There's a lot to unpack on this legendary, so let's cover the effects, one by one:
- This is a net 30% damage increase on Arto di Abominio compared to not having the legendary. Nothing spectacular, 17 damage events vs. 13.
- With it equipped, Scudo d'Ossa generation becomes... rather fast. Let's compare with live:
No legendary |
Frenesia dell'Abominio |
Time since cast |
Bone shield charges |
Time since cast |
Bone shield charges |
0s | 3 |
0s | 3 |
6s | 3 |
3s | 3 |
12s | 3 |
7s | 3 |
|
11s | 3 |
|
15s | 3 |
The first 1s off feels like a bug, and will likely be corrected, but the remaining are all 4s apart (as expected), and the ability lasts 16s (up from 12s), totalling 15 Scudo d'Ossa charges, up from 9. In theory, this sounds great. In practice, on single target, you will overcap charges provided by this, thus reducing the value it provides. In Mythic+, the moment you press Arma Runica Danzante with this already up, you are guaranteed to cap charges no matter what you do due to the increased parry and Scudo d'Ossa's internal cooldown, making this also a case where you will cap and diminish the value of this legendary. - The damage component can only proc off enemies that it successfully grips. This is a recurring trend with this ability, where the previous incarnation of the ability was changed a few days before launch to grant Scudo d'Ossa charges independently of grips. Without it, this legendary might as well not have the damage component, as most non-trivial mobs cannot get moved, and if they can, you likely will not be able to grip them other than on pull (the grip has a minimum 8yd range).
As it stands right now, you'll waste the
Scudo d'Ossa charges this legendary provides no matter what kind of content you do - or you'll be forced to desync
Arma Runica Danzante to avoid this, which is risky as
Arto di Abominio already offers no defensive value beyond the
Scudo d'Ossa charges. This also means forsaking
Arma Runica Cremisi, assuming we're still limited to one legendary.
And even if it wasn't the case, you can't even benefit from the increased damage taken aspect on most pulls. By the time all the mobs you pull are in melee,
Arto di Abominio has barely managed to tag two mobs unless you also commit
Morte e Distruzione to slow their approach in order to be able to tag more mobs (
Arto di Abominio can only grip once per second).
Improvement suggestions:
- Make the damage bonus be on target hit by Arto di Abominio, not relying on the grip effect. This is the same as the change for the original ability, and makes it consistent throughout.
- Make it grant something other than Scudo d'Ossa for blood. I, for one, would love to see the legendary be changed to provide 4 times 3 Scudo d'Ossa, along with 2 seconds of Corruzione Runica each time, for instance. As it stands right now, some of the Scudo d'Ossa get wasted no matter what you do (you can only lose a bone every 2.5s. You gain 15 over 16s, meaning that you need to not parry or dodge and be hit every 2.5s consistently to not cap charges with the current effect, while also starting on 0).
Verdict: Hard pass.
Sentenza FinaleLet's immediately cover one detail: this legendary is
useless on single-target, and near-useless on 2 targets, as the
entire item effect relies on you being able to spread it. As a result, this immediately rules out this legendary for most raid encounters and a few dungeons (Theater of Pain has very low mob density, for instance).
The conditions to gain the buff are as follows:
- Due to how this legendary works, you need to actually spread Incatenamento Immeritevoli to gain a stack of the buff. The buff lasts for 10 seconds and is refreshed when gaining a new stack.
- Due to how Incatenamento Immeritevoli works, this needs to be spread to a new target (the debuff does not overwrite itself). The usual spread conditions, and all the bugs associated to them, are applicable.
This legendary's effect is extremely target-dependent as a result. At it simplest, it rewards you by refunding the rune-spending attack you used to spread it, very often fully (as
Assalto al Cuore tends to be the main spreading tool due to sheer quantity of actions). This means that, at least in theory and assuming the bugs on 9.0.5 and PTR will be fixed, you'll be able to sometimes hit that 10% strength bonus and gain 10 free runes during the cast.
This is not the full story, however, as the conduit buffing
Incatenamento Immeritevoli (
Proliferazione) also bugs it. Variants of this bug have been in since 9.0.5 and also existed prior to Shadowlands launch, but were mostly fixed in 9.0.2. When
Incatenamento Immeritevoli spreads, it spreads with its duration modified to last an extra tick, making it possible (with enough targets) to potentially bounce
Incatenamento Immeritevoli forever, as it gains a GCD each time it jumps.
As a result, this could, in some situations, result in a permanent 10% strength bonus, which, while it is nothing to scoff at, is once again eclipsed both in situational use (since it is applicable everywhere) and in general throughput, both offensively and defensively, by current legendaries available. It needs a
serious tuning pass to justify - even assuming that
Proliferazione is not bugged and you're able to get 10% strength, you'd be looking at, likely, a ramping 12s window + additional 10% 10s window, whereas
Arma Runica Cremisi will offer you 33% for 11 seconds, no quibble, no bullshit, no target count.
Verdict: Hard pass. Useless on low target count, and extremely weak elsewhere.
Trasferimento DilaganteNothing much to say here, for once, the tooltip is accurate and complete: while you're in your
Dovere della Morte, you generate 20% more RP; the stacks on the buff from it are increased by 1%
each, and last 2s longer, making it easier to refresh (or easier to refresh without spending a rune on a
Dovere della Morte hardcast). The only unclear/misleading part is that the
buff lasts 2s longer. It does not modify the debuff, nor does it make
Dovere della Morte last 2 seconds longer on the floor.
Verdict: Hard pass. 4% strength is what, 40 odd armor? We make fun of
Potenziamento d'Armatura del Danzalame and it provides more armor than that and doesn't cost a legendary. Once again,
Arma Runica Cremisi offers more runic power, more CD uptime on everything, and more damage.
This would make a great conduit to replace
Terreno Avvizzito. Heck, it'd be a great conduit period - modify a spell slightly while giving it an additional effect. However, it is both too weak and too boring to be a legendary.
Fame InsaziabileFor our last contender, we have an AP heal and AP damage proc at the end of
Nebbia Sciamante, encouraging you to spend as much RP as fast as possible during it. This means, that to get the most out of it, you:
- Go into Nebbia Sciamante with a near-full bar of RP
- Instantly pop Tempesta d'Ossa
- Hit Assalto della Morte every 1-2 GCDs (since Nebbia Sciamante gives you 15 RP per tick and you'll have a bit leftover after casting Tempesta d'Ossa), weaving in Assalto al Cuore and Ebollizione del Sangue. You can hit Conversione Runica for extra RP, too!
With all this, you can get to 280 RP spent in
Nebbia Sciamante as a maximum without going
fully into degenerate territory, netting you a total of 460% extra damage. Sounds like a lot? The base damage is 1.6k in full 226 gear, so you're still looking at, effectively, peanuts without going full degen. That, and unlike its original spell, it is hardcapped to 5 targets.
It doesn't seem to be able to crit, but that may just be testing bad luck.
The heal is noticeable when you slap 5 targets for 10k each, but frankly, if you're after the heal, you likely should've saved the runic power and used your trusty friend
Assalto della Morte to gain even more bang for your buck.
Verdict: Hard pass if you're not just after raw damage. Sim it if you are, and embrace the idiocy of spending
all your RP during
Nebbia Sciamante for a small bang at the end.
What do all these legendaries have in common that leaves them in the dust?
All those legendaries have a common flaw: they interact with no real part of the kit - the closest being
Trasferimento Dilagante, but even then, it's just a boring old strength multipler and a bit of RP.
Give us legendaries that really modify our kit. This is what our most impactful legendary does, and it's also surprisingly competitive in terms of raw effect in addition to deeply modifying our kit. Don't just build boring old legendaries that nobody will craft.
That said, all these four legendaries would make
amazing potency conduits. Man, imagine if we had decent potency conduits...