[madpickle]

Herald of Xotli
A Comprehensive Guide
by madpickle of Arcanum Vox on Wildsoul

Revision:
1.00 -- May 22nd, 2008 -- Uploaded the guide and adjusted the descriptions based on feedback. See Section VII.
1.20 -- May 23rd, 2008 -- Expanded the descriptions of some abilities; added an general Introduction to the guide; created a new section entitled "Introduction to PvP" (Section VI); added skill points guide.
1.30 -- May 25th, 2008 -- Added Fire Lance combo and feat description.
1.40 -- May 28th, 2008 -- Bumped Hell Strikes to grade A, with a caveat; clarified a few descriptions here and there; updated the skill roster to reflect the status quo.
Index
I. Introduction
II. What is a Herald of Xotli?
III. Investing your skill points.
IV. Spell and Combo descriptions
V. Feat descriptions and starter tips
VI. How to DPS effectively
VII. Introduction to PvP
VIII. Errata
IX. Conclusion

I. Introduction
Originally, I was going to make a post about the skills available to the Herald of Xotli as the tooltips were vague or incomprehensible. I realized, however, that nobody had taken the time to properly explain what the Herald of Xotli was about; why would someone roll a HoX? If they did, what would be the best feat points to invest in? What should you be on the lookout for? All these questions were unanswered or not done so with sufficient clarity. This guide is my attempt at making a unified resource for new(er) players looking for advice on playing the Herald of Xotli.

There are many threads out there devoted to feat building, but no thread dedicated to the feats themselves! There are no threads explaining the skills and how to use them -- nor how you exploit each combo to its fullest potential.

I hope this guide will help rectify that; with any luck, it will answer unanswered questions, and perhaps raise new ones: are we really taking full advantage of our class? Are we properly balanced? Are all of our feats useful or semi-useful?

In my research I have had to make certain guesses and a few liberties, to boot. I've ranked each combo, feat and spell according to how useful it is to me, and how useful it might be to you. However, I am not perfect - and the game certainly isn't - so I have probably missed something, and this is where you come in. If you have tips, suggestions or corrections then please come forward. All I ask is you do it in a civil tone. I'd love to be proven wrong, and I hope you will

II. What is a Herald of Xotli?
The Herald of Xotli is a departure from the traditional D&D-based caster: unlike most mage archetypes, we fight mainly with melee combos (like the warriors) but we do this wearing cloth. So in effect, we're Assassins with a caster background. The difference between our class and the other caster classes runs deeper than that: we can turn into a god damn Demon! That's right, a demon. It's actually pretty good, too. You will find that this ability will save your hide on more than one occasion.

Nevertheless, the Herald of Xotli (or HoX) is not a tank. In fact, it is the antithesis to tanking: wearing cloth (silk later on) leaves us with little armor, and few hit points. Still, not all hope is lost; what we lack in tankability, we make up for with DPS. I cannot recount the number of times I've found myself one- or two-shotting a necromancer. Fun times!

If you like the idea of breaking the mold (and someone else's bones!) then the HoX might be for you. It is a class that relies on a good melee weapon, so keep that in mind. I tend to cruise with a big, edged two-hander, but that could change as I level and new abilities are unlocked. However, I must re-emphasize: it is a glass cannon, and that will get you killed.

Only Stygians can play the Herald of Xotli, and we are deeply reliant on our ability to kill others first, before they kill us. Knockbacks, stuns, roots and other incapacitating effects are very deadly to us. We have a few counters to them, but otherwise we have to rely on our Demon form to soak up the damage we take while we're stunned, knocked down, or rooted.

Our class has melee combos like any other melee class, which means that we do not get spell weaving at all! A shame, I know, but that's the way it is. I will go out on a limb and claim that, excepting the Assassin, we're the highest damage-dealing class in the game. Few others can put out the sheer amount of burst dps that we are capable of. In your travels you will undoubtedly find yourself killing another player so fast he barely has time to react.

III. Investing your Skill Points
Hidden away in the right-hand side of your Character pane are your skill points. They govern miscellaneous skills that aren't tied to one character class, but rather the parent class. This section will take a close look at some of the ones that might be of interest to a HoX.

Keep in mind that as you level, the invested value in each skill diminishes. What this means is that 20 points in climbing at level 5 is not the same as 20 points in climbing at level 80. The game assumes that you will continually invest points in a skill to maintain the status quo.

Bandaging
Grade: A
Bandaging governs you hit point regeneration. I advocate putting points in it, but only as many as you are comfortable or until you find that our HP increases at a steady enough rate. It really all depends on how fast you want your HP to regen when you rest and are out of combat.

Regeneration
Grade: C

Governs you Stamina regeneration when you rest. You should put some points in it, but only a handful. You really shouldn't keep it maxed, as it ONLY works when you rest. Put enough in it (I have ~60 at level 30) so that when you rest after dying it keeps up with your other stats.

Renew Mana
Grade: D to B, depending on your play style.

Renew mana is a strange skill. On one hand, having lots of mana is nice - on the other hand, having full mana all the time diminishes its use greatly. Ideally, you should reach a sort-of equilibrium so that you never run out of mana, and you don't find that regen ticks are wasted because you put too many points in the skill.
Keep enough points in it so that you don't run out of mana, and then leave it at that.

Mana Attractor
Grade: ??

I haven't actually points in it, because I don't have a problem with mana. What's more, I never look at my mana bar in the first place, so I wouldn't ever notice any sudden bursts from this skill proccing. I'm sure it's very valuable if you're a heavy mana user, but we are not.

Casting Concentration
Grade: D

Casting Concentration prevents attacks from interrupting your casting. Unfortunately, measuring its usefulness is difficult. I have mine at ~30 and I rarely notice a problem, but then again: most of our abilities aren't "cast" as much as they are invoked using a combo. Put some points in it, but don't ever max it.

Endurance
Grade: A

A critical part of any PvP setup. This skill lowers the cost of sprinting making it very useful for getting around without running out of stamina nearly as fast. I keep mine maxed, and I suggest you do too. (Note: it appears to be broken. I still max it though!)

Run Speed
Grade: A+

Increases your movement when you're not in combat. Given the wording I am inclined to think it only counts for normal jogging and not when you're sprinting. Regardless, it is a critical component in PvP and PvE. The faster you move, the faster you level. It's really that simple. Keep it maxed. (Note: it appears to be broken. I still max it though!)

Climbing
Grade: C-

Climbing determines your ability to climb ladders and other objects. Apparently bi-pedal humans in Hyboria are incapable of climbing a simple ladder without at least 30 or 50 points in it. It's one of those skills that leaves you wondering how useful it's going to be later on in the game. Whether you put points in it or not is optional. There are doubtlessly quests that depend on it (like one in White Sands) and I'm sure having a decent skill pays off. You can always just shuffle points around when you need the skill.

Hiding
Grade: A+ in PvP, D in PvE

Hide is a very interesting ability. Unlike World of Warcraft, Hide in AoC behaves more like Hide in Shadows from D&D: you constantly do 'checks' against monsters and your environment, and you are likely to get caught with your pants down if you plan on sneaking past monsters with a low skill. For PvP, however, it is invaluable; the ability to vanish into thin air and lay in ambush (or simply hide from your foe) makes it priceless on a PvP server. Put as many points as you like into it. But 80-100 should suffice for the low/mid-range.

Perception
Grade: F

The number of people stealthed is relatively minor, even in PvP -- and it is practically useless in PvE. I have no points in it and I don't plan on putting any in it until I see a very good reason to. Avoid it.
Acidbaron, however, argues that there are times when it is useful; he advocates putting quite a few points into it, a point I don't entirely agree with. However, if you find yourself with points to spare, why not?
Subtlety
Grade: F in PvP, A+ in PvE

This is a typical PvE ability. The lower your threat, the more DPS you can pump out without pulling aggro. It will be critical in PvE, and completely useless in PvP!

[madpickle]

IV. Combos and Spells
We have a huge variety of combos and spells at our disposal. Not all of them, however, are equally useful. Separating the wheat from the chaff would be a trivial exercise were it not for the abysmal spell descriptions. We are literally clueless as to how some spells and combos work.

Molten Steel Slash I/II
Grade: A
My number one DPS skill. It is the go-to skill and a staple in my arsenal; the damage is superb, the combo is relatively easy, and the cast time isn't too bad. The only downside is the cooldown.

Contract of Protection (the damage-absorbing shield)
Grade: A++
Of the three buff spells I have, this is the most important one - and also the one with the shortest duration: five minutes. Nevertheless, this spell is the difference between life and death. If you don't have it on, you could easily find yourself dying to 2 equal-levelled melee mobs if you're not careful.

Later on you will find that low-damage classes like some of the tanks cannot touch you, as your shield absorbs 90%+ of their swing damage!

Starting at Rank 3 your spell will now grant you a 20% bonus to damage and healing. Wow!
Very very critical to the success of a budding HoX.

Burn to Death I/II
Grade: B

A very useful combo that grants a fire DoT that has a chance to spread to other targets with the "Spreading Flames" talent.

Arcane Abatement and Demonic Emblem
Grades: D and C, respectively.
Arcane Abatement is a puzzling spell; undoubtedly the elemental counterpart to other casters' frost-based attacks, but it seems fairly useless. 1% cold resistance? At least it has a long duration.

Demonic Emblem might be a bit better -- if I knew how Defense rating and all that hoohah works; nevertheless, some defense is better than no defense, so there is no excuse not to leave it on.

Desecrating Essence
Grade: A-
Our uber demon form-- a lot can be said about it, but I find that I don't use it often enough. It's great if you pull 3 mobs by mistake, or 2 mobs and a boss; but really, it's usually saved for PvP encounters (for me) and that inevitable, nebulous, period some time in the future where I might need it. Still, though, the stage is yours, young HoX -- every two minutes.

Word of Command
Grade: B-
Our only snare and a fairly decent one at that. When it's not resisted or your opponent isn't out of range, of course.

It serves its purpose, though. If you get it off, you have a guaranteed combo if you're quick on the trigger.

Hellstep
Grade: B
Have you ever wanted to reach out and touch someone? Well, Hellstep lets you do that! When you execute this instant cast ability you immediately charge an opponent, dealing moderate damage and light AoE damage, and can begin your melee attacks. However, there is a slight problem though:

You don't actually snare, root or disable the chargee; they are free to keep running right after. Still though - it might work against some opponents, and if you pair it with Word of Command, you have a shot at getting off a combo.

Hellfire Breath
Grade: A
Ahh, another bread-and-butter spell -- well, that is, if you got the 5 talent points that makes it damn-near instantaneous. This spell should be used whenever it is up: it has good damage, a low cooldown and it is practically instant cast.

Hell Strikes
Grade: A

Hell Strikes starts its life as a "meh" combo -- its damage isn't anything to write home about. However, once you reach the level of 40 and get Rank 3 it really starts to shine. It will add another attack (bringing the total up to three) and the damage has been boosted. My level 40 hox did about 3-400 a hit making it a very viable attack. Combine it with the talent to lower cast time and you're in business!

Pillar of Infernal Flame
Grade: B+
Very interesting spell. My first "true" AoE spell, so to speak. It does -- at least, it seems to -- do great damage and its true potential lies in the fast combo and really fast cast time. The downside is the long-ish cooldown.
This ability works well in conjunction with the Molten Steel Slash debuff.

Cleave and Slam
Grade: F
Pretty useless past level 5 or so.

Mind, body and Spirit Wrack
Grade: C+

Mind, body and Spirit wrack is a special combo. According to NN666 it will mana burn targets and, with talents, mana leech the mana. This certainly raises the value of the ability, but that still doesn't make up for the long cast time. Some people seem to swear by it, and against a mana target it is good. The problem is getting it off though.

Spreading Flames
Grade: B-

Spreading Flames is a unique spell. Unlike most of the HoX spells, Spreading Flames consumes the "Burn to Death" DoT and turns it into an Area of Effect DoT. Its use still requires that you have the burn to death dot active, but if you're AoE'ing it could be very useful.

I Eat Your Heart
Grade: B

I Eat Your Heart is a very unique spell. When executed on a Minion it will immediately slay the Minion and you will then eat its heart, healing you for a considerable amount of hit points that scales with your level (around 500 at level 40).

Good, but very situational. Could be a life saver though.

Fire Lance (Avatar feat ability)
Grade: A+

Of all the combos the HoX can get, this is by far one of the most powerful, and most expensive (in terms of stamina), combos we can get. Dishing out between 2-5,000 damage total spread out over 4 swings makes this ability the best way to take down heavily armored foes, or healers with knockbacks, like the Priest of Mitra.

For all of its amazing damage potential, it does have two serious drawbacks: It costs 500 stamina, and it has a 3 minute cooldown -- despite these shortcomings, it is an incredibly potent spell combo in PvE and PvP.

Tip: If you're trying to gank somebody, I recommend you initiate the combo while you're moving towards your target, and only execute the last leg when you're in melee range. That way you reduce the chance of knockbacks, and your enemy might not suspect that you are attacking him. You can also combine it with Hell Step.

[madpickle]

V. Feat descriptions

Picking the right feat in this game is difficult; in fact, I don't know a whole lot more than what the average player knows. The tooltips are vague, and some abilities purpotedly don't work right either. It makes for an exciting time to be a HoX!

The main issue is always picking the lesser of two evils. You only have so many points at your disposal, so putting them to good use is critical. As always, it's early in the game and we don't know a heckuvalot about many of these abilities.

Remember: You can always reset your abilities by talking to a Trainer. I am told that the "Feat Fixer" on the docks of Tortage has been removed.

I would like to stress that these are all my opinions! If you disagree, then I would love to hear from you - but please do so politely!

Possession Tree

Hellfire
"Reduce the casting time of hellfire spell."
Grade: A+

Of all the places you can put your first points, this feat is the most important one. It makes your hellfire near-instant cast. I highly, highly recommend it!

Flame Tongue
"Adds a stacking melee fire buff when you use Hellfire Breath."
Grade: C

I've had points in this ability for a while, and I really don't know what to think of it. Does it scale with character level or hellfire breath rank? madpickle does not know. What I do know is that it gave me a paltry damage boost when I did put points in it. If you're serious about going into possession, it might be worth picking up. Otherwise, no way.

Xotli's Revenge
"Innate stacking melee proc to increase magic fire damage,which is removed when hellfire Breath is used."
Grade: C
The World of Warcraft player in me would love debuffs like that; it makes monsters take more damage from, presumably, all magic fire damage sources, with the slight disadvantage of Hellfire Breath resetting it.

However, this is not WoW, and you're probably solo'ing. In which case, one wonders what use it will do. Most of the mobs -- even the boss mobs -- rarely live long enough to take advantage of such a debuff for it to pay off.

Spitfire
"When you are fighting in melee with the desecrating Benediction buff,you have a chance of spitting fire on your melee target doing damage against them."
Grade: C+

This buff has a chance to grant an extremely high-damage blast against a mob. The downside is that the cooldown is 5 minutes making this a very situational spell. Even moreso when you consider that you aren't always in a position where you can rely on it.

Touch of Hell
"New Spell: Causes your attacks to curse the enemy,causing them to suffer increased damage from smashing and fire attacks"
Grade: C+

Another one of those lackadaisical spells -- a veritable problem in search of a solution. We don't really *need* more damage at this point, especially not abilities that rely on chance. Monsters die so fast from our existing combos that a curse that gives what is, in all honesty, a modest bonus is a complete waste of time and energy. What's more, it has a 45-second (or is it a minute?) cooldown.

It grants -1.0% Slashing- and Fire invulnerability for every point invested. Not too shabby, but its use in PvP might not be that good. I am sure it will be excellent for PvE though.

Improved Word of Command
"Increased the AoE size for World of Command."
Grade: B if you PvP, D if you don't.

If you had to pick a feat -- and you must, if you want to progress -- then this is as good as any. Obviously, for you PvE'ers out there, you might want to skip it. For the rest of us, it makes rooting people slightly easier. I think that says it all.

Demonic Link
"Increases the fire damage bonus bestowed by the Desecrating Essence spell."
Grade: C+

Grants you a bonus to the fire damage dealt by the Demon form AoE, the magic fire damage modifier and your melee fire damage. Decent ability, but limited to your demon form.

Fury of Xotli
"Innate melee proc for a chance for a mana-free Hellfire Breath."
Grade: C- if you run out of mana (how?) in fights; D- if you do not.

A chance to proc a free hellfire breath. At first the prospects sound intruiging, but then you realize that you can Rest outside of battle, or that your innate regenerative abilities will quickly outweigh the perceived value of this ability.

Roots of Hell
"Increases weight of the character when polymorphed,making them have the same weight as full plate at max rank."
Grade: C- if you don't PvP; A if you do.

I've been told that later on the knockback reductions conferred by this ability is critical to the success in PvP. That makes sense, but from the tooltip it could've been a hit or miss.

Avatar Tree

Fiery Weapons
"Gives all your attacks a chance to inflict fire damage."
Grade: B-

Well, it says all attacks. That probably means directional melee attacks you do; combo attacks; and maybe even the "flurries" of attacks you do with some skills like Hell Strikes. Nevertheless, if you want to advance in this tree, you must take it; and honestly, you could be a lot worse off than this ability.

Improved Fiery Weapons
"Increases the fire damage dealt by fiery weapons proc and adds Fiery Weapons to your entire team."
Grade: C

The gift that keeps on giving. I think. Some have reported that the ability does not function as it should, and that it A) does not grant the buff to party members or B) that it doesn't increase the damage. I cannot verify either of those statements, but needless to say it might be worth it if you play in a team of melee characters.

Spreading Flames
"Your damage over time fire combos have a chance of jumping to nearby targets every tick."
Grade: C?

I don't know what fire combos the tooltip is talking about. I'll assume it's Burn to Death, but I can't be too sure. The AoE component might be useful if you do AoE farming (is that possible) but I honestly don't know a whole lot about it. I have it, but as I rarely use Burn to Death, I don't get a chance to see it often.

Demonic Fortitude
"New Spell: This incantation allows the herald to convert mana into stamina draining their magical strength to improve melee cababilities."
Grade: F on its own; a "B" if you have PvE and have Ether Thirst and Demonic Leech.

When I read the tooltip I thought my prayers had been answered: a way to convert fairly bountiful mana into a commodity that is much rarer -- stamina. Imagine my disappointment when I learned that not only does it have a 1 second cast time (meaning you cannot cast it on-the-run), but also a 15 second cooldown. That'd be OK if you got a lot of stamina out of it. Nope! Not so. I got 20 stamina and never used it since. 20? I have ~480 at level 28!

However, combine it with Demonic Leech and Ether Thirst and this ability is really good, but still very much a PvE ability. (Thanks soulshox!)

That's about as far as I've made it in the Avatar Tree. Stay tuned for more info!

The follow feat descriptions are courtesy of NN666. Until I have a chance to try them out myself, I will leave the grading out of it.

Demonic Leech
"Upgrades your mana burn combos to award mana to the herald."
Grade: C
Augments the Mind, Body and Spirit Wrack combo by leeching some of the mana burned. Potentially the cornerstone of any Demonic Fortitude builds. However, some reservations are noted about it as it seems a bit weak at the moment.

Rage of Xotli
"The Herald increases demonic might of Hell Strikes Combo, inflicting extra damage."
Grade: B-

Greatly increases the damage of the Hell Strikes combo. This is a straight-up damage booster for the Hell Strikes ability. It is not to be underestimated.

Mindless Brute
"Reduces your magical damage, but increases your health."
Grade: A+

See, this is a PvP ability - this is what we need more of. In exchange for a reduction in magical damage, you greatly increase your hitpoints. What's not to love about that? Take it.

Flame of Xotli
"Increases the damage dealt by your damage over time combos."
Grade: B

Increases the damage of te "Burn to Death" combo - with some reservations about its usefulness. Apparently it isn't too spiffy and might be in need of a buff. (More feedback on this please!)

Malustar adds that he's not sure if it is working as intended, but if it does then 55% more lingering damage to the Burn To Death DoT potentially makes this a very good feat.


Reaching Flames
"Increases the area of affect of your Flamestrike combos."
Grade: F because it does not work as advertised - if it did, it'd be a C+

Greatly increases the AoE range of the Pillar of Infernal Flame combo. Very useful for AoE grinding as you might be able to deal damage to mobs that cannot hit you.

Demonic Supplication
"New Spell: Increases the duration of your next Desecrating Essence or Avatar of Xotli spell."
Grade: F as we don't really know how viable that is in the long term.

Grants you a spell that increases the length of your Demon forms. It adds a *very* long cooldown, in exchange for extending the duration of your demon forms to ~1 minute.

Fire Lance
Grade: A+

Amazing combo, amazing damage - horrible cooldown, and crazy stamina cost. The result, however, will guarantee a one-shot against players and most equal-levelled boss mobs!

Conclusion

Although very subjective, my views of our talents are that they, well, need a bit of work. The feats should tighten up our offenses in a more useful capacity, and downplay our weak spots; what we need are more defensive stuff that makes us more rugged and capable of withstanding damage. I feel that many of our talents are gimmicky and in serious need of revamp.

[madpickle]

VI. How to DPS effectively

Well, obviously it all depends on your level. But what I've found is that the following combination works really well once you get Molten Steel Slash:

Make sure your damage absorbtion shield, Contract of Protection, is up. This is critical to not dying.

Start out by drawing aggro from the mob(s).

If you have 2 on you round them up so they're side-by-side, meleeing you. This is important as your melee combos are all AoE (some more than others).
If you have 3, then do as above but you might want to consider cracking out the Demon Form if they hit hard.
If you have 4, then start counting your blessings - you probably won't make it out alive.

Immediately press Hellfire Breath and then queue up Molten Steel Slash if you have it, or your Hell Strikes/Burn to Death ability. You can queue up to 1 additional ability following a move. So if you click Left-side swing and then immediately press Right-side swing, your character will execute the left, and then the right. Learn to use this to your advantage.

Once you've used your Hell Strikes, Molten Steel Slash, or Burn to Death ability, follow it up with Hellfire Breath again. Depending on armor, luck, and gear they should be dead or near-dead. If they're near dead you can swing manually once or twice to kill them, or until Hellfire Breath comes back up. I usually find it a waste to use another combo unless the mob has a lot of health left; it's simply not worth it, as that might mean you have to wait before you can engage another mob.

So, to recap:

Hellfire -> Your best ability -> Hellfire

This is a solid combo. Hellfire has a low cooldown and almost no cast time (with talents) -- use it!

Always position yourself in such a way that you can swing at all the foes hitting *you* with your sword. It'll take a bit of practice, but you will get the hang of it soon. I find that disabling autofacing and autotargetting (in the Interface options) makes it a lot easier to "aoe grind" mobs as they don't interfere with your targetting and facing.

As always, be vigilant! It doesn't take a whole lot to die, and if you're about to kick it, pop demon form or cast word of command and get some distance.

Taking advantage of swing animations
Mummrakfan has an interesting observation regarding melee swings:

Since all chars are right handed. And that slashing is arc based. Let me put it this way. The mob got 2 shields in front and one on the left side. You can for example do a left slash then a right one. Same way for upward slashing and then right slashing. Because of the way the arc works. When you do a upward / frontal slash he will by the end of the slash arc position his/her sword on his/her right side, from there he will nearly instant take the right slash because it is in the same arc radius/swing. Try to do a upward - left and then and upward - right slash. You will see very obvious that the upward - left is actually slower than the upward - right. The beauty of motion capture animation instead of static animation

An interesting follow-up to that is if you're chasing a player and you swing at him, you seem to swing faster -- the question remains though: do you still swing with the same strength and vigor as you would if you stood still? We'll need to test this more also!

VII. Introduction to PvP
If you're like me, PvP is a critical part of why you play Age of Conan. If you don't give two lick about PvP, you can safely ignore this section. For the rest of us, though, read on...

Let's cover the most important parts of PvP'ing.

• Don't pick a fight bigger than you can handle. This should be fairly obvious, but it's a rule I often flaunt myself. It has gotten me killed quite a few times. Try to learn from my mistakes, eh?
• The Hide skill is critical to success in PvP. Don't forget to put points in it! I cover this bit in Section III on Skill Points.
• Always, always, always keep your buffs up. AT ALL TIMES. This goes for [highlight]Contract of Protection[/hightlight] especially. That buff is the difference between winning a fight and losing it!
• There's no shame in running away, so make sure you have points in Endurance and Run Speed for a quick get away.
• ... the reverse is also true: keep points in Run Speed and Endurance so you can chase down other runners! This game has crazy regen rates once you get out of combat, and that can easily make you lose a fight!
• You can always pop a potion. It doesn't have to be a health pot, you could use a stamina pot instead. That could mean the difference between catching (or running away) or not.

Make sure you understand the importance that your Demon Form plays in PvP. If you're up against a tough enemy -- and you will have to learn to guestimate if an opponent is tough -- then you really should pop Demon Form. The added damage, hp and AoE fire pulse makes a big difference.

If your opponent is out of melee range, don't neglect Hell Step! When you charge an opponent you must follow that up with a Word of Command to root them in place. Obviously, not everybody will try to run away, but if I saw a 700 lb demon with his feet on fire chasing me, I'd make like a tree and leave

You're in demon form and you have your opponent rooted. Immediately open up with a Hell Strikes and Hellfire Breath if it's a caster class. Hell Strikes' flurry can do a lot of damage to a caster, and you're mainly interested in burst. If you're confident in your twitch gaming skillz you can open with Molten Steel Slash and follow it up with Hellfire Breath. If you get those off your opponent should be dead or low on hit points. It, naturally, depends on a wide variety of factors, but I've killed players my own level with those combos. If they don't run and stay and fight, you can try Mind, Body and Spirit Wrack if they're a caster. The Mana burn ability stings, and it already does a lot of damage. Pillar of Infernal Flame is very powerful also, and is worth a shot.

If you see a knockback spell being cast (I believe the Priest of Mitra has one) then immediately double-tap your forward key and your character will try topple them over. It won't always work, but it might! If it does, they are pretty much dead unless they're extremely lucky.

If you find yourself low on hitpoints, hit words of command and get out of melee range -- if it's a ranged character, your best chance is just to bolt and get out of combat long enough to regenerate hitpoints. PvP with the HoX is very fast: kill 'em quickly, or you die!

PvP is very different from PvE, and you can't always rely on things standing still, so you might find that you have to chase someone around swinging at them wildly. But that's PvP for you. Your greatest asset is people not knowing the damage you can do: people underestimate you, or don't know you're a HoX. Funcom has gone to some trouble to make it very difficult to discern a player's class (you have to right-click the 'target' box and click Player Information) so this can be used to your advantage. Saying that, the two-hander should be a dead giveaway...

A general tip would be to avoid the longer combos if you're a lower level. The longer they are, the lower the likelyhood of the chance being there when you finish it. However, you *can* cast the combos while you're running; the only downside to that is you will stop to cast the spell.

In general I have found that keeping a dot on somebody (Burn to Death, that 2:30 minute long Necromancer spell! Grrr...) keeps you in combat. If you feel you have a runner on your hands, try to dot him up in case he makes a break for it.

As the game matures and stratagems emerge, I will continue to update this section with more information. For now, consider the tips and suggestions above, and always trust your own gut feeling.

[madpickle]

VIII. Errata

Thanks to:

• NN666 for explaining and outlining many, many abilities! Superb work!
• soulshox for explaining Hellstrike, Spreading Flames, Demonic Fortitude; correcting me on Spitfire and describing Roots of Hell!
• AyameArai for giving me stats on Roots of Hell.
• Malustar for correcting my Sweep/Cleave confusion and explaining the usefulness of Mind, Body and Spirit Wrack.
• exog for emperically showing that the dps potential of a combo is directly proportional to its stamina cost.
• Gromnir for correcting a typo.
• Mummrakfan for suggesting combos and explaining the usefulness of Burn to Death.
• Acidbaron for pointing out that Perception, to him, isn't all that useless.

IX. Conclusion

Thank you for reading this far! I've spent a long time typing, copyediting and contemplating the feats and skills available to me. This work is far from complete, however. I need help with the feats -- not feat builds. There's already a nice thread for that. No, what we all need is something where we can say: we should avoid that and that skill, because numerically it isn't worth the investment. But without numbers we cannot do that, so we have to rely on personal experience. Therefore, please, if you have opinions -- good or bad -- about a feat, skill or combo please post it.

And once again: please refrain from flaming this thread and my views of the skills. If you have a criticism, post it in a constructive manner. Thanks! -madpickle

[madpickle]

(Reserved for waffling pt. III)

[mytharya]

Dunno how u graded the abilities but for me Hellstrike combo is my main dps ability because it has a very low CD.

I use Molten Slash, Hellstrike, Burn to Death, Hellstrike etc...

I think it depends on the feat tree u are going... I for one am in avatar tree..

BTW my HoX is lvl 45 so I pretty much know what combos and spells are actually usefull. I see a lot of ppl spam Hellfire Breath until they are out of mana... I don't even have points in improved Hellfire Breath (alltho I should) but I can spend the 5 points in avatar tree to augument some of my combos that do more dmg than the Hellfire Breath... that's my opinion.

[madpickle]

I never advocated spamming anything. However, if you have talented hellfire breath, it makes sense to start out with it as it is virtually instant cast. When you have cast that you immediately follow it up with Molten Steel Slash and when that is done your hellfire breath should be ready to cast again.

This is a far more efficient way than starting out with a combo, as hellfire's insta-cast makes it a great opener and finisher.

[NN666]

I commend you on taking the time to do this, I'll read in greater detail and comment properly when I have more time.

However:

Originally Posted by madpickle Mind, body and Spirit Whack Grade: D The contender for "dumbest ability name" award. This ability leaves me somewhat dumbfounded. What is its exact purpose? We get it at a relatively odd time, between Molten Steel Slash II, but after Pillar of Infernal Flame.

This might be because it's 'Mind, Body and Spirit WRACK', with 'wrack' being an archaic version of the word 'wreck'. Read it like that and I think it's a pretty cool name.

Assuming you weren't asking a rhetorical question - the combo is a mana-burn and with associated feats it becomes a mana-leech.

[soulheal]

First off all good guide. SOme changes though.

Hellstrike is not the greatest in damage but everage. However where it shines is that it is a 2 hit combo with no cast time bu extremly fast damage.

Spitfire cooldown is 5 mins. Extremly high damage and will tick extreme amounts of damage off the mob/player.

spreading flames is a good move as it basically converts the burn to death a moderate damge dot in to an aoe dot.

Demonic fortitude is kinda lackluster by itself. Long cooldown long cast time however when combined with demonic leech and ether thirst it shines. Demonic thirst restores quite a good proportion of mana about 400 for me at 42 with ether thirst of course which also reduces cooldown around 10 seconds on fortitude and makes it an instant cast. More of a PVE ability in my opinion.

Roots of hell is extremly important in pvp as knock backs can get you killed even with demon form you want to be able to maximise your damage before you come out of it.

Hope this helps