DannethÂ´s Cyclops guide. 1.0x :: Marvel Heroes on MarvelBase

on 12/10/14

Hello Dannet when the review of 52 cyc arrive, you will post a new build, or is viable to continue with that after his review?

mou4

on 23/8/14

thanks for this build, it helped me.

Cupcake767

on 3/9/13

@tchad78 Hey, late 20s early 30s I was already using Barrage AND Channeled Beam. It was bugged on all bosses, only sometimes elites, and never trash. I love/loved it. While I loved Ricochet leveling I change to that to be different and try out Channeled. So I can vouch for Barrage with no basics. Barrage rules, no question, and you should have little problem with packs assuming you roll to a good vantage point.

Danneth

on 26/8/13

@tchad78: I leveled with the basics attack build (when most of cyclops skills were bugged) so I can't give you too much help, but, you'll definitely want team leader maxed for the bonus experience, get as much dodge as possible from your abilities, and try to stay back out of the way. Same artifacts as mentioned in the guide (kree hyper optics so you can see where enemies are before you roll into a new pack without realising). Just stay back, and play it safe, use the range of OD to your advantage, good luck in leveling as cyclops!

tchad78

on 26/8/13

@Danneth - just started Cyclops - at level 26 now. I've spread points everywhere trying to figure him out without guides. I'm ready for my first retcon and wondering if you've had experience with the Optic Barrage build for leveling. I'm curious how long I can go without a basic attack in the 30's+ Any recommendations on +skill/artifact requirements to make a no basic attack build work for leveling?

Hello and welcome to my Cyclops build. I am Danneth and am primarily a red prestige Cyclops player. In this guide you will find the basics to playing cyclops

Update: As of 14.01.2014 (01.14.2014 for you 'muricans) I am now Blue prestige. woot :)

Update: As of 17.01.2014 (01.17.2014 for you 'muricans) I am now purple prestige. woot :)

Update: As of 18.01.2014 (01.18.2014 for you 'muricans) I am now orange prestige. woot :)

Update: As of 26.01.2014 (01.26.2014 for you 'muricans) I am now Red prestige. woot :)

Why should I play Cyclops? Pros and cons:

Pros:

Aoe CC cleanse with rallying command
Instant resurrection of a party member with veteran command
Great aoe dps

Cons:
Survivability hurt by dodge nerf
Spirit regen "fix" nerfed Dps and build diversity
Fighting tree is weak, bland and uninspired
Low single target Dps
Defensive tactician was removed :(
Currently Not viable in Raids :(

Now let's talk about Cyclops's build. Why i choose to use the abilities I have listed, and Why I do not use some of his others.

These are the skills that I max. There are many other viable options that Can also be maxed.

The "Max" Skills: skills that I choose to max at 20 points:

: Optic Barrage Is your single target dps spirit spender. Now that twitching has been fixed, Channeled blast is no longer stronger than Optic barrage for single target.

: Ricochet blast Is easily cyclops's best basic, And will wipe out most non elites on the screen really fast. This skill always bounces 8 times no matter how many points you put in it, but the damage increases a lot, so it is a definite max.

: Concussive force. This skill is great now! it provides a very large damage bonus on energy attacks. Worth maxing for sure. Note that this is a toggle not a passive. You must toggle this skill on, reserving some of your spirit, to use it,

: Uncanny focus will provide cyclops with a large amount of spirit regen per second, as well as a "pym's shrinking serum" effect, in which dodging will provide spirit back (although a percentage amount and not a flat amount). Note that the spirit regen effect does not scale, but the dodge amount and percentage of spirit gained when dodging and attack does. Because of this, I advise maxing this skill. Cyclops is very squishy, and so any amount of extra dodge can and will help him a lot.

: Precision combat is a passive that lowers your spirit costs for your abilities and grants spirit on kills, and gives you a chance to cause a bleed to targets when you hit with any power. Now that the bleed has been moved here from explosive blast, this shall be maxed instead.

: Veteran command has changed significantly since I quit, and returned. It now grants a huge damage rating and attack speed buff (Optic barrage scales very well with attack speed) and will revive a nearby ally. Very useful for midtown Manhattan bosses, and incredibly useful for the cow commanders (where your allies will more than likely die in 2 hits) at least 1 point is a must for any cyclops build. Edit: hiimjoc from the marvel heroes forums (red cyclops player) has pointed out that veteran command seems to be bugged and is not guaranteed to resurrect a nearby player. While I have never seen it fail to resurrect, make sure to take this into account. You may want to use it solely for the dps boost until this is fixed. This skill is much more useful in a group than when soloing.

After maxing out these skills, you'll still have a few points left over from quests and such. These points will go into your 1 point wonder skills:

: Tactical command marks enemies in an area with a debuff which will increase you and your allies damage dealt to them, while reducing the damage caused to you. One of cyclops's useful party abilities. After patch 2.1, this ability's vulnerability and weakness no longer scales, only it's duration. Keep at one point and put your spare points into.

: Combat roll is a must have for any cyclops build. It can get you out of most sticky situations, and obviously help you get around the map a lot easier. Not really much to say here as it is similar to most rolls.

: Rallying command is cyclops's crowd control cleansing ability. What sets this cleanse ability above others is that it is actually aoe. Anyone around you that has been affected by crowd control will also be cleansed of it, and gain a brief cc immunity. putting more points into the skill extends the duration of the cc immunity. Decent in pve. Amazing in pvp.

: Martial arts is a new passive skill in the fighting tree that provides cyclops with a passive defense bonus and crit rating to physical attacks. While the crit sadly doesn't benefit you, the passive defense bonus will help you. Definitely put 1 point into this skill at least. I usually put my leftover points here.

:

: sweeping kick. This skill is actually useful now! It provides a fairly decent damage rating boost (which will be buffed with the punchclops unique and other uniques and artifacts). However, after using this skill for a fair amount of time, I have decided that it isn't worth cancelling barrage / channeled blast to run / roll / ziggurat up to your target to kick them, and as of such, I have decided it will be best to keep it at 1 point and

Other viable skills: Cyclops has other Viable skills which can be taken to 20. While I personally do not max them, they are certainly viable and can be powerful in some situations.

: This is a viable alternative to sweeping kick, and fairly useful in a channeled blast build. If you prefer the defense buff to the damage buff then you can use this instead. With the punchclops glove unique, this will have a pretty decent rank as well.

: optic devastation. This skill deals great damage again! Yay! the reason I don't use it is because the damage seems to be bugged at the moment, as the damage it deals seems to be completely random.

Situational skills: These skills may be worth a few points at lower levels or pvp, but are rarely useful at higher levels / out of pvp.

: Optic blast, the basic that you will use before getting ricochet blast. This skill deals 1.5x damage to slowed targets, but most bosses will be immune to your slows due to their cc reduction effects, and actually deals less dps than optic barrage at higher ranks, even with the slow.

: Wide beam is Cyclops's first aoe ability before gaining ricochet blast. Worth 1 point to help you out at the lower levels, but not really worth any more as it will be quickly outclassed by ricochet blast.

: Cunning blast is useful for kiting in pvp (as your rolls will have a cooldown) but in pve they don't. Only really useful for pvp.

: Side roll causes cyclops to roll to the right of where he is facing (or around the target if you are mousing over one) and provides him with a flat dodge bonus. Harder to use than combat roll, but provides a flat dodge bonus for 5 seconds after using. In my opinion, Cyclops gets enough dodge from the other 2 passives, but it may be worth finding some gear that grants this skill at a high level.

Useless skills: some of cyclops skills are pretty much useless atm. whether it being due to not enough spirit to maintain or just flat out not enough damage. These skills should be avoided at all costs:

: piercing blast is cyclops's 3rd basic, is learned later than ricochet, deals less dps and is much less likely to hit multiple targets. avoid.

: Explosive blast. This skill was good after 2.1, but the bleed was changed to precision combat after 2.12. Even after the damage buff, this skill isn't worth it. instead max precision combat.

Note, the punchclops skills could have been viable this patch, but the dodge nerf ruined that opportunity. once again avoid these

: tactical kick. bad animation, poor damage. avoid.

: Team leader. On paper, this ability seems fairly useful. bonus experience per kill seems amazing right? well, not really. it doesn't affect experience orbs at all, and most of your experience will come from orange legendary quest orbs. Tumedus, who I consider to be one of the top cyclops players at the moment, did the maths and came to a conclusion that this skill is simply not worth it. A screenshot of his post on the forums can be found here.

Even after putting points into your 1 point wonders, you will still have a few points left over. There are 3 abilities that I can think of that are worth putting the rest of the points into, and why

: Martial arts: Provides you with extra defense rating. Since you're most likely high into Dodge DR, defense rating will most likely end up being your next best best defensive stat.

: Rallying command. Extra points will increase the duration of cc immunity after the cleanse.

Gear choices, costume affixes and cores

Now that we've allocated all of our skill points, lets take a look at the gear we will be using.

Weapon slot: Ruby quartz sunglasses for raids and Cosmics, Badoons soldier the basic weapon for everywhere else.

Armour slot 1: Clan rebellion bodysuit. Amazing unique. Hp, move speed, energy and fighting and + to optics tree. The only other alternative that I can think of is eidolon warwear.

Armour slot 2: The latest patch brought some nice new any hero uniques, including a new slot 3 any hero unique called God of thunder's vigorous belt. This is now best in slot for cyclops. A welcome addition for sure! An alternative is S.H.I.E.L.D. Systems reconaissance belt for the fair amount of crit rating and crit damage rating it provides.

Armour slot 3: With the recent changes to power scaling, cyclops own boots are now best in slot.

Armour slot 4: Headmasters leather jacket. BIS easily. The other any hero uniques for this slot aren't very useful for cyclops.

Legendary item, Artifacts and relics.

For relic, use lemuria, It scales the best out of all of the other relics, and gives you more survivability.

The legendary Item which I use is the Golden bow of apollo. I currently have it at rank 3. Cosmic control rod and gungnir however are also viable. I personally do not like cosmic control rod, as I am not a fan of it's rank 2 and 4 affixes

This is what the rank 3 proc looks like:

Marvelbase has not updated the list of artifacts. I Use the following artifacts on Cyclops:

Adv phoenix feather with 500+ energy DR

Adv meta

Black toms

Energy Dangers A.I chip.

Optional artifacts:

Shield motion tracker: Suggested by Tumedus, for if you want to be able to see red dots on the map

Adv kree hyper optics: An alternative to the above, depends if you prefer crit over damage rating

Ziggurat of kargul: Gives a nice amount of crit chance and damage, but would be used for the teleport. A viable alternative to combat roll (beware it uses your hp as the cost not spirit!)

Xerogen crystal: Suggested by tumedus. More of a dps increase than non advanced metasensory array, but doesn't give the +1 to all skills. personal preference.

medallions

Now onto the medallions.

Pyro: After the explosive blast dot migration to precision combat, and the recent buff, this medallion is now Bis for cyclops (at least for soloing). Cyclops doesn't have a crit passive so every extra crit and brutal rating helps!

Doctor doom: Much more useful before the change to explosive blast dot change, moving it to precision combat. Still viable giving cyclops every stat he would need.

Madame hydra: Decent for soloing, great for partying. Damage rating to you and nearby allies and also a chance to proc an invulnerability shield to you and nearby allies when you are hit.

Affixes and costume cores

Critical Damage rating: If you have high crit chance (about 40%) This will yield more DPS than Damage Rating
+ Max health: If you Feel too squishy and really want more survivability

I would choose to use one of the above in all 4 slots in the costume, but you could mix and match if you wish.

For the core, I would say that all of the following are viable:
+1 energy
+1 speed
%Life on hit
25% hp and spirit on medkit
invulnerability on medkit

I would reccommend 25% hp and invuln on medkit

Insignias Rings and Blessings:

Somehow I left this off my guide for so long. So here's what I would use

Blessings: Fandral or Hela. I went with fandral because Cyc has low crit chance and the extra undimishing dodge helps a lot. If you have 35% crit chance or higher, Hela provides the most dps.

Ring: Here I'll list ring affixes you should use
Damage on range attacks
Health
crit rating
crit damage rating

Insignia:
Unfortunately you cannot get a Valkyrie on Cyclops as he is not an avenger, so the best choices would be O'Grady or Kitty pryde. The best affixes you can get are Ranged damage rating, Health, Crit damage rating, crit rating and +1 all powers.

Runewords, enchantments and uru forged gear:

Either energy or defense uru. I use the defense Uru because I play a lot of x-defense and being able to survive one shots so that I can quickly heal it off is better than more damage in my opinion. Don't take the ranged uru over the energy one because the energy uru increases the damage dealt by precision combat.

Runeword: River of the soul is cheap and helps you channel barrage longer. Bowazon (what I use) provides the largest DPS increase for cyclops. Do not use God of mischief as cyclops does not have a signature.

Enchantments: For slot 2-4 use Health or credit find. For slot 1 and 5 use Energy Damage rating

Synergies:
Cable

Cyclops

Invisible Woman

Iron Man

Jean Grey

Loki

Mr fantastic/Hawkeye

Ms. Marvel

Squirrel Girl

Wolverine

Thing and Black widow are also viable.

Team up: Falcon for the crit rating.

My Gear: (outdated)

That about concludes my guide. If you feel I have missed anything, or wish to contribute, please either email me at "[email protected]" or please comment in my cyclops guide post on the forums, which can be found here
http://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/49479/i-m-back-updating-cyclops-guide-as-we-speak#latest
edit: In case the link doesn't work (marvelbase doesn't seem to like direct linking to other sites) try this http://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/49479/i-m-back-updating-cyclops-guide-as-we-speak#latest

Special thanks:
Shonailo: pointing out typos
Tumedus: for the numbers behind team leader and for contributing other useful information
hiimjoc: contributing information
testmonkey: contributing information
http://cooltext.com/: Image hosting (optics, fighting, tactics LogoÂ´s)

Imageshack: for hosting my alternative builds

11.8.2013 v1.0: Guide released.
11.8.2013 v1.01: Fixed a typo, thanks to Shonailo for pointing it out.
12.8.2013 v1.02: Added more line breaks to make finding a specific part of the guide easier.
12.8.2013 v1.03 Fixed some more typos and errors. Added LogoÂ´s to make finding the specific sections of cyclops skill tree much easier.
12.8.2013 v1.1: Quite a good update! my guide now contains alternative builds within my guide. Buildception!
13.8.2013 v1.11: Added Juggernaut medallion as a possibility to increase survivability.
15.8.2013 v1.12: Updated metasensory array to prove that it is viable. Thanks to Poghy for pointing this out! Also added Pym shrinking syrum as an artifact which shouldnÂ´t be used!
17.8.2013 v1.13: Updated guide for 1.14. No channeled blast fix boooooo D:
21.8.2013 v1.2: Build change! updated for patch 1.15. Channeled blast fixed and is great! moved old build to alternative builds.
06.12.2013 v2.0: Big update! I'm finally back!
20.12.2013 V2.1: updated for patch 2.1. I feel like i may have missed updating a few abilities. if you notice something out of place please let me know.

You need Login to comment.

DannethÂ´s Cyclops guide. 1.0x cyclops dps leveling pve pvp
Guide by Danneth Last update at Jul 20th 2014, 22:03

Why should I play Cyclops? Pros and cons:

Now let's talk about Cyclops's build. Why i choose to use the abilities I have listed, and Why I do not use some of his others.

The "Max" Skills: skills that I choose to max at 20 points:

After maxing out these skills, you'll still have a few points left over from quests and such. These points will go into your 1 point wonder skills:

Other viable skills: Cyclops has other Viable skills which can be taken to 20. While I personally do not max them, they are certainly viable and can be powerful in some situations.

Situational skills: These skills may be worth a few points at lower levels or pvp, but are rarely useful at higher levels / out of pvp.

Useless skills: some of cyclops skills are pretty much useless atm. whether it being due to not enough spirit to maintain or just flat out not enough damage. These skills should be avoided at all costs:

Note, the punchclops skills could have been viable this patch, but the dodge nerf ruined that opportunity. once again avoid these

Even after putting points into your 1 point wonders, you will still have a few points left over. There are 3 abilities that I can think of that are worth putting the rest of the points into, and why

Gear choices, costume affixes and cores

Now that we've allocated all of our skill points, lets take a look at the gear we will be using.

Legendary item, Artifacts and relics.

medallions

Affixes and costume cores

Join EarlyGame community NAW!

DannethÂ´s Cyclops guide. 1.0x cyclops dps leveling pve pvp Guide by Danneth Last update at Jul 20th 2014, 22:03

Why should I play Cyclops? Pros and cons:

Now let's talk about Cyclops's build. Why i choose to use the abilities I have listed, and Why I do not use some of his others.

The "Max" Skills: skills that I choose to max at 20 points:

After maxing out these skills, you'll still have a few points left over from quests and such. These points will go into your 1 point wonder skills:

Other viable skills: Cyclops has other Viable skills which can be taken to 20. While I personally do not max them, they are certainly viable and can be powerful in some situations.

Situational skills: These skills may be worth a few points at lower levels or pvp, but are rarely useful at higher levels / out of pvp.

Useless skills: some of cyclops skills are pretty much useless atm. whether it being due to not enough spirit to maintain or just flat out not enough damage. These skills should be avoided at all costs:

Note, the punchclops skills could have been viable this patch, but the dodge nerf ruined that opportunity. once again avoid these

Even after putting points into your 1 point wonders, you will still have a few points left over. There are 3 abilities that I can think of that are worth putting the rest of the points into, and why

Gear choices, costume affixes and cores

Now that we've allocated all of our skill points, lets take a look at the gear we will be using.

Legendary item, Artifacts and relics.

medallions

Affixes and costume cores

Join EarlyGame community NAW!

DannethÂ´s Cyclops guide. 1.0x cyclops dps leveling pve pvp
Guide by Danneth Last update at Jul 20th 2014, 22:03