Question regarding to Mosaic base, or claw like base in general.

Hi, recently I started my first ever char on ladder, and trying to get some ladder only runewords. and when ladder resets, I would get them for my non-ladder chars.

I am not an Assassin player, so I dont know much about claw bases. But I do get them a lot when farming anything. So, this time, I will be trying to forge some Mosaic runewords, then trade them with others.

My questions is, when forge Mosaic, what skill mods are most useful?

Phoenix Strike?

Dragon Flight?

So far, I have 2 ladder chars, and the storage space is bit tight. I only have one claw kept so far, a

Greater Talons [+2 Dragon Flight, +2 Dragon Tail, +2 Blade Shield], is this claw a good base for Mosaic?

Many thanks. ❤

Greater Talons is probably the optimal base (opinions might vary) - it has the fastest speed (along with

Runic Talons) among all claws and it has decent str/dex requirements (

Runic Talons has higher requirements, being elite).

When it comes to +skills - there are two main things to consider.

1. Damage (

Phoenix Strike,

Claws of Thunder,

Blades of Ice)
- these will give you higher damage output

2. Utility (

Dragon Flight,

Mind Blast,

Cloak of Shadows,

Weapon Block,

Shadow Warrior,

Shadow Master,

Fade)
- these will save you skill points (provided you even want/need the respective skills)

Ultimately, it's not going to matter much unless you mainly play with high player counts.

- A few + to damage skills will give you higher damage output, sure, but seeing as you melt stuff anyway with plain claws, you don't really need it.
- You don't really need to save skill points, as maxing

Phoenix Strike,

Blades of Ice and

Claws of Thunder only takes 60 points (not counting prereqs and auxiliary skills) so you have plenty of points to spare. 80 if you also max

Dragon Talon.

tl;dr, any claws will suffice.

If you really want to optimize damage,

Greater Talons with +3 to

Phoenix Strike, 3 to

Claws of Thunder and +3

Blades of Ice are best for damage. You will (probably) never find that though, nor be able to afford to trade for it (probably).

Greater Talons with +X to

Cloak of Shadows, +X to

Mind Blast, +X to

Weapon Block, +X to

Fade, +X to

Shadow Master, +X to

Dragon Flight (whatever combo accross both claws) will save you a total of 10-12 skill points (depending on whether you want

Claw Mastery and

Burst of Speed). Where to place them instead though?

I have just made a Mosaic using a base with +2

Phoenix Strike & +1

Blades of Ice.

Rolls are not great, 224 ED + 14 Cold, 14 Lightning, + 8 Fire

I guess I will make more! thanks for the reply

EDIT: reading your guide makes me feel I am a noob again. haha, I really do not have much experience on ass. have to check out each skill you mentioned. it is fun, thanks again.