Hello,
First of all I have to say big THANKS for this. There are a lot of guides in websites but honestly a guide should not be just a skill tree and a list of gear/gems. A good guide is well explained, well written, full of reason about different choices, and open to talk with visitors and rebuild the guide according to, and also open with different posibilities. I love that, a real guide.
So for all of that, thank you very much, awesome effort, really apreciate it. That is not very common nowadays sadly.
English is not my main language, so I will try my best. Lets go.
On topic, I start saying cyclone is by far my favourite skill gem of the game. I played old whirlwind barbarian in d2, so I love this skill since implemented. I just went without playing PoE for a year aprox, or more, so many things changed, and this guide helped me a lot.
Comments:
I am more hardcore oriented player. Never played standard leagues, but after came back, I started a Marauder on warbands, and actually level 89.
My comments on the guide are these:
*I have a big question about how cyclone interact with movement speed. When I first played cyclone (years ago), movement speed was detrimental, I mean, it was better to have LESS movement speed because this way you hit more times to the same objective in the same amount of time. Is it the same now? Because I see you recommend a lot of skills and things with movement speed, and I also see cyclone working a bit different than before. Not 100% sure though, if movement speed just helps you to move and skip things, and go from pack to pack, or just the skill function has changed in the last years. And explanation about this would be very helpful. Thanks again.
*I Will post my gear and build and will comment on it a bit:
I use mace because I love the fact of using maces, even with axes better, so its just a personal taste.
My skill tree planning (level 97) is the following:
You have notice that I skip most damage nodes and focus on charges, and life nodes for more survival, because even when it's not a hardcore character, Im playing like that and I will start a tempest one soon, probably when hit 90 with this, so Im just testing stuff, and I think life, armour and that is better than extra damage. In standard maybe too, but only after level 90+ when survival is more important.
Things I have notice:
*I have found the best aura is hatred, hands down. For the other 50%, one option as you have said is haste, however, I have found Herald of Ash + Arctic Armour a good combination. I know arctic armour doesnt work with cyclone, but I use it for the chilling ground effect, very helpful sometimes. However, sometimes I remove these 2 auras and just use Determination for some maps. The armour added is really good. Another secondary way to use chilled, is with CWDT + arctic breath. Need to test it though, and I will have to remove my molten shell to do it.
*I think the best 5L is:
cyclone-fortify-bloodmagic-meleephysicaldamge-addedfiredamage
For sixth link Im not sure if faster attacks is the deal. Maybe concentrated effect is better. I honestly dont think life gain on hit is that useful, maybe in exhange for added fire damage in reflect maps, but thats all.
*On curses, I think enfeeble is superior for this build. My reason is you can cast enduring cry manually, so you dont need warlords. And temporal is really awesome, but imho, enfeeble is better in a cycloner because you WANT your enemies hit you a lot, for procs (vengeance and CWDT,and more if you use daresso). With temporal chains you gain survival, but I prefer enfeeble, same hits as usual + less damage received = profit.
*I dont think the fortify nodes worth it. Doing maths, I think that life or even damage elsewhere is by far superior, but maybe is my opinion. It looks so bad bonuses for 4 skill points.
*I think on merciless bandits, +1 endurance charge is superior if you are going to maintain charges. If not, then +1. Maybe you should explain this a bit on the section and why, that would help some people.
I disagree on cruel though. I would rather prefer the physical damage there, because how armour works in poe. Or at least that was the case 2 years ago. However, in simple house-formula, 1%atk speed = 2% physical damage. But that is not exact because you have to take into account things like added flat damage to attacks, or skills like gain on hit, which prefer more atk speed than physical damage%. Thats just a poor comment on my part maybe though, but now that wrath or anger are not used anymore, I think atk speed is less important than high physical damage, if you have to choose one or another in the same exact final damage amount (sorry my bad english here, cant explain it better).
*As a recommendation, maybe you should explain in your gear section that some of the items you got showed there are legacy and are different on tempest/warband leagues, and are impossible to find with those stats without trading. I didnt know some of them because are new to me because my "retire from poe" and I needed some google to keep things up and do some correct maths.
*I have found a think that maybe worth some mention in your guide. With CWDT level 1, you can add a golem there. Im using chaos golem which at low level adds +3% damage physical reduction, with is equal to a high amount of armour, and it means the golem is almost ever ON, without having to cast it. If you prefer a moreagresive approach, flame golem even at low level can add some damage, so I think using it this way is better for the build.
*I dont like the daresso armour for the fact that loses charges the way it does, specially against bosses. I would rather prefer having 7 charges ON all the time, just casting them every 15 seconds with leap slam mecanic (when I get another 5L I will put fortify on leap slam too); this way you start the battle leapslamming and stunning, gaining fortify and charges, and then cycloning them, rince and repeat, remembering to leap slam for movility and maintaining the 7 endurance charges always ON (I dont use immortal call after testing it, I have more survival with 5-7 charges on all the time). I find Devoto's good if not for life (and the doubt I got about movement speed). I got anyway an awesome rare I linked on my gear section, and Im using it.
I have to ask, however, if you had to change something from my build, which will be and why? (remember it is hardcore focused) My worse parts are probably jewelry. And I thing the best possible armour is Lightning Coil for this character. The survival with that is inmense. I would like Kaom's if not for the lost links, which I need.
Actually level 89 with around 6600 life and around 20k dps, and almost never close to die, playing alone and that. With the desync change, cyclone is awesome. The build works! I played merciless alone like -5/-6 levels all the way, with like 40 max resis and was like easy as hell. Until act 4 when I full geared for hardcore test stuff and personal choices, change the build to the one I have showed you, etc.
Sorry for my bad English (I tried my best) and thanks again for your guide and comments. Keep up the good work!
