[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Slayer Builds That Wreck Hard!

Though Slayers, just like most melee classes, didn’t receive direct buffs from Patch 3.17 Archnemesis League, the introduction of new uniques, Keystone, and Eldritch Implicits brought light to several builds and made them suddenly viable. And here are some of the best of them!

5 – Shockwave Cyclone

Cyclone against Veritania

Once again making an appearance in my articles, the Shockwave Cyclone continues to shine, and has access to even more damage now, with Forbidden jewels and easy Intimidate and Rage on Hit, as well as Action Speed on boots, without spending tons of currency on Tailwind!

What the Shockwave Cyclone Excels in:

• Buttery smooth clearing
• Over 4 million DPS
• Fairly tanky by scaling some armor and over 5,5k HP
• Great League starter

Shockwave Cyclone full details:

• The build revolves around the Cane of Kulemak, a new-ish item introduced in 3.14, that has unique and niche uses and can milk as much damage as possible from Shockwave, which is a support gem that can only be used with staves and maces.
• You want to get as much physical damage and attack speed as possible on the staff, and getting Impale chance will help things around, without having to invest too heavily on the tree for that.  The rest of the gear is just the standard melee physical stuff. Flat added Phys, crit chance, Abyssus, Critical Multi, elusive/tailwind boots if you can afford them, etc. And you can easily get Rage on Hit or Intimidate Gloves with Eldritch Implicits.
• With the changes to Mark Rings, you’ll have to slot in a Mark on Hit Support with either Assassin’s Mark or go for a Vulnerability on Hit Ring. And you can always get a pair of Forbidden Jewels for free Fortify, Adrenaline, or even Lucky Physical damage!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3137398

4 – KissMeQuick’s Reave Reborn

Demonic Reave MTX against Uber Atziri

With the change in the meta for this league, it’s much easier to acquire the gear required for this build to shine, and with the Eldritch Implicits, you can even cut some corners. And with the reduction on the budget, you can also get Forbidden Jewels to boost your damage or defense further!

What KissMeQuick’s Reave:Reborn Excels in:

• Scales fantastically with investment, but it’s cheap to start with
• Can league Start
• Kills the entire content
• Very Tanky and a really fun playstyle

KissMeQuick’s Reave:Reborn full details:

• Reave has always been a skill that demanded mobs to hit constantly, in order to stack it up to its full potential and area. And with new Influences shitting out mobs everywhere, it’s the best Reave has been in forever. Our biggest investment comes from Paradoxica, which literally doubles our damage.
• We achieve our tankyness by being full Block, Slayer Overleech (remember how Reave loves attacking? That’s the best thing about Overleech, we’re always leeching), 79% ele res, permanent Fortify, endurance charges, and over 6,5k HP.
• Always remember to use your Vaal Skills (Vaal Reave and Vaal Ancestral Warchief) for bosses, popping down the Ancestral Protector for a massive attack speed boost, and using the Vaal Dual Strike Clones to help you deal as much single target damage as possible and insta-phase the bosses!

For a thorough breakdown of this build, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2976624

3 – Dark Pact Slayer

Dark Pact against Sirus

Unlike the previous builds, this one was not only buffed but became viable due to direct buffs to the skill as well as enabling Chaos Damage to be leeched as life through Eldritch Implicits, to abuse Slayer’s Uber Leech, as well as a 40% More damage buff directly to the skill when used on your own life!

What the Dark Pact Slayer Excels in:

• Supremely tanky, with over 9k Life and 50k Armor, and 70%+ Block chance!
• Respectable Clearing
• Delightful Sustain while Leeching
• Slayer 20% Cull
• Cheap and League starter viable!

Dark Pact Slayer full details:

• Dark Pact is a Nova skill that deals chaos damage based on how much life you sacrificed, and the more life you have, the more damage you deal. Which means you have to have a way to regenerate that life if you want to deal damage, and we deal with that by abusing Slayer’s Massive Leeching.
• We’re also extremely tanky, since our primary source of damage is life, doubling it as a defensive mechanism. We also abuse Iron Reflexes to cap out on Armor, and together with a high Block Chance, we can take a lot of damage without even feeling it!
• Our Leech comes from an Eldritch Implicit, introduced this league, on our Gloves, that grants us 0,4% Chaos Damage Leeched as Life, in order for our Dark Pact to heal us!

For a full breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3240913

2 – Hollow Palm Cyclone

Cyclone against Drox

Like the Champion, Hollow Palm got a substantial and direct buff in Patch 3.17, in the shape of Precise Technique, and with the meta being geared more towards Bows and Spells, most of our gear is pretty cheap to acquire, but can scale to the endgame with proper investment!

What the Hollow Palm Cyclone Excels in:

• Fantastic and linear leveling, though not a league starter build
• Can get it going with just a few uniques and scales fantastically
• Over 10 million DPS
• Fairly tanky with over 5k life

Hollow Palm Cyclone full details:

• Hollow Palm comes from the Unique Cluster Jewel One from Nothing, that grants the Keystone Hollow Palm Technique. This means that while we are unencumbered (no weapons, shields, or gloves), we get 40% More Attack Speed and 14 to 20 Physical Attack Damage per 10 Dex. This means that the more Dexterity we have, the more damage we deal.
• Due to how Attribute stacking builds work in PoE, this means we can get easily over 1,2k Dex, and with some heavy investment, over 1,7k Dex. With some great and synergistic items, that means we can get a massive amount of Life from Dex, with the Garukhan’s Flight, which grants +2 Life per 10 Dex. With a single pair of boots, we get over 1k HP.
• The best way to stack attributes is by getting as many jewels as possible, jewels that grant flat Dexterity or that convert nearby nodes into Dex. A massive source of Dex is also the Brutal Restraint, especially if you get 5% Dex ones. And with Precise Technique, we can easily reach over our Life Pool in Accuracy, enabling the Keystone to grant us 40% More Attack Damage, no questions asked!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3251425

1 – Lightning Strike Ichimonji

Lightning Strike in Spider Forest Map

Whereas the previous version of this build was Frostblades, with the nerf to Hydrosphere, that made the build not quite so viable, and thus Lightning Strike joined the fray! It still works for it, for some reason, and it’s why we use it, and positioning is as required as before!

What the Lightning Strike Ichimonji Excels in:

• Extremely budget and league starter Friendly
• Simple to play and fantastic clearing
• Scales linearly with budget and gear
• Freezes everything, making it a safe build, along with substantial amounts of block

Lightning Strike Ichimonji full details:

• The way this build works is by having two Ichimonji, which are very high DPS and fast attacking swords, but with very low critical strike chance, which we, as Slayers, can boost by speccing into the Overwhelming Ascendancy Node, instantly making both blades a whopping 8% Crit.
• This, combined with Slayer’s own quick and strong attacks, makes it so nothing can withstand your blows, and all with the tiny cost of a measly 6 chaos orbs or less. The Ichimonji are so strong that they can carry you through all of the endgame until you can farm enough currency to do the big jump, and get yourself a Paradoxica and a Saviour, and then, your damage will hit the skies, reaching over 25 million DPS easily.
• For defense, we rely mostly on Slayer leech, some  block chance, killing enemies before they get a chance to hit (and nearly everything is permanently frozen) as well as having over 40k Armor to boot! Our Damage comes mostly from Crystalized Omniscience, and we stack Attributes as much as possible, to reach high levels of Elemental Penetration as well as cheap Resistances!

For a thorough breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3147878

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