The tank pulls 30 enemies and herds them into a tight circle.
Which class would kill them faster?
I would say it depends on the amount of healthpool they have, if its a quick burst its gonna be demo but if they have alot of health, necro will even out too.
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I might also add the PoM in case the group got a Necro with melee pets, the mobs would have to be stacked a lot better to get the full potential but to burst them down you would get really high damage when using Holy Cleansing.
The scenario in OP’s post can be wonderfully shown in T2 Wing 1 when entering the hallway after the poison demon boss (I totally forgot the name right now), if all the trash mobs and their minions are stacked together, a Necro with melee pets is present in the PoMs group and the PoM got HC then these trash mobs mostly burn down in a matter of seconds… though… the PoM mostly dies faster because of aggro 
(Not to mention the huge FPS drop from all the damage numbers)
You underestimate the power of the hox! 
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a good barbarian can do his dirty work AoE if them in into a tight circle. 
i quite often go to DMC to pull the whole area to burn the npc’s on a toon for some practice and while its easy enough to do on any tank class its more fun on a hox and usually has a better chance of survival/burnability towards smashing a bunch of npc’s done well and a great way to knock off the rust if i have not played a particular class for awhile…hox probably best class in game imo
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Demo is indeed the best AoE class, no class can match with them when it comes to the AoE. The bad thing is this game does not really requires that much amount of AoE, most of instances and bosses are single target so all the dps from the AoE is wasted.
I’d go with HoX for best aoe damage when there’s a tank. On the other hand, if you asked “What class can solo kill the most adds on them at once without dying?” I’d go with brute conq.
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When we were doing the time trials in T2 (a situation very similar to what the OP asked for), the top spots in dps were a quite even fight between hox, demo and tos. So, it’s really hard to tell exactly which class is best.
I’d say that the potential is very similar.
i would add necro to that list in the w2 scenario between 1rst n 2nd boss …pop gangerous stench pestilent blast and blasphemous ruin to trigger another gangerous buff off of tome followed by blizzard for the stun and popping life leech,along with ganerous/life leech these spells will reduce damage taken by the adds also heals you from the damage taken ect while spell weaving,this would proablly normally be considered suicidal but if done right you will utterly destroy all the adds there and i have done this several times on my necros, theres so much aoe nothing survives…im amazed i have actually managed to do this as often as i have tbh and is amazing to see,and im prone to using caster pets personally like arch magnus with this or reapers depending on which build/necro im playing on( i have a few necros with different builds just for fun ect)
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You get way more dmg if you specc extra splash-radious on icestrike, and do that instead of blizzard. way more. 
but yeah blizzard sure is usefull with tome for the stun.
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with the ammount of adds that spawn in that area between the 1rst/2nd boss blizz is nice to have for the stuns and yeh theres nothing wrong with ice strikes on tome for sure
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The diffrent scenarios of fights in the game makes it impossible to declare a “winner”. The only way to give OP a fair answer to his question is to handle the question asked as clinically as possible. 
Even under the perfect conditions the game wont allow 30 mobs to stand close enough to eachother for a mellee-user to hit them all at the same time with a combo. ToS stormfield cant hit unlimited targets, max is 7 at a time afaik with neptu specced.
Tos, Barb & Hox is out 
Necro ( icestrike with 5+2 meter splash radius ontop of their base-splash-radius from SW and Feats) and Demo (WoF) can most likely hit all mobs at the same time.
Shared winners of OPs question 
necro demo
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i don’t think so. The demo can AoE as many adds in there, many of his AoE have no limit in the numbers and the IoA is the largest AoE in game that can also put a dot on all the targets, with really a low cd and can be used together with the other havoc AoE.
The thunderclap, a skill that is often ignored but can CC as many mobs in there for about 9 seconds and dps them at the same time, plus the WoF if maxed, otherwise almost worthless.
The nec is more a single target mage, but his other build goes more into melee, while demos is pure AoE and with the buff he can basically damage everything in the spot.
The nec AoE do not even get closer to the ones the demos have, even if the nec AoE can hit many mobs still does not make the same amount of damage the demo does. Regards.
That’s true, but hox doesn’t have only combos, but a decent amount of aoe spells too (a well placed tox would do wonders in that situation), plus the radius of pillars can be extended, and the dot from btd can spread to nearby opponents.
So, even in the basic conditions, the answer is not so easy.
HoX has the best cc’s but it isn’t the best aoe dmg dealer. All pillars do burst in 1 target, in others target’s it’s like -70% dmg. Dot’s from btd, spitfire, burning hex, pillars isn’t strong. Inferno can hit hard, but u need to stack x10 flame lash effects. Ye, HB every 5 sec it’s cool, but distance isn’t so big. So, as guy who played on this class too long i can say that necros and demos have better aoe dmg. In pvp it’s 100% cos they are range dps.
Dot from BtD is not strong? its one of the best dots in the game.
The 10 stacks of flame lash you get within 1 pillar combo in an aoe fight. plus you got avatar aoe dmg which hits like a truck too.
most hox spells are restricted to 12 targets only but im sure in a realistic aoe fight hox easily keeps up with nec demo. ive seen it many times, even before t5 rune was a thing.
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Ye, in theory it’s all works cool. But in real fights BTD dot work on 1 target(it’s really strong dot, yes) on other enemies go another spell named Spreading Flames(magic spell which isn’t same strong). Moreover the strongest BTD’s dot is from last combo with 3 step+long animation. 10 stacks from flame lash u will get after 2 pillars minimum… and it’s only if 3-4 enemies will be near u. So what we have? To do all this super theoretic damage u need more than 15 sec. Isn’t too long?) Imagine what can do demo by 15 sec. U have seen it many times but look like didn’t try play on hox to argue with me.
https://goo.gl/r4HrRL How many aoe dmg spells u see in build like that?) Only 2, HB and inferno, and inferno curse with burning hex which is mostly debaff than aoe dmg. And it’s build if try do maximum aoe dmg in avatar. Poss has tongue which is really op spell, but cd 2 min 
If you position right you will apply btd 6 dot on more than just 1 target. and yes the animation is pretty long, thats why you preload the combo by doing the combosteps before the fight begins… so if you hit the combofinisher on lets say 3 targets you will get ~3-5 lash stack from that alone, so with another pillar combo you will easily reach 10 stack and cast inferno. thats within a timeframe of 7-8 sec(need to test effectif numbers when im in home). so withing ~10 sec you will reach maximum dmg potential in an aoe fight.
The spreaded dot from btd may not be as strong as the btd dot itself but it has the potential to crit with makes it almost as good as the main dot since the main dot cant crit(only with PoT perk).
And of course this is all in theory but thats why there’s not many good hoxes around because most cant do with a hox what would be possible.
"by doing the combosteps before the fight begins… so if you hit the combofinisher on lets say 3 targets you will get ~3-5 lash stack from that alone. "
U have 25% chance to get lash stack. Btd combo all time easy to interrupt. BtD combo isn’t aoe and don’t have big area to land it. 2-3 enemies are maximum, moreover they must stand close for that. And m8, u can check about lash stack, they don’t stacks so fast as u think 
I agree, don’t see any good hoxies which use this class on maximum, only spam btd with t5 rune… But it’s only another point that demo easier so it’s easy to do bigger aoe dmg
But all have their opinion, may be u are right, but on sieges demos and necros really was much stronger.