Which AoE skill gems are more useful?

Well, basically I'm wondering which AoE spell skill gems are useful in the long run.

I'm playing on hardcore and don't want to miss the good gems because I chose another gem in a quest.

I hear firestorm and ice nova are bad, and since I have no idea which ones are good, I made this topic.

I mean, I did look around at their effects on the wiki. I couldn't tell how useful they would be based on that, however.

Also, I'm sorry in case this isn't the right area to ask. I couldn't make a topic on the Skill Gem feedback, so I figured it would be general feedback, then.

Although not clearly AoE I like Ethereal Knives, Fireball and Freezing Pulse.

Fireball and Ethereal Knives are exspecially nice, because they are not so likely to kill you with Reflect because you have not just Armor and Resistances to help with that, but also Arctic Armor. But I never used Freezing Pulse, so no idea how bad it is.

Also Firestorm now is really huge in terms of AoE and plays nice with Conc. Effect. However you would have to trade for Conc. Effect because you only get it in Merc Difficulty.

On the other hand all normal gems cost less than an Chaos-Orb to buy so there is no reason not to try them out and you have enough chances to get them that you can end up with all of them.

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Emphasy wrote:

Although not clearly AoE I like Ethereal Knives, Fireball and Freezing Pulse.

Fireball and Ethereal Knives are exspecially nice, because they are not so likely to kill you with Reflect because you have not just Armor and Resistances to help with that, but also Arctic Armor. But I never used Freezing Pulse, so no idea how bad it is.

Also Firestorm now is really huge in terms of AoE and plays nice with Conc. Effect. However you would have to trade for Conc. Effect because you only get it in Merc Difficulty.

On the other hand all normal gems cost less than an Chaos-Orb to buy so there is no reason not to try them out and you have enough chances to get them that you can end up with all of them.

First off, thanks for the quick reply!

I honestly would love to keep using firestorm(it's my main spell so far), but I've never traded before, have no idea how that works, and no clue on what currency is used. But I suppose I'll leave that for the trade section of the forums.

As for fireball, I've always assumed it was mainly for bossing due to the higher damage and low AoE. I assume you're using some support skill gems for that. I don't really have any useful support gems so far, but then again I haven't done many quests on the storyline. Been mostly grinding for one reason or another :P

I suppose I'll keep going with Firestorm, and add some support skill gems for it later.

Other than concentrated effect, which support gems would be helpful with it?

-Amano-

A few less-popular spells I like to use, that only require a four-linked item:

Trap + Coldsnap + Cold Penetration + Elemental Proliferation. It's great, easy to use crowd control. I prefer this to Freeze Mine, as the latter has extra, burdensome steps (detonating the mine). But maybe that won't bother you, I just don't like mines in general :)

Firestorm is a great support skill that you can add to a Spell Totem with Faster Casting and Culling Strike. It will help kill enemies a little bit faster (Culling Strike), but is most useful for triggering Elemental Equilibrium if you should like to use that as your play style.

Shock Nova is also very powerful, if you get a quality version (chance to shock on hit), with Spell Totem, Faster Casting, and Elemental Proliferation. Also most useful for triggering EE. In this case, it will hit less frequently than Firestorm, but will quickly add shock stacks to your targets.

Molten Shell is also a very good spell, if you want to build a Strength-based caster. It grants extra protection, and passively triggers for high burst damage. This is a great skill to add Life Leech to, because it triggers as you take (actually mitigate, but you will still be taking..) damage. Passively recover a portion of life lost from being attacked.

Hope this helps! Some of it is Elemental Equilibrium oriented, which you might not want to try right away if you're new, but it is a very powerful ability nonetheless.

Edit: And this probably belongs in gameplay discussion. It will likely be moved nonetheless.

"

CanHasPants wrote:

A few less-popular spells I like to use, that only require a four-linked item:

Trap + Coldsnap + Cold Penetration + Elemental Proliferation. It's great, easy to use crowd control. I prefer this to Freeze Mine, as the latter has extra, burdensome steps (detonating the mine). But maybe that won't bother you, I just don't like mines in general :)

Firestorm is a great support skill that you can add to a Spell Totem with Faster Casting and Culling Strike. It will help kill enemies a little bit faster (Culling Strike), but is most useful for triggering Elemental Equilibrium if you should like to use that as your play style.

Shock Nova is also very powerful, if you get a quality version (chance to shock on hit), with Spell Totem, Faster Casting, and Elemental Proliferation. Also most useful for triggering EE. In this case, it will hit less frequently than Firestorm, but will quickly add shock stacks to your targets.

Molten Shell is also a very good spell, if you want to build a Strength-based caster. It grants extra protection, and passively triggers for high burst damage. This is a great skill to add Life Leech to, because it triggers as you take (actually mitigate, but you will still be taking..) damage. Passively recover a portion of life lost from being attacked.

Hope this helps! Some of it is Elemental Equilibrium oriented, which you might not want to try right away if you're new, but it is a very powerful ability nonetheless.

Edit: And this probably belongs in gameplay discussion. It will likely be moved nonetheless.

Alright, thank you for the information.

I'm not too sure if I want to use totems, however. I'd like to cast firestorm myself, unless that means having trouble with enemies.

Is it possible to get the most out of Firestorm with some support gems? If so, which?

I was thinking using Firestorm + Life Leech + Conc. Effect once I get those. Maybe more gems later, but I suppose it will take a long while for me to get anything four-linked. I'm still in the end of Act 1 Normal.

@Edit: I thought things over and I may not get enough strength for Life Leech. So I was thinking perhaps Added Lightning Damage or Added Chaos Damage, as those would help, and are Intelligence based. Faster casting could help, too, but I think Firestorm may not be as useful damage-wise later in the game, even with Conc. Effect.

@Edit2: Or, I could use Firestorm + Conc. Effect + Increased AoE if that combo actually works, and use fireball for anything that doesn't die too easily?

-Amano-

Freezing pulse is a very strong gem, especially when linked with LMP/GMP and added lignthning/cold/chaos dmg ( especially since the buff ).

I would even say that it is amazing honestly.


I'm using ice nova as my main skill ( but not for single targets, Freezing Pulse has the advantage of being good for single target as well ) - linked with concentrated effect of course - and I really like it.

Artic breath seems nice, but I need to try it more to have a really solid opinion on it.

Firestorm is a lot of fun to self cast, but you will want to invest in a fair amount of cast speed and mana regeneration. The key with firestorm, is multiple consecutive casts within the multiple spells' durations. This causes one metric-fuckton (real measurement) of fireballs to fall. For this reason, Fireball is great at delivering non-damage dependent on-hit effects such as Elemental Equilibrium and Culling Strike. The reason I suggest a Totem is because it will continuously cast Firestorm in exactly this manner, while you're free to kite and cast other spells. But, absolutely feel free to cast it yourself; just, self casting does not work well with EE, and you will still benefit from having a totem of some kind also casting spells while you're standing still. Especially something that shocks.

Regarding AoE: Firestorm has two, and both scale with increased aoe and conc effect. The first is the area within which the fireballs fall, and the second is the area that the fireballs themselves deal damage. It causes an interesting interaction with how you scale your aoe. More of it, will increase the area the fireballs can land in in greater proportion to the area that the fireballs will damage--you will hit more monsters less frequently. Conc effect has the opposite effect. How you scale it is a matter of experimenting with other factors of your build, such as cast speed and skill duration.

Regardless of whether you self cast or use a totem, Faster Casting is basically a must have. You want to have as many fireballs landing at the same time as possible. Beyond that, experiment and see what works for you. Life Leech is, ultimately, recommended, as standing still to cast will leave you vulnerable. You will find Str from gear to be able to equip it (belt, rings, ammy). Only use 1-2 +30 Str nodes to compensate for a lack of Str on gear.

Firestorm was massively buffed. With concentrated aoe enough cast speed and increased skill effect duration, you can get decent damage.

Fireball with a focus on burn damage or shotgun effect is strong.

FP was go-to for a while.

Discharge is op.

It's a lot easier to name what isn't a useful AoE:

Ice Nova - Where's the damage?
Shock Nova - Frustrating to use and doesn't do enough damage to justify its drawbacks.
Arc - lol (but to be fair, if you buff the base skill up arc casters just get too strong in large packs)
Whirling Blades - desync
Lightning Warp - it's more for utility than damage, but it's good at utility.
Cleave - Nerfed into oblivion
Sweep - It can't compete with all other weapon aoe skills, from what I can tell; only notable if you use a weapon with a base aspeed below 1.0.

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anubite wrote:

Ice Nova - Where's the damage?
Cleave - Nerfed into oblivion

The damage comes from the fact that you hit more target more easily with full damage on all of them + concentrated effect. It also cc a big part of the screen.

Cleave is still strong, probably because of concentrated effect tbh.

Those are basically the two main skills I am using atm, and I am not disapointed with those at all.

I have used Shock Nova extensively. Albeit, it requires elemental proliferation, a decent-to-max quality, and/or static blows, and I've never used it as a main cast. But to say it's useless is to say you've never used it. It is, in my opinion, the single best skill to prime a pack with EE + triple shock before dropping a massive ignite on them.

Just like LW is not a main cast--it has utility that also just happens to deal damage--so too does Shock Nova share a similar place in the game.