PoE2 Duelist Cyclone: Sand Disks, Storm Pickups, and Build Hooks

What is Cyclone on the PoE2 Duelist?

Cyclone is a returning fan-favourite spin attack in the Duelist kit for Path of Exile 2. In Grinding Gear Games’ Duelist deep dive, Jonathan Rogers described it as something they “couldn’t have made the Duelist without”: when using it, you can spin to win, just like before, but wired into the class stance system and ground-effect layering shown in the Grand Arena ruins.

How does Cyclone interact with Sand Stance and sand disks?

Sand Stance is entered from Ready Stance attacks such as Sand Scour when you stun enemies; your default attack then sends out a sand disk. Rogers ran Cyclone while already in Sand Stance and the spin spewed sand disks at enemies on both sides, which he highlighted as strong area clear. That behaviour is separate from Cyclone without Sand Stance: the stance modifies what the storm outputs, similar to how Perforate and other skills change when you attack from Ready, Sand, or Blood stance (see the Duelist skills overview for the wider list).

The Bringer of Blades developer build later showed another sand link: from Sand Stance, Blade Plunge can place sand disks on every buried blade on screen, which is Earthrend territory rather than Cyclone itself, but it feeds the same sand-disk ecosystem Cyclone can later run through if those surfaces overlap.

Why does GGG call Cyclone a storm for ground effects?

While demonstrating Earthrend follow-ups, Rogers noted that Cyclone “counts as a storm,” so it can pick up elemental ground effects you create elsewhere. Two examples were shown in sequence:

Rogers combined blood pools and shocking ground, then said you could also layer sand, ice, fire, and lightning on one Cyclone at the same time, though he left optimising that stack to players. GGG has not published numeric scaling for each absorbed effect in this preview.

Blade Conduit is central to the lightning half of that picture. Mark Roberts’ Bringer of Blades build spammed Earthrend and refreshed Blade Conduit on buried blades for lightning and shocked ground, which is the same ground type Cyclone can absorb when you switch to spinning.

How do official builds use Cyclone?

Two endgame setups from the same broadcast use Cyclone differently.

Scourge Walker (Mark Roberts). This build is explicitly “Cyclone with a twist.” It stacks fire through Oro’s Sacrifice and Infernal Step, uses Blistering Bond so fire scales bleeding, and keeps Cyclone as a wind skill that still benefits from ground surfaces. At maximum Sacrificial Flame stacks, Oro’s Sacrifice grants frenzy charges, which lets Roberts fold Bloodied Blade between Cyclone sessions for blood-enhanced Cyclone. The shown loop: Infernal Step several times, Bloodied Blade when a frenzy charge is ready to enter Blood Stance, then Cyclone. For single target they swapped to a parry weapon set while staying in Blood Stance, but the clear rotation centred on fiery, bleeding Cyclone.

Bringer of Blades. This build focuses on buried blades and sand disks rather than using Cyclone, but Rogers’ storm wording matters here too: sandstorms from Sand Stance Blade Plunge on blades are another ground layer Cyclone could theoretically inherit if you combine both kits on one character. Roberts did not run Cyclone on that build in the segment; he showed screen-wide sand disks and lightning instead.

Neither demo used Ascendancy classes. Roberts stated those builds were not ascended and that ascendancy details would come at Exilecon (Duelist ascendancy status summarizes what is still unknown).

What is still unknown about the Cyclone gem?

The deep dive showed behaviour and pairings, not spreadsheet details. GGG has not stated gem level requirements, mana cost, base damage tags, or support gem limits for Cyclone in 1.0. Mark Roberts mentioned huge DPS in the showcase without giving numbers; treat that as gear and build context, not baseline tooltips.

If you are planning around Cyclone before launch, treat the video as proof of mechanics (stance-modified sand disks, storm ground pickup, build rotations) and expect tooltips to change before the Duelist release date.

Sources and last check

• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, Cyclone intro and Sand Stance (~3:37)
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, Cyclone as storm + ground effects (~6:32)
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, Scourge Walker Cyclone rotation (~15:58)
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive, Blood Stance parry into Cyclone (~18:30)

Last checked 19 Oct 2026; this page covers what GGG showed before the 1.0 release on 11 Dec 2026 and will be updated when it changes.