Cyclone Slayer Build Guide - Path of Exile 3.24

Cyclone is one of the most popular skills in PoE to this day and there are a lot of good reasons why. It has a pretty straightforward playstyle where you just hold right-click and watch enemies get decimated without a hitch. The skill itself can also be used as a trigger for other skills like Forbidden Rite or General's Cry.

But, if you want to focus primarily on Cyclone itself, then you should play it with the' Slayer class. Are you interested to know how to create this character? If so, read on. This is our ultimate build guide for the Cyclone Slayer in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

Cyclone is a channeling skill in Path of Exile that gets huge the longer you go spinning. That's because as you hold the skill button, you gain up to six stages that increase Cyclone's area of effect. The size of the skill is enhanced by area of effect and melee strike range modifiers on gear and the passive skill tree.

As you start spinning, your movement speed is slowed down by 30%. However, you can reduce the penalty by increasing the gem's quality to 20%. Make sure to use some Gemcutter's Prisms as soon as you can.

The real draw of the Cyclone skill is its attack rate. The more attack speed you put on your character, the higher your attack rate will be. That means you can potentially hit enemies more than 10 times per second, pretty much giving you the power to destroy anything and everything that comes your way. For this reason, you want to get as many attack speed, crit chance, and critical strike multiplier mods on your gear for the best results.

That being said, the Cyclone Slayer can do elemental or purely physical damage with the right combination of gems and gear. However, this build guide will focus on the physical variant since it is pretty easy to scale damage even with a minimal investment.

Another reason why this build is great is that you have some diversity when it comes to the type of weapon you're going to use. You can go for the recently buffed Atziri's Disfavour, which is a unique axe that increases your melee strike range by 10. It provides a hefty amount of flat physical damage as well. Equipping Atziri's Disfavour allows you to get some Rage generation from the Axe Mastery. This grants you the ability to use Berserk for a quick boost in damage when needed.

A great alternative to Atziri's Disfavour is the Starforge Infernal Sword. This weapon enables you to inflict Shock on your enemies, causing them to take more damage as a result. Furthermore, Starforge gives a whopping increase to your physical damage. And oh, this unique sword enhances Cyclone's radius too!

For the endgame, you'd want to invest in a self-crafted two-handed warstaff so that you can link Shockwave Support to your Cyclone skill gem for maximum damage. Certain staves also act as another layer of defense since some of them contain "% Chance to Block Spell Damage While Wielding a Staff".

If you want to craft the warstaff yourself, refer to our ultimate crafting guide to learn the full instructions.

The build has great map-clearing potential and is perfectly doable in SSF (Solo Self-Found). It also has different layers of defense, mainly utilizing armor to mitigate as much damage as possible, and spell suppression via armor/evasion-based gear as an option you can take.

With the right gear and investment, the Cyclone Slayer can tackle every content the game has to offer in the 3.24 Necropolis League!

Playstyle

The Cyclone Slayer has a very straightforward playstyle. All you really need to do is hold the skill button down (wherever you've bound Cyclone to) and watch as your foes get obliterated.

When entering a map or a new area, activate Blood Rage to increase your attack speed and gain the ability to leech life from your enemies. Use Leap Slam to get around the map quickly.

If you come across a tough enemy or boss monster, drop your Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief totems to get a considerable boost to your attack speed and attack damage, respectively.

Now, there's a slight change in the playstyle of the Cyclone Slayer in Path of Exile: Necropolis League. You see, you can no longer bind instant actions or skills on the left click. This means that you're now unable to put Molten Shell or Blood Rage on the left mouse button.

Because of the change, you must now put them on a separate hotkey and activate them manually. If that is too cumbersome for you, there is a new support gem called Automation that you could incorporate into your gem setup. This new support gem was added as part of Patch 3.24, which automatically activates instant skills for you every time they are off cooldown.

While it is convenient, you have to keep in mind that you will need to free up one gem slot to accommodate the Automation support gem, so you have to adjust accordingly if you are going to use it.

Ascendancy

While the Slayer is not known for its defense, this ascendancy class goes hard with pure offensive power.

You'll start by taking Impact after completing the first labyrinth. This ascendancy notable passive gives you some much-needed boost to your accuracy rating and melee strike range - two stats that are perfect for the build. On top of that, Impact increases your damage when you're surrounded by enemies. You could say that this has been made specifically to utilize Cyclone to great effect.

The next ascendancy notable passive you should get is Bane of Legends. This gives you 10% more damage if you've killed enemies recently. Moreover, Bane of Legends makes you hit harder against unique enemies, so map or pinnacle bosses should cower in fear at the mere sight of you. You also cannot take reflected physical damage, allowing you to run maps with the physical reflect damage mod without worry.

Headsman is a great ascendancy node to take, primarily because it lets you slay enemies that are below 20% of their maximum health. The 10% increase in both attack and movement speed that you get from killing a rare or unique enemy is a nice bonus and makes mapping a whole lot easier.

The last passive you should take is Overwhelm. Taking this gives you a substantial boost to your critical strike chance because it raises the base crit of your equipped weapon to 8%. The reason why this is huge is that most weapons in Path of Exile typically only have 5% base crit. With Overwhelm, you can reach more than 90% critical strike chance with ease.

Now, getting a Forbidden Jewel set is highly encouraged for this build as it allows you to obtain another ascendancy notable passive, for a maximum of five. If you have enough currency, get Forbidden Jewels that have Brutal Fervour as the matching modifier. This is the "overleech" that everyone is talking about.

To put it simply, Brutal Fervour enables you to continuously leech life even though your unreserved HP is already filled. Because you're constantly leeching, you can take great advantage of "% increased damage while leeching" mods from your gear.

Alternatively, you can replace Overwhelm with Brutal Fervour if your crit chance is already at 100%. If this is the case, the Forbidden Jewels can be changed to have "Arena Challenger" as the matching modifier.

Arena Challenger grants you the ability to gain Challenger Charges. Each Challenger Charge gives you 2% more attack speed and movement speed, up to a maximum of 20% (due to the 10 maximum charges). These are, of course, welcome stats for the Cyclone Slayer. As the PoE community says, spin to win!

Gear

There are a lot of variations to the Cyclone Slayer. However, this guide primarily focuses on providing you with information about the best gear possible for the highest amount of damage, while having some respectable defense as well. With that out of the way, let's start with the weapon.

Weapon

The Cyclone Slayer can use three different types of weapons to great effect. The least popular is the Starforge unique Infernal Sword. This two-handed sword provides good stats, including a percentage increase in physical damage, some attack speed, and some added life. But, what makes this weapon amazing is that it allows you to inflict Shock on your enemies, making them take additional damage. Besides that, the 20% increased area of effect can widen the range of Cyclone, allowing you to hit more enemies as you spin through the map.

While the Starforge is okay for those who want to use a sword, the Atziri's Disfavour unique Vaal Axe is a better choice. Not only does it give you increased attack speed and a huge chunk of flat physical damage, but it also increases your weapon range by one meter, which is quite huge when it comes to enhancing Cyclone's area of effect. Moreover, this unique axe raises the quality of socketed support gems by a whopping 30%.

For the endgame, though, you should transition to a well-crafted warstaff. You can use the Judgement Staff for more defense due to its "chance to block spell damage" implicit or the Eventuality Rod for its "+1 to Maximum Power Charges and Endurance Charges".

If you want to craft the endgame warstaff for physical damage builds, here are the steps:

1. Buy an item level 85+ Judgement Staff or Eventuality Rod from the trade website. If you want to farm them on your own, the former can drop anywhere, while the latter can only be obtained from doing Laboratory/Prohibited Library Grand Heists
2. Once you've acquired your warstaff of choice, use Perfect Fossils to increase the weapon's quality to at least 28% (30% is ideal). This is an important step as the higher the item's quality is, the better your chances of getting the desired mods
3. Next, get your hands on as many Deafening Essence of Contempt as you can. Using this particular essence guarantees that you get a flat physical damage prefix
4. Spam your preferred warstaff with Deafening Essence of Contempt until you get the following prefixes:
   1. Flat Physical Damage (from essence)
   2. % Increased Physical Damage
   3. % Increased Physical Damage, + to Accuracy Rating
5. After that, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed". This can only be done if you have an open suffix. If you don't have an open slot, use an Orb of Annulment and hope that you don't get any of the prefixes removed. Otherwise, spam Deafening Essence of Contempt again
6. Once you have locked your prefixes, use a Veiled Orb
7. Before you unveil it, head to your Crafting Bench and put "% Increased Critical Strike Chance". The tier of the mod doesn't matter because this is only done to block any critical strike chance mods from appearing during the unveiling process
8. After that, go to Jun and unveil the suffix. You want to get any "% Increased Attack Speed" or "% Chance to Deal Double Damage" mods, so choose those if they appear on the list
9. When you're satisfied, head to your Crafting Bench one last time and put"# to Strength and Intelligence, % Increased Critical Strike Chance"
10. The last suffix can be filled using an Exalted Orb. The ideal mod to gain from this is "+% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier"

There is an alternative way to craft the endgame warstaff. Instead of going immediately for a Veiled Orb, you want to augment the weapon to add an attack speed mod. To do this, head to the Horticrafting Station in your hideout, then choose the "Add a new Speed modifier and remove another random modifier from a non-influenced item" option. Doing this will guarantee the "% Increased Attack Speed" suffix. The only problem is that there is a chance that you'll get a low-tier roll. Besides that, augmenting the weapon is a bit costly as it requires some Vivid (yellow) Lifeforce, as well as a Sacred Crystallised Lifeforce.

When you go for the alternative method, after obtaining the attack speed suffix, go to your Crafting Bench and put "# to Strength and Intelligence, % Increased Critical Strike Chance". Then just use an Exalted Orb for a chance to obtain the critical strike multiplier mod. You can also use a Warlord Exalted Orb for a chance to get "+3 to Weapon Range".

Body Armor

The best body armor for this build is another crafted item. This time, you will utilize two influenced Astral Plates and combine them with an Awakener's Orb. The crafting process is a bit complicated, but bear with us.

To start, obtain a Warlord-influenced Astral Plate and another that has a Hunter influence. Next, use an Orb of Scouring and an Orb of Transmutation to turn them into a magic (blue) item. From there, use Orb of Alteration until you get at least one influenced modifier on each of the Astral Plates. You will know if an affix is an influenced mod by pressing and holding the Alt key and it shows "...of Warlord" or "of Hunter".

On the Warlord-influenced Astral Plate, do the following:

1. Use Orb of Alteration until you get "% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" or any influenced prefix modifier
2. Once you have that, use a Regal Orb to turn the item into a rare (yellow) body armor
3. Go to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed". From there, go to the Horticrafting Station and use Harvest Reforge Attack. Doing this will give you the "Socketed Attacks Have -15 to Total Mana Cost" mod, which is the one that you need. The reason why having two influenced mods on the armor is important is so that you can use an Orb of Dominance to elevate one of those modifiers
4. That said, use an Orb of Dominance and hope that you elevate the reduced mana cost modifier. If this step fails, you have to repeat the process all over again. However, if it succeeds, the modifier is elevated and turns into "Ignore Stuns While Using Socketed Attack Skills, Socketed Attacks Have -20 to Total Mana Cost"
5. Once you've elevated the right modifier, proceed to crafting the Hunter-influenced Astral Plate

On the Hunter-influenced Astral Plate:

1. On a magic (blue) Astral Plate, use Orb of Alteration until you get an influenced prefix modifier
2. Then, use a Regal Orb to turn the body armor into a rare (yellow) Astral Plate
3. After that, go to the Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed"
4. Next, use Harvest Reforge Critical. This will guarantee the mod "Attacks have +% to Critical Strike Chance"
5. Now that you have two influenced modifiers, use an Orb of Dominance and hope that you elevate the crit modifier

When you've completed the steps above, you can now use an Awakener's Orb to combine the two. Since both the reduced mana cost and critical mods are suffixes, you can go to your Crafting Bench afterward and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed".

You're almost done! Head to the Horticrafting Station once more and use Harvest Reforge Caster. This will add the mod, "You Can Apply an Additional Curse". If there are open affix slots, you can use Exalted Orbs, and the craft is finished!

After following all of the steps, you should have something like this:

Phew! That was a doozy! But, at least you now know how to craft such a magnificent piece of gear!

Helmet

Because this build focuses on dealing physical damage, there is no better helmet than the Abyssus. This unique Ezomyte Burgonet adds flat physical damage and a hefty amount of melee critical strike multiplier. Although this helmet is pretty good for the Cyclone Slayer, it does have a huge downside in that you take up to 50% increased physical damage from enemies. Get one with just "40% Increased Physical Damage Taken" so that you can take more hits from your enemies before going down.

Gloves

Since Kaom's Spirit has been heavily nerfed in the previous league, the best gloves you can wear for the Cyclone Slayer is a self-crafted pair of Spiked Gloves. Grab an ilvl 85+ Spiked Gloves and use any Essence you want that guarantees a suffix. Our recommendations are Essence of Zeal (Attack Speed) or Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance), but the choice is entirely up to you.

Spam the gloves with any Essence of your choosing until you get elemental resistances, chaos resistance (if not using Essence of Envy), and another suffix that is useful for your character.

When you are happy with the mods, lock the suffixes and then use a Veiled Orb. Bench-craft "25% Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage" before unveiling. After that, head to Jun and select the option to unveil the item.

The mod you are looking for is "+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems, 10% Increased Area of Effect" After getting the said mod successfully, head to the Crafting Bench one last time and put "43% Increased Damage While Leeching". If you still have an open prefix, use an Exalted Orb.

For the implicit modifiers, spam the gloves with Eldritch Ichors until you get "% Chance to Impale Enemies on Hit" and Eldritch Embers for the Rage gain on hit.

Boots

Yes, endgame gear involves a lot of crafting. The best boots for the Cyclone Slayer are well-crafted Hunter-influenced boots, preferably Dragonscale Boots or Two-Toned Boots (armor/evasion-based) as crafting bases. You want Hunter-influenced boots for that juicy tailwind mod.

While you can use the Orb of Alteration method until you get the tailwind mod, the best way to craft the boots is by using any essences that guarantee suffixes, so long as they benefit your character. You can go for Deafening Essence of Envy for that chaos resistance, but attribute essences are good as well.

To craft the boots, you must do these:

1. Increase the quality of the Hunter-influenced boots using Perfect Fossils (28% to 30%)
2. Spam your preferred essence until you get the tailwind mod. You have about 1 in 1,000 chance to get it using this method, so be sure that you have a ton of essences before you attempt to craft the boots
3. Once you have the tailwind mod, put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench, then use a Veiled Orb
4. Go to Jun and unveil. You're hoping to get the "% Increased Movement Speed, % Change to Gain Onslaught on Kill" prefix modifier
5. After getting the desired movement speed mod, go back to the Crafting Bench and put "+ to Maximum Life"
6. If you still have an open prefix, use an Exalted Orb

Alternatively, you can craft a pair of Onslaught Boots by following the instructions outlined in our ultimate crafting guide.

When it comes to the implicit mods, use Eldritch Ichors until you get "% Increased Life Regeneration Rate" and Eldritch Embers for "% Increased Action Speed".

Amulet

When it comes to the amulet, there is a simple one and then there's the more complicated (and sometimes even more rewarding) option. You can probably tell what the simple one is judging by the opening statement. If not, then it is a unique amulet, specifically the Ashes of the Stars. Although this has been nerfed in the previous league, the increased quality it provides can help mitigate the movement speed penalty that is inherent in the Cyclone skill gem.

For the more complicated yet rewarding option, you will craft a rare amulet using a Turquoise Amulet or an Onyx Amulet as a crafting base. Choose whichever of these suits your character best. If you lack DEX or INT, then the Turquoise Amulet is great. If you're good and you just want a slight boost in attributes, then go for the Onyx Amulet. Just make sure that they're at least item level 82 to roll the mods that you need.

Now that you know the crafting bases, the end result that you want to achieve is an amulet that has "1 to Level of All Skill Gems" and "+1 to Level of All Physical Skill Gems" to give your Cyclone gem a considerable boost in damage.

To obtain this beauty, you have to do these steps:

1. Use an Orb of Scouring and an Orb of Transmutation to turn your amulet of choice into a magic (blue) item
2. Next, spam it with Orb of Alteration until you get "+1 to Level of All Skill Gems". Be patient with this one because you have a measly 1 in 1,500 chance to obtain it. Of course, if you're lucky, you can get it in far fewer tries than that
3. When you have the said prefix, make sure that it is the only mod that is on the amulet. That's because you'll still use a Regal Orb to turn it into a rare (yellow) item
4. If the additional mod (from using Regal Orb) is a prefix, you're fine. However, if you somehow roll a suffix, you'll have to use an Orb of Annulment to remove it. If the "+1 to Level of All Skill Gems" is annulled during this process, you will have to start all over again
5. When you have all of the suffix slots open, go to your Crafting Bench and put these mods in order: Can Have Up to 3 Crafted Modifiers > Prefixes Cannot Be Changed > Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers. This part of the crafting process will cost you five Divine Orbs already, but it will guarantee the "+1 to Level of Physical Skill Gems" if you follow the next step
6. Head to your Horticrafting Station and use the "Add a new Physical modifier and remove another random modifier from a non-influenced item" option. Remember, doing this will remove a random mod, but you don't have to worry because it will just be one of the crafted suffixes you've added earlier
7. At this point, you have the two prefixes that you need from the crafting project. If you don't want to proceed anymore, you can just use the Crafting Bench to add any mod you want and then use Exalted Orbs to fill the rest of the open slots. Alternatively, you can go a lot deeper to get even better mods.
8. If you want to go further, head back to your Crafting Bench again and select "Remove Crafted Modifiers". Next, put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and use a Veiled Orb. Then, go to Jun and unveil
9. If you have a veiled prefix, there are two mods that you want to get from the pool. You can either settle with an elevated"% Increased Area of Effect, % Increased Area Damage" or "% Increased Melee Damage, +2 to Melee Strike Range". But, if you get a veiled suffix, you want the "+1 to Minimum Frenzy OR Endurance Charges, 4% Chance to Gain Frenzy/Endurance Charge on Kill".
10. Assuming you got a veiled prefix, you can finish the amulet by using an Exalted Orb first then a Warlord Exalted Orb. You're hoping to get "Determination or Pride Has % Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency"
11. If you have a veiled suffix, go to your Crafting Bench and put "% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance". After that, use a Warlord Exalted Orb to have a chance of obtaining "% Increased Damage per Endurance Charge" or "% Increased Area of Effect". Conclude the crafting project by using an Exalted Orb and that's it!

In terms of anointment, put Panopticon (Amber Oil, Golden Oil, Golden Oil)on the amulet for improved effects of your totem. If you don't have the "You Can Apply an Additional Curse" mod on the chest, put Whispers of Doom (Golden Oil x3) instead.

Rings

The Circle of Guilt is a great choice for the Cyclone Slayer. It has many variations, but the one that you want has the mods "Herald of Purity Has % Increased Buff Effect" and "% Increased Physical Damage While Affected by Herald of Purity". You can equip two of these things and just call it a day.

However, if you struggle to sustain your mana while you're spinning to win, especially after the mana changes GGG implemented in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, then you can go for a crafted Amethyst Ring (Chaos Resistance) or Two-Stone Ring (Elemental Resistance). Don't worry, the crafting process is not that complicated at all.

All you have to do is get an item level 85 ring (from the choices above), go to your Harvest Bench, and then select the "Reforge Chaos" option. You want to populate the suffixes with the mods that you need. Using "Reforge Chaos" guarantees "+% to Chaos Resistance" so it;s up to which suffixes you;re going to get for the other two slots. Once you're satisfied with the mods, go to your Crafting Bench again and put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed". After that, use a Veiled Orb.

Unveil for a chance to get "+ to Maximum Life, Regenerate # Mana per Second". Then, go to your Crafting Bench one last time and add the mod, "Channelling Skills Have -3 to Total Mana Cost" and then use an Exalted Orb.

If you've followed the steps above, you should have something like this:

If you want to maximize the damage potential of this build, your other ring can be a self-crafted one using an ilvl 80+ Warlord-influenced Amethyst Ring as a base. After acquiring it, use Harvest Reforge Caster until you get the "Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit" mod. The rest of the modifiers can be filled up using Exalted Orbs and the Crafting Bench.

For the uninitiated, Vulnerability is a curse spell in PoE that causes enemies to not only take increased physical damage, but can inflict the "Bleeding" status effect as well.

Belt

There are a couple of inexpensive unique belts that work great for the Cyclone Slayer. The Ryslatha's Coil is a belt that has a unique effect that reads, "(30-40)% More Maximum Physical Attack Damage, (30-40)% Less Minimum Physical Attack Damage". What does this mean? Simply put, the said effect increases your damage range.

Say, you deal 50-100 damage. When you have the Ryslatha's Coil equipped, your damage range becomes wider, so rather than dealing 50-100 damage, the range will now be 25-125. For this reason, you want a Ryslatha's coil with as close to 40% on the "maximum damage" as possible, and about 30% on the "less minimum damage" portion for best results.

Another great inexpensive option for the belt slot is The Magnate. This is another unique Studded Belt that allows you to deal triple damage when you have at least 400 strength. If you're going to use this particular belt, make sure that you get STR wherever you can. Now, if you're not able to reach that number, The Magnate grants you a slight chance to deal double damage when you have at least 200 Strength as a consolation.

Since they're quite cheap to obtain, you can purchase a ton and corrupt them with Vaal Orbs for a chance to gain these corrupted implicits:

• Ryslatha's Coil

  • % Increased Attack Speed During Any Flask Effect
  • % Increased Critical Strike Chance During Any Flask Effect
  • +% to Critical Strike Multiplier During Any Flask Effect
  • % Increased Maximum Life
  • % Increased Dexterity/% Increased Intelligence
  • % Increased Movement Speed During Any Flask Effect
  • Determination Has % Increased Aura Effect
  • Pride Has % Increased Aura Effect

• The Magnate

  • +% to Critical Strike Multiplier During Any Flask Effect
  • % Increased Critical Strike Chance During Any Flask Effect
  • % Increased Area of Effect
  • % Increased Movement Speed During Any Flask Effect
  • % Increased Maximum Life
  • Pride Has % Increased Aura Effect
  • Determination Has % Increased Aura Effect
  • +% to All Elemental Resistances
  • +1 to Maximum Endurance Charges
  • % Increased Dexterity/% Increased Intelligence

Flasks

• Magic Flasks

  • Diamond Flask
  • Granite Flask
  • Basalt Flask
  • Jade Flask (if using armor/evasion-based gear
  • Amethyst Flask

• Unique Flasks

  • Lion's Roar
  • Bottled Faith
  • Progenesis

The endgame version of Cyclone Slayer utilizes lots of attack speed and critical strike chance to deal insane amounts of damage. That is why you will need a Diamond Flask for this build because that 100% boost to your crit chance is just too hard to pass up.

Since the Abyssus is a great choice for the build, which is an armor-based helmet, you need to capitalize on that by using Granite Flask and Basalt Flask. Using both of these together should provide you with enough damage mitigation from attack hits.

If you wear a few armor/evasion-based gear like the Dragonscale Gauntlets and Dragonscale Boots, you could replace Basalt Flask with Jade Flask so that you’ll have another layer of defense.

The Amethyst Flask gives you a sizable increase in chaos resistance and is always a good thing, especially in the late game. Quicksilver Flask is more for mapping, but you could swap this with any of the unique flasks mentioned on the list.

Speaking of unique flasks, the Lion's Roar is a very affordable unique Granite Flask that gives you 10% more melee physical damage during flask effect. If you don’t know, the “more” description on an item in Path of Exile is multiplicative rather than additive. In other words, more is definitely better!

If you have the means to acquire this next one, then the Bottled Faith should be on your radar. This unique Sulphur Flask further boosts your crit chance so long as you’re standing on the Consecrated Ground it creates. Not only that but enemies take up to 10% increased damage from critical strikes!

Now, if PoE currency is not an issue at all, then the ideal unique flask you can use for the Cyclone Slayer is the Progenesis. This flask works similarly to Petrified Blood, which means that it can greatly improve your survivability.

Flask Mods

• 14% Increased Movement Speed During Effect (of the Cheetah)
• 60% Increased Armour During Effect (of the Armadillo)
• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance During Effect (of Incision)
• 17% Increased Attack Speed During Effect (of the Dove)
• 34% Chance to Gain a Flask Charge When You Deal a Critical Strike (Prefix, Surgeon's)

Jewels

The Slayer Ascendancy Class has several notable passives that truly make the Cyclone Slayer shine. Because of this, you want to save up some currency until you can get the Forbidden Jewel Set. The matching modifier could be anything from the list above. This means that you can purchase a Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame jewel with Overwhelm, Brutal Fervour, or Headsman as the matching modifier. Choose the cheapest you can find on the trade website. Just make sure that both of the jewels have the same ascendancy passive, otherwise, they won't work. It's also worth mentioning that the Forbidden Jewel Set requires two jewel slots, so you may have to use Cluster Jewels just to fit them in.

Additionally, you can opt for "Arena Challenger" if you are shopping for the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels on the trade website. Refer to the "Ascendancy" section of this build guide for a refresher on this topic.

Cluster Jewels? Yes, you need at least one Large Cluster Jewel and two Medium Cluster Jewels. However, you can certainly add more if you have the budget; you'll just have to free up some passive points on the tree so that you can allocate them to the nodes present on the cluster jewels you’re going to use.

Having said that, let's start with the Large Cluster Jewel. The passive skills you want are:

• Feed the Fury

  • 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life
  • 30% Increased Damage While Leechin
  • 15% Increased Attack Speed While Leeching

• Fuel the Fight

  • 8% Increased Attack Speed
  • 0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Mana
  • 20% Increased Damage While Leeching

• Martial Prowess

  • 20% Increased Attack Damage
  • 6% Increased Attack Speed
  • 15% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
  • 20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills

Thanks to Brutal Fervour, you're always going to get the maximum benefit from Feed the Fury and Fuel the Fight. Martial Prowess provides additional bonuses that can improve the build, such as attack damage, attack speed, and accuracy rating.

It is actually quite easy to craft the Large Cluster Jewel above. All you have to do is get one with "10% Increased Attack Damage" as a crafting base. Then, go to your Harvest Bench and choose the "Reforge Attack" option until you get the desired passive skills.

If you are using the endgame warstaff and have the budget for another Large Cluster Jewel, you can use the "Staff Attacks Deal 12% Increased Damage-" cluster jewel as a crafting base. The passive skills you're looking for include:

• Overlord

  • Melee Hits with Maces, Sceptres, and Staves Fortify for 6 seconds
  • 30% Increased Damage with Maces, Sceptres, or Staves

• Weight Advantage

  • +20 to Strength
  • Mace, Sceptre, or Staff Attacks Deal 30% Increased Damage with Hits and Ailments
  • 4% chance to Deal Double Damage While Wielding a Mace, Sceptre, or Staff

• Martial Prowess

  • 20% Increased Attack Damage
  • 6% Increased Attack Speed
  • 15% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
  • 20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills

Because all of these passive skills have the "Attack" tag, you can use your Harvest Bench's "Reforge Attack" option to craft the Large Cluster Jewel.

For the Medium Cluster Jewels, you should have at least two. One of the clusters must have "Added Small Passive Skills Grant 15% Increased Critical Strike Chance" and the other should be "Added Small Passive Skills Grant Channeling Skills Deal 12% Increased Damage".

The mods that you want on the crit-based Medium Cluster Jewel are:

• Pressure Points

  • Your Critical Strikes Have a 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
  • 30% Increased Critical Strike Chance

• Magnifier

  • 10% Increased Area of Effect
  • +10% to Critical Strike Multiplier

To craft this particular Medium Cluster Jewel, just get the crafting base and use the "Reforge Critical" option from the Harvest Bench. They have a pretty good chance of popping up, so you won't have problems getting the desired mods.

On the other hand, here are the passive skills you need on the Channeling-based Medium Cluster Jewel:

• Rapid Infusion

  • 50% Increased Effect of Infusion
  • 5% Increased Movement Speed While You Have Infusion

• Precise Focus

  • 30% Increased Critical Strike Chance While Channeling
  • +20% to Critical Strike Multiplier if You've Been Channeling for 1 Second

This is a bit harder to craft mainly because these notable passives have different tags on them. You could try using "Reforge Speed" from your Harvest Bench since this guarantees a "speed" modifier, for which Rapid Infusion has that tag. Do this over "Reforge Critical" because Precise Focus is much more common than Rapid Infusion.

If you're rich and PoE currency is not an issue, use four medium clusters; two of each base!

The next important jewel for the Cyclone Slayer is the Watcher's Eye. Get one with any of the following mods:

• Impales You Inflict Last # Additional Hits While Using Pride
• % Chance to Impale Enemies on Hit with Attacks While Using Pride
• % Increased Physical Damage While Using Pride
• % Chance to Deal Double Damage While Using Pride
• Your Hits Intimidate Enemies for 4 Seconds While You Are Using Pride
• % Increased Attack Speed While Affected by Precision
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier While Affected by Precision
• % Increased Attack Damage While Affected by Precision
• Gain a Flask Charge When You Deal a Critical Strike Chance While Affected by Precision
• +# to Armour While Affected by Determination
• #% Additional Physical Damage Reduction While Affected by Determination
• You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes While Affected by Determination

To maximize your damage output, you can use a Lethal Pride Timeless Jewel as well. This improves the passive skills in its radius by adding new effects. Utilize this handy Timeless Jewel calculator to help you get a Lethal Pride with any of the following mods (in order of importance):

• +15% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• 30% Increased Melee Critical Strike Chance
• 4% Increased Maximum Life
• 10% Chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit
• 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage

The reason why the mod "Chance to Deal Double Damage" is dead last in the pecking order is that you'll need at least three of them to be effective. Not to mention that a Lethal Price with at least three "double damage" mods is quite expensive to obtain. However, if you are rich and you don't mind spending a ton on this jewel, then by all means!

If you still have any jewel slots remaining, you can buy regular Base Jewels to fill those up. They are a perfect way to address any issues you may have, such as low life, low attack speed, low attributes, or low resistances. If you're going to put base jewels on your passive tree, here are some mod suggestions:

• +% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Two-Handed Melee Weapons
• % Increased Damage with Staves/Axes/Swords (Depending on the weapon you have equipped)
• % Increased Attack Speed with Staves/Axes/Swords
• % Increased Global Physical Damage
• % Increased Melee Damage
• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Reduced Mana Cost of Skills
• % Increased Global Accuracy Rating (if you're still not hit-capped)
• +% to All Elemental Resistances
• +% to Chaos Resistance

To conclude this section of the build guide, you can opt to add Small Cluster Jewels instead of Base Jewels on your passive tree. Take note that if you're going this route, you need at least two passive skills to allocate the nodes on the small clusters. If you're interested, there are two types of Small Cluster Jewels you can make.

The first one uses the "15% Increased Armor" small cluster as a base. Use an Orb of Scouring and Orb of Transmutation to transform this jewel into a magic (blue) item. Then, roll it with Orb of Alteration until you hit "Enduring Composure" When you have that, just use a Regal Orb and Exalted Orb and you're done!

The second small cluster jewel uses the "6% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills" as a crafting base. Use the same steps mentioned above until you get the mod, "Destructive Aspect".

If you want to know what those notable passives bring to the table, here are their effects:

• Enduring Composure

  • 30% Increased Armour
  • Gain 1 Endurance Charge Every Second if You've Been Hit Recently

• Destructive Aspect

  • 12% Increased Area of Effect of Aura Skills
  • Pride Has 50% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency

Gems

Welcome to the gems section of the guide! Since the Cyclone Slayer is flexible when it comes to wielding amazingly powerful weapons, the appropriate section of the guide will be divided into two so that it will be easier for you to follow. Without further ado, let's get started!

Weapon (Warstaff)

• Cyclone
• Shockwave Support
• Infused Channeling Support
• Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support
• Awakened Brutality Support
• Pulverise Support

No matter what weapon you end up using, Cyclone is always going to be the constant. Although the alt-quality variants of this skill gem have been removed for quite some time now, the base version has been buffed considerably to compensate.

Shockwave is a support gem that triggers the skill of the same name whenever you hit with a mace, sceptre, or staff. This gem alone enables you to deal incredible amounts of damage, even more so when you add all the other Cyclone support gems into the mix.

Infused Channeling Support grants a "more" damage multiplier on your Cyclone skill. On top of that, you gain the "Infusion" buff for a short period after channeling, which gives you additional damage. The Anomalous version improves that by increasing the effect of Infusion by 10% at max gem quality.

Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support and Awakened Brutality Support provide even more physical damage to the build, which is insane! The former also gives you the ability to intimidate enemies on hit, meaning, they take more damage from your Cyclone hits!

Pulverise Support is a support gem that not only makes the area of effect of your Cyclone bigger, but increases its area damage as well. The only downside here is that your main attack skill has 15% less attack speed at max gem level. Still, that's an acceptable disadvantage because the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this case.

Weapon (Atziri's Disfavour/Starforge)

• Cyclone
• Infused Channeling Suppor
• Impale Support
• Awakened Melee Physical Damage Support
• Awakened Brutality Support
• Close Combat Support

Looking at the support gems above, you will find that there are a couple that are different from the ones found on the warstaff. When you equip any of the unique weapons mentioned earlier in the build guide, you have to utilize Impales to great effect, hence the inclusion of the support gem with the same name.

Another gem that was not part of the original gem links is Close Combat Support. This is a great support gem for axe and sword users because it grants more attack damage depending on the number of enemies nearby. Since you're pretty much up close and personal with your foes while you're spinning, you'll always gain the benefits Close Combat Support provides.

Body Armour

• Determination
• Pride
• Dread Banner
• Blood and Sand
• Leap Slam
• Enlighten Support (Lvl 4)/ Punishment

Most of the gems here are part of your main aura setup. Determination grants you a huge boost to your armor. This is part of the reason why you need to use a Granite and Basalt Flask to ensure that you mitigate as much physical damage from enemy hits as possible.

Pride makes your enemies take more physical damage. If you are using a non-influenced chest armor, you can use Eldritch Ichors to acquire the implicit modifier: "Pride Has % Increased Aura Effect".

Dread Banner improves your chance to Impale enemies. It increases the Impale effect on your foes as well.

Blood and Sand is a stance skill that provides you with different benefits depending on which stance is currently activated. For the most part, use Sand Stance for that increased area of effect, and Blood Stance when fighting tougher enemies. Now, if you have the Arena Challenger ascendancy node (via the Forbidden Jewels Set), activate Blood Stance at all times.

To activate all of these auras, you must use a level 4 Enlighten gem for that 92% cost and reservation multiplier. If you"re still running low on mana, preventing you from enabling all of the auras, you can use a small cluster jewel with Destructive Aspect for that 50% increased mana reservation for Pride.

Your main movement skill for the Cyclone Slayer is Leap Slam. Do not worry, Leap Slam won't feel clunky at all even if you do not have Faster Attacks Support! That's because of the insane attack speed this build has.

If you do not have any issues with mana, particularly when activating the auras mentioned on the list, then you can replace Enlighten Support with Punishment. This is another curse spell that causes affected monsters to take a significant amount of damage. However, this is only a viable option if you have the double-influenced body armor equipped. Otherwise, stick to Enlighten Support.

Gloves

• Ancestral Protector
• Ancestral Warchief
• Multiple Totems Support
• Maim Support

The Cyclone Slayer is a killing machine when it's built right. While it can certainly decimate lowly minions without a hitch, you may need to do a couple of extra things when you're fighting against bosses. Whenever you come across a tough opponent, drop your Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief totems for a significant boost to your attack speed and attack damage, respectively. Their effects are boosted by the Panopticon amulet anointment mentioned earlier.

Multiple Totems Support just enables you to put three totems instead of one at a time. And, Maim Support weakens your enemies, causing them to take increased physical damage as a result.

Helmet

• Precision
• Blood Rage
• Berserk
• Molten Shell

Precision gives a massive boost to your accuracy rating, allowing you to easily achieve the 100% hit cap. It also provides up to 58% increased critical strike chance, which is always welcome.

Blood Rage increases your attack speed significantly and it also gives you the ability to generate Frenzy Charges on kill.

Berserk is almost the same as Blood Rage, except that it grants increased attack damage and movement speed as well. Activate this whenever you have enough Rage and you're fighting against more challenging enemies.

Molten Shell is the guard skill of choice for the Cyclone Slayer. Because you can no longer bind instant skills on the left click in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, you have to manually activate this yourself. Utilize it often to improve your survivability.

Boots

• Assassin's Mark/Poacher's Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Lifetap Support
• Frostblink/Flame Dash

Most of your damage comes from critical strikes. That's why Assassin's Mark is great for the Cyclone Slayer because it not only gives you the ability to gain Power Charges, but it also increases your critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier against cursed enemies.

In the current league, Grinding Gear Games has nerfed the mana cost reduction of skills in a big way. That is why if you are struggling to sustain your mana, you could replace Assassin's Mark with Poacher's Mark.

Poacher's Mark is another Mark skill in PoE that causes you to gain life and mana when hitting cursed enemies. Furthermore, slaying monsters affected by Poacher's Mark guarantees that you get a Frenzy Charge in return.

Now, manually casting the curse yourself is annoying. That is where Mark on Hit Support comes in. This support gem automatically casts Assassin's Mark or Poacher's Mark when you hit a rare or unique enemy.

With most of your mana already reserved by the auras used in this build, you might not have enough left to cast Assassin's Mark. For this reason, you'll use Lifetap so that every time you cast the said curse, it only costs a small portion of your HP rather than your mana.'

The last gem slot can be used for any gem that you like. We've just included Frostblink or Flame Dash on the list as a placeholder, but it could be anything, really.

Tattoos

Out with the Wildwood Ascendancies from the previous league and in with the Tattoos from a couple of leagues ago. That’s right! Tattoos have returned in PoE, though some of them have received considerable changes. Are you having trouble choosing which Tattoos to put on your passive tree? Worry not! Here are our recommendations:

• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior

  • 5% Increased Physical Damage

• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warmonger

  • 5% Increased Melee Damage

• Tattoo of the Kitava Heart Eater

  • Killing Blows Have a 4% Chance to Consume Corpses to Recover 10% of Maximum Life

• Tattoo of the Rongokurai Warrior

  • 6% Increased Armour

• Tattoo of the Rongokurai Guard

  • Guard Skills Have a 6% Increased Duration

• Tattoo of the Valako Scout

  • 10% Reduced Effect of Shock on You

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller

  • +3% to Chaos Resistance

• Tattoo of the Hinekora Deathwarden

  • 6% Reduced Effect of Curses on You

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot

  • 2% Increased Movement Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Passive Tree

POB

Endgame Warstaff POB

Atziri's Disfavour POB

Starforge POB

Final Thoughts

Quick and deadly, these words perfectly describe what the Cyclone Slayer is capable of. It utilizes attack speed and critical strike chance to deal insane amounts of damage. The support gems linked to the said skill gem work really well together.

The Cyclone Slayer is flexible in terms of the main weapon. For the endgame, you should use a well-crafted warstaff that has all of the physical damage mods you can roll on it. The reason why you need a warstaff for the endgame is so that you can insert the Shockwave Support into your Cyclone's gem links.

Aside from the warstaff, this build can utilize Atziri's Disfavour and Starforge as well. Even though you cannot use Shockwave, you can utilize Close Combat Support to maximize your damage output, especially when you're surrounded by hordes of enemies.

On the surface, you might think that this build is not tanky enough to survive multiple hits from the enemy simply because Slayer is not known to be a defensive ascendancy class. But, that "downside" can be countered by taking advantage of the Slayer's overleech node, Brutal Fervour. You also have the option of equipping armor/evasion-based gear to roll spell suppression for even more damage mitigation.

Even though this build guide highlights some expensive crafted gear, you can still make the build work by using the unique items mentioned here. You can slowly upgrade your gear over time.

With the changes implemented in Patch 3.24, we are happy to say that this build has survived all of that. You just have to make sure that you have the right items and passive skills to compensate for the nerfs to mana and more.

All in all, the Cyclone Slayer is a fun build that can handle any content in the game! Don't forget to bookmark this guide so that you have some references along the way.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Fast mapper

+Can kill bosses easily with the right gear

+Capable of using three different types of weapons

+Insane damage potential thanks to Slayer ascendancy

+Still awesome in Patch 3.24

CONS

-Endgame gear can be quite expensive

-Low spell suppression chance can be a problem