Ultimate Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker Build Guide - Path of Exile 3.24

Are you tired of the typical physical Cyclone builds in Path of Exile? Do you want to try something unique that is worth your time? If so, the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker deserves your attention.

If you have the currency, then be sure to give this build a spin. So, without further ado, here's our guide to the ultimate Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker!

Basics

What makes the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker tick? This build uses a lot of unique items, particularly those that provide chaos damage and additional bonuses depending on the amount of Strength you have. These will be covered in the "Gear" section of the guide.

In terms of the main skill, you will use the base version of Cyclone. This gem got buffed mightily in Patch 3.23 Affliction League. It no longer requires some build-up in order to get the full effect. The skill just slaps right off the bat! That means that its area of effect is already huge, but you do have the option of improving that if you invest in melee strike range. On top of that, you now only suffer 20% less movement speed as opposed to the 30% penalty previously.

You supplement Cyclone's damage by putting Shockwave Support. When you hit enemies with Cyclone, you will trigger devastating shockwaves that deal massive amounts of damage. This support gem can only be used when you have a mace, sceptre, or staff equipped, which is why using a one-handed sword or axe is not possible in this case.

This build utilizes a warcry skill, specifically the Battlemage's Cry. When used, it buffs your critical strike chance by up to 30%. But more importantly, any modifiers that affect spell damage also apply to attacks at 25% of their value, up to a maximum of 150%. As you will find out later, this works perfectly well with the gear you are going to use for the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker.

Now, there is one important thing that you have to keep in mind. This build is quite expensive to put up because it requires a lot of expensive gear and a ton of jewels. However, any PoE Currency you invest into this build will feel good, so it is definitely worth it!

How about Cyclone of Tumult? This transfigured version of Cyclone is ok. But, the reason why we've opted for the regular version is that it is more reliable, does not require any build-up, and has far less movement speed penalty compared to Cyclone of Tumult.

Playstyle

The Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker is played just like you would a normal physical Cyclone build with a few key differences. For one, you will bind Battlemage's Cry on your left click so that you do not have to think about activating it normally. This is supplemented by the Call to Arms keystone passive, which means that everything will go smoothly even when you perform the warcry.

Use Frostblink to scour for packs of monsters and then initiate Cyclone to kill them all. Just your typical "spin-to-win" playstyle!

When you encounter tough enemies or bosses, you will drop your Ancestral Warchief and Ancestral Protector totems to apply the Wither debuff on them. This causes your foes to take more chaos damage in the process.

Ascendancy

Our ascendancy of choice for this build is the Berserker. This ascendancy class brings the pain by having notable passives that improve your damage manifold.

Your first notable passive is War Bringer. When you use any warcry, this grants you Rage if you have less than 25 of the said resource. However, if you have more than 25, you will sacrifice 10 Rage in order to deal more damage. This synergizes well with the Redblade Banner. More on this later in the build guide.

The next notable passive you should take is Aspect of Carnage. This needs no introduction; it provides you with 40% more damage at the cost of 10% increased damage taken. That is not a problem at all because you have a ton of armor to mitigate the damage that you receive.

After completing the third labyrinth trial, you will allocate points to Flawless Savagery. This provides a considerable boost to your critical strike chance and crit multiplier.

And, for your final notable ascendancy passive, you will go for Blitz. Whenever you deal a critical strike, which is quite often with the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker, you are going to get a Blitz Charge. A single Blitz Charge grants you 2% more attack speed, but this comes with a downside where your crit strike chance is reduced by 8% per charge. Do not worry about it because this disadvantage is circumvented by your crafted helmet.

Now, if you truly want to take this build to the next level, you can buy the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with "Undeniable" as the matching modifier. This node is from the Juggernaut ascendancy tree where you gain 1% attack speed per 150 accuracy rating. Do you know why this node is insane for this build? Well, that's because it has a line that says, "Gain Accuracy Rating Equal to Twice Your Strength". Seriously, your enemies won't stand a chance when they go against you!

Gear

The Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker is one of the most expensive builds in the game, as is the cast with most attribute stackers. It requires a lot of unique items and some crafted pieces of gear as well.

Weapon

There is only one weapon for this build and that is none other than the Replica Frostbreath. This unique Ornate Mace is different from its regular version in that it deals chaos damage as opposed to cold damage.

Despite the damage type, this weapon actually causes your enemies to suffer from the Chill status effect. Furthermore, attacks performed by this weapon deal double damage to chilled enemies. With the high base attack speed of Cyclone itself, you can destroy enemies with ease using this thing.

Shield

The shield of choice for the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker is the Redblade Banner. What does this unique Painted Tower Shield have to offer that is not present in other shields in PoE?

Well, it has a unique property where your Battlemage's Cry will always provide its maximum effect regardless of how many enemies there are in your vicinity. Not only that but this shield also reduces the warcry's cooldown significantly, allowing you to use it more often than not.

Body Armor

The Iron Fortress is the perfect body armor for the build. As a strength-stacker, you want to use items that give you additional bonuses the more Strength you have, and that is what the Iron Fortress is for.

This unique Crusader Plate grants you 3% increased melee physical damage per 10 Strength. Because stacking at least 2,500 STR on this build is pretty doable, you will see your damage soar to incredible heights without even trying!

Of course, as with any overpowered gear in Path of Exile, this armor does come with a heavy downside. When you have the Iron Fortress equipped, your movement speed is reduced by 10%. Still, its pros definitely outweigh the cons.

Helmet

For the helmet, you are going to use an elevated double-influenced helmet with the following mods:

• 1% Increased Critical Strike Chance per 10 Strength, Gain Accuracy Rating Equal to Your Strength (Warlord Mod)
• Nearby Enemies Have -12% to Chaos Resistance (Hunter Mod)

Crafting this beauty is a lengthy process. Be sure to visit our dedicated crafting guide to learn how you can create this from scratch.

Since you are always up close and personal with the enemy, the Hunter Mod certainly goes a long way. This is complemented by the Wither debuff inflicted by your totems, so you can really see that this build utilizes multiple avenues to deal as much damage as possible.

The Berserker's Blitz notable passive increases your attack speed at the cost of reduced critical strike chance. Well, that is rectified by the elevated Warlord Mod. It also has an additional benefit where you no longer have to worry about being hit-capped!

Gloves

The gloves are nothing special. Just an item level 85 Titan Gauntlets that is crafted using Deafening Essence of Zeal for that guaranteed attack speed. Spam the gloves with this essence until you get Tier 1 STR, life, and chaos resistance, among other useful modifiers. Just leave a prefix open so that you can add "43% Increased Damage While Leeching".

For the implicit modifiers, use Grand Eldritch Ichors to get "3% Increased Damage per 100 Strength" and Grand Eldritch Embers to obtain "10% Increased Attack Speed". You can elevate the Eater of Worlds mod by using a couple of Orbs of Conflict so that it is raised to 4% increased damage, but that is optional.

If you do not want to go the crafting route, you can just equip the Oskarm and call it a day. These gloves have a unique effect where you get 2% increased critical strike chance per 200 accuracy rating. What's more, it triggers a lvl 10 Assassin's Mark whenever you hit a rare or unique enemy, which frees up a gem slot that you can use for something else.

Boots

Another unique piece of gear that you're going to equip for this build is the Replica Alberon's Warpath. This unique pair of Soldier Boots is what you would call a build-enabler because it provides you with 80 chaos damage per 80 Strength. Besides that, you gain up to 18% increased Strength, giving a considerable boost to the said attribute. And lastly, Replica Alberon's Warpath ensures that you deal chaos damage and nothing else.

Amulet

The amulet for the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker is a crafted one that has an Aisling veiled prefix, specifically "(17-20)% Increased Melee Damage, +0.2 Metres to Melee Strike Range".

This amulet is relatively easy to craft. All you have to do is use Deafening Essence of Rage until you get T1 crit multiplier and "+ to All Attributes". Then, put an Aisling veiled prefix and hope that you get the mod mentioned earlier.

The rest of the prefixes can be filled using the Crafting Bench and an Exalted Orb

Rings

To ensure that you deal the maximum amount of damage possible, one of your rings should have the Hunter-influenced mod, "Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit".

The easiest way to craft this ring is to use Harvest Reforge Caster because the influenced mod has the "Caster" tag on it. However, if you want to min-max, get tons of Deafening Essence of Rage for that guaranteed STR suffix and spam the ring until you get the Despair mod. The third suffix can be anything useful, such as crit multiplier or accuracy rating.

After that, use a Veiled Chaos Orb, and then put "Adds # to # Cold Damage, Adds # to # to Lightning Damage" from the Crafting Bench to block it. Next, go to Jun and unveil. Look for the mod, "(55-60) to Maximum Life, Regenerate 5.3 Mana per Second".

Then put "Channelling Skills Have -3 to Total Mana Cost" from the Crafting Bench and then use an Exalted Orb to finish the craft.

How about the other ring? Craft it using Deafening Essence of Rage until you get the affixes that you want.

Belt

There is no easy way to put this. You need the Mageblood unique Heavy Belt for the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker. You want permanent flask uptime not only to improve survivability, but to also ensure that you inflict the most amount of pain to those who are foolish enough to come at you.

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Diamond Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Bottled Faith (General use)
• Witchfire Brew (Viable Alternative)

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armour During Effect (of the Armadillo)
• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance During Effect (of Incision)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)

Jewels

The Watcher's Eye jewel provides you with useful bonuses that can address certain issues with the build. For instance, the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker does not have a lot of sources of chaos resistance, so you get this jewel with the mod, "+% to Chaos Resistance While Affected by Purity of Elements". Other modifiers to look for in a Watcher's Eye are:

• % of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage While Affected by Purity of Elements
• % Chance to Impale Enemies on Hit While Using Pride
• + to Armour While Affected by Determination
• % Increased Attack Damage While Affected by Precision
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier While Affected by Precision

Another unique jewel that is commonly used in attribute-stacking builds in PoE is Split Personality. Get a couple of these, with one having "+5 Strength, +5 Life" and "+5 Strength, +40 Accuracy Rating" for the other. You will gain great benefits from Split Personality when you insert it as far from the Marauder"s starting point on the passive tree as possible.

On the topic of Strength-stacking, you should also get your hands on a Lethal Pride. The "Command Leadership" does not matter. But, what matters is that you get a Lethal Pride with a lot of "5% Increased Strength" nodes when slotted into the jewel socket next to Savagery or Vigour. You can use the Timeless Calculator to help you in your search.

That Which Was Taken is a unique jewel that was introduced in 3.23 Affliction League. Because of the number of unique Charm modifiers it can get, it is slowly cementing itself as one of the staple jewels in PoE. Having said that, here are the Charm modifiers that work perfectly for the build:

• % Increased Strength
• % Increased Accuracy Rating if You've Dealt a Critical Strike in the Past 8 Seconds
• % Increased Area of Effect per Endurance Charge
• % Chance to Gain a Frenzy Charge on Hit
• (14-20)% Increased Effect of Withered
• (130-160%) Increased Critical Strike Chance Against Enemies on Full Life
• (71-100)% Increased Critical Strike Chance if You Haven't Dealt a Critical Strike Recently
• Critical Strikes Have Culling Strike
• % Chance to Gain an Endurance Charge When You Are Hit

To get as much Strength stat as you can, you can obtain two pieces of ilvl 84 Large Cluster Jewels (Chaos Damage) for a chance to roll, "Added Small Passive Skills Have 35% Increased Effect". The other mods that the cluster jewels must have are "+ to Strength" and "+ to All Attributes". The higher the tier, the better. There is no way to guarantee the desired mods, so just use the Horticrafting Station or the Alteration-spamming method of crafting to acquire them.

While this may seem like an insignificant jewel to add to the build, the Inertia unique Crimson Jewel makes a case as to why it should be included. You see, it transforms all DEX nodes in its radius into STR nodes. That's why you're going to slot it into the jewel socket adjacent to the Elemental Equilibrium keystone passive for best results.

If you still have some currency left, you can purchase Emperor's Mastery and Emperor's Might. They provide the following:

• Emperor's Mastery

  • 4% Increased Maximum Life
  • 5% Increased Global Defenses
  • (5-7)% Increased Attributes
  • 3% Increased Character Size

• Emperor's Might

  • 10% Increased Damage
  • (4-6)% Increased Strength
  • 3% Increased Character Size

Gems

The gems for the Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker remain largely the same no matter what items you end up using. However, it does offer a bit of flexibility, allowing you to swap a few gems for just about anything that you want.

Body Armor

• Cyclone
• Shockwave
• Awakened Void Manipulation
• Volatility
• Pulverise
• Increased Critical Damage

Cyclone and Shockwave are your main damage dealers for this build. When you start spinning, you trigger devastating shockwaves that will make quick work of the enemy.

Volatility is an interesting support gem. This basically increases the damage range of Cyclone, making it deadlier. Pulverize widens your main attack skill's area of effect at the cost of a slightly lower attack speed. But, because you have a naturally high attack speed on this build, you do not worry about Pulverise's downside at all!

Awakened Void Manipulation is there to give Cyclone a "more" damage multiplier, meaning, the damage is calculated multiplicatively rather than additively. The "+1 to Level of All Supported Chaos Skill Gems" is just a nice bonus.

Increased Critical Damage Support needs no introduction. This support gem just provides you with a 148% boost to Cyclone's critical strike multiplier at level 20, which is always a good thing!

Helmet

• Battlemage's Cry
• Determination
• Purity of Elements
• Enlighten

Battlemage's Cry is an important part of your kit because it significantly increases your damage and critical strike chance thanks to the Redblade Banner shield.

Purity of Elements is one of your core auras mainly due to the fact that it makes you immune to elemental ailments, such as Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite. Furthermore, the huge boost to elemental resistances cannot be ignored!

Determination increases your armor by a huge amount. This also enables you to insert a Watcher's Eye with any Determination mod on it.

Enlighten allows you to activate these two auras, leaving you with some mana to work with.

Gloves

• Assassin's Mark
• Mark on Hit
• Frostblink
• Lifetap (lvl 1)

Assassin's Mark gives mana and life whenever you kill a marked enemy. More importantly, you have increased crit chance and crit multiplier with hits against mark enemies.

Frostblink is your only travel skill. Its cooldown is reduced significantly whenever you activate it when surrounded by multiple enemies. That is why we prefer it over Flame Dash since Cyclone forces you to be within melee range anyway.

If you are wondering why a level 1 Lifetap is included, it is just a means of activating Assassin's Mark consistently without worrying about mana.

Boots

• Vaal Ancestral Warchief

• Ancestral Protector

• Withering Touch

• Multiple Totems

This is your totem setup. You drop your totems whenever you come across tough enemies like essence monsters, delirium bosses, and pinnacle bosses. They not only provide you with increased damage and attack speed, but they also inflict the "Wither" debuff on your enemies, causing them to take more chaos damage.

They are all supported by Multiple Totems Support so that you can summon both totems at the same time. Here's a small tip for you: Activate the "Vaal" Ancestral Warchief first and then the other totems. This way, you can have five totems at once on the battlefield!

Weapon

• Vaal Molten Shell (Lvl 10)
• Cast When Damage Taken (Lvl 1)
• Blood and Sand

Molten Shell increases your armor. It is linked to Cast When Damage Taken, which is a support gem that activates the guard skill automatically whenever you receive enough damage.

Blood and Sand allows you to gain bonuses depending on the stance you are using. Since the base version of Cyclone got buffed in Patch 3.23, you should always be in Blood Stance to take advantage of the increased area damage it provides.

Shield

• Precision
• Arrogance
• Berserk

When you activate Purity of Elements and Determination together, you only have a small amount of mana left. That is why you link Precision with Arrogance Support so that the said aura reserves life instead of mana. Precision is included in the build as it grants a considerable increase in your crit chance and accuracy rating. Plus, you can take advantage of the Watcher's Eye mods mentioned earlier, if you have such a jewel.

Secondary Ascendancies

The Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker is an endgame build, which is why you only choose the Wildwood Primalist for this one. This gives you access to three slots so that you can equip Charms that have any of the following modifiers:

• 8% Increased Strength
• +1 to Minimum Endurance Charges, +1 to Minimum Power Charges
• % of Leech is Instant
• Culling Strike
• + to Strength and Intelligence

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

Alternative Setup (with Oskarm)

Final Thoughts

And there you have it! The Str-Stacking Cyclone Berserker is not a cheap build to put up. However, if you are able to equip all of the necessary pieces together, this build can truly destroy anything in its path without a hitch!

Cyclone is an attack skill that is very easy and straightforward to use. You basically press and hold the hotkey and then spin to win! All of its support gems ensure that you deal incredible amounts of damage all the time. And, since you have a ton of crit chance and attack speed, you will slice through your foes like a knife through butter!

Be sure to give this a try and let us know what you think. Good luck, Exile!

PROS

+Easy playstyle makes it quite appealing

+Does stupid amounts of damage

+Utilizes chaos damage to destroy enemies

+Newly buffed Cyclone gem makes the build so much better than ever

+Has a ton of HP due to gear

CONS

+Uses a lot of unique items

+Very expensive to put up