Age of Conan Herald of Xotli Guide of Ownage

Herald of Xotli Guide if Ownage
by Lashkor post: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=72907

Hi, I'm Lashkor, the Self proclaimed Demon King of Bluesteel. You may remember from such threads as, 'Concerns about the Herald,' and 'My Demon Form is a Soccer playing Swamp Predator.'

But, on to the Herald.

The Herald is a power class at high levels. Early in the game it suffers from some issues though, in that it has very limited ability to control anything, and without upgrades to skills its damage flounders. Many people quit their Heralds before getting past this point, but some don't. Now, on with the show!

My end Feat build: http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...fefe3f3e2fef23

UPDATE: New Proposed Feat build: http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...fefe3f3ef9ef16

UPDATE, Raid Build: http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...2e2fef13efef14

If you take a good look at the feats you'll notice it's a very PvP oriented spec, however it also performs well in PvE. Lets go over the feats, and why we have them:

Possesion

5/5 Hellfire: This one's really a no brainer, I'm pretty sure that every HoX can agree it's imperatitve you have this feat.

5/5 Flame Tongue: This feat is crap. Horrible. At my level 5 stacks gives about +30 Fire damage to melee. It lasts about 8 seconds, so you basically hav to spam HFB to keep it up. We have it for one reason.

1/5 Spitfire: I picked this up because I heard report of it increasing the damage of your next attack by something like 25%. I haven't seen this, but I had no where else to put this point, so I have it, sometimes I use it, but mostly filler.

2/2 Improved WoC: Amazing feat to be honest, and also I don't know if it's the feat or the fact that I've leveled up but WoC rarely ever breaks on damage anymore, making this an amazing thing to have, and WoC and amazing CC for us.

3/3 Demonic Link: Another stunning feat near doubling the damage dealt in Demon and Avatar forms. There is no reason not to have this.

3/3 Fury of Xotli: A PvE wonderchild, really helps out your mana bar by removing the cost of at least 50% of the HFBs you do. Helps sometimes in PvP too, where I go through my mana very fast.

3/3 Roots in Hell: Da plane boss, da plane! (Sorry, I was tyring to distract you from how much this feat needs fixing.)

1/1 Undying Glory of Xotli: While I wish I didn't have to cast the buff because it's annoying, it's still helpful in soem situations so you don't have to run back to your grind spots. Just sit dead until your potion/De cds are up so you can insure you survive if you're around mobs.

1/1 Thundering Flames: It'll get fixed, I swear!

1/1 Renewed Exultation of Xotli: Some people say this sucks, I disagree. As it is now I use EoX a ton. At my level it's a +30% damage increase! The downfall is only -20%, and I can kill a pull in 10 seconds, easy.

3/3 Horrible Visage of Xotli: The bread and butter of a PvP build, and amazing for PvE as well. If I had a silver for the amount of times HVoX has saved my life I could buy my own guild city. The stun lasts a good 5 seconds. Enough time for most combos.

2/2 Molten Flesh: Many people will tell you this sucks, and I disagree, so much. I'll explain why in my 'PvE' section of playing a Herald.

3/3 Burning Words: DoT to root? I think so! Mostly I couldn't find anything better to put my points into.


Avatar

5/5 Fiery Weapons: A suprisingly good feat, procs do more damage than my normal white hits, and probably increase my damage substantially.

5/5 Imp Fiery Weapons: More damage for your procs, another no brainer to have, and far better than Spreading Flames.

5/5 Demonic Leech: More mana back from BaSW is a 'yes' for PvE mostly. The mana gain is huge, shouldn't be ignored, and provides more bang for your buck than anything else you can pick.

3/3 Rage of Xotli: Personally, I'm a big fan of Hell Strikes. It's really mostly all I use in PvE, so I wanted this build to implement some of teh good things of PvE while having the best of PvP, and I'm not a huge fan of Pillar of Flame, because to me it's hitbox seems to suck. So I went Hellstrikes instead, I think it provides more utility, while also holding it's own in PvP.

3/3 Mindless Brute: Large gain at little cost, a must have.

3/3 Flame of Xotli: You'll read a lot of posts from 80s telling you that BtD sucks at later levels and I can assure this is not the case. Ys, the casting animation is slow, I won't lie, but the DoT ticks for 400-500. To me, this combo is my opener against tanks and healers. See 'PvP' for details.

2/2 Reaching Flames: The reason I got this is because to be PoF has a really wonky hitbox. Taking this helps to insure I actually hit the person and has great PvE functionality as well.

1/1 Blood Pit: I got this because of my current grinding spot, and I'll probably kep it. 200+ Health regen at my level is very good, and it spawns quite often.

1/1 Fire Lance: Even if it got nerfed, I'll still use it. It still serves a purpose as a high burst damage attack. The reduction to 3 attack combo means I can EoX bfore the final hit more reliably.

5/5 Butcher: Again, PvE.

2/2 Wrath of Xotli: A 50% damage increaser to Demons form DoT that works on Avatars insanely high damage already is a must have. Great for PvE and PvP, get damage where you can.

5/5 Demon Within: 37 seconds of Demon Form even if it isn't AoX (Even though not bing in AoX makes me want to cry a little inside.) is amazing. Get it. Why? Because you have to.

5/5 Desecration: A minute and a half CD on DE? Yes. Yes. YES.

1/1 Avatar of Xotli: Avatar makes dead babies cry. Some people will tell you not to get it, it's cookie cutter! So what, the other 70 feats suck, and so do the feats leading up to them. This line is really the best for PvP and PvE, hands down. If you wanted an IWIN button, Avatar is this button.


A few things to notice: I did not take any general mage feats, after much thinking I decided they really aren't worth the cost, and the survivability return is low. Having more damage and more options in the end gives you far more survivability. Now onto playing your HoX:

The Herald in PvE

I've been solo farming the East ruins in Keshatta since level 72. I've died a lot, I'm not going to lie, but I've been leveling like crazy. Yeas, the Herald can effectively handle large groups of mobs. And, I'll tell you how. Keep in mind this is more focused around level 74, where you can have Aox, HVoX and Molten Flesh. You can probably get them sooner, I think, but this is how I specced.

So, the Herald is very susceptible to CC and you'll die a lot from getting chain KDed in this area, and probably any other area with large groups that KD. But if you execute perfectly these manuvers, you will survive.

Step 1: Sprint along the edge of mob groups until you have the size of the group you want. Usually I pull about 10-12, and sometimes 20 mobs. Get them as close together as you can.

Step 2: Root them all. There may be some fly aways, let them beat on you while you cast HFB for initial damage.

Step 3: Cast DE to activate HVoX (Or Avatar, your choice.) and stun the group. Cast HFB again for more damage.

Step 4: Cast Exultation of Xotli. The moment HVoX wears off, cast Molten Flesh. Everything dies, white swings and HFBs finish the group off quickly.

You don't take a ton of damage, but sometimes you might get KDed before you get WoC off, if this happens, spam potion and WoC and hope for the best. Mobs can chain KD, and it sucks, you'll die. Oh well. It's a short run. Shorter if you have UGoX up. One of the reasons this is so effective at farming is because of Molten Flesh. This ability is fairly lackluster by itself, except for a few things:

-It gets +Fire Damage from Demon Form. Avatared Molten Flesh hits for about 200.

-It's an AoE. Yes, and AoE. If 10 guys are hitting you, then 10 guys gt hit back for each person who attacked. So, in their 1 attack, assuming Molten Flesh retaliates every hit, and I haven't confirmed this, you're looking at them getting hit 10 times each. (It's more like 7-8, I'm pretty sure.) But basically, they fall over and die.

- .5 second cast, NO MANA COST. It's totally free for you to use. I am all about free fast casting spells. Especially effective ones.

So, having said all this, HoXs are one of the best solo AoE grinders in the game. I actually got paid for allowing a ranger to group with me since they XP so slowly. As soon as you can learn to AoE grind. I was getting 9-10 chain kills by myself with this strat. ven with DE and AoX down you can still effectively take smaller groups with HFB, HS, whatever. I use WoC a lot in PvE as well to set up combos outside of combat to maximize my damage deal and minimize mine taken.

This is all I'm going to cover for now, I'll be posting about the HoX in raids as soon as I'm able to do them, hopfully have a good rotation down, but I can guess my Rotation is going to follow a fairly simple pattern: MSS -> HS -> BaSW, while spamming HFB. Perhaps I'll be able to fit in BtD as well. Since I have points in Butcher, I want to maximize it's use.

The Herald in PvP

PvP is my favorite thing to do. Currently I'm close to 600 kills and ~260 deaths. Sure, I die a lot, but that's because I'm hunted in groups on my server O.o I will be posting a PvP video sometime in the future when I get FRAPs so I can show some footage of what a Herald can do that's not all LOL I Firelanced you at level 30, LOL.

Anyways, PvP with the Herald used to suck as low levels. Now, I percieve the HoX as an amazing PvP class. We have a multitude of CCs and a large amount of damage. Some classes are still hard to kill, I won't lie, like PoMs, but that's to be expected. I was killing 80 ToSs at 75 however, because of their limited CC.

A few key points about PvP:

- Get used to running and jumping around. However, never turn your back on your opponent.

- Sometimes, it's ok to use a CC, to insure a CC. I say mostly in terms of WoC to make sure DE hits, but also, using DV close to the end of HVoX and before the final hit of a combo to insure they won't interrupt it.

- When fighting almost any class, elemental damage is best. This is very important, as I'm not aware of any class that has a high resistance to fire except us, except for Necros, I believe. They have a buff similar to Arcane Abatement for Fire Invuln.

- Get used to timing your combos so you start them while they're in range while running around. It takes practice.

- Setting shields is important against other classes, learn their abilities to better counteract them.

So, how do I PvP? Well first, always carry a large number of potions, we can't heal, so potions are all we have. These are your lifeblood.

In any PvP fight I try to lead off with a BtD. Burn to Death is and always will be on of my favorite combos. The DoT ticks for a lot of damage at my levels and is amazing to help out on healers, and destroys plate wearing classes. The best way to achieve this is to WoC before the final hit and BtD them from behind.

Once you have a BtD landed against any class, the odds are in your favor. Immediatly cast DE if they're still in range. If you need to chase them and wait until WoC is up and Immunity wears off to DE them, do so. I've had some 5 minute fights before.

With BtD on and HVoX stunning them most PvP fights are already won. Charge up a heavy hitter like Fire Lance or BaSW while running behind them, and let loose. One of the great things about the Fire Lance change that people don't seem to notice is that previously, you just hit the last button of Fire Lance before HVoX wore off, so it was still interruptable. Now, you have options:

- Let FL go early and they'll have a hell of a time trying to stop it, OR:
- Cast EoX before the final hit of FL on a class that can't CC you or has used their CCs for a bonus of 30% damage.

Don't want them to have time to heal during your Fire Lance or other big combo? Before the final hit of your combo, cast Dread Visage, then hit the button. Chances are that even though DV breaks on damage sometimes, (Unless they're moving when you hit them with it), they'll be a little disoriented by this. Keep in mind, they are still a human. This can be great for PoMs.

Also, the BtD is extremely important when fighting healers.

Tank classes are great fights for you to be against, DT and Guards are fodder, especially now that I hear Overreach got fixed. Just Burn them to Death, and make sure to hit them from behind with all combos whenever possible. These fights are in your favor.

PRO TIP:
Knockdowns got you Down? If you're facing a class that can really put the hurt on you in the span of a knockdown, such as a Barbarian or a 2H conq, watch their cast bar for 'Clobber' or 'Batter Aside' respectively. Soon as that cast bar nears the end, slam on your WoC button and watch as you're knocked safetly away and they're left standing there looking stupid.

Rangers: Key point when fighting rangers, is you won't move for awhile, potion and suck it up. Soon as you're free of the trap and Pin Down, double tap left or right to sidestep. It's an easy way to break their combos. Soon as you sidestep Hellstep to them, WoC, DE, whatever you want, and beat them to a bloody pulp while running around them in circles. It's very hard for them to hit you while you're moving around them.

Healers: Burn to Death is the key, and immediatly stunning as sooning as you land it. With BtD and a heavy hitting combo you can 1 shot most halers from behind. A PoMs stun/repulse combo is very difficult to avoid and can really put the hurt on. Should you live through this, immediately potion and Avatar. A big combo in Avatar is pretty much gibs all around. Watch out for Brilliance, I think it's called, the animation is swirling balls of light around them, and they reflct all damage. Just stop attacking them. Their Immunity doesn't have an animation from what I've seen and can suck if you Fire Lance into it, but the fight is still winnable. If they don't kill you immediatlely, and you don't kill them quickly, buckle down for a long fight.


Thus this concludes this installment of Lashkor Presents: How to RoX their SoX with your HoX. More to come at a later date!