[3.12] PoE Heist Slayer Impale Cyclone Duelist Starter Build (PC,PS4,Xbox,Mobile)

This is PoE 3.12 Duelist Slayer Cyclone Starter Build. It can be played as any Duelist/Marauder ascendancy except for Chieftain and the main focus is to demolish endgame content without spending a fortune.

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Headsman->Bane of Legends->Impact->Overwhelm

Pantheon

Major: Soul of Lunaris, Soul of Arakaali and Soul of Lunaris are all solid choices. I use Lunaris for maps, Solaris for bosses and Arakaali when I'm in no danger of one shots.

Minor: Soul of Shakari's upgraded version "immune to poison" is the best you can get.

Bandit: Help Alira

Passive Tree & PoB

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/rP7CjYZi

 

Gems Setup

Cyclone

The all purpose link for Cyclone will be Impale-> Brutality-> Fortify -> Infused Channeling -> Close Combat

Rage, Melee Phys, Pulverise

Close Combat is the flex slot and you can use either Rage, Melee Phys or Pulverise instead. Rage is the best for damage but has a nasty ramp up, Melee Phys is the most consistent, Pulverise is the worst for damage but gives more AoE and finally Close Combat almost rivals the DPS of Rage but with no ramp up, it does however only work that well if you are right on top of the enemy.

Awakened Brutality, Awakened Melee Phys

When you get the awakened gems, obviously swap Brutality for it's awakened version and swap Close Combat for awakened Melee Phys since it now also grants us Intimidate.

Warchief

Vaal Ancestral Warchief, Maim, Impale, Brutality

We only use the Vaal Warchief here. The totem does very high DPS on its own but it also buffs our damage by 32% wich is a huge buff to use on bosses.

Molten Shell

Vaal Molten Shell -> CWDT -> Enduring Cry

Vaal Molten Shell synergizes very well with our build because we naturally use a lot of armour gear, making the absorb much stronger. I like the CWDT because I forget to press the normal Molten Shell while mapping.

Leap Slam

Leap Slam -> Endurance Charge on Melee Stun -> Blood Magic -> Faster Attack

Either Leap Slam, Whirling Blades or even Dash. Blood magic is needed given we reserve almost all of our mana and we get 1 endurance charge per use when we hit an enemy with this.

Auras

Pride, Blood and Sand, Flesh and Stone, Dread Banner, Precision, Enlighten

These are the best auras you can get for a balanced setup.

You can swap back and forth between blood and sand stance as you want, just keep in mind that blood=DPS and sand=defense. Until you are comfortable with the build, just play in sand stance.

An Enlighten 3 is not necessary however it allows you to level up Precision past level 1 for additional accuracy and crit.

If you use Enlighten, link it with Pride, Flesh and Stone and either Dread Banner or Blood and Sand.

Utility

Blood Rage, Portal, Enduring Cry 

Blood Rage is very strong, both for mapping and bosses since it gives frenzy charges on kill, but more importantly attack speed. If you want you can rely on this to get your life leech cap and save a few points on the tree.

Portal is just because I'm lazy, if you have portal scrolls you can use blood magic here aswell so none of your skills cost mana.

Enduring Cry is completely optional, it's just a means for generating endurance charges for defense. I dont use this but its there as an option if you want more defense.

 

Gear Setup

Weapon

Scaeva: Global Crit in Main Hand>3 Green Sockets>Added Physical Damage

Rare Foil: Attack Speed>Added Physical Damage>Increased Physical Damage

One Handed Sword
Quality: +30%
Physical Damage: 129-232
Critical Strike Chance: 5.50%
Attacks per Second: 2.03
Weapon Range: 14
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+25% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
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+25 to Dexterity
164% increased Physical Damage
27% increased Attack Speed
+13% to Lightning Resistance
Gain 10% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage
35% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
Adds 16 to 28 Physical Damage
Corrupted

Paradoxica: Attack Speed>Increased Physical Damage>Quality. Blind/Bleed/Poison is a substat from physical damage and they dont matter. Blind is a tiny bit better.

The Saviour is the best weapon in the game hands down and should be an early purchase. After that pick Scaeva, rare foil or Paradoxica as your other weapon depending on your budget.

Crafting a rare foil is as simple as rolling Jagged fossils or alteration spam for t1 hybrid phys or flat phys in addition to t1 attack speed, after that you just multimod and add the remaining stats from the priority list.

You should always craft on a Jewelled Foil with ilvl 77 atleast, next step would be ilvl 83 for maxed rolls but also a lot of other bad tiers of mods.
For minmaxing go with a Warlord base.

Helmet

Start out by using a Starkonja until you can craft a good helm.

Stats to aim for: Life+Resist -> Phys to Nearby -> Fortify Effect

15% increased Cyclone Attack Speed
--------------------------------------------
+37 to Armour
10% increased Armour
+25% to Lightning Resistance
7% increased Stun and Block Recovery
24% increased Effect of Fortify on you
Nearby Enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage
+69 to maximum Life

If you dont need the resist you can craft +1 to AoE gems as prefix and socket 3 auras + enlighten in helmet.

Phys to nearby is an Elder mod and needs ilvl 85+ and should be crafted with Jagged fossils.

Fortify effect is now a Crusader mod at ilvl 80+ and you craft it with Dense fossils.

Body Armour

Stats to aim for: -15 mana cost -> Life -> Elder/Hunter Base Crit -> Resist

As of 3.10 a Warlord chest is needed for the -15 mana mod. If you want to minmax you can combine it with a Elder/Hunter base crit mod or even Crusader explode using Awakener Orb.

The -15 mod needs atleast ilvl 85 of the Warlord chest and the easiest way to get it is just to spam Serrated fossils on it, if you dont plan on combining it then use Pristine fossil aswell.

If you decide to get minus mana cost on rings/amulet instead then you can chose either Crusader explode chest or just a really beefy life/resist chest.

Gloves

Stats to aim for: Life+Resist -> Attack Speed -> Phys to Attacks

20% increased Melee Damage
---------------------------------
9% increased Attack Speed
+76 to maximum Life
+44% to Cold Resistance
+40% to Lightning Resistance
36% increased Damage while Leeching

If you dont need the resist you can craft damage while leeching as Prefix.

You should always craft on Spiked Gloves and the next step would be Warlord influence although not at all necessary.

For crafting aim for ilvl 72 atleast and ilvl 84 for max resistances.

Fossil crafted with Pristine+Prismatic for life and resistances.

Boots

Stats to aim for: Move Speed -> Life+Resist

If you dont need resists you can craft attributes, damage during soul gain prevention or cannot be frozen. High move speed is crucial, minimum 25% because it heavily affects Cyclone.

Endgame craft would be Tailwind from Hunter+Elusive from Redeemer in addition to the recommended stats. Both mods need ilvl 75 to roll other than that ilvl 72 for a balanced range of all good stats or ilvl 86 for maximum movement speed.

For most people just getting Tailwind, Movement Speed and Life should be enough.

Fossil craft these with Pristine+Shuddering, Prismatic aswell for resistances if you can afford it.

Amulet

Stats to aim for: Life -> Crit Multi -> Intelligence -> Phys to Attacks

+28 to Strength and Intelligence
----------------------------------------
+38 to all Attributes
Adds 15 to 34 Cold Damage to Attacks
+26% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
+79 to maximum Life
+7% to Fire Resistance
35% increased Damage while Leeching

You can choose to get the intelligence elsewhere, we need enough to use Infused Channeling.

If you dont need the Int you can craft damage while leeching.

If you dont have minus mana cost on chest you want -3 to channeling cost on both rings and amulet in order to have 0 mana cost on Cyclone.

Rings

Stats to aim for: Life+Resist -> Phys to Attacks -> Intelligence

If you dont have minus mana cost on chest you want -3 to channeling cost on both rings and amulet in order to have 0 mana cost on Cyclone.

Best in slot ring should have either Assassin's Mark or Vulnerability on hit. Assassin is slightly better. If you use Assassin's Mark ring you can use a Mark of the Elder in the other slot.

Crafting curse on hit rings require atleast ilvl 80 and the best way to get them is to spam alterations and multimod afterwards. Shaper rings for Assassin's Mark and Warlord rings for Vulnerability.

Belt

Stats to aim for: Life+Resist

Ryslatha's Coil is incredibly strong mainly for DPS but also has decent life, it could be considered a best in slot piece, however it doesnt have the flexibility of a rare item so only use it if you can afford to drop resists.

You can craft attributes or %increased damage if you dont need resists.

Stats on the jewel should be life and either attack speed, global crit multi or physical damage to attacks aswell as onslaught on kill if you can.

End game option would be a fossil crafted Elder and/or Hunter Stygian Vise with life%. Elder has physical damage% and Hunter has a few useful stats aswell.

This is a quite expensive process as you need a Conqueror's Exalted Orb and an Awakener's Orb for Elder influence on a Stygian Vise. For crafting the belt you need Pristine+Jagged and Prismatic if you want resistances also, on an ilvl 80 for Elder or ilvl 84 for Hunter.

The cheap alternative is any decent base like Leather, Rustic, Heavy or Stygian Vise at ilvl 72 for a good balance, ilvl 84 for max resistances and its crafted the same way.

Flask

s

s

Lion's Roarm, Bottled Faith

The flasks are pretty much locked in place. Not many flasks can compare with this setup. The mod "of the Order" is very good on a Diamond Flask but its pretty hard to get.

Silver Flask or even Bottled Faith can replace Basalt if you rather play in true softcore fashion.

Jewels

Best mods for rare jewels are life% and crit multi -> attack speed -> physical damage. Resistances are fine here aswell.

Brutal Restraint and Lethal Pride are optional jewels and require good stats in order to beat a regular jewel. Brutal Restraint is more DPS oriented with attack speed and crit whilst Lethal Pride is a bit more tanky with Fortify effect. If you decide to use these then buy the cheapest jewel and use Divines until you hit good mods.

The best mod for a Watcher's Eye is 2 additional hits with Impale though it's quite expensive. Most of the Pride and Precision mods are good so if you cant afford a 2 stack Impale then just get another mod for either of the 2 auras.

IMPORTANT: If you use Paradoxica's then the double damage mod with Pride will not work, it doesnt stack.

 

Cluster Jewels

With the addition of 3.10 we now have Cluster Jewels.

The setup I went with is Large Cluster Attack Damage -> Medium Cluster Channeling Damage -> Small Cluster Life.

Priority of notables:

Large jewel: Feed the Fury -> Martial Prowess -> Fuel the Fight.

Medium jewel: Precise Focus -> Rapid Infusion or Hex Breaker.

Small jewel: Adrenaline, Fettle or Blessed. On small passives get resistances or attributes.

Jewel slots on large and medium jewels are very strong and should be prioritized if possible.

 

Good item for leveling

Goldrim, Tabula Rasa, Wanderlust, Rigwald's Charg, Oni-Goroshi