Cyclone Slayer Build Guide (PoE Keepers of the Flame 3.27)

October 31st, 2025, 18:41

Introduction & Expectations

Welcome to our guide for Cyclone Slayer in Path of Exile. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about Cyclone Slayer from how this “Spin to Win” playstyle works, the pros and cons as well as any other key information. Please make sure to check out the others pages in our Cyclone Slayer guide to learn about Skill Tree’s, Gem Links, Equipment and More!

Disclaimer

While our Cyclone Slayer build is great for helping you obtain your first two Voidstones as well as a full Atlas completion, every build has limits. This setup performs great through most of the game, however if you’re looking to tackle the very top-end fights you’ll likely need to invest further both into your upgrades as well as time spent practicing.

What to Expect

🔸 T16 Maps ✔️
🔸 T16 Maps w/ a few Atlas Mechanics or some scarabs ✔️
🔸 Pinnacle bosses when playing well ✔️
🔸 T17 Maps ✔️
🔸 Uber Content ❌
🔸 Uber Content when investing well beyond the guide ❗

Cyclone

Cyclone Cyclone is one of Path of Exile’s most iconic skills. It introduces us to a long-loved Spin to Win playstyle, which ARPG Fans have always thoroughly enjoyed. Whilst Cyclone Cyclone in itself is worth playing, its transfigured version Cyclone of Tumult is a ton of free damage, as long as you can counteract its downsides, which is the Less Movement Speed modifier. We counteract this by using either Replica Stampede or Regular The Stampede. It doesn’t matter which one you get; just get the cheapest one.

Playstyle

This build is extremely enjoyable to play because you get to spin around while just holding down right-click. Because you do damage while moving, this makes it very enjoyable. On top of doing good damage, it also introduces a decent amount of survivability, making it super fun!

Build Assessment

Pros & Cons

➕ One of the best playstyles in the game
➕ Goes from early to endgame fairly efficiently
➕ Good damage and defenses

➖ Relies on weapons
➖ Requires some specific gear to fix resistances & attributes
➖ Incredibly level-hungry
➖ Limited ability to scale into super endgame

Viability in Numbers

🔸 Ease of Transitioning: ★★★☆☆
🔸 New Player Friendliness: ★★★★☆
🔸 Playstyle: ★★★★★
🔸 Ease of Gearing: ★★★☆☆
🔸 Easily Executable: ★★★★☆

Map Modifiers to Avoid

While certain combinations of modifiers are generally just bad, such as, a couple of damage modifiers combined with Critical Strike Multiplier, you will need to get a feel for what’s beneficial yourself and test it out. Just make sure not to combine too many crazy things. Modifiers that the build cannot run are listed here.

❗No Leech
❗Physical Damage Reflect
❗Reduced Recovery

Damage & Defenses

Mechanics

This build is a pure Physical Damage build which uses Staves because it enables the Shockwave Support. Historically, Staves were difficult because of limitations with early-game weapons, Staves are now at a point where they will do fine until you get to craft your endgame weapons. Outside of Cycloning around, this build requires very minimal button presses. The only buttons are a single press of Pride Aura, which is linked to Guardian's Blessing Support and dropping a War Banner on bosses or tough rares.

Scaling & Layers

This build layers a lot of conditional mitigation to mostly avoid getting hit for relevant damage. These layers are combinations of the following attempts to avoid taking relevant hits:

🔸Reasonable Armour
🔸65/65 Block & Spell Block
🔸Six Endurance Charges
🔸Steroid Fortify

Build Resources

Leveling the Build

League Starter or Transitioning

This build has the League Starter tag. This means our guide will provide information right from the get-go until you reach the pinnacle of your power and finish the guide. To maximise your experience, please make sure to follow the Path of Building levelling sections accordingly. We will be providing multiple skill trees & gem sets to ease your progress to endgame maps.

You can find the Path of Building link on the Path of Building Page.

Starting out

While levelling it is really important to upgrade your weapons as much as possible. Path of Exile has an interesting vendor recipe to do so. You want to find a good base (in this case, any 2-handed Maces, Staffs, Axes), use a Blacksmith's Whetstone if you have one and sell the weapon to the vendor combined with a Rustic Sash of Magic (blue) or Rare (yellow) rarity and a Blacksmith's Whetstone. The weapon becomes better with a Rare Rustic Sash than a magic one. Ideally, you want to save a Magic or Rare Rustic Sash for when you feel like you need a Damage Upgrade.