Why revisit Iskandra?
State of Iskandra
Although Iskandra has only recently been reworked, I feel that the set doesn’t leave much to explore: too many slots taken for too little given, leaving only a slim selection of procs and devotions for both damage and sustenance, none of which make for satisfying gameplay.
As a single-mastery, five-piece set, Iskandra augments TSS and TSS only, but doesn’t give it the tools to stand on its own. The %WD component is too low to yield meaningful damage or sustenance from caster weapons and achievable values of lifesteal. Other modifiers are comparable to those of Skybreach and similarly insufficient; beyond additional damage and DoTs, we trade 0.4s CDR for a 15% chance to recast on hit which, while statistically equivalent, feels rather clunky due to the shards’ travel time. (I generally find low chances of double cast to be a bit too unreliable when combined with busy spell queues, but that’s another matter.)
The comparison with Skybreach is particularly damning: although the two sets achieve comparable damage per shard, Iskandra forces you two choose between 1 additional shard and 0.5s of CDR, whereas Skybreach setups can find 2 additional shards and 0.4s of CDR, while also supporting Wind Devils.
What makes Iskandra tick is the global 75% aether to elemental conversion. However, there aren’t enough item slots left to bring other skills to effective levels (I’ve tested CT and Devastation, Storm Box, and Mortar Trap), which leads to devotions such as Imp, Seekers and Arcane Currents; the latter two are especially important, and their high requirements will nearly lock down your devotion routes.
You can make it work like that, and what you obtain is a more fragile, less effective Invoker or elemental Bonemonger without lifesteal. Having obtained very similar setups during my own experiments with Iskandra, I suspect that there’s few viable takes on this set, and I worry that none of them can distinguish themselves from the gameplay of Trozan’s Skybreach: TSS isn’t enough, and we are simply trading things to lean on, from wind devils to devotions.
Elemental TSS is different, of course, but that’s a simple thematic variation which could fit in a conduit. I feel a set that takes 3 of the 4 most important modifier slots should have more to offer.
Now, I admit: this entire section might just be an empty rationalization for the simple desire to play with channelled meteors. But that’s not entirely unreasonable, is it? Turning TSS into a channelled skill would provide a more effective and intriguing design, one that also happens to fill a clear gap in the current lineup of TSS builds.
State of TSS
There are, to my knowledge, few builds where TSS works all that well on its own. Many (most?) offensive 3-node or more “main line” skills can carry a build in terms of either damage or sustenance; not so TSS, which offers no sustenance and often leans heavily on other sources of damage. For example, consider:
- Wind devils and totems, to the point of Skybreach Vindicator working better than Skybreach Druid. (Although wind devils have been adjusted since, I think this still holds.)
- Item procs, as noted by Dmt with regard to her Skybreach/Cataclysm build (if a bit uncharitably).
- Storm box, to the point of Allagast working better as Apostate, Vindicator or Purifier. (Quite the motley, isn’t it? If you fancy, here are my thoughts on how to fix Allagast, with their own test mod.)
- Item skills and devotions, as with current Iskandra, where Imp/seekers/currents are pretty much a must; even so, such devotion setups remain starkly more effective with PRM, double Spelldrinker, or two-piece Iskandra with Mortar Traps (6:45 crucible with 3b+vb).
This suggests that there might be a general issue with TSS damage scaling and item support, which should be addressed separately. Meanwhile, we can take this opportunity to explore a more original take on the skill by turning Iskandra into the first set that allows players to fully focus on TSS as their primary attack, with a different playstyle to boot.
Channelled TSS
For channelled TSS to be effective, it needs to provide enough damage on its own, and enough lifesteal to partially sustain the caster through combat. (Albeit not strictly necessary, lifesteal is hard to match for channelled skills.)
Lifesteal
For lifesteal, using the mod as a starting point, we have the usual two options:
- Increase %WD to 75-100%.
This is mostly a means to find the desired values of life and energy leech: the actual damage component is very low due to caster weapons and, of course, the TSS-specific damage penalty. Of course, higher damage can offer comparable healing with lower values of %WD. - Remove %WD, add 4-6% ADCtH, and decrease energy cost.
Although this long been Grim Dawn’s approach to channelled spells, I believe it would compromise flexibility and reduce the design space for Iskandra: a high WD allows a player to find their own preferred balance of leech and other forms of sustenance. The possibility of delivering a tiny bit of extra RR through Viper is also desirable, considering that the set itself only grants moderate single-target RR.
My experience with option 1 during testing suggests that, under a 65-70% damage reduction, any value of %WD between 75% and 100% feels pretty good. The difference, as always, is most noticeable against bosses; any value of lifesteal that works against them will prove pathologically effective against mobs, much as it happens with, say, Phantasmal Blades, Forcewave, or any dual-wielder. (This is a universal issue that’s exacerbated by AoE lifesteal, but as long as mobs remain immaterial in the endgame, I wouldn’t stress over it.)
%WD also allows to sustain the energy cost of TSS through leech. Bosses are completely immune to it, but in Campaign and Crucible most fights don’t last long enough for this to be a problem, at least if you allow yourself the odd potion. SR might be different.
Damage
Total reduction is the main knob to regulate the damage output of 0-CD TSS. So:
- Reduce total TSS damage by 60-70%.
- Optionally, update the values of existing modifiers. (I’m under the impression the current values were fashioned strictly after those of Skybreach, which needs more than TSS to work, as previously pointed out. Cooldown and damage reductions further complicate the picture.)
In testing, a damage reduction between 60% and 70% seemed to work best. Any value below 60% is probably too generous: the 50-55% range produced Crucible clearing times around 6:20 minutes (with banner). Conversely, going beyond 70% once again sidelines TSS in favor of converted devotions, which is one of Iskandra’s current problems.
On the subject of devotions, it should be noted that the aether-to-elemental conversion puts a barrier on how effective TSS can be before the set as a whole becomes too strong, because fully-converted Imp and Arcane Currents can be extraordinarily effective on small battlefields like Crucible. Iskandra can currently reach 90% conversion from set pieces alone, but lower values would make it easier to balance the set around TSS:
- Decrease aether-to-elemental conversion to 50-65%.
- Slightly improve TSS damage.
Tweaking reduction and conversion is enough to cover the basics of channelled TSS and make it work. More interesting is the question of weapon damage.
Addendum: damage and IEE
(Nothing written here has been tested or even thought through, I’m just tossing ideas around.)
It might be a lost cause, but I’d like Iskandra’s set to benefit from, y’know, Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange. It’s a thematically relevant skill that has struggled to see much use. However, stacking flat damage is ineffective with fractional %WD, and all the more so with damage reduction; a further complication is that elemental damage added to TSS ends up as 55% fire due to the double conversion.
There’s no easy solution, and available workarounds (such as granting TSS a %WD well above 100%) would probably prove outlandish or too contrived for players to build around. The straightforward option would be introduce IEE modifiers, perhaps ones that mimick Iskandra’s relic:
- IEE: grant a chance of high flat damage or DoTs. (It’s hardly as if one-handed melee Iskandra is going to suddenly become overpowered.)
IEE modifiers would provide no incentive to invest in the skill beyond the usual one-pointer, but they’d save face thematically.