Hello, I'm TheRoastedPotato, the current roam player for Phoenix Reign and one of the only female competitive players in VG. This is a guide for how I play Flicker successfully in both ranked and competitive matches. Flicker is a sneaky trickster that uses stealth, speed and slows to wreak havoc around the map. His team-wide global ultimate is an extremely versatile tool that opens up a variety of playmaking opportunities. Control vision to win the game!
I hope this guide helps!
-Potato
Willow Whisper is one of the most important parts of Flicker’s kit, and fits excellently with his name. After being in a brush for 2 seconds, Flicker will gain both stealth and a movement speed bonus. Flicker remains in stealth while he is in the bush for an infinite duration, or for 3 seconds after he leaves the bush. Taking damage or using an ability also removes the stealth whether or not you are in a bush. As Flicker is moving between bushes, he will become briefly revealed if he moves to a bush and the stealth is still active, but will gain stealth again shortly after.
Use Willow Whisper to sneakily move around the map, to escape a team fight, or to set up an ambush. One of the best uses for it is to gank in the early-mid game. Use the stealth to sneak up to the enemy laner, activate your slow and then use the root while the enemy laner is slowed for a better chance of hitting it. This will almost always lead to a gank kill.
Blinding light is one of the hardest abilities to land in the game without any prior setup. When activated, Flicker summons a circle of fairies for 2 seconds at a target location that deals damage to enemies and minions inside. After the 2 seconds, enemies still inside the circle are rooted. Blinding Light is a ranged ability with about the same range as Celeste’s max range Heliogenesis.
Like previously mentioned, Blinding Light is extremely hard to land. As such, it is best used either when combined with another form of CC or as a zoning tool. To use it as a zoning tool, place the Blinding Light where you do not want the enemies to go (behind them for example) and they will either be forced to move in a different direction or get rooted. Blinding Light is also good to use in a clumped up teamfight, as it is fairly hard to see when there is a mess of enemies and will have a good chance of landing.
Upgrade Priority:
I’d recommend unlocking Blinding Light second and taking the overdrive after Fairy dust is overdriven. Upgrading Blinding Light decreases the cooldown at each level, and increases the damage as well as the root duration once overdriven. Since it is on a fairly low cooldown already at early levels, it is not really beneficial to upgrade it first.
Fairy Dust is pretty much Flicker’s main ability and definitely the most important/devastating one. When activated, Flicker summons fairy dust around him for 3 seconds that slows and damages enemies in the surrounding area. After the 3 seconds expires, the dust ignites and deals a large burst of damage.
Fairy Dust is mainly useful the massive AOE slow it provides. Use Fairy Dust in conjunction with Willow Whisper for a maximum effect. The surprise effect will allow the opponents no reaction time and will likely trap them in the slow for the full 3 seconds. However, since you must be close to enemies for Fairy Dust to be effective, be careful of incoming damage- especially since Flicker is relatively squishy. Be sure to coordinate your engages with your team so that they can take full advantage of the massive slow.
Upgrade Priority:
I’d recommend unlocking Fairy dust first and taking the overdrive as soon as possible. Fairy Dust is Flicker’s primary ability that is most beneficial to his team, and should be treated as such with upgrade priority. Each upgrade to Fairy dust decreases the cooldown, increases the damage and massively increases the slow, with a large increase upon overdrive.
After a short cast time of 1 second, both Flicker AND his allies gain stealth and move speed for a long duration that increases with each upgrade of Mooncloak. The stealth, like on Willow Whisper, breaks whenever a hero uses an ability, attacks, or takes damage. This applies individually, meaning that if one hero uses an ability, attacks, or takes damage, the stealth will not break for the entire team but merely that individual hero.
Mooncloak is one of the best engage and escape tools in the game, but is countered heavily by vision. Use Moonclock to stealthily engage onto a poke comp, to disengage from a fight shortly or to escape completely. Mooncloak is a global ultimate, meaning you can be anywhere on the map when you use it and it will still apply to the whole team. This opens the door for clutch opportunities to save your laner or teammate from across the map or right after a death. Beware of the cast time, since it does take 1 second for the effects to take place. Also, beware of using it when close to enemies as an incoming damage will break the stealth.
Heroes to Pair With Flicker:
Hero is a very engage-dependent hero, so a team composition that is very good at diving will work excellently with Flicker
Blackfeather- BF is a very dive-oriented hero, and can fully utilize Flicker's stealth and CC to engage onto and stick to an enemy.
Krul- After engaging and Flicker's initial CC dies out, Krul can use his to continuously slow the enemy and never allow them to reach the lane carry. Additionally, any extra engage potential and early game strength is extremely beneficial to Krul.
Skye- While not a mobile engage heavy hero, Skye can utilize Flicker's stealth to get into a perfect position and Flicker can endlessly slow the enemies while Skye kites. If done properly and combined with a Frostburn, Skye should never really be in any danger.
Celeste- Similar to Skye, Celeste can use the stealth to get into position and then endlessly kite with Flicker's CC and her own Frostburn.
Kestrel- Kestrel is very strong, and combined with Flicker, will likely be able to dominate the early jungle. Kestrel already has her own stealth, but even more allows her to save her Active Camo for kiting and more CC.
Flicker is relatively strong in the early game simply because the enemy has a minimal amount of vision, allowing Flicker to sneak around the map and execute ganks efficiently. Flicker is one of the worst support heroes at camping the lane since he can do very little to stop a gank in progress, but he is very good at executing ganks and occasionally harassing the enemy laner. For maximum success on ganks, first gain stealth by staying in a bush for 2 seconds, then get as close to the enemy laner as possible and maybe even behind them if they are not close to the turret. Then, activate Fairy Dust and place Blinding Light in the direction they will likely run to prevent them from escaping or root them if they try. Depending on the mobility and reaction time of the enemy hero, this will almost always result in a gank early on. Combined with your jungler engaging, the gank will be virtually guaranteed. Continue doing this throughout the early game and generally harass the laner. Otherwise, just continue to farm the jungle with your jungler but make sure to leave him alone while he clears his own back camps so that he levels up faster.
In this mid game, Flicker mainly spikes when he hits level 6 and unlocks Mooncloak and again at level 8 once Fairy Dust is overdriven. Flicker is not really an item dependent hero, and can provide virtually the same impact whether he has items or not. However, Flicker is a momentum-dependent hero and gets much stronger when the momentum is in your favor. Flicker is relatively squishy, so he needs defensive items and preferably a lead to have a maximum effect. Additionally, if you are ahead, you likely have more vision than the enemy team, meaning that Flicker has more free roam of the map and can better set up sneaky plays. In the mid game, focus on gaining a vision lead and just generally farming up to get as big of a lead as possible. Flicker starts to fall off a bit in the late game if he doesn’t have a substantial lead, so the mid game is essential for gaining or extending a lead you have already. If you are playing behind, try to keep the game as even as possible and try to avoid team fights until items are even.
The late game revolves around vision and the Kraken. Flicker is one of the worst support heroes for defending against the Kraken, so it is extremely important to try to prevent the enemy from taking it however possible. For maximum success in the late game, try to gain vision control by either purchasing a contraption, tons of mines or by clearing as many mines as possible. Less vision for the enemy means more playmaking potential. In team fights, try to sneakily engage onto the enemy using Mooncloak. Once engaged, activate your B when you think a Slow is needed and use Blinding Light on either a group of enemies or as a zoning tool. See the Blinding Light section for tips on using this ability. Be sure not to take lots of damage because you will likely be in the front line and Flicker is not naturally a tank. Try to apply Atlas while you are invisible so that the enemy has zero time to react and for a guaranteed hit. Be sure to remember to activate all your items at key scenarios to help your team as much as possible. During team fights, if you are near bushes, you can still go invisible during fights to limit your damage intake and continually surprise the enemy with Fairy Dust.
- If you are on the run, head for the nearest bush. Once you get there, wait for/ activate your stealth. The speed boost and stealth you gain from it will more than make up for the time you spent waiting.
- Use Willow Whisper or Mooncloak to apply Atlas sneakily like a Taka would use Kaku to do the same thing.
- Combine Fairy Dust with Blinding Light to make it easier to land. See the Blinding Light section for more tips on how to use it.
- Mooncloak is a global ultimate, meaning you can be anywhere on the map when you use it and it will still apply to the whole team.
- Flicker is a hero that is best played with a coordinated team, and is very hard to play in Solo Queue. Coordinating engages is extremely important, and this usually takes a team with extensive game knowledge to pull off.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful. Send any questions you may have to
@IAmAPotato_VG on Twitter,
Team Phoenix or comment below.
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