Diablo 4 provides players with various skills to customize their classes further.
In the case of Barbarians, such skills are Hammer of The Ancients and Whirlwind.
Continue reading to learn the differences between the HoTA and Whirlwind skills in Diablo 4.
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What Is Hammer Of The Ancients Skill In Diablo 4?
Hammer of the Ancients (HoTA) is a core skill for the Barbarian class in Diablo 4.
The skill requires a two-handed Bludgeoning weapon to use, preferably a Hammer. Furthermore, the skill costs 35 Fury.
Slam Your Hammer Down with the Fury of the Ancients to deal with the damage to a concentrated area.
Moreover, the players can enhance their skill to gain fury and deal extra stacking damage.
Additionally, this enhancement opens up further upgrades for the skill.
Furthermore, Violent Hammer Of The Ancients and Furious Hammer Of The Ancients are the two upgrades.
Furious Hammer of the Ancients deals 1% extra damage per player’s fury while casting the skill.
While Violent Hammer of the Ancient allows players to deal 30% more damage for 5 seconds after Overpowering with Hammer Of The Ancients.
What Aspects Can You Use With HoTA?
The Aspect that players can use with Hammer of the Ancients is the skill-specific Aspect, “Aspect of Ancestral Force.”
This Aspect allows the Hammer of Ancients to quake outwards and deal [32-50%] of its damage to enemies.
Furthermore, players can obtain the Aspect by clearing the Sunken Ruins. Players can also obtain the Aspect by extracting it from legendary items.
What Is Whirlwind In Diablo 4?
Whirlwind is a core skill for the Barbarian class in Diablo 4 that has different effects with different types of weapons.
Furthermore, the skill is a channeling skill; thus, players need to use their resources to channel it constantly.
However, the skill only costs 25 Rage per second.
The Whirlwind skill can rapidly Attack surrounding enemies for X[17%] damage.
Furthermore, players can enhance the skill, allowing it to gain one fury each time it damages an enemy and four furies each time it damages Elite Monsters.
Additionally, after the enhancement, it opens up further upgrades for the skill. Violent Whirlwind and Furious Whirlwind.
Violent Whirlwind deals 30% increased damage until it is canceled after using Whirlwind for 2 seconds.
Meanwhile, while using Slashing Weapon, Furious Whirlwind inflicts 40% of its base damage as Bleeding Damage over 5 seconds.
What Aspects Can You Use With Whirlwind?
The Aspect that the players can use with Whirlwind is the “Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind.”
The Aspect allows the players to gain extra critical strike chance by [3-8%] each second the skill is channeled.
However, this increment in the critical strike chance caps out at [9-24%].
Furthermore, players can obtain this Aspect after they complete the Garan Hold Dungeon.
However, they can also obtain the Aspect after extracting it from a legendary weapon.
HoTA Vs. Whirlwind – Which Is Better?
HoTA and Whirlwind are skills in Diablo 4; however, whether one is more effective depends mostly on the circumstances.
However, depending on overall performance, Whirlwind is better than HoTA.
Here are a few reasons why Whirlwind is better than HoTA;
- Lower Cost for Rage
- Better Overall Area of Effect than HoTA
- Aspect affects Critical Strike chance, which increases damage as you get better loot.
- Whirlwind does not need a specific type of weapon to use, while HoTA needs a specific type of weapon.
However, HoTA does excel in dealing burst damage when going up against Bosses in Diablo 4.
But the overall performance of Whirlwind is a lot better than HoTA.
The Bottom Line
The efficiency of skills typically depends on the players’ investment in the skill.
However, some skills are inherently better than others; thus, this is the case with HoTA and Whirlwind.
Hopefully, this article can help you choose between the skills. However, we advise you to play and test both skills and invest in the one that suits your playstyle.
