I was thinking of dropping DoTs from Frozen Core and taking Heavy Ordnance to 12/12, and keeping Mortars just at 17/16 for the summon. Mortars without HO are def not worth it, and I feel like Mines should be at max on a sorc. Or instead Frozen Core (lots of DoTs there…) maybe conjuring some points from Vindictive, Conversion, etc.
About Frozen Core, not sure about how the +%cold works there. If it was full cold to fire conversion on the mod, it would change to +%fire. But it’s only 30%…
I tried the first mortar version I linked and it was definitely weaker, maybe with more HO points it would be better but I’m not convinced.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2Ew8yvZ
Maybe like that, there’s only 1 point in conversion and Vindictive is needed for the run speed. Going to 1 point frozen core loses almost half the burn damage on TSS though, so mortars will have to do some real heavy lifting.
The function of Mortars here would be to pick up trash mostly, and for that you need radius from Heavy Ordnance. But if points elsewhere give more power, and they obviously do give quite a lot power, then probably it’s a fool’s errand.
Trash dies pretty damn fast, if anything it’s killing nems that needs to go faster. I’ve also tried CT with maxed Inferno and Devastation but it wasn’t any faster and just felt worse to play. I think simplicity is best here and just focusing points in the crucial places. I’m already disappointed that I can’t max Flame Touched. Maybe there’s a case for dropping Frozen Core points for that.
“I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain…”
Sounds like a perfect prelude for a backstab… 
Took this bad boy (girl?) for a ride. I gotta say, what a fun and insanely powerful build to play. Despite looking a bit squish on paper it’s actually really close to being immortal with the rotation of 14/12 Blast Shield, 12-12 Mirror, Ghoul and Nullification. And you don’t even need mirror for surviving, you gotta use it as soon as it goes of a cooldown for that damage boost.
Ulzuin’s buff compensates build’s low DA as well. If it wasn’t for him, build would’ve had bit less damage and bit more hp and DA with more points invested into physique.
Out of 7 runs I died only once: it was a last run, and I got too brazen gathering Korvaak, Kaisan, Kuba, Fabius and Valdaran at the centre of the map while my Mirror and Blast Shield were on a cooldown. And I had “Resistant” mutator on top of it. Times vary from 5 minutes flat to 5:55 (first run and also “Resistant” mutator which I had every second run). Great build, super powerful and pretty consistent.
Thanks Lee. Sometimes when you try to make a glass cannon it ends up being immortal anyway
Some people have been talking shit about “glassiness” of some of your builds and best Crucible builds in general and how Shattered Realm is much more “hardcore” challenge, lol. So I have decided to take this Crucible build and without any changes try and farm Shards 75-76. Did four runs, died few times in the first run (was adapting to the builds), one time in the second run, few times in third or fouth. Later deaths were mainly me playing to brazen and taking too much aggro on boss chunks (I am not a good pilot in SR - I don’t care enough about this mod).
Results: 10-13 minute runs, no boss chunk is really impossible for this build. With good piloting it’s possible to avoid deaths altogether. And even if you die you can still make it without ruining the timer. Here are couple of the runs I made:
Overall it’s gotta be one of the best or the best TSS builds ever I think. It’s super strong and it’s super fun to play (I know that Cold or Lightning Druids are faster but this one is more well rounded). I would do it a bit differently and invest a bit more in defenses (probably take safer Fire devo map with Solemn Watcher/Phoenix/Magi) but even in this aggressive spec build feels really really strong.
The build isn’t that glassy for such a glass cannon. I made it purely for crucible but even then SR75-76 is totally doable. A different devotion path and maybe more points in physique will make it super consistent in SR
Is iskandra’s TSS still good? There are a few builds where discussion indicates that it’s super powerful, but most of them are buried and havent had comments in 6 months. Did it get nerfed?
I think this guide is the only one I could still find on the build compendium, everything else TSS is druids and especially warlocks are using trozan due to the secondary skill support (which makes sense).
I can see why Iskandra TSS would be preferred for mage hunter and sorcerer… Is still it worth using or is it overshadowed by all the other builds for those classes?
I think this one is still very powerful. Personally I would chose a more balanced, fire devotions heavy devotions map which is better defensively (because it has Phoenix and Solemn Watcher). But overall build is still nutty.
Do you know why it seems like nobody even touches these builds then? Is it just others are better or more popular?
I think it’s because casual players do not necessarily follow best builds but usually the ones that have more clicks/likes/more presence on forums/reddit/etc. Plasmo is a very talented and underappreciated builder but sometimes he doesn’t care enough to even include his builds in the compendium.
I’ve seen a lot of outright trashy build videos having tens of thousands of views on youtube and some really brilliant stuff that flies under the radar. I guess you gotta be a bit of a GD nerd to recognize the real gems in the mass of builds that gets posted here and on other platforms.
There are so many great builds posted these days and not everyone’s following a guide/build posted. So some builds will not get the attention they deserve. This Trozan build is strong and @Plasmodermic is great builder as well.
But this isn’t cookie cutter type of spec, nor it’s advertised/bumped on purpose by OP. Just saying… 
Here is how I would do it devotion wise: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWgzY0V Should be easier to pilot because of Bat and Phoenix.
Perhaps it could be encouraged to add other ppls builds in the compendium?
Thanks,
I havent played much the last few months but check back periodically to see if there’s any new builds. I’ll definitely give something like this a try, as I’ve always wanted to play this type of build (i.e TSS that isnt a trozan druid…). It’s nice to see that sorcerers can do something like this now, in the past the class only seemed to have builds that spam demo skills.
How would this rate vs the warlock TSS builds now that trozan has the nice support for sigil?
The build should definitely still be very powerful even though it did get targeted by a couple of nerfs. I think this is the most well balanced TSS build for sub 5 crucible runs but @Dmt’s Trozan build is likely better for SR.
It’s say this one would be better than Druid overall and definitely better than Warlock.
Tried beefed up spec with Giant and it’s super easy and smooth sailing in Shards 75-76. Had couple of totally avoidable deaths during two runs:
In case you are still deciding which TSS build to play.