I will try to make this short. TLDR: Mallyx still needs work.
Mallyx was once a polished, great legend (due to revolving around self inflicted conditions and pulsating pestilence effect being incorporated on Embrace the Darkness) but is now a shell of what it once was due to it being reworked for being conflicted in roles with that other profession that pulls/self inflicts conditions. I have seen Mallyx mainly used for the Embrace the Darkness effect of plus 10% stats on POWER builds in conjunction with Shiro, in between impossible odds/legend swaps for energy.
As a condition focused legend, this is not right.
Unfortunately, Mallyx does not couple well with other legends (aside from Glint’s facet of elements). So here is a breakdown of some of the shortcomings I have personally encountered using Mallyx and maybe how they can be improved, in comparison to the other legends that I feel are fully fleshed out.
Weapons:
Mace is the only revenant weapon to inflict damaging conditions. Other weapons revolve around power builds (axe works with both). This forces you to stay on mace in order to reliably apply condition damage. In addition, there is no trait for mace or axe (or hammer to throw that in), in comparison to sword vicious lacerations , staff tranquil benediction , and shield soothing bastion.
Minor Traits:
These are in a good place, revolve around torment application, tho opportune extraction is redundant with spontaneous destruction and should be merged (leaving room for maybe a weapon trait?)
Adept Traits:
Venom enhancement is also in a good spot, a solid dps increase.
Replenishing despair is almost useless with the cooldown, and should be reworked without cooldown smaller numbers or merged all together with Demonic defiance because it is hands down the superior choice in dealing with conditions (as both contend for the same purpose). This further causes problems with pain absorption (energy cost) which will be discussed later.
Master Traits:
Bolstered Anguish problems with pain absorption and the lack of self inflicted conditions Mallyx once had.
Frigid Precision is just a copy of Glacial heart with an added cooldown and no weapon support. May see some use in spvp or wvw but the cooldown is too long and spontaneous destruction is almost always the better choice.
Spontaneous destruction see above.
Grandmaster Traits:
diabolic inferno the cooldown and the high cost of other elites in legends makes this skill ridiculous to try and reliably use. The burn is small/too low and it does not work well with other legends. An easy fix for this would be to change this skill to cause periodic burning (3 second interval?) while you have an upkeep skill channeled (or negative energy/going below 50 energy to prevent Glint abuse). This would cope well with other legends as they all have upkeep skills that could then more easily utilize this trait.
Maniacal Persistance at the most this trait gives you 10-20% crit while you are consistently hitting things in combat. If anything, this trait should change to be similar to warrior Furious to better support condition damage.
Pulsating Pestilence frankly, this is just leftovers from what Mallyx used to be. As it is (it is bugged and does not work) the cooldown is too high and the %chance is too low to be reliable. This doesn’t work anymore without the self inflicted conditions. Something simple such as adding poison to Embrace the Darkness effect would work, or adding back Embrace the Darkness original effect (inflict torment, self inflict torment, copy conditions).
Skills:
Pain absorption cost too much, is useless compared to demonic defiance which is a better option to deal with being conditioned bombed as bonus resistance is not applied to yourself for conditions already on you (only those pulled). This skill needs to be reworked, only really seen it use with Glint and Facet of Nature in very situational instances to GIVE resistance to others. There is almost always a better use of your energy.
Banish enchantment this can hit multiple foes (pierce beam) not sure if intended, but taking the trait again makes this skill redundant and a misuse of energy unless facing heavy boon setups (used to apply bonus confusion, now sadly does not and the damage is very mediocre).
Unyielding Anguish is good what usually everyone uses energy on (does pulsing critable dmg, applying bonus torment). More energy efficient than Embrace the Darkness for condition damage, and it creates a dark field.
Embrace the Darkness this use to be great. You use to feel like demon running around using this. The state of decay is appalling. This is superior to unyielding anguish if you are running around constantly having to move (even tho unyielding anguish is arguably a leap). This could be changed to create a mobile poison field/dark field to give it some utility comparable to unyielding anguish, the main contender for energy use. The plus stats mostly supports power builds which is not part of this discussion.
I feel like the rework was shoveled in under the other legends and was not addressed before release. What are your experiences and opinions of using Mallyx?
(edited by Potato Slayer.3107)