Vaal Cyclone

As someone who makes at least one Cycloner per league, I was very disappointed that Vaal Cyclone did not receive any rework (beyond the soul changes that all skills received). Something that locks you in place for several seconds simply has no place in this game, and even the options available to mitigate that risk like Less Duration Support don't do anything for the primary skill.

If any future changes are planned, my suggestion would be either (A) something that greatly enhances the AoE of the skill for a duration, or (B) greatly enhances the single target damage of the skill for a duration.

Thanks for making these threads!

Playing with Cyclone and Vaal Cyclone has been fun so far in this league. The Vaal version pulls enemies fast enough, so they don't kill you out of range. My crit Juggernaut with Endurance charges and no armour can survive the duration of the skill well, while also getting me kills. I'm happy with that.

Only problem so far is that it has too long duration. I think it is decent against map bosses, but against normal mobs it has too long duration. This usually means that you spin for no reason at all and might get sniped by some ranged mobs behind fences or holes.

One solution would be to increase the skills duration depending on how many things it hits. This would mean that it clears screen of enemies in a decent time while wasting no time. It also could work longer against bosses, where it is hard to get souls.

Another solution would be to give it shorter duration or a way to affect the normal Cyclone with duration effects like Less Duration Support. The latter one would award people for focusing more on Vaal Cyclone and still getting some bonuses to the normal version.

Hey,

I play main slayer cyclone and I am very disappointed that Vaal Cyclone did not recieve any rework.
I do all endgame content and I did not manage to find any usecase for Vaal Cyclone.
It does not help in any situation, just locks you in place while you are very vulnerable, not able to dodge. Not very helpfull for endgame bosses like Uber Elder or Shaper.

I was thinking of a rework for that skill here is what I came up with:

In any case you should be able to move while using that skill, also you should be able to cancel the skill if needed (by using another skill (leap slam) or by deactivating it on second use).

Option one: Higher clearspeed with vaal cyclone.
Improve movement speed, area of effect and maybe also damage and keep the rest like it is now.

Option two: Vaal cyclone to help with bosses.
Give it a Vaal Coldsnap like effect where it deals damage in an area for a duration on its own, while normal cyclone can be used on top of that damage.

Option three: Copy Cat
On use you will send out a copy ( or several) of the player that will attack enemys with cyclone.

I am looking forward to see a rework for this skill to make it as usefull as other vaal skills right now.

Edit:

One of my friends told me about Vaal double Strike aka the boys, I am using them now in a 4 Link setup to compensate for the lack of a good vaal cyclone.
They are pretty helpfull!
Still doing cyclone main ofc.

Can we at least be able to cancel this once we're done? I can't count how many times I've died to herald mobs because I'm stuck in place for eons with this skill.

Recently submitted this bug:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2524126

It's really unfortunate that Vaal Cyclone acts like a channeled ability, in that it doesn't allow other actions during it, but isn't supported by Cast While Channeling. Just lowers my like of Cyclone all together a bit.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3052025

Why is Vaal Cyclone not tagged as "channeling"?

Why would I use the vaal version when it means locking myself in place, lose my infusion, avoidance, damage, charges...

This can't be right.

One thought to rework or improve Vaal Cyclone would be to have it behave like Vaal Double Strike or Vaal Ancestral Warchief creating a clone for the effect. When Vaal Cyclone is triggered a 'clone' could appear on the spot for the duration while the player can move around freely. Duration, damage or other adjustments could be made to balance if necessary.