Area of Effect heroes are known as “Cleavers” in Epic Seven.
Cleave heroes are best for PvE, carving their way through dozens of monsters to finish Automation Towers, Labyrinths, Side Stories & Adventures quickly.
Right now, aoe DPS heroes aren’t that great in PvP, due to the sheer amount of counter & stealth units (stealthed units take reduced damage from aoe attacks).
That being said, you never know when SmileGate will make changes to the game, so it’s well worth investing in at least 2 heroes of each element who can unleash tons of aoe damage!
There are quite a few heroes who can dish out aoe damage, it’s tempting to throw some of your best gear on them if you get a lucky summon.
Investing in the right hero is so important in Epic Seven, so I’ve given you a list of the only 10 aoe DPS heroes you should build!
10. Aramintha
Attribute: Fire
Class: Mage
Recommended Set: Speed/Effectiveness
Recommended Artifact: Kal’adra
How to get: 5* Covenant Summon
Skills
| Ignite | Catalyst | Fire Pillar |
| Attacks an enemy with an explosion of flames, with a 35% chance to burn for 2 turns. Decreases cooldown of Fire of Pillar by 1 turn. Ignores Effect Resistance. | Attacks all enemies with a catalytic explosion, making them unhealable for 2 turns before increasing Attack of all allies for 2 turns. | Burn Effect: Ignore effect resistance. Attacks all enemies with massive fire pillar, with a 80% chance to burn for 2 turns, and 30% chance to stun for 1 turn, before increasing the caster’s Combat Readiness by 50%. |
Capable against AI enemies and player teams, Aramintha is a hard-hitting fire mage who also provides buffs for your team.
Her burns are particularly effective in PvP, especially against enemies who grant themselves extra turns.
The Kal’adra artifact boosts damage against debuffed targets. Aramintha spreads burns like wildfire so the artifact boost has a high uptime.
As a 5* Covenant Summon, she can be hard to acquire. There are heroes who are easier to obtain but I feel like Aramintha’s versatility is worth a place on this list.
9. Researcher Carrot
Attribute: Fire
Class: Mage
Recommended Set: Attack/Effectiveness
Recommended Artifact: Chatty
How to get: Specialty Change
Skills
| Swing | Flame Barrier (Passive) | Blaze Explosion |
| Attacks with a staff, with a 35% chance to decrease Speed for 2 turns, before detonating burn effects inflicted on the enemy at the end of the turn. | After being attacked, grants the caster a barrier for 1 turn and burns the attacker for 1 turn. Barrier effect can only be activated once per turn, and barrier strength increases proportional to the caster’s Attack. | Burn Effect: Grants an extra turn. Attack with powerful fire, dispelling one buff before a 60% chance each to inflict two burn effects for 2 turns. |
Easily available as a 3* summon, Carrot is one of the easiest heroes to build, as well as one of the best AoE PvP heroes you can acquire.
It’s definitely recommended to build as much attack as possible, preferably over 4000.
You’ll also need around 100% effectiveness.
The rest of the stats can be split between bulk and speed. Or just bulk if you have a few CR pushers (heroes who can increase the combat readiness of allies).
With the relevant Specialty Change skill tree upgrades, Researcher Carrot will burn any enemies who attack her, as well as granting herself a barrier and a small amount of regeneration.
Chatty is an artifact you can get from the Book of Memories, giving her even more barriers to keep surviving.
Only 1 AoE ability makes her ineffective for a lot of PvE content, with Aramintha being the preferred Fire Mage.
When it comes to PvP, R. Carrot can literally devastate entire teams with her AoE attack.
8. Tenebria
Attribute: Fire
Class: Mage
Recommended Set: Speed/Crit Chance
Recommended Artifact: Sira-Ren
How to get: 5* Covenant Summon
Skills
| Dark Explosion | Ominous Thunder | Nightmare |
| Attacks with an explosion of dark energy, with a 60% chance to put them to sleep for 1 turn. When the enemy is put to sleep, the caster’s Combat Readiness increases by 50%. This skill does not trigger a Dual attack. | Summons ominous thunder to attack all enemies, decreasing Combat Readiness by 20%, before decreasing Speed for 2 turns. | Burn Effect: Increases damage dealt. Drops Moon of Nightmare on all enemies, with a 70% chance to decrease Defense for 2 turns and put them to sleep for 1 turn, before increasing Attack of the caster for 2 turns. |
Speed is great on Tenebria, build her for at least 200 speed so she can get her Nightmare ability off as soon as possible.
A whopping 70% chance to put each enemy to sleep can be huge against PvP teams, or groups of annoying mobs.
Tenebria is my go-to hero in Automation Tower as she’ll grant your team at least 2 bonus turns through her sleeps and combat readiness decreases.
Alongside the back-line counterattack ability you can get after defeating a stage, she’ll constantly be CC’ing enemy mobs.
The Sira-Ren artifact has a chance to apply a random buff when attacking an enemy. Tenebria’s 2 AoE attacks give plenty of chances to apply additional debuffs!
For PvP, she acts as a good counter to frustrating stealth heroes, or for putting frustrating tanky enemies to sleep.
7. Vildred
Attribute: Earth
Class: Thief
Recommended Set: Speed/Crit Chance
Recommended Artifact: Dust Devil
How to get: 5* Covenant Summon
Skills
| Sweep | Dancing Blade | Blade Ascent |
| Rapidly attacks two enemies with a swordstorm. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s Speed. | Increases Attack of the caster for 2 turns and activates Dancing Blade when an enemy is defeated by Sweep or Blade Ascent. Increases Combat Readiness of the caster by 20% when an enemy is defeated. Dancing Blade: Attacks all enemies with a swordstorm. | Burn Effect: Increase damage dealt. Attacks all enemies with a swordstorm. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s Speed. |
Vildred is one of the best PvE farmers in the game, excelling at sweeping over mobs in Adventure and Automation Tower.
He makes up for his lack of debuffing power with plenty of offensive capabilities, gaining an attack buff, extra attack and combat readiness increase when he defeats an enemy.
So many artifacts work on him, Dust Devil is recommended to gain additional AoE attacks to help clear stages faster.
I was lucky enough to get Vildred in a Covenant Summon early on, it helped make up for me wasting my Moonlight Blessing on Dark Corvus 🙂
6. Cermia
Attribute: Fire
Class: Warrior
Recommended Set: Crit Chance/Crit Damage
Recommended Artifact: Sigurd Scythe
How to get: 5* Covenant Summon
Skills
| Playing With Fire | Hot Streak! | All-In |
| Attacks with a flaming sword, with a 55% chance to make the target unhealable for 1 turn. | Shoots fire, granting the caster Increase Attack (Greater), resetting the cooldown of All-In!, and granting an extra turn. | Burn Effect: Increases damage dealt. Attacks with a blazing inferno, penetrating Defense by 50%. |
A pure crit build Cermia is a force to be reckoned with, incinerating many PvE content, as well as those pesky PvP teams full of the best Earth PvP heroes like Landy & Violet.
Sigurd Scythe gives her a big buff when she drops below 50% health, increasing attack by 25% and absorbing 50% of the damage she deals as health.
Perfect for Golem hunts, she’s great for taking out high defence targets thanks to her skill 3 penetrating defense by 50%!
5. Landy
Attribute: Earth
Class: Ranger
Recommended Set: Speed/Immunity
Recommended Artifact: Guiding Light
How to get: 5* Limited Summon
Skills
| Fire | The Chief is on the Scene (Passive) | Full Burst |
| Fires at the enemy and increases the caster’s Combat Readiness by 10%. Combat Readiness increase and amount of Fighting Spirit gained are doubled when the enemy is buffed. | Increases the caster’s attack by 15% after attacking. Effect can only stack up to 3 times. Gains 10 Fighting Spirit for each buff granted on the enemy, and when the Fighting Spirit is full, resets skill cooldown. Starts the first battle with 50 Fighting Spirit. | Burn Effect: Grants an extra turn. Fires at all enemies and grants all allies increased Speed for 2 turns, before increasing their Combat Readiness by 15%. When Fighting Spirit is full, consumes all Fighting Spirit to penetrate the target’s Defense by 50%. This skill cannot trigger a counterattack. |
The Queen of PvP, Landy is also exceptional in various Abyss floors, Automation Tower and of course, Adventure stages.
Speed & Immunity is recommended to make sure she gets to cast her skill 3, as the combat readiness decrease can ensure you get more turns before your opponent.
Guiding Light is used to grant stealth in PvP fights, the AI won’t target her or if you’re playing against another player, they’ll need to use an AoE attack to break stealth.
Back her up with anti-AoE heroes to make sure she stays alive!
A fully focused skill 3 from Landy deals an insane amount of damage, thanks to her built-in attack buffs.
A counter set build works fine too, but she really needs to be bulky if that’s the case. Around 18k HP and 1.5k defence should do it.
We’ve recently had a Landy banner in September 2021, so it’ll be a while until she’s available for collection.
4. Seaside Bellona
Attribute: Ice
Class: Ranger
Recommended Set: Attack/Crit Chance
Recommended Artifact: Portrait of the Saviors
How to get: 5* Limited Summon
Skills
| Watch Out | I’m with my Friends (Passive) | Haven’t I Warned You? |
| Attacks the enemy with a fan, with 60% chance to target the enemy for 2 turns. | Shares 30% of damage suffered by the caster with the foremost ally. When more than one damage sharing effect is granted, only the strongest effect is applied. The caster gains 1 Focus when ally is attacked. When an ally is attacked and the caster’s stacked Focus is 5, loses all Focus and activates You’re not Cute. You’re not Cute: Attacks all enemies with a fan, with 50% chance to decrease Defense for 2 turns. | Burn Effect: Ignores effect resistance. Attacks all enemies with a spray of water, with a 85% chance to make them unabled to be buffed and unhealable for 2 turns. Damage dealt increases with a critical hit. |
My most feared opponent, Seaside Bellona is a PvP staple for defense teams, as well as a must-have for getting through a lot of PvE content unscathed.
Her main AoE ability is her passive, she will counter every few attacks for some good damage.
Every player has that team they use when tackling a new (mine is Tamarinne, Landy, Tenebria & Ran) piece of content. This hero has enough AoE damage and debuffs to fit right into your most reliable squad.
SSB dishes out tons of debuffs, making her an ideal candidate for frustrating PvP defense teams.
3. Belian
Attribute: Light
Class: Knight
Recommended Set: Counter/Immunity
Recommended Artifact: Elbris Ritual Sword
How to get: 5* Moonlight Summon
Skills
| Light of Destruction | Shackles of Suppression (Passive) | Apocalypse |
| Burn Effect: Increases effect chance of activating Incursion to 100%. Attacks all enemies with a ray, with a 50% chance to dispel one buff. When used on the caster’s turn, has a 35% chance to activate Incursion as an extra attack. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s max Health. Incursion: Attacks all enemies, decreasing Speed and Hit Chance for 1 turn. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s max Health. | Decreases the amount of Souls gained by the enemy by 100%. At the start of the turn, has a 70% chance to grant a random buff to the caster for 1 turn. (Increase Effectiveness, Increase Critical Hit Chance, Continuous Healing) | Attacks all enemies with the power of duties, decreasing Combat Readiness by a random amount between 20% and 40% and provokes for 1 turn. Increases Defense of the caster for 2 turns. Damage dealt increases proportional to the caster’s max Health. |
All of Belian’s abilities are AoE based and while she does require a lot of defensive stats to work, the sheer amount of attacks she produces will add up to a lot of DPS.
The Elbris Ritual Sword grants a 20% chance to counter-attack whenever an ally is attacked. Her skill 1 is an AoE buff dispel that deals moderate damage, it’s pretty insane how good she is!
2. Straze
Attribute: Dark
Class: Warrior
Recommended Set: Speed/Immunity
Recommended Artifact: Draco Plate
How to get: 5* Moonlight Summon
Skills
| Powerful Strike | Destructive Gaze | Star Extinction |
| Swings a sword to attack the enemy and increases Combat Readiness of the caster by 20%. | Burn Effect: Skill cooldown is decreased by 2 turns. Attacks all enemies with a wave of force and dispels two buffs. Ignores Effect Resistance of any targets with Attack lower than the caster’s Attack. When there are three or fewer enemies, damage dealt increases with fewer enemies. | Attacks all enemies with a sword. Penetrates Defense of the target with the highest max Health by 30%. When the caster’s Attack is greater than the penetration target’s Attack, penetration rate increases proportional to the difference, up to a maximum of 100%. Grants invincibility to the caster for 1 turn. |
Straze is renowned for his severe attacks, dominating all aspects of both PvP and PvE.
Many AoE DPS heroes will happily cleave through targets with low defenses, but they really struggle to deal meaningful damage to tank heroes.
Straze offers something completely different, penetrating defense of the enemy target who has the highest health, by up to 100%. It’s not uncommon to see decently built Strazes one-shot tank heroes, even those who have 20k+ HP.
That ability is best for PvP, although it is still nice to have against PvE bosses.
The Draco Plate artifact will increase critical hit damage by up to 30%. With some good items, you can easily achieve 3k attack, 300% crit damage and still have enough speed to attack before your opponents!
1. Arbiter Vildred
Attribute: Dark
Class: Thief
Recommended Set: Crit Chance/Crit Damage
Recommended Artifact: Alexa’s Basket
How to get: 5* Moonlight Summon
Skills
| Sweep | Dark Contract (Passive) | Dark Blade |
| Rapidly attacks two enemies with a Swordstorm, decreasing their Combat Readiness by 10%. | After receiving lethal damage, caster regenerates to 70% Health, 100% Combat Readiness, full Focus, and reset cooldown for Dark Blade. | Burn Effect: Increases damage dealt. Attacks all enemies, decreasing Hit Chance for 2 turns. When Focus is full, consumes it all, increasing damage dealt. When the enemy is defeated with this skill, cooldown does not occur. |
Also known as “Arby”, this Dark Thief hero is by far the best AoE DPS hero in Epic Seven.
High base stats weigh heavily in the favor of speed and offensive power, so he works great with a full crit build.
Alexa’s Basket is the artifact most thought to be toxic for the game, as it’s an absolute coin flip.
It has a 40% chance to grant a big attack buff at the start of the turn.
In PvP, such a buff is almost always enough to destroy the enemy team in one attack.
Since Arby’s resurrect counts as an extra turn, he can revive with the big attack buff, only to unleash a devastating barrage of damage on any surviving enemies.
There’s a reason why you see him so consistently in all content, despite all the others heroes who have been released in the past few years!
Arbiter Vildred continues to top lists, with him ranking high in the following lists:
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