Multiboxing 4x Crusaders: Phalanx Stampede build 2.1

Intro
Starting 2.1, I went for the hunt of the most efficient multiboxing combo. I tried different options and finally decided DHs were the best. They did very high damage and were very easy to control. Eventho DHs were amazingly good for Trial key farming, Gem upgrading, Ubers and T6 farming, they were clearly not the perfect combo. Bounties and Keywarden farming felt very slow and incredibly boring. I also hit a wall at Greater Rifts 36 or so. Sure I could push it, but it was clear I wasn't gonna hit GR40+ with them.

Damage was not an issue, but survivability. So I had to look for a different combo. I then looked at leaderboards and Wizards were doing pretty good, great damage with Firebird set, but it's particular gamestyle made it hard to multibox without a dedicated zDPS/support char. In the past I tried Crusaders with a zDPS monk but that doesn't work the same in 2.1. I was aware of the Phalanx Stampede build but I didn't see Crusaders as top chars in the leaderboards mainly cause of their damage and the Stampede skill limitations. But then I read a comment from Ellay about Strongarms stacking in order to try a Wizard Blackhole combo. Funny I wasn't aware of that after all this time. Immediately I thought about Crusaders and how this stacking would work with the Stampede build that knocks back a LOT. Multiply that by 4 and u should get a lot of debuff that could potentially double your damage.

So, I started working on my 4 Crusaders that had items from my previous Holy Shotgun build. Switching to Phalanx Stampede was pretty smooth. The full Akkhan Set made everything very easy and around a week or so, I had the basics to start dealing good damage and farm in a faster way.

This build has excellent survivability and very good damage. By far it's the most efficient combo for Bounties and Keywarden farming. This build is still a WIP, but I'm sure I can get to GR40 or so with them.


Build
Since we are talking about 4x chars of the same class, it's pretty simple. No weird keybinds, no complex configs, just 1 simple round robin.

Crusader #1 and #2
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gT!gafS!bYYbaZ

Crusader #3 and #4
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gf!gafS!bYYbaY

The only difference is the Laws used so I can round robin Laws of Justice and Valor for 100% uptime of both. Laws last 10 secs with Long Arm of the Law passive. With 50% CDR u will have only 10 secs downtime meaning, with 2 Crusaders, u can have 100% uptime of a law. So I made a group for #1 and #3, and another for #2 and #4, and round robin key 4. So when I press 4, I get active Laws of Valor and Justice for 10 secs. Press 4 again, and get it again. Made sure they can't advance to the next step for at least 10 secs so i can get 100% uptime.


Items
This build has endgame mandatory items so don't expect to do GR40+ in a couple days. To make it easier, I created a build in Diablofans:

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/2001-phalanx-stampede

Mandatory items:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/strongarm-bracers
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/unrelenting-phalanx
Full Akkhan set

You can go with a 6 piece Akkhan set and no RoRG or 5 piece set and RoRG. I suggest 5 piece and RoRG so u can add a Leoric's Crown for more CDR. I didn't have a Leoric's Crown at first but I had Captain's boots and belt, so I started farming with those until I got the crown. Whatever helps u get to 50% CDR.

• Helm: Leoric's Crown with str, crit chance and phalanx damage is BiS. If u have vit on helm and 46+% crit chance, roll the crit for phalanx damage. If not, use Akkhan's until u get a Leoric's Crown for the CDR.
• Amulet: Anything with socket, physical damage, crit chance/damage. Physical damage > STR.
• Shoulders: Akkhan with str, vit, all res and cdr
• Gloves: Akkhan with str, crit chance, crit damage and cdr
• Bracers: Strongarms with physical damage, str, vit, crit chance. Will add 50-80% on white mobs, elites and minions which is huge.
• Chest: Akkhans with str, vit, all res, 3 sockets.
• Belt: Vigilante with str, vit, armor or %life and cdr. If u are going with Captains, then Captain's belt.
• Pants: Akkhans with str, vit, all res, 2 sockets. If u are going with Captains, then Captain's pants.
• Boots: Akkhans with str, vit, all res, phalanx damage. If u are going with Captains, then Captain's boots. Illusory boots are an option too, but then u will be force to used Gogok of Swiftness gem for CDR, losing DPS.
• Shield: Unrelenting Phalanx with str, crit chance, phalanx damage, vit/cdr. Can take a while but its crucial to the build. It will pretty much double your damage and add a lot more CC too. I started without it, just doing T6 until I got all 4.
• Rings: SoJ with physical damage, str and socket. RoRG with socket and cdr.
• Weapon: The Furnace is BiS, if not get a Heart Slaughter which is also rare. If u can't find any of these, u can try a Baleful Remnant which is useful to certain degree but in open maps it actually hurst u cause spawned avatars will make mobs spread all over the map. Overall, any 3600 dps 2H weapon will do ok. Swiftmount will be required on switch for bounties and keywarden farming. 1H weapons are horrible for this build, not even a Doombringer is a good idea.

Diamond on helm, ruby in armor/pants.


Gems
Gems are a hot topic now a days but most debate applies to solo builds, not much about parties and even less about multiboxing which is a completely different animal. My gems of choice for this build are:

• Bane of the Trapped: this one is mandatory since u will benefit all the time from the damage increase cause everything will be stunned 80%+ of the time, even Rift Guardians.
• Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver: Hits like a truck and very often with 6 horses spamming everything. Sure it won't benefit from your physical damage, regardless it adds a ton of damage.
• Pain Enhancer: the DoTs can go pretty high adding to your overall damage and it benefits from your physical damage.
• Gogok of Swiftness: a must if u can't hit 50% cdr.
• Bane of the Powerful: great for T6 Rift and bounties when the buff will have 100% uptime, not so great for Greater Rifts.
• Gem of Efficacious Toxin: only needed in 1 character in order to add the 10% debuff for the whole party.
• Zei's Stone of Vengeance: eventho in theory it makes sense, it's too random since not all fights will be at max range, meaning in a LOT of cases u will get less than ideal damage from it. I rather go for consistency instead of random.

My choice are the first 3. Gogok if I can't hit that 50%+ CDR tho I rather go with CDR on gear and skip this gem. Bane of Powerful adds a nice 15% elite damage but that's about it for long fights, so is not the best choice for high level GR. For the char that will use Gem of Efficacious Toxin, just replace Pain Enhancer.

Gameplay
This is a general point and shoot build, which means it's kinda easy to play, but it has its tricks for some situations. In general, positioning is the most important part of the build cause horses can be a little hard to work with. The main problem is that horses can only pierce mobs, they get destroyed once they hit a map object, meaning walls, map ledges, some ground objects and narrow corridors will block your attacks. So, in order to be efficient, u need to position yourself in a spot where all 6 horses can hit your target. If u notice some horses are being blocked, u need to move around and find a better spot, if available. Some times there's no choice but to keep hitting with that 1 horse that goes thru. Sucks, but until Blizzard does something about the skill, there's not much we can do.

Also, keep in mind this skill knocks back a LOT and when u multiply this by 4, a single cast from all your party can push the target half, if not, a full screen away from u. U need to get used to stutter stepping a little bit so u cast and move forward. It can take a while to get used to, but is not a big deal IMO. Some flying mobs (Fallen Angels, Anarchs, bees, etc.) can be really annoying cause they can go beyond map ledges and since your horses can't, u wont be able to hit them. Make sure u dont engage them close to ledges or u will rage quit :)

Steed Charge is one of the best skills in the Crusader arsenal. Use it to quickly position in place and spam your horses, relocate in case targets are too far, or to escape from ground effect u can't tank. When u use this skill, mobs wont attack u, so it's a great way to move around the map without being hit, to escape in case of danger or simply to take a break from getting hit like a piñata :D. It's also amazing to get back to where u died in greater rifts.

Wrath can be a problem if u are not careful. Laws of Valor Unstoppable Force needs 100% uptime so u don't run out of Wrath fast. Same with Akarat's Champion. If u dont have close to 50% CDR, u will have to pace yourself. But even if u have 100% uptime of both, u can still run out of Wrath. In those cases use Provoke which will instantly give u 30+ wrath. Holding down your main attack to spam Stampede is generally a bad idea. Instead manually cast your attacks, specially against Rift Guardians where its very easy to run out of Wrath. Remember no wrath = no attacks = no stun, and that can get u killed. Time your provokes so u don't use them at full Wrath. If u have high paragon, it wouldn't hurt to max your Maximum Wrath. I don't have wrath issues now, but when I started it kept happening a lot cause I went all crazy spamming horses. Learn to pace yourself and move while attacking so u give a little time for your wrath to replenish.

My third skill is Consecration and I intentionally didn't talk much about it cause that's another key element of this build. This skill is amazing for Greater Rifts. It stacks the healing so 4 Crusaders casting Consecration heals all party for 48k times 4. Almost 200k heals a sec for 10 secs in a 20 yards radius. U can literally tank any ground effect. I usually round robin this with a 2 groups of 2 so I get 100k heals per sec. With 50% CDR, cooldown is around 10 secs so I can have it 100% of the time. The only problem is that it doesn't move with u, but u don't need it up all the time anyway. Usually I just cast it to get back some HP when I'm a little low and don't wanna get the pot cooldown, or I'm standing on poison/desecration and I have my target perma stunned and I don't wanna move. For T6 rifts and bounties, this skill may not be needed and u might wanna add Shield Glare or Judgement for additional damage.

The waller affix on Elites is a big problem for this build. Solo they are a annoying, but in a full party, the amount of walls they cast is just ridiculous, not to mention they cast walls on top of u quite frequent which IMO is a bug. If u can kill them fast, do so, but if not just skip them cause it's gonna be a big waste of time. If it's a greater rift and u get several waller packs, chances are u will get a lot more of those and fail anyway, so better just leave game and open a new one. At least until Blizzard does something about this. Stampede should go thru this affix or just make Steed Charge go thru them just like Spirit Walk for WDs. U can try Illusory boots but that will mean u wont be able to use Leoric's Crown and will need a mandatory Gogok of Swiftness gem.

Finally, bounties and keywarden farming requires a Swiftmount. U can make it without it, but that will cut your efficiency by a lot. With 50% CDR u can have perma horse and move around extremely fast and without getting hit. U dont even need Akarat Champion while running. Just use Swiftmount on switch and change back to your 2H weapon once u get to your objective. Mines don't even have gems/sockets.

That's pretty much it for now. This build is still WiP, I'll keep adding more info as soon as I learn more.


Videos
Recorded a couple videos to show the gameplay. First a T6 Bounty, not rushing to do it in 4 minutes or anything.

http://youtu.be/wrmBvGQ_468

As u can see, Steed Charge provides excellent mobility and safety. Got lucky while recording and got a Goblin Vault, even a Rainbow Goblin too (waste of time tho).

http://youtu.be/X-1xLuRQI8E

GR34 with horrible density and prolly the worst map for this build, even a pony map, still managed to clear it. Died a couple times I guess. Not having 100% uptime for AC cuts my toughness by half and I can easily die. Still need to work on getting a little over 50% CDR so this is not a problem anymore.

There's a lot of room for improvement but I'm getting there.

PS: I'll be adding a video later tonight. I wonder if Overwhelming Desire amulet works on a stunned target. I'll start farming it and test later.

awesome, haven't read it yet - but I was hoping it'd come :) thanks

Didn't have time to record a video yesterday, got home pretty late. I'll prolly do that today or tomorrow :)

PS: Videos ready.

Great info, the playstyle looks enjoyable. Will be looking at them again.

"

• Gem of Efficacious Toxin: only needed in 1 character in order to add the 10% debuff for the whole party.

"

Ignore my pitiful attempt at a quote. This is not true. I have personally tested multiple Toxin gems and the 10% damage buff stacks just like Strongarm does.

The confusion here is when people ask if Toxin stacks the question is ambiguous. It should actually be separate questions, such as:

1) Does the poison dot of the Toxin gem stack for a single character?
2) Does the posion dot of the Toxin gem stack from multiple characters?
3) Does the 10% dmg buff stack from multiple characters using Toxin gems at level 25+?

When most people see the question "Does Toxin gem stack?" they are thinking #1. The obvious answer to that is no. Everytime you hit you don't get a new stacking toxin dot you just refresh the duration of the dot.

#2 Clearly is a yes. Each player can put a dot up per target with the gem or otherwise the dmg portion of the gem would be totally wasted in a party.

#3 Is what groups and multiboxers are normally asking for and rarely does this question get answered correctly. I have tested this and the answer is yes the 10% debuff stacks for each member of the party using toxin. You can do this test pretty easily yourself. Just take whatever multibox team you have create level 1 characters of the same class to get starter weapons and then put those on your actual team with the toxin gems. Then use those starter weapons on your team to attack mobs. Attack with one first and take note of the damage. Then attack with a second to apply his toxin buff and then attack again with the first to see that the damage has gone up about 10%. Keep doing this for all 4 characters and you can see it stacks easily. This works because the starter weapons only have a dmg range of 1-2 so it is really easy to see 10% buffs in the dmg variance they cause. Toxin is also easy to verify because it lasts 10 seconds and is applied on any attack so it is very very easy to test.

This makes toxin one of the best gems for 4 player parties simply because it provides a 40% overall dmg buff when you account for 4 players. No other gem is a 40% dmg buff.

Incoming hotfix in 3...2...1...

I haven't updated my guides since I pretty much quit playing D3 a while ago. Came back after 2.1.2 was released.

Regarding Toxin gem, yes it stacks and is a great option for 4x multiboxing. That's what I use for all my combos now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Devile

I haven't updated my guides since I pretty much quit playing D3 a while ago. Came back after 2.1.2 was released.

Regarding Toxin gem, yes it stacks and is a great option for 4x multiboxing. That's what I use for all my combos now.

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What i wonder is, does the damage increase apply before the hit or afterwards? I guess its the latter, as the DoT procs on hit, so after the damage is done, which would make it somewhat weaker in lower GRifts/T6, as you normally just run through them without hitting anything multiple times.

According to the description "All enemies you poison take 10% increased damage from all sources", so yes, u need to hit to get the debuff. Still I think is very good since u kill T6 trash without a third gem anyway. Better than BoP since it's 40% debuff + the poison DoT. Elites die a lot faster cause of it.

I tried Condemn yesterday and even with only 3 Crusaders with the shield, it was very fast. Just running thru everything. I'm using almost the same Stampede gear I had with non ancient weapons, only 2 Holy SoJs. Taeguk, Toxin and Mirinae gems. Wonder if I could use BotT instead of Taeguk and still proc it while running for higher DPS. BotT adds quite more damage than any other gem in the game, same with Zei.

Hope I get my last shield today. I really like farming T6 with this setup.

I guess I need to level that toxic gem now - to level 25. I wonder if it's really 40% i.e. additive damage.

Yep, once all 4 hit a target, it gets a 40% debuff. Sure, u don't want to stack additives, but still is fairly high compared to other buffs/debuffs in the same class (BoT, Taeguk, etc.).