Path of Exile Beginner's Guide: The Best Cyclone Impale Build
What is Cyclone?
Cyclone is a physical melee skill in Path of Exile where the character spins around in a continuous motion, hitting enemies in their path. The key appeal of Cyclone lies in its ability to clear large groups of enemies while providing consistent damage. It's one of the most satisfying skills to use, as it can tear through monsters while you stay mobile and avoid incoming attacks.
While Cyclone itself deals physical damage, it can be enhanced with various mechanics like Impale to significantly increase your damage potential.
What is Impale?
Impale is a mechanic that works with physical damage skills in Path of Exile. It allows a portion of the damage dealt to be "impaled" on an enemy. When you hit an enemy and cause an Impale, you deal a portion of your damage to the target on each subsequent hit, multiplying your overall damage output.
The key to making the Cyclone Impale build work is to stack as many Impales as possible on a single target, then use your continuous Cyclone spins to deal damage over time to those impaled enemies. With the right gear, passive tree allocation, and gems, the combination of Cyclone and Impale becomes a devastating force capable of clearing content efficiently.
Why Cyclone Impale is Great for Beginners
The Cyclone Impale build is a great choice for beginners for several reasons:
Clear Speed: Cyclone is excellent for clearing large packs of monsters quickly. It's a great skill for mapping, especially when you're progressing through different areas in the game.
Survivability: Cyclone allows you to move around while attacking, giving you more control over positioning. This makes it easier to avoid dangerous situations compared to other melee skills.
Simple Mechanics: While the build can scale up with more advanced mechanics, the basic core of the Cyclone Impale build is straightforward. You're spinning around and hitting enemies while applying Impale stacks for extra damage.
Affordability: Many of the required items and gear for the Cyclone Impale build are relatively easy to obtain, making it affordable for new players. You don't need ultra-rare items to get a solid build. But you need Path of exile currency.
High Damage: Impale scaling allows for a high level of damage even with basic gear. This makes it possible to tackle tougher bosses as your character progresses.
Basic Overview of the Cyclone Impale Build
Let's break down the primary components of the Cyclone Impale build:
1. Main Skill - Cyclone
Cyclone will be your primary skill. It will allow you to attack continuously while moving, making it perfect for both single-target damage and clearing large packs of enemies.
The effectiveness of Cyclone depends heavily on your physical damage scaling, which is where Impale comes into play.
2. Impale Support
The Impale Support Gem is essential for this build. This support gem enhances the Impale mechanic, increasing both the chance to impale and the damage dealt by impaled enemies.
It can be linked to Cyclone, allowing you to hit enemies and apply Impales with each spin, significantly boosting your damage output.
3. Impale Scaling
To maximize Impale damage, we focus on increasing Impale-related stats, such as Impale chance, Impale damage, and physical damage. The more times you can Impale an enemy, the more damage you'll deal to them over time.
4. Passive Skill Tree
The passive skill tree for the Cyclone Impale build focuses on increasing physical damage, attack speed, Impale chance, and damage reduction. You'll also want to look for life nodes for survivability and some mobility to help with positioning.
5. Ascendancy Class: Champion
The Champion Ascendancy is the most popular choice for Cyclone Impale builds. It provides several key benefits, such as:
Fortify: The Champion's ascendancy offers easy access to Fortify, which greatly improves your survivability by reducing incoming damage.
Impaler: This node increases the effectiveness of Impale and gives you even more chances to impale enemies. It is a direct boost to your damage output.
Warcry Nodes: The Champion has access to powerful Warcry nodes that can enhance your crowd control and increase your damage even further.
Note: While the Champion is typically the best choice for the Cyclone Impale build, you could also explore the Gladiator ascendancy if you prefer a slightly different playstyle (more focused on block chance and bleed effects).
Essential Gems for Cyclone Impale
Here's a list of the main gems and links you'll want for your Cyclone Impale build:
1. Cyclone
The core of the build. It should be linked with the following support gems to maximize its damage:
Impale Support: The most important gem to increase Impale damage.
Damage on Full Life: This increases your damage when you're at full life, helping you deal maximum damage in combat.
Melee Physical Damage: Adds extra physical damage to your Cyclone attacks, which scales well with your base damage.
Fortify Support: This provides the Fortify buff, which reduces incoming damage when you're hit, adding an extra layer of defense.
2. Aura Setup
To maximize your damage and survivability, you'll want to focus on a few key aura skills:
Pride: This aura grants a significant physical damage boost, which is especially useful for physical damage builds like Cyclone Impale.
Blood and Sand: This aura offers more mobility and increased area of effect when using Cyclone in the Blood stance, boosting both damage and control over the battlefield.
Determination: For defense, you'll want to stack armor. Determination is a good aura for this, as it increases your armor and helps mitigate physical damage.
3. Movement Skills
Since Cyclone doesn't allow for precise movement, you'll need to have a movement skill to get around:
Leap Slam or Whirling Blades: Both of these skills allow you to jump or dash around, helping you position yourself for more effective Cyclone usage.
Flame Dash: This provides mobility for navigating dangerous areas and is especially useful for bosses or tight spaces.
4. Defensive Gems
For defense, you'll need a few gems to help you survive in tougher encounters:
Immortal Call: This gem allows you to temporarily reduce incoming physical damage, which is useful for tanking damage from bosses or strong enemies.
Cast When Damage Taken: This gem can be linked with Immortal Call and a few other defensive gems to ensure you stay alive when taking heavy hits.
Vaal Grace: Provides a temporary evasion and dodge buff, making it harder for enemies to hit you.
Gear and Items for Cyclone Impale Build
Your gear will play an important role in improving your damage and survivability. Here's a breakdown of the key items you'll want for this build:
1. Weapons
Two-handed weapons: A great choice for scaling your physical damage. Look for a high-damage weapon with added physical damage, attack speed, and Impale chance.
Axes or Maces: Both axes and maces are great choices due to their high physical damage output. They also synergize well with the Impale mechanic.
Important Mods: Look for gear that increases physical damage, Impale chance, attack speed, and life.
2. Armor
Since you're going to be in the thick of combat, it's essential to have high armor for damage mitigation. Look for items with high armor and life.
Flasks: Flasks that grant increased armor, life recovery, and resistance to ailments like freezing or bleeding are crucial for surviving tough encounters.
3. Jewels
Physical Damage Jewels: These jewels will increase the overall physical damage output of your build. Look for jewels that provide bonuses to Impale chance or physical damage.
Life and Resist Jewels: You'll also want to stack life and resistances on your jewels to improve survivability. You can also buy POE orbs directly.
4. Helmet, Gloves, Boots
Helmet: Look for a helmet with life, resistances, and possibly increased physical damage. You can also link it to Enlighten if you're using multiple auras.
Gloves: Go for gloves with increased physical damage, life, and resistances.
Boots: High life, resistances, and movement speed are key stats to prioritize for your boots.
Conclusion
The Cyclone Impale build is an excellent choice for beginners in Path of Exile. It provides a simple yet powerful playstyle that scales well into the late game. With its ability to clear mobs quickly and deal massive damage to bosses, it's a well-rounded and satisfying build to play.
By focusing on physical damage, Impale chance, and survivability, you'll be able to progress through the game with ease and have fun while doing it. Whether you're new to the game or just looking for a build to dive into, the Cyclone Impale build will provide you with a great combination of power, survivability, and fun.