Since I can't kill the fodder mobs with it anymore, I've switched my right mouse click to the 2H speed buff. Do any of the mage/ranger AoE skills kill the swarmers for a fighter build with low Int?

On my fighter, I generally use Gaseous Blast either in lieu of cleave or in addition to cleave.

Yeah, Gasious blast + Shadow lightning for those annoying range guys. Cleave is pointless at the moment.
-B-

In my right mouse button I have butcher, its my main attack. I use gasesous blast, cleave and retribution as my 1,2,3 with stomp on 4 and ring of fire as 5. (Yeah, I know its a mana drain, but I had the extra moolah and its fun to use. )

I've been doing gaseous blast + cleave, and it's not bad at dropping fodder.

I've been trying acidic blast. Not useful vs fodder really but it does help take down bosses in HDoL. Are y'all saying that gaseous blast kills the fodder in one shot?

some yes...depending on your lvl, the mobs lvl, rank of gaseios blast and how much int you have....but in general things like the spiders and the small goblin things (can't remember what they are called) will die before the gaseous blast effect is up.

Cleave's ok.

I've started to put a few points into INT so I can drop gaseous blast & ring of fire.

After doing so, I've also noticed that Cleave's usage if you up the ranks a bit and use a high damage weapon. It's better than a normal strike against fodder if you have the mana anyways.

I'm still trying to get them to change it to lower atk rating but increase in damage....

/agree, a high dmg range weapon makes cleave useful. 1% mana steel is enough to keep it powered up.

I agree - <3 Cleave with a big slow grandma speed weapon. Drops the swarmers in droves, and great for jousting those annoying ranged mobs - run back a bit to get them all grouped up and run into the pack - WHOOSH! Dead monsters >:D

With around 4-9% mana steal, a good cleave can almost refill my mana bar, allowing me to;
-recast Monster Snack
-spam a high cost spell (shadow lightning)

So yes, love cleave. My WOW warrior had a similar revelation in terms of using big 2h weapons, so it seems natural to do so here.

While cleave was great in normal dungeons, now that I'm basically only running HDOL I used it mainly to refill mana - the mob regen tends to erase whatever aoe I dont follow up with single target damage.

eww WoW, anyway Yeah I use cleave by itself with a high damage 2 hander. Another way to get rid of fodder is to have on Retribution.

Retribution can be good, but the problem is that fodder usually do not do enough damage to reflect back and kill them. Personally I like retribution against hereos and bosses where there is a more noticable damage.