Is there any alternative for melees other than Cyclone?

[Saturn]

I've been using dual strike up to lvl72 but its just too slow and ♥♥♥♥♥, recently changed to cyclone and breeze through everything but hate using meta builds, apparently over 40% of the whole playerbase is running cyclone..

anyway is there anything else i could run with similar damage and efficiency? i ran cyclone in betrayel don't want to run the same skill every league..

[Minake]

Im currently using flicker strike for clear and dual strike for boss. You just have to switch the gems before the fight.

[Dregor]

You could use other stuff, they just aren't necessarily as efficient. I'm using consecrated path and its working pretty well so far, but I'm sure my clear speeds aren't as good.

[Zelph]

Frost blades is super quick to do hordes. single target isn't great, but manageable.

[SteelaiRizel]

Glacial hammer. Hit 61 today and I'm just breezing through everything.

Also hilariously perma stunned/perma froze akalali however you spell the spider's dam name , I'm at work right now.

The only moment it even got to move was for the scripted part to eat ol silk. Other than that it didn't get to do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lol

Mixed results on other bosses but I can chain stun/freeze them over half the time they are alive so far.

Don't even need melee splash btw. Multistrike and the new "strike" built into single target skills takes care of the "aoe".

[Rikkore]

If you're asking for an alternative to cyclone then no. By far it's the fastest clearing melee skill because you can move while attacking.

You just have to accept that you wont clear as fast as people who use it

[Scathe]

Originally posted by SteelaiRizel:

Glacial hammer. Hit 61 today and I'm just breezing through everything.

Also hilariously perma stunned/perma froze akalali however you spell the spider's dam name , I'm at work right now.

The only moment it even got to move was for the scripted part to eat ol silk. Other than that it didn't get to do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lol

Mixed results on other bosses but I can chain stun/freeze them over half the time they are alive so far.

Don't even need melee splash btw. Multistrike and the new "strike" built into single target skills takes care of the "aoe".

this sounds interesting to me, I've been trying to get good maces but so far been stuck using swords, because my swords are pretty great. I've been building around ice crash and have good gear for it. I'm level 59 (templar - inquisitor) and just hit act 8, the spider in act 7, akalai or whatever, managed to kill me once, but seriously you should consider ice crash for some of your clearing if you did have room for another attack skill in your sockets. ice crash with pulverize, more elemental damage with attacks, and life leech is at least very efficient killing trash for me, and probably better vs bosses with alot of adds, but I will try glacial hammer if I can get some maces. also my build so far doesn't have any specific weapon attached yet but 3 mace wheels are already accessible to me so yeah really need some maces.

anyway, ice crash is an alternative for an elemental focused build, but probably not as efficient as cyclone either. I think my ice crash has a significantly larger AoE than glacial hammer's melee swings can hit, maybe also larger than most cyclones, but do have to stand still for like .7sec to use it. the AoE range was pretty useful against the giant crab of act 6, kinda kited him around with frostblink when he was doing his cyclone move, didnt have to stand in there against him. didn't die there. do have around 6-7 deaths total on the character though. not sure if it is more a sign I'm a bad player or more a sign of a bad build, I'd lean twards I'm playing bad.

[SteelaiRizel]

Originally posted by Scathe:

Originally posted by SteelaiRizel:

Glacial hammer. Hit 61 today and I'm just breezing through everything.

Also hilariously perma stunned/perma froze akalali however you spell the spider's dam name , I'm at work right now.

The only moment it even got to move was for the scripted part to eat ol silk. Other than that it didn't get to do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lol

Mixed results on other bosses but I can chain stun/freeze them over half the time they are alive so far.

Don't even need melee splash btw. Multistrike and the new "strike" built into single target skills takes care of the "aoe".

this sounds interesting to me, I've been trying to get good maces but so far been stuck using swords, because my swords are pretty great. I've been building around ice crash and have good gear for it. I'm level 59 (templar - inquisitor) and just hit act 8, the spider in act 7, akalai or whatever, managed to kill me once, but seriously you should consider ice crash for some of your clearing if you did have room for another attack skill in your sockets. ice crash with pulverize, more elemental damage with attacks, and life leech is at least very efficient killing trash for me, and probably better vs bosses with alot of adds, but I will try glacial hammer if I can get some maces. also my build so far doesn't have any specific weapon attached yet but 3 mace wheels are already accessible to me so yeah really need some maces.

anyway, ice crash is an alternative for an elemental focused build, but probably not as efficient as cyclone either. I think my ice crash has a significantly larger AoE than glacial hammer's melee swings can hit, maybe also larger than most cyclones, but do have to stand still for like .7sec to use it. the AoE range was pretty useful against the giant crab of act 6, kinda kited him around with frostblink when he was doing his cyclone move, didnt have to stand in there against him. didn't die there. do have around 6-7 deaths total on the character though. not sure if it is more a sign I'm a bad player or more a sign of a bad build, I'd lean twards I'm playing bad.

Currently running a 5 link with two cameria's mauls. The 5 link is Glacial Hammer+Ice Bite+Rage+Multistrike+Ruthless. Glacial hammer synergizes very heavily with ruthless since both have their most powerful effect on the 3rd hit. The initial "strike" can hit 1-3 enemies, when you consider that you do more than 5 strikes a second it becomes clear you dont even need anything else for aoe clear.

I literally do not need ice crash because glacial hammer takes care of all of it. I seriously suggest giving it a try if you have decent attack speed.

Also rage is bloody amazing as a support for the flat phys and thats not even counting the increased attack damage, attack speed, and movement speed you get from the buff itself.

He is a duelist champion btw so perma fortify and the like. With his benefits he is always at perma 90% phys reduction(the cap) and i use steelskin with increased duration. Makes a big difference. Maybe not at first glance but its very useful.

Just keep in mind, im invested in mace nodes so my stun capabilities are pretty high. Plus i have crit too, not the highest but enough to help with getting the freezes off regardless if its the third hit or not. Something to keep in mind with Ruthless is that the tooltip lies. It doesn't show the increase in damage you get from it. On path of building though it shows. The faster your attack the more ruthless blows you can perform and the more stuns/freezes you pull off.

I perma stunned/froze Deodre in act 8 in laughable fashion. Didnt even have to use the cauldron once after the first time i pressed it and she came down. Just held attack down and laughed.

Btw : Use poe.trade to snag yourself a couple Cameria's Mauls to try so you can see how effective it can be, that is if your build can work with it. They are cheap as hell. Only an alc, even for a decent roll. Maybe a chaos at most.

[Rafein]

Tectonic Slam is fun. Range don;t matter, so Facebreaker is viable.

[kazaddum]

Originally posted by Saturn:

I've been using dual strike up to lvl72 but its just too slow and♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ recently changed to cyclone and breeze through everything but hate using meta builds, apparently over 40% of the whole playerbase is running cyclone..

anyway is there anything else i could run with similar damage and efficiency? i ran cyclone in betrayel don't want to run the same skill every league..

The thing is meta because it currently has the best damage and efficiancy. Pick what you enjoy and think for yourself.

[SufferBuddy]

I have a flicker build with 100% crit and does over 500kdps but it cost too many ex and am working on a budget version. xD

[Saturn]

Originally posted by Rafein:

Tectonic Slam is fun. Range don;t matter, so Facebreaker is viable.

cool ill have a look into this, guessing it would go well with my warcry beserker since ill never be short of end charges ?

[50ShadesOfPlay]

Sunder is pretty good for clear.

[PMachine]

My first character in this league was claw cyclone and it did really good (just started mapping and had no problems so far). BUT, i already got bored of it. So i created an heavy strike duelist with sword and shield, that gets a nice dmg boost from two Weight of the Empire gems (combined effect - 60% chance to do double dmg ), i got from the cyclone run. Just leap slam around the map and one hit everything. Fun and easy.

[Saturn]

Originally posted by PMachine:

My first character in this league was claw cyclone and it did really good (just started mapping and had no problems so far). BUT, i already got bored of it. So i created an heavy strike duelist with sword and shield, that gets a nice dmg boost from two Weight of the Empire gems (combined effect - 60% chance to do double dmg ), i got from the cyclone run. Just leap slam around the map and one hit everything. Fun and easy.

sounds an interesting build i was thinking about that myself with the 2 gems. how is it for AOE damage though?

[PMachine]

Originally posted by Saturn:

Originally posted by PMachine:

My first character in this league was claw cyclone and it did really good (just started mapping and had no problems so far). BUT, i already got bored of it. So i created an heavy strike duelist with sword and shield, that gets a nice dmg boost from two Weight of the Empire gems (combined effect - 60% chance to do double dmg ), i got from the cyclone run. Just leap slam around the map and one hit everything. Fun and easy.

sounds an interesting build i was thinking about that myself with the 2 gems. how is it for AOE damage though?

So far i've been using ancestral call and melee splash but i'm thinking of putting pulverise or shockwave support there also/instead. I mean the two do great job themselves, but maybe i want a little bit more bang for the buck. In short - AOE is good atm but not great.

And of course, suggestions are welcome.

Edit. Just noticed that shockwave don't work with swords so it's out.