Cyclone

The L81 reference is the "before the Mjolner lands" phase and it shows — the build is running Starcaller Abyssal Axe (which triggers Starfall on melee crit) as the weapon, with Foulborn Cloak of Defiance + Mind Over Matter + 19% of Maximum Mana as Extra ES already wiring the Hierophant's mana-as-everything shell. The 6-link in the Lacquered Garb runs Cyclone + Increased Area of Effect Support + Fortify Support + Faster Attacks Support + Inspiration Support + Rage Support — a generic melee support stack because none of the trigger infrastructure is online yet.

Mind of the Council helmet is the bridge piece: it adds Attack Skills have Added Lightning Damage equal to 6% of maximum Mana, so Cyclone itself scales with the mana pool even before Mjolner appears. 30% of Lightning Damage taken from Mana before Life on the same helmet stacks with Mind Over Matter to split hits across the mana pool twice. Screams of the Desiccated belt gives Diamond Shrine while flask-free plus +31% chaos res. Hrimsorrow gloves convert 100% of Cyclone's physical damage to cold — an early workaround to avoid needing a converted-phys weapon before Mjolner. Marylene's Fallacy amulet adds +237% crit multi at the cost of 40% less crit chance, bridging the DPS gap until Mjolner does the damage work. Le Heup of All as the second ring piles +22 all attributes + res. The tree is already 99 points deep into Divine Guidance, Sanctuary of Thought, Conviction of Power, and Precision — all the mana-pool and power-charge scaffolding for the endgame pivot.

14k EHP on the sheet, 2.4k life, 2.4k ES, 22% physical damage reduction — this tier is genuinely fragile because the Mjolner power spike hasn't landed. The whole defence package is the Mind Over Matter + Foulborn Cloak of Defiance mana-splitting setup plus 4 power charges from Conviction of Power and 4 endurance charges. Resists sit at 24/22/33 — these are wildly undercapped on the picked reference, which is a flag that this specific character was mid-progression when the snapshot was taken. Most players on this archetype sit around 12k EHP with full resist at this tier, then jump to 45k+ as soon as The Ivory Tower + Mjölner come online together. The Writhing Jar flask is on the bar to spawn worms as free triggers for Starcaller / on-hit effects.

Walk-forward-and-crit. Cyclone ticks, Starcaller's on-crit trigger fires Starfall, Hrimsorrow's cold conversion means the hit lands as ele damage for Shaper of Storms-style scaling — except Hierophant doesn't have Shaper of Storms, so the damage is just phys-to-cold without the free shock. Single target leans on Arcane Cloak as a burst + survival button, Leap Slam + Frostblink for movement. Herald of Purity adds minion damage + a spectral army. Clarity at L18 is the aura anchor because the build-in-waiting wants every scrap of mana regen. This tier plays as "melee crit Cyclone with a proc hat" — not the endgame Archmage Mjolner identity at all.

The Mjolner + Squire + Archmage loop is the damage engine. Mjölner triggers a socketed lightning spell on every Cyclone hit with a 0.25s internal cooldown; the spell is Ball Lightning of Orbiting. The Squire is the off-hand — it has 3 white sockets and the unique line Socketed Support Gems can also Support Skills from your Main Hand, which means Lightning Penetration Support + Controlled Destruction Support + Slower Projectiles Support socketed in The Squire support whatever Mjolner triggers. Archmage Support in the weapon itself makes each Ball Lightning tick add flat lightning damage equal to a percentage of current max mana — the Hierophant's whole mana-pool design exists to feed this number.

The Cyclone 6-link sits in The Ivory Tower with Cyclone + Additional Accuracy Support + Mana Leech Support + Less Duration Support + Cast while Channelling Support + Lightning Warp. Cyclone is not the main damage skill here — it's the trigger vehicle, and Cast while Channelling Support + Lightning Warp adds a secondary always-on lightning hit that stacks Archmage damage without needing Mjolner's cooldown to tick. Mana Leech Support keeps the mana pool topped against Indigon's cost spiral.

Indigon's helmet line 22% increased Spell Damage for each 200 total Mana you have Spent Recently, up to 2000% compounds with Archmage Support's flat lightning contribution. The ramp is what makes the build — the first few seconds of combat hit normally, and then Indigon's accumulator ticks up and damage explodes. Coruscating Elixir's Removes all but one life on use, Removed life is Regenerated as Energy Shield over 2s combines with The Ivory Tower's Chaos Damage is taken from Mana before Life to keep the build on low life for Pain Attunement's 30% more spell damage while still being functionally tanky. Shaper's Touch gloves are the stat-scaling piece: +2 accuracy per 2 Int, +1 Mana per 4 Str, and 1% ES per 10 Str turn the 1293 Int / 685 Str sheet into a mountain of ES + accuracy + mana. Wrath reserved via Arrogance Support on life adds flat lightning to every Archmage tick. Assassin's Mark / Sniper's Mark via Mark On Hit Support in the helmet auto-curses rares.

45k EHP, 10.6k ES, 2.7k life, 28% block, all resists capped. The Ivory Tower's +30 ES per 100 Reserved Life + Chaos Damage taken from Mana before Life + Shaper's Touch's 1% ES per 10 Str produces the 10k ES wall. Zealot's Oath (92% of endgame builds) converts life regen into ES regen, so 2% ES per second from The Ivory Tower + regen from the tree + Clarity-affected Watcher's Eye 10% of max mana as extra ES while affected by Clarity all flow into ES sustain. Coruscating Elixir keeps chaos from bypassing ES. Mind Over Matter and the mana-as-ES conversion from Divine Guidance mean incoming physical and elemental hits split across mana + ES + life before landing. Cyclopean Coil (54% meta) stacks attribute res conversion. Pantheon is Brine King + Ralakesh.

Walk forward, hold left-click, watch Indigon's damage accumulator climb. Cyclone at 4.3 APS triggers Ball Lightning via Mjolner on every hit that clears the 0.25s cooldown, which at 4.3 APS is approximately every second or third tick — Cast while Channelling Support + Lightning Warp plugs the triggers-per-second gap with continuous secondary hits. Screen clear is Ball Lightning orbs chaining through packs; single target is stand-next-to-boss and let Indigon's 2000% spell-damage ceiling build up. Arcane Cloak on Automation + More Duration Support is the guard button. Frostblink + Leap Slam handle mobility. The build's rotation is literally "keep channelling, manage mana flasks, don't stop" — Indigon punishes dropping the channel because the damage accumulator decays.

The damage engine is still Archmage + Indigon + mana pool, just with the trigger source changed. Kitava's Thirst helmet: 50% chance to trigger socketed spells when you spend at least 100 mana on an upfront cost — the spells in the helmet (Assassin's Mark + Conductivity + Elemental Weakness) auto-curse on every high-cost Cyclone tick. Svalinn off-hand: Trigger a Socketed Elemental Spell on Block — block-triggered spells stack on top of the mana-spent triggers.

The main 6-link chest runs Shock Nova of Procession + Arcane Surge Support + Archmage Support + Intensify Support + Overloaded Intensity Support + Greater Spell Echo — this is the Hierophant Archmage caster build with Cyclone as a mana-burner trigger. Shock Nova of Procession detonates in rings around the player, Intensify Support + Overloaded Intensity Support (3.28 Exceptional) stack the intensity buff for huge more-damage per cast, Greater Spell Echo (3.28 Exceptional, 85% meta uptake) is the endgame spell-repeat multiplier. Archmage Support still pays out flat lightning per cast based on the mana pool.

Atziri's Foible amulet + Foulborn Kikazaru + Anathema + Healthy Mind jewels all stack mana regen and max-mana-per-level. Anathema's Your Curse Limit is equal to your maximum Power Charges combined with Conviction of Power's +4 max power charges lets the Kitava's Thirst-triggered curses all apply simultaneously. Militant Faith timeless jewel converts passives in radius to Templar-conquered nodes with devotion-per-passive bonuses (1% increased minion attack/cast speed per 10 devotion, 4% brand damage per 10 devotion). Unnatural Instinct (94% aspirational meta) transforms small passives for double value. Watcher's Eye gives Critical Strikes Penetrate 10% Enemy Elemental Res while affected by Zealotry + 15% chance to recover 10% mana on skill use while affected by Clarity. Zealotry + Clarity + Arcane Cloak + Purity of Lightning via Eternal Blessing is the permanent aura stack. Keystone Inner Conviction transforms from Eternal Youth via the Militant Faith jewel, adding even more spell damage scaling per power charge.

173k EHP on the picked reference (outlier high for the tier — median is 86k), 82% block, 86% spell block, chaos resist at 57%. The block stack is enormous: Foulborn The Red Nightmare + Svalinn's +13% block spell + lucky block + Replica Reckless Defence. The Red Nightmare converts passives granting fire-res or all-res in radius into additional block chance — and with 1293 Int, the tree is already dense with resist passives. Cloak of Defiance's Mind Over Matter + +123 mana + 325% ES keeps the mana-as-everything loop alive. Arcane Cloak on Automation + More Duration auto-guards. Oriath's End bismuth flask on Mageblood (if the build adopts it — the picked reference runs Mageblood at the belt) turns map clear into chain explosions. Pantheon is Lunaris + Abberath.

The L100 feel is Archmage caster with Cyclone as the engine driving Indigon's ramp and Kitava's Thirst's trigger chain. 13.5M DPS on the sheet, 64% crit, 17 casts/second effective through Greater Spell Echo + triggered Shock Nova. Walk forward, channel, Shock Nova rings detonate on every high-cost tick, triple-curse auto-applies via Kitava's Thirst, Indigon's accumulator caps at the 2000% ceiling after a couple seconds. Single target folds to stand-next-to-boss-and-channel because the radial Shock Nova pattern means every ring overlaps on a single-target. Frost Shield + Sigil of Power in weapon swap are the boss-prep utilities. Militant Faith's devotion scaling and Arcane Blessing (as the fourth ascendancy) turn every Int stack into damage. The apex Hierophant experience is the ramp — the first second of combat is ordinary, the fifth second is a screen-wide lightning cascade.