Kinetic Blast in PoE is honestly one of the most satisfying skill gems to use. It’s great for raw damage and also insane for clearing packs of mobs. Basically, you fire an orb that explodes on impact, and then it sends out a bunch of secondary explosions that hit everything nearby — perfect for wiping out clusters of enemies.
If you want to get the most out of it, you need to understand the mechanics. The primary explosion has a radius of around 1.4 meters, and the secondary explosions reach about 2 meters. Leveling up the gem itself is the simplest way to make your blasts bigger. Each gem level increases the radius a bit, so maxing it out — whether through character levels, Raise Item Level caches, or vendor recipes — will give you a noticeable boost to your AoE.
Beyond gem leveling, passive skills are a significant factor in radius enhancement. The PoE passive skill tree contains multiple nodes that increase the area of effect (AoE) for spell and attack skills. Since Kinetic Blast functions as both a projectile attack and a spell (it combines elements of both), investing in AoE nodes designed for spells can greatly increase your explosion radius. Key notable passives to target include “Blast Radius,” “Spell AoE,” and generic AoE increases found in the Witch and Shadow areas of the tree. These nodes provide percentage increases to the radius, which stack multiplicatively with the gem’s base radius to significantly broaden the blast coverage.
Support gems are another pivotal element in increasing the effective range of Kinetic Blast. While Multiple Projectiles support gems such as “Lesser Multiple Projectiles” and “Multiple Projectiles” do not directly increase the explosion radius, they send additional projectiles out, indirectly improving your crowd control by covering a larger area with more explosions. For direct radius improvements, the “Spell Echo” support gem helps by making your skill repeat explosions faster, effectively increasing damage incidence over the area. The “Increased Area of Effect” support gem is essential—it directly boosts the explosion radius by a percentage, which stacks with gear and passive tree AoE bonuses, substantially expanding the zone of damage.
Gear selection is critical for maximizing the Kinetic Blast radius. Items with modifiers that increase AoE are the top priority. These include wands, gloves, helmets, and shields that can roll increased AoE or spell AoE on their affixes. Unique items such as “The Interrogation” staff or rare wands with “Increased Area of Effect” and “Spell Damage” synergize perfectly with Kinetic Blast by amplifying both radius and damage. Additionally, jewels socketed within the passive tree can have AoE modifiers that apply globally, further boosting your blast radius. Always aim to equip the highest quality versions of these items, as higher item levels unlock better possible affixes.
If you’re looking to beef up your Kinetic Blast radius, don’t sleep on the gem quality itself. Every 1% quality bumps your radius by 0.5%, so a 20% quality gem basically gives you a 10% radius boost on top of everything else. The best part? It’s super easy to get — either through vendor recipes or just buying from other players, so it’s a reliable QoL upgrade.
Another trick is skill-specific cluster jewels. Slot these into your passive tree, and they can give extra AoE or blast radius specifically for Kinetic Blast or projectile skills. With the right setup, you can scale way beyond the usual passive nodes, making your explosions feel huge.
All in all, boosting your Kinetic Blast radius in PoE is about stacking a few different things — gem quality, cluster jewels, and your usual AoE passives. Nail all of that, and your build can clear packs insanely fast and handle even the toughest content like a boss.
