[2.3] Gladiator Max Block Cyclone Counterattack Build (WIP)

I'm working on a Cyclone build with Max Block (including Spell Block). The general idea is to stack armour, block, spell block, Fortify, and life regen/leech/on hit and use high DPS Cyclone mixed with block counterattack abilities for damage. I plan on running this in Hardcore.

The Gems



The Skill Tree


Bandits


Equipment


So, the problem I have right now is optimizing the passive tree. It's a bit low on life (only 137%), though it does have a ton of strength. The block is all there. There's a decent bit of damage/attack speed mixed in. I also need to pick up a little bit more Dexterity/Intelligence (will need over 200 dex for high end rapiers and some of the gems, and need about 110 int for a gem or two).

Thoughts? Any ideas on optimizing the skill tree?

Reworked the tree a little. Since my last iteration (which is slightly different than the original) this gives +3% life, +50 life, about 30% more damage, 4% more attack speed, 15% increased AoE radius, more elemental resists, 10 str, and 30 int at the cost of 35% reduced Defenses from shields (so a 1k shield will give about 4.1k versus 4.4k armor), no max fire resist increase, and a couple block percentage... but with anvil and tempest it should still hit max block pretty easy (30% shield + 8% anvil + 3% tempest + 35% passives = 76% base, with +8% when damage recently). It's 3 more points (84 total) which is really high still. There may be a few other minor differences that I missed, but it still seems better overall.

www.poeurl.com/FXM

And Cyclone don't use blood magic ?

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bansze wrote:

And Cyclone don't use blood magic ?

No Blood Magic. I should have enough mana left over to cast it (especially since there's a bit of mana cost reduction in the tree), and the Poacher's Mark Aura gives me a bunch of mana on hit (enough that like 2 hits should give back enough to recast it).

Level 42 and in Cruel. So far so good. I'm only running Cyclone as a 3L right now (Cyclone->Melee Attack Damage->Fortify) and I'm at about 1100 DPS. I am also very tanky. My current gear isn't that great, I only have about 45% block so far, and I don't have Iron Reflexes yet, but I can still survive very well. It's only Cruel though, so we'll see how that lasts into Merciless.

I did manage to get both Heralds and the Blasphemy->Poacher's Mark running. Even at level 42 with no points or gear to increase mana I still have something like 50 mana, which is enough to Cyclone about 3 times. With Poacher's mark I'm constantly at full mana though so I can pretty much Cyclone forever as long as I'm hitting something.

One thing that I should point out is that a lot of the DPS of this build actually comes from the counterattacks (Riposte/Reckoning/Tempest Shield and eventually some from Anvil) and in a party you lose a lot of that. I'd recommend that if you are running in a party to grab a Warcry for the taunt (any of the 3 should work, I like Rallying Cry for extra damage).

Level 59 and finishing up Cruel. Here's what I'm currently running:


And here's my current tree:


Tooltip dps on cyclone is about 2200dps, but I'm very tanky and all the counter-attack damage is a ton. I can stand in the middle of dried lake Cruel and things kill themselves on me pretty quick.

Liking it so far! Can't wait to see how well it does once I hit Merciless (and after I get the Spell Block finally, don't know the Labyrinth well enough yet and dreading it on Cruel without the Spell block).

I was thinking of something like this...

did block work OK while cycloning?

I was going to run with queen of the forest and an evasion build, but thought I'd check out this was going for you.