10 hours ago, Nephalem.8921 said:
This is also not how vuln works. What has condi ignoring armor to do with vuln?
Sorry, I thought vuln only affected power damage, but since also improves condi damage, the chose of frailty sigils makes even more sense.
Let's talk about the reasoning behind Hizen's build, since in the past its iterations were quite stable, but after SotO they changed a lot:
In the past He used to advice runes of tormenting for condi Herald and Vindicator builds, and runes of Nightmare for Renegade; in sigils was usually either Torment, Bursting, Doom or Geomancy, but now most of them are gone. Why?
For core Rev, Herald and Vindicator the condition weapons were mace and axe, and Mallyx as the main source of conditions with Embrace the Darkness (torment). So condition damage for those were focused in torment, then burning and everything else at distant third place. Renegade had the short bow which added bleeds in spades and made the mix wider. For that reason runes of Tormenting were the main choice for core, Herald and Vindi: provided a torment duration boost which made easy to cap 100%; the healing x torment ticks were also phenomenal for sustain, and even after the nerfs which replaced them by regeneration they were very good. That made 100% torment duration and ~72% in other condis. With Renegade instead He adviced Nightmare runes for the 20% condi duration because bleeds, torment and burns shared damage, so it reached ~92% condi duration across all condis.
SotO radically changed the landscape: 6th rune bonus are gone, which means that the juicy sustain bonus from runes of tormenting are out, and now every spec (even core) can run any weapon of the profession. This means that ouside builds which only deliver a single condition (as burn Firebrand, and even then can be argued that can deliver some bleeding) and could get benefit from the 50% condition duration bonus to a single condi (as runes of Blathazar) for the vast bulk of condi builds in the game going for bonus to all conditions is better. And that's why rune of the Trapped killed rune variety fior condi builds: condition damage + 20% condition duration (shame for the wasted fear duration, tho).
With celestial + trapper runes you can reach ~82% condi duration. In the infussions, you can chose to go condition damage, or power, or expertise. The first ones provide 90 raw points, with expertise you'll reach 93% condition duration. There's alternatives: Malice sigil does almost the same, but costs 2 slots in weapons; Aristocracy relic ads up to a 15%, but then you lose the extra procs from Fractal relic or even Akeem. Since they can be expensive for new players, whic choice if better from infussions? Expertise ones are unusual, so oftenly they are not used; personally my gear is legendary so I can experiment... For new players I would advice power since condi could be better at PvE in a condi build but power in celestial gears works in every game mode.
So, the reason Hizen moved to expertise infussions was to almost cap the condition duration with every condi, but waht about the sigils? He no longer needs Malice in the weapons; since the Renegade build has plenty of crit chance and fury access (Endless Emnity) one choice is sigil of Torment, now what? Geomancy or Doom to proc one extra bleed or three extra venom stacks each 10 seconds? Bursting for the extra 5% condition damage? Nope: He goes with the extremely cheap, incredibly underrated sigil of Fraility. This sigil is never sused in instanced content becacause in organized groups the 25% vuln cap will be reached even afking, so there is a waste (groups will have specific slots with builds which are good at spaming vuln, the same that others are good at spamming might or cc, etc.). But here He's showcasing a build for soloing in PvE, and let me tell: I've using those 2 fraility sigils in his Spellbreaker (both power and cele) and Berserker (cele) and you cap the 25 stacks and remain there without a problem (by the way, in the video showcasing the build I think Hizen is not running Frailty sigils at all). He incorporated that choice to most of the cele builds which doesn't require other specific things to work (as Mirage running Energy + Cleansing for obvious reasons).
So yes, yo lose damage in celestial compared with trailblazer and of course viper/greiever gear, but you get so much tankyness and self sustain in return that it worths it, and also the damage is not bad, since the power creep after EoD + SotO is nuts and you are fighting foes permanently in 25 stacks of vulnerability.
Blood Fury: is a good point, I think the three initial traits are strong and any would work; the %25 bleed duration would be a waste as the gear in this build is designed, tho. Why no Vindication trait? I don't known, I always run it unless I want to provide alacrtity with RR.
Traitline choices, Salvation vs Devastation: I think Devastation is currently a joke outside instanced PvE. It provides some damage buffs centered mostly in power (which are largely irrelevant in this build) might and extra damage buffs so will do more damage, but Battle Scars isn't even close to the Salvation traits in trems of self sustain and defense: just the fact that you get perma vigor from EE and it sinergies wornderfully with salvation: you heal and clean a condition after every evade and you get small barrier procs every 3 seconds x boon proc makes the traitline if you're playing solo. Yes, well played against some champions and bounties a power or condi build more focused in damage will be better (as the toxic Spider Queen or the Bounty Hunter bandit champios) but try to solo Seneb or Mandulis with a Devastation build and you will be chewed and spit in the floor...
I appreciate your insight and different approach, tho, since I've learned things that I've missed.
