The set and the relic look like they were intended for spellblades but their design is really weird.
The attributes and set bonuses seem oriented towards defense, which is fine since it helps squishy arcanists surviving in melee range, but the set pieces don’t mesh together and the skill bonuses are all over the place ( the bonuses to Arcane Will and Inner Focus as well as the mana regen could be replaced with something more useful like HP or attack speed ).
The amulet’s passive only works with melee weapons and gives conversion to elemental as well as +3 to IEE and the chest reduces the cunning requirements for melee weapons, so it really looks like the set was made for a melee elemental build using IEE. But then, why does the set include a caster off-hand? 1H+offhand feels extremely niche and is very underwhelming compared to dual wielding, 2 handers and 1h+shield. Iskandra’s Texts also sucks a lot compared to every other arcanist off-hand because it has no passive and provides a lot of physical conversion and flat damage which casters barely use.
I think the caster offhand could be replaced with something more suited to the build’s theme, like an elemental shield or a 1h melee weapon. The melee-only restriction on the amulet doesn’t help either, considering the only legendary that provides elemental conversion ( since Beronath reforged was reworked ) is a pistol.
The relic isn’t in a better place. it has the same problem as Iskandra’s set, the passive provides flat damage but requires a caster offhand. Also, if the relic is intended for elemental damage builds, why exclude lightning from the mix? I guess some Panetti’s builds make use of it, but the relic really feels like a poor choice, specially when you look at its base stats.
Imho, adding some OA and attack speed to the base stats and changing the flat damage and the damage bonus from fire+cold to elemental would be a nice buff.
EDIT : also please remove the caster off-hand requirement on the relic
I get the feeling the Iskandra set and relic were designed for or work well with skills like Callidor’s Tempest - spells where a portion of their damage is derived from your weapon. Sadly, there aren’t too many other abilities that you can take this approach with.
I do like your changes of making the bonuses more fixated on Elemental than Fire/Cold and adding better core stats to it though.
I don’t think (untransmuted) CT deals enough weapon damage to justify an heavy point investment into IEE. Plus there’s already the Agrivix set which is pretty good, and I’m sure even the Callidor blue set would be a better choice for a CT build than Iskandra’s.
As you said, abilities that deal %weapon damage are scarce and asides from auto-attackers I don’t see what could really benefit from IEE.
I’ve struggled to theory-craft the set numerous times and I think the OP’s idea of a shield with more elemental focus, and perhaps even a Templar focus would be good.
Recently, I’ve struggled to theory-craft this set numerous times and I think the OP’s idea of a shield with more elemental focus, and perhaps even a Templar focus would be interesting.
This set doesn’t really fit or help anywhere as it currently stands. Usually in a hybrid melee role it results in weak armor and it doesn’t fit as a caster.
I unfortunately agree here. I don’t mind the CDR nerf but it needs to be compensated in some other way. It would be cool if there was a way to achieve this which doesn’t directly benefit spellbinders the most… Maybe conversion away from aether.
I feel like a few of the Mastery-sets are facing the same problem. Dreeg set for example is useless, as it’s outclassed by many other items which achieve better results, even if they are not even part of a set, or exactly because they’re not part of a set.
This set is currently sort of pointless. It does nothing better than other sets, not anymore. Melee build with an off-hand doesn’t really work either. I wish that the off-hand was removed and a weapon (dagger, scepter, something one handed at least) added so we can use it with a shield or dual wield. Alas, this has been suggested many times and still nothing has changed, I fear we should better forget about this set. Plenty of others around that do work after all.
I keep it stored in a gdstash file, I haven’t used it since the cdr nerf. That was the one thing it did better than other sets, and then they removed it completely. I’m not holding my breath for any changes anymore. Shame, but it is what it is.
Quote a lengthy discussion with many ideas Iskandra (reasonable and otherwise) are in this thread. As demonstrated with the meme build attached, using Iskandra for anything is missed. AFAIK there’s no viable buildcrafting solution for this set.
To recap, main problem is the offhand and that the whole set outside +2 to all supports no main skills.