Mora's Hand needs some changes.

[zinc bear]

Mora's Hand is a very interesting pact and one that has potential but currently it isn't living up to that potential. This stems from the abilities not really working with each other well or with the passives and inability to benefit from some of the aspects of the pact.

Hungry Flame (Passive)
Solid passive that can also be activated with Ember for a damage boost with good duration meaning it should consistently be up.

Smolder
This isn't useful currently. It takes too long to activate and really doesn't do much for the kit. The kit is lacking any real defensive help but wants the player to take constant damage. I suggest changing this to where the player gains a heal over time if there is a nearby burning enemy. It should be a lite HoT, not substantial.

Ignus Wroth
This ability does what is says, so that feels good. It is strange that it doesn't even have the chance to burn enemies so I would put a percentage chance, say about 20%, that enemies hit will take a burn status effect.

Ember
This ability does not function well due to the gameplay of Soulframe. The issue here is the game heavily discourages getting hit, especially in Cogah. Having an ability where you MUST get hit to receive any benefit from is strange when the pact also has no way of bulk recovering that damage. I suggest that this ability activates on block or parry as well. This makes sense as the character is still getting hit, and it enforces that proper use of the skill still requires players to put themselves in the thick of the fight.

Inferno
This ability does what it says but there is a weird catch. The self damage is way too high for a pact with no way to heal itself in its kit, it just seems very strange. If self damage was moved to be a burn status effect on Ingnus Wroth like discussed, then I can see the self damage here being removed. Other than that this ability is fine.
The self damage on Inferno has since been removed.

With the changes I have outlined it makes the pact more cohesive. You apply Ember and get into the thick of things, use Ignus Wroth to disrupt the field and hopefully benefit from the HoT on Smolder and make Inferno do more damage, block and parry as much as possible to get the most out of Ember. It gives a clear loop to players and creates decent skill expression as well when players can manage the moving parts and get the most out of each ability with proper play.

This isn't the only possible direction that Mora's Hand could be taken in, but it does need a definitive direction and I hope we arrive at that soon.

Edited to reflect game updates.

[frail epoch]

There are a few quirks in mora's hand kit that makes it a bit more viable than you say, but it does still need some work.
let me elaborate:
Hungry flames can be activated by ember without getting hit. it lasts for a very long time and is pretty much a constant +20 dmg at max rank. that removes the need to get hit by inferno to get the buff.
Enemies that are ignited have 50% of their armor reduced for the duration. this greatly increases the ability of mora's hand to deal damage with weapons and its abundance in its kit (in ignus wrath,inferno and smolder) makes for efficient armor removal.
Using a melee weapon allows to regain the damage taken by inferno when used in a close range. this isn't ideal and i would like to see magic weapons viable with inferno but it is a workaround that is available.
Ember can also proc smite, which is a nice property.

Changes wise: ember needs to reflect incoming damage, not received damage. if it were to work on blocking, it could lead to a very cheesy playstyle of blocking and letting enemies hit themselves to death. i dont know if that is the best way to handle it.

I agree that if inferno were to remain self damaging, the kit should have a way to regain health. my thinking is that if ember were to heal you for the damage it dealt then it could shield you from self damage and promote a more risky playstyle.

smolder is a bit out of place though, could be replaced by a different passive like you suggested.

[zinc bear]

All of those are good points and I do realize them, I guess I was keeping self damage as it was currently in the kit and wanted to have a bit of a back and forth with the self burn and the new smolder effect I mentioned.

You are right, the Ember changes could lead to some cheese in that way. Would putting an internal cooldown on damage activations and damage dealt by ember help if you were still able to activate it with block and parry?

Again, I am open to all ideas. Mora's Hand has fun bones and I really enjoy the pact, just it needs a bit more refinement and it really could go in a lot of ways.

[frail epoch]

making smolder become heal on burn is a nice idea, as it allows casters to heal as well. maybe making each burn tick you deal heal you for quarter the amount at max rank would work.
that alone would already be very strong in the kit. ember could have a chance of settings enemies on fire too but i fear the over-abundance of ignites will make the kit trivial.
moving the ignite chance to hungry flame from smolder's slow ignite would allow you to potentially proc the strip with attacks, but when i think about it things like fly-blades and rain or arrows would trivialize most things with it

also i would very much like inferno to explode without hitting an enemy

[zinc bear]

Yeah, a lot of things I think could benefit from an internal cool down so weapons that attack super fast with a lot of hits can't abuse them. It is a balance thing DE will have to address sooner or later.

[frail epoch]

this is how i currently play mora, i find melee to be much more comfy since ranged doesnt have any heal options aside from smite. it is very potent with fast hitting weapons due to the +30 dmg from passive and armor penetration.
i did test hits before buffs just to show how much it buffs the damage when everything procs.

my main issues are the high self damage from 3 and lack of healing back as mentioned. melee can spam its way into healing back but magic doesnt have that luxury.
this is a full spirit build for reference, so the lack of health is very much felt

[zinc bear]

Yeah, in cogah it is a bit rougher for melee as well but you are 100% right, the high self damage on the 3 is disproportionally heavier on a ranged build.
I have been using Mora's with a shortblade (Grinn) due to the very fast attack speed I can get with it to benefit from grey health return, though in cogah is where I find a lot of things feel really rough because you can't really take the hits with Ember as often due to the very high damage from enemies and Inferno can be a death sentence if timed wrong.

[frail epoch]

yeah, currently ember is more of a safety stagger in case you get hit (prevents consecutive hits) which does improve survivability, but its main role is to trigger hungry flame for me.
if ember were to heal back on damage dealt in some ratio it would make the synergy of 2->3 more effective, as casting 3 off cooldown on 2 would risks damage, but with 2 rewards you with double aoe damage and heals you back

another change id like to see is that at least one fireball from ignis wroth should target each enemy in a small radius (up to the amount of fireballs total)

so you cant whiff the ability point blank

[zinc bear]

Yeah if the ability was a bit smarter that would be nice, because I have had some instances where a lucky enemy manages to dance through the erruptions lol

[zinc bear]

Inferno no longer self damages so I updated the original post.

[runic mango]

Something you might not know in relation to the Hungering Flame passive is that activating ember gives you the bonus damage. No taking fire damage required.