Cobra Strike

Charge-up skill: consecutive hits add life and mana stealing to finishing moves; must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cobra Strike is the Martial Arts steal charge-up (level 12, requires Tiger Strike; it unlocks Phoenix Strike). It is a melee attack that deals no extra damage of its own: each hit that lands stores a charge, up to three, and the next finishing move releases them as life and mana stolen per hit. The number that decides it is the steal per charge, +40% at level 1 and +5% a level, so that three charges at level 20 are +270% life and mana stolen on the finisher.

The numbers

• Mana is a flat 2 at every level, so it is left out of the table.
• Steal is calc1 ln12: Param1 (40%) plus Param2 (5%) a level, 135% at level 20, 185% at level 30. One charge gives that much life stolen; two give it as life and mana stolen; three give double, 270% of both at level 20. The Basin's table matches these.
• Attack rating on the Cobra Strike swing is ToHit (25%) plus LevToHit (10%) a level: +215% at level 20. The Basin's page notes the 1.10-era value was 8 + 7 a level and that D2R raised it to the table's 15 + 10.
• Attack rating per charge on the finisher is Param4, a flat +50% per charge (progressive_tohit), +150% with three, at every level.
• Charge duration is Param3, 375 frames = 15 seconds.

The steal and attack-rating lines read lvl, so +skills from items count.

How it works

Cobra Strike is a melee attack (itypea1 "mele") at the weapon's full damage (SrcDam 128) that must pass a Chance to Hit roll. Each hit that lands adds one charge to the progressive_steal state, to a maximum of three; further hits only reset the 15-second duration (Basin). Nothing is stolen until a finisher releases the charges: a normal melee attack, Dragon Talon, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail or Dragon Flight, and with Dragon Talon or Dragon Claw only the first hit that lands carries them (Basin).

The steal is a percentage of the damage the finisher deals, returned as life and mana, under the rules of Leech: it is subject to the monster's drain effectiveness and to the difficulty's leech penalty like any Life Leech or Mana Leech from gear, and it only returns what physical damage the finisher does. With two claws the Basin says only the primary weapon is used for the Cobra Strike swing.

The steal is a share of the finisher's damage: a finisher that does little physical damage, or hits a monster with low drain effectiveness, returns little however many charges are up.

Charges from Tiger Strike, Fists of Fire, Claws of Thunder, Blades of Ice and Phoenix Strike can be held at the same time and are all released by one finisher while their durations last (Basin). The Shadow Warrior and Shadow Master can use it, though the Basin's Shadow Warrior page says the Warrior has not been seen using it.

Synergies and +skills

No synergies: skilldesc.txt has no dsc3 line for Cobra Strike and the row has no synergy calc; it feeds no other skill. Its lines read lvl, so a +skill is worth a hard point, +5% steal per charge; the Basin says +1–3 Cobra Strike can spawn on exceptional and elite claws of item level above 11.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player; the finisher's damage, and so the steal, is cut with it. The Basin's page says nothing else specific about players.

Build notes

• Level 20 is +270% life and mana stolen on the finisher with three charges, for 2 mana a swing and 15 seconds to release.
• The first level buys the most: 40% at level 1 against 5% a level after, so one point and +skills already give a large steal.
• Two charges are the mana point: one charge steals life only, two steal both, three double both.
• The return is only as large as the finisher's physical damage, so it pairs with a hard-hitting finisher and Tiger Strike's damage charges rather than an elemental one.