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

Could you take a look at my character and tell me what i should improve next? Except +1 Frenzy Charges on Boots and 20% to Damage on full life.

Here is also a PoB link to my character: https://pastebin.com/Q5ZUuXk6

Nice guide! And it's cool to see you being so active in the thread. I actually started this league with another, more budget-oriented Cyclone build, but respecced into this one because I felt like it scaled higher and gearing is half the fun of the game for me.

Unfortunately, I ended up not liking the Cyclone playstyle very much for endgame content! I started toying around with different ideas I could do with the same tree a couple weeks in. I liked your Blade Flurry suggestion because it just does so much damage and is great for killing bosses, Atziri in particular is a walk in the park with how you can shotgun her right as she changes phases and negate pretty much all of her attacks. I wanted to try that out, but BF obviously has pretty lackluster clearing even with decent AOE and I'm kind of a speed freak so, seeing as it's an ele crit build... I figured I'd try using Flicker Strike and see where that gets me.

The result is some of the most fun I've had in this game. I'd say that I'm pretty decently geared by now, could maybe optimize the jewels and rings a bit better and I've hit a wall at level 93 where I keep dying occasionally to high tier content and feel demotivated to grind it out, but for the most part I think I'm done. I get pretty bored after only mapping for a while and end up going back to Uber Atziri/Shaper and other stuff. Could for sure take it to 100 if I was more patient and safe.

Oro's was the obvious choice for the weapon swap. I started out with a 5L Terminus but it just felt so bad, not sure what I was thinking there considering we scale ele more than crit so Oro's is definitely the way to go. With my current gear I do ~630k dps fully buffed with Flicker which feels great for clearing all maps other than the Uber Atziri trash quickly. Blade Flurry does a bit under 2 million dps fully buffed, ~1.3m to Shaper and Guardians which is very nice considering the clear speed we're also capable of. With the totem and my flasks up I just tear through him whenever he uses his beam. I went with Belly for the life and a Starkonja's with the Flicker dmg per frenzy charge enchant because I felt like my BF dps was fine as-is, I could squeeze another 140k onto it if I wanted but that's only a 7% dps increase whereas Flicker gets 15%. I ended up with a bit over 6k life, could get a few hundred more with optimized gear and more levels, but it feels pretty *okay* as it is. I switch out HoI for Arctic Armour when doing Uber Atziri/Guardians/Shaper since you're stationary when channeling BF anyways and it also helps when clearing with Flicker.

My first two Uber Atziri sets bricked because I'm absolutely terrible with that fight's mechanics (trio in particular is just a real shit-show for me) so I was super surprised when I managed the third one completely deathless. I've done it a few more times since and definitely have an easier time now that I'm a bit more familiar with the fight. A more skilled player could probably breeze right through all content deathless with my current gear. My first Shaper was also deathless, I still die to him every now and then but I'm honestly really bad at dodging and keeping Fortify up so that's 100% on me and not the build. Uber lab is a piece of cake but I took VP so traps can be a bit of a nuisance. I've also done Pale Court, Chayula, Vinktar, etc. deathless so this build is definitely more than capable of doing all content even if 6k life as melee means it's a bit lacking on the defensive side and you have to play more cautiously. I wouldn't say it was SUPER expensive to gear but I've also had incredible luck this league (5 six-links in under 1000 fuses total!!! and a ton of great drops like the Belly I ended up using and a early Bisco's) as well as some nice deals like 2ex for a foil with T1 crit chance, attack speed, and flat cold and fire so I'm not sure how much it would cost from scratch. Still, being able to clear all endgame content AND clear maps super fast means earning currency is nothing. It's definitely much more enjoyable than playing a build that only excels at one or the other.

My characters are public and here's a PoB with my current gear as it is in case you wanted to check it out: https://pastebin.com/cbYvZQ6p Would love suggestions on ways to improve my current gear.

Time to say thx from my Side, did play this Build from Start on and now im think i nearly finish with it. Maybe u see something what i can change, but on the end it feels perfekt.

I play with wise oak becaue all my res is on 60.


THX for share this build with us.

"

florian59300 wrote:

Great guide well detailed
but i got a question in mind atm done shaper and co with a molten/frost blades raider and got pretty much bored and now i'm just farming shaped vaults with bisco's. So would your cyclone be as fast or close to a projectile build who can almost offscreen ?

Because i love cyclone but if it's 2-3x slower gotta go fast :p

anyway thank's for the guide !

I haven't done extensive clearspeed comparison testing but if you're farming Vaults only this build probably has very similar clearspeed to TS windripper or KB wander. For more open maps, projectile builds or Cospri's Autobobomber/discharge are definitely faster. Windripper characters in particular can also equip much more MF gear than this build can without feeling like shit to play.

Heading to work now so I'll have to reply to the rest of you later on.

"

Scarraner wrote:

Could you take a look at my character and tell me what i should improve next? Except +1 Frenzy Charges on Boots and 20% to Damage on full life.

Here is also a PoB link to my character: https://pastebin.com/Q5ZUuXk6

You're knee-deep in expensive upgrade territory, my man. I think +1 frenzy darkray vectors should be close to the top of your list, but I'll go through the rest.

First things I see are the two jewels with no %life. They both have strong damage rolls so might be hard to replace but ideally you want all your jewels to have life rolls.

Second thing I'm looking at is your belt. Max life roll, 1 T2 and 1 T3 resist. It's not bad but no natural EDWA, no flask roll, no Elder mods. You're overcapped on all resists so this slot shouldn't be too hard to improve (Wise oak could make it complicated though). Elder belts can get pretty insane so it's hard to say what exactly you should be looking for but a high natural EDWA is a given. %max life, Melee damage during flask effect, attack speed during flask effect, all res, life recovery rate (affects leech), all of those Elder mods are good. Something like this would be perfect but that would be a mirror-tier item:



Rings could be better but Opals are always hard to upgrade. Bless the left one though, that 23% roll hurts my eyes :C

Foil is pretty good but could be better with Multi and either a third flat roll or EDWA. Foil is another slot that was hard for me to find upgrades at any reasonable price.

Amulet is solid, I don't think you'll easily find a better one.

Overall you're doing pretty well already, 900k Shaper DPS with flasks up.

"

Decapitate wrote:

Spoiler

Nice guide! And it's cool to see you being so active in the thread. I actually started this league with another, more budget-oriented Cyclone build, but respecced into this one because I felt like it scaled higher and gearing is half the fun of the game for me.

Unfortunately, I ended up not liking the Cyclone playstyle very much for endgame content! I started toying around with different ideas I could do with the same tree a couple weeks in. I liked your Blade Flurry suggestion because it just does so much damage and is great for killing bosses, Atziri in particular is a walk in the park with how you can shotgun her right as she changes phases and negate pretty much all of her attacks. I wanted to try that out, but BF obviously has pretty lackluster clearing even with decent AOE and I'm kind of a speed freak so, seeing as it's an ele crit build... I figured I'd try using Flicker Strike and see where that gets me.

The result is some of the most fun I've had in this game. I'd say that I'm pretty decently geared by now, could maybe optimize the jewels and rings a bit better and I've hit a wall at level 93 where I keep dying occasionally to high tier content and feel demotivated to grind it out, but for the most part I think I'm done. I get pretty bored after only mapping for a while and end up going back to Uber Atziri/Shaper and other stuff. Could for sure take it to 100 if I was more patient and safe.

Oro's was the obvious choice for the weapon swap. I started out with a 5L Terminus but it just felt so bad, not sure what I was thinking there considering we scale ele more than crit so Oro's is definitely the way to go. With my current gear I do ~630k dps fully buffed with Flicker which feels great for clearing all maps other than the Uber Atziri trash quickly. Blade Flurry does a bit under 2 million dps fully buffed, ~1.3m to Shaper and Guardians which is very nice considering the clear speed we're also capable of. With the totem and my flasks up I just tear through him whenever he uses his beam. I went with Belly for the life and a Starkonja's with the Flicker dmg per frenzy charge enchant because I felt like my BF dps was fine as-is, I could squeeze another 140k onto it if I wanted but that's only a 7% dps increase whereas Flicker gets 15%. I ended up with a bit over 6k life, could get a few hundred more with optimized gear and more levels, but it feels pretty *okay* as it is. I switch out HoI for Arctic Armour when doing Uber Atziri/Guardians/Shaper since you're stationary when channeling BF anyways and it also helps when clearing with Flicker.

My first two Uber Atziri sets bricked because I'm absolutely terrible with that fight's mechanics (trio in particular is just a real shit-show for me) so I was super surprised when I managed the third one completely deathless. I've done it a few more times since and definitely have an easier time now that I'm a bit more familiar with the fight. A more skilled player could probably breeze right through all content deathless with my current gear. My first Shaper was also deathless, I still die to him every now and then but I'm honestly really bad at dodging and keeping Fortify up so that's 100% on me and not the build. Uber lab is a piece of cake but I took VP so traps can be a bit of a nuisance. I've also done Pale Court, Chayula, Vinktar, etc. deathless so this build is definitely more than capable of doing all content even if 6k life as melee means it's a bit lacking on the defensive side and you have to play more cautiously. I wouldn't say it was SUPER expensive to gear but I've also had incredible luck this league (5 six-links in under 1000 fuses total!!! and a ton of great drops like the Belly I ended up using and a early Bisco's) as well as some nice deals like 2ex for a foil with T1 crit chance, attack speed, and flat cold and fire so I'm not sure how much it would cost from scratch. Still, being able to clear all endgame content AND clear maps super fast means earning currency is nothing. It's definitely much more enjoyable than playing a build that only excels at one or the other.

My characters are public and here's a PoB with my current gear as it is in case you wanted to check it out: https://pastebin.com/cbYvZQ6p Would love suggestions on ways to improve my current gear.

First thing I was gonna say was to use claws instead of foils but then I realised you're dual-purposing the sword nodes by using Oro's on swap. Overall the whole setup is pretty ingenious actually. Skill gem setup seemed weird to me at first also but again I realised it makes sense when swap is taken into account. The only build I ever played that actively used weapon swap for combat was Doomfletch with Kaom's and I really disliked that build so weapon swap mechanics are not something I've considered much.

Your gear is pretty well optimized already so I don't know how much my input will benefit you really. Belt could be better (elder rolls in particular are very useful) and some of your Abyss jewels have low flat rolls, Tombfist with 2 sockets might also be better but I have no idea how flicker is with mana upkeep so maybe you need that enlighten? Another socket would probably give you more damage than +1 to gems though but again idk how your mana operates.

If you're only using Lycosidae for bossing I think I would replace that gem setup with Orb of Storms-PCoC-Inc Crit, it's more reliable than the vengeance setup.

Thanks for the post, your character is very interesting.

"

Pyrolinchen wrote:

Time to say thx from my Side, did play this Build from Start on and now im think i nearly finish with it. Maybe u see something what i can change, but on the end it feels perfekt.

I play with wise oak becaue all my res is on 60.


THX for share this build with us.

Spoiler

Near-perfect gear overall, impressive setup. No inc AoE in cyclone links though? That's a bold move if I ever saw one.

Only things I would change are minor, like the flat cold you have on the Doom Knot ring I would replace with +life, and 2-socket tombfist would be an upgrade but you would have to rework your accessory gem setup for that. The simplest way to do it would probably be to put the HoI setup in your foil, shield charge setup in helmet and Vaal Haste+Ancestral Protector in the 2 tombfist sockets, losing Frost Bomb and Portal. Alternatively you could put CWDT-IC in Tombfist and Shield charge setup in Darkrays but then you'd need to vorici 8 recolour them if you want 3r1g.

Thanks for the comment, always makes me happy when I see someone pushing this build to high levels and GG gear, since it must mean you really liked playing it :)

Hello again, I'm back with an update. I posted about my interest in the build sometime last week, and got around to starting the character. I've bankrolled it from my previous wealth, not to mention stealing some gear from other characters (6L Belly [which is why it has the best coloring you've ever seen], the WED stygian vise, and the 2 socket tombfists.) Over the course of leveling so far, I've gone up in currency despite buying everything else on the character (darkrays, lycosidae, daressos, and cyclone starkonjas being the primary offenders).

I've had a lot of fun with the build so far, and I know there is still plenty of room for upgrading (hatred watcher's eye, better weapon, +1 frenzy daressos, better rings)- but I thought I'd give a day two post of my character.

I don't know how to link all my gear in the post like other people have, so I've simply attached a POB of my character: https://pastebin.com/g7nwQZKT

Based on my current thoughts, if I am to take this character to level 100, I would take phase acrobatics, 2 more life nodes, and the scion jewel socket with the 2 resist nodes [this would happen whenever I can afford the watchers eye jewel for hatred, crit means increased survivability due to freeze/chill reliability]. Phase acro nodes are around a 30% EHP increase against attacks and 50% EHP increase for spell damage (59% dodge to 69% dodge, and 15% spell dodge to 45% spell dodge)- combined with a 6.5k life pool+ fortify, blind, chill/freeze, this is one of the tankiest characters I've ever played with the potential to break 1mil shaper dps [actually, I'm fairly certain this build can break 1.5mil, but I've not tested that]. It will never compare in raw damage output to my barrage archer who can reach upwards of 4mil dps, but it has blind, fortify, constant movement, and about 20% more health which all add up to extreme safety and security while mapping- this means while I'm deciding between my archer and this cyclone character to take to 100, I'm leaning heavily to this build.

I'll keep you posted, there is still plenty of room for growth on the character but it already feels strong enough to tackle anything the game can throw at me.

Of note: I'm not using inc aoe, conc effect, or DoFL. I feel that damage on full life is very risky, the times you need damage/leech the most are after eating a big hit, and that is when damage on full life does nothing. So in realistic terms, I feel that if you aren't a slayer, then DoFL is nothing more than POB-warrioring [and it prevents you from running blood rage/arakaali...which daresso's already does...] Since I do pure cold damage, I'm currently making do with hypothermia/cold pene, but I have so much cold pene that even though I do 90% cold damage, I would gain 20-30% more damage by switching those links to conc effect/DoFL. Currently though, I have been mapping with this setup and just recently splurged for the 21/20 cyclone which gave me +2 cyclone radius- man I can tell a big difference. Increased AOE is not just a "hit more mobs" effect on cyclone, it's also a reliability factor on bosses, making it easier to avoid telegraphed hits while maintaining DPS uptime (and thus leech uptime).

Hi everyone.
Thanks to euploid for excellent build.

Here is a setup version on full DPS where i left out enfeeble and introduced elemental weakness whith blasphemy. My goal is to reach lvl 100 and 6k+ life pool.
I didnt expect a much more smoother gameplay since i used EW. Blood rage is an excellent choice too cause AS scale perfectly whith lycosidae.
Though AS was a limitbreak to my cyclone mana spend, But playing whith some "fingerness" allow me to assume mana spending whith high AS.
I think that enfeeble when play on CoC is useless when life pool is quite good. That was the idea behind the choice to Blasphemy+EW

About CoH assassin's mark, its a real question. Much more flat damage (EW+blood rage) or crit on death (AM or blue dream).As its a endgame raider i choosed flat damage balance to slash end game bosses.

I estimated that 54% crit is enough.
At the end, to mitigate the purpose, i will play jewels like 35life (=7% life)/ cold-lighning damage/ crit multi.

I play in france. My english is a bit slow :).

Very fun build.
Chuss.

Ps : i miss some stuf like 2 perfect rings (ED), Darkray +1 frenzy, perfect jewls.
Amulet and weapon are strongly expensive to upgrade mine. And a perfect stygian belt whith 2 full RES +30-40 Ed

"

Varek wrote:

Spoiler

Hello again, I'm back with an update. I posted about my interest in the build sometime last week, and got around to starting the character. I've bankrolled it from my previous wealth, not to mention stealing some gear from other characters (6L Belly [which is why it has the best coloring you've ever seen], the WED stygian vise, and the 2 socket tombfists.) Over the course of leveling so far, I've gone up in currency despite buying everything else on the character (darkrays, lycosidae, daressos, and cyclone starkonjas being the primary offenders).

I've had a lot of fun with the build so far, and I know there is still plenty of room for upgrading (hatred watcher's eye, better weapon, +1 frenzy daressos, better rings)- but I thought I'd give a day two post of my character.

I don't know how to link all my gear in the post like other people have, so I've simply attached a POB of my character: https://pastebin.com/g7nwQZKT

Based on my current thoughts, if I am to take this character to level 100, I would take phase acrobatics, 2 more life nodes, and the scion jewel socket with the 2 resist nodes [this would happen whenever I can afford the watchers eye jewel for hatred, crit means increased survivability due to freeze/chill reliability]. Phase acro nodes are around a 30% EHP increase against attacks and 50% EHP increase for spell damage (59% dodge to 69% dodge, and 15% spell dodge to 45% spell dodge)- combined with a 6.5k life pool+ fortify, blind, chill/freeze, this is one of the tankiest characters I've ever played with the potential to break 1mil shaper dps [actually, I'm fairly certain this build can break 1.5mil, but I've not tested that]. It will never compare in raw damage output to my barrage archer who can reach upwards of 4mil dps, but it has blind, fortify, constant movement, and about 20% more health which all add up to extreme safety and security while mapping- this means while I'm deciding between my archer and this cyclone character to take to 100, I'm leaning heavily to this build.

I'll keep you posted, there is still plenty of room for growth on the character but it already feels strong enough to tackle anything the game can throw at me.

Of note: I'm not using inc aoe, conc effect, or DoFL. I feel that damage on full life is very risky, the times you need damage/leech the most are after eating a big hit, and that is when damage on full life does nothing. So in realistic terms, I feel that if you aren't a slayer, then DoFL is nothing more than POB-warrioring [and it prevents you from running blood rage/arakaali...which daresso's already does...] Since I do pure cold damage, I'm currently making do with hypothermia/cold pene, but I have so much cold pene that even though I do 90% cold damage, I would gain 20-30% more damage by switching those links to conc effect/DoFL. Currently though, I have been mapping with this setup and just recently splurged for the 21/20 cyclone which gave me +2 cyclone radius- man I can tell a big difference. Increased AOE is not just a "hit more mobs" effect on cyclone, it's also a reliability factor on bosses, making it easier to avoid telegraphed hits while maintaining DPS uptime (and thus leech uptime).

Phase acro is something I've been considering adding to the passive tree but atm I'm just not sure which nodes to give up for it if you're taking it at lvl 90. When testing and recording in 3.1 I repeatedly felt like phase acro would be very useful but I never did try it out. For higher level characters and pushing 100 it is for sure worth the points though.

I agree with you about DoFL, the reasons you state are the same reasons I stopped using it. It makes more sense to use with instant leech so I probably could get away with it with legacy Acuity but with normal leech I don't like it at all, especially for boss encounters.