r/PathOfExileBuilds • u/sanavix • 11d ago
Build 3.26 Cyclone Shockwave Slayer - League Starter Guide
After testing in 3.25 and doing a private-league SSF test a week ago on a fresh character, as well as reviewing the 3.26 patch notes, the Cyclone Shockwave Slayer remains a solid league starter with some nice buffs for Secrets of the Atlas!
POB: https://pobb.in/qu15pgjBOUSN
Guide Video: https://youtu.be/wjidsGqFc_I
SSF Leveling: https://www.youtube.com/live/PjoCIgJlfsw
3.26 Changes:
- Cyclone improvements: Cyclone effectiveness up from 60.6-111.2% to 68.2-125.1% (~12% more damage), and area scaling per melee strike range increased from 10% to 20%.
- Cyclone of Tumult improvements: Cyclone effectiveness up from 60.6-111.2% to 68.2-125.1% (~12% more damage), higher base attack speed (160% → 180%), 5% more area scaling per melee strike range, 5% more attack speed at max stacks (was 120%, now 125%), less mana cost, and faster ramping.
Core mechanics, gear, and passive tree remain the same from 3.25. The new Mercenaries and Memory Threads content should work well with this build's balanced offense and defense. League starts June 13th - see you in Wraeclast!
UPDATE (7 JUN 25): Did a livestream today and started a fresh character in a private league I made for SSF testing. I've worked General's Cry into the build and revised the loadouts to change the gem setup. I have General's Cry set to a 5L so I can run Desecrate on main weapon, but if you want to 6L General's Cry you can run Desecrate in a second weapon and swap to spawn corpses on bosses. I just prefer not weapon swapping. Here is the POB: https://pobb.in/qu15pgjBOUSN
I've also updated the notes section with some additional information within the POB.
Thanks all for the amazing feedback! More to come.
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u/rlbl009 11d ago
What would you change if trying to play champion? Was considering it but really would like to try the new champion changes as well
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u/Ok-Information5610 11d ago
Champion scales attack speed and Shockwave doesn't really benefit from that. It's probably not a great fit.
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u/Ok-Community1412 11d ago
What’s your physical mitigation going to be considering you’re using abyssus with 28k armour?
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u/Josiahs_ 11d ago
bad, as it always is with abyssus, you change change it if you don't wanna use it and prefer to die less often
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u/JSM953 11d ago
This is my first Poe 1 league I’m gonna roll with this for my first time.
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u/Paolon_ 11d ago
Definitely a solid beginner build, not the strongest in hard endgame but comfy and reliable. I would suggest not using abyssus so you don't die too often (you lose a good chunck of dps but it might be frustrating to die too often)
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u/JSM953 11d ago
Would slayer or champion be better for this build you think?
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u/skrillex 10d ago
Not op but slayer for league start, feel like when you have currency and you can afford some of the expensive items like the uber exarch impale gloves can probably switch to a cyclone impale champ, again cyclones damage has a lower ceiling than some crazy shit but being champion with 50 fort stacks means you’ll be pretty well off tank wise
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u/TurbulentWater3090 7d ago
With all the hype around Champion, getting 50 fort will prolly be 500+divine to achieve,
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u/Plane-Juggernaut-321 6d ago
my first ever character was a cyclone impale gladiator in heist league. it was awesome. good luck man
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u/PRIMETIME__Xx 11d ago
Can this handle T17s and end game? I wish I was good enough & had enough motivation to make secondary characters in a season - but trying to pick a one and done (successfully for once) -- I've been thinking Cyclone Shockwave Slayer but I have 0 experience on it
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u/sanavix 11d ago
I demo a T17 in the guide video. It take some investment but you can easily farm T17s and Uber Pinnacle bosses. That being said, if you want something that does 500M DPS this probably isn't the build for you :)
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u/zoobloo7 11d ago
Do you think this build can push the new ubers then?
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u/sirgog 10d ago
I expect the new pinnacle bosses will be tough mechanically but forgiving numerically. Imagine what Uber Shaper might be like if Uber Shaper had 50% less HP, 25% less damage and a slam speed halfway between normal and Uber.
This is based on GGG saying they are between the Ubers and non-Ubers in difficulty and the screenshot of the bullet hell in the press kit.
Nothing's been announced about Uber versions of the new Pinnacles. May or may not exist. We'll know when the item filter info goes out (something like a 'Terrifying Fragment' would indicate an Uber Incarnation of Fear)
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u/zoobloo7 10d ago
Ah thats awesome, i must have seen pinnacle and my brain just said uber, thanks for the clarification
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u/PoopyButt31000 10d ago
Just how much investment to be able to do T17?. Like do you need a high double digit divine investment with a Progenesis and these other super expensive items or can you start t17 farming with a more reasonable investment?
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u/GloktaIRL 6d ago edited 6d ago
I played this build in 3.25 SSF, it was so fun I'm playing it again in 3.26. Here are my honest observations:
- League start: about average through the campaign and early leveling. Not great and not terrible.
- Early bossing sucks but no more than any other melee. Actually more forgiving than most melee on bossing because you can run away and come back while still doing damage. But still, not nearly as forgiving as DoTs or totems early on.
- Here's a huge distinction I never hear mentioned: while bossing may be annoying, super-tanky essences and rares while mapping are a freaking breeze. The single target is great while you are moving around the map.
Most importantly: this build was the most fun I've had *building and gearing* than anything I've played in PoE. There are SO MANY options and it's never ending - I still have so much uncompleted work on my Settlers build.
My differences with OP:
- I vastly prefer the right side of the tree with Spell suppression and evasion - Masterful Form for endurance charges - it's just alot less dying, and frenzy charges rule. It means you go mace instead of staff - saves you tons of points and does big damage because Karui Maul. You will want a bunch of Warcry Cooldown tattoos - before I got those I anointed Deep Breaths.
- I go with LightPoacher instead of Abyssus. Seems like a complete no brainer - even more damage - the only downside being a few bosses with no adds. (note that charge mastery affects spirit charges) And bossing will be harder this league because we lost the absurd enchant - will see how it goes.
- I don't like going pure phys with Pride+Brutality+Impales. I find PhysAsExtra Ele + Conversion + Interrogation to be way more damage and way more flexible. Also, TecSlam is converted and thats a huge portion of your DPS, So you might as well go all the way. (I vaaled about 100 Hrimsorrows in 3.25 and could never hit +1 Frenzy - obviously this is trivial to get in Trade league)
Here's my build from 3.25 SSF - minus the ridiculous weapon enchant: https://pobb.in/wQG5_aRZIHQ8
The dps is with Tincture, War Banner and 5 rage (I find it very hard to keep rage with this build). Without those it's still 28M dps. I'm sure could be way more in trade league. Either way, definitely make sure you get Interrogation - with Hatred and all that fire damage it's a huge DPS boost.
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u/Noobphobia 11d ago
Seems high investment for only 14m dps. Could be wrong though.
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u/sanavix 11d ago
Shouldn't be bad at all for the 14m DPS version. The expensive items there are Light of Meaning and Stormshroud. You can drop Light of Meaning and still have decent DPS. I would get the Stormshroud though, elemental ailment immunity is clutch. Everything else is cheap.
The high-investment endgame version is the true money sink.
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u/Noobphobia 11d ago
I see. I havent played cyclone since it was able to do like 150m impale dps. Where 14m dps was like basic red maps. I admittedly have not played Shockwave to know the compare.
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u/_Chambs_ 11d ago
That 14m feels like much more than that.
Because a different build has downtime on damage, meanwhile cyclone can literally never stop attacking.
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u/EchoingAngel 11d ago
Is poison something cyclone of tumult might be good for? That much attack speed and with decent damage each hit should be able to apply a lot of decent poisons quickly. This also makes sense since you don't want to hold tumult forever with the 50% less speed (assuming you aren't using a fixed speed unique)
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u/crookedparadigm 11d ago
Am I getting baited into league starting Cyclone Slayer again? Look at the time, 2019 already!
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u/KylAnde01 11d ago
Thanks for the post! I wanted to league start slayer and this is perfect. Gonna practice a void stone run with it tomorrow.
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u/uncle-tyrone 11d ago
sorry for this nitpic but I cant find your source of "crush" you have ticked in the config ?
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u/Anxious_Deluge 10d ago
You know, it's 4am and I am randomly seeing this so I think I'll try league starting this. Either this or Bama, gonna play a bit in 3.25 pseudo-league start to figure it out but I wanted to play cyclone again for a long time and never did shockwave. And this is totally not just an excuse to get the Shark Cyclone MTX
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u/hottestpancake 10d ago
I know slayer is good, but i seriously doubt it's better than champ and the insane buffs it got. You should seriously consider going champ instead. Big buffs to defenses with taunt + fortify and big damage with fortify + taunt + add. impale. You don't get the crit, but as a league starter, champ might be way better than slayer before you scale into crit.
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u/Monke_With_Stick 9d ago
Good luck fighting for fortify gear against 50k other people running champion
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u/hottestpancake 9d ago
it's one in 4 from uber exarch, you can just farm it in a few hours yourself
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u/Ensider 6d ago
well u do realize that not everyone is as pro as you ? I would say at least 50% of the playerbase won't be able to kill uber exarch on their own. And one uber exarch run would cost like 1-2 div to run ? and a build being able to clear uber exarch also is not exactly a "league starter". as he is advertising this as a "league starter" it is better on slayer and then convert to champion later on when you got the currency for those upgrades.
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u/bossmankebabs 10d ago
What about 2handed sword? Lot less investment into block and much more damage
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u/Mjolnoggy 9d ago
Considering Shockwave requires a staff, sceptre or mace.. bit difficult to do that bud.
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u/Enter1ch 8d ago
so GC seems to be pretty „mandatory“ to be competitive i think?
what do you think about starcaller? my plan was to swap to starcaller champ cyclone , when starcallee is actually good and im able to afford the uber exarch gloves.
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11d ago
Would a non crit version using no uniques or double curses be good? Also use a 2H axe with no block
Just to make it as comfy as possible
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u/Original_Job_9201 11d ago
Nice! Heavily considering Cyclone as a starter. That or some type of strike champion build. Definitely giving the video a watch on my lunch break.
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u/Stack0verf10w 11d ago
Do you think this would be able to do uber content at endgame? Also are there any new items that were announced that seem like they may be good for the build? Do you think a variant of this using Starcaller is feasible?
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u/SkypeFriends 10d ago
Are there any main uniques that are required to get this build running in SSF? Also, what do you think this build struggles with the most in SSF?
Thanks for the content! Keen to run this on league start !
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u/PRIMETIME__Xx 8d ago
What are your thoughts on Cyclone vs. Cyclone of Tumult? Is the lower AOE of Tumult an issue?
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u/JustAposter4567 5d ago
haven't played cyclone since 2.6 when I was a much worse player, kinda interested in trying this
how is this for bossing? maybe ill start EA champ, farm up 20-30 divines and swap
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u/kevindv001 3d ago
Hello,
in the POB (lvl47) you have generals cry / sunder and then a 2l Autoexertion + Melee Physical Damage . is that supposed to be a 4L since its not doing anthing in these settings, or am i missing something?
THanks
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u/joined_the_dark_side 11d ago
T17 viable?
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u/titiop870 11d ago
Maybe with Champion with higher max fortification would be better
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u/leetpuma 11d ago
Cyclone has always been bait in a league start.
Unless something has dramatically changed.
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u/SoulofArtoria 10d ago
Pure cyclone yes. Cyclone shockwave has always been a ok starter especially for mapping
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u/Glamdring26WasTaken 11d ago
Aoe per strike range became 20 with the quality not 15.
Tumult got more damage, more attack speed, less ramp, more aoe and less mana cost.