[3.2] Elemental Crit Cyclone Raider - Fast, fun, deadly! - Ready for Bestiary league

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Olddan wrote:
It looks like Shaped helms with supported by level 18 Inc Aoe + lvl 18 Hypothermia aren't too uncommon. Reckon you could get away with running cyclone in that and equipping kaom's heart?


That's a very interesting suggestion and I think it is worth exploring/trying but it presents a few problems.

1. Just by replacing Bronn's Lithe with a different body armour you lose around 20% DPS and some speed.

2. If you use a different item than Bronn's to socket Cyclone you will need/want a lvl 21 gem for the radius.

3. Getting the cyclone damage enchant with those mods would probably mean you'd have to craft it yourself from a shaped item base that has the enchant.

4. You won't be able to swap inc aoe for conc at will. That's not a huge problem in itself but the issue is what will your 4th link on the helm be?

Conc effect is the highest multiplier but you can't use it for mapping so you'll need a blue gem in its place; added lightning or inc crit makes the most sense. I've used inc crit for mapping with no trouble but that was with a Bronn's.

Damage on full life is the highest multiplier after conc but without instant or slayer leech it is somewhat unreliable, especially in boss fights where you're taking big hits.



It's worth exploring for sure, but it seems like it would be a lot of trouble getting it set up properly and I'm not sure it would be worth it with how much damage you would be losing. I don't think a lack of sockets will be an issue though, you'd just lose the CWDT setup or some utility gems.
Last edited by Euploid on Dec 13, 2017, 8:56:40 PM
have you tested Hyaon's fury yet?
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spookyswag wrote:
have you tested Hyaon's fury yet?


No, and I don't really intend to since it doesn't fit this build.

Hyaon's is a low-crit base and it focuses entirely on lightning damage, while this build is crit and cold+lightning based. To maximize the potential of Hyaon's you need a different passive tree than the one for this build and it's difficult to make it work with crit.

Aside from that the Legion Sword base only has 9 range compared to the 12 of foils which makes the AoE considerably worse.

Just to check, I tried plugging a Hyaon's into a PoB of a lvl 90 character using the 3.1 passive tree, equipped with a rare shield with attack speed and accuracy and this foil:


This was the result:


So in conclusion Hyaon's is an interesting item but it doesn't work with this particular build.

If you're interested in playing a Hyaon's cyclone character, Mathil played one in Harbinge: https://youtu.be/h6x0S1-HccM
Hey quick question. I'm leveling with frost blades in HC abyss, going smooth as all heck. Just curious when do you think it would be viable to switch from frost blades to cyclone? Thanks alot!
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niftytim wrote:
Hey quick question. I'm leveling with frost blades in HC abyss, going smooth as all heck. Just curious when do you think it would be viable to switch from frost blades to cyclone? Thanks alot!


First off, I never play HC so take anything I say about playing there with a grain of salt.

Frost blades leveling has been made much smoother with the addition of Ancestral Call, so personally I would probably keep using it throughout act progression, maybe adding molten strike or something to kill bosses. For HC in particular I feel like low-level ele cyclone vs A10 Kitava is a recipe for disaster. If you were playing SC you could just transition to cyclone whenever you feel like it but HC is another matter entirely.

If I had to name a transition point it would be when you can equip Darkray Vectors, which is at lvl 65. At 65 you should have all the frenzy charges, Master of the Arena, Acrobatics and a decent-ish life pool. Assuming you skip sockets while leveling, your tree at 66 should look like this.

Once you switch to cyclone I'd suggest you use a blasphemy enfeeble with HoI and HoT immediately rather than waiting to acquire a Blue Dream. You can automate PC generation with CWDT-Blade vortex-PCoC or Vengeance-PCoC-Inc crit. Not as reliable as assassin's mark but whatever, you're playing HC so defenses matter more. Use a stibnite ASAP too, they're amazing defensively.

Use an inc crit gem for clearing for sure, just to make certain you're freezing and shattering reliably. It helps for safety since everything hit by the HoI shatters takes damage and becomes chilled, and shatters also protect you from on-death effects and detonate dead.

I recommend using the Tombfist unique with a Murderous Eye jewel socketed in it to proc intimidate. This will free up your belt slot from Belt of the Deceiver, which is not strong defensively, so you can use a Stygian Vise with a high life roll and then socket an Abyss jewel with life into it.

As a last note, don't transition to cyclone unless you have a foil that's at least halfway decent. Nice attack speed and crit rolls are enough, T1 ele prefixes aren't required, especially not in this league where Abyss jewels can give you tons of flat ele damage. Just keep in mind that a strong offense is a vital part of the defensive layers of this build. You need to keep your attack speed and crit chance high to make sure everything around you is chilled/frozen and enfeebled.
Last edited by Euploid on Dec 14, 2017, 8:18:52 PM
I do not understand how you get endurance charge for immortal call. How do you get them or what am i missing or not understand?

Thank you
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I do not understand how you get endurance charge for immortal call. How do you get them or what am i missing or not understand?

Thank you


Hehe, this question comes up in probably every build guide that suggests using CWDT-IC without endurance charge generation.

Immortal Call has a base duration of 0.4 seconds with 0 endurance charges, which is then increased per endurance charge consumed. The idea is basically that if you take a big hit, you become immune for 0.4 seconds which can potentially save you from dying to a subsequent hit.

The classical example where this is immensely useful is Porcupines, which shoot high-damage physical damage spikes in a nova on death. Killing a pack of porcupines all at once and getting shotgunned is a very common way to die, for example in act 3 Imperial Gardens and maps based on that tileset. However, if you have a CWDT-IC, the first spike hit will make you immune for 0.4 seconds which is usually enough to save your life by making you immune to the rest of the spikes.

For this build which shatters most enemies it kills, on-death effects aren't a big threat usually but there are many other situations where CWDT-IC can save you. If you're fighting a boss, fail dodging a spell hit and then get melee'd, if you're frozen and don't react fast enough with your flasks, etc.

Many patches ago we used to be able to trigger warcries with CWDT, so you could use CWDT-Enduring cry-IC, which made more sense to the casual observer. It's still useful without endurance charges, anyway.
Thank you for the answer. I understand now. I did not think that immortal call works without endurance charge.

I am enjoying this charecter and is very good. Thank you for sharing
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Euploid wrote:
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zennex1337 wrote:
hey man, after your 6h skillpoint, finesse, u went right for dual wielding, aspect of the panther. did u make a mistake?

shouldnt it be precise interception, the path below?


Which passive tree are you referring to? I just double-checked and (I think) none of the trees include either of those. After Finesse I path to Primeval Force, Druidic rite and Heart of Oak.


alright, but dont u think that precise interception is pretty nice at the beginning?

also, what did u go for after the three points u already mentioned?

thanks for helping and your guide btw, i really love it.

yet im new and its really hard to understand
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zennex1337 wrote:
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Euploid wrote:
"
zennex1337 wrote:
hey man, after your 6h skillpoint, finesse, u went right for dual wielding, aspect of the panther. did u make a mistake?

shouldnt it be precise interception, the path below?


Which passive tree are you referring to? I just double-checked and (I think) none of the trees include either of those. After Finesse I path to Primeval Force, Druidic rite and Heart of Oak.


alright, but dont u think that precise interception is pretty nice at the beginning?

also, what did u go for after the three points u already mentioned?

thanks for helping and your guide btw, i really love it.

yet im new and its really hard to understand


Okay, I think I understand what you mean now. I'm going to answer your question a bit indirectly, but it should illuminate some of the finer points of using the passive tree while leveling.

This lvl 90 tree (the suggested 90 tree for this build) is a fleshed-out tree which is tailored to enhance survivability and damage output for a specific set of skill gems and gear. This tree focuses on elemental damage, crit, life and frenzy charges and doesn't take anything that doesn't directly benefit the "ideal" end result character.

The suggested leveling trees are just the easiest main paths to take. They're not hard rules that say you should take those and only those nodes while leveling. When you're starting fresh in a new league with literally nothing in your stash, you can't expect to perfectly be able to find all the right pieces for the ideal passive tree to work.

There are multiple quests in the act progression which have passive respec points as rewards. This is a fundamental part of early progression and very much intentional design. The passive tree offers many "opportunistic" nodes that can benefit you greatly while your level or gear isn't up to scratch for your end-goal passive tree.

Aspect of the Panther, Precise Interception, Cloth and Chain, Primal Spirit, Thief's Craft, Nullification and many other nodes/clusters are examples of nodes that can grant you quick benefits to make leveling easier. When you're following a build guide which includes leveling trees, you should usually not just stick entirely to that and never change a thing. If there's a node close by that you think will benefit you right now, just take it! You can respec out of it later with the free respec points.

I usually suggest Frost blades or any other skill with innate elemental conversion for leveling this build because that way you can take physical damage from the tree and gear and still make it work with the elemental damage nodes you're taking along the way.

I hope this answered your question or at least helped you understand how to use the passive tree to your advantage while leveling :)

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