[2.3.0] Tanky axe cyclone (2H) High dps/AoE - Hardcore / Atziri viable

Crosspost from the Marauder section as slayer is the new go-to 2h cyclone class.




I have high hopes for Slayer, that 40% increased area of effect, 20% more damage and 20% culling is amazing. it might just make cyclone a competitive skill again!
The "guide" wont be very fleshed out but all the info will be there
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My current level 100 skill tree
Level 87 tree, 210% life


So, what really changed? first of Slayer which grants an amazing 40% aoe, 20% more damage 20% cull and about 60% increased damage.
And secondly,

I'm not a fan of mana based, it works, but you have to pay attention to your mana or you may run out and be a sitting duck at times. Essence Worm gives you all the benefits of keystone blood magic (extra gem link, massive amount of life and no mana leech required) with (almost) none of the downsides (no auras)

You do lose a bit of flat life and res but that's 100% worth it in my opinion.


Gem links.


Cyclone
Melee Physical Damage
Increased Area of Effect (concentrated effect for stuff like Atziri)
Added Fire Damage
Weapon Elemental Damage
Faster attacks / fortify


Hatred in essence worm


Cast When Damage Taken
Immortal Call
Warlords Mark
Increased Duration

Immortal call isn't that important, the idea is to run a Lightning Coil and Taste of Hate endgame, that with up to 300% life is more than enough physical mitigation (also a ton of damage from Taste of HatE)

Leap slam
Faster attacks


The rest you can fill in yourself, for example

Vaal Haste
Vaal Cyclone
Another Cast When Damage Taken setup with Arctic Breath and Greater Multiple Projectiles (chill)
Vaal Grace and other utility skills.

Cyclone tooltip has been fixed, just to point that out.

Also with a bit of investment it is possible to run Blasphemy+Enfeeble & Herald of Ash together which should boost the defensive aspect (I can sustain my mana on a 6L cyclone without BM), you just need some % mana leech somewhere (I got mine from jewel+gloves for example, coupled with 1 or 2 passives).

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Mannoth wrote:

Cyclone tooltip has been fixed, just to point that out.

Yeah that's from a few leagues ago.

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Mannoth wrote:

Also with a bit of investment it is possible to run Blasphemy+Enfeeble & Herald of Ash together which should boost the defensive aspect (I can sustain my mana on a 6L cyclone without BM), you just need some % mana leech somewhere (I got mine from jewel+gloves for example, coupled with 1 or 2 passives).

Already stated my opinion on that. been running mana based for a few months now and i do not like it (capping mana leech rate)

look like a really nice build i would probably run as a first char in the league but i don't really see any leech except like 1 node is it really going to help you sustain the bm and stay alive ? and i noticed that slayer has some awesome new leech nodes

Don't mean to be negative or so in any way just generally curious, how does this compare to let's say EQ in terms of dmg? Could you just simply swap out the Cyclone for EQ and just get more dmg basically? And how is it clearspeed wise in comparison?

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Lekert wrote:

look like a really nice build i would probably run as a first char in the league but i don't really see any leech except like 1 node is it really going to help you sustain the bm and stay alive ? and i noticed that slayer has some awesome new leech nodes

By level 100 this spec has around 800 life regen per sec, that's more than enough to sustain cyclone and heal a fair bit. As for leech, 0.4% from tree, up to 0.4% on gloves/amulet/ring, 0.5% from boot enchant and more importantly, cast when damage taken warlords mark for 2% which is always up when you need it.


I'm not sure how overkill damage and culling works yet, if it works like... you deal 30% damage when a mob has 25% life, you leech from 5% overkill.. that would give sustain in packs

"

Don't mean to be negative or so in any way just generally curious, how does this compare to let's say EQ in terms of dmg? Could you just simply swap out the Cyclone for EQ and just get more dmg basically? And how is it clearspeed wise in comparison?

I don't like Earthquake, therefor haven't used it much. EQ is less gear dependent and requires you to build a bit different (attack speed is a bad thing, to a point) you want to either hit a fraction slower than the duration, or fit in two attacks per duration.

Clearspeed is pretty good, considering it's mostly melee (and doesn't offscreen like eartquake and reave) i'm hoping the new slayer is going to make cyclone competitive again, and i think it'l do a good job at it.

Ok I think I'll just give it a go tbh, really like the idea and the fact that it's a ascendancy I haven't been playing around with at all. Would you just pick up cyclone at 28 and start lvling with it or would EQ be the better option to a certain point?

"

Ok I think I'll just give it a go tbh, really like the idea and the fact that it's a ascendancy I haven't been playing around with at all. Would you just pick up cyclone at 28 and start lvling with it or would EQ be the better option to a certain point?

The last time i leveled with cyclone it was fine, just make sure you upgrade your weapons every now and then (weapon + rare rustic sash + whetstone at vendor) Rush for tree blood magic and get the slayer AoE nodes first.

So go for BM and then RT afterwards?