[1.1.4.0] Iskandarian Deserter - Iskandra's Elemental TSS Mage Hunter


29th July 2019 Update 1: Thanks to @mad_lee, Minor update by changing the belt to phantom thread Girdle, cutting cruci clear by 30sec.

The Build

IskandraFGR1_Panecrop
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NODm5Y2
With all permanent buff + Word of Renewal, Deadly Aim, and sitting on Inquisitor Seal.
DPS shown is not important.

Build Feature

Upside:

  • Fucking insane cruci clear speed
  • Resilient caster
  • Full spellcaster gameplay

Downside:

  • TSS damage is massive, but feels clunky
  • Doesn’t work if you are below an arch
Build Overview

People is hyped around the freshly buffed Trozan and here I am trying to make the new Iskandra work.

So yeah, this is a Trozan Sky Shard build made with the redesigned Iskandra set. The set provide a massive +%elemental damage, almost fully converting aether to elemental, and give massive damage to TSS. However, TSS cannot work by itself because it’s a CD based skill, thus need additional skill and proc to accompanying them. This build solved that problem with a lot of short CD damaging proc from item and devo.

To make all of them proc consistently, we utilize storm box + lightning tether, also word of pain for proc machine. Both of this proccing item and devo massively. Giving massive AoE and clearing trash fast. TSS nuke is used for single target damage and small AoE.

On defense, we have prismatic diamond proc, decent wraithwalker proc, flat absorb from Inquisitor seal + Phoenix Fire, censure reduced damage, Mirror of Ereoctes for panic button, and nullification. Use nullification generously for both offense and defense.

Equipment Choices

Try to get maximum CDR, maximum Aether>Elemental conversion, and Craft equipment at Kaylon for stun res. Aim for at least additional 10% for each piece.

Core Items:
Iskandra’s Unification Set:
Main Hand: Mythical Trozan’s Starkeeper. [BiS for any TSS build]
Rings: 2x Mythical Reign of Ice and Fire. [Very damaging proc which also leech. With storm box, it will create a whirlpool.]
Gloves: Cindertouch. [No proc build can exist without this item. (except maybe bonemonger)]
Relic: Ignaffar’s Combustion. [Mage hunter need RR. Get +Aura of censure for completion bonus]

Supporting Items:
Pants: Mythical Eastern Legguards. [Relevant +skills and good stats overall.]
Boots: Mythical Wraithwalkers. [This slot is flexible, I use it to cover for stun res. Use whatever you like]
Belt: Mythical Phantom-Thread Girdle. [Full offensive arcanist belt giving monstrous OA]
Medal: Luminari Commendation. [I just want to have more + to inquisitor seal, also DA.]
Movement Rune: Use whatever you like. I use rune of Ultos’ Arrival at the moment.

Devotions

A weird Devo I tested, mixed elemental damage based

Aetherfire > to Storm Box of Elgoloth
Elemental Seeker > to Word of Pain
Arcane Bomb > to Aether Corruption
Phoenix Fire > to Trozan’s Sky Shard
Elemental Storm > to Inquisitor Seal
Giant’s Blood > to Arcane Will
Ghoulish Hunger> to Whatever permanent buff

Gameplay

Keybind:
LMB: Point to Move
RMB: Inquisitor Seal
Mouse Scroll Up: Word of Pain
Mouse Scrool Down: Aether Corruption
Middle Mouse Button: Nullification
Keyboard 1: Movement Rune
Keyboard 2: Trozan’s Sky Shard
Keyboard 3: Storm Box of Elgoloth
Keyboard 4: Mirror of Ereoctes
Keyboard 5: Word of Renewal

Standard procedure:
Cast Word of renewal, ensure it to be always active or save it for heal
Scroll Up to summon continuous elemental seeker orb
Scroll Down to Spread Arcane bomb
Movement rune in/out.
Cast inquisitor seal below you.
Hold TSS button while casting storm box to multiple enemies.
Rinse and repeat while always holding TSS button

Ensure enemies to always hit by WoP and Aether corruption
Use Nullification generously for offense and defense, particulary for shielded enemy, clustered heroes, madqueen red aura, any hero mage, and nemesis.

Cast Mirror of Ereoctes when you are surrounded by multiple nemesis.

Build Performance

Crucible:
Update 1. For 170 Crucible, video with 4 buff without banner:

6:10 clear time. Yes, this is a NO BANNER run.

Old video with arcanoweave cord belt, still without banner:

https://youtu.be/Jm1EL0fVNPk
6:40 clear time.

Should be even faster if you meet no korvaak and zantarin.

Shattered Realm:
Will be check later, but I think it should be good.

This is one of the best build I made. Enjoy the new Iskandra!

Trozan’s skybreach??? What is that?? :crazy_face:

4 Likes

Searches for Iskandra set on last patch notes

Finds nothing

Damn. Did no one really discover how good this set is during the last patch or are the Arcanist changes that much? All I saw last patch about Iskandra were rants.

Nice job!

1 Like

Half and half. You could get ~6:50 average clearing times with 3b + vb in the last patch, but it was mostly driven by devotions. It still is to a lesser extent (Imp accounted for a solid 20 seconds in my own setups), to the point that TSS-free Iskandra clears Crucible in comparable times.

(Not to detract from this build, which plays to Iskandra’s strengths very well.)

1 Like

I think last patch maybe similar. I got 7:25 min without banner before.
I just found the most effective way to play this build.

Honestly, I think Iskandra’s TSS is stronger than Trozan set. The damage is quite insane. This will need to be supported by a lot of proc though. Trozan set already has Wind devil or sigil supporting it.

What I don’t like about TSS is the projectiles are quite random, sometimes it converge in one spot, sometimes it’s spreading.

The build need to be designed with TSS as super nuke and small small damage proc around it. That’s how this build can achieve that time.

I want to explore Allagast Mage hunter again with this same concept. I will try it next week maybe. Cannot play GD too many times in one day. LoL

Even Iskandra is working, rejoice! Very interesting build, which utilize not just TSS, but also multiple procs. Just q, do you think Combustion is better here than Iskandra for relic?

1 Like

Thanks Thanks…
I think yes, for Arcanist, more RR is needed. This way the build has 90% RR to elemental and 125% RR to lightning.

See above, Iskandra has worked since the previous patch. I did 7:25 without buff in 1.1.3.0. This patch just gives another damage buff to arcanist and I just happen to find the most effective way to play this build.

That’s what it should be. As you said Trozan set has support skills, Iskandra doesn’t. What do you think about sorc here? Free RR while keeping Star Pact, tho that might need more skill points.

yeah, You can see in my video there, TSS projectiles can crit to 400k damage.

BTW, I totally forgot about sorc because I used to hate demo so much. It might need more skill points for sure, and it will play differently I think.You want to use either BWC or canister to cover for AoE, and you may not want to use more procs as you have more powerful offensive skills at your disposal.

I want to theorycraft but I need to play Witcher 3 now. LoL

Damn. I couldn’t play that game well cause my monitor got problems when I open inventory or map. It just goes black then back again. It’s like that in other apps too, but is most prevalent (as of now) on witcher and strangely, grimtools calc when opening devotion panel. Too lazy to find a fix that doesn’t involve a new monitor rn.

Hmm, It might be a problem on your videocard driver or graphic settings. It’s weird if it’s only goes black in only some specific scenarios.

On witcher 3, I have actually beaten the game in PS4 but with no DLC. Bought it again with its whole DLC in PC and want to start fresh again.

Not the driver. I constantly update it and this was a problem ever since the beginning. It’s either the gpu hardware itself or an incompatibility between the monitor and the gpu. Probably (and preferably) the latter since when I was buying my monitor I just went with the cheapest option cause I was running out of money and it was the last thing I needed to complete my rig.

The problem goes off when the glu needs to work it’s ass off. It doesn’t actually happen when my brother tried to plug the monitor to cpu instead of gpu, but who the hell plays games without a gpu?

Damn, that sucks – W3 is awesome :stuck_out_tongue: I love those stupid rock trolls…

That’s what I’ve been doing yesterday, and it feels pretty decent so far. The combo of Rolderathis’ Tome & Trozan’s Hat really helps with the otherwise somewhat inconsistent shotgun nukes that are the Sky Shards. However, I feel like I still need a decent AoE proc like Imp with Iskandra’s conversion in your build to fully utilize the crazyness of Storm Box (atm I have Bat bound to it)…

My current build for reference (still WIP though). lowest time in Crucible was 7min, but I’m still getting used to the build

Good idea posting no-banner runs. I bet Z has an algorithm that searches the forums for “5:XX” and auto-nerfs everything.

BTW is Cinder gloves really better than 2pc Eastern? Also, how does the TSS dmg breakdown look like. It feels like fire should still be dominant.

2 Likes

It should be 4:xx run to ignore that algoritm
Join to ya, trick with no banner runs is actual as never before.

Hey jabrix, one more impressive optimized build!
Also i agree that iskandra has the best TSS + procs support, and this vampiric rings are awesome.
Magehunters now are beasts with tons of dmg and tankiness lol, just put you cat on keyboard to win.

1 Like

I am planning to be more focus in storm box though with aetherbolt pendant + Farath’s cube or enslaved wraith. It will need something to cover for single target damage though, idk if allagast’s TSS can do it. I have a very bad experience on it previously.

TBH, I still cannot effectively do cruci run with banner, lol. Though to be fair, a bunch of my build is still got nerfed.

2 piece eastern only gives a bunch of OA that I don’t need. And TSS is already cap. Cindertouch gives massive proc.

Damage breakdown in TSS is quite equal across the three elemental. I only take arcane bomb as additional elemental RR because lightning gives the most RR and 1/4 of fire on the proc get converted to lightning by cindertouch.

Thanks John! Glad you like it… :wink:
Back in AoM, Mercymaker’s banner run can cut up to 1.5 minutes of my clear time without banner, dunno if it’s still the case here.

Yeah, I thought about focusing more on storm box too at first (mostly because I like to play with it more as a skill) but decided to test a TSS version first since they just moved a bunch of allagast’s flat dmg boni from storm box to the sky shards…

What was the problem with it exactly when you tested it before?

Also, what damage type would you focus on in your build? I tried to make a hybrid setup work up until now (arcane bomb already delivers both types of RR after all) but I’m not as sure about it anymore :confused:

I don’t recommend Farath’s Cube; it was my first attempt back in AoM and the results were middling at best. (Although it was buffed in this patch, I notice now.) Enslaved Wraith should be better if you want to focus on Storm Box. Yay for Aetherbolt Pendant, it’s a fantastic amulet, even for TSS Allagast: that +1 to Inquisitor is needed and so is RR.

From my experience with test mods, a “simple” change that would almost fix Allagast MH by itself is adding flat RR to TSS. That frees you from going for Revenant (a mediocre fit for the build, both for nodes and thematically) and lets you take Aeon, which improves survivability and grants a reliable double cast of TSS. Pure aether/lightning double-whammy works nicely.

That leaves the whimsical “temporary passives” theme with partial-uptime CDR, which is such an awkward fit for dot-less TSS, but eh… I do so wish we could get Maiven’s modifiers, which don’t exist at all currently.

Allagast’s TSS just doesn’t give enough damage, also lack of RR and difficulty in devotion planning.
I will try to focus in lightning as I hate using WoP for RR. I can have a lot of RR in mage hunter by focusing in lightning.

I have tried to do aether+lightning setup before but devotion is quite hard, getting enough %damage in both damage is hard, and RR is hard. Also, valdaran is a bitch.

Let’s see. Personally I am still really skeptical on Allagast’s TSS.
Also, I am not good at using Aeon, lol.

Maybe I want to combine it with Lightning AAR for killing bosses, hmmmmmmmmmm…

Isn’t Eternity equally good/slightly better for a -CD cut on TSS? Even with ~40% CD reduction on Time Dilation?