I made a char with hero editor for the ptr that had mosaic and high end gear to support it:
I had a fair bit of fun with it in the PTR and I was fairly happy with how it played. I did like the item in it’s PTR form, but with 100% chance to not consume and refresh I feel like there’s a lot to unravel and think about now.
Here's my thoughts so far:
Finishing Moves:
Dragon Talon:
Arguably the best finishing move in almost all cases, maybe a little unfair to Dragon Claw. It’s extremely easy to hit max aps of 6.58 kicks per second, even without BoS. The only draw back, imo, is the knockback on the last hit, making it less ideal for Phoenix Strikes Meteor and Fist of Fires burn dmg.
Dragon Claw:
It’s possible to hit 5 aps but requires a lot of ias, or the use of Burst of Speed. It is slightly slower but doesn’t have the knockback affect, which might be preferred for some skills and players. Maybe it will be possible to make a pure Dragon Claw spec now with Tiger Strike.
Dragon Tail:
The constant knockback and much lower APS potential is going to leave this skill relegated to only Tiger Strike, but I don’t think that’s an issue. The AoE is a little small in radius compared to PS or CoT, but it doesn’t have any NHD, is going to hit like a truck being locked in at max power, and the life/mana steal from Cobra Strike is going to be huge
Dragon Flight:
will still just be a mobility skill, but might be handy to have to keep your charges timer refreshed and a good first initial strike. I still think Engima’s teleport is more useful, but this is definitely another reason to use DF now.
Charging Skills:
Cobra Strike:
This skill is incredibly powerful now with Mosaic’s new mechanic. At just lvl 3 CS you get 100% Mana and Life Steal, it’s going to be an extremely useful and powerful qol mechanic and make the MA assassin much more durable.
Tiger Strike:
Tiger Strike + Dragon Tail just got much stronger with this change. It can also be used with Dragon Talon or Claw, it’d be a massive dps increase to single target. Adding in Cobra Strike with either combo is going to work well with Tiger Strike.
Fist of Fire:
Being able to stack a ton of burning pyre’s is going to be really powerful, but unfortunately it still converts all physical dmg to fire, so leaching resources is still impossible. I think they should make it so it only converts 50% of the physical damage to fire. Overall, I feel like this will just be skipped in favor of Tiger Tail.
Claws of Thunder:
You’re going to be able to unleash a torrent of Nova’s and Charged Bolts, I have a feeling there’s gonna be so much on screen that NHD might not even matter that much. You’re gonna be guaranteed to deal dmg pretty much the moment the 4 frames passes. I do wonder if this means most monsters will only ever be hit by the Nova, leaving the bolts to travel way off screen, but we’ll see.
Blades of Ice:
With 100% chance to not consume and it constantly refreshing, it’s going to be fairly easy to lockdown at only 2 charges and maintain constant aoe, while also avoiding the freeze. This should allow us to add in Death Sentry, but I still think it’s damage is fairly lacking. It already benefited from both +/- Cold Damage, so it’s not benefitting from the other bug fixes as much as the other skills.
Phoenix Strike:
Being able to lock into just 1 specific charge forever is going to be extremely useful if done correctly. Although, switching elements seems like it will be impossible without waiting for 15 seconds. I’m also not to concerned with NHD conflicting here, because you’re going to be able to unload a lot of dmg. Picking 1 element with a sunder charm might be much more viable, 6.58 Meteors or Chaos lightnings per second sounds interesting