Return of Reckoning

Patch killed best solo def meta build: full monstro + half brut.

Nothing got in return. Slight nerf for Sav build because of AA brut bonus reduction.

The only improvement is for Wb play in ST build.


Solo mara got (gut) ripped (

brut tree doesn't feel right. Impale on 10sec CD, Flail moved to brut. With Mutating Corruption tactic make Corruption a core ability at least.

with the recent class changes I wonder which tactic setup performs the best right now in terms of dps. I feel like "Changer's Gift" as well as "Mutating Corruption" are fairly nice tactics. "Piercing Bite" has only seen nerfs lately decreasing its AP down from 50% down to only 15%.

When using WS gems in gear, I feel like "Brute Force" is a must to increase strength to a decent level. Also I think "Growing Instability" is a must tactic. Same goes for "Feeding on Fear". I am uncertain whether "Piercing Bite" is still good enough, or if it should be completely replaced now with the recent nerfs.

"Mutating Corruption" and "Changer's Gift" seem especially nice for Brut Marauders as these increase WS quite significantly. Though tactic slots are limited and I am unsure which tactic setup is now the strongest.

I am running "Brute Force", "Changer's Gift", "Feeding on Fear" and "Growing Instability" now but still testing with "Mutating Corruption" as well.

When running Cookie Cutter Spec I think "Changer's Gift" is especially strong when switching Mutation to Brut for Guillotine as the tactic increases Strength and WS for 120 for 3 secs.

arcane600 wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 8:05 pm "Mutating Corruption" and "Changer's Gift" seem especially nice for Brut Marauders as these increase WS quite significantly. Though tactic slots are limited and I am unsure which tactic setup is now the strongest.

I am running "Brute Force", "Changer's Gift", "Feeding on Fear" and "Growing Instability" now but still testing with "Mutating Corruption" as well.

Mutating corruption does not stack with thrium proc .s

Mutation Corruption is not working at all. Savagery stance and brutality.

Vendial wrote: Sun Jan 04, 2026 6:50 pm Mutation Corruption is not working at all. Savagery stance and brutality.

It is intended for the Corruption ability, not for mutations.
Use the Corruption ability in the respective stance and you will see that it works.

The only downside is that the tactic scales with the Savagery stance.

They add blackguard/statfluff mechanics to slow you down. The new tactics are superfluous with end game gear(monstro corruption tactic). You'd be using your kd to apply all this new stuff. Magus would perform the same duties and with one more second of precious cc. Like the BG that has the ramp up, now prepping your damage in stances kinda does the same thing making it so much slower, and miniscule amount of benefit for the micro you have to put in. The ideas behind stance based abilities is always some thing I wanted to see but this is ain't it.

Savagery bro's prolly still gonna dink with the class, but for wb play it's for leaders only now. I like the idea behind the stance mechanics, but let it end at the stance cast. You can tell they are so scared of it being op: the short lingering buffs across stances, the nerf of the stat tactic into one cruddy tactic that only buffs the prepatch amount when you switch. This is a nightmare for NA players dealing with latency, just like the dok and wp dps specs being overcooked with short windows to do stuff in. NA ping should not play with these stance change tactics.

PS Whoever is doing these changes please leave sorc/bw alone. When I picked mara as a main, folks told me it was the most nerfed class. I never understood the change after the first backend end 'rework' that was seen as a nerf, to first tier talents being stance locked, the nerf to monstro stance buff, to the recent nerf to all melee before holiday break. Can we get an extra second on kd now?

"- Thunderous Blow - Wounds debuff applied before damage. Base damage reduced from 225 to 150.

Wounds debuffs that also deal direct damage will now apply the Wounds debuff first and the damage second. Damage has been reduced slightly."

While the change is certainly good, I feel like whenever the mara gets something, something else is always taken from him as well. The mara needs a lot more work, escpecially the st tree brutality. Remove stance requirements from some abilities to push build variety. Give some flexibility back to the class instead of being too restrictive with stances and tied abilities. Make brutality the st burst tree again that it once was. I can remember when you could go full brut + concussive jolt, which you could use in brut stance. Good days.

arcane600 wrote: Thu Feb 12, 2026 3:52 pm "- Thunderous Blow - Wounds debuff applied before damage. Base damage reduced from 225 to 150.

Wounds debuffs that also deal direct damage will now apply the Wounds debuff first and the damage second. Damage has been reduced slightly."

While the change is certainly good, I feel like whenever the mara gets something, something else is always taken from him as well. The mara needs a lot more work, escpecially the st tree brutality. Remove stance requirements from some abilities to push build variety. Give some flexibility back to the class instead of being too restrictive with stances and tied abilities. Make brutality the st burst tree again that it once was. I can remember when you could go full brut + concussive jolt, which you could use in brut stance. Good days.

I prefer to play 2h wp/dok because can easily reach armor and heal debuff. Mara have to use tactic for heal db and have to swap stance to reach armor debuff. You can even try 2H BO which is fun and doing better than mara.
I find st damage of mara a bit low.
Piercing bite nerf also reduce st damage of mara. Mara need armor penetration tactic for all atacks.
Stance dance is not worth. I know some of the mara's is happy to see +1k guillotine but they dont know 2H Bo hits +1k with channel per tick.
Mara is still playable but underperforms compared to other options.

arcane600 wrote: Thu Feb 12, 2026 3:52 pm "- Thunderous Blow - Wounds debuff applied before damage. Base damage reduced from 225 to 150.

Wounds debuffs that also deal direct damage will now apply the Wounds debuff first and the damage second. Damage has been reduced slightly."

While the change is certainly good, I feel like whenever the mara gets something, something else is always taken from him as well. The mara needs a lot more work, escpecially the st tree brutality. Remove stance requirements from some abilities to push build variety. Give some flexibility back to the class instead of being too restrictive with stances and tied abilities. Make brutality the st burst tree again that it once was. I can remember when you could go full brut + concussive jolt, which you could use in brut stance. Good days.

My feelings are similar – none of the changes made to Marauder have really changed anything. There's no reason for the average player to move away from Monstro and defense. I follow Armory, and almost none of the 80+ Marauders have changed something. I respect the work, but why so much effort to keep everything so constant?