This build is prepared for the upcoming Cosmic versions of the equipped artifacts. While you wait for these you can use either their normal version or the cosmic versions of the alternative artifacts listed in the Artifacts session of the guide.

Forum Link: https://forums.marvelheroes.com/discussion/309825/post-update-area-damage-build-for-cosmic-content

[EDIT: 02/27/2017]: After Cosmic Artifacts and animations updates this guide needed a few tweaks and comments.
Cosmic Artifacts brings a lot of resource management to Focused Beam builds, but not that much to Area builds, as our BiS artifacts don't have Cosmic versions yet. Animations update, on the other hand, has made our rotation way smoother than before, but also giving us too much "spender time", which is bad with our current Explosive Blast's weak spender.
Some tweaks were made to accommodate for these changes.

Right now I don't think the talent trees and powers are already perfectly tuned and Focused Beam builds are not performing at their best, so I've tried a 'not-that-traditional' approach to start a decent Cosmic Patrol / Cosmic Danger Room build.

The basic build presented will be Explosive Blast centered, with an alternative Shotgun/RQP approach right below.

Talent Trees

•  X-Man Standing By - Right
  Free damage layer, even with low proc. Other two aren't that useful for us.
  
  
• Optic Power - Right
  We're not using Focused Beam here and we don't have strong burst powers nor spirit problems to put some use to Maximum Optics buff. You can use Maximum Optics if you're going for Beam Refraction (Shotgun + RQP).
  
  
• Cutting Beam - Right
  If you are using Explosive Blast as your spender, you should stick to Cutting Beam for the DoT. If you want to dump it for Shotgun Beam, get Beam Refraction for the recharge and RQP auto-crit.
  
  
• Hyper Optics - Left
  Awesome skill, even better as it's our only channeling power besides the sig. Energetic Leadership is also great, but I just can't abandon Hyper Optic Beam anymore.
  
  
• All-New Strike Team Emma - Right
  Emma for the double proc. Sadly she's at a 12 sec cooldown, but if you focus on using her you can still get some nice uptime on artifacts (90~95%).
  
  

Shotgun Beam/Ruby Quartz Prism Alternatives

• Maximum Optics>Optic Power - Middle
  We are dumping Optic Devastation for Ruby Quartz Prism here, so Optic Power becomes useless and this talent can get us some burst on Shotgunx2/RQP/Shotgunx2 burst.
  
  
• Beam Refraction>Cutting Beam - Middle
  You can use Maximum Optics if you're going for Beam Refraction (Shotgun + RQP).

Powers

• Explosive Blast
  Your main spender. You shouldn't be using it that much because of your CD powers. It deals low area damage (increased by a lot of items on this build) and spread a DoT from Cutting Beam.
  
  
• Combat Roll
  Your average dodging/repositioning skill.
  
  
• Visor Off
  Your sig. Use it when on a safe spot as we are not getting the damage immunity talent. You can also pop a medkit for the shield before using it if you feel you're going to be nuked during it. Sling ring give us 2/3 of immunity when we use it.
  
  
• Optic Devastation 
  As your main spender (Explosive Blast) is not that great at damage dealing, you can safely charge it when your other powers are on CD, or use it uncharged if you need to move (the damage is already higher than when not talented).
  
  
• Master Tactician 
  As our layer choices are pretty bad, this is currently one of the best layers we have. Use it just before your cooldown powers' rotation. Also gives you some added survivability with the -35% weaken effect.
  
  
• Strike Team - Emma 
  Most important power here. Procs both physical and mental damage getting you access to some great boosts with artifacts/runeword/etc. Don't start channeling something if she's about to get off CD in the middle of the channeling, wait for her.
  
  
• Strike Team - Beast 
  Beast adds another layer of DoT, some damage (15 auto-brut hits) and tanking utility. It doesn't get boosted by power duration like Magik, but has better damage. If you want you can sacrifice a little bit of damage from Beast and Iceman proc for the added survivability of Magik (shield and tanking).
  
  
• Hyper Optic Beam 
  Nice damage, affected by power duration, increases damage with attack speed, and looks super cool!
  
  

Shotgun Beam/Ruby Quartz Prism Alternatives

• Shotgun Beam > Explosive Blast
  
  
• Ruby Quartz Prism > Optic Devastation

Infinity

• Mind- Intelligence with spare points on spirit. No spirit issues on this build.
• Power- Potency (sig dmg). You can use Indomitable if you need TTL.
• Reality- Running Tilt the Odds, but not sure yet if it's better than Magic Bullets.
• Soul- Strike True > Strike Through
• Space - Red Shift. Microwarps is great for TTL with a Cosmic defense affix artifact and defense uru.
• Time- Temporal Loophole > Haste
  
  

Uniques

1. Slot 1 - Fragment of Twilight - Still the best choice, damage and survivability. His visors didn't get that much love, anyway.
   
   
2. Slot 2 - Clan Rebellion Bodysuit  - +11 to archetype stats is pretty nice. Some people use Doomsday Chair or Nate Grey's. I find Nate Grey's lack of health unbearable but losing 320 points of damage (at least) and some survivability for the Power Duration on the Chair is a valid point.
   
   
3. Slot 3 - Blue Team Utility Belt  or Coat of the Skull - The belt is a more balanced slot 3. Strike Team Buffs stack, so you can get almost 2k CDR with just Emma and Beast. Coat of the Skull gives you a more offensive alternative, trading 2k health and defensive procs for Power Duration and a little bit of damage, and Crit Rate for 1.5x Brut Rating, and Crit Damage to Brut Damage at 1:1 ratio. Only really better if you are going for the Power Duration cap.
   
   
4. Slot 4 - Skrull Military Uniform  - Brutal strike chance (we need it), BDR, power duration (nice) and a proc with damage and Int. Use his own boots if you dont have it.
   
   
5. Slot 5 - Essence of Jinn  - +9 energy proc, nice stats overall (ranged and area!), large base damage boost and some power duration. Helm of Doom is also a great choice if you can't get your hands on a Jinn.
   
   
   

Artifacts

Here we suffer from the lack of Cosmic Artifacts from vendors so far, as 3 of our best choices are on this group:

• ARMOR Grenade  - Completely BiS on this build. 800 crit, 1000 brut and 1000 damage. Strong as Limbo for this build, should be dumped if you move to Focused Beam, though.
  
  
• Cyclops Was Right T-Shirt  - +6 archetype stats (960 dmg), 600 area damage, 200 boss damage and spirit regen. Awesome artifact.
  
  
• Doop Ectoplasm - A total of 1600 damage (on bosses) and some added dodge. Also a perfect fit if you remember to cast Emma on every CD (our added Power Duration makes it more forgiving).
  
  

The Cosmic Artifacts choices we have are:

• The Broken Crown  - +4 archetype stats, half the CHR and BSR from HoD, 500 damage and a useful proc. Great artifact for all Int users.
  
  
• Hand of Doom  - +4 archetype stats, CHR and BSR. If you don't have Skrull Uniform I recommend using this to get your BDR to a more decent level. With Skrull Uniform it is still a safe bet and can be useful even for Punchclops builds.
  
  
• Skrull Focusing Crystal  - +5 energy, damage, crit and spirit regen. Safe bet. Also very useful for Focused Beam builds.
  
  
• Crossbones - Cosmic or Int/Energy. Always a great all around offensive item. Easier to roll as Cosmic.
  
  
• Sinister Diamond - +4 archetype stats, CDR, BDR, a little bit of defense and +1 to non-archetype stats. Decent artifact with decent uptime.
  
  

     Other Options - Mental Focus Headband (cosmic), Hypno-ray (cosmic), GoK(cosmic), ILAS (cosmic)

     Poor man's Cykes - EoI, Black Tom's(cosmic?), Pyro's(cosmic?)

 

Medallion

     Doctor Doom Medallion 

Swapped for this one after animations patch because we were spending a lot of time using our weak spender, with the added power duration our Hyper Optics Beam can last longer and reduce our spender usage.

     Infernal War Skrull Medallion 

Still a great medallion, but outshined by Doom's Power Duration right now. Could get better if they added Summon tag to our Strike Team powers.

Alternativa Power Duration Medallions: War Skrull (20%) and Skrull X-Men (10%). Placeholders only, as their other stats are not worth it.

 

 

Insignia

Quake would be great for this build, but not that useful if you want to swap to Focused Beam.
Falcon, Taskmaster, O'Grady, Weapon X, Cyclops, Iceman, Havok are all great all around insignias for you. I'm alternating between boss damage Cyclops and crit rating Taskmaster , myself.

Look for CDR and some other good stats: CHR, area dmg (same problem as quake), ranged damage, damage vs boss, etc.

 

Relics

Atlantis (BiS).

Xandar or Attilan if you're not wasting your Atlantis on him.

 

Ring

Sling Ring ranged is BiS, Xavier's Ring (energy/physical) right below, with lower stats budget but a nice BSR addition.

 

Catalyst

3 Int or Energy (Int is better for the added crit damage)
25% health / 100 spirit
Health on hit

Cosmic: 50% damage shield
Mutation: 1000 health/s for 10 sec when your health drops below 40%

 

Uru

The Power Doop. No doubts here.

 

Legendary

Golden Bow of Apollo  gives us the best TTK. CCR  comes close with some added survivability, but if I were in need of legendary survivability I would go for Norn Stones (never Perseus, it's overkill for a ranged toon's survivability). The Power Cosmic  is the go to iLVL70 legendary.

 

Pet

Unique: +3 Int (BiS) or Energy.
Cosmic: Ranged Damage and Critical Damage on Crit. Ranged/Deflect on energy power is also decent.
Epic: 10% Brutal damage. 3% Ranged if you can't get it.
Rare: +50 spirit
Uncommon: +8% Health or +5% Defense multiplier (with cosmic defense affix).

 

Synergies

Base: Squirrel Girl, Cable, Gambit, Human Torch, Iron Man, Star Lord, Ultron, Beast, Wolverine, Squirrel Girl 
+
Magneto > Cap Marvel > Winter Soldier > Jean > Vision > Thor > Cykes (exp) 

 

Power Rotation/Priorities

Open with  for vulnerability,   for mental/physical procs,  for energy procs + DoT,  for DoT with everything proc'ed and channel . After channeling use  ; fully charged if you can, instacast if you need to move.  Use your sig next  and get back to your rotation with   and  followed by another channel .

Keep   ,    and    always on cooldown, remember to recast    for the DoT (and vuln) and try to get the most of your  channels; they are your main dps source.  is cast on cooldown unless you notice you can hold it back a few seconds for a stronger damage window.  and  are our fillers for the downtime of , depending on your power duration. If you keep your rotation,  will probably end up fitting in just before every  .