AoE on some melee sets... what do you do?

[Maelwys]

19 hours ago, Uun said:

It has more than one. Martial Arts has 1 PBAoE and 0 cones. 

 

Funnily enough, despite having only a single AoE MA has long been considered one of the better active Farming powersets (due to Dragon's Tail's reasonable DPA and ability to use a FF +recharge proc).

[ZeeHero]

15 hours ago, arcane said:

Every one of my active Brute/Scrapper/Tanker builds has Char/Melt Armor/Fire Ball to supplement their offense. My Stalkers have Snipes tho. And then you’re often getting a little help from your armor set. And then there’s Judgement, and… reds and… even teammates. That is generally sufficient for me.

If they all have fireball, don't you think that just means there needs to be better options? Considering all of them resort to the same one.

[Uun]

2 hours ago, ZeeHero said:

If they all have fireball, don't you think that just means there needs to be better options? Considering all of them resort to the same one.

Dark Obliteration (Soul Mastery), Ball Lightning (Mu Mastery), Psionic Tornado (Psionic Mastery, Water Spout (Leviathan Mastery), 

[ZeeHero]

wish you didn't have to take 1-2 powers you wont even use and dont want just to get access to those

[Uun]

2 minutes ago, ZeeHero said:

wish you didn't have to take 1-2 powers you wont even use and dont want just to get access to those

Gloom, Zapp, Electrifying Fences, Dominate and Harmonic Mind are all excellent powers. Water Spout doesn't require any power picks.

[VPrime]

On my Super Strength/Willpower main, I add both Cross Punch and Spring Attack for added AoE.

[arcane]

4 hours ago, ZeeHero said:

If they all have fireball, don't you think that just means there needs to be better options? Considering all of them resort to the same one.

Not really. I used to care about diversifying my experience with epics and would have plenty of success with others. Gloom/Dark Obliteration is famously good, many like Electrifying Fences/Ball Lightning, and Energy has many uses too. I’ve just streamlined my stuff around the best of the best in the last couple of years. My Tankers all use Fire, my Doms all use Fire, my Blasters all use Fire with one exception, my Corrs/Defs all use Psy or Soul. There are plenty of good options, I’m just no longer interested in experimenting that way. 4 star building syndrome I guess.

[ZeeHero]

3 hours ago, arcane said:

Not really. I used to care about diversifying my experience with epics and would have plenty of success with others. Gloom/Dark Obliteration is famously good, many like Electrifying Fences/Ball Lightning, and Energy has many uses too. I’ve just streamlined my stuff around the best of the best in the last couple of years. My Tankers all use Fire, my Doms all use Fire, my Blasters all use Fire with one exception, my Corrs/Defs all use Psy or Soul. There are plenty of good options, I’m just no longer interested in experimenting that way. 4 star building syndrome I guess.

is gloom the PBAOE dark thing? I have something similar on my defender but melee ATs get different options.

[Uun]

3 minutes ago, ZeeHero said:

is gloom the PBAOE dark thing? I have something similar on my defender but melee ATs get different options.

Gloom is ST ranged DoT, Dark Obliteration is targeted AoE, both in tank/brute Soul Mastery. 

[ZeeHero]

Ok you've given me some good suggestions, any suggestions for Scrappers/stalkers?

[Uun]

4 hours ago, ZeeHero said:

Ok you've given me some good suggestions, any suggestions for Scrappers/stalkers?

Zapp plus Ball Lightning 

[Maelwys]

On 8/3/2025 at 10:19 PM, ZeeHero said:

Ok you've given me some good suggestions, any suggestions for Scrappers/stalkers?

Leviathan for Water Spout with a KB>KD IO (and Spirit Shark with maximum Hunger stacks) isn't bad either if you don't want to go the Mu route

I have two "Aoe Specialist" Stalkers: an Elec/Shield/Mu and a Savage/Psi/Levi.
The first takes Zapp + Ball Lightning; and the second takes Water Spout (and Hibernate)

[ZemX]

On 8/3/2025 at 11:17 AM, ZeeHero said:

wish you didn't have to take 1-2 powers you wont even use and dont want just to get access to those

 

This is less of a problem in Energy Mastery where, while you still have to take two other powers to get to Energy Torrent (a 40ft, 45 degree, 10 target cone), the other powers in the set are extremely useful: Focused Accuracy (for toHit debuff resistance), Conserve Power/Superior Conditioning, and Physical Perfection.

 

On 8/3/2025 at 4:19 PM, ZeeHero said:

Ok you've given me some good suggestions, any suggestions for Scrappers/stalkers?

 

Don't think Scrappers are in much different a situation than Brutes/Tankers.  It's Stalkers who generally hurt for AoE because someone long ago had the idea they should be mostly single-target focused hit-and-run assassins.  Stalker Martial Arts might be the dumbest thing the Live devs ever thought up.  So generally, they have the same options for adding AoE as Scrappers, but they start out at least one AoE behind is all.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

Don't think Scrappers are in much different a situation than Brutes/Tankers.

The annoyance for me in making "AoE Focused" Scrappers is that the most you can get from their patron pools is one decent AoE.

Tankers and Brutes both get Mu Mastery (with Electrifying Fences and Ball Lightning; both of which are proc-friendly high-DPA AoEs). Which until recently was especially handy for Brutes since both those have a 15ft base radius and the latter has a target cap of 16; so when Tankers were ahead on AoE coverage it let them close the gap a bit.

Certainly (most) Scrappers can still AoE better than (most) Stalkers... but they get less from Epic pools to fill in the gaps than Brutes/Tankers.

I do quite like Savage Melee on Stalkers though - having on-demand Critical Hits is especially good for Hemorrhage and Savage Leap; and Build Up is miles better than Blood Thirst (assuming you're attempting to keep below 5 stacks so as to avoid the 15s Blood Frenzy lockout period!)...

 

Edited Wednesday at 03:45 PM by Maelwys

[Hogunn]

On 8/2/2025 at 5:42 PM, Snarky said:

98% time i burn them all down.  when i fall?  Rise of the Pheonix bonus nuke....

Would you be willing to share your build Snarky? I am intrigued. 

[Snarky]

11 hours ago, Hogunn said:

Would you be willing to share your build Snarky? I am intrigued. 

enjoy

 

Blaster (Fire Blast - Fire Manipulation) 2024 v 2.01.mbd