Part 2: Mortick's Brace
Many Barbs are hyped about this, but the truth is that this item is, at best, a lateral move for a small number of our builds. Since there’s so much misinformation about this item, and so much confusion over what it’s worth, I’m dedicating a whole section to it.
Mortick’s offers us the effect of every rune of Wrath, but before we there are a few things you have to understand about the Wrath skill:
- While it is used in every build, only 3 builds can achieve permanent Wrath. This means the item is only potentially useful in 3 of our 5 major builds, and 0 of our 3 minor builds.
- Wrath has a long cooldown. There are two ways to achieve perma-Wrath: You either use the IK set or the Zodiac ring. If you go with the latter, you have to manage cooldowns.
Got it? Okay. Before we get into the builds that can potentially use Mortick’s, let’s look at Wrath’s runes and see what they actually do.
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Arreat’s Wail’s 3400% Fire damage seems like a lot, but it’s similar to the Pain Enhancer gem in that it’s actual damage is negligible. It’s also only active on activation, which means it deals a miniscule amount of damage over the course of a rift, and much less over the course of a bounty.
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Insanity is the go-to rune since it acts as a separate multiplier to outgoing damage. Every build that uses Wrath already uses this. Next.
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Slaughter used to be really good. Then the proc coefficient of this skill was nerfed into the ground. Even if it wasn’t, it deals meaningless damage in today’s power curve.
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Striding Giant is popular with zDPS Barbs, and the extra DR is good for every build that can afford the item and the skill, but it fails to address one of the core problems of the class (hint: it’s not mitigation).
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Thrive on Chaos offers 5k Life per Fury, about the same as Ignorance is Bliss. This is equal to 2 Life per Fury rolls, and less if a build uses the Blood Thirst passive. In other words, it’s a nice boost to healing, but not make-or-break for any of our builds.
So what builds can use this item? Let’s break it down by build:
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Zodiac WW: For speed-farming T16, we can wear this and Witching Hour for a little bit more DPS, but that means this item offers 50% more CHD. We can’t use use it for pushing because we can’t give up the damage from Mantle in the Cube and Parthans offers more mitigation.
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IK HOTA: It can replace Aquila in the Cube, but so what? 50% DR for 50% DR? It’s better than Aquila, but only because it’s more consistent. IK HOTA is not a good speed build, and for end-game pushes, players will want Magefist in the Cube for additional Fire damage.
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R6 HOTA: Won’t use it since the build doesn’t maintain perma-Wrath and can’t give up the better mitigation offered by Aquila (or the DPS of Magefist).
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Vile Charge: Parthans offers better DR for pushes, so it’s not likely to be used except in speed-farming.
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Fire/Physical EQ: Won’t use it since the builds have low uptime on Wrath. Besides, these builds are already tanky.
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Our minor builds? None of them have perma-Wrath.
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LON builds? They’ll have to take Boon, 50% CDR, and possibly Messerschmidt’s in the Cube. But if you have 50% CDR, why not just take IP and wear PoC for the exact same bonus?
Let’s add this all up.
Of all our builds, only 3 can achieve perma-Wrath.
Of those three, only 2 can squeeze the item into the build without sacrificing a required item.
Of those 2–IK HOTA and Zodiac WW–only 1 could reasonably use it for speed-farming (WW) and 1 could use it for pushing GRs (HOTA).
For those two modes of play, Mortick’s is useful for speed T16 for WW. But for pushing GRs, Mortick’s is inferior to Magefist in the Cube for IK HOTA.
That means that Mortick’s, this legendary bracer that so many folks are foaming at the mouth to get their hands on, is useful for a single T16 speed build that, frankly, has other options.
In other words, it’s outdated junk. The developers even admit to as much:
If you played during the Patch 2.2.0 PTR, you’ll recognize this as an item that was later removed from the game before it went to live servers. At the time, Mortick’s Brace gave too much power for a single item slot. However, the power curve of Diablo III has changed significantly since then and we’re comfortable with bringing it back.
That’s the Developer’s Note included with the item in the PTR patch notes. Mortick’s Brace dates back to Patch 2.2.0, which was released in April of 2015.
Yes, you read that right.
Mortick’s Brace is more than 4 years old.
That is what we got this patch: a 4-year old item that wouldn’t even be powerful two years ago.
If that’s not a slap in the face, I’m going to need a new face.