The Catharsis masked is very bugged at the moment. I noticed this a few days ago when I obtained it and tried it out. It was so very bugged for me that I just assumed the devs might know about it and be working on it. However, according to the latest hot fixes that are coming, they might not. I'm off from work today, so I made a video of me running Heroic Lincoln Memorial and a bit of extra footage after just to test a couple things. I'll highlight some of the bugs in timestamps. I think the mask itself is very cool and extremely fun to use, I just want to see it work properly. The bugs boil down to the stacks resetting randomly and the heal not proc'ing. It seems taking damage from different sources somewhat bugs things out.
I'll write out what I'm using just incase there might be some weird interaction with some of the stuff I have equipped. The set I'm using with it is something I threw together to try it out with survivability in mind. I'm using a true patriot 4 piece with the backpack, gloves, kneepads, and holster. The zero f's chest with perfectly unbreakable, and of course the Catharsis mask. I'm also using the pestilence as my primary and the reviver hive and mender drone as my skills. I show the set at the start of the video.
1. At 1:50, the set seems to work properly and the heal procs like it should. It usually works the first time, but after that, it's extremely hit or miss.
2. At 2:10 you can see the stack at full or near full, but it disappears and the heal does not proc.
3. Starting at 2:20, you can see just a few seconds later, the stack completely resets, which it does a lot for some reason. Unless there is some unexplained mechanic I'm not aware of, this seems like a bug.
4. At 2:45 I exit cover and you can see the stack reset once again randomly. I continue to just run out in the open to have the stacks build again and at about 3:00, you can see the heal procs like it should this time.
5. At 3:35, the stack resets again.
Looking back at the recording, the stacks reset way more times than I originally noticed lol. Like a lot. So I guess I just won't list every time it happens. But if you keep an eye on the bar throughout the recording, it is very noticeable.
6. At around 8:25 is another good showcase of the stack resetting, or the heal just not proc'ing.
7. After the mission is finished, I run up to some random NPCs and let them attack me. At 16:35 you can see an NPC punch me and my stacks reset yet again. It gets even more weird after this. I run away, take off the mask and put it back on. I run back to the same NPC and at around 17:35 he attacks me with an arrow, takes half my armor, but my stack barely goes up. He hits me with another arrow and completely breaks my armor and again and the stack does not move at all...
8. I go over to some other NPCs and at around 19:35, the heal procs like it should.
So yeah, I don't really know what the cause is. Just wanted to lay this out so that the devs are aware of it and hopefully fix it soon. The mask is cool and fun to use when it works.