[3.7] Dalskics's 1H-Crit Impale Cyclone Slayer

Made this build on a Google Doc so if you wish to see it with the pictures included and formatted correctly then click this link.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gUfUg-gWYmgKjyUgqwY-E9Es_7RcnpgLksbylTTLYRw/edit?usp=sharing

If you want to see my current character:
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/dalskics


Build Introduction:
This build is a relatively simple guide to follow. This guide actually started out as a build review for someone who asked for help but I have edited that guide into more of a build guide for newer players struggling to find the right build for cyclone. I truly believe that this slayer build is one of the easiest to play once you get the gear you need. Slayer ascendancy itself is very new player friendly. I’m sure there will be errors in my work so feel free to point them out to me if you see some. I am an experienced player but this is my first guide so I’m sure there might be some gaps and differences between how I build it vs. how you might build it.

I have easily been able to do Shaper / Uber Elder with this build and I haven’t even completed my second Jewelled Foil. Right now I believe I am estimating around 2M+ Shaper DPS at completion and sitting around 1M+ right now.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Discord: dalskics #4613
Path of Exile: @dalskics
Twitter: @dalskics

Impale Calculations:
Impale is a huge damage boost to any cyclone build. Impale essentially tags your target that you hit with an impale stack. That impale stack then pops and deals 10% of your last hit as extra damage each time you hit them up to 5 stacks. Once you hit 5 stacks you are essentially dealing 50% more damage. The calculations work like this

1 Impale Stack = 100% of your Cyclone damage + 10% of that total Cyclone Damage = 110%
3 Impale Stack = 100% of your Cyclone damage + 10% of that total Cyclone Damage = 130%
5 Impale Stack = 100% of your Cyclone damage + 10% of that total Cyclone Damage = 150%

You have to have a high chance to cause Impale usually 70%+ but your damage will skyrocket

Along with scaling impale, critical strike chance and crit multiplier are huge for scaling impales max damage.
Take this for example. Lets assume your base hit for Cyclone is 50,000 damage.
You get 10% of that added onto impale stacking so it adds another 5000 damage to that total = 55,000

Now lets assume you critical strike on your cyclone. Assume it does double damage based on your critical strike multiplier. You now deal base 100,000 damage + 10% of that as 1 impale stack. 100,000 + 10,000 = 110,000

That’s not counting the impale stacking up to 5 times. So at max stacks you’d be doing 150,000 each hit lets say. Thats a big damage increase compared to a build without critical strike chance.

All in All, Critical strike chance scales hugely with impale and should be heavily considered when making cyclone builds due to the base high attack speed of cyclone.


Gem Links:
6L: Cyclone - Impale - Pulverise - Brutality - Damage On Full Life - Fortify
4L: Leap Slam - Endurance Charge on Melee Stun - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic / Fortify
-Use Fortify until you get Fortify in your 6-link.
4L: Blood and Sand - Flesh and Stone - Maim Support - Enlighten (Lv. 3)
4L: Dread Banner - Increased Duration - Cast When Damage Taken (Lv.1) - Immortal Call (Lv.3)
3L: Enlighten (Lv.3) - Precision (Lv.1) - Pride
3L: Summon Ice Golem - Blood Rage - Blood Magic Support




Gearing:
Note: With all resistances, you want to get as much as you can on each item. Use your current resists as a basis of how much you truly need on each item. Aim for as much as you can get that's within your price range.

Weapons -
With any melee build, weapons are huge for DPS. Ideally you want at least a 300 pDPS weapon. I can’t check your weapons right now for DPS but it doesn’t seem like they do much damage. Like I mentioned above in the impale section, critical strike chance is huge for overall DPS. If you’re doing a two-handed build with cyclone, you should be using some sort of critical strike weapon. Best being a multi-modded jewelled foil but if you cannot afford one, a jewelled foil or Harpy Rapier with 300+ DPS would work. You can typically find those for 20-40c on the market with good enough rolls. This is the ideal set of mods you want on a jewelled foil built for crit scaling. This is about a 400DPS sword.

Armour -
Your current armour is good for what you are trying to do. Max life, Max resists. I do believe that your weapon choice / build is the biggest issue right now but something that could improve your overall damage / survivability would be improvements to your armour. To start off your “Reworked build” I would first work on maxing out your resists and getting as much life as you can on your gear.

Gloves -
Your ideal base for gloves would be the Spiked Gloves variant. These add more melee damage, increasing your overall damage with cyclone.
Ideal Mods (Look for gloves with these types of mods)
Adds # to # physical damage to attacks
High Life Roll (60+)
Physical attack damage leeched as life
+% Total Elemental Resistance of 60+
Accuracy Rating


Rings -
Along with some more gearing improvements, you could look to add another big damage spike for going for some good rolled Steel Rings. These are your ideal ring base because it adds flat phys damage to attacks, dealing more damage. These however are often expensive for good rolled rings so this would be done towards the end of the build once you have at least one of your weapons crafted and another 300 pDPS foil. The Steel Rings you want are most likely going to be upwards of 1-2ex. In the meantime, here are some rolls to look for that can be good placeholders.

Ideal Mods
Adds # to # physical damage to attacks
Accuracy Rating
+% Total Elemental Resistance of 90+ (Should try and get at least 90+ but get as much as you can on your rings as you will likely be using your jewellery to get most of your resistances as you do not want to be needing resists on items that could be hard to find on gloves.)
-Mana cost of skills (Endgame - for now mana leech in the tree will work)

Examples of my rings:


REMEMBER: Since you are using Brutality you will deal NO ELEMENTAL DAMAGE. Any rolls on rings or gear with adds # to # cold/fire/lightning damage will not count towards your damage total. These will be wasted rolls to try and avoid them if you can, if they have one its not the end of the world but it is a wasted roll so ideally you want to have as
many non-wasted rolls as you can.


Belt-
A Belt will likely be your best way to get a lot of resistance. Try to aim for an Stygian Vise for a base as it allows for you to socket an abyss jewel.

Ideal Rolls
High Life (80+)
+% Total Elemental Resistances (120+)


Boots -
Boots are another piece of armour that you can aim for just three main rolls. The biggest one being at least 30% movement speed. Since cyclone slows your movement, having a high base movement speed makes cyclone feel much better to use. Ideal enchant would be mana / life leech.

Ideal Rolls
High Life Roll (90+)
+% Total Elemental Resistances (100+)
MOVEMENT SPEED (30+)
Any Int / Dex / Strength requirements

Helmet -
Devoto’s Devotion- It’s best in slot for movement speed and overall feel in the build. Movement speed is huge for Cyclone. Not only does it add movement speed but it also adds attack speed as well. Really good helmet for this build.

Other Options -
Starkonja’s Head- A cheaper option if you cannot afford a Devoto’s. Adds critical strike chance, life, attack speed and evasion. Not a terrible option but doesn’t feel as good with mapping.

Rare Helmet- Not the worst option but if you can’t find the resists on other items you could use a rare helmet while you work your way up to one of the two above listed items.
High Life Roll (80+)
+% Total Elemental Resistances (100+)

Amulet -
I prefer to use the carnage heart since I am a slayer, if you plan to change to slayer this would be the best choice. Try to get the best rolls you can get. This amulet also helps with any attributes you might need to get since it often has +50 to all attributes depending on the roll.

If you’re not using Carnage heart another alternative is the other unique, Daresso’s Salute.


Flasks -
There are a few flasks that I would consider mandatory and a few flasks that one might consider swapping.
Mandatory
Seething Divine Flask of Staunching / Grounding
Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Warding
Crit more = more damage
Experimenter’s Silver Flask of Heat
Onslaught = +Movement speed + Attack speed
Experimenter’s / Alchemist’s Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline
Move Super Fast
Optional
Rumi’s Concoction
[b]More Survivability = Less Die[/b]
Lion’s Roar Granite Flask (Really good for adding more damage)
More Damage = More DPS

Jewels:
The main things you are looking for are listed below. Get a Jewel with a good combo of them. Aim for life on any jewel + 2 - 3 other rolls.
% Maximum Life
% Increased Damage
% Increased Global Physical Damage
% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance
% increased Area Damage
Abyss Jewel
Look for life + 2 other rolls.
+# Maximum Life
Adds # to # physical damage to attacks
Adds # to # physical damage to sword attacks
#% Increased damage if you’ve killed recently


Passive Tree / Ascendancy:

Overall, there are some good things about Gladiator / Champion Cyclone builds but I truly believe that Cyclone is best fitted for the Slayer ascendancy. My suggestion would be to use this ascendancy when building for this Cyclone build as the overleech is just amazing for many situations.


Passive Tree:
25 Points
53 Points + Normal Lab
71 Points
98 Points + Cruel / Merciless Lab
111 Points + Uber Lab
Final Tree

Ascendancy:
Endless Hunger
Brutal Fervour
Overwhelm
Headsman

Do the labs whenever you feel comfortable doing them. You should have plenty of damage with cyclone to do so. Huge power spike is when you have normal and cruel lab done with.


Pantheon:

Major: Soul of Lunaris
Gives Movement Speed and Physical Damage Reduction
Minor: Soul of Gruthkul
More Physical Damage Reduction




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Discord: dalskics #4613
Path of Exile: @dalskics
Twitter: @dalskics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------