Increase the base max amount that the ability lasts to 30 seconds and keep everything else the same. Rewards players for stacking it multiple times in a short period rather than refreshing at a max of 10 or 20 seconds. Would encourage more aggressive play and maybe free up a talent or two.
Currently Chemical Dependency is the stronger keystone, with the main reason being how consistent it is. It’s up and running at the beginning of the game and doesn’t really fall off afterward. And it doesn’t take any real risk or specific gameplay to keep running and has better survivability with TDR and CDR, so every play-style and build makes good use of it.
I think Adrenaline Frenzy is better than people tend to give it credit for, but IMO the big issue is most of the subnodes just give ways to potentially increase uptime. That’s just not a very interesting way to set up a keystone; I have the same complaint about Zealot’s Inexorable Judgment, which is also underrated IMO but feels like it has unnecessary tax nodes instead of interesting upgrades.
With Adrenaline Frenzy, you really need either Stoked Rage or Adrenaline Smiter (or both) to have high uptime on the buff. Neither of these change the core buff or give additional benefits. They’re just a point tax to make the main keystone effect more reliable. I think Stoked Rage should probably just be added to the base keystone itself because the 10 second duration is not long enough to reliably refresh the buff.
Adrenaline Assassin and Uncontrolled Aggression both feel like worse solutions than Smiter and Stoked. I’ve never really felt an incentive to take either of these nodes. Assassin could stay, maybe with slight changes, but Aggression should be reworked into some other effect instead of just being yet another uptime point tax.
How about leaning into the “glass cannon” class fantasy and make Uncontrolled Aggression a high-risk, high-reward type of thing? For example: you take 25% (or whatever%) more damage while Adrenaline Frenzy is active, but it doubles the effect of the Adrenaline Frenzy buff? That would be way more interesting to me.
I really like Adrenaline Assassin because it still gives you stacks from critting even if it isn’t a weakspot. Uncontrolled Aggression has more uptime than people give it credit for and I like to use it over assassin if my crit isn’t really high. Problem though is that they cost talent points lol.
Most weapons and builds tend to make better use of chem dependency from my experience. Combat Axe is one of the few weapons I think is better with AF though and it’s pretty damn fun.
I think Chem Dep is stronger in many cases, but it also costs more points in most builds. Adrenaline Frenzy typically only costs 2-3 points because you’re most likely pathing in the area already on a melee build, while Chem Dep often has 3 travel nodes before you even start spending points on the keystone. It’s important to think about the opportunity cost when comparing these keystones.