Now that the season's about to be over, I have made my two mosaics. Compiling personal thoughts and various sources here.
I've seen one or two people call it "Discosin", but for clarity's sake I'm just calling it by the runeword it needs.
Stats[]
- Str: Enough for gear. The lowest possible, if not using Spirit, is greater claws with 76 str requirement.
- Dex: Ditto for strength; 76 dex requirement needed for greater claws, more if using higher level claws.
- Energy: None.
- Vitality: Rest.
Skills[]
There are two sub-builds, one that uses enigma and one that doesn't. Enigma fundamentally changes the character: teleport makes F/RW less useful. If not using Enigma, a point in burst of speed and dragon flight are practically mandatory; with enigma, dragon flight is unnecessary, but BoS is still essential for fast clear speeds.
- +1 to claw mastery, burst of speed, and weapon block (3).
- +1 to dragon talon and cobra strike (2).
- +20 to tiger strike, blades of ice, claws of thunder, and phoenix strike (80).
- +however many to fists of fire to get a total of +30 including soft points (3-15 points).
- +1 to psychic hammer, cloak of shadows and mind blast if not getting mind blast from oskills (3).
- +1 in dragon claw, tail and flight if not using enigma and not getting dragon flight from oskills (3).
- Rest into fade (4-20).
Note on FoF, CS, and PS[]
Fists of Fire convert 3% of physical damage to fire damage with each level. This means that the more points you have in fist of fire, the less useful cobra strike becomes. At level 34 FoF, cobra strike becomes completely useless, though in my experience you start running into leech problems as early as level 30. One solution is to not put that many points into FoF, but this causes reduced damage, particularly against bosses while using charge 1 of phoenix strike as FoF synergizes with PS. Another solution is to simply not use FoF. With even bad mosaics and sub-optimal gear the mosaic assassin 1-3 shots all enemies and boss packs anyway, so it doesn't actually increase clear speed that much.
Something very strange happens when I'm not using FoF, however; I don't seem to consistently leech. When using a weaker FoF in conjunction with all other charge moves, I always leech off of all leechable enemies. Maybe this can be attributed to next hit delay or something?
The ideal number of soft points to put into FoF depends on the gear. Assuming a +2 skills amulet, Griffon's, Enigma, dual mosaics, an SoJ/BK ring, +2 martial arts gloves, and an arachnid mesh as well as torch/anni and 9 martial arts GCs and a battle command, that means that putting just 3 hard points into FoF would bring you up to level 30. Fewer skill points is not necessarily a good thing, however, and the more hard points you put into FoF, the more effective your 1-charge Phoenix Strikes.
Why not Weapon Block or Claw Mastery?[]
Weapon block suffers from dramatic diminishing returns. Past level 5 or so, you're only increasing block chance by 2% or so. After level 10 each point only increases block chance by a pathetic 1%.
Claw mastery increases crit chance, physical damage, and attack rating. You are using dragon talon, which operates independently of claws, for the vast majority of the time.
Gear[]
- Weapon: 2x Mosaic Rune Words. While there is huge variation in how good these ostensibly roll, even worst-rolled plain Mosaics are good enough to clear screens even on players 8. There is no substitute; don't bother making the build if you don't have this.
MrLlama mentioned something about next hit delays making slower attack speed better; that aside, the best bases are greater talons thanks to their fastest attack speed. Runic Talons have the same attack speed, but require ~40 more dex and strength, and the extra damage is negligible.
So what's the best mods? In this order:
- Phoenix Strike will boost raw damage.
- IF NOT USING ENIGMA: Having even +1 dragon flight is very nice if you don't use teleport, saving two skill points in pre-reqs.
- Mind blast is useful for temporarily keeping enemies friendly, allowing you to refresh your charges while a boss is doing an uninterruptible wait period.
- Claws of Thunder for raw damage.
- Fade. While the +all res for fade has rapidly diminishing returns, the +to physical res consistently improves with every level, so +3 Fade claws are to be treasured.
- Blades of Ice doesn't do much damage, but more is always nice.
- Fists of Fire can be ACTIVELY HARMFUL TO THE BUILD due to negative synergies with Cobra Strike.
Some guides recommend trying to get claws with Blade Barrier or Death Sentry. Given that a level 20 blade barrier does maybe 150 damage per second, while you are dropping 40k damage per 1/8th of a second, I don't see the appeal. I suppose death sentry might be useful for carefully approaching areas where you're afraid you might die, or for clearing corpses.
Disregarding next hit delay (which I am doing because I still haven't the foggiest idea how it works), best possible would be two greater talons, with a combined of +3 mind blast, +3 dragon flight (if not using enigma)/+3 Blades of Ice or Fade (if using enigma), +6 phoenix strike, +6 claws of thunder.
- Weapon off hand: CTA+Spirit, with a caveat: If not using enigma, and using claws with a low str requirement, you will need to dump a huge amount of points into strength just to wield a spirit monarch. Otherwise, Enigma's huge +strength makes this requirement meaningless.
Dual claws with +BoS or Fade are an excellent alternative, as is a teleport staff if not using Enigma.
- Body Armor: As detailed above, having an enigma makes the build a lot faster, stronger, and more straightforward. Enigma's lack of resistances is potentially made up for the fact that it allows the assassin to ditch burst of speed and use fade, which adds a ridiculous amount of +all res.
If not using enigma, the best armor in my opinion is Hustle Rune Word. You need to get to your next target as quickly as possible in order to not lose your charges, and this armor will help you do that.
Skullder's Ire is the best MF body armor, but you are sacrificing clear speed pretty massively by using it.
- Helm: Griffon's Eye maximizes theoretical damage, and speeds up casts of teleport/dragon flight. A rare circlet with +assassin skills, all res, and fr/w or other useful mods is a strong all-round choice.
Flickering Flame Rune Word can be useful specifically for when using 1 charge PS to kill ubers.
The helm is less necessary for maintaining a good clear speed on lower player counts, and so can be subbed fairly painlessly with an MF option. Shako and Stealskull are fine options.
- Gloves: MrLlama recommends +3 martial arts +IAS blue gloves; according to Holysword's guide, it's best to stick with 4 frames of attack to avoid next hit delay problems, so IAS may be unnecessary or actively harmful. Crafted blood gloves could have a variety of useful mods. Magefist has FCR and also +fire skills which works with fists of fire.
Dracul's Grasp is good for applying leech if FoF is preventing life regen from CS.
Chance Guards for MF.
- Belt: Arachnid Mesh, together with Griffon's Eye, reaches the 42% FCR breakpoint.
For MF, Goldwrap can be a good option thanks to the IAS.
- Ring: Raven Frost is practically a requirement for good clear speeds in some areas.
SOJ/Bul Kathos, or a rare/crafted ring with all res, FCR, MF, stats...
Amulet:
- Crafted with +assassin skills, FCR (for teleport), resistances, stats.
- Mara's
Boots:
- Rare boots with triple res, FRW, MF
- Sandstorm Trek
- War Traveler's
- Natalya's: Mrllama recommends upping Natalya's. It's not necessary. Instead, the resistance (if needed) and +40% FR/W is what's important to maintain those charges.
War Traveler for MF.
Gameplay[]
Hotkeying can be annoying: You'll be cycling through BoS, Fade, BO, BC, TS, CS, PS, BoI, CoT, FoF, Teleport, AND dragon talon. Currently I have hotkeys F1-F9 on (in order) PS, CoT, TS, CS, BoI, Dragon Talon, BC, BoS, BO, with Q for FoF. Teleport is always right click on primary slot.
In almost all cases, you want 3 charges of tiger strike, cobra strike, fists of fire, blades of ice, and claws of thunder active. Start working on them at the start of each area, and don't be afraid to heal or unleash a finisher early if you start getting swamped, before continuing to the next monster group to finish getting all charges.
Against weaker areas (basically all of players 1-3 hell), use 2 charges of phoenix strike (lightning) and burst of speed. Against really tough bosses, use 1 charge of PS instead. Finally, in areas that deal a lot of damage (gloam or stygian doll-heavy areas on higher player counts) use fade instead of burst of speed.
Right before killing the last seal boss in Chaos Sanctuary, mind blast some of his mobs until one converts before killing the seal boss. This causes Diablo to start spawning, giving you plenty of time to refresh your charge timer when your converted enemy switches back.
When fighting the Baal Waves, open up a TP in front of him after killing lister and teleport away, refreshing charges on something away from the throne room before coming back. This allows you to kill Baal without having to reset charges.
Best Areas[]
If enigma isn't being used, mosaic assassin likes wide open areas with lots of monster density, allowing her to keep her charges up. Places that have multiple branches that are dead ends or are cramped will force you to reset your charges. With teleport, she can easily clear any area. The only concerning areas she may have is when faced with durance or worldstone keep. The temptation to click on any target she sees so as not to lose charges will (extremely rarely) get her killed due to the stygian dolls. Fade is useful in these situations.
Mosaic sin can easily kill uber tristram and uber diablo. Just make sure you have one charge on the phoenix strike.
Thoughts[]
Some guides recommend sunder charms; in fact, some recommend ONE FOR EACH ELEMENTAL DAMAGE. This is an insanely bad idea: not only are you making your squishy build about 3-6 times squishier, you don't need sunder charms! You're doing so many different types of damage already that you're going to essentially one shot any enemy or pack of monsters!
The damage you're dealing, even with mediocre claws and other gear, is so insane that you can probably drop 90% of the damage gear and just fill your inventory up with mf and survivability stuff. The best things to sub from optimal clearing speed gear are Harlequin Crest instead of Griffon's, Goldwrap instead of Arachnid Mesh, and War Traveler instead of Natalya's. These sacrifice a little clear speed and a little resistances for a considerable jump in MF. The things you essentially can't give up on are Enigma and the claws.
Gingergaming states that the build is not overpowered and is saddled with some shortcomings: high weapon upkeep from apparently eating up a ton of durability, as well as a "crackhead' mentality of having to constantly move and get the next "fix" of hits before the charges wear off. The former criticism is faintly ridiculous: I was able to run through all act bosses, all terror key bosses and the cow level and only repaired once, costing a couple thousand gold. The latter has more merit. If you are the type of player to enjoy taking your time going through an area, combing through items, and managing inventory at home, then this build won't be optimal. You have to constantly be on the move to maintain your charges. But aside from this *singular* weakness, there is little doubt in my mind that this is the strongest build in the game.
You have a character who moves super fast (with potentially native teleport), maxed resistances, massively shortened cursed duration, super fast attack, and every time she attacks she not only clears the screen of ALL ENEMIES REGARDLESS OF RESISTANCES, WITH OR WITHOUT SUNDERS AND INFINITY, she also instantly refills both her life and mana. No other build can do this. The closest I can think of is javazon, but javazon needs conviction and lightning sunder to get close to the sheer versatility of the mosaic sin, and even then she is slower because she needs to hit lightning immunes 2-5 times to take them down.
I hope they don't nerf this build too much in the future, though. It's just so damn fun.