AoE vs single target attacks

[Answulf]

What do you prefer? Do you like to single out one target at a time to get the damage off the table, or wear down the whole group faster to get the fight over with sooner?

Take Grapeshot Blast on a Highwayman as an example: which best describes how you use it?

A.) Use it all the time to soften up the group?
B.) Only use it whe it is going to kill at least one opponent?
C.) Not use it at all in favor of skills that do more single target damage?

Personally I think it depends on the individual skill, but for the most part AoE is underwhelming in this game.

[Zmaj_iz_Bosne]

C

[Jetigig]

Back when I had a highwayman with grapeshot blast (RIP Dismas), I would use it only on the first round (he was the first of my party to act) to soften up the enemies. After that, I'd attack whichever enemy had been the most affected. However, I'd still use it toward the end of the battle if there was an enemy with 1-2 points of health that I wanted to finish of without feeling like the damage could have been used elsewhere.

The houndmaster has a great AOE attack called Hound's Harry that I use all the time. The reason that I use it more often than I use direct attacks is because of the bleed damage. I use it repeatedly with an Occultist or a Grave Robber to inflict massive bleed damage.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'm kinda partial to the Houndmaster because of that great bleed AOE and the Healing Howl move that reduces stress by 3. I pretty much spam Hound's Harry for the first few rounds and use the Howl exclusively after 1 or two foes have dropped.

[CvltofAshenFlock]

I think Jetgig sums it up pretty well, there is no one way i use aoe, in case of the jester i use harvest a lot vs heavy Prot enemies to get the bleed damage.

[Muscarine]

B) But then again i very rarely pack AoEs in my setups. Mostly Below and Abyssal Artillery.

Bruteforce only get you so far.

[[GWJ] Puce Moose]

I like Hew and Zealous Accusation for those times when you have an enemy in position one or two with <5 health, and a healthier enemy in the other slot. You still get a good chunk of damage in, and get to eliminate a threat. Sadly I've found Grapeshot blast to only be useful early on, and while I like Hound's Harry I really wish the bleed damage scaled better. Plague Doctor's Blight seems to cause so much more damage than the Houndmaster's bleed that it feels like it needs some more balancing.

[LaserGuy]

I pretty much only use AoE if I think that I can kill one weak monster and damage a second. Killing one monster is always better than damaging two or three.