A question

[Eldaen]

of course having this feat in lower tier earlier on avatar tree to replace the useless ones above firelance any hox looking for revamp on test live would ask i am sure... ^^

if you play your hox smooth and fluid, you will use hfb between white hits at least once per combo meaning u should never reach max stacks and it will be eaten by hfb 100% of the time. at 5 stacks on a 2K hfb u could do 2100 every 5 sec for a net gain of 20dps! that's ofc if u proc everytime 5 stack between 2 hfb... on the other hand a spitfire spreading with 50% chance every dot tick and let's be generous comparison we say 300 every 2 sec and knowing it can crit as well as hfb, it's already 150dps per target affected but on top of it u can reduce the healing of every kithai boss by 25%, for ex malice on sisters if ur rogue is slacking or any boss even the pom healing the guard and demo in t3, that alone is better than 20dps but ofc doesnt show on parser...understand?

1 pts for 6% physical mana tap and u already feel the difference, 2 pts gives the double so 12%, i could sometimes run low mana on some encounters with 6% but with 12% u can sleep on both ears, it's much more useful than 4 ticks of a more than miserable dot for 1 pt on a combo u'll use once per 30 sec for debuff. however if u gave up the stun in the other tree then i would be more than happy to feat the instant cast on the casted debuff so u can use it right off the bat for ur group/raid... or solo instead of 1.5 sec without any active damage or worse not using it

word of command (hox aoe root) works the same as the tos root and is one of the best cc for pve once u know the timing for using it, the hox stun after casting avatar not only is slower but longer cd while you have to spend pts for feating it and other classes have much better stuns. it's an innate cc (no need feat) and can be used everytime you are packing mobs together so they dont move but also everytime a tos is asked to root u could do it, t2 adds, t3 adds, t4 adds and more... excellent survive tool also with the innate fear cc however avoid using the latter when packing mobs.

[Greyloins]

of course having this.......

Thanks for the explanations Diabolo!

I switched builds again based on posted advice here, going for the build Diabolo posted but taking one point out of spitfire in favour of inferno.


I'm sort of hesitant to ask yet a rather very individual question in a thread that isn't my own, but heck, it's not like this forum gets too much spam ^^. It's about what DPS I can expect to do as a hox.

At the moment I have 6/8 BB (lack the shoulder and belt from coppice and dugout), decent blue accessories and, as mentioned, the T2 sword, but I had some semi-depressing runs today where I got out-dpsed again and again according to ACT.

I seem to usually do between 800 and 1100 dps; 800 being what I get in fights like vortex if I only get ported once, and 1100 what I can expect at burn fights like palace phase 2 or each of the Flame phases.

Firstly, I was grouped with a sin that had less Khitai gear than me (I think maybe 2 pieces Khitai faction epics and rest T2/T3), but possibly good daggers (I guess even T4 is possible - at the very least they were better than what I've seen people post they got from world boss (t1/t2) and didn't look "old-world"). Anyhow I did abyss-den-palace-flame-vortex HM with him, and he consistently out-dps'd me between 100 and 200 dps, despite having similar or possibly slightly worse gear.

Later I was grouped with some DT and a Conq; they sometimes went dualweild or talisman build, and I saw some tier 3.5 on the DT and a T4 one-handed sword + tiger gear on the conq. Despite doing main/off-tanking, these guys consistently did 1000+ dps, often being neck-to-neck with me or even ahead in some fights.

I've also been in some T2/T3 raids with guild, and while I've been pleased to usually be 4/5th on dps lists, I've been getting out-dps'd by necros/demos/barbs/rangers in full Khitai + decent accessories, sometimes by quite a lot.

Anyhow, what I've experienced is that going from random t1 + random khitai epics to almost full BB hasn't really changed my DPS all that much, and it doesn't really seem like getting some unchained accessories + aok sword will make things that different. Is this what I should expect as a hox, will things get better with a little bit more gear, or am I just a shitty hox?

[LunaticAsylumLA]

For single-target DPS (the fights that you have described), you might want go into both end feats of the Avatar tree. Always rely on HFB, instant Inferno Curse with 1 DoT feated, MSS, BtD with Exultation before the last step and Pillar II and III with DoTs in between.

[Greyloins]

For single-target DPS (the fights that you have described), you might want go into both end feats of the Avatar tree. Always rely on HFB, instant Inferno Curse with 1 DoT feated, MSS, BtD with Exultation before the last step and Pillar II and III with DoTs in between.

Thanks for replying - the last post I made is a reminder of why I shouldn't post of the forums in the middle of the night ^^

However, that isn't quite what I was looking for. I'll probably test a deeper Avatar build at some point, but for now I think my build is pretty rock solid, and it seems like there's a consensus that hybrid build gives best PvE dps. And I think I do my combos/rotation properly.

To put it more concisely, I'm wondering if that 800-1100 dps; maybe a tiny bit more when I get the best non-t4 gear on all slots, is what I should expect to do as hox, as well as whether or not I should be getting out-dps'd a bit by other dps classes with similar gear.

[Lurvi]

You need to have a clear idea of where the dps should be at for every single encounter in this game. Many factors come into play. Groupsetup and buffs, debuffing skills, encounter events.

This is why each class can do strawman tests, as should you. 1700 dps is within grasp on a 3 minute strawman without t4 gear (you need to get a better sword) and blue pots running.

Moving back to bosses though, shields come into play and they complicate things a bit further as in "should I attack from this angle, or should I reposition"? Sadly I know many players ignore this mechanic. Obviously they see lesser results.

You can surely improve, if that's what you're asking. Always.

[LunaticAsylumLA]

There is no consensus with builds.
I use Avatar/Possession for AoE encounters, Avatar (Hell on Earth and Avatar of Xotli - people who think that Hell on Earth is completely useless are not correct) for single-target DPS encounters, including strawman, Possession/General for PVP, Possession/Avatar/General for some careful raids and groups where less hatred is needed.

For more tips on builds, visit this:
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthr...rawman&page=12

Post #122 from Shax84 shows one of the best single-target DPS builds (http://goo.gl/M0phj).

Also, do not be afraid to experiment and build your own HoX. I always read all descriptions and make my own builds.

[-Shink-]

No inferno,no glorious exultation=best dps build.NOT.

I have disagreed before with that so won't bother much this time.Different things work better for different people however you should drop posting BEST DPS BUILD on something that's actually hardly on par on parses with a build that offers more utility.

Only good thing about it is instant debuffing when you dont have toses/demos/etc in a 6 man and you can get that without going down to hell on earth.I won't call it useless,i actually like the line and the feat itself ,sad but true though,it's not as great as you say it is,especially for sustained dps and no matter how you setup the rotation.

[Shax84]

You say sustained dps, and a few words later you recommend a feat giving +90% weapon damage for a few seconds and -20% weapon damage a bit later before going on a cooldown?

[-Shink-]

You say sustained dps, and a few words later you recommend a feat giving +90% weapon damage for a few seconds and -20% weapon damage a bit later before going on a cooldown?

You gain more than you think you lose and for those seconds you can have every possible magic dmg source running when the debuff is up plus you are probably actually using a filler combo at that time.

I like how you rule out inferno dps because sometimes you won't get 10x stacks asap or you ll have to use it below 10 stacks ,how you rule out 2nd rez "because this isn't super mario" and on the other hand suggesting a build with a weak dot from molten steel slash where the combo itself worth it only if crits or if there is no one else debuffing.As for hell on earth it's awesome on paper ,unfortunately it isn't as awesome in practice.As said i like it and it works,my issue is you label that build "BEST SINGLE TARGET BUILD" while it hardly ever does more than the alternatives.Even getting same dps on projections with it proves the point for me.

http://goo.gl/ds6xS
http://goo.gl/OOMYH

These are what i choose to run with unless i decide i want instant inferno curse which is easy to move around points and get in both variations.

[Shax84]

Here are the differences of various abilities and feats vs Strawman.

Not exactly. As I mentioned previously, HoX is dependant of ToS and Demo doing debuffs. Not always sixmen groups with both of them... Raid is a different story though, most Demo's use Chaotic Blast, but not all ToS use Lightning Sparks.

Just an example from straw man on my HoX. As you see below, EoX only increase the damage marginally compared to applying the debuffs. To get Glorius Exultation, you need to spend 20 points in Possession. I have 14. So need 7 more points to get it, among that maxing Flame Lash and putting more points in Spitfire or Xotli's Vengeance. And for that neglible increase of dps, you have to lose some of the feats in Avatar that actually add to the parse.

Searing Curse, Burning Hex and Improved Burning Skull equals 5,5% of my total damage.

The fire component of Burn to Death equals 12,73% of total damage. Increase this by 9% and you would get a number of 1,14%. Add to 12,73% and get 13,87%.

Non buffed, non debuffed
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 515 fire damage.

EoX (+30%), non debuffed
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 531 fire damage. 3% increase.

EoX (+90%), non debuffed
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 562 fire damage. 9% increase.

Demon Maw, non debuffed
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 575 fire damage. 11% increase.

Non buffed, Molten Steel Slash
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 568 fire damage. 10% increase.

Non buffed, Inferno Curse.
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 594 fire damage. 15% increase.

Non buffed, Inferno Curse, Molten Steel Slash
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 647 fire damage. 25% increase.

Demon Maw, Inferno Curse, Molten Steel Slash
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 723 fire damage. 40% increase.

Demon Maw, Exultation of Xotli (+30%), Inferno Curse, Molten Steel Slash
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 743 fire damage. 44% increase.

Demon Maw, Exultation of Xotli (+90%), Inferno Curse, Molten Steel Slash
- Your Burn to Death VI hits Straw Man for 783 fire damage. 48% increase.