Looking for an AoE build please

Hello all

I know this has got to be the lowest form of idiot question out there, so please feel free to use me as the brunt of the joke after this but I just have to know. I've been looking around trying to create an AoE damage build and I'm really not finding it. Every one I look at has one AoE (maybe two) at lower levels and one more at higher...I"m obviously missing something here...Hero or Villain dosent' matter, neither does class..the goal is to have a character that is focused and built for maximum AoE damage. Could someone please point me in the right direction?

Spines/Dark Scrapper.... many guides available..

Ice/Cold/Soul Corruptor

Fire/MM, Fire/En, Fire/Fire, Arch/MM or Arch/En Blaster

And even Assault Rifle!
Buckshot, Grenade, Flamethrower, Ignite, and Full Auto all affect multiple targets.
Pair it up with, say, Mental Manipulation or Fire Manipulation and you get a couple extra area powers to go with it!

My Fire/Mental blaster spends about half her time throwing Area attacks around.


Really, a big consideration about an AoE build is not always how *many* Area attacks you get, but rather how strong, fast, big, and early-to-get they are. Fire Blasters can get Fireball at level 2 and Fire breath (so strong!) at level.. 4? 6?


Or maybe you want to do something a little different with an AoE-Heavy character! You could pick, say, an Ice/Fire tanker! I have one of those too- I spent a lot of my solo time going through hazard zones like Crey's Folly and wiping out big spawns of Nemesis to level up. Good AoE power despite being a Tanker.

I'm going to stop typing now.

i think the question is: are you looking for AOE at a range, or AOE in melee?

in melee, you can't beat spines, but Dual Blades is also nice. I've heard Axe has good AOE capability, as well as a few good AOE powers in war mace.

At range, fire and archery are the big ones.

If you are doing primarily AOE, you probably want a defense set that rewards enemies all crowding you. Shield, Invulnerability, and Willpower all have such powers, granting you additional damage (shield), damage resistance(Invuln), and regeneration(Willpower) respiectively increasing with the number of enemies near you.

As a blaster, or a ranged attack user, I have very little experience, but the best archery blasters I've teamed with had some sort of control secondary, or a way to keep the group they hit from all bearing down at once. Another strategy is to take Energy as the secondary for boost range, then kill spawns from a distance that they can't cross before they hit the floor. alternatively, tough from the fighting pool can help dramatically when attacked.

Basically, there are lots of ways to do it. Pick your favorite, and see what happens. If you get to level 20 or so and don't like it, nothing is keeping you from re rolling as something else.

EDIT: Was typing when Chompie posted above me. I'll concede that I have little blaster experience, but AR is probably also good.

Masterminds, may I suggest Robots or Thugs

<QR>

A lot of the suggested builds here are good, though some only get their AoE carnage at late level (32 or later). The builds I have found to have good, early area damage:

Spines/Dark scrapper (Spines/Fire would be great too; PBAoE plus two auras)
Fire/Dark corruptor (Tar Patch + Fire Ball + Fire Breath + Rain of Fire)
Archery/Mental blaster (two early cones plus Explosive Arrow)
Fire/Devices blaster (Caltrops + Fire Ball + Fire Breath + Rain of Fire)

All of these get their setup powers and three solid AoEs by level 20. Give 'em a shot.

[ QUOTE ]
Spines/Dark scrapper (Spines/Fire would be great too; PBAoE plus two auras)
Fire/Dark corruptor (Tar Patch + Fire Ball + Fire Breath + Rain of Fire)
Archery/Mental blaster (two early cones plus Explosive Arrow)
Fire/Devices blaster (Caltrops + Fire Ball + Fire Breath + Rain of Fire)

All of these get their setup powers and three solid AoEs by level 20. Give 'em a shot.

[/ QUOTE ]

You should also add Fire/MM blaster to that list, it can get ALL of it's AoE's before level 10, this is why it's my solo posi toon. It's 4 AoE's (One target, One Rain, and 2 Cones)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Sure, the devs are supposed to listen to their customers, mister business 101 out there. And if I decide to start suggesting that the devs change the game from being about superheroes and supervillains to being about clowns that is my right as well, and technically Paragon Studios is supposed to pay attention to me. But I hope strongly that they assume a meth-head somehow managed to hack into my forum account and make paper airplanes out of my posts, because I hope they recognize stupid when they see it. I assume they will recognize futile just as accurately.

I haven't run a Fire/MM, nor an Archery/Devices, so I didn't include those combinations of the powersets I mentioned. But for my money, Rain of Fire isn't as attractive without Caltrops or Tar Patch to keep the enemies from scattering.

Fire/Ice blaster can use Shiver to keep things in the rain, although */Ice doesn't add much in the way of AoE.

I've seen fire/storm corruptors in action, and they are scary.

Fire/Shield tanker has mad AoE.
Electric Melee/Shield brute also. (2 charges)