Single Target vs. AoE Damage

Generally speaking, seems as though single target skills are always inferior to AoE skills in terms of raw damage. Seemingly, there’s no downside to AoE skills, they deal more damage and hit multiple enemies at once. To differentiate ST vs AoE, they should nerf AoE damage across the board and buff ST skills. With regards to ST skills, melee should generally outshine ranged in terms of raw damage. Melee skills don’t do enough damage considering you need to be in the monster’s face.

I'm still stuck in Act 1 because I didn't Git Güd yet, but I found that spamming Fire Wall while dodging boss attacks has yielded best results, though I'm still too weak for the Act 1 boss.

I would have to disagree that more nerfs is what we need to fix anything at this point. People complain about the map sizes, so let's have movement speed mods for our shoes! Don't shrink the maps. The same logic applies with skills. Don't nerf the skills, drop more loot so we can fix it! The game isn't even stable yet and they are worried about nerfs, I just don't get it.

I'm in act 5 now on a merc and I really felt that there has been no reason to use any single target ability on this class, I am happy to use aoe skills as it is closer to what I'm used to in poe1.
but maybe they could change single target to a small aoe so dealing with packs is better without having to up the damage to the point of one shotting bosses

This brings up another sore spot with a lot of users with the auto-aiming feature that we can't turn off. It can easily get confused and switch targets, and it's very evident with single target skills. I have noticed this with lightning and fireball skills at times, and I thought it was just me. Now my Sorc just lays down Fire Wall in front of me, casts Orb Storm and blasts everything through the Fire Wall with Sparks that inherit the fire damage. Pain in the ass, but it works for everything except bosses.

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tecknokitty#1679 wrote:

I'm in act 5 now on a merc and I really felt that there has been no reason to use any single target ability on this class, I am happy to use aoe skills as it is closer to what I'm used to in poe1.
but maybe they could change single target to a small aoe so dealing with packs is better without having to up the damage to the point of one shotting bosses

Not feeling the need to use any single target skills is a big problem. At a minimum, they should be more effective against bosses.

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CharlesJT#7681 wrote:

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tecknokitty#1679 wrote:

I'm in act 5 now on a merc and I really felt that there has been no reason to use any single target ability on this class, I am happy to use aoe skills as it is closer to what I'm used to in poe1.
but maybe they could change single target to a small aoe so dealing with packs is better without having to up the damage to the point of one shotting bosses

Not feeling the need to use any single target skills is a big problem. At a minimum, they should be more effective against bosses.

well soem are. At least in mercenary the machine gun is so much stronger than the shotguns when killing bosses.

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Urza_Mechwalker#7393 wrote:

well soem are. At least in mercenary the machine gun is so much stronger than the shotguns when killing bosses.

True, I would like to see the same treatment applied to the other classes and buff ST skills to make them worthwhile.