Best single target melee skill is...

Another point to factor into your "best single target" is that life regen often sucks without using a life leech gem on either static strike or molten strike (i.e. if your leech comes from physical damage done)... Whereas your life leech with things like Double Strike or Reave is great (and Heavy Strike if you can hit the target to leech).

In terms of pure single target kill speed, the winner is cyclone. Just ignore the tooltip dps. I've watched cyclone kill bosses faster than skills with twice the tooltip. And it is definitely better than heavy strike or static strike.

I like Ground Slam.

Making a Crit DW Ground Slam char right now.
Amazing clear speed with IAE gem and very high damage with Conc. Eff. gem.
Everything is dead before they even found out what happened.

Dual wielding a Mace and a Soul Taker, the attack uses main hand only and ST means no mana needs.
100K DPS no problem with Conc. effect gem.

Well yeah when you add 20exa or more items getting high DPs is trivial. But indeed conc effect can turn many aoe skills into good single target. This is assuming there aren't enough gems to fully DPs out a single target skill... But there are

Can Crits with cyclone crit twice? They can for SS. Yeah, cyclone may be superior single target noncrit, SS is better when adding crit. The conversion is a negligible impact on leech unless you are using Vaal Pact imo.

I agree though, with cyclone being one of the best melee clearing skills, best being a proper flicker strike.

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Saltychipmunk написал:

Well yeah when you add 20exa or more items getting high DPs is trivial. But indeed conc effect can turn many aoe skills into good single target. This is assuming there aren't enough gems to fully DPs out a single target skill... But there are

Well, i guess a Soul Taker isn't a cheap item, but it's only 4.5Ex and is the most expensive item necessary.
A 6-link Armour isnt cheap either but almost all good builds require one and can be self-linked if one have some time.
Almost all have one 6-link armour they can use.

To get high damage with Ground Slam a 6-link armour, Soul taker, a good rare mace (self found), millegaros gloves, abyssus is needed.
One can use a Rats nest for more safe/lower DPS.

This Groundslam char is is looking to be the highest DPS char i have done so far.
But it's not finished yet but it is looking good.
My gems are only lvl 17 ish and no qual and only using 5-link, and i can do lvl 74 maps no problemos.
Im so looking forward to when this char is at full capacity.

Look at this dude, using no really uber items.
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1206002

Dual strike for dual wield and Lightning strike (125% base dmg) when not dual wielding. Mix the light strike with CI (melee phys when on full life) and for really huge dmg you can convert all your phys dmg to lightning using phys to lightning gem, and then multiply it again with weapon ele dmg gem. You'll have to use leech gem tho, since normal leech from tree or items won't work.

EDIT: Oh yes... I forgot about cyclone.

answer is the same as to 99% of "what is the best.." questions related to PoE

depends

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Ludvator написал:

answer is the same as to 99% of "what is the best.." questions related to PoE

depends

That is so true.

Even if one skill is best if looking purely at numbers, one must always make a good build.
This build will include some non-single target way of clearing trash, skills for survival, passives, auras...
And the best will always be the best combo of skills that uses bonuses from the other skills, passives, auras...
So the best "number" skill may be outpreformed by others just because... in PoE it depends on a lot of shit.

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Ludvator написал:

answer is the same as to 99% of "what is the best.." questions related to PoE

depends

Naah, DPS wise SS + Cyclone with melee.
Bow: Tornado Shot.
Caster AoE: Kinetic Blast + Discharge