Sweeping wind is pretty much core in any lightning build, there really isn't any skill you can replace it with that won't leave you with a net loss in damage.
I switched my build around somewhat (sacrificed health for a major damage boost: http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/razorfiend-1241/Razorfiend/7488563), my motivation was group T6 rifts rather than solo rifts. I figured that I'd no longer be able to solo effectively with the slight resist loss and major health loss, as it turns out the only thing it has altered my ability to solo is T5 without unity, now I have to equip unity to solo T5 deathless, in terms of T6 I strangely haven't noticed much of a difference in soloability.
I clear the rifts a lot faster now but there are occasions where that extra 150khp and 100 resist is sorely missed, while soloing at least. In terms of group play even 2000+ resists all, and 11k armor can leave one lying facedown in a pool of your ones blood so I figure why not go all out in terms of damage there and help clear faster.
Personally I love it compared to LTK, at least for lightning. No more standing 2 feet away and watching your LTK miss. The collision can be both a boon and a bane, it is useful for treasure goblins, and if used properly it can be an amazing tool for routing/gathering mobs, but it is a double edged sword which with incorrect placement can ultimately lead to our demise.
When running fire with GNK, LTK outperforms pillar by quite a margin.
I just started soloing T6 rifts (with unity) and I've noticed that I take around 18 minutes on average per rift, I generally don't die unless I get multiple nasty packs of elites. Is that considered a reasonable amount of time for a T6 rift or is that far too long to be efficient?
I also have a couple of words about unity, for me I was expecting unity to really change my itemization completely, I was hoping I'd be able to go full retard in terms of dps gear and drop most of my resist/armor gear, unfortunately I've found that the unity buff only allows one to solo T6 more efficiently (i.e: with few to no deaths) than not having unity, so if you can't solo T6 to begin with unity isn't going to change that. /soapbox
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I clear the rifts a lot faster now but there are occasions where that extra 150khp and 100 resist is sorely missed, while soloing at least. In terms of group play even 2000+ resists all, and 11k armor can leave one lying facedown in a pool of your ones blood so I figure why not go all out in terms of damage there and help clear faster.
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When running fire with GNK, LTK outperforms pillar by quite a margin.
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obligatory profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/razorfiend-1241/hero/7488563
I also have a couple of words about unity, for me I was expecting unity to really change my itemization completely, I was hoping I'd be able to go full retard in terms of dps gear and drop most of my resist/armor gear, unfortunately I've found that the unity buff only allows one to solo T6 more efficiently (i.e: with few to no deaths) than not having unity, so if you can't solo T6 to begin with unity isn't going to change that. /soapbox