I may be willing to do the grind for one weapon, but definitely not for two. HoX has two options, one tailored more toward physical damage and one tailored more toward spell damage.
Which one is the better investment? Frankly I’ve never understood what the balance between melee/spell is for HoX but there definitely is one.
Hox is a mage. Focus on Intel and magic damage. Str can be nice but it’s not enough to worry about.
The issue is… what do combos use?
Obviously spells use Int and Magic Damage (Fire): Hellfire Breath, Flame Lash, Inferno.
But that’s only part of the class’s damage. I can’t imagine Hell Strikes cares about Spell Damage or Int. Same for Body and Spirit Wrack, Fire Lance, or Molten Steel Slash.
Then there’s combos like Burn to Death and Pillar of Infernal Flame that probably don’t use Int or Magic Damage, but maybe they do? I could see an argument either way, and the game just isn’t clear about it.
So when the choice is between:
-Sword A-
60 Strength
32 Intelligence
90 Magic Damage (Fire)
200 Combat Rating (2HE)
80 Hit Rating
65 Critical Rating
145 Critical Damage Rating
140 Combat Rating (Fire)
vs
-Sword B-
20 Strength
72 Intelligence
120 Magic Damage (Fire)
100 Combat Rating (2HE)
60 Hit Rating
60 Critical Rating
75 Critical Damage Rating
200 Combat Rating (Fire)
…It’s pretty unclear which is better. I appreciate the response, but “Hox is a mage” isn’t much of an argument when it’s also the only mage constantly doing melee combos.
At least Ranger-specific weapons get the “Your Dexterity instead of your Strength contributes to this weapon’s damage” boiler plate consideration. Would be helpful if HoX got the same consideration! 
As far as I know the clear majority of Hox dmg comes from Hellfirebreath and the dot from Burn to death. The dot aspect of Burn to death scales from Intelligence and Hellfirebreath is ofc scaled with magicdmg. Im not 100% sure the magicdmg sword is the way to go cos I never rly played HoX, but I would assume so.
Like Mori said the majority of a hox damage is fire magic. So you would want the kuth sword with the most intel on it.
You want to do your hellfire breathe and burn to death every time they are up and follow up with pillars as these are the bulk of your damage. Fire lance is also fire damage and great as part of the rotation. Inferno is best casted when your stack reaches 10x.
Hell strikes and molten steel slash are just filler combos that generally wont be used unless you get the t5 rune then HS will replace pillars.
Body and spirit wrack shouldn’t be used in a rotation except to drain a targets mana.
btd dot is scaling with both magic dmg and dps ^^
So 40 Int and 30 Magic Damage (Fire) is worth the loss of 40 Str, 40 Combat Rating, 20 Hit, 5 Crit Rating, and 70 Crit Damage rating?
Is that stated anywhere specific, or is it player-tested? Thx ^^
it’s tested.
everything depends on what type of mobs you want to be setup for. if the mobs have high prot, your str build is better. if the mobs have high armor, int build is better. most common mob types are higher armor than prot. t5 rune haven’t tested by me, so no xp there.
imo take what you like more and try to make the most out of it.
Yes definitely worth.
Even with high prot mobs, magic damage scales better. And while combat rating does work on BTD’s dot, fire combat rating does not and only improves the combos themselves. And Funcom liked to put a lot of fire combat rating on hox gear so yeah…
Once you have t5 rune, you can start caring a bit more about combat rating (the wb hox cloak for example) as that will make your finesse hit harder: against high prot or shielded mobs you’ll spam hellfire strikes 3+6 to maximize the amount of finesse hits you’re getting (combined with BTD and HFB of course). But without the rune, you just go full magic dmg/intelligence.
It’s both yeah. Weapon dmg & pure dps are both good, however strength is very lackluster which is one of many reasons why intelligence is a way better choice over strength.
Isn’t pillars also affected by magic dmg? I would think so at least since pillars on mobs with zero prot is very good, but shit on mobs with high prot.
Edit: what also was said here is a very good point. Combat rating (fire) does not work on btd dot, but combat rating and combat rating (2he) works. But again, not on the same lvl as magic dmg unless you get a very high amount.