Somewhat Playable AoE Cyclone (Trickster version)

This build started in 3.1 as a pathfinder build -> https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2073142
But in 3.2 Trickster (in my opinion) became the BEST ascendancy for this build and maybe even for cyclone. Now I am of course talking from mapping and quality of life point of view, not bossing. Can this build do some easier bosses or T15 bosses, yes. But guardians/uber atziri/etc are quite hard to do on this build. Reason why I say this is the best ascendency is because literally every minor and major node is useful. From additional damage to QoL - we get it all.

Harness of the Void: approximately 18% more damage multiplier.

Swift Killer: free power/frenzy charge generation and increased damage per.

Weave the arcane: Cyclone costs 0 mana... nuff said. BUT we get increased mana, increased damage, chance to gain mana on kill. Already an amazing node but with MoM it becomes probably the best node.

Ghost Dance: We don't get hit at all really, but when we do few seconds later as our energy shield starts recharging we get a huge boost in damage, more chance to evade, 10% chance to dodge attacks and spell damage and icing on the cake: increased movement speed.

Simply put, every single node is absolutely amazing and synenergizes with this build.

(side note: I am lazy and just reusing the same gear from my PF - its all virtually the same anyways.


Starting with the best item in the game and pretty self explanatory, this gives us +6 to weapon range and what this build was designed around. NUFF SAID!


You want to a decent weapon with great attack speed followed by critical strike chance followed by flat elemental damage. Even better yet - if it has an open suffix you can craft +2 weapon range. This sword however was made by using Deafening Essence of Dread. Took me about 10 tries to make this. I consider myself pretty lucky. It's not great but its enough for my mapping needs. Also the reason why its on a elder base is because I was hoping to get % area of effect. Ultimately I think its way better to just get 300+ eDPS sword with high critical strike and craft +2 weapon range, but if you have some $ to spam your own or even meta craft or what have you - go for it. (please post images of your crafts, I wanna see!)


I usually do not do bosses at all as they are not rewarding what so ever, however when and if I do I weapon swap. These weapons are what you should ideally go for as I mentioned above. The first one I bought for 15c, the second one I found.


Although you can use few different chests, I chose to go for QoTF because of the evasion and movement speed aspect. My PF build used Bronn's Lithe. In any case you can use a nice evasion based chest, carcass jack or Bronn's Lithe.


Again another item I changed this time around (don't pay attention to the enchant, you want cyclone attack speed or damage). On my PF build I used a juicy increased AoE, life, accuracy and resists helm. but this helm alone with QoTF gives me about 30% MS.


You could get yourself an elder amulet with AoE, life, crit, dmg, resits, etc. But I needed resists and the fact that this gives you movement speed, +2 weapon range and a ton of dmg is too good.


Bought for 40c, pretty nice overall, this was the last thing I got so it has very specific resists. These can vary from 10c to 10ex... it just depends on which resists you need.


Bought one week into the league for 20c (YES I GOT LUCKY), triple T1 suffix (NEED RESISTS!) came with cold dmg, I slammed fire dmg on it - not the best but still decent for our build. If you can get your self a lot more flat elemental damage or elemental damage with attack skills or just use opal rings then you are miles ahead of me. (Oh yea make sure you get ~300+ accuracy on at least 3 of your items, and/or ~900+ total with abyssal jewels)


So this build wants jewels and a lot of them so get yourself some tombfists, and some great flat ele abyssal jewels.


Best in slot for one chaos. #feelsgoodman, alternatevely if you need more resists, get yourself a stygian vise with resists, life and elemental damage.


Same as tombfists - great for this build with the proper abyssal jewels.

Abyssal jewels: you want life -> elemental damage -> critical strike multiplier -> attack speed -> accuracy -> resists. Pretty much in that order unless you are missing crit multi, accuracy or resists for some reason. You can take a look at all my jewels in my gear and tree. All of them besides one were anywhere between 10 and 40 chaos. The left abyssal jewel in my belt I spent 2 ex on... worth it? Maybe. the right one I bought for 40c and slammed 35 life :). I can get lucky sometimes!


Ultimately the best jewel - wish we could use 10 of them :).

Flasks I use on this build and rarely if ever switch out - pretty self explanatory:


Flasks that I used on PF build:
General Mapping:

#CritForWinWithoutCurses


Nice quality of life, it doesn't add as much dmg as atziri's promise but it gives us some + nice defensive measures.


MUST for this build... LOL j/k its absolutely nice to have but not required - tho is is semi-max-AoE build... so get one soon!


Removes bleeding and heals us, nuff said again.


You want movement speed and either reduced duration, max charges or increased effect for more speed.

Other good options:


Damage, quality of life (both ways) - pretty good over all, I use this instead of dying sun when running labs.

Ton of damage, propably best dmg wise flask you can get. The only flask that may be better is wise oak - but my resists are not aligned so - yea... i dont use it. Could also use Vinktar's possibly but to me its been nerfed too much.


I use this for again... lab runs OR general mapping when I do rippy maps I swap this out for the diamond flask.

Just look at the gear and it will tell you what gems to use. That being said - the fact that we have free power/frenzy charge generation means we don't have to use mediocre gems like Ice Bite or rely on Assassin's Mark. We can go offensive with Wrath, and 2 heralds with curse on hit elemental weakness and re-spec out of Mind Over Matter or we can go defensive with 1 or 2 heralds curse on hit with warlords mark and use Mind Over Matter

Could help Alira for crit multi and resists or help Kraityn for attack speed, dodge and movement speed. I just wanted 2 points so that's what I did.

I love pathfinder - always have and probably always will but this time around the QoL that Trickster provides... you just can't beat that IMO. However, you can go raider/pathfinder for a bit more movement speed and AoE but slightly less damage and way less QoL. Slayer for more AoE but less damage and movement speed. Lastly as Inquisitor for quite a bit more damage specially vs bosses but less Aoe, movement speed and QoL as well.

Ascendancy Points:
I went for Harness the Void -> Swift Killer -> Weave the Arcane and Ghost Dance.

Let me preface this by saying I don't like the lab at all and being that this is my one and only character and I did not want to fail I over leveled quite a bit before doing the lab. That being said I did the 1st lab at around level ~50, 2nd lab at around ~65, 3rd lab around ~75 and lastly the Uber lab at around 88 because I couldn't find the trials T.T. I also want to mention that I leveled all the way to lvl 89 as frost blades, it was quite fast and fun actually. I even thought about not changing it to cyclone but I am glad I did. Also note that I got my 6L at level 93... so its absolutely not necessary - just little bit more quality of life.

Cannot run elemental reflect.
Physical reflect hurts a bit, I don't run it, but if you do: take out damage on full life gem and put in life gained on hit. Maybe also use rumi's flask and basalt... good luck. I was running physical reflect maps till about 92 when i decided that i had few to many calls - tho I never died to it.
Monsters avoid elemental status is annoying but not bad.
Hexproof ^^^
Less AoE ^^^
Low/no regen/cannot leech life/mana = WE LAUGH AT THESE MODS - obviously can absolutely do these easily

If you decide to go for 100 and you want to grind maps over and over you can get 2 more frenzy charges and a 3 point jewel by assassin. Alternatively if you want to boss, but also level I would go for the crit multi above witch and the lightning dmg/penetration cluster right next to it.

Pretty okay clear speed.
Playable AoE.
Decent enough dmg to kill T15 bosses.
Hipster Trickster.
Can forget about all the + weapon range stuffs and use blade flurry instead for bossing.
Uses MoM - feelsgreatman - really nice QoL.

As GGG mentioned with the AoE changes, we don't have to sacrifice everything for AoE; just damage, defensive countermeasures and life pool, and did I mention damage? :).
Glass cannon without the cannon part - that being said I haven't died since I switched to cyclone at level 90 but also I haven't ran a map past T11 :).

I stream from time to time and I will be playing this build for a while so if you want to see it in action go here: https://www.twitch.tv/papazero

I would prefer to answer any questions or get your feedback on my channel more so then to answer here on forums as I tend to forget about my posts (will try to not do that with this one tho) :D.

nada