Mortick's Brace actually do anything?

There is no known bug with Mortick’s, but it only has three useful runes: Insanity, Striding Giant, and the one that heals you. The others do nothing worthwhile.

When talking about Mortick’s and new items, it’s important to clarify the exact problem the Barb community has with the new items: With the exception of Flavor of Time, the new items do not provide a meaningful buff.

But even that has to be clarified.

Is Zodiac WW + Crimson’s, and Echoing Fury in the Cube stronger for early-Season, low-Paragon pushes than the base Zodiac WW build? It looks that way, yes. It might even be a little stronger for late-game pushes, but there are still a lot of questions about the items, because the highest clears still use the classic Zodiac WW build.

Read the posts starting here: [Archive] Barbarian Greater Rift Clear Videos - #68 by alex-26372

And here: [Archive] Barbarian Greater Rift Clear Videos - #73 by Free-1746

There is some insane stuff going on with WW right now, but we still haven’t seen true end-game pushes in non-Season, which is where the ultimate power potential of a build is tested.

Builds that have perma Wrath will likely use Mortick’s because it’s less of a conditional source of DR; unlike Parthans, it doesn’t require the same level of careful play. As a result, many players will find it easier to simply use Mortick’s over something else, particularly if they roll well.

Does that mean Mortick’s is truly best in slot?

For most builds, no.

And even for the builds in which it is best in slot, it simply replaces another item. Dark’s 133 Vile Charge clear doesn’t owe to Mortick’s. None of these new clears owe to Mortick’s because the bracer provides no additional damage. It is, at best, a lateral item swap that makes certain builds slightly easier to play.

So, folks who claim that our theorycrafting was “horribly wrong” are, well, horribly wrong. Lateral item swaps don’t warrant celebration. Meaningful buffs elevate builds above their previous power potential, something we have yet to see with any Barb build, and they elevate it based on a calculable metric that involves intra- and inter-class comparisons between builds, Paragon, and GR tiers–you know, the stuff we did in our proposal.

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