[3.0] Marty's Phys Cyclone Slayer [HHC level 100 League Starter] Shaper/All Guardians Down.
 Chllin with my girl Navali This was my starter build in HHC which I stuck with all the way to level 100, I'll have a league starter section for those of you who are wanting to do this as your first build. I've seen a lot of cyclone guides out there and none of them really satisfied me. I've played around with a LOT of melee slayer builds and this is what I've found most efficient. I should note that this build is for mapping quickly and safely in hardcore, it's not meant to kill uber izaro, guardians, shaper or uber atziri. I'm sure that it can but that's not the goal of it and you'd probably want to make some heavy changes to do those. Now that that's out of the way, let's get into the guide
Why Cyclone Slayer?
 Cyclone is one of the most satisfying mapping abilities out there, the ability to be always moving while you're doing damage makes it extremely satisfying to play. And in 3.0 they've buffed boss health, cyclone is extremely powerful at dealing with bosses, with my current gear (minus the headhunter) I am able to kill t15 bosses in 10-45 seconds depending on the boss/map mods. Slayer is chosen because the overleech granted by Endless Hunger and Brutal Fervour lets us face tank all the content in the game easily once you achieve a decent enough life pool. To top that off the 20% cull from bane of legends makes bosses a complete joke, including fully buffer end game labyrinth izaro and t15 map bosses. Finally Headsman just serves as a great map clearspeed and survivability boost buffing our aoe, and damage while also making us effectively physical reflect immune with yugul it all serves to give an incredibly fluid playstyle.
Skill Tree/Pantheon/Bandits
I have another section dedicated to levelling, so for levelling trees please see that section. A general tree when you first hit maps is going to look something like this: poeurl.com/bvgm From there you're just filling out life and jewel nodes as you see fit, leaving you with an end tree along these lines: poeurl.com/bvpp For pantheon I chose Yugul and Lunaris and I never swapped them out once. They've worked great. It has recently been brought to my attention that the 50% increased recovery from soul of arakaali after capturing herald of thunder applies after you stop taking damage from blood rage due to cast when damage taken immortal call, this buffs our already insane leech to even further broken heights. This is going to be the go-to option for bossing, however for mapping I'll still use lunaris mostly for the move speed. For bandits I started with kraityn and respecced to the +2 passives (20 regrets and an onyx amulet sold to the vendor) but if you want to go with +2 passives the entire way it's definitely a good choice one that I'm doing for my second cyclone slayer.
Ascendancy
 Please don't ask me about other ascendancies for cyclone because I haven't played them seriously so I can't offer any meaningful advice, I choose Slayer and I take my ascendancy bonuses in this order for these reasons: Bane of Legends: This is a massive damage increase because now monsters only have 80% health (as you kill them instantly for the last 20%) on top of that we get onslaught for 20 seconds after rare/unique monster kills which makes you a lot quicker while levelling/mapping/whatever. Endless Hunger: This ascendancy is the reason I love slayer. The way leech in this game works without this ascendancy is that it puts a heal over time effect on you that drops off when you hit full health (similar to flasks) but when you take this ascendancy that heal over time no longer goes away, making it basically instant leech for all intents and purposes but unlike vaal pact for those pesky moments where you want to loot in a breach with mobs hitting you or you disconnect in a big pack of monsters you'll still be getting your full leech effect going. Brutal Fervour: I take brutal fervour from my merciless lab for 2 reasons, the first and foremost is that it makes your uber lab FAR easier, as well as the trials, having the faster leech and stun/bleed immunity lets you basically ignore traps and izaro's damage as long as you're leeching. The second is that this makes it so that while mapping you no longer need a staunching flask. For me personally bleed is a way I've had a lot of scary moments and near deaths, as well as one or two deaths just because I wasn't paying attention for a bit and didn't realize my flask was down. A lot of people disagree and take Headsman or impact. If you want to take headsman here that's totally fine, it's a great ascendancy too but I don't find it necessary for mapping even into t11/12 shaped maps so I put it off for convenience and to smooth out the gameplay. As for Impact I think it's a complete garbage ascendancy and I would not recommend taking it. in 2.6 they changed the way increased area scales so that you're getting effectively much lower value you from stacking it, and we're using increased area of effect and the templar area nodes so it's diminished to the point that 30% aoe over stun/bleed immunity and faster leech just isn't even a choice. And finally with regards to people that say stun immunity is wasted on cyclone because we are stun immune while spinning I just want to point out that whenever you're looting you're not spinning, as well as when you're leaping or just travelling because you can't spin all the time or you'll be out of mana. Headsman: I take this from uber because it's a massive damage increase and also gives a little bit of area, on top of that it gives so much phys damage reduction that with yuguls we can do phys reflect maps (although I wouldn't recommend it and if you do you should probably swap melee phys for added fire) All in all Headsman is just a very solid ascendancy and makes cyclone flow better and scale a lot higher.
Levelling trees/items/links
 Kick off your levelling in style So first of all I'd like to give a few levelling tree breakpoints. These are just to make the pathing more clear while levelling. 1) poeurl.com/bvgo 2) poeurl.com/bvgp 3) poeurl.com/bvgq 4) poeurl.com/bvgr These are your levelling trees and from here you can go onto the trees posted in the previous section (Skill Tree/Pantheon/Bandits) Rushing to resolute technique makes it so much easier to level as you won't be leaving behind a few pesky mobs that evaded your hits. We don't take any weapon specific damage nodes while levelling because your damage will be more than enough anyways just based off of your 4 links and weapon upgrades. A lot of the regen is picked up early to offset running blood rage which we use to generate our frenzy charges and just move faster with our leap slams in general. If you've got some chaos the best items I can recommend for levelling (other than the basic ones I assume you'll know if you have some chaos such as wanderlusts/tabula/goldrim/le heup of all/lochtonials/meginords/belt of the deceiver) are a carnage heart (prioritize having stats), a thief's torment and some nice weapons: 2x redbeaks (level 1) 2x screaming eagles (level 6) the princess (level 10) brightbeak (level 20) Geoffri's Baptism (level 27) The Cauteriser (level 40) The Blood Reaper (level 45 if no cauteriser) Kaom's Primacy (level 58) Kondo's Pride (level 61) Doomsower (level 65) And finally links: While leveling you're primarily looking to 3 link your leap slam and 4 link your cyclone. Leap Slam - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic Cyclone - Melee Physical Damage - Ruthless - Maim if you have a 5th link for cyclone it's Damage on full life after your cruel lab, or added fire before if you have a 6th link for cyclone you will be using increased area of effect and swapping it with concentrated effect for bosses. Other than that with your spare links you ideally want cast when damage taken - immortal call - enfeeble blood rage herald of ash hatred
links
Late game we're using a Kaom's heart so these will be your links (Before you 6 link use maim linked to ancestral warchief): Cyclone - Melee Physical Damage - Ruthless - Damage on Full Life - Increased Area of Effect/Concentrated Effect - Maim Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Enfeeble Leap Slam - Blood Magic - Faster Attacks - Fortify Ancestral Warchief, Herald of Ash, Hatred, Blood Rage
Gear/Jewels/My Current Gear
This build is extremely cheap to start up, there are 6 uniques that are "core" to the early game of the build: Devoto's Devotion (helm) Carnage Heart (Neck) Belt of the Deceiver (belt) Kondo's Pride/Doomsower (Weapon) Lion's Roar (Flask) Atziri's Promise (Flask) If you opt for doomsower as your weapon you want to put your herald of ash in an off socket on it as the extra fire damage to red gems will apply to it. Other than that it can easily be done by filling out rares with life/resists for all the rest of your slots. Once you have those items, the order I'd recommend progressing your gear in this order: 1) 5-link Kondo's Pride or Doomsower 2) Elemental Weakness cap yourself (109 resistance to fire, cold and lightning as it's a map mod that in red maps will reduce your resists by 34) 3) 3 Good Jewels (this can fall in with the 2nd step) 4) Kaom's Heart 5) Atziri's Disfavour At this point you should be putting all of your chaos into 6-linking your disfavour, I wouldn't recommend using it until you do. Afterwards you just upgrade your jewels to 3-properties and your rare items to have more life/resists and if possible attack speed/flat physical. I didn't progress my gear past this as it didn't feel necessary, I was doing t15 shaped maps and abyss ridiculously fast so instead I saved up for a headhunter and a jewel to help me resistance cap while wearing it. For Jewels you want these properties: Necessary: Life Optional: Fire and cold resistance Fire and lightning resistance Cold and lightning resistance All elemental resistances attack speed attack speed with two-handed weapons attack speed with swords/axes Physical damage Damage Area Damage Physical damage with two-handed weapons Physical damage with swords/axes there are a few others that work but as you can see the options for jewels are pretty flexible. Here's my current gear:
As a League Starter/A few beginner tips
So if you're doing this build as a league starter or you're just a new player wanting to give this build a try here are some things to know: At level 2 when you get to lioneye's watch you want to buy 2 rusted hatchets (if they're for sale, if not one rusted hatchet and your starter sword, or two swords if there are no hatchets), cleave and molten strike. If you have enough wisdom scrolls left over you should buy a rustic sash or iron ring. If you found any armorer's scraps, blacksmith's whetstones, orbs of alteration or orbs of transmutation while fighting/progressing to hillock you should vendor them for more wisdom scrolls. Look for Jade Hatchets when you get to level 6+ zones, and dual wield those until you find a woodsplitter at level 13. You're going to want to use sunder until you get cyclone at level 28. While levelling try to hang onto any rare rustic sashes you find, you'll do the vendor recipe: Rustic sash (magic/rare) + blacksmith whetstone + any weapon this gives the weapon 40-59% increased physical damage (higher for rare rustic sashes) this will carry your damage pretty easily until act 5. The bases you'll want to use this recipe on if you don't have a better weapon already are: Woodsplitter (level 13) Double axe (level 23) Jasper Chopper (level 37) These will carry you pretty well until kitava. At which point you'll really want to be using a rare 2h weapon (any kind) with flat physical damage and physical damage %. If you're not doing this at the beginning of a league you'll have the option to grind before kitava to level 45 and use The Blood Reaper which you should be able to pick up for around 1 chaos orb on poe.trade
Map Mods to avoid
A large part of what influenced me to make this character as my league starter is that it is just SO flexible with map mods, the only mods I had to roll off ever were physical reflect, elemental reflect and cannot leech mana/life. Rolling off less map mods means you're saving money on that. However you can do elemental reflect if you just deactivate your hatred and herald of ash, additionally you can do physical reflect by swapping your melee physical support for added fire (although this one I don't recommend.) Ones to look out for as they make the maps a bit more difficult are: 60% reduced recovery of life 2+ damage mods with 50%+ monster life/phys reduction (although not an issue the increased health will mean sometimes you'll actually get hit by their buffed damge) Otherwise you're basically in the clear.
Leech
I explained this earlier but I think it warrants a section of its own. The way leech in this game works without this ascendancy is that it puts a heal over time effect on you that drops off when you hit full health (similar to flasks) but when you take this ascendancy that heal over time no longer goes away, making it basically instant leech for all intents and purposes but unlike vaal pact for those pesky moments where you want to loot in a breach with mobs hitting you or you disconnect in a big pack of monsters you'll still be getting your full leech effect going.
As for mana leech I do not recommend relying on physical leech from gloves/a jewel. It IS worth the 3 points for the duelist leech because then against monsters that use immortal call, and in maps with physical damage reduction/enfeeble you'll still EASILY leech enough mana to sustain your cyclone.
Path of Building Links
HHC 100 character https://pastebin.com/t22hUSCB Current HSC cycloner for shaper/guardians and just chillin in maps https://pastebin.com/gkdR7GK4
screenshots
in game defenses:  PoB concentrated effect cyclone DPS:  Shaper without bringing anything to make the fight easier (2 more dps flasks and vaal lightning trap)  Last edited by Martypoez on Oct 1, 2017, 7:49:56 AM Last bumped on Apr 11, 2018, 10:47:18 PM
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Forgive me if I've missed something, but it seems like you're running Immortal Call without a way to generate endurance charges, either in your gear or on your tree. Are you generating charges, or is there a benefit to casting immortal call without said charges?
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" You're correct I'm not using a way to generate endurance charges, immortal call still gives the base 0.4 second duration of physical immunity without any endurance charges, we're mostly just using it as a blanket to stop from getting gibbed by 6-8 hits happening within a second of eachother (most common against porcupine monsters and when cycloning into a big group of monsters) this gives us time for the insane slayer leech to get us back to full before more hits come in. The cooldown on immortal call is only 3 seconds so we're getting physical immunity about 13% of the time assuming it procs off cooldown. | |
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Thanks for the fast reply! Immortal Call makes sense to me now.
My follow up questions: I'm a bit iffy on Damage on Full Life - while it's nice when I'm full, I'll still often times drop to below full here and there against larger mobs, harbinger mobs, and bosses. I usually leech back very quickly, I'll admit, but I'm still worried about that potential massive drop of dps every time I get hit. Should coordinating Slayer Life Leech and an Instant Flask mostly mitigate these drops in DPS? Is there a different support skill to use if I'm not a smooth enough player to maintain constant full life? Next, about the weapon. I've gotten my hands on both Doomsower and the Hegemony Era Judgement Staff. The staff consistently reads at a higher pDPS, both on the personal pair of items I have and in every listing I've seen of them both of poe.trade. Should I use Hegemony Era Staff instead, respeccing the sword specific nodes to general 2 handed? Or is there something about swords vs. staff that makes Doomsower the better weapon for this build? Thanks for the advice, and for the write up in general. I'm running a slayer cyclone for my first ever character - but I've plateaued at level 87 and I'm struggling with understanding what will allow me to advance to the next level of maps/play. | |
" Doomsower will beat it out, you get 15% inc aoe which while minor is going to be better, additionally the staff nodes are significantly worse than the sword nodes, sword nodes are actually insanely powerful point for point compared to any other node on the tree. +1 weapon range does wonders for your aoe as well. If you're not utilizing the power charges (which we can't with resolute technique) hegemony's era just isn't that great. Additionally you should be socketing your herald of ash into the doomsower as I mention in the guide which nearly doubles the effect of herald of ash. As for damage on full life, the fractions of a second you'll be below full life while using it definitely do not make it worse than added fire. Assuming you're taking your ascendancies in the same order as me and have brutal fervour, hematophagy and a carnage heart your leech per second is absolutely insane. For me added fire is a 17% loss in dps compared to damage on full life, the reason being damage on full life scales all of your damage including raising your phys damage higher which further scales your herald of ash/hatred/flasks. | |
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At the moment, since I actually dropped Belly of the Beast by sheer luck and can't afford Koam's, I'm running added fire with Cyclone, and have a five link ancestral totem apply maim (Which I seemingly only need for bosses. Even red map mobs, I'm blowing up quickly enough). Not sure if that's the smart cookie idea, though, and I should move maim to Cyclone and ditch Added Fire completely.
I'll throw my points around so that I end up using doomsower efficiently. I guess the next goal is to increase my doomswoer from a 5 socket 5 link to a 6 socket 5 link so that I can put Herald of fire in there along with cyclone. As much as I appreciate the general Cyclone guide by Lighty, having a duelist specific topic on the duelist forum is super helpful. Thank you for your patient and in-depth responses. | |
" Well you could just 5-link the belly instead and use temporarily, it should have a better resale value as well. That would make putting herald of ash in your doomsower much easier. maim in the totem will definitely suffice until a 6link, if I had to use a chest with links I'd use these in my totem in order of importance: Ancestral Warchief - Maim - Melee Physical Damage - Faster Attacks - Damage on Full Life And for sure I'm happy to help :) Last edited by Martypoez on Aug 26, 2017, 4:32:35 AM
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Well then. Following your advice, and my DPS went up by 7k, before Carnage Heart and Bloodrage are calculated once I'm mid enemy mob. The beauty of learning at work.
EDIT: Went into a map and tested it with all flasks and buffs running. I went from 61k top dps to 89 to 91k top dps on cyclone. I went from Ancestral totem being an 11k dps Maim applier to it doing a respectable 48k dps on by itself while applying maim. Clark Kent needs to turn his cape and tighties over to you, man, you're a certified hero. That much of a dps increase for literally no Chaos spent. Thanks for helping me get the hang of this game. Last edited by Fuunin on Aug 26, 2017, 5:04:22 AM
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" I'm glad it helped! | |
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Hey there, love the look of your build..
As a new player my goals this league are to: • Find a build I like and stick to it. • Complete all of the league challenges. Now you stated that this build is mostly for map farming, I noticed you have 37/40 Challenged completed. Did you do those on this character? If not then would you recommend reworking the tree for Slayer or going with something else entirely? My main concern is that I can't seem to find a build that safely/efficiently clears bosses solo. Love any input you can provide, thanks. |
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