I’v been doing some napkin math lately in regards to some PvE condition builds for the revenant and have come to a few disappointing conclusions. I absolutely love Mallyx stance both thematically and visually however I believe some number tweaking is in order to fully bring him into viability. Below I have simulated a most ideal PvE condition build for the revenant to theorycraft how well its dps could manage.
Gear to be used:
- Full Ascended Sinister Gear
- Versatile Malign Infusion
- Superior Rune of Torment
- Toxic Focusing Crystal
- Bowl of Garlic Kale Saute
- Banner of Strength
Under the above conditions I can expect:
- Condition Damage of 2154
- Bonus Condition Duration of 50%
- Bonus Torment Duration of 167% (1.5 × 1.78)
Just to clear the air before anyone asks, specific condition durations such as torment, bleeding and burning will stack multiplicatively when it concerns two different modifiers (i.e. Condition Duration and Burning Duration).
Going from each notable weapon skill I have worked out the maximum maintainable condi stacks. Please keep in mind I have not considered the after cast of each spell so these numbers are expected to be slightly lower in reality:
Mace Auto
- 17.09 Torment stacks = 1928/3857 DPS
- 3.6 Poison stacks = 586 DPS
Searing Fissure
- 5 Burning stacks = 2327
Temporal Rift
- 4.27 Torment stacks = 482/964 DPS
Unyielding Anguish is slightly complicated to calculate as it both displaces enemies outside of its AoE and is only limited by its energy cost. I could assume in perfect scenario we would manage the spell so that we would constantly have the field rolling with little downtime. However, I have had little practice with the spell and as such will treat it as a utility spell rather than a rotational one.
With the revenants current kit, Embrace the Darknesss is also quite complicated to theorycraft. From what I understand, the principle behind this elite is simply to deal out self inflicted conditions in an AoE. However, considering how pathetic our self inflicted conditions are I would never consider using this spell for its actual mechanics. Drawing attention to the most recent patch notes:
- Embrace the Darkness: Reduced the pulsing interval from 3 seconds to 1 second. Decreased the self-torment duration from 3 seconds to 1 second per pulse.
- Empowering Misery: Reduced the casting time from 1.25 seconds to 0.75 seconds. The self-applied weakness no longer uses your condition duration.
- Pain Absorption: Reduced the casting time from 1 second to 0.5 seconds. The self-applied blindness no longer uses your condition duration, and its duration has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
- Unyielding Anguish: The self-applied cripple will no longer use your condition duration, and its duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
- Banish Enchantment: The self-applied vulnerability will no longer use your condition duration.
If our self inflicted conditions were to benefit from our condition duration, transferring them via Embrace the Darkness would be all the more attractive. However this in itself is counter-productive due to the duration cap transfer of 3 seconds. Additionally, pulsing 1 stack of torment every 1 seconds is pretty negligible in all situations not just PvE. The 15% stat boost provided by this form would serve better when activating large cooldown spells such as searing fissure and temporal rift.
Given the above, I would say that the revenants current kit is full of meh.
Why does the mace auto apply poison? Why is there a trait to increase poison duration when this is the only spell that applies it? Why is it so hard to get the condition threshold on utility spells by yourself? These are questions to which I don’t think there are answers.
In it’s current form, compared to all other current condition builds, mallyx greatly under performs.
Possible Soultions could include:
- Simply increasing the condition duration and stacks on all mace/axe spells.
- Replacing the poison on mace auto with burning to match searing fissure.
- Introduce a “master of corruption”-like trait to reduce utility cooldowns at the expense of more self inflicted conditions.
- Allow self inflicted conditions to benefit from condition duration.
- Removing the condition duration transfer cap from Embrace the Darkness.
- Allow Embarce the Darkness to pulse random debilitating conditions in addition to torment.
Anyway that’s my 2c.