[2.4] How to smash Heads. Extremely detailed guide about the Facebreaker gloves and builds!

@leviathaHF
Well the quality nerf was known for veeery long time and i've talked about it before. It's unpleasant but nothing game breaking.
As for the PvV ... much needed nerf in my opinion... cyclone was just dominating in PvP ( more in LLD ) when it comes to melee attacks.

@Puercoescondido
I'm glad that you find this guide helpful! :)
Yes cyclone facebreaker will continue to be awesome and absolutely viable in the Awakening!
And i'll update this guide as soon as possible, actually i've already updated huge parts of it offline so it shouldn't take too long.

@5Kinta
Block recovery is absolutely useless at this point. You see when you block if the blocked hit would've stunned you you get a stagger animation and shield recovery reduces the duration of that animation. The thing is that with high life values( which this build has ) you don't get stunned 99.99% of the time and thus block recovery passives are completely useless 99.99% of the time. If you do get stunned(staggered) again because of the big life pool the animation already has very short duration .. so even then ... block recovery passives are useless.

P.S.
I'm reading the patch notes now :P


EDIT:
Well after reading the patch notes i must say that there isn't really anything there that we didn't already know. So yeah ... everything looks good to me. We'll see how it feels in 7 hours :)

Ok guys i'll start updating the guide one section at a time, though i'll leave some sections as they are at the moment because i'll need to test some things first when the awakening is out, before i'm able to update them properly. I think it's better that way.

I'll post here what sections are updated ( 'm doing this mostly for myself because it will be easier for me to track down what i haven't done yet )

Updated:



Not yet updated:



EDIT: Well i've updated all that can be updated for now ... after updating the passive skill tree section ( when the expansion is out ) i'll rename the guide from [1.3.1] to [2.0.0]. Though some other things must be updated, new videos made and added, the core info would be up to date.

@Daxidol
Which bosses give you troubles? Spellcasters perhaps ? Do you carry Saffell's Frame on swap ? Are you using it vs tough spellcaster bosses ?

P.S.
I've updated the skill trees guys so more or less this build is ready for 2.0.

OK guys so i've played a bit and this is what i can say so far:
When it comes to our defenses this patch is just crazy! My armor and estimated reduction ( estimated vs level 96 opponents! ) is 20k and 66% with carcass jack and 24k and 70% with daresso's defiance ( and in the end i've switched to daresso but more about this later in this post ). And the fortify buff is amazing! Sure i've lost some life but overall i feel much tankier now.

I know that many want to know how cyclone is doing so i'll get straight to the point. Cyclone is still amazing BUT without conc. effect and increased aoe support gems. Conc. effect just reduces your AoE radius by way to much and makes the inc. aoe support gem mandatory, and because of that you have no free slot for Fortify ... and you really want to have fortify.
Furthermore with Cyclone + inc aoe + conc effect + melee physical + blood magic + faster attacks you have less damage and less survivability and slightly less aoe compared to Cyclone + fortify + added fire damage + melee physical + blood magic + faster attacks. And if you run Cyclone + inc aoe + conc effect + fotify + blood magic + faster attacks your dps is waaay too low.
So in the my conclusion is that Cyclone + fortify + added fire damage + melee physical + blood magic + faster attacks is simply superior and there is no need for conc effect at all. With all that said here comes the question about the chest. Carcass jack is still great but now it's extremely hard to get the RRRRGG colors that you need, you could go for Cyclone + fortify + conc effect/inc aoe + melee physical + blood magic + faster attacks and you'll need RRRGBG which is not that bad. There is a drawback tho ... you'll have to switch between conc effect ( when you fight bosses ) and inc aoe ( when you don't fight bosses ) but if you are ok with that and you want to stick to carcass jack ( or you can't afford another chest ) then go ahead and do that.
Otherwise i'd suggest to buy belly of the beast or Daresso's defiance. The belly gives around 500 life while the daresso gives more armour, evasion, 6% dodge, gives a bit life leech, and you are at max endurance charges all the time, and most of the time you have onslaught ( which does miracles for your clear speed ). Personally i prefer Daresso's Defiance - it's awesome and works amazing but the belly is very good too. A rare chest ... all it can give you is some resistances .. which at some point you just don't need.

What else what else ...
Oh infernal blow ... is pretty screwed ... i don't like it at all compared to the other alternatives.
Dominating blow ... oh man .. it's so nerfed ... it's just sad ... terrible terrible damage and i honestly don't see any reason to use it... at all!
Frenzy is ... ok ... it's not better than Cyclone and Ice crash in my opinion but it is definitely much better than infernal and dominating blow.
As for Ice crash .. well it is awesome ... very high damage nice aoe ... just all-round great skill. The DPS is around 58k ( cyclone is around 43,5k (don't forget that cyclone deals much more in reality ) infernal blow is around 44k, dominating blow around 33k and frenzy around 45k unbuffed ) it attacks fast enough and yeah . it's a great skill.
Honestly at this point i don't see a reason to play with anything but Cyclone or Ice Crash .. well maybe Frenzy for those of you who enjoy it.

Blood Rage ... it is great! Just blood rage with no frenzy charges my cyclone goes from 43,5k to 47k and with just 3 frenzy charges it goes up to 51k. I don't lose life when i have it up becuase of the high amounts of % life regen that i have. Oh and the frenzy charges .. it is just 25% chance to gain one on kill but in a map you just don't run out of charges ( unless you cast phase run which consumes them )

The golems .. well ... nothing that awesome .. but they are fine and it is worth it to use a socket for one.

Flame dash .. i don't really like it ... the traveling distance is not that big, it is a bit slower than what i'd like ... overall .. not my cup of tea.

Phase run, now this one is pretty cool to travel big distances or to buff your damage a bit just before you engage a boss. But honestly i don't use it that often ... perhaps it's because it consumes my frenzy charges, perhaps it's because the distances between 2 packs is not that big and just using a quicksilver flask is enough... i don't know ... But with all that said it has a spot in my gear for sure! Combining Phase run with 3 frenzy charges consumed and using quicksilver flask with extra movement speed mod is something unbelievably cool!

Tempest shield in CWDT is ok i guess ... it doesn't trigger often at all and even when it does it rarely refreshes its cooldown even once. But honestly there isn't anything better to use so... yay tempest shield!

Hatred + Determination are the optimal auras in my opinion... no place or need for Herald of Ash and i really don't feel the loss of it.

With the reflect changes ... reflect is .. a joke.

As for the life leech changes .. i don't know .. i'm really at 100% life 95% of the time and even when i loose some i gain it back almost instantly so i guess it's fine .. more testing is required tho!

OH the jewels ! Warlord's reach and Martial Artistry are awesome for cyclone with them in my opinion the aoe is almost perfect, without them it lacks a bit. Good thing that both are easy to get ( one is quest reward for the golden hand act 2 quest in cruel, and the other is just a common drop ) As for rare jewels ... can't say anything about that... yet.

What else ...
Lockstep is insanely awesome ( and that comes from a player who never had big desync issues ) that and the monster pack changes ( they tend to stick together ) makes Cyclone's aoe good enough.

The filter is awesome.

The demon king armour pack is awesome.

The mokou's embrace ring visual effect is cool.

So yeah .. pretty much a great expansion for this build.

I'll play some more now and tomorrow i'll update some more stuff in the guide. If i think of anything else i'll post it here of course.

I guess that's it for now!
Good luck guys !