Maxroll has recently updated their planner to show cleave ias breakpoints.
But this is maxroll, they’re known for making many mistakes.
So I wouldn’t base anything from what is shown there, yet it’s the only source of info I’ve seen so far about cleave’s breakpoints.
IMO, the real strength of cleave is rangeadder.
PB only has +1.
Cleave shines with +4 rangeadder weapons.
Using a 1-hander on a class that can use a 2-hander in 1 hand without diminished dmg (unlike barbs) would be an absurd choice anyway.
So something like a eBotd GPA could be amongst the best options.
That said…
Cleave may not be directly nerfed, but it is very severely affected by the changes to the demon tree.
Need 1/10/20 hard points in demon mastery to gain more demons.
Need 15 hard points in bind demon to be able to bind a unique, else you’ll only have 5% ctc amp on attack.
This is a major nerf, but if you can bind a unique with holy freeze at least he still has 5% ctc amp for each target hit by his pulse aura each 2 seconds.
Oh and also…
Eldritch blast sucks
Don’t use it.
You get all the leech you need already. That skill is just low dmg and it’s not a build with high fcr.
Yeah the amp nerf hurts cleave a lot for sure. But free perma amp + a tank + an free aura for 1 point was absurd to begin with. No char should have such easy access to every Multiplikator possible .
It shouldn’t be normal to be able to stack every damage aura possible and amp without equipping anything for it yourself.
I totally agree with you that using a 1 hander on a class that just can use a 2 hander like that feels terrible.
Weapon range does a lot on cleave it seems so a fast 2 hander with big range looks the way to go. Botd in eth Giant thresher or toombreaver look like the best options for that. But it all depends on the ias needed.
Toombreaver could get 90 ias with 2 sockets. If we don’t need the ias , protectors stone 50 ed + ohm or Lo would deal crazy damage with max range .
Don’t know about eldtrich blast. But synergy’s are actualy great on cleave build;
The interesting part is that hex purge is a synergy to cleave AND eldtrich blast. Blast itself is a synergy to hex purge again.
That means eldtrich blast and hex purge get maxed anyway. hex purge will have a fully specced synergy , meaning it will be much stronger than on the es build. Eldtrich blast is just passive aoe on top.
The synergy’s give more damage than putting points into cleave itself. It would be enough to reach level 20 cleave with + skills for the 360 degree.
Compared to es you will have much more points left for the demon tree. You only need level 20 cleave and maxed synergy’s.
On Es you will have a hard time finding points for the demon tree. You need to cut your hex purge to actualy have enough points.
Cleave on the other hand has the same amount of synergy’s as ES but one of them is hex purge, wich was also maxxed on ES… So you don’t loose your hex purge, it’s even stronger since eldtrich blast is maxed and synergyses with hex purge.
Overall you will have to sacrifice a lot less than ES lock when investing in the demon tree.
When it comes to amp it will be a decision now, as it should be.
You could run dreadfang act 5 merc, last wish offhand for might aura.
Or reapers toll on merc, loosing pride .
Or maybe actualy equip reapers yourself.
I like that you actualy have to choose between damage buffs now and not just get every damage aura in the game AND Amp from a merc and a single skillpoint
All in all Cleave is hurt less by needing more points in the demon tree. Amp nerf hurts but it was op as hell and shouldn’t be that easy to get anyway. Other than that I don’t realy see a big hit from the nerfs and bugfixes they announced
This post was edited by Junglist69 on Apr 13 2026 03:19pm
D2:R