Path of Exile is a very complex game with multiple mechanics that might be quite tough to understand. In this guide, we will be taking a deeper look at Culling Strike. We plan to cover everything that there is to know about this mechanic so if you want to get to know it better hop onto the article below.
What is Culling Strike in Path of Exile
Culling Strike is a mechanic that instantly finishes opponents that are below 10% Health after the next hit. The effect is applied instantly and there is no cooldown on it. Culling Strike won't occur when the damage dealt is greater than enemy health that is left. This is important since there are effects in the game that count Overkill Damage. Culling strike is a property of the hits and therefore it cannot apply Damage-Over-Time effects.
How to get it
Culling Strike is included in multiple sources in the Path of Exile. Here is the list with all of them.
Gems
Culling Strike Support - A simple support gem that can be connected to any active damage-dealing abilities.
It can be acquired from:
- Shard and Cruel (Act 2 Yeena) as a Duelist.
- The Root of the Problem (Act 2 Teena) as a Duelist.
- A Fixture of Fate (Act 3 Siosa) as a Duelist.
- Fallen from Grace (Act 6 Lilly Roth) as a Duelist.
Power Siphon - Active skill gem that fires powered projectiles with active Culling Strike.
It can be acquired from:
- The Siren's Cadence (Act 1 Nessa) as a Witch, Shadow, or Scion.
- A Fixture of Fate (Act 3 Siosa) as a Duelist.
- Fallen from Grace (Act 6 Lilly Roth) as a Duelist.
Vaal Power Siphon - Vaal version of the Power Siphon skill which is also boosted by Culling Strike.
It can be acquired from:
- Vendor Recipes on Divination Cards: Volatile Power, The Fox and the Gemcutter's Promise
Glacial Hammer - Active damage-dealing melee ability. Even though Glacial Hammer doesn't provide Culling Strike it has a similar effect that shatters enemies who are beneath 33% health.
It can be acquired from:
- Enemy at the Gate (Act 1 Nessa) as a Duelist, Marauder, or Templar.
- A Fixture of Fate (Act 3 Siosa) as a Duelist.
- Fallen From Grace (Act 6 Lilly Roth) as a Duelist.
Item modifiers
Two suffixes might supplement an item with an ability to apply Culling Strike.
of the Elder - provides a Culling Strike for a weapon of level 68+ OR provides Culling Strike against bleeding enemies and 30-49% bonus to Physical Damage.
of the Conquest - provides a Culling Strike for a weapon or gloves of level 73+.
Unique Items
Multiple items come with a Culling Strike bonus. Besides weapons, we can find Ring, Belt, and Amulet in this category.
- Limbsplit - 2H Axe of level 13
- Relentless Fury - 1H Axe of level 29
- Reaper's Pursuit - 2H Axe of level 33
- Marylene's Fallacy - Amulet of level 40 - Provides Culling Strike only on Criticals.
- The Cauteriser - 2H Axe of level 40
- Gluttony - Belt of level 48 - Provides Culling Strike on enemies that have Poacher's Mark on them.
- Heartbreaker - Dagger of level 50 - Provides Culling Strike on spells.
- Kaom's Primacy - 2H Axe of level 58
- Kingmaker - 2H Axe of level 66 - Provides Culling Strike for nearby allies.
- Oro's Sacrifice - 2H Sword of level 67 - Provides Culling Strike on burning enemies.
- The Hungry Loop - Ring of level 70 - Doesn't have Culling Strike but can consume gems that have it.
Passive Skills
- Skull Cracking (normal passive) - Hits that stun enemies have a Culling Strike.
- Slayer (Ascendant's passive) - Provides Culling Strike.
- Ambush and Assassinate (Assassin's passive) - Critical Strike have a Culling Strike.
- Bane of Legends (Slayer's passive) - Enemies that have below 20% health instantly die from your skills.
Bane of Legends
Slayer (Ascendancy Class of Duelist) passive tree allows him to skill a Bane of Legends talent that gives this class various bonuses listed below.
- 10% Increase in Movement Speed for 20 seconds on enemy kill
- 10% Increase in Attack Speed for 20 seconds on Rare and Unique enemy kills
- Ability to instantly finish off opponents that are beneath 20% health on spell/weapon hit
This is same thing as a CS but better. Killing bosses that have 1/5 of their maximum health is a dream come true in versus tough enemies. Besides, that Slayer can receive various bonuses from kills to furthermore increase the effectiveness of this bonus. Bane of Legends is such a good perk that people create Slayer builds just to have it in their toolkit. If you plan to look for builds that do well against bosses Slayer is the class to go.
Brutal Fervour vs Bane of Legends
Many Slayer players often come in the face of choice between Bane of Legends and Brutal Fervour. This second perk gives players a huge +50% boost to Attack Damage, +15% to Attack Speed, and +6% Damage Reduction on Life Leech. Moreover, Life Leech can be applied when you are at Max Health. This might seem more appealing than finishing low health opponents but take into consideration that Bane of Legends can finish enemies through their resistances and Brutal Fervor will have decreased damage when you count the Armor, Evasion, and Resistances of the monster. This is especially noticeable at Bosses where Bane of Legends shines as one of the best talents in the game. Barely anything in the game can compare to its bonuses but some perks are better like Pain Attunement and Aspect of Carnage. It is up to you to choose the right talents but if you are looking forward to a Culling build be sure to check out what Slayer class has to offer for your character.
How to use Culling Strike effectively
As mentioned before Culling Strike PoE mechanic allows you to finish off opponents that are below 10% life (maximum life) with just a single hit. This also applies to Act bosses and some other major adversaries. The Gem "Culling Strike Support" is the best and most reliable way of adding this mechanic to the build. It not only gives CS but also skills supported by it have increased damage by 0-38% which can be quite a huge boost to the DPS. Because of that most of the players connect it to their main ability. It also has a Mana Multiplier 110%.
Culling Strike can be effective with multiple builds and can work pretty much with everything however high attack speed builds with various projectiles are preferred ones. With them, players can just shoot their abilities and kill large groups of enemies that are low on health even without knowing. On those builds, you won't have to look out for lower health enemies and walk towards them as with a combination of projectile skill and Greater Multiple Projectiles gem you can easily clear large waves of enemies and apply Culling Strike to those that are low.
It is also worth mentioning that the Gem itself is worth upgrading. Higher quality of it means a 0.5% increased Attack Speed and 0.5% increased Cast Speed for every 1% of Gem Quality.
Why it is not used as a main Gem
You may think that finishing off enemies with 10% health gives you a 10% increase in the DPS which might seem like a great upgrade but in fact, in Path of Exile, multiple support gems surpass that value. Besides, rarely monsters that you kill end up on 0~10% health value so the effect of CS will be rarely occurring while other gems might provide you constant bonuses that apply to your damage at all times. Here are some of the examples of "better" choices when it comes to supporting gems. (All of the statistics below show the possible DPS increase with a 20% Quality gem).
- Melee Physical Damage around ~49% increase in DPS
- Weapon Elemental Damage around ~59% increase in DPS
- Multistrike: 94% More attack speed, 30% Less damage = ~35.8% increase in DPS
- Spell Echo: 70% More cast speed, 10% Less damage = ~53% increase in DPS
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Penetration: 35% Penetration = ~35% increase in DPS against monsters that do not have resistances - you can get even more value with it against resistant enemies.
- Minion Damage: ~77% increase in DPS
- Added Fire Damage: ~44% increase in DPS
- Concentrated Effect: ~59% increase in DPS
- Slower Projectiles: ~29% increase in DPS
Besides those gems, there are also "Added Lightning Damage", "Added Cold Damage", "Faster Attacks" and others that highly depend on the build that you are using but almost all of them should surpass CS in terms of the damage. So why people are still going for CS instead of those?
When it is worth it
Many PoE players underestimate this mechanic saying that there are better DPS alternatives that they can connect to the main active skills. Because of that CS is mostly used with less important skills than a main ability. There is also the strategy in which you just put your CS Support in another weapon and connect it to any active skill just to finish off bosses with a quick weapon switch. This is a great way of utilizing this gem however not all of the players prefer to change the equipment during the fight. In the Path of Exile split second can decide whether you will live or die so we strongly discourage any hardcore players from trying this strategy out. On the Softcore, on the other hand, this can be quite helpful in dealing with toughest enemies like high health Rares and Act Bosses.
Summary
Mechanic presented in this guide is very helpful during the gameplay. Enemies hit by Supported Skills with Culling Strike can fall beneath your feet in no time so consider using it with your build. We hope that this article has shown you how to take advantage of that buff and what are the benefits of having it in your toolkit. If you require additional game guides we have lots of them on our site so be sure to see what we have made for you.
To summarize everything that we have said CS is a great way of dealing with bosses. It can drastically increase your kill on them especially if you are fighting against endgame content bosses that can die from this type of effect. On regular packs however CS is not worth it. While you are hitting a group of monsters you will likely only kill one or two with the bonus that comes from this gem which is not good enough to consider using it with the final build. Conclusion? Use it for bossing on something else than your main Active Skill Gem or just equip it on a Weapon Switch if you can quickly change items.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does Culling Strike work on bosses?
It does! Culling Strike allows you to instantly bring down low health bosses.
Does Culling Strike work on Uber Elder?
Culling Strike works on most of the bosses however, not on bosses that have multiple phases like Uber Elder.
Is Culling Strike (mechanic not gem) good for leveling?
It is usually barely noticeable improvement since you are likely to one-shot most of your enemies.
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