Cleave

Wielders of the axe and sword often find themselves beset by multiple foes. Expecting this, a trained armsman will employ the deadly Cleave. With a single practiced stroke, a Cleave sweeps sideways to inflict grievous harm to anyone standing nearby, lopping off heads and limbs with ease. As a player gains skill with Cleave, they strike harder, and hit more enemies with each swing of their blade.

Description on the official Path of Exile website

Cleave is a melee attack that deals damage with all equipped weapons to enemies in a 180 degree arc in front of the player. When dual wielding, equipment requirement applies to both weapons, and each weapon does reduced damage. Requires an axe, sword, two-handed axe, or two-handed sword.

Skill functions and interactions

• Attack Speed: When dual wielding attack speed is averaged between the two weapons.
• Area of Effect: Increases to AoE will increase the radius of the affected area, but the current animation for Cleave doesn't accurately reflect this increase.
• Dual Wielding: If the player's weapons have different critical strike chance values, it is possible for one weapon to get a critical strike when the other doesn't. It is also possible to miss with only one of the weapons swung. The decrease to damage while dual wielding is multiplicative and applies to all damage bonuses.

Gem level progression

Level				Damage Effectiveness	Attack Damage	Radius	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	1	0	0	125%	125%	N/A	0	0
2	2	0	0	131%	130.9%	N/A	70	70
3	4	0	0	137%	136.8%	N/A	308	378
4	7	0	14	143%	142.7%	N/A	1554	1932
5	11	0	19	149%	148.6%	N/A	6667	8599
6	16	18	26	154%	154.5%	N/A	26047	34646
7	20	22	31	160%	160.4%	N/A	49725	84371
8	24	25	37	166%	166.3%	N/A	95714	180085
9	28	29	42	172%	172.2%	N/A	169595	349680
10	32	33	47	178%	178.1%	N/A	283759	633439
11	36	36	52	184%	183.9%	N/A	453996	1087435
12	40	40	58	190%	189.8%	N/A	703128	1790563
13	44	44	63	196%	195.7%	N/A	1061223	2851786
14	48	48	68	202%	201.6%	N/A	2065870	4917656
15	52	51	74	208%	207.5%	N/A	2507110	7424766
16	56	55	79	213%	213.4%	N/A	5798936	13223702
17	60	59	84	219%	219.3%	N/A	15083919	28307621
18	64	62	90	225%	225.2%	N/A	27792735	56100356
19	67	65	94	231%	231.1%	N/A	43869739	99970095
20	70	68	98	237%	237%	N/A	242081556	342051651
21	72	70	100	243%	242.9%	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	N/A	249%	248.8%	N/A	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	N/A	255%	254.7%	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	N/A	261%	260.6%	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	N/A	266%	266.5%	N/A	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	N/A	272%	272.4%	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	N/A	278%	278.3%	N/A	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	N/A	284%	284.2%	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	N/A	290%	290.1%	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	N/A	296%	295.9%	N/A	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	N/A	299%	298.9%	N/A	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	N/A	302%	301.8%	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	N/A	305%	304.8%	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	N/A	308%	307.7%	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	N/A	311%	310.7%	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	N/A	314%	313.6%	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	N/A	317%	316.6%	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	N/A	320%	319.5%	N/A	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	N/A	322%	322.5%	N/A	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	N/A	325%	325.4%	N/A	N/A	N/A

Threshold jewels

The following threshold jewels augment Cleave:

Note that the jewels may be drop disabled and can only be found in permanent leagues as legacy items.

Item	Limit	Radius	Stats	Drop Enabled

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Cleave.

Note that helmet enchantments are no longer obtainable since version 3.23.0 and can only be obtained in permanent leagues as already enchanted items from before this patch.

Name		Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Cleave Attack Speed 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	10% increased Cleave Attack Speed	helmet 100
Enchantment Cleave Attack Speed 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	15% increased Cleave Attack Speed	helmet 100
Enchantment Cleave Damage 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	25% increased Cleave Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Cleave Damage 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	40% increased Cleave Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Cleave Area Of Effect 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	16% increased Cleave Area of Effect	helmet 100
Enchantment Cleave Area Of Effect 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	24% increased Cleave Area of Effect	helmet 100

Alternate skill effects

Name	Cost	Description
Demon Hand Cleave EffectDemon Hand Cleave EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Cleave becomes a swiping, demonic claw.	95	Replaces the standard effect on a gem with a swiping, demonic claw. Preview

Version history

Version	Changes
2.6.0	Cleave gains 1 additional unit of radius every 3 levels. No longer gain increased area of effect radius.
2.4.0	19% more damage at gem level 20.
2.1.0	Attack skills that have their damage based on the wielded weapon have their mana costs fixed in place from level 1 onwards. Cleave now gains increased area of effect radius of 1% for each level after the first.
2.0.0	Damage dealt while dual wielding reduced to 60% for each weapon (from 65%). Base damage increased by 10%.
1.2.0	The mana cost of all skills has been revised. Removed damage effectiveness penalty and reduced dual wield penalty from 40% to 35%.
1.1.2	Reduced Cleave penalty from -30% to -20%.
1.0.2b	Fixed a bug introduced in 1.0.2 where the skill tooltip damage per second stats displayed incorrect values for Dual Strike, Double Strike and Cleave.
1.0.0	The dual wielding penalty for Cleave is now multiplicative and includes elemental damage.
0.10.2	Cleave's physical damage now increases by 4% per level rather than 3%.
0.9.12qq	Damage modifiers are now factored into Damage Effectiveness rather than being listed as separate stats. From 1% attack speed per quality point to 0.35%
0.9.12f	Fixed a newly introduced bug where Cleave would always get critical strikes.
0.9.7b	Cleave now averages the attack speed of your two weapons if you are dual wielding. Reduced the mana cost of level 1 Cleave.
0.9.7	Normalised the balance of Cleave slightly so that there isn't such a large disparity. Removed Cleave's bonus against the selected target. The damage against non-targeted enemies is now higher.
0.9.3	Cleave now does its augmented damage to one target and half of that damage to other enemies caught within its swing. The penalty for hitting with two weapons in a Cleave is now -40% total damage. Fixed a bug where Cleave dealt damage with the wrong timing.
0.9.2	Cleave now has less of a penalty when dual wielding.
0.9.1	Increased damage and attack range of Cleave.
0.7.2	Increased damage of Cleave skill
0.6.0	Added new skills: Ground Slam, Elemental Hit and Cleave