PoE players usually look at a range of different statistics in every league to help generate a snapshot of the metagame of the league. These stats help us make future development decisions. Today MmoGah (a professional PoE Trade site) will share these stats with Path of Exile fans. These stats are interesting, and now we're looking at the most-used skills in Bestiary.
First up, this is a list of every skill gem, in the order of most to least used, across all of Bestiary, regardless of level. This does not include skills that are tied to a specific item -- only skill gems.
Leap Slam
Herald of Ash
Molten Strike
Flame Dash
Shield Charge
Ancestral Protector
Hatred
Blood Rage
Whirling Blades
Summon Ice Golem
Raise Zombie
Burning Arrow
Herald of Ice
Fireball
Summon Stone Golem
Double Strike
Viper Strike
Heavy Strike
Ancestral Warchief
Blink Arrow
Spectral Throw
Summon Lightning Golem
Blade Vortex
Orb of Storms
Frost Blades
Spoiler
Looking strictly at this list, it seems clear that fire is a popular damage type to build around. It's also clear that, at least while levelling, the ability to traverse small gaps via Flame Dash and Leap Slam is highly valued.
The most popular Vaal skills are both auras, with the great majority of Vaal skills being hardly used. Many of these skills have received nerfs since their release (four years ago!), while very few have received buffs. This is something we're keenly aware of and hope to have more news about in the coming weeks.
Since this list includes characters of all levels, it is polluted to some degree by mules and other low-level characters that for whatever reason don't necessarily provide an accurate snapshot of the meta. For that, let's look at the top 10 skills from each version of Bestiary for characters of level 70 and greater.
Whether you're playing Solo Self-Found or not, the utility skill choices are of extremely similar popularity, with the actual determining factor being whether you're playing Hardcore or not. On Standard versions of Bestiary, Leap Slam is the movement skill of choice, closely followed by Shield Charge. Hardcore players, however, put a lot of value on the survivability that a shield can provide, and may be playing builds that don't allow for Leap Slam, pushing Shield Charge to the top.
Seeing the same names cropping up over and over again in these lists is not a major cause for concern as, with the exception of Righteous Fire in 10th place on the HC Bestiary list, every skill fills a utility or non-build-specific role.
The most interesting takeaways to be had from this list is the difference that being able to trade may make to your golem choice. Standard Bestiary players tend to run Ice Golem, indicating a preference for attacking or crit builds, while the SSF Bestiary players opted for Stone Golem, a build-agnostic defensive choice. The prominence of Ancestral Warchief and Blood Rage across all versions of Bestiary reinforces that we're in the midst of a primarily attack-based meta.
Let's see how these lists change when you look at characters above level 90:
Once players are deep into the endgame, it's interesting to see that Shield Charge becomes more popular.
Vaal Haste, the 44th most popular skill across all characters regardless of level, makes it to #7 among high-level Standard Bestiary characters. Interestingly, it replaces Herald of Ash, which no longer appears on any of the lists at this high level.
Portal makes an appearance in both versions of Standard Bestiary, topping out at #4 on the trading league. It doesn't appear at all on any Hardcore lists, since a portal does you no good if you're dead there.
We'll be talking more in the future about which skills are undergoing reworks. In the meantime, we hope you found this as enlightening as we did.
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