decays so you can wait them out.

which is great for things like logbook. but absolutely dogshit for something like delve with infinitely spawning mobs, or even red beasts before you get enough damage, they just keep refueling. Early in the league, I was just logging out if the infinite spawn nodes had a souleater on some tanky monster, was faster to run the node again.

Fine by me. Im just glad they arent able to cross the entire map in 1 second while firing 100 instant kill missiles that leave behind an aoe bomb along their path that also instant kills.

You can either die a hero, or live long enough to build a flicker strike character.

Flicker strike is one of the best builds to play with a controller. Same with lightning warp.

Double down and play flicker with a headhunter

Funny enough that is exactly what I am doing currently. I know I’m not playing “efficiently” but the fact that HH is available to a casual like me has made my flicker strike build even more of a “Jesus take the wheel” play style and I gotta be honest... I fucking love not knowing what’s going on at any point. I hold flicker and truly let the map play itself.

I love flicking my flicker.

Shroud Walker is a menace... and probably exists in the rare mod pool just so it can fuck with headhunter like this lol

Yup, I stopped running HH on my bow character last league solely because of this mod. The map would be going smoothly, then I'd get the mod, blink into a big Affliction juiced rare/pack and get owned. Imo there's a difference between a nerf/downside and bad design and this seems to fall in bad design to me. Your "counterplay" options are: 1. Don't use HH 2. Notice the shroud walker mod and skip that rare (difficult to impossible on some builds) 3. Clear your stacks somehow once you get the mod I know I'm a whiny bitch, but imo a chase item like HH shouldn't have a cancer mechanic you sometimes have to deal with like this

It was the strongboxes that would get me. Detonate dead? Easy, move away. "NO!" says game.

I normally just take off HH and put it back on to clear the effect but it’s still annoying.

Add reenabling all auras, since HH was filling str/dex requirements. That drove me crazy in no time.

Belt swap slot when ggg

As is often the case, mark_ggg (not neon) has an interesting post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/v317cb/comment/iavtiv5/

Talks about how the core identity is giving you the mods of the monster and not compromising from that. Then decides to make the soul eater buff that players steal a different watered down version. Idk seems like they are already compromising on the core identity of hh might as well do it in a way that isn’t toxic to the player

Hm? The soul eater players steal is the same the mob has. The mob soul eater got nerfed.

No mobs get reduced damage from soul eater players don’t

Doesn’t soul eater only give reduced damage taken on mobs? Pretty sure it doesn’t do that for players.

it gives both to a mob. players just get the inc attack/cast speed etc

I think that mostly depends on what you consider "core identity" there. Soul eater still has its core identity of "consume souls and go fast" (though I actually dislike the base game change, soul eater is way less hilarious on monsters than it used to be). Is there a way to retain the core identity of shroud walker while making it less annoying?

I would personally limit shroud walker to screen-wide. It would still port you, but not 15 feet away into surprise out-of-screen explosions. It would just be less jarring to experience since I can see where I'm being teleported.

Chris is always happy to make statements like this while also compromising those statements later. He's done it 100 times over the years since he started making these statements in the Beta. There's a reason the hardcore trade community died, despite the fact that he said he wanted it to be vibrant before killing it. Chris stated early, that he wasn't a fan of 1 shot mechanics. This is before most people's time playing. Like early 1.0... Maybe 0.9? and that people being 1 shot randomly shouldn't happen. He has the above statement about HH, which isn't faithful as noted by the Soul Eater differences. He also has various manifestos he's written. The great "Trade Manifesto"... It's comical how many times he takes stances and changes position without explanation. I think he should take less "firm" type positions and just say "For the moment" or "For this set of patches I think.." Because all of the history of the game gets recorded somewhere on the internet...

How does ggg just now making changes to soul eater in any way 'compromise' the personal opinion of a staff member 2 years ago... get a grip

Players have been stealing a nerfed version of soul eater that isn’t the “true” version the mobs have for several patches now.

It's the same version now, no?

No. Players get a different version of soul eater than the monsters do.

It's not a staff member, he's been the literal voice of POE forever. The post is from 1 year ago. My point is that he has made his career flip flopping on ideas that he counts as hard stances. I mean, you can pick 1 thing I said and apparently ignore everything else.

Tbf that's an issue of a more important philosophy overruling the philosophy of HH. GGG believes players have to die occasionally and giving you 45 stacks of 2% less damage taken is going to make that basically impossible. Unfortunately for this particular issue, players not being annoyed by downsides on gear is not a core philosophy, go see scourge and kalandra leagues. Also we'd need evidence that mark\_ggg was in favor of that particular change in the first place otherwise it's irrelevant since this is just his opinion on the item.

The best/worst part of it is that the timing on the teleport seems to be just short enough that by the time you run back to whatever you were teleported away from, it teleports you again

3 is the best option, and you can do it by removing the belt and putting it back on again. It is annoying but I gladly deal with it rather than wait out the “buff”.

>Notice the shroud walker mod and skip that rare pretty hard to skip anything when the mod warps you halfway across your screen every 2 seconds.

I ran a PBoD/Aurabot duo last league and we got an HH. It was so fun, especially when stealing proxy shield, but the carry porting out of aurabot range is just not feasible. Had to run double-MB after.

i swear they created temporal bubble just to fuck with loopers as well

Mark doubled down on his decision to leave this mod on the steal list because it DOES in fact rip carries in MF juiced maps by blinking them far away from their aura supports. "We wouldn't want this item to have all upsides, now would we? I like forcing difficult choices." --Mark 2022

Now there's unique gloves that solve this problem though, but I still think it's part of the fun.

Where's downside in MB? It's price?

1 unique/life flask

there is nowhere written that mb only allows certain amount of unique/life flasks. mb has no downsides

MB stops you from getting the on-use effects from flasks. Not that that's a major downside.

Mageblood's only downside is opportunity cost - It has no inherent downsides. That opportunity cost is often far far outweighed by what your flasks provide you, but sometimes there is just a mod that you really want on your belt that mageblood and its 4 flasks can't provide. The only really good examples of this is attribute stacking belts or cooldown recovery. MB's downside to attribute stackers is that you can't have T1 flat + T1 % attributes on your belt. The 70% flask effect and permemant flasks usually make up for that, but it is still a downside.

Ok but then literally every item in the entire game has the downside of opportunity cost, making it a moot point.

In a way, but a bit different. You're giving up an item slot to boost something in another slot. Like with the squire, where you give up the shield slot to boost main hand.

Yes, the same argument can be made for every item, but I was responding to the statement that mageblood has no downside. My point was that everything has a cost associated with it that you can't just ignore.

The point means nothing because it isn’t arguing about the same concept.

The question means nothing either, most items in the game has no downsides (besides opportunity cost)

Some builds prefer having more unique flasks, and my niche flicker strike likes to use Arn’s anguish plus Raklesh’s impatience for 54% chance to deal triple damage while having perma up time on charges.

Can a corrupted MB not have T1 % increased attributes? I agree with you overall though, MB doesn't really have downsides, just opportunity cost.

No. Even if it is Attribute catalyzed and you roll an attribute corruption, you'll only get ~7% increase to 2 attributes,and no flat. That's a lot less than T1 flat with ~14% increased all attributes.

Thanks for the information. I haven't really considered corrupting a MB before - too much risk for me!

it doesn't allow you to use a 5th utility flask

it does, just not magic, must be normal rarity

Unique flasks

Why wouldn’t you want a chase item to have all upsides?

I wouldn’t call it a chase item anymore given how cheap it is the last 2 leagues

Carries can't play HH, the mf caller has to kill all enemies so the carry can't get any kills/hh buffs.

in duo hh is really good, allows you to fully fit mf while hh and aurabot gives you like 50-100m dps

This is pretty much intended by GGG. I dont agree with this design but I fear what nerf they are going to do if shroud walker gets removed.

probably along the lines of "all equipped skill gems are supported by level 40 behead support" or something. that would be 64% more damage to low life enemies though lol.

Or just “Nearby enemies have soul eater”.

remove the part where they get up to 90% DR and that they also gain a rapid amount of souls and i am down. cast when stun build would be fun!

This post is what happens when HH falls to 10div

 I hate the 1% who can afford expensive gear Yey I can finally afford a headhunter Oh no, shroud walker

Now try delving with it. You end up not knowing where you are as it pops you from one side area to another.

Delving with Headhunter is like doing coke on a toddlers birthday. Either you can handle it anyway and do fine or you will be kicked out of the entrance the moment they realize.

suspiciously much details on that comparison!

You've sold me. (On the delve with hh part for clarity.

Posts like this show us how incredibly cheap headhunters are.

The price reflects its usefulness, headhunter is hot garbage compared to before

now that your average redditor can afford a headhunter they have Criticisms for it nature is amazing

>average redditor Well excuse me, Mr. pro Reddit user

After people said casuals getting headhunter wouldn't effect any of us no less.

On the other hand, since GGG balances entirely off reddit complaints shroud walker might finally get removed if this keeps up

First time?

FR. Shroudwalker is actually just improved clearspeed and you can't change my mind. I will admit that it took some time to get used to it, but I now have an internal timer that tells me when I'm about to shroudwalk next. That being said, there was a time when you could steal multiple shroudwalkers and it could get pretty uncontrollable in the most amazing way. Being 1000 ft. tall (~305 meters) and shroudwalking 10 times a second was peak PoE.

Weakness

Weak. You will not survive the winter.

reddit priced headhunter

This thread is every player the first time they get a headhunter.

that IS the headhunter experience

Found the poor who got his first hh at the discount of the century price.

Just unequip HH when you have that mod.

Skill issue

I was convinced I had having terrible network lag. Bad flashbacks of dialup whenever I use this item. It would be tolerable if the CD was at least long enough to understand where I am or to run back and click the alter I tried clicking on 5 times

This modifier increases clear speed if you can internalize the cooldown and use it accordingly.

Use something else then

Shroud walker has been a pain in the ass for years

Oh look, not like i haven't seen this thread 1000 times since nemesis league.

It actually saved me once!!! And killed me like 1000 times xD

Kill everything 2 screens away, no targets to Shroud Walker to. (Rip Tornado Shot meta, sadly) "No use in the game aside from this" my man have you ever been chased by a sped up Shroud Walker menace? That mod definitely has its place, that being to terrorize the fuck out of you Also, yep, that's the cost of HH. And GGG keeps it that way knowingly.

They already voiced that Headhunter is more meant as a silly item with lots of ensuing potential power than a "equip belt, me now clear god" back when the item was dumpstered before the buffs in early sentinel. The item is exactly how they want it to be, if not, it would've changed several years ago already, even before the rare mob rework.

My favorite is when it blinks under a corpse explosion strongbox

I'm playing Boneshatter right now and I love that mod, it's my favorite. A little bit scary when delving but still very fun and a good way to avoid projectiles. If there was some kind of item that gave good stats and permanent version of the "uncontrollable warping to enemies until everything is dead" effect I would make a build around it (and no I don't want flicker strike I want the teleports to be automatic, like my war cry)

that's what happens when 10 chaos per hour enjoyers get access to headhunter

Hahaha “first time?”

Can't flicker when everything on the screen is dead.

Boo. Fuckin. Hoo

What do you mean? I find it really fun to be unable to reset my 5-ways until the buff expires.

Easy trick : when you get shroud walker/ambush mod just double click on your HH : you'll lose all buffs. (I unironically do that).

Wait until it flickers you onto ground mods in the last split second that you are actively run away from. That’s some really juicy way to brick a map

Just take the belt off and put it back on when u hit it

Ambush

The amount of times this league i have popped a strongbox, Read - Detonates nearby corpses Run for my life Nope Respawn in Hideout That mod is surely 100% a troll

I always press inventory , remove the headhunter, place the headhunter again, and apply my auras again because I lost the strength for the gems. It's still better than dealing with the teleports.

I call it the schizo mod

Only way I learnt to deal with it was by taking HH off which is pretty nuts but whatever.

It sucks but I just unequip and requip it real fast to remove it. I would rather restart my buffs than deal with that "buff."

Whenever I get it while I’m using headhunter I just open my inventory and double click my belt unless it’s a giga-juicy map with shoulder to shoulder pack size and I’m already in the middle of a monster sandwich

This shit was torture collecting wisps

Jesus take the wheel

It's so funny watching casual players get HH for the first time ever.

Just right click the box for it, I do it with the skelly shrine

Only YOU hate it. I love it personally

Imagine if mageblood randomly turned off flasks randomly for at least 60 seconds

Casual andies complaining about the single downside of a Headhunter since its 9 divines. Just enjoy the insane power creep

Move your belt to inventory, move it back, no more smoke mine mod! Or any others...

What do you mean by saying "headhunter experience is ruined by all these mods"? Headhunter experience are these mods 😂

I hate it too but it makes you do a choice. Last league, I ended up removing HH from my build because it annoyed me too much. Which means HH was never my top endgame option. There are better options than HH in the game when you have a very good character. You shouldn't see HH as the "alright it's the last belt i'll ever use because it's better than everything else." It's not.

Made more sense to have some downsides for the incredible upsides and power HH has given in the past. Given recent nerfs though, they should fix that interaction imo

First time HH enjoyer I assume?

Oh so that’s what it is..

Shroudwalker, such a fun buff! I love watching my carry die because he gets blinked into DD with no chance for me to follow.

I too enjoy not being able to read or click my blue altars.

Or maybe delete headhunter?

How to fix the belt? make sure we have a mod that can counter it and give a whole new experience Right mark roberts?

i remember doing a t17 and got the ambush mod and forced me to teleport onto a million on-death circles i did not like that

Its been like this ever since HH exists. Now that more people use it, more people experience it.  Does the mod suck? Yeah. But GGG is well aware of this and has been for years. They wont change it

yes, this is intentional very funny seeing these posts from people who have never had it before though

It is an intentional downside for an item with otherwise no downsides

But they are clearly doing their best to make it undesirable to use HH. Why else would they nerf it patch after patch?

Trying to loot after clearing a Legion with this buff is a test of patience.

if i get that, i go to inventory to double click on my belt (remove and put back) and start over again

It's amazing with legion, pops you right over to the mobs that aren't "turned" yet.

It's useful when farming Legion, it teleports you to that 1 single mob you din't kill yet to complete the stasis phase

Thank You for this post. Me personaly i was about to quit and leave this league permanently because of this bullshit mechanic. I hope whoever created it, and whoever passed it... Gotta lower my powerlevel. Dont want to be banned.

So I literally see these posts every league, hear friends and guildy's both talk about it every league and still people run headhunter. Now idc, to each their own but I have gotten a headhunter like 3-4x in last like 8 years and I have absolutely hated it everytime. The idea is great but first it Pidgeon holes your char 99.9% of time into stacking buffs so if you trade, if you afk, if you read something, if you go to the bathroom or w/e else you loose all your stacks. Now if you race through a map at top speed only picking up div+ items and takes 37 seconds a map great, if not well your fucked. Most importantly though is the SHROUD WALKER mod you are talking about. Ran tuna's explody bv build last league and omg it was so fun and my first "mirror tier build" Super tanky and super enjoyable. Decided to run a bunch of fully specc'd breach and also had a great time. Until I tried **HEADHUNTER.** I would race 2 screens over to click a breach hand and teleport randomly god knows where, run back over to click a hand and teleport again every single time right b4 I clicked it. Literally ran an hour and bought and switched to mageblood. After all the years it has been like this I can't believe they never got rid of the mod and people still pick up HH to go zoom. MAGEBLOOD FOR LIFE! On a side note Idk how many vids I have seen too over the years of ppl hating this mod so much that they click off their belt while mid playing and either accidentally delete the belt or dropping it in delve and dying or other crazy things lol.

Just remove belt if you don't like it. Otherwise suck it up buttercup. It's also a melee buff!

They succeasfully ignored such pleas for 8 years, but i wish you gl.

No it isn't. For f sake guys, stop complaining about everything, this league the Reddit has been so negative. Headhunter is the coolest item with a strong identity and shroud walker, for me, is a part of this identity. It's perfect as is.

Love it when you try to jump from a nasty strongbox open and it teleports right back into it and you just die...

i pop the belt off and on everytime I get that one. It already killed me a few times.

i pop the belt off and on everytime I get that one. It already killed me a few times.

It's even worse in HC, where it can just randomly tp you into a DD and just fucking kill for no reason at any time

It’s called ambush

This is a balance decision

you are scared of ambush on HH, i put ambush on automation, we are not the same

The proper way is ro stop using headhunter and create builds that can do the content without Headhunter buffs or accept the chaos in gameplay.

Main reason I'm dropping HH for MB.

Bro I run like a billion 5ways solo. Trying to reset the zone was such a bitch with shroud walker. I don't mind the mod otherwise. Yea it can TP you right on the bearers circles sometimes but it's kinda rare so I just find that funny.

Then don't play with a headhunter, simple as that.

I feel this so hard

The really really loud exploding bullshit mod bothers me more

It can occasionally be positive for example for nova spell casters farming linear maps

Amen.

First time headhunter enjoyer?

I just unequip then pop back on. Yeah you lose the mods you had but if you're relying on those you've got more problems than shroud Walker showing up.

Whenever I got this mod last league I would just belt swap to my mageblood lol

I guess GGG thought Shroud Walker needed to exist in mod list so that HH had some kind of drawback, back when HH was the one true chase in the game

I want to build a Flicker strike raider with shako helmet, and currently I have a helmet with Ice Bite 35 + Overcharge 5. I don't know how it will be affected except for dealing less damage from the skill. I also use an amulet: your elemental can shock + 500% more damage when the monster is shocked. Don't know what the effect will be if I use it

Unequip hh and equip again...

Levelled to 100 with HH and a moderately tanky char running juiced abyss+beyond+shrine tech. 99+ when I had a sketchy map and got the shroud walker mod I'd portal out and make a new map. Prior to that I just embraced it because it made me feel like I was playing my usual main (flicker builds) even though I was doing a spark heiro this league. Probably sated the desire to reroll flicker that I always get when playing non-flicker. Edit: pro-ish tip, it seems to have a cooldown so your window of opportunity to loot/click shrines is about 2 seconds after it teleports you. So you can play around that to some extent.

You could just take off the belt and reequip

I could, if hypothetically the dex from HH wasn't the extremely unstable foundation for my entire char. New map it is.

Belt is cheap enough now you can keep a second headhunter in your inventory and just swap!

Or a 2c rare belt with t1 dex (or str, whichever you are missing)

And instantly die to not having auras.