Dagger only Non-Area Damage?

I just got to play the BETA and planned to build a dagger oriented style.
I read much about skills on this website but didnt found any clue if i can make dagger oriented char also have some area effect damage.

Did i overlook something or is it intended that dagger only is viable as a high evasion, fast moving and fast hitting megacrit playstyle?

I would suggest that theres somethin like a support gem which lets poisons be infectios so it jumps from one enemy to another.

Also a bleeding support which could be something like transforms bloodsprays from a bleeding enemy into acid pools or other elemental damage pools as areaeffect for the ground.

Somthing like that would make it a bit easier on those high dificult leagues.

But as i said im new to BETA and therefore woul like to read about your experiences from dagger builds.

Lightning Strike is currently the only real AoE for daggers.

I've found it to be fairly weak in comparison with traditional dagger builds like Flicker Strike, and also in comparison with traditional AoE builds like Ground Slam. But it looks cool.

Daggers are good on a witch for spell crit and I believe they are a hybrid for witch and 6th class while claws will be mainly 6th class. As far as aoe for daggers and claws go it would be sweet to see a move similar to Wolverines (xmen) tornado claw.

With some frenzy charges, you can't really call Flicker strike a single target attack. Close to 5 APS, It feels like you damage the whole screen.

But yes, most skills are single target.

Personally, I use flicker strike for special characters, and groups of normal mobs, and lightning strike for physical reflects and hard hitting champions.

Thank you, it seems

- flicker strike
- ground slam
- lighning strike

are the choices so far i have.

A pity that ther's no fear skill. for a second i thought maybe all those DoT skills applied with a well placed fear or knocknack abilitys would send my targets to death.

well some kind of warlock that would be... DoT and forget ;)
But would that work with Daggers to apply all Dots from Viper Strike, Puncture ...
i guess thats too special and wouldnt last in chaos league.

No, ground slam is not an option for daggers. The only real melee options that come close to aoe are flicker and lightning strike. If you want aoe, use spells.

Edit: you can make your own aoe's with elemental proliferation. For example, a cold cit dagger build with EP could make attacks behave like cold snap.

At the time i am L 32 using dagger poison crit attack passive.
Combined with lighning-strike and a curse to gain mana (which is obsolete because bloodmagic) and lifeleech.

Bloodmagic to to make the buttonsmashing a bit less tedious and aiming for more life regenerate.

Some support gems für gain life on-hit and more, faster, harder hitting projectiles for the lighning strike. as well as the selfbuff which gives charges for every kill and makes chaos damge. forgot the name right now.


a freeze option would help, i guess. im only at cruel difficulty now and i dont make too much damage so that the mobs are my equal level. if they are i get some trouble so i have to outlevel about 1-3 levels sometime.

I guess this build is going nowhere, but i will check out and see if i can get better equip.

not sure if i should go for Armor/Evasion gear or Armor only.

What short is EP, may i ask. Dont know all the terms and shorts yet in poe.

EP = Elemental Proliferation (one of the new introduced skill gems)