I was glad to see the Rureword like Mosaic! And it mentioned that “buff MA Sin”.
However, Phoenix Strike would gain few improvements even if dual Mosaic could have 100% chance not consume charge ball in the Finish Moves due to NHD (Next Hit Delay).
Fortunately, we have more choice which cost few to help MA sin!
Let’s see the pain points for MA sin:
- Next Hit Delay. Especially for Phoenix Strike (layer2&3 charge and Plague CTC poison nove and Claw of Thunder layer2&3 Nova&charged bolt are sharing 4F NHD).
- If a charge move is blocked by enemy, the charge level will not up.
- Phoenix Strike cannot get any damage bonus from + % (Cold/Fire/Lightning Skill Damage).
If we resolve the above 3 pain points, I suggest turning down the % chance of Mosaic’s legendary effect.
Let me explain them in detail:
- Next Hit Delay.
“Phoenix Strike” layer 2&3 Arc lightning bolts & chaos ice bolts, “Claws of Thunder” layer 2&3 Nova, Runeword “Plague”'s chance to cast “Poison Nova” have the 4 Frames sharing NHD.
In v2.4 or v2.5, if Assassin release full charged phoenix strike with Dragon talon, the major target often only takes 2.5K cold damage and a low level poison nova, the most powerful arc lightning bolts damage is eaten by the 4F sharing NHD!
If you tried to charge Claws of Thunder and Phoenix Strike – it would be NHD eaten damage nightmare.
So will Mosaic save the Phoenix Strike Sin?
Let’s see what will happen with Max chance Mosaic.
Assume that dual Mosaic Claw have 100% chance not consume charge ball.
Now you charge 3rd layers of Lv45 Phoenix Strike and release it with lv 26 Dragon Talon (5hits). it costs 7f x3 + 3Fx4+7F = 40Frames
What will happen?
Yes, there would be countless chaos ice bolts filling up your screen and even jamming your computer.
What about the damage? Only 3 ice bolts would cause damage to the main target!
Lv45 Phoenix Strike (max on Blade of Ice): 2.5K cold damage. the main target got 7.5K cold damage.
In 40Frames, Nova sor can cause: 8K x 5 = 40K lightning damage!
The same thing happens on Phoenix Strike 2 layer charge:
Lv 45 Phoenix Strike (Max on Claw of Thunder): 1-10K lightning damage. average 5K.
in the same scenario, the damage major target would be only 5Kx3 = 15K.
Since in D2R, not as same as traditional D2 game: the layer2 charge Lightning bolt is NOT chained lightning, but an arc lightning bolt with 2 types of fixed path.
I agree that chained lightning should have 4F NHD, but lightning bolt should not have NHD but enable “last collide” mechanism.
That’s the major reason that Phoenix Strike Martial Arts Sin is so weak.
If we remove the NHD for 2nd and 3rd layer, even if without Mosaic:
the ice bolts damage to major target would be: 2.5kx16= 40K, in 40Frames.
the lightning bolts damage to major target would be: 5kx6= 30K, in 33Frames.
Phoenix Strike, can be got at Level 30, has the chance to compete with Sor Nova!
- The charge moves could be blocked by some enemy (Baal, Diablo). Then ASN cannot get any charge ball.
However, we have no idea for the blocking system.
Even if the charge moves have 95% hit chance, Baal can still block 50% of the hit chance.
Therefore, expected hit rate is only 47.5%.
It means, the MA sin has only 47.5% chance to get a charge ball in each charge move.
For melee physical damage build like Zeal, the drop in damage is easy to expected.
However, for MA sin, the effect was scaled larger - The difficulty of controlling the charge layers increases exponentially!
e.g. I always want to cast Layer 2 Phoenix strike - it would be so hard, if the charge move was blocked.
- Phoenix Strike cannot get any damage bonus from + % (Cold/Fire/Lightning Skill Damage).
Actaully, it should be a Fire SKill / lightning skill / cold skill. but in Diablo 2, it is not…