4x Crusaders 70+ GR (Season 5) w/LoN build - fast and fun

[Kicksome]

Hey Guys,
I realize this isn't record setting by any means, but for ME it's awesome - so I'm pretty happy. After trying out countless specs and tweaks I finally managed to one-shot 68,69,70 GRs - with time to spare on my 4x Crusaders.

Thanks to Devile, Shodokan and other posters for posting some really good tips that I almost certainly ripped off. No way I would have got this far without them.

As a reminder, LoN (Legacy of Nightmares) builds are the ones where you only use 2 set rings (Wailing host and Litany) that give you 100% damage per ancient item equipt, and 4% damage reduction. You can't have any other set bonuses in play at all. You can wear 1 set piece, but not 2 of the same set etc...

First off, this spec is fun as hell. You basically get 100% uptime on your horse, so you go 150% speed through bounties, N. Rifts, and anything TX. So you farm SUPER fast, it's nuts. It makes the old WW barb look slow.

Like Devile said in a previous post, LoN is a bitch to gear for. But you don't need all ancient gear. You can start with ~6 pieces to get a feel for the build and you'll gear up pretty quickly. Remember, to keep all your ancient gear that drops if you aren't 100% sure of what you're doing. Also make sure to spread the gear among your team.

With this build, you are going for CDR, All Resists, VIT, STR, Thorns, Area Damage. bombardment damage, physical damage. Attack speed doesn't matter (unlike invoker build).

I don't have all ancient items - or even the optimal gear in my pants slot, or the right gloves and hellfires on 1/2 of my team. I don't have any augmented items at all. I decided to go with the swiftmount on my weapon, just because the 100% uptime on horse is awesome.

All my guys are very similar to my main, except the rest are running
"Laws of Hope" -> "Hopeful Cry" - which spawns a tons of health globes all over the place. Very Handy when waiting for CoE to come around to physical.

Main:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome-1212/hero/71329804

Alts:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sweetcakes-1662/hero/71329807
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome3-1399/hero/71329806
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome4-1510/hero/71329805

I'll try and post a video tonight.


-Kicksome

[Shodokan]

Hey Guys,
I realize this isn't record setting by any means, but for ME it's awesome - so I'm pretty happy. After trying out countless specs and tweaks I finally managed to one-shot 68,69,70 GRs - with time to spare on my 4x Crusaders.

Thanks to Devile, Shodokan and other posters for posting some really good tips that I almost certainly ripped off. No way I would have got this far without them.

As a reminder, LoN (Legacy of Nightmares) builds are the ones where you only use 2 set rings (Wailing host and Litany) that give you 100% damage per ancient item equipt, and 4% damage reduction. You can't have any other set bonuses in play at all. You can wear 1 set piece, but not 2 of the same set etc...

First off, this spec is fun as hell. You basically get 100% uptime on your horse, so you go 150% speed through bounties, N. Rifts, and anything TX. So you farm SUPER fast, it's nuts. It makes the old WW barb look slow.

Like Devile said in a previous post, LoN is a bitch to gear for. But you don't need all ancient gear. You can start with ~6 pieces to get a feel for the build and you'll gear up pretty quickly. Remember, to keep all your ancient gear that drops if you aren't 100% sure of what you're doing. Also make sure to spread the gear among your team.

With this build, you are going for CDR, All Resists, VIT, STR, Thorns, Area Damage. bombardment damage, physical damage. Attack speed doesn't matter (unlike invoker build).

I don't have all ancient items - or even the optimal gear in my pants slot, or the right gloves and hellfires on 1/2 of my team. I don't have any augmented items at all. I decided to go with the swiftmount on my weapon, just because the 100% uptime on horse is awesome.

All my guys are very similar to my main, except the rest are running
"Laws of Hope" -> "Hopeful Cry" - which spawns a tons of health globes all over the place. Very Handy when waiting for CoE to come around to physical.

Main:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome-1212/hero/71329804

Alts:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sweetcakes-1662/hero/71329807
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome3-1399/hero/71329806
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome4-1510/hero/71329805

I'll try and post a video tonight.


-Kicksome

As an aside you can also try the 100% perma horsie phalanx build for even easier farming of bounties and sub 70 rifts. But that is also LoN and MUCH harder to gear for since you need crit + crit damage + cdr for akarat's.

The build in general is very fun (i play a solo one while gearing up the others, just easier for me) but I also mostly play to have a 4th person in party who wants to gear up quickly for any class so I do things a bit differently when it comes to optimizing.

Also for your future Lidless walls if you get them... thorns isn't as important as % phys. Other than that your best option is thorns + CDR + bombardment damage (only avail on crus shields). On top of that bomb% on your shoulders (with cdr of course) and on your chest are going to give you more damage than 9,000 thorns because of how the augments and paragon levels will eventually give you far more damage than the 9k thorns via the bombardment scaling.

For anyone looking to play this build using deaths breaths to obtain your shield and swiftmounts are the fastest routes to get a good ancient one.

This setup is easily capable of completing mid 80s relatively quickly once you augment your gear and such. Great spec and one of the most fast paced builds in the game IMO. (LoN Bomb)

LoN Bomb or Phalanx are by far the fastest key farming specs in the game though.

[Kicksome]

Awesome, thanks Shodokan.

So would you guys go for an ancient piece with bombardment damage, or a non-ancient piece without it? I'm not sure what scales better. Assuming I have 12/13 ancients and no augments.

e.g. I have an ancient heart of iron, but had to roll "fall sword" to "3 sockets".

1610

[Shodokan]

Awesome, thanks Shodokan.

So would you guys go for an ancient piece with bombardment damage, or a non-ancient piece without it? I'm not sure what scales better. Assuming I have 12/13 ancients and no augments.

e.g. I have an ancient heart of iron, but had to roll "fall sword" to "3 sockets".

1610

The evaluation for chest is

Ancient aquila with bomb + thorns > ancient HoI with bomb > Ancient Aquila + Bomb > Ancient HoI no bomb

100% damage multiplier is too much to give up for 15% multiplier... On top of that your HoI is PERFECT for the affix.

The only item slot you might even consider not going ancient for (until last) is the belt slot because 6 second bomb is more important than ancientness. Ancient 8 second < Non ancient 6 second.

The stat priority for LoN Bomb in general is.

CDR to 63% > bomb damage/Phys Damage > Thorns > Area Damage > STR > Vit/All Res

Ideal/Best in Slot setup would be:
Leorics: STR/Vit/All res with thorns secondary
Hellfire amulet: cdr, str, phys% with one of your desired passives and if you are greedy... thorns secondary
LoN Rings: area damage, str, cdr, thorns secondary
Illusory boots: STR, Vit, All res, Thorns secondary
St. Arch gloves: Area damage, CDR, Vit, STR, Thorns secondary
Invoker's Shoulders: CDR, Bombardment, Area Damage since they roll with baseline thorns
Belt of the trove: 6 seconds, STR, Vit, All Res, Thorns secondary
Lidless Wall shield: phys%, CDR, STR, thorns secondary
Doombringer weapon with CDR, STR, Area Damage, Vitality OR Swiftmount with CDR, STR, Area Damage, Vitality.
Aquila Chest: STR, VIT, Bomb %, Thorns secondary, 3 sockets
Hexing Pants: STR, VIT, All Res, Thorns secondary, 2 sockets

[Kicksome]

Thanks Shodokan!

That's really helpful stuff.

I'm just a hair off the 63% CDR, at like 62.5% - damn.

I'm still farming the ancient Illusory vboots - I have 2/4.

A - question on the shield. The Act 2 shield seems pretty damn good from a defense standpoint.

I saw a video from Alkaizer - and right here is when he mentions the Act 2 shield is pretty bad-ass, especially with hold your ground passive. https://youtu.be/Fd65w3iC_90?t=295

I just happend to get 3x of the Acient Leg. Shields, so I started using those. Haven't actually tried them aside from speed farming.

1611

[Shodokan]

Thanks Shodokan!

That's really helpful stuff.

I'm just a hair off the 63% CDR, at like 62.5% - damn.

I'm still farming the ancient Illusory vboots - I have 2/4.

A - question on the shield. The Act 2 shield seems pretty damn good from a defense standpoint.

I saw a video from Alkaizer - and right here is when he mentions the Act 2 shield is pretty bad-ass, especially with hold your ground passive. https://youtu.be/Fd65w3iC_90?t=295

I just happend to get 3x of the Acient Leg. Shields, so I started using those. Haven't actually tried them aside from speed farming.

1611

That shield is fine.

Getting that type of shield or any crus shield with CDR + Area + thorns + bomb is going to be INCREDIBLY hard which is why i didn't list it. But its a good shield, better for builds with extremely high block.

The best way to get any specific item legendary is to use bounty mats... so i suggest doing that to get your illusory boots done.

[Ellay]

so I got this build sort of started, most of my team is 8-10 piece ancient. It's nice because you zip around everywhere but it's just weird how the "fighting" works. You sort of just run around waiting for bombardments while your horse does some damage.

[Shodokan]

so I got this build sort of started, most of my team is 8-10 piece ancient. It's nice because you zip around everywhere but it's just weird how the "fighting" works. You sort of just run around waiting for bombardments while your horse does some damage.

Once you get 13/13 you can actually tone down the difficulty if you wish to farm GR keys much quicker by just getting on your pony and running through everything, its more efficient to do this on t8 then doing t10 as far as keys/hour. But at very high end you are basically just going to hard cast on COE proc with cooldowns up and kite the rest of the time. Till about GR60 you can just use it when ever. I'd honestly suggest to anyone looking to do higher GRS to add in a barbarian support as the 50% DR perma is quite amazing but you then lose your ability to reliably pony for damage.

Also when speed farming drop mortal drama in cube and use in-geom.

[Perrigrin]

Isnt it horribly difficult to keep such a speed build in sync?

[Shodokan]

Isnt it horribly difficult to keep such a speed build in sync?

Unlike teleport/vault/charge your movement is based on your actual character movement and not a skill in which the game moves you to another position. Theres the chance you will get stuck on a rock or something somehow in some of the maps but overall its not really probable with illusory boots allowing you to keep sync through mobs. Its the exact same sync as if you are running around with a speed pylon.

[Shodokan]

http://i.imgur.com/El7GiX4.jpg
Decently timed 60s, missing 2 ancients per toon except for main. No augments on gear.

[Shodokan]

65s are getting faster with caldesian

http://i.imgur.com/HA6cXwB.jpg

[Kicksome]

65s are getting faster with caldesian

http://i.imgur.com/HA6cXwB.jpg


Damn, that is fast. The Nef. rifts are sort of a PITA now, seem like they take a lot longer. Always running out of grift keys.

[Shodokan]

Damn, that is fast. The Nef. rifts are sort of a PITA now, seem like they take a lot longer. Always running out of grift keys.

I farm keys on T8, never get off horse even for dbs. 1-2.5 mins depending on density.

Can do 300ish keys in 5 hours or so? Did 120 earlier in less than 2 hours.

[Devile]

Maybe there's potencial here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Crusaders/comments/47afle/5p_akkhan_2p_invoker_cleared_gr89_chinese_build/

I really hate the horse. I can't play it cause of the lag + dsyncs. This one doesn't use the horse :)

[Cmoidudu]

OK I tried this setup, with 2x Crusaders, 1x zDPS Barbarian and 1x zDPS WD. I completed GR70 quite easily, which is not my best (GR79 with the Wizard-based meta-team). However, Akkhan gear is so-so at the moment, not all ancient, no thorns on every piece, not a single Caldesann buff, etc. so there is a good margin of progression there.

The WD is here because nothing can beat him in terms of DPS increase, and the Barbarian is here because I don't know how I can run high GRs without perma Ignore Pain... I will need to rework the Barbarian however, obviously globe generation is useless in this build (save for the raw "healing" part)

One flaw appear, it's how the Crusaders block, or don't block rather. Since the WD is doing a lot of crowd control, the team isn't hit a lot, which is a good thing, but... no block -> no CD reduction from the shield -> no dps increase from the cubed sword, etc. and I'm starting to wonder if Punish/Celerity works as intented.

One good thing is that you don't need to be sitting ducks in "Slow Time" from Wizard and "Inner Sancturay" from the Monk... So teleporting Rift Guardians are less of a problem. Also you can move the team to where an area of power stands (from zDPS' Oculus Rings).

I have been running a build with Slash/Zeal instead of Punish/Celerity, and I seem to get the same amount of "+25% thorns" buffs, and obviously it's more effective with packs of whites. I need to run some more tests however, specially on bosses. Anyway I can do much better because this gear (coming from an old "Condemn" setup) needs to be improved in terms of attack speed (and thorns, obviously).

I need to increase CD reduction too, just because the big numbers are coming from Iron Skin / Reflective Skin and I need that to be up more often. Maybe use a Convention of Elements ring instead of a Justice Lantern, too (I need a Ring of Royal Grandeur and a Compass Rose for this build).

[Shodokan]

Maybe there's potencial here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Crusaders/comments/47afle/5p_akkhan_2p_invoker_cleared_gr89_chinese_build/

I really hate the horse. I can't play it cause of the lag + dsyncs. This one doesn't use the horse :)

Not sure how reliable you will be able to cast everything together due to blocking.

[Cmoidudu]

So, I tried different combinations at GR70, with Hack, Pig Sticker, Akarat's Awakening, The Mortal Drama, Blood Brother...

For a first, this build don't work without Hack, either in cube or as weapon. I know, it's written on the weapon, it increases thorns damage by a lot, still... in other templates you don't need Hack, but in this one you do... So, best combos are Pig Sticker (weapon) + Hack (cube) or Hack (weapon) + The Mortal Drama (cube).

I tried the same combination as in the original build (https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Crusaders/comments/47afle/5p_akkhan_2p_invoker_cleared_gr89_chinese_build/) and this doesn't work in a group (explained why in a former post), except when you deal why particular creatures using electricity and then they will resume you cooldowns in a couple of seconds and skyrocket the "+25% thorns" stacks in the meantime. This is how I can get as much as 26 stacks of "+25% thorns" LOL.

So elite packs with "Electrified" affix are now your best friends. But out of that, I'll probably go back to my meta-Wizard setup...

1617

[edit] 22 stacks, not my best, but still, pretty funny ;)

[Ellay]

Thanks for the detailed response. Was excited to try this type of build too. I really enjoy the hack and slash builds instead of runnning around while it does damage or the WD ranged pets where you try not to die and your pets do dps.

[Cmoidudu]

Next time I'll try a setup with 1 or 2 of those...

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/72067-crusader-gr-90-lon-combust-shield-group-build

The template doesn't seem too optimized however... why so low block chance when Blessed Shield has a part of the DPS based on block chance... But this might work. Yes, I know, it's a LoN build, but with time passing I have enough pieces of equipment to run it properly. And at least this time I have the required ancient weapon on several characters :D

I re-arranged this in D3planner, unfortunately I'll be off the game for about a week, see you later :)

http://www.d3planner.com/171232052