Multi-AoE skills against single targets

If I use a skill that produces multiple AoE effects such as Molten Strike, is it better to go for increased AoE, Conc Effect, or neither? I'm guessing it varies by skill, the ones I'm particularly interested in are:

- Bladefall
- Blast Rain
- Firestorm
- Glacial Cascade
- Kinetic Blast
- Magma Orb
- Molten Strike

Which of these would benefit more from Conc Effect, and which from Inc AoE? Are there any where neither is a particularly good choice for single-target DPS?

Single target damage with Firestorm, Blast Rain, Kinetic Blast and Molten Strike will certainly benefit from conc effect.

Bladefall and Cascade might benefit from conc if the target has a very large hitbox but they usually don't, devs reduced it at some point to allow more melee enemies to stack around a player.

Magma Orb has no overlap so it won't benefit from Conc at all.

Awesome, thanks for the info.

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raics wrote:

Single target damage with Firestorm, Blast Rain, Kinetic Blast and Molten Strike will certainly benefit from conc effect.

Bladefall and Cascade might benefit from conc if the target has a very large hitbox but they usually don't, devs reduced it at some point to allow more melee enemies to stack around a player.

Magma Orb has no overlap so it won't benefit from Conc at all.

Eh, i would argue that (mechanically) Blast Rain doesn't really benefit from conc effect aside from the raw damage increase. Since it's guaranteed to overlap on the targeted area, you will still always hit with all 4 shots against a single target even with massive inc aoe. It's still up to 59% more damage, but that's really all it is, and personally i'd rather use a different comparable support if the option is there.


Cascade definitely does benefit from conc effect too, you still do get more hits out of it in general with lower aoe. It might not be noticeable against typical mobs, but against most bosses it is.


And for magma orb, inc aoe is beneficial; you can't overlap using multiple projectiles, but the aoes from separate bounces can hit the same target, so larger aoe means you could potentially hit with the aoe from the first bounce, then again with the aoe from the second, etc more easily.

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Shppy wrote:

Eh, i would argue that (mechanically) Blast Rain doesn't really benefit from conc effect aside from the raw damage increase. Since it's guaranteed to overlap on the targeted area, you will still always hit with all 4 shots against a single target even with massive inc aoe. It's still up to 59% more damage, but that's really all it is, and personally i'd rather use a different comparable support if the option is there.

Cascade definitely does benefit from conc effect too, you still do get more hits out of it in general with lower aoe. It might not be noticeable against typical mobs, but against most bosses it is.

And for magma orb, inc aoe is beneficial; you can't overlap using multiple projectiles, but the aoes from separate bounces can hit the same target, so larger aoe means you could potentially hit with the aoe from the first bounce, then again with the aoe from the second, etc more easily.

Well, Blast Rain is mechanically very similar to Firestorm, a number of random AoE hits over a circular area. In such cases reducing both areas with Conc will increase chances of hitting an enemy because its size won't change, it's a mild effect but still a nice addition to the Conc damage bonus.

I mentioned the thing about Cascade and Bladefall, they do have an area overlap so it will work on some enemies but it usually won't, it's unreliable so I separated it from Firestorm and the company which benefit from reduced AoE all the time.

Increasing AoE with Magma Orb will also increase skip distance, as I understand it. The skill has no overlap between skips so the most you can get is two hits if the enemy stands right between them. The skill seems to have a bit of a gap too in certain places when you use multiple projectiles, a gap which will also increase, so with extreme amounts of AoE you may even start missing small enemies entirely.

...
Rounding is probably also worth mentioning. Because AoE rounds down, these skills have breakpoints, ideally, you want the amount of AoE modifiers that brings you just a step above reducing the minor AoE by 1 to get the best effect.