Area of effect (often referred to as AoE) refers to an area with radius in where all enemies can be affected by the effect. Skill gems with an area of effect have the AoE gem tag. Today we dive deep into the 10 best AOE builds in path of exile.
1. Reave Blade Flurry Champion
Completely obliterate the map and bosses using Reave Blade Flurry. Chop your enemies into bits with this full screen AoE build and turn them into salsa. Welcome to the strongest melee attack in the game, Blade Flurry.
Pros
- Reave clear the whole screen as “melee” ability
- Blade Flurry strongest damage melee attack
- Multiple layers of defense (leech, regen, armour, evasion, mobility, debuffs)
- Blade Flurry max damage difficult
- Gem swaps for optimal setups
2. Storm Brand Inquisitor
With Storm Brand Inquisitor, your enemies won’t have a chance when you chain lightning strikes on their faces.
Pros
- Best all-around Build - does it all
- Doesn’t care about Resistances on Enemies
- Safest Playstyle of all Build (Brands stay on target for several seconds)
Cons
- Low Life Regen
3. Cyclone Impale Slayer
Farm the hardest bosses in the game with this Cyclone Impale Slayer build. Although it’s not the best for clearing waves of enemies, it’s a very easy playstyle with incredible amounts of damage. Huge hit with many Path of Exile players and strong solo build.
Pros
- Huge single target damage
- Overleech still OP
- Easy Smooth Cyclone Playstyle
Cons
- Melee = dangerous
- Low cyclone AoE
4. Caustic Arrow Raider
Caustic Arrow Raider is another well known build in the Ranger class community. Shoot your arrows at an area spreading caustic ground making your enemies walk through it and taking massive amounts of chaos damage over time.
Caustic Arrow linked with Vicious Projectiles Support will surround your enemies in pools of chaos damage. Wither and Despair are also great abilities to take with Caustic Arrow. In this build, you have the potential to gather up a ton of evasion points on your passive tree and gear - close to 29,000 worth.
Pros
- Very strong and high DPS
- Works great with totems
- Easy build and cheap
Cons
- Squishy
- Find balance between damage and evasion on passive tree
5. Chaos Damage over Time Occultist
You crawl out of wells with your wet black hair and drain the life force from your enemies while you watch their faces shrivel to nothing. Ok not exactly, but you get the point. Chaos Damage over Time or DoT Occultist, utilizes three major gems. Essence Drain, Contagion, and Bane.
Pros
- BEST map clear from AoE Chaining
- Kills stuff while moving
- Essence Drain is strong Regen
Cons
- Not a braindead playstyle
- Hard to get good Gear early on (double 6-link)
6. Cast on Crit Cyclone-Ice Nova Assassin
Next we have Cast on Critical Strike Cyclone-Ice Nova Assassin. Slow, freeze, and wipe through your enemies before they can react! While your main source of damage here is Ice Nova, Cyclone will be used as our ‘trigger’ to proc our Cast on Critical Strike Support Gem.
Pros
- Easy and relaxed Cyclone Playstyle
- Shred enemies while moving
- Huge Damage and chills on bosses
Cons
- Low Cyclone AoE
- Hard to get good gear early on (Cospri’s)
- Expensive
Using this build requires a lot of poe items, we may need to buy poe currency.
7. Vortex Tank Occultist
Vortex Tank Occultist is a satisfyingly tanky area of effect build meant to face bosses and massive waves of enemies head-on. While your DPS isn’t the strongest, you’ll be tanky enough to wipe your enemies with ease.
Pros
- Easy playstyle and debuffs allow safe bossing
- Satisfying curse explosions
- Multiple Layers of Defense
- Lazy playstyle to watch Netflix while playing
Cons
- Need to get close to place vortex
- Lacks single target DPS
8. Icicle Mine Deadeye
For those of you experienced with Path of Exile already, you may be questioning as to why we’re building Deadeye rather than Saboteur while using mines. Well if you didn’t know already, the goal of Path of Exile is to reach the end game Deadeye is the way to go!
Whether you’re hardcore mapping or delving the mines to incredible depths, Deadeye Icicle Mines allows for much more power in the late game. This breaks the mining meta that early game Saboteur grants you.
Pros
- Strong Map clear with high-chain potential
- Fast ranged miner playstyle
- Huge burst damage possible
Cons
- Standing still to place mines is dangerous
- Evasion based playstyle can be difficult
9. Kinetic Blast Deadeye
Although this build can one shot most of your opponents, one wrong step on your end and you could get one shot. Be sure to capture a lot of evasion points in this build while focusing on resistances in your gear. You should also bet the Power Siphon gem combined with Kinect Blast as they work hand in hand quite well together for more damage output.
Pros
- Very high DPS
- Can destroy bosses
- Pretty cheap build
Cons
- Jewel and cluster jewel intensive
- Tricky playstyle until you’re super strong
10. Multi-Conversion Divine Ire Trickster
For players who love huge beams of light, explosions, and one-shotting bosses, The Multi-Conversion Divine Ire Trickster is for you!
Your main damage output with this build is the use of Divine Ire. Divine Ire is a spell gem that requires channelling so you must be still to use it. In its default stage, its damage is Physical-based along with 50% of its base damage converted to lightning.
Pros
- Strong Map Clear using multiple on death explosions
- Potential to one-shot every boss in the the game
Cons
- Inconsistent Damage Spikes
- Standing still while channelling can kill you
If you want to perform better in the path of exile, you can buy path of exile currency at eznpc, which will make your game road more smooth.
