Why are Tanks using Nunatak? Why do groups need and want it?
I’ve been asked about this a few times and it’s sometimes used in experienced groups as a replacement for Saxhleel Champion which provides Major Force and helps maintain a higher uptime on your group hitting the crit cap.
The reason why is because Nunatak is a 2 piece gear sets compared to Sax being a 5 piece. And they achieve the same outcome with Sax providing Major Force which increases crit damage by 20% and Nunatak proccing Major Brittle which makes the enemy receive 20% more crit damage so they are effectively a similar thing.
Now one thing to remember is the crit cap is 125% so its generally unnecessary to have Major Brittle combined with Minor Brittle, Minor Force, Elemental Catalyst along with all other crit sources and then Major Force on top of that as well as you’ll be over the cap meaning its a waste and it’s not providing anything.
The issue with using Nunatak is that you need to have someone use Nazaray to make it worthwhile because the base duration is only 4 seconds and it has a huge 15 seconds cooldown. You’ll need to communicate and time the procs of two monster sets to make it work and that cohesion might not be possible outside of more experienced groups, you’ll need to ensure the Nazaray wearer activates their Ultimate after the Major Brittle has been applied by the Nunatak wearer and you’ll also want them to be good a fast Ultimate building.
If the Nazaray user was to have 500 Ultimate this would mean that Major Brittle is applied for 29 seconds which is huge, by this point both the Nunatak and Nazaray would be off cooldown and could be used and combined again. If someone used an Ultimate on cooldown so lets say a 250 Ultimate cost this would make the Major Brittle last for 16 seconds but again the Nunatak would be off cooldown and could be activated again to make this 20 seconds.
So you’re basically getting a massive duration on Major Brittle meaning you should have a higher uptime and longer duration on your max crit cap either by having Major Force or Major Brittle.
The strength of this is a normal Aggressive Horn providing Major Force would only last 10 seconds, but for the same cost of 250 Ultimate and combining Nunatak with Nazaray you could get 20 seconds of Major Brittle instead to obtain a like for like group benefit.
One of the major issues other than needing to manage the use of two monster sets in combination with each other would be who uses Nazaray and which Ultimate do they use? Obviously you wouldn’t use Aggressive Horn with Nazaray otherwise what’s the point in using Nunatak. But if you put it on a Necro using Colossus, you would also miss out of the extended duration of Major Vulnerability, so you would have to plan ahead who uses it and with what Ultimate to ensure you’re maximising the benefits of both monster sets, and you want the Nazaray user to be someone who is able to build as much Ultimate as fast as possible.
