King of AoE?

I wanted to hear your ideas of what the ultimate AoE character is. This is in the context of either a real 8 person team or in i16 being set to +8 teamsize.

My own subjective definition of "ultimate" factors in more than just raw DPS. For example, I love my Fire and Archery blasters but life can get a little too interesting if I don't have a teammate offering aggro management.

My Fire/Kin corruptor doesn't have as high a damage cap as the blasters and lacks their hard-hitting melee attacks but he can keep himself at his damage cap. I also love that this character's nuke isn't situational; I use it every time it's up then pop a blue and do Transference to refill my End and keep going full speed. Plus, with Siphon Speed, "full speed" is way beyond what my blasters are capable of. Three stacked Siphon Speeds is like having 9 LotG Recharges or 6 purple sets slotted . Of course he too benefits from someone helping on the aggro front.

My latest AoE machine is my SS/Shields brute. Unlike my squishies, my brute loves it when a large spawn is entirely focused on him. He's not bothered by fighting mezzing foes. He dodges most debuffs. With 2266 HP due to True Grit, set bonuses and accolades, he usually has enough HP left after taking a couple of big hits that I still have time to react. With Rage, Fury, and Against All Odds buffing his damage he cranks out Foot Stomp, Shield Charge, and Ball Lightning. The fact that I don't have to worry about lining up cones or scattering mobs with rain powers is a plus. Downsides: major End hog, the Rage crash is annoying as hell, and not a lot of defense debuff resistance. So fighting a group like Cimeroran Traitors, a couple of lucky hits can quickly lead to a cascading defense failure if I'm not quick to pop a Luck. He also has no self heal if things get dicey.

So my King of AoE is a toss-up between my SS/Shield brute and my Fire/Kin corruptor. The corruptor isn't as tough but in addition to cranking out AoE damage himself, he can increase the whole team's DPS, heal, and refill empty End bars--he's a force multiplier.

What's your favorite AoE character and why?

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Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.

DB/Fire Scrapper. Typhoon's Edge, Sweeping Strike, One Thousand Cuts, Blazing Aura, and come i16, Fireball.

My Storm/Archery Defender can come close, because Soul Drain + Aim + Freezing Rain + Rain of Arrows is just that good. Rad/Rad has my favorite AoE combo in the form of Power Build Up->Aim->Fallout->EM Pulse->Atomic Blast. It's like another full set worth of debuffs and mezzes thrown out, with a generous helping of damage on top.

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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.

I only play Aoe characters nowdays. I have always loved my fire blasters, but my current AoE monster is the good ole SS/Fire brute.

I just spam Fence, Burn, Stomp, and Ball and forget I have any other buttons.

Once the inspirations start dropping, I never even need to stop spamming AoEs to heal...

fun stuff.

numbers wise, I find it hard to believe anything can contend with burn. It just puts out insane damage.

I have even managed to hit the brute damage cap solo a few times with liberal eating of reds as they drop during my AE ambush wave map. And its pretty easy to keep at 500+% damage if you keep rolling along quickly and chew chew chew on those candies as fast as they drop.

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Spines/Fire Scrapper?

Spine Burst, Throw Spines, Quills, Blazing Aura, Ripper, Ten. Tentacles, Burn?

The character who can cast the most AoEs in one chain: Archery/Devices Blaster.

Fistful of Arrows, Explosive Arrow, Rain of Arrows, Time Bomb, Static Discharge, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine, Trip Mine.

And Caltrops.

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If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog

Just last night I was on a AE farm with my level 41 Fort (I know there was nothing else going on and I wanted to get to 42 to respec, and change out some IO's)

The brutes were pulling large mobs, and with all my AOE's I was loving it. I had a few deaths and had a tell from a Corrupter say "try not using so many AOE's for agro"

My reply back " I have 10 attacks/holds and 7 are AOE's lol"

I do love AOE characters alot more, one of my personal favorites is my AR/Nrg/munitions blaster. With boost range my cones are very wide. Cones aren't to hard on a ranged toon but can be a pain on a melee type.

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Freedom Server - Main = Lil Bug & way too many alts to list

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Freedom Server - Main = Lil Bug & way too many alts to list

Robots/Storm

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Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

Sheesh I got negative forum rep for my original post? Errr, sorry I offended whoever I offended. Let me assure you I don't look down upon your single-target awesomeness.

By the way, that downer aside, I love the variety in this game! So many different answers so far... and more importantly, tons of combos I haven't played yet! *glee*

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Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.

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Fire/MM/Fire Blaster.

Why? Ooooh...

FireballRainofFireFirebreathPsychicScreamInferno-
DrainPsycheWorldofConfusionPsychicShockwave-
BonfireRiseofthePhoenix

*deep breath*

and soon some Melty Armor...(yes it's weaker, but it can take a Achilles' Proc)

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The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister.
--The Question, JLU

My Fire/Kin/Fire (also earth here works well) troller and my Spines/Fire/Caltrops are my 2 biggest AoE's atm.

Fire/Storm corr is in the works. Freezing Rain and Rain of Fire sounds too awesome.

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SS/Shield Brute...

... paired up with a Fire/Kin Corruptor.

They just compliment each other too well. Brute does the initial volley of damage, the corr scourges everything with fireball and rain of fire, picking off the rare survivor with blaze. The corr heals and buffs, the brute easily provides an additional 15% defense to all.

The fire/kin corrs I group with tend to have high defense from set bonuses, and Grant Cover just pushes them to the cap. It's hard to call a character fragile when it is defense capped, has 60% resistances to the most common damage types, and can heal itself. Plus it lets them stay in prime fulcrum territory, barring AOE mezzers: directly in the middle of a group.

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I'd have to say my huntsman.
He's got...
2 AoE immobilizes, one of those does damage.
1 Very wide cone.
3 Targeted AoE attacks, one of which debuffs resistance and another that does KB. (But with the immobilizes the KB isn't there.)

Also he has 3 pets that all have ball lightning.

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I like to solo with my fort. I can tear through lieuts completely unphased (and intend to utilize the 8 man team option) and still handle boss mobs safely and consistently. Darts and nado do the deed.

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Warshade

Teleport in, hit eclipse, mire, switch to Nova, spam AoE death. All while your two kooshes are spamming their own attacks (AoE death included). Switch back to human, Stygian Circle, next group.

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What, nobody said elec/fire blaster?

Pffft. Cowards.

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Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

I have been partial to my Dark/Fire/Mu brute lately. Fiery Aura,Soul drain, fiery embrace, electric fences, burn, electric ball...it has two end recoveries that will do some damage and draw agrro and has two heals.

Once he gets rolling with some fury he can do some silly mob melting.

I am also personally looking forward to making an Archery/TA corr just to try out the oil slick/flaming arrow/rain of arrows exploding arrow combination.

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The Revenants and Vengeance Imperium-Triumph, Champion & now flavoring Justice!

Tanker Tuesdays & Brutal Thursdays. If you like fun, look'em up!

Shhh! Rangle is plotting.

ElecMelee/Shield scrapper or brute.

BU + Shield Charge + Lightning Rod. And there isnt much need for another AOE hitter after those 2 mini-nukes eventhough you get 2 more from Elec Melee.

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Tanker Tuesday #72 Oct 5 @Champion

"I am not sure if my portrayal of being insane is accurate, but damn its fun all the same."

My Fire/Kin Corr, Fire/Cold Corr, SS/Shield Brute, Fire/Kin Troller all deal ridiculous amounts of AoE damage. It's hard to rank them though because they have different performance levels pending on the situation.

My Fire/Kin Corr performs best when teamed with a SS brute. The Brute takes aggro, I boost it's damage, and deal out my own damage on par with the brute

My Fire/Cold Corr performs best when there already is a Kin on the team. The resistance debuffs further increase damage past the "dmg cap"

My SS/Shield Brute performs best when it has a kin damage capping and SBing it.

My Fire/Kin Troller is good in most situations.



I guess what I'm saying is being the king of AoE has more to do with synergy with whatever you're teaming with.

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AR/Ice is a nasty combo, if only for the buildup. While I don't have buckshot, Full Auto and Flamer, finalised with a grenade tends to do a horrible ammount of damage. Although yes, solo it does get a tad hairy

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I have a Crab Spider build for AoE Chaos..

Heavy Burst, Suppression, Venom Grenader, Frag Grenade, Omega Manuever, Ball Lighting and now Static Discharge, plus the Arachnos Pets have an AoE as well.

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The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.

If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-

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My sonic/fire AoE blapper. The -res from siren's song + the sleep makes jumping into a big group a bit safer for the squishy. Then Fire sword circle, combust, Screeching wail if needed. Mine is built for +dmg and positional defensive slot bonuses

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Virtue: Sistah Powah, Afrodizziac, NeutronBlonde,Distortionist,IonMaiden,BlindFaith,M adwoman, Vital Signs,Yzzorrdrex,Diesel Mage, Defend, Glasshouse,Rescue I, Bootytrap, The Experience, AE Virus, Drawback, Daytime, Nighttime, Chamberwraith, Invincible Ink, Monster Mitts, Hex Object, Hexperiment, Frightningbolt, Spooky Deville, Scream Weaver, Cackler, Shocktopus, Ogrekill,Road Hazard,Fahrenhate,Duotherm,Black Lung, Horrorculturalist,Foulmouth,

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aim, fulcrum, ice storm, blizzard is awesome fun.

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