Happy New Year, exiles! In PoE Teacher's video, he'll show
you his variation build Berserker Marauder Ice Crash Build. The build has good
damage but poor survivability. I do not recommend it for beginners. Enjoy!
Agony Girdle Stygian Vise – with Life,
Resists, Attributes.
Pain Hoof Two-Toned Boots – with Life,
Resists, Attributes, 25-35% Movement Speed. #% chance to gain Elusive on
Critical Strike. You have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently.
Bottled Faith Sulphur
Flask – immunity to Bleeding, Poison, Curses, Freeze and Chill.
Catalysed Eternal Life
Flask of Staunching
Perpetual Diamond Flask of
Curing
Ample Quicksilver Flask of
Heat
Atziri's Promise Amethyst
Flask
4. Jewels
For large clusters:
Try to use with 8 nods. Use 1 with 12 increased Cold
Damage.
Look at such nodes on cluster jewels:
For medium clusters:
Try to use with 4-5 nods. Use 1 with 15% increased Critical
Strike Chance, 1 with 6% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills.
Look at such nodes on cluster jewels:
5. Gem Links
6L: Ice Crash – Pulverise – Fist of War – Elemental Focus –
Melee Physical Damage – Elemental Focus – Melee Physical Damage – Elemental
Damage with Attacks
If you have PoE Currencies, you can use Ice Crash at 21 lvl
and Awakened Elemental Focus, Awakened Melee Physical Damage, Awakened
Elemental Damage with Attacks.
6L: Intimidating Cry – Seismic Cry – Second Wind – Leap
Slam – Fortify – Faster Attacks
- You can start using Freezing Pulse right on level 1, and
the sky is the limit.
Leveling Setup of Links:
- At level 8, support Freezing Pulse with Added Cold Damage.
- Reaching level 18, add Controlled Destruction, and Faster
Casting.
- Reaching level 31,
replace Added Cold Damage and Controlled Destruction with Inspiration and
Pinpoint.
- Reaching level 38, replace
Faster Casting with Spell Echo.
- Of course, as soon as
you have a 5L or 6L chest, you can use the complete setup: Freezing Pulse –
Spell Echo – Pinpoint – Inspiration – Controlled Destruction – Hypothermia.
- It's ok if you don't
have 6 linked sockets. It's a luxury. You will be fine with 4 or 5 while saving
PoE Currency to link the last slots.
Auras
- At level 10, activate
Clarity to help you with mana.
- At Level 16, you can
start using Herald of Ice for DPS and clear speed buff.
- As soon as you're
comfortable with your Mana Regeneration, you can also activate Hatred.
Recommended Items
- Gloom Circle Two Stone
Ring (-8 to mana cost of skills)
Hey exiles, welcome to Navandis Gaming's Path of Exile guide, this time
with a Soulwrest Phantasm Necromancer
Build. Right off the bat, I need to clarify this is not one of those
hipsters builds, which, you know, has barely average damage but a quirky
mechanic so bored people will play it because it's different. On top of that,
it's incredibly cheap, with many of its gear pieces costing just a few Chaos Orbs, and the build can
clear tier 16 maps on a 5-link.
Build Overview
The build revolves around a very common and cheap unique
item, the Soulwrest Staff, which says, "trigger level 20 summon phantasm
skill when you consume a corpse". Phantasms are ghostly minion
spellcasters which fire a projectile that deals physical damage and pierces all
targets.
By default, the staff can summon up to 10 phantasms, but by
socketing a "Summon Phantasm Support" gem in it, you can increase
this cap up to 20 or 21. Another critical aspect to keep in mind is that
support gems socketed in this staff will affect all 21 phantasms without
linking them.
You can have no links on your staff, and your ghosts will
receive all the bonuses just fine. Since getting 6 sockets is easy and cheap,
you can have the equivalent of a 6-link main skill setup as early as level 60,
allowing you to cruise through the last acts of the campaign or early atlas
tiers. The way corpses are generated and consumed has no impact on the summoned
phantasms, so it doesn't matter if you produce those corpses yourself or if
they resulted from killing enemies. Also, the number of phantasms summoned at
once is equal to the number of corpses consumed. So, if you consume 5 corpses,
you'll instantly gain 5 new ghosts.
The build completely automates the process of generating
and consuming corpses through a Cast while Channeling setup. Cast while
Channeling will trigger linked spells in a sequence as long as you're using a
linked channeled skill. The ideal skill for this purpose is Cyclone for a
multitude of reasons: it allows you to move while channeling, it hits enemies
so it can trigger various on-hit effects, and it can be supported by Fortify,
greatly boosting your defenses. So, while cycloning around, you'll trigger
Desecrate, which generates 5 corpses, and Flesh Offering, which will consume
those, summoning ghosts and providing them a massive DPS buff. Keep in mind
that you don't need to hit anything with Cyclone to generate and consume
corpses, and this is crucial against bosses as you can pre-summon all your
ghosts before engaging.
And since we're talking about damage, your phantasms
physical damage will be converted entirely into elemental, mostly cold, by
using a dirt-cheap item, "The Triad Grip" gloves. This is done
because scaling physical spell damage for minions is incredibly hard, while converting
it to elemental opens up many additional options such as "Elemental Equilibrium",
reducing enemies' resistances, etc.
Finally, the build uses a few additional minions, such as
Animate Guardian or spectres, whose sole purpose is to provide various buffs to
your phantasms. While it sounds like a lot to take in, don't worry, as usual,
I'll talk more about these in the passives, gems, and gearing sections,
respectively.
Passive Tree
Ascendancy
Summoning dead stuff to fight for you is the signature of a
Necromancer, so that is what you'll be picking as the Ascendancy class.
First points go to "Mindless Aggression," a
clear-cut and efficient passive: it simply buffs the damage as well as cast
speed and movement speed for your minions. Nothing complicated.
After completing the cruel labyrinth, follow up with "Commander
of Darkness" - both yourself and your minions get a large amount of damage
and cast speed, as well as elemental resistances. While the damage bonuses are
useless for you, 30% to all elemental resistances will greatly help with
gearing, allowing more flexibility in choosing useful unique items.
Third in line is "Plaguebringer," a fairly simple
passive: while there's at least one corpse near your enemies, they'll take more
damage and deal less to you and your minions. And since you'll be generating
corpses non-stop with your Cyclone cast while channeling setup, this buff will
be up permanently.
Finally, take "Bone Barrier," a really strong
defensive layer for both yourself and your minions with the last ascendancy
points. First, you get a whole bunch of physical damage reduction, Life, and
energy shield recovery. Your minions also gain 20% increased maximum Life, a
stat that you can never have too much of. In addition, you obtain the "Bone
Armour" skill – when activated, it creates a shield on yourself and each
of your minions, which absorbs up to 2200 damage from hits, removes bleeding,
and provides immunity to this ailment while the buff is up. Just remember to
actually place this skill on your Hotbar and use it as often as possible.
Pantheon
For the major god, "Soul of Lunaris," - it
provides quite a few bonuses to evasion and chance to dodge, as well as
physical damage reduction and movement speed. In addition, you'll avoid any
projectiles that have chained – while this might not seem like much, keep in
mind there are close to 30 minions around you at all times, and projectiles can
potentially chain from each of them to hit you. As for the minor god, the
optimal choice is likely Soul of Gruthkul: since you're operating in melee
range while cycloning, you'll likely receive a significant amount of hits. Reducing
enemies' attack speed as well as incoming physical damage will keep you
somewhat safer.
Gems and Links
1. With that out of the way, as usual, I'll start the main
skill. As I've said in the build overview section, the active skill is baked
into Soulwrest staff, so all the other gems you'll be socketing in it are
supports. You also do not need to link them, so just having 6 sockets is enough
–they need to be socketed in the staff, not anywhere else.
2. Next setup is the engine driving the entire build,
Cyclone + Cast while Channeling. If you've watched the build overview section,
this should come as no surprise. In this case, Cyclone is the skill that will
trigger other linked spells as you keep channeling it.
3. Up next is your auras setup. The only way you can fit
all of them is if you're using the recommended best-in-slot helmet, Devouring
Diadem, as auras socketed in it will reserve significantly less mana.
4. Next gem setup brings a few additional minions whose
sole purpose is to buff the phantasms and yourself to some extent.
5. Next gem setup is a bit of a strange one. It's more or
less an improvisation that's being forced on us by the unique gloves used in
this build, the "Triad Grip." More specifically, the gloves say, "Minions
convert 25% of Physical Damage to Cold Damage per Green Socket". Similarly,
red and blue sockets would convert their damage to fire or lightning,
respectively. However, as I mentioned earlier in the Build Overview section,
you need to convert most of the phantasms' damage to cold, as scaling physical
damage for them is almost impossible. Other elements are also worse, for
reasons that go beyond the purpose of this guide. So, the setup consists of an "Ice
Golem" linked with "Feeding Frenzy" and "Culling Strike,"
as well as a "Sniper's Mark" curse.
6. Finally, you have two really important utility skills,
which will only fit if you're using "unset" base rings, with their
gem socket implicit.
Dear exiles, your professional PoE Shop MmoGah will
share the fastest Cyclone build for you today. And thanks for Aziire’s original video. You can read
this article or watch the video for your will. Now let’s begin for this build.
Pros:
+ Fast and
smooth
+ Raider is fun
+ Satisfying
Herald of Ice Explosions
+ Different
take on Cyclone
Cons:
- Get hit and
you die
- Single target
is awful
- Not cheap,
not a league starter
- Very awkward
to gear and level
Offense:
- Insane Attack
Speed and Crit
- Onslaught
with 200%+ Effect
- 9 Frenzy
Charges
- AoE Radius
actually good
- Herald of Ice
Shatters <3
Defense:
- 75% Attack
Dodge, 40% Spell Dodge
- 95% Evade
Chance, 22% Block Chance
- 188% Movement
while Channelling
- 3,500 Hp,
kill or be killed
- Offense is
defense
Leveling Tree
Skill Gems & Links
Main Skill
- Divergent
Cyclone
- Anomalous Ice
Bite
- Awakened
Elemental Damage with Attacks
- Divergent
Inspiration
- Anomalous
Pulverise
- Divergent
Increased Area of Effect
Alternative
Supports
If you want to
hit harder (less AoE) consider these instead of the final two:
- Concentrated
Effect
- Awakened cold
Penetration
- Infused
Channelling
Awakened and
Alternate are not necessary, but huge QoL.
Auras and Buffs
- Herald of Ice
- Anomalous
Flesh and stone
- Blood and
Sand
- Enlighten
- Precision
- Vaal Haste
- Vaal
Ancestral Warchief
- Added Cold
Damage
- Culling Strike
Alternative
For more
defense we can take:
- Vaal Grace
We lose a
little bit of zoom but this gives us Max Spell Block.
Movement Skill
- Phantasmal
Leap Slam
- Faster
Attacks
- Blood Magic
Alternative
We really don't
have an alternative setup for movement compared to this. I primarily just use
general moving and Cyclone for getting around. Leap Slam is best for covering a
lot of ground. I wanted Whirling Blades but we use Axes.
Cast When
Damage Taken
- Anomalous
Cast when Damage Taken Level 3
- Immortal Call
Level 5
- Increased
Duration
- Anomalous
Summon Ice Golem
Keep the CWDT a
lower level so that it triggers more often. Ice Golem is nice to have but
annoying to summon, this solves both. We practically die when hit anyway but
still a nice setup to have.
Hey exiles, welcome to another Path of Exile guide. This
time with a Cracking Lance inquisitor.
This build has been my league starter for the heist league. Many people have been
quite skeptical about these skills viability or even preached against it after
testing it for 10 minutes. I'm here to tell you it's, in fact, a pretty awesome
spell. You can read this article written by mmogah.com or watch Navandis Gaming's original
video to learn more about this build.
Build Overview
The build's main skill, Crackling Lance, has been compared
continuously to either arc or divine ire, and while they're all lightning bass
spells, the similarities pretty much stopped there. Crackling Lance is a
standalone spell with its unique play style, and it's neither the better or
worse arc, just an entirely different skill. By default, it casts a single
lightning bolt that hits all the targets in a wide cone-shaped area. If
anything, it resembles a tectonic slam more than anything else. Every time you
cast a spell, it gains one intensity stack indicated by this buff icon. Each
intensity stack narrows down the area of the lightning bolt and, at the same
time, greatly increases its damage. By default, the max number of intensity
stacks is 3, but it goes up to 4 after picking up a significant passive from
the tree. Once the spell reaches its max stack, the lightning bolt will
transform into a laser beam that deals 3 to 4 times more damage. However, when
moving or using a skill such as flame dash, you'll start losing intensity
stacks. At this point, you've probably already figured out that this dual form
of the skill helps the build be equally effective at clearing large packs of
mobs on low-intensity stacks and fighting bosses when you're at max intensity. Juggling
between these modes is the key to success for this build, and the more you play
and practice it, the better results you'll have. It's quite rare to have a spell's
efficiency scale directly with a player's mechanical skills. For example, while
mapping, I cast the spell once and moved at least a bit before casting it again.
Keeping the number of stacks at two or three provides a great balance of damage
and area of effect perfect for killing large packs of mobs.
On top of that, once you get an impulse as broken heart the
best and slowed body armor for this build, you'll be able to easily clear an entire
screen even while shooting the narrow laser beam. This is thanks to this unique
item's ability, which causes shocked enemies to explode and deal lightning
damage in an area around them. Even when you shoot through the middle of a pack,
it should clear it entirely once the first mobs die. Against bosses, knowledge of
the arena and different fight phases will help you decide how much you can stand
still spamming your nuke and when it's time to move to sacrifice a few
intensity stacks. The builder is also investing heavily in car speed, allowing
you to regain intensity stacks more quickly after you've lost them when
repositioning. Several elements will help you stand your ground and survive through
the fights. Frost shield will soak up incoming damage as well as chill enemies
while half of your ascendancy is dedicated to improving your defenses while
standing still. There are a few more utility tools in your arsenal, but I'll
talk more about these in the passives gems and gearing section, respectively.
Passive Tree
Ascendancy
The ascendancy class of choice for this build is an extremely
strong yet lesser-known inquisitor. It is a critical strike spellcaster archetype
with great defenses and utility and overall very well balanced ascendancy.
Your first points go into a sanctuary. This passive will
create patches of consecrated ground while you're stationary, granting your
life in the mana region. This synergizes well with Crackling Lance playstyle, which
requires you to be stationary quite often. On top of that, enemies that stand
on the consecrated ground created by you will take 10% more damage. Apart from
this passive, the build also uses Zelda 3 aura, which can create consecrated
ground beneath rare or unique enemies you hit, thus ensuring that the
sanctuary's damage bonus is constantly active.
After completing the crew labyrinth, follow up with Pio's
path, a passive which doubles down on the consecrated ground mechanic. With it,
while standing on consecrated ground, you'll have increased cast speed immunity
to elemental ailments such as shock or freeze. You'll regenerate 200 energy
shields per second. on top of that, all the effects from the consecrated ground,
including the bonuses provided by your ascendancy passives, will linger for 4 seconds
after you start moving. Otherwise, put you get all these even if you move
around but stop at least once every 4 seconds. With crackling lance playstyle,
this will happen consistently, so you can pretty much consider these as
permanent bonuses.
Third, in line is righteous providence, a pure DPS passive.
First, you gain a huge crit strike chance bonus against targets with no
elemental ailments on them. Once a target has an elemental ailment affecting it,
you have increased the critical strike multiplier against that monster. Critical
strikes are guaranteed to apply elemental ailments, and with a big boost to
your crit chance, your first hit with Crackling Lance will almost guarantee your
target will be shocked. And not only do you get the extra damage from the shock
itself but also the crit strike multiplier bonus from righteous providence. Again
yet another passive that synergizes perfectly with your main skill.
Finally, with your last ascendancy points, take augury of
penitence, a simple two-in-one offensive, and defensive passive. Nearby targets
will take significantly more elemental damage while dealing less of it to
yourself. Not spectacular but a decent addition to the build.
Pantheon
for the major god, soul of frontages. It provides quite a
few bonuses to evasion and a chance to dodge as well as physical damage
reduction and movement speed. While none of these is game-breaking, nor will
they transform your character into a tanking god, it never hurts to add a bit
more defense to a build at practically no cost. Another decent option would be the
soul of varakali to help mitigate damage over time and boost your life and
energy shield recovery rates. Dots are probably the bill's biggest weakness so
getting some defense against them is always welcome. As for the minor god soul
of tokohama is likely your best choice. You gain physical damage reduction, and
life regen every second you're stationary. As you'll stand still a fair amount while
casting Crackling Lance, these bonuses will help you stand your ground for
longer.
Gems and Links
1. As usual, I'll start with the main skill crackling lance
in its supports. If possible, try to get a level 21 crackling lance through corruption
as this kill gains a large amount of additional damage from extra levels. Support
gems are listed in order of their importance. So if you can only get a 5 link, then
drop the last gem I've listed.
First, one
intensity support should come as no surprise if you watch the build overview
section. While this gem doesn't add extra intensity stacks, and your maximum
will still be 4, it does provide a huge amount of damage for each stack.
Then you have
spell echo, which repeats your Crackling Lance each time you cast it and greatly
increases your cast speed as well. However, the extra cast from this support gem
will not build up intensity stacks, so you still need to cast it 4 times to get
to max manually. Still, the massive cast bonus will help you get there much faster.
The third support
is concentrated effect, a simple gem. It massively increases your damage while reducing
your area of effect. While that might seem like a big downside in practice, you
can barely notice any difference. The extra DPS, however, is up.
Next is
lightning penetration support, which, as the name implies, will penetrate enemies'
lightning resistance greatly increasing your damage output. This is especially
true against targets that have high resistances, such as bosses.
The last gem in
this setup is energy league support. This will allow Crackling Lance to leech
energy shield and boost your damage while doing that. When using the devouring
diadem helmet, you obtain the eldritch battery keystone, which causes your
abilities first to spend energy shield before mana. Each time you cast
Crackling Lance, you consume some energy shield and simultaneously start
leeching it back, triggering the gems bonus.
2. Next, we have a storm brand setup whose purpose is to trigger
various effects that buff your main skill. This spell creates a brand that attaches
to a target and continuously casts lightning bolts in a small area around it. If
the target dies while the brand is still active, it will jump to another enemy.
You then link it to power charge on critical innervate and
onslaught support gems. When stormbrand deals, a critical strike kills a target
or hits a rare enemy or a boss you get power charges additional global
lightning damage and the onslaught buff, which boosts your car speed and
movement speed. And while the damage dealt with store brand is irrelevant, it
is more than capable of killing white mobs, so make sure you always drop one or
two brands on most monster packs to get all the buffs.
3. Then there's another utility setup, this time with a few
extra active skills.
First, you have
frost shielding, a spell that creates damage absorbing dome while draining
around 800 energy shields in about 1 second. Apart from preventing a big chunk
of damage dealt by outside enemies, it also chills them and increases your effective
spell creatures by a huge amount.
The second gem
in this setup is the sigil of power, a somewhat similar skill. It creates a
giant circular rune on the ground, adding some flat liking damage to your
spells. The sigils buff would normally become stronger when spending mana while
inside the circle. However, you're using an energy shield to cast your spells.
As such, the sigil will always have just the initial stage. Still, it costs you
almost nothing to get a fair amount of extra DPS. Both frost shield and sigil
of power require you to stand in their radius to gain the buffs they provide. While
this would be an issue for many builds with Crackling Lance, you're standing
still anyway.
You then add
flame dash your builds mobility skill and link all three to a second wind. This
support gem lowers the cooldown of all three abilities while also adding an
extra charge to each allowing you to use them one more time while on cooldown.
4. Next up, you have an aura setup wrath increasing your
lightning damage zealotry boosting your critical strike chance and creating
consecrated ground when hit a rare or unique enemy and finally flesh and stone.
This aura has two stances blood and sand, but you're strictly interested in
sand stains. You gain absolutely nothing from blood stance, so don't ever use
it in death mode for this build.
In sand stance, you'll blind nearby enemies having their
chance to hit you and will also take less damage from distant enemies. The only
way you can fit all three auras is if you are using a devouring diadem helmet,
so until you get one, temporarily drop flesh and stone.
Finally, steel skin is a guard skill that creates a damage
absorption shield soaking up about 2 200 damage. I use this skill by binding it
to my left mouse button, replacing the default move action. As I keep the
button pressed, it moves my character as usual and casts still skin on cooldown.
Lastly, there are two different custom damage taken setups.
These trigger gems will cast any linked active spells after you take a certain amount
of damage. Higher casting damage taken gem will cast a higher length gem, but it
would also require more damage to be triggered.
Dear exiles, welcome to Navandis Gaming's Path of
Exile build guide! The new Cyclone Champion Build is better than
the previous version both offensively and defensively while still incredibly
easy to play and highly efficient on low budgets.
A great league starter, it performs well with makeshift
gear and cheap uniques all the way to mid-tier maps, without investing more
than a few Chaos Orbs for each
piece. It also scales well with better gear, so the more PoE Currency you're willing
to spend, the better it performs. This makes it ideal for a long-term build
that you can pimp out over the course of an entire league or in Standard mode.
As usual, the guide is still divided into seven main sections:
Build Overview, Passive Tree and Leveling, Ascendancy, Pantheon, Gems and
Links, Gear Flasks and Jewels, and finally, "Pros & Cons".
Build Overview
The build revolves around Cyclone, a channeling skill which
deals weapon damage in a large area around your character for as long as you keep
the button pressed. You can move around while spinning, allowing you to reposition,
get out of harmful stuff lying on the ground or dodge incoming attacks, all
while continuing to deal damage to enemies. This means you'll have very little
DPS downtime in any fight, and the same goes for leeching back life. As you
keep channeling, Cyclone gains additional stages, up to 6 at gem level 20, each
of them increasing the size of its area of effect. Apart from this mechanic,
your melee strike range also dictates how large this area will end up being. While
there are many ways to use Cyclone, this particular build focuses on two-handed
swords and physical damage.
You won't be dealing with any elemental or chaos damage, so
that that gearing will be straight forward. It's also a critical strike type of
build, and with decent equipment, you'll end up with over 70% crit. Chance. Topping
everything off is the powerful Impale mechanic, a huge DPS boost for physical
damage builds. On every target hit with an attack, you'll create one Impale
stack, up to a maximum of 7 with the Champion ascendancy. Each Impale stack
stores 10% of the physical damage dealt with that hit and is afterward released
with subsequent hits. You can think of it as a DOT that ticks only when you hit
that monster after it was applied. I know this is a rather confusing mechanic,
so I won't bore you with all the math behind it and the exact interactions. I
will, however, say that it's a huge DPS boost against any enemy that takes more
than 2 or 3 hits to die, so it's especially efficient against bosses.
On top of that, the build uses Haemophilia gloves that cause
bleeding enemies to explode and deal with physical damage in an area around
them, greatly increasing your map clearing efficiency. As for defenses, you'll
rely on endurance charges, permanent Fortify buff, huge amounts of armour, a
great deal of life leeching, and even positive chaos resistance. While it
sounds like a lot to take in, don't worry, as always, I'll talk about all these
in much greater detail in the passives, gems, and gearing sections,
respectively.
Passive Tree
Ascendancy
In the next section, I'll cover the Ascendancy class, which
improves every aspect of this build. As you've likely figured out from the
title, the Ascendancy of choice for this build is the versatile Champion. It
has a perfect balance of offense and defense, without any major weaknesses.
The first points go into "Conqueror", a passive
that is not spectacular on its own but sets the stage for the following one. It
grants a 100% chance to taunt on hit while greatly reducing incoming damage and
providing a solid chunk of life regen.
After completing Cruel labyrinth, follow up with "Worthy
Foe" - taunted enemies take significantly more damage and, most
importantly, cannot evade your attacks. This practically translates into a 100%
chance to hit without having to invest anything into accuracy. It saves a huge
amount of passives and gear affixes, which can instead be used for other pure
DPS mods. And by the way, you don't necessarily need to hit enemies to taunt
them: Enduring Cry will also taunt all nearby enemies, and it has quite a large
area of effect as well.
Third in line is "Master of Metal", a passive
which focuses on impaling: you get a 20% increased chance to impale on hit, two
extra impale stacks on each enemy as well as increased physical damage for each
impales stack. It's a huge damage increase and one of the main reasons for picking
Champion as the ascendancy class.
Finally, with your last ascendancy points, take "Unstoppable
Hero", an amazing passive with a lot of useful benefits. They all revolve
around having the "Fortify" buff active, which is also why you'll be
using Fortify Support in the main skill setup. With this passive and Fortify
buff UP, you get a whole bunch of extra damage, attack speed, armour and
evasion, and, most importantly, stun immunity.
At the end of the game, stuns are a major death cause,
especially for melee builds, so having complete immunity to it will greatly
boost your survivability.
Pantheon
Generally speaking, Pantheon's choices are situational, and
there isn't a "best" pair that will outperform all others in any
situation. However, certain options complement specific builds quite well in a
wide range of scenarios. For this particular case, here are my recommendations:
For the major god, Soul of Arakaali: damage over time is a weak spot for this
build so getting some defenses against that is always a good idea. On top of
that, it reduces shocks' duration and effectiveness, one of the most dangerous
ailments out there. Any additional way to shave off the extra damage you
receive is more than welcome. As for the minor god, the optimal choice is
likely Soul of Gruthkul: since you're operating in melee range and taunting everything
around you, you'll receive a significant amount of hits. Reducing enemies'
attack speed as well as incoming physical damage will give you some more
breathing room.
Gems and Links
1. As usual, I'll start with the main skill, Cyclone, and
its support gems. If possible, try to get a level 21 Cyclone through corruption
as it then gains one extra stage, increasing both its area of effect and
damage.
First in line
is "Impale" support – this will increase your chance to impale
enemies and buff the damage done through this mechanic. As I mentioned in the
Build Overview section, Impale adds an insane amount of damage against any
target that survives more than 2 or 3 hits.
Next, you have "Brutality,"
which adds an insane amount of purely physical damage, pretty much the highest
a support gem can provide. However, it also prevents you from dealing with any
elemental or chaos damage with Cyclone. As the build is focusing strictly on
phys damage, this downside is negligible. It's a benefit as you'll technically
become immune to reflected elemental damage.
The next gem is
"Fortify" support - while it's not the greatest damage support out
there, it will guarantee an almost permanent uptime for the "Fortify"
buff. This, in turn, significantly reduces the damage you take from hits. It
also enables the "Unstoppable Hero" ascendancy passive, so it's
pretty much a must-have in this build. Then there's "Infused Channeling,"
and as you probably suspect, this too boosts your physical damage. But on top
of that, a short time after channeling Cyclone, you'll receive the "Infusion"
buff, which lasts 6 seconds and further boosts your physical damage. While
channeling, you also get a very strong physical damage reduction buff, greatly
improving your defenses.
And the last
gem in this setup is "Pulverise" - apart from more physical damage,
it also increases Cyclone's area of effect, making it far more efficient for
map clearing. Again, not the best DPS gem out here, but makes up for it in
usefulness.
2. Since this build uses a two-handed sword. You
potentially get the benefit of a 2nd 6-link setup. Now, not all 6 gems need to
be linked, and if you can only afford a 5-link, that's fine. It's more of a
min-maxing thing, so don't go out of your way to link the last gem as well.
First, you have
"Pride," an aura that increases physical damage taken by your enemies
the longer they stay inside its radius. Then there's "Blood and Sand"
along with its twin aura "Flesh and Stone". These auras have two
modes or stances, Blood and Sand, and you can toggle between them by simply pressing
the skill button again. A sand stance is a defensive option, while Blood focuses
more on dealing with extra damage. I rarely use sand stance as the build is
already tanky enough, and killing stuff faster is a defensive layer.
You then link
these with "Maim" support, which might seem like a strange choice
here. However, in the blood stance, the "Flesh and Stone" aura will
maim nearby enemies, and this support gem says, "enemies maimed by
supported skills take % increased physical damage". While it does increase
the mana reservation cost, it also greatly buffs your DPS.
5th gem in this
setup is "Enlighten" support of at least level 2, but ideally, level
3 or 4, to reduce the mana reservation cost of your auras. The more auras
you'll link with this support, the greater its benefit.
Finally, the last
gem in this setup is "Dread Banner", increasing your chance to impale
with attacks as well as impale damage while at the same time reducing your
enemies' accuracy. While you could plant the banner in the ground to temporarily
boost its effectiveness, the damage increase is marginal, so that I wouldn't
bother with that. Just use it as a regular aura and let it do its thing.
3. Up next, you have an "Ancestral Warchief"
setup.
This skill
summons a totem that attacks nearby enemies, but more importantly, increases
your melee damage while standing near it. As the totem is stuck in place, it's
only meant to be used in fixed combat scenarios where you need any extra damage
you can get: boss fights, delve nodes, legion encounters, etc. Since the
Warchief also deals physical damage, it's linked with "Brutality", "Impale,"
and "Culling Strike". The first two gems increase its overall DPS,
while the last support makes it, so any hit from your totem will instantly kill
targets at or below 10% life. And yes, that applies to bosses as well, and your
totem can instantly kill Sirus or Shaper if they're under 10% life.
4. Next setup is your utility toolbox:
First is "Dash",
the build's mobility skill. There's nothing much to say about it, apart from
the fact that it's really quick, it is not impacted by slow effects, and can
bypass obstacles. This makes it ideal not only as a travel skill but also as a
defensive tool for dodging big incoming damage and getting out of nasty ground
effects. You then have "Molten Shell", a guard skill that creates a
damage absorption shield based on your armour. It will soak up anywhere between
2000 and 5000 damage when you have all the extra armour from your ascendancy
passives and granite flask.
The next gem is
"Enduring Cry", a warcry that generates endurance charges, boosts
your defenses, and provides a huge life regen burst. Both "Molten Shell"
and "Enduring Cry" are instant, so they can be cast while you're cycloning.
Finally, link
all these with "Second Wind" - this really useful support will lower
the cooldown of all 3 active skills and provide an additional charge to Dash.
5. The last gems setup is a "Cast when Damage Taken"
one – this trigger gem will cast any linked active skills after you take a
certain amount of damage.
A higher "Cast
when Damage Taken" gem will be able to cast higher-level linked gems, but
it would also require a lot more damage to be triggered. For this particular
build, I suggest keeping the trigger gem at level 5 to trigger more often.
Then, add a
level 8 "Assassin's Mark" gem. This curse will increase both the
critical strike chance and damage against marked targets and has a chance to generate
a Power Charge on kill. In turn, power charges further increase your overall
critical strike chance.
The third gem
in this setup, Blood Rage, doesn't even have to be linked with the other gems. It
provides a buff that greatly increases your attack speed and gives you a 25%
chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on kill. Frenzy charges will further increase
your attack speed and damage. While it does apply a damage over time debuff on
yourself, it's completely offset by your life leech and life regen.
And the last
gem is completely optional. You can go with an Ice Golem for some extra DPS, a
Stone Golem for additional life regen, or a level 1 Precision aura if your mana
pool allows it.
Hey exiles, welcome to Navandis Gaming’s Path of Exile
Guide! With the Heist league
just around the corner, this is the best time to decide on that perfect starter
build. If you're a new player,
this choice is really important as it usually makes the difference between
enjoying the game or giving up in frustration. And if you're already somewhat
experienced, then you likely understand a good start can set the stage for
success for the rest of the league.
Before going through the builds
themselves, I need to talk a bit about what is and makes a good league starter
build.
- Reach Atlas T7-8 Maps:
generate more PoE Currency faster.
- Transition to
end-game: ideally with minimal passive points re-speccing.
- Cheap, easy gearing:
no mandatory uniques or expensive PoE Items.
- Able to run most
content: story mode, maps, delve, monoliths, syndicate, etc.
- No reliance on new
toys: should not rely on new league mechanics/items.
- Easy to play: no
complex mechanics, clear build guide.
First up is the completely reworked
Cyclone Champion build, using one of the smoothest and fun to play skills in
the game. Grab a 2-handed sword with decent physical damage and spin your way through
the entire game. If you've ever played whirlwind barb in any Diablo game, well,
this is Path of Exile's equivalent. Incredible mobility, excellent clearing
speed, and really solid damage are all perks of this build. On top of that, it
uses one of the very few skills in the game, which can continuously apply
damage while constantly moving. Killing enemies while moving around and evading
dangerous stuff is a great defensive mechanism, and it only gets stronger as
you become better at the positioning. The
build is also not really gear dependent and doesn't need any specific unique
items. On top of that, items boosting physical or melee damage are always in
abundance, so you'll have plenty to chose from. This version of the build is
also intentionally designed to be a very budget-oriented one, making it ideal
as a league starter. Finally, it is a very fun build to play, and if you're a
new Path of Exile player, then this will provide a perfect taste of what the
game has to offer.
2. Arc
Witch
My second suggestion for a league
starter is the absolute classic Arc Witch, one of the most beginner-friendly
builds. Arc builds have been pretty much synonymous with the concept of a
league starter, and this one is not an exception. It's well established that
Arc is one of the best clearing skills in the game, depending very little on
gear or even the player's skill. When leveling, you can pick up any staff,
sceptre, or wand that has some spell damage and cast speed, and it will work
great. With a very intuitive playstyle and absolutely no complex mechanics,
it's a beginner's best friend. Fast-paced and amazing at killing large packs of
mobs, you'll cruise through story mode and knock the first few Atlas tiers with
ease. While it's not an amazing boss killer, that's generally beyond the
purpose of a league starter, and it can also get there by investing in some
end-game gear after you start amassing some currency. Lastly, if you're thinking
about playing one of the new spells introduced in the Heist league, such as Crackling
Lance or reworked ones like Firestorm or curses, then a witch is a safe bet. You'll
very likely be able to respect a new build using the same class and even most
of the same items, once we know more about the new skills in practice.
3. Toxic
Rain Ranger
Up next is the amazing Toxic Rain
Ranger. Incredibly fast-paced and with excellent clearing capabilities, this
chaos damage build is a farming and leveling beast. Carpet the screen with
toxic spore pods which deal with chaos damage over time and drastically slow
down all enemies. No special aiming or targeting is required as the skill has a
generous area of effect. This works great when you're trying to focus on
learning a new league's mechanics. Most of its efficiency comes from gems and
passives rather than gear, making it perfect for the first days of a new
league. It doesn't need any mandatory uniques, and even its best-in-slot gear
is usually quite cheap. Just grab any bow with decent attack speed, and you're
good to go. Focus your other gear on defenses, and you'll cruise through story
mode and the first Atlas tiers. And, as any respectable farmer, it's able to
run every map mod, and that is a huge advantage when you start going through
the Atlas. You won't waste any time or currency re-rolling maps,
and you'll get many more drops, greatly boosting your overall efficiency.
4. Tectonic
Slam Chieftain
My 4th recommendation is the
recently buffed Tectonic Slam Chieftain. The last league brought a huge number
of improvements to slam skills and warcries, and this build takes full
advantage of them. With extremely satisfying, giant fire hits that almost cover
the entire screen, Tectonic Slam is not your average melee skill by any means. It
has better coverage and longer range than many spells. You can take advantage
of this and chose when to fight up close and slam from afar, depending on the
specifics of each combat scenario. On top of that, it's one
of the most resilient and tanky builds I've played since the days of the Molten
Strike Juggernaut. With stun immunity, capped physical damage reduction, a
really solid chance to block both spells and attacks, excellent life
regeneration, this Chieftain build can even be used in Hardcore leagues with a
few minor tweaks. Gearing is straight-forward, and there isn't much competition
for the items you'll need in this build. This is ideal in the first few weeks
of a new league, as you'll have to squeeze out as much as possible from very
little currency.
5.
Skelemancer
My final suggestion for a league
starter is an absolute beast of a summoner, the Skelemancer. This necromancer
relies on an army of skeletons and a few other minions who are there to support
them, most notably zombies and spectres. While the Necromancer ascendancy has
seen a few nerfs lately, none of them affect this build since it wasn't relying
on broken or overpowered mechanics, which are usually a magnet for the nerf
bat. What makes this build an amazing league starter is, first and foremost, its
complete gear independence. Almost none of your minions' damage comes from
equipment, no strength stacking, no expensive jewels, or mandatory uniques
which are crucial for the build's performance. As long as your resistance is
capped, you're good to go, and your skeletons will obliterate everything in
their path. Even the best-in-slot, end-game gear costs less than what most
builds need to clear white maps. The Skelemancer is equally good at clearing
large packs of mobs and killing bosses or other tough targets. Losing a few
skeletons will never cripple you as raising some more doesn't require corpses. Not
only that, but summoner builds are a beginner's best friend: they allow you to
observe and learn difficult fights or a new league's mechanics, while your
minions do the heavy lifting. It's much easier to master new or
tough boss fights when minions take care of dealing damage, and your only
concern is proper positioning and staying alive.
