HoX or Barb?

[Mellaus]

HoX is too cool to pass, but on the other hand, everybody needs a barb in his life.

[Vatoi]

Yeah, after hours of playing with both of them, I decided to give a try for a barb. HoX has so damn slow combos, though I reached only 30 level so maybe something would be changed in later stage of game. Barb is interesting, 2he/2hb, dual wields, knockbacks stuns etc. And to be honest, I can easily pull 4-5 mobs at my level and destroy them in no time at all, hox couldnt do that.

[Yawgmoth-VDN]

I can easily pull 4-5 mobs at my level and destroy them in no time at all, hox couldnt do that.

HoX can do that, you just have to learn how to do it...

[Shax84]

Barb can do that in 1 second with buffed Wreck Armor and feated Shrapnel.

Hox can do that in 7 seconds with Pillar of Flame, Tongue of Xotli and Hellfire Breath.

In my opinion the biggest strength of the HoX is also his biggest weakness. When his power peaks, it's very good but for short figths 10-15 seconds you'll burn all long cooldowns and spent most of the time waiting for casts to come through. Need time to buff up all the damages and set dots. Demon Maw should be removed and added to the demonic forms, as should Exultation of Xotli. As of now it's just too much micro management for me to enjoy it. HoX is the class of the hipster geeks.

[Patoson]

Well, barb's wreck armors have 45 sec cd (35 sec with AA), so you cannot spam them. About long combos, barb has long combos as well, be that cyclones of steel / upheaval, or butchers / upheaval.

I think hox is more devastating than barb. The breath itself is very powerful and can be used so often. I guess the trick is to cc the mobs. You have fear, root (and stun when you transform). Root the mobs and run behind them at a safe distance and nuke.

But, yeah, barb's self-heal capabilities with blood rage stance are great, and it's a good class if you don't want any magic; just pure melee combos.

[Vatoi]

This what happened at 4:00minute convinced me to play barbarian. Look at that kick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_AqcFVZ42Y
Isn't it awesome?

[Shax84]

Well, barb's wreck armors have 45 sec cd (35 sec with AA), so you cannot spam them.

You can spam them just as often as Pillar of Flame. Pillar of Flame got two usable ranks, while Wreck Armor has three. Also, Pillar of Flame damage is reduced by directional shields and does not the same damage on all in area of effect, Shrapnel does same damage on all in area of effect. Jagged Cut / Bone Shatter is almost the equivalent of Burn to Death. Difference being Burn to Death is stronger on single targets, and Jagged Cut / Bone Shatter has a huge 360 degree aoe and puts dot on all the mobs. Hell strikes is **** and Butcher is ****.

With Reaver stack x15 the Barbarian frontal cone Overpower is underrated. Especially since it is an ability so it can be used mid combo, thats the drawback of Hellfire Breath; you got to stop to cast it, or do it between opener/step/finisher. With the latencies and spikes we got in this game there is no such thing as an "instant" spell any more. Abilities are instant though.

[Boesch]

Both are awesome classes though with different feels to them. IMO the HOX is thematically one of the best I have seen and both, when played well, are highly desirable in a raid. I lost a lot of fun playing a Barb when they took away combo cancelling and Zerker became a lot weaker... I find Reaver spec to be fairly uninspiring though the damage is certainly good.

With the ongoing discussion on burst AOE DPS the Barb I feel can activate theres slightly faster but for prolonged AOE DPS the HOX wins. Either way both bring plenty of everything and are fun classes.

[Rathothis]

Yeah, after hours of playing with both of them, I decided to give a try for a barb. HoX has so damn slow combos, though I reached only 30 level so maybe something would be changed in later stage of game. Barb is interesting, 2he/2hb, dual wields, knockbacks stuns etc. And to be honest, I can easily pull 4-5 mobs at my level and destroy them in no time at all, hox couldnt do that.

Slow combos? Wait until you get Upheaval on your barb

HoX is more interesting in terms of micromanagement - BS is the only class which compares in that respect. But I am pretty sure that barb has the edge when it comes to damage output. I can't imagine even a very well-played HoX competing with the damage numbers in Evito's barb videos.

[Greyloins]

Barb can do that in 1 second with buffed Wreck Armor and feated Shrapnel.

Hox can do that in 7 seconds with Pillar of Flame, Tongue of Xotli and Hellfire Breath.

In my opinion the biggest strength of the HoX is also his biggest weakness. When his power peaks, it's very good but for short figths 10-15 seconds you'll burn all long cooldowns and spent most of the time waiting for casts to come through. Need time to buff up all the damages and set dots. Demon Maw should be removed and added to the demonic forms, as should Exultation of Xotli. As of now it's just too much micro management for me to enjoy it. HoX is the class of the hipster geeks.

Leave hoxes alone pls, I enjoy being a hipster geek.