Observations on PvP as a new HoX

[Shiwan]

Stay with the Herald of Xotli. Nothing is wrong with the class. It takes a longer learning curve to control it though.

True... just keep fighting you can not expect you will be dangerous after few dozens of battles. Some experience comes rather after thousand of hours spent on playing. Just do not give up

Yes and forget about Avatar/Possesion play Possesion/General it is more effective and also more enjoyable at least for me. Something like was mentioned before mix of Sin and Demo...

[Corais]

I'd also advise to go Pos/General. Purge just lets you get out alive from sticky situations, a rooted/slowed HoX is a dead HoX.
Basically if you trade combos with any class you will lose the trade as HoX. The trick is to only do a combo when your target is cced or engaged with another player. In any other situation (aka you are targeted) never stop running and always do HfB while running.
If you get staggered your best bet is to cc, which also gives you the opportunity to land a pillar.

Also use Flame Lash(and CoA) a lot, its our only spell with decent range. ToX is only good against groups its slightly more damage than FL but has a way longer casttime and shorter range.

I also recommend From the Beyond as AA. More time in DE means more time of extra Damage (DE-pulse, Hellstep-pulse, +stats) and last but not least more time in augmented anti-cc mode (fear, knockback resist). RSoX gives you just plain more damage(more damage than FtB though) and a little armor/protection and while Enslaving Fire is nice, it's hard to land because its finisher animation is quite long and we stated we'd only try to land a combo on CCed targets, though if you trade combos and your combo is EF you'll come out ahead even as HoX .
But whats bad is that you lose the CC-Immunities and the ability to stick to those running demos and rangers.

[Ruhenous]

Been playing my HoX for a few days, I can tell you now that Enslaving Fire is the way to go, The Stun is extremely long (if you got 5 points) and you can make people burn their CC break using the transformation, fear, or root so you can get the ES stun.

My question is what other AA you should run with this for PvP an PvE. Quickening Death seems good, but so far I have been using the Burning Skull one. It seems to do decent damage, but recasting it every few seconds is annoying.

My other question would be, what stats do you want to go for? The BB gear seems to be the best, but talking about rings, neck, and cape do you want to go strictly for combat rating if your avatar heavy? My idea is that you want constitution gear, like Death's Ward and the Jiang Shi ring because cloth just sucks, at least for PvP. Strength seems mainly wasted to me because you can't get items with a high enough strength that make up for combat rating accessories with can have 400-500+. Intelligence seems the same way, and you take away from your melee attacks?

So what do you go for?

Enslaving Fire is NOT the way to go for a fresh HoX. The animation is far too long if you're lacking gear. It's okay if you have some gear, but even then it's situational at best. Red Shadows is the FIRST AA you should be getting. It's by far the best all around AA.

And as far as accessories are concerned. The PvP accessories at the best, bar-none. They have a great mix of magic damage(which is what you want with any spec as a HoX), constitution and crit rating.

[Bortukali]

It is not about KD whoring even in premade you always go for easiest target as death oponent simply doesn´t do any dmg... face it... if you are low lvl PvP player you are always under focus and it is completely legit strategy.

i agree, but comparing premade with pug the difference is huge, on premades for example its more of a group tactic, like if necessary to ignore a low level player to kill a flag carrier low on health, we go first to the carrier to protect flag has the hox will be easier to kill by two players at least, but on pug no one cares if flag carrier is low, most time they focus the k/d

Stay with the Herald of Xotli. Nothing is wrong with the class. It takes a longer learning curve to control it though.

You are a supporter, an AoE mage. Learn to use that, and you will get K/D increased very fast!

TO OP (Icoyce) - if you play on crom server at least, try finding the player "Alandara" and you will see how powerful the hox is

[Suctum]

Anytime I die on my demo to a HoX is because of the Enslaving fire Stun, of course those HoX that are using it are PvP 10 fully geared with T4 weapons, so I get maybe as a lowbie HoX it's not so great.

I have Red Shadows already, thanks for the advice.

[artreborn]

HoX NO EASY!!!

[Icoyce]

Thank you all for your responses so far

I will try out a possession/general build to see how it works out. How does this look? Does Roots of Hell actually prevent any knockbacks, or are the points there wasted? In my old build I have Phoenix Wings feated, but I find myself using PC very rarely because it destroys my best defense which is movement

I'm almost PvP3 now, but I bought the purple T1 PvP pieces to boost my survivability early on. Feels a bit cheap, but hey As for what gear I am aiming for, I'm not sure yet. Doing Hyrkanians for the sword and BB for armour for now. As of now I am using Enslaving Fire and Feeding the Pyre. I will pick up some of the gold perks soon.

Herald of Xotli is such a satisfying class to play. You feel every kill, every death. (in PvP) You are always on the edge, and those sweet, sweet fatalities

[Jaedelyia]

I wouldn't go for Hell on Earth, and I would spare all the points for something else.

Maybe I'm not the best guy to give advice since I don't do much PVP, but who the hell would be dumb enough to stay static in the Hell on Earth area ?

[Icoyce]

Oops! I managed to link the wrong build. My bad! Here is the correct link http://joharaoc.eu/feat?link=v4_12b6...bb5e1b2601c00c

[artreborn]

http://goo.gl/F3ctB is the build I'd recommend you use. Inferno is quite useless for and flame lash only needs 1, the charge feat points can be substituted by something a little more useful too.