League of Legends consists of several categories of playable champions each of which has its own unique abilities. Every champion either has a single-target ability or an AoE ability. The name single-target is self-explanatory, but what kind of ability is an AoE ability?
What is an AoE Ability?
AoE refers to Area of Effect. AoE abilities are abilities that affect a certain area instead of a singular target.
They are especially common in MOBA Games. As every single champion in LoL has some type of AoE ability except for Vayne who is the single champion that only deals single-target damage using all of its abilities.
Read also: Top burn items in LoL
What are The Best AoE Abilities in League?
The top seven best AoE abilities in League of Legends are Death Ray, Unstoppable Force, Bullet Time, The Equilizer, Fate Sealed, Pyroclasm, and Final Spark.
1. Upgraded Death Ray (Viktor E)
The upgraded Death Ray is said to be Viktor’s bread and butter. It is the perfect ability for clearing minions and inflicting significant poke damage at the same time. Once Viktor gains 100 Hex fragments, he can upgrade Death Ray to become the most lethal ability in all of League of Legends. What makes this ability the best AoE ability in League of Legends is the fact that it has a very short cooldown and good range. You can constantly harass your enemies with it as well as reliably kite your opponents with it.
Viktor fires an energy beam along the target path that deals magic damage to enemies hit and briefly grants sight of the area. The path explodes along the beam’s wake after 1 second, dealing additional magic damage to enemies hit.
This ability has great scaling with both base damage and total ability power. It is capable of killing the caster minions in one single beam and the melee minions in two beams, making it one of the most powerful wave-clear abilities.
2. Unstoppable Force (Malphite R)
Unstoppable Force is one of the most iconic abilities in all of League of Legends. Malphite dashes to a targetted area, knocking up all neutral and enemy targets into the air. This AoE ability is known to be used as an engagement ability and makes a great combo with many other abilities. One of the most iconic combos in LoL is the Unstoppable Force followed by Last Breath (Yasuo R). It has good scaling with base damage and it also scales well with ability power.
Malphite dashes with Unstoppable displacement immunity to the target location. Upon arrival, he deals magic damage to nearby enemies and Airborne knocks them up for 1.5 seconds.
Malphite mainly uses this ability for the knock-up rather than the damage but if he builds ability power then it will deal a lot of damage in the area it affects.
3. Bullet Time (Miss Fortune R)
Bullet Time is Miss Fortune’s signature ability. She fires 84 to 108 projectiles in up to 18 waves over a short period of time. This ability deals an incredible amount of damage, scaling with the champion’s attack damage, and shredding them as long as she stays stationary. This ability is often used when the enemies are affected by a crowd control ability so that they are guaranteed to take significant damage.
Miss Fortune channels for up to 3 seconds, firing several waves of bullets in a spread of 6 projectiles per wave in the target direction, with each wave dealing physical damage to enemies hit.
Miss Fortune is one of the trademark ADCs and one of the first characters you can unlock in the game. Her ultimate is one of the best AoE abilities in all of League of Legends because of how much damage it deals in a large width to any target she is facing towards. It is a great team-fight ability that can also zone the enemies.
4. The Equilizer (Rumble R)
Rumble’s ultimate ability, The Equilizer, is extremely powerful. For some people, it even becomes the reason they pick Rumble. It fires a barrage of rockets along a path and creates a trail of fire. It burns every target in its area of effect to a crisp. It also slows the targets by 35%, providing great utility usage aside from the damage, making it one of the best AoE abilities in LoL.
Rumble deploys a barrage of rockets along the target path that land in a line over 0.75 seconds, creating a field of fire for 4.5 seconds after the last rocket lands. Enemies struck by the impact or within the field are marked as Burning for 1 second, which deals magic damage every 0.5 seconds, Slow slows by 35%, and refreshes continuously while in the area.
5. Fate Sealed (Yone R)
Yone is the newest champion out of any champions that are mentioned on this list. He possesses one of the strongest AoE abilities out of any. Fate Sealed allows Yone to dash forward in a fixed direction, knocking up all of the enemies in his way and dealing damage to them. A good Fate Sealed can be the difference between winning and losing a team fight. It is great in combination with other ultimates such as Last Breath (Yasuo R) which can be applied to all enemies that are knocked up.
Yone prepares a strike over the cast time, then marks all enemies within a line in the target direction, knocking them down and stunning them for 1 second. He blinks 200 units beyond the center of the last enemy champion struck, else to maximum range instead. After 0.3 seconds, a gust rushes along the same line that deals equal parts physical and magic damage to marked enemies within the area and pulls them towards the location Yone blinked to, then knocks them up for 0.75 seconds.
6. Pyroclasm (Brand R)
Brand’s Pyroclasm (R) is a special kind of AoE ability. It falls under “spreading” AoE abilities, affecting champions in a specific area by spreading from one target to another. Although it may not deal enough damage to kill a champion by itself, it contributes greatly to any skirmish, duel, or team fight. Just like a fire, it burns the enemy champion over time and spreads to other champions if the target champion is close to other opponents.
Brand launches a fireball at the target enemy that bounces between nearby enemies and Brand up to four times, dealing magic damage to enemies each time. If the target is ablaze, it is slowed for 0.25s.
What makes this one of the strongest AoE abilities is the amount of damage that it provides in a fight. This ability scales very well with ability power and allows Brand to mainly build AP items.
7. Final Spark (Lux R)
The last AoE ability on our list is Final Spark. This is yet another iconic ability in League of Legends. Lux’s ultimate ability, Final Spark, fires a laser in one direction dealing a large amount of damage to everything in its radius. It also provides vision of the area that it affects, revealing its targets for a short duration.
Lux fires a massive laser in a line in the target direction that deals magic damage to enemies hit and reveals them for 1.5 seconds, as well as granting sight of the surrounding area.
This ability is strong not due to the amount of damage it does but because of how short the cooldown is. It can be cast at least every minute at level 1 and twice at levels 2 and 3. It can be used in combination with Lux’s Light Binding which roots the enemies for 2 seconds, giving you enough time to land Final Spark on the rooted target.
Final Thoughts
AoE abilities are great because you can cast them once for them to apply to more than a singular enemy target. Some scenarios would make you wish your ability only hit a singular target (such as Mordekaiser’s Obliterate (Q) as it deals increased damage if it hits an isolated target), but AoE abilities are widely loved and very beneficial for things such as team fights and wave-clearing.
Do you have a favorite AoE ability out of these? Do you agree with our list? What are your thoughts on the newest patch? We love hearing your feedback, so hit us with it in the comment section below!
