Dual wield duelist looking for tips for the next patch

So since the last respec, I have completely ruined my character by adding Riposte to my build without realizing it won't work without specific uniques to max out block. Once The Awakening releases and we get the inevitable skill tree reset, I am determined to not completely ruin my character and spec the right things this time.

Despite what I've just said, the type of advice I'm looking for is what gems to take and drop rather than the tree itself.

Currently, my duelist's playstyle is basically "mostly Cyclone and Dual Strike for hard enemies", which unfortunately isn't exactly great either. I've been too reliant on the Life on Hit from Cyclone as well as the ol' Cast of Damage Taken Enduring Cry combo. I also don't even have a 5L armor.

Let me sum up my key problems:

1) Instead of relying on Cyclone primarily, I want to use it as a support attack skill instead. I would very likely need to keep Blood Magic on it, but it only gives me 2 more support gems to stick to it. Currently, I have Life Gain on Hit and Power Charge on Crit. I would like to keep Power Charge on Crit for DPS, but would I have to sacrifice Life Gain for Fortify? (See #3)

Of course, if there's a way around having to have Blood Magic on Cyclone without a Soul Taker, that would help a lot.

2) What support gems to put in Dual Strike? Since I'm sacrificing some effectiveness for Cyclone, would I need to have Melee Splash on Dual Strike?

3) Now that I have an entire 4L to use, what should I use it for?

4) Fortify. Which skill should I stick this support gem into? Should I keep it on Cyclone, or maybe place it on Dual Strike, or even my mobility skill (currently Leap Slam)?

5) I should also try and put more elemental effects to my set. I do have Hatred for that, but I should try and add more to that. How would Herald of Ice work out for me here? Also, is it possible to effectively add Ice Bite for Frenzy Charges?

6) Warcry. If I don't invest enough on life, I'll probably have to stick to Enduring Cry, although I would prefer Rallying Cry if I could. What would I have to do to use Rallying Cry without risking an easy death?

7) Do I need anything extra for golems?

I realize what I'm asking for is a lot, but any advice is appreciated. To sum it up:
I want to use Dual Strike as my main DPS skill and Cyclone for support while finding a way to incorporate Fortify, more Ice damage, and possible Icy Bite and Rallying Cry as well. All that with only 4Ls.

For reference, these are my current gem layout.


Please ignore the gems on this. (I want to swap it with Abyssus in the future, but I need much better gear for that.)

1) Instead of relying on Cyclone primarily, I want to use it as a support attack skill instead. I would very likely need to keep Blood Magic on it, but it only gives me 2 more support gems to stick to it. Currently, I have Life Gain on Hit and Power Charge on Crit. I would like to keep Power Charge on Crit for DPS, but would I have to sacrifice Life Gain for Fortify? (See #3)
There are a few other builds that reference using cyclone for support, check out the builds list.
You could also drop PCoC for MPD/Fortify or increased critical damage if you don't want to reroll the colors.

Of course, if there's a way around having to have Blood Magic on Cyclone without a Soul Taker, that would help a lot.
Cyclone costs much less mana in the beta, you can sustain it with some of the new mana leech/kill/hit passives.

2) What support gems to put in Dual Strike? Since I'm sacrificing some effectiveness for Cyclone, would I need to have Melee Splash on Dual Strike?
Once I get cyclone I rarely use melee splash for dual strike, especially since there are a few situations where you only need single target. I usually throw it in a 4link with leap slam, faster attacks, and MPD or Fortify. You can always move things around for particular fights.

3) Now that I have an entire 4L to use, what should I use it for?
See my above mentioning about leap slam. I saw you had it linked with empower and AM. You could link it with faster attacks for greater mobility and survivability. Also using Herald of Thunder with Curse on Hit & Assassin's mark. That would allow you to drop PCoC but keep power charges.

4) Fortify. Which skill should I stick this support gem into? Should I keep it on Cyclone, or maybe place it on Dual Strike, or even my mobility skill (currently Leap Slam)?
I think I mostly covered this above. You lose maybe 5% damage by putting it with cyclone, but gain worry-free uptime. It's up to your playstyle really.

5) I should also try and put more elemental effects to my set. I do have Hatred for that, but I should try and add more to that. How would Herald of Ice work out for me here? Also, is it possible to effectively add Ice Bite for Frenzy Charges?
Ice Bite more or less requires a 5 link in my opinion, unless you link it with Hypothermia and go really cold-focused. Otherwise, it won't be able to compete with MPD, Fortify, Multistrike, or the other red gems. It would probably work great when you can't afford to force red sockets on a green chest like Bronn's Lithe or Hyrri's.
Also, try running hatred + herald of ash. Could also try Physical > Lightning conversion in your blue sockets for physical reflect maps if you have trouble there.

6) Warcry. If I don't invest enough on life, I'll probably have to stick to Enduring Cry, although I would prefer Rallying Cry if I could. What would I have to do to use Rallying Cry without risking an easy death?
They really do mean instant cast. I've never died when using warcries even right when a large group of monsters spawns on a box. I do miss having it auto-cast but the gameplay is more active this way. I've been leveling both enduring cry and rallying cry, using one or the other depending on my gear and map at the time. I link them with blood rage & increased duration in one of my weapons.

7) Do I need anything extra for golems?
I have been putting blind with my ice golem. Since I use a rapier in MH and dagger in OH, it's easy to get green sockets. Giving the golem blind is pretty effective defense & crowd control. It blinds things for me and I taunt things with my warcries. Another thought is curse on hit, although you'll definitely have situations where it's hard to keep the little guy alive so depending on him for curses might prove ineffective. I think we need to see further testing with the golem or have the devs reveal the average damage they add by fighting.


Any reason you're using the slow mace over a dagger or another sword? You can probably craft something better with the Rustic Sash recipe, a regal, & vagan.

Hope this helps :)

Alright, so I went back to my duelist and took some of your advice.

The reason I kept the club is because it's got good physical damage rolls, but I took your advice and now I'm using this dagger I found in like 2 hours.



I unfortunately lost some tooltip DPS, but now I'm able to have HoT-CoH-Mark for cheap, which is pretty nice. Surprisingly, I don't have any Mana issues with this added. I'll replace it with a better knife when I get the chance, but this seems to work fine.

I still have my same setup for Cyclone at the moment, but depending on the whole mana cost issue once the patch rolls out, I'll drop PCoC or BM for Fortify (ideally BM).

The rest are still up in the air. (Also I've stuck Empower there to level it)



As for extra elemental damage, I'd still like to make one of those new support gems work, at least when I get a 5L. Ice Bite still seems appealing, but what about Innervate? It would have synergy with HoT and give about as much as Frenzy charges.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I'm sure when the respec rolls out my duelist will be even better.

That's not a bad dagger for the time being. In the future I'd probably go with +physical damage or crit chance though.

The funny thing about the tooltip is that it is not necessarily always accurate. The global crit from daggers should increase your mainhand damage more than it displays. Same deal with secondary attacks, especially if they're mainhand only. Plus I like that they can roll +intel pretty easily.

Innervate is an interesting idea. I haven't played with it much because I personally don't go the CoH route, I use cwdt with poacher's mark or warlord's mark. I'm thinking Warlord's lately since cwdt+Enduring Cry doesn't work anymore.

The tricky thing with a lot of the support & curse skills going on is that they don't increase your tooltip as much as you'd like. It's always nice seeing a big number there lol

Glad to help!

I want to make dual-claw cycloner in Awakening. I hope, new claw base, that grants 14 life & mana per hit, should be enough to cover up Cyclone's manacost. On other hand, i hope Vaal Pact + some life leech + life per hit from claws should be enough to recover from damage taken. Releasing 2 gem slots therefore for DPS gems or fortify (though i plan to use supplementary skill to keep buff on). As for defences, i decided to get Acrobatics, cause it requires the least investments. I also got decent amounts of crit chance/multiplier, to get decent DPS and life leech.
Planned a following build:
http://cb.poedb.tw/us/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgQBAQkB3AW1Bx4OSA-rEZYV7BX9Fr8i4iP2JIsk_SaVKgsqOCpNMHEwfDWSNj06QjrhPydHfkfiSVFKyEscS1dLeE2STeNRR1FMVUtd8l-wYEFh4mKsY3BlTWyMbWxuqm87b1dvnnBScNV3B3fjeA14GX1bgwmExYTZhxOJ04rwjDaNfY2Bjb-PwZUumy2btZyknaqkOaZXqW6sR7CrsbO0xbVItfK42bkdvTa-p8AawOPBoMLswzrEgspK1CPWB9i93UjdqOdU6UbtQfDV8bPyRfPq_gr-j__e

With usual for PoE "path of life nodes" style. I am a bit worried with fairly low amounts of "increased melee physical damage", do you think i should get it at the cost of something else?