The Herald of Xotli (HoX) is all about damage and more damage. For many people, it is the most exciting class to play in Age of Conan. I’ve heard it referred to as a glass chainsaw and it is a very apt analogy. They dish out huge numbers, but the combination of cloth armor and a relatively small health pool for a melee fighter means a HoX is always at death’s door.

This leveling build is primarily focused around increasing the HoX’s core damage dealing abilities, which is essential for efficient leveling and PvP. At higher levels when quests start to run dry, you will spend much of your time grinding groups of mobs and this build also gives you the tools to AoE effectively.

This build recommends respec’ing at level 40 to get Horrible Visage of Xotli (HVoX) as soon as possible. The lack of crowd control abilities is one of HoX’s primary weaknesses. Getting HVoX, a point blank AoE stun, sooner makes a dramatic impact on the HoX’s viability, especially in PvP.

Summary

10-14 Hellfire
15-19 Fiery Weapons
20-23 Improved Fiery Weapons
24-26 Rage of Xotli
27-28 Spreading Flames (2 points)
29-30 Mindless Brute
31-32 Flame of Xotli (2 points)
33 Fire Lance
34 Blood Pit
35 Flame of Xotli
36-37 Reaching Flames
38-39 Spreading Flames
Respec at level 40

    * 5/5 Fiery Weapons
    * 1/5 Improved Fiery Weapons
    * 5/5 Hellfire
    * 5/5 Flame Tongue
    * 5/5 Xotli’s Vengeance
    * 2/2 Improved Word of Command
    * 3/3 Demonic Link
    * 3/3 Fury of Xotli
    * 1/1 Thundering Flames or Undying Glory of Xotli
    * 1/1 Renewed Exultation of Xotli
    * 3/3 Horrible Visage of Xotli

41-45 Spreading Flames
46-48 Rage of Xotli
49 Improved Fiery Weapons (1 point)
50-51 Flame of Xotli
52-53 Mindless Brute (2 points)
54 Fire Lance
55 Blood Pit or Mindless Brute
56-58 Improved Fiery Weapons and/or Reaching Flames
59-60 Butcher (3 points)
61-62 Wrath of Xotli
63-67 Demon Within
68-71 Desecration
72 Avatar of Xotli
73-74 Molten Flesh

Build by Level

    * level 20
    * level 30
    * level 39
    * level 40 respec
    * level 50
    * level 60
    * level 70
    * level 74

Avatar Feats

    * Fiery Weapons - Adds a chance to trigger additional fire damage to all melee attacks. It triggers fairly often for good damage. Significant DPS increase.
    * Improved Fiery Weapons - Further increases the fire damage and gives team members a chance to trigger Fiery Weapons as well.
    * Spreading Flames - The DoT effect from the Burn to Death combo spreads to nearby mobs, in essence making BtD into an AoE DoT. A great feat for grinding groups of mobs.
    * Rage of Xotli - Hell Strikes is somewhat underwhelming when you first get this combo, but it soon becomes your standard bread and butter combo due to the short cooldown. This feat increases the damage.
    * Demonic Leech - Increases the mana drain from the Body and Spirit Wrack combo. Helpful for longer PvE encounters.
    * Mindless Brute - Increases the HoX’s health for a very small decrease in magic damage (-3%). Very helpful for the squishy HoX.
    * Flame of Xotli - Increases the damage output of the Burn to Death combo. Especially at mid and higher levels, the damage is significant. Very good for larger groups in conjunction with the Spreading Flames feat.
    * Reaching Flames - Increases the AoE radius of the Pillar of Internal Flames Combo. It’s more a PvP feat because in PvE, melee mobs tend to be bunched together.
    * Fire Lance - Longish cooldown (3 minutes), but does exceptional damage.
    * Blood Pit - Creates a ‘Blood Pit’ that provides a decent Heal over Time (HoT). Nice for AoE grinding and reducing downtime. Not really necessary because potions are cheap, but it’s only one point and a passive ability.
    * Butcher - Each point reduces the cooldown by 1s for Hell Strikes, your primary PvE combo. Only need 3 or 4 points to have Hell Strikes available whenever you need it at higher levels.
    * Wrath of Xotli - A decent DPS increase for the demon form’s DoT. Good for PvE and PvP.
    * Demon Within - A must have ability. Increases the duration of your demon form to 37s.
    * Desecration - A must have ability. Reduces the cooldown of your demon form to 1.5minutes.
    * Avatar of Xotli - A must have ability. The primary reason you invested so many points in the Avatar tree.

Possession Feats

    * Hellfire - Should be the first 5 points for every HoX, no matter what their build. Reduces the casting time to 0.5s, which makes it possible to cast Hellfire Breath while queuing up your next combo.
    * Flame Tongue - Underwhelming feat, but it’s the requirement for Fury of Xotli.
    * Xotli’s Vengeance - There is some debate over the effectiveness of this skill. Some testing had found that it augmented the damage of Hell Strikes. At this time, +fire damage is being re-evaluated by Funcom, so the effectiveness is still in question.
    * Improved Word of Command - Increases the effected area of the root and some people have found it seems to reduce the chance the root breaks on damage.
    * Demonic Link - Increases the fire damage bonus (melee and magic) from the demon form. More DPS is always great to have.
    * Fury of Xotli - Triggers often, which helps quite a lot with mana management. You should be casting Hellfire Breath as much as possible, so this is a must have ability.
    * Renewed Exultation of Xotli - EoX is a great way to increase your overall damage and for 1 point, this feat reduces the downside of using EoX.
    * Undying Glory of Xotli - A self-rez is always nice to have and reduces the lost time from dying. The boost to damage and health regeneration makes it even better.
    * Horrible Visage of Xotli - A must have skill. Adds a 5s point blank AoE stun to Desecrating Essence. Essential in PvP and great in PvE too.
    * Molten Flesh - A situational ability (great when used against enemies with fire damage), but the primary use is for AoE grinding at higher levels.
    * Thundering Flames - Kind of working as of the 7/10 patch. It doesn’t interrupt casts in progress. It adds a passive effect to HfB that silences for about 1s, with a 10s immunity. It doesn’t seem to make any difference in PvE. For one feat point, it’s a nice added bonus to Hellfire Breath, which you are going to using as often as possible anyways.

NOTE: For more information about feats not included in this leveling build, do a title search for ‘feat’ in the official HoX subforum. There are several feat reviews by helpful members of the HoX community.

Alternative Feat Choices

By level 74, you have all the feats you need for leveling and PvP. How you spend the remaining points is up to you. By now, you should have a great sense of your own playstyle, so use the remaining points to invest in feats that support your gameplay.

    * Phoenix Wing - Makes a useful defensive ability better and more useful by significantly reducing the movement and damage penalties.
    * Tough of Hell + Lingering Hell - 1% invulnerability debuff for each point invested. It isn’t worth using when solo or non-epic groups. But for longer encounters (epic monsters, raids), it can make a difference.
    * Flaming Hatred + Searing Hatred - Reduces the cooldown of the Pillar combo to 45s. Searing adds a DoT that is very weak by itself, but it’s another fire DoT for when you want to stack as many DoT’s as possible.
    * Insanity of Xotli - A PvP feat that drains a significant amount of mana/stamina from stunned victims.
    * Burning Word - Adds a moderate DoT to the area root.
    * Mage Blood - A passive ability that reduces downtime and helps for longer PvE and PvP encounters. A potion is usually enough to make it unnecessary to get this feat.
    * Demonic Leech + Ether Thirst + Demonic Fortitude - Mana and Stamina management feats.
    * Roots of Hell (Does not currently work) - If the feat worked as described, this could be a very useful ability.

General Advice

    * Get used to constantly drinking and buying potions. They are cheap and make a huge impact on your survivability. Always carry around a big stack of potions (potions stack to 50).
    * Because the HoX has such a high damage output, they are always at risk of getting aggro in group elite instances. The HoX does not have any tanking ability, so pulling aggro away from the tank is a quick way to die. Learning how to manage aggro in groups is an important group skill. If you do get aggro, learn to double-tap back for evade bonuses. Try to refrain from running around randomly, which makes it harder for the tank or healer to help you.
    * In PvP, a slow HoX is a dead HoX. HoX’s don’t have the luxury of a huge health pool, self heals or great defensive abilities. HoX’s have to react quickly and think fast.
    * In group PvP, being overly aggressive can easily mean death for a HoX. Healers are usually the primary targets in group PvP, but if a HoX charges into the fray and rampages in demon form, they are painting a huge target on their head. Think ‘assassin’, instead of a bulldozer. It’s usually a smart idea to let the tougher members of your group absorb the initial attack.

Fervor's original guide can be found on his Blog: Gaming Fervor .   This particular guide can be found HERE  The guides may be updated based on game changes so check there for any changes. Our thanks to Fervor for allowing us to post his guides here for the community.  great work!