[3.1] SPIN, WIN, GRIN - Abyssals+Oni Cyclone Slayer - The most satisfying build you'll play

Hello! And welcome to my first guide.

I've been playing PoE for over two years now, and finally wanted to contribute one of the most fun builds I've ever played back to this community.

Keep in mind this is my first guide/solo build; I have made a lot of characters based on people's meta builds, and this is my first attempt at theory-crafting———so constructive criticism is always welcome.

-Absurdly satisfying Cyclone skill gem on the popular Oni-Goroshi 1h sword.

-Abyssal Items and Jewels for supplementary mechanics
---Namely: Lightpoacher(Helm), Tombfist(Gloves), Darkness Enthroned(Belt), and as many abyssal jewels with flat phys/phys to swords + flat maximum life as you and a friend can carry in a wheelbarrow.

-Slayer Ascendancy provides the ever-OP over-leech and 20% Culling Strike, plus great DPS

-Fortify has long been one of my favorite deffensive mechanics in PoE, and despite several nerfs I feel with only a 5pt investment in the passive tree Fortify notable(Rampart) and a Fortify support gem in your 6link Oni setup, the result is extremely worthwhile.

-With new shaper/elder jewlery mods, you can do some VERY interesting things with this build late-game.

Pro's:
- It's a CYCLONE BUILD! have you ever played a late-game cyclone build? Do you even know? The carnage! The Gore! Spin-to-win!
- Budget Friendly (only ~1-3ex total to gear for lategame)
- Great DPS:
---Calculations and screenshots will come if requested
- Surprisingly tanky:
---Cheesy Fortify mechanics FTW
- Customizable:
---The tree, gear, and even skill-gem links are flexible to suit you play-style/available gear/budget.
- Scalable Endlessly:
---Look, if you have money to blow for 6 flat phys abyssal jewels with 40 life on them...y'know, good.
---Max rolls on gear is nice...
---20/20 gems are kinda of a must for lategame now-a-days that the boss life is half my Student Debt.
- Play it with Bladeflurry instead of Cyclone. What do I care? Works the same... stupid stationary skills(oooh, arctic armor, look at meeee).
---Real talk though: Bladeflurry is better for single target deeps... but... but ITS NOT EFFING CYCLONE!
- Look badass without MTX, the abyssal gear and a belly actually look amazing together. No more looking like a malnourished figure-skater(Thanks Vaal Regalia).

Con's:
- Melee skills, and Cyclone specifically, have been historically dangerous to play in PoE due to melee range and the cyclone targeting mechanic itself(more on this in a sec).
- Expensive to scale, mainly because 2-abyssal-socket gear is pricy, and good abyssal jewels are pricy
- Int, Accuracy, and Crit are a bit tough-going to get on gear.

*SLAYER*
ENDLESS HUNGER(Normal) — BRUTAL FERVOR(Cruel) — BANE OF LEGENDS(Merciless) — HEADSMAN(Uber)

- 6-LINK(ONI—4r1g1b):
CYCLONE — ADDED FIRE — MELEE PHYSICAL — ELEMENTAL DMG W/ ATTACKS — FORTIFY — CONC EFFECT/INC AoE

- 4-LINK(BOOTS—2r2g):
CWDT(lvl.10) — IMMORTAL CALL(lvl.11) — BLOOD RAGE(lvl.12) — SUMMON ICE GOLEM(lvl.11)
**Note: I personally don't like the classic level 1 Cast When Damage Taken(CWDT) paradigm; at level 10 CWDT triggers at 1.3k dmg which should be around 1/4 of your total life. This prevents it from triggering on stupid negligible sh** and functions a lot more in line with what Immortal Call was thematically intended to do I think, which is save you from getting 1-shot by big burst dmg.

- ** ANCESTRAL WARCHIEF SETUP **:
ANCESTRAL WARCHIEF — STUN — BLIND — FASTER ATTACKS
If running Belly of the Beast you DO NOT need a 6-link(yay :D), just buy the cheapest Belly you can find with the highest +%Life roll possible and spend 350jewlers to 6-SOCKET it, then a few fusings till you have at least 4-LINKS on the BELLY. Alternatively, buy a Kaom's Heart(lol) and revel in the amazing Life-Pool. Oni does enough dmg as-is, Warchief Totem rrly just for QoL/Perosnal Preference.

- 2-LINK:
LEAP SLAM — FASTER ATTACKS

- **UNLINKED**:
These are the only other necessary gems for the build, and they do not have to be linked together sooo stick 'em where you want 'em:
ANGER/HATRED(Depending on your Watcher's Eye),
HERALD OF ASH (Since we spend all this time scaling flat phys; this is also why Hatred is a good choice, but the Hatred Watcher's Eye is more expensive),
RALLYING CRY(rollin' in the deeeps...)
*Most bosses spawn ads during some point of the fight. Learn to save your Rallying Cry for when these ads spawn for some surprisingly effective DPS boost.

Helm - Lightpoacher, 2a sockets if possible(not necessary).

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Gloves - Tombfist, 2a sockets if possible(not necessary). IF you decide to invest in 2a socket gear, get these gloves first due to the bonus from Intimidate and Maim (socket Murderous and Searching Eye Jewels respectively).

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Boots - We want Life and Elemental Resistances, with as much Movement Speed as you can afford. I'd argue Two-Toned boots are a must, and can get expensive, but you rrly dont need t1 rolls, t2-3 double res with 70+ life works just fine, but pretty easy to Alt-Regal or Scour-Alch craft if you're feeling Blacksmith-y. Unfortunatley, Bubonic Trail's Deathwalk passive doesnt trigger with Cyclone(wouldnt that just be fantastic though? C'mon GGG!) and the 40% dps buff would be nice, but we need to get life and res somewhere. I will say however - running Bubonic Trail and Purity of Elements is a relatively viable option for the wealthy/ballsy player, and the Movement Speed buff they provide is SUPER nice.

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Body Armor - We have two options here: Kaom's Heart or Belly of the Beast. I recommend Belly with 4 or 5links for Ancestral Warchief. However, if you dont feel tanky enough and are willing to sacrifice some DPS, Kaom's Heart is a great alternative considering how much %Life bonus we get form abyssal gear.

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Belt - Darkness Enthroned. So good.

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Weapon - Oni-Goroshi obviously. 4r1g1b for sockets cheap-cheap.

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Jewlery - This is where you max out your Elemental Resistances and Life. You do wanna try to get a good Accuracy roll(200+) on at least one piece of jewlery. HOWEVER, you want at least one RING with "Curse Enemies With Level # Warlord's/Assassin's Mark on Hit". Warlord's for survival, Assassin's for the crits(which admittedly are a little hard to scale on this build). Your call, but Poacher's Mark is useless as we run Blood Rage in our CWDT setup for frenzy charge generation. Here's what I'm currently messing with:

Abyssal Jewels: Now, I know at first look stacking as many of these as possible for Lightpoacher seems ideal, but because the Lightpoacher Spirit Burst combo will go off as you're Cycloning around, you will never realistically build up more than 4-5 charges. For this reason, we limit putting Abyssal Jewels only on our gear, and save the 3 passive tree jewel nodes for some good Crimson/Viridian jewels and the Watcher's Eye.

Watcher's Eye - Youre really just wanting the "% of Physical Dmg converted to Fire/Cold when affected by Anger/Hatred", the Anger version is around 20-40c now. Second mod roll on Watcher's Eye is up to you and your budget.

Damage Jewels - We want flat physical(or "flat phys to swords") to stack with Oni effects and flat life to stack with all the %life buffs from abyssal gear and watcher's eye.

Other Jewels - I recommend stacking the life/whatever resistances you may still need on your Belt. Due to the 50% buff to jewels socketed we get much more stats from raising 20-30% ele res somewhere by 50% instead of raising a flat avg. phys dmg buff of 5-10 by 50%.

Special Note: If you do splurge on 2a socket gear make sure you socket the right type of jewels.
- Tombfist: Murderous(for Intimidate) and Searching(for Maim)
- Bubonic Trail(optional boots) are only worthwhile if you have all four types of abyssal jewels equiped for the 40% total dmg buff (10%/type), but their location does not matter.

1. Life Flask - instant recovery, remove bleed
2. Mana Flask/Quartz Flask - So, I still run a mana flask for no regen maps, otherwise feel free to use whichever utility flasks you prefer - Ruby, Sulphur, Quartz and Silver are all great choices.
3. Quicksilver Flask - Youre using cyclone, its a movement skill, you want MS, and its expensive on boots, I'd even argue if you dont have MS on gear, run a second Quicksilver in slot (2.). For flask mods you want Remove Freeze(incase you ID a freezing strongbox while not under Her Embrace :P), and whatever charge regeneration you can get, Surgeons works, "+# of charges" does too.
4. Good ol' Atziri's Promise. We use phys and ele dmg, so rolls here just as high as either goes.

5. Good ol' Wise Oak. Say what you will about this baby, but its a great defensive flask if nothing else. It's not that hard to play in to with Oni either. Oni gives fire dmg.. overcap your fire res more than the others and bam: +14% fire pen -10%cold and lightning dmg taken.

**NOTE**: Cyclone mechanics take a while to get used to in-play because it's technically a movement skill that you're using to attack. Try to keep your mouse attack button for Cyclone pressed continuously instead of clicking it repeatedly, as this will mess up the cyclone attack pattern mechanic by making it retarget a destination and restart the spin. This is especially important because you're using Oni, which is only one weapon taking up both hand slots, whereas Cyclone normally attacks with both weapons applying the weapon dmg rolls individually.

Skill Order:
- Change your "Use Bound SKILL 2" to Spacebar and put your movement skill (Leap Slam) on it.
- Auras run on Bound SKILL 7 & 8 (default *R* and *T* respectively) - Herald of Ash and Anger/Hatred go here
---I normally remove the auras from my skill bar once I cast them, now that they persist after relogging; just so you dont accidentally hit them when spamming flasks.
- Rallying Cry on Bound SKILL 6 (default *E*)
- Warchief Totem on Bound SKILL 5 (default *W*)

Combat:
SPACE(Leap Slam in to mob) -> E(Rallying Cry) -> CYCLONE
-> W: Warchief — cast when inbetween mobs while recasting Rallying Cry if you notice a tough Rare enemy not dying, otherwise forego using Totem and Cry during mapping and save it for boss. You can literally clear any linear map like Underground River, Strand, and even Mesa with ONE CONTINUOUS CYCLONE key-press if you learn to manage your flasks properly!!! And boy-oh-boy is that satisfying..