Multiboxing 3x Crusaders + Monk

[Ellay]

I'm a dummy and salvaged the fists when I initially got them.. I should really run 4x monk just to get one.

[Devile]

I got 1 when RoS came out but I gave it to my main account which I don't really play monk. Now its bound and can't move it. Been playing 4x monks for a long time to get another one and nothing. Played my mixed party 1 hour yesterday and there it was. RNG I guess.

[Kicksome]

I got 1 when RoS came out but I gave it to my main account which I don't really play monk. Now its bound and can't move it. Been playing 4x monks for a long time to get another one and nothing. Played my mixed party 1 hour yesterday and there it was. RNG I guess.

Awesome, I have been trying to get that fist no luck so far. I had like 8 crystal fists or whatever they are, crazy. I tried doing 4 monks to increase my chances, but they really suck. I can do like torment 2 maybe with 4 monks super slow. I much prefer just doing it with the crusaders and 1 monk at t6. Although I still didn't get the fist.

[Devile]

Finally managed to get full Akkhan sets for my 3 Crusaders and try the shotgun build, the results were incredible. I don't even have all my gear with Holy / Heaven's Fury damage and this build makes my Jade WDs look pretty bad. I'm around 1m dps and T6 elites go down VERY fast. I'm only at 44%+ CDR which gives me 5 secs downtime for Akarat's Champion which is ok. Since my main attack is Heaven's Fury, I have 1 free skill slot which I used for Shield Glare and Judgement Resolved on the Crusaders that didnt have them. This gives me a ton more CC and damage than before.

My current build is:

Crusader #1
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...RT!gaWS!cYaYYZ

Crusaders #2 and #3
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...Rf!gaWS!cYaYYY

Monk
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...RP!bfUV!cYZacb

Only difference between Crusaders are the Laws. Round robin for Laws of Valor Unstoppable Force, Reaper Wraps and Akarat Champion take care of the Wrath problems. Only time were I can have some problems is with the Rift Guarding but nothing to worry. Once I get more CDR, RG won't be a problem.

What's so amazing about this is the huge huge damage difference compared to Fist of the Heavens Fissure. It's day and night difference. FotH Fissure is a great skill but u need to wait for stuff to die since it ticks and it may not be long time but compared to Holy shotgun build, its a noticeable difference. White mobs die in 1-2 hits and elites die extremely fast with Exploding Palm.

As I mentioned before, freeing 1 skill (FotH Fissure) let me use Shield Glare and Judgement Resolved in all 3 Crusaders so my damage is even higher. With the monk is amazing synergy cause once I pull mobs, they are right in front of my Crusaders so the 3 beams of Heaven's Fury hit everything for max damage and on top of that, they are blind/rooted I have 20% more crit chance, they get 20% more damage from Shield Glare and 30% more damage from Inner Sanctuary, besides Mantra of Conviction damage. Things die way way faster than with my previous builds, even Jade WDs.

An additional benefit from using the Akarat set and enough CDR is that I can use the Prophet rune for Akarat Champion and my toughness more than doubles. My weakest Crusader has 10m toughness and with AC goes up to 23m. But if that's not enough, I can cast Laws of Justice Immovable Object and the same Crusader will go up to 40m toughness for 10 secs. And with my current CDR, it's just 7 secs of downtime so I can use it very often.

By far this is my strongest combo now. Been playing a lot with it and I love it. Far more comfortable than my WDs which also do T6 very good but this is even better. Love being immune to CC and not care about frozen, knockback, nightmarish, etc. and all that crap that is very annoying for multiboxers. My monk is at 72.95% CDR so it's also immune to everything too. Party runs very smooth and I very rarely die.

The only problem with this party and that applies to my previous build, is Epiphany. Its all about how you position and attack mobs so your monk doesn't teleport all over the place. It takes some time to get used to not range mobs but always pull them and only then attack when they are right in front of u, never a few feet away or your monk will desync. Also, with Holy shotgun multibox, is more important to have all Crusaders in sync because the AoE is a cone right in front of u, not like Fissure where u could cover more ground with arcs hitting more mobs. Takes a while to be more careful and not go all crazy spamming skills. But in general, a very solid build and the best I've tried.

I'll stick to this combo for 2.1. I'm going to start farming keys and will proly do T6 ubers tonight and see how well it goes. I still have a lot of room to improve my Crusaders. My monk is pretty much finished already. I want more DPS and elite damage.

[Devile]

Did 2 rounds of Ubers and I'm extremely happy with how things went down. On my first try I simply destroyed all but Diablo. They literally took like a minute only each. Diablo did kill me a few times cause I tried to facetank it and it was just too much damage when he spawned the other bosses. Once I changed my strat, it went down fairly easy. Next try was a lot smoother and didn't die with Diablo at all. I'm very happy with this setup. I did change my Crusader #1 so it could use a Furnace to speed up things. Went for Firestarter instead of Prophet for Akarat champion and Fist of the Heavens Heaven's Tempest instead of Heaven's Fury, in order to have a higher proc for the Furnace. Just 1 Furnace and they went down so fast.

And is not just about the damage and the toughness but the CC u get from 3 Shield Glares. Ubers, Bosses and RGs can't be pulled and quite a few of them move a LOT. Being able to cast chain Shield Glares makes a huge difference when killing these mobs. U can chain blind them and have them locked in place so u can spam your skills. Also it cancels their attacks which is very important against Ubers, specially Diablo that can be very annoying. Zoltun Kulle is very easy/fast to kill this way. I blind him once and he is dead most of the time. He rarely teleports.

Same goes for the key wardens that wander around or have attacks than deal a ton of damage. Chain blind and they go down without being able to cast much or escape.

[Multibocks]

With EP nerf are you sure this group is still viable?

[Devile]

This is all based on 2.0.6 only. Besides, we don't really know what will happen on 2.1 live. PTR keeps changing and they might change their minds, who knows. If EP remains the way it is in the current iteration of PTR, will have to make changes for sure.

[Ellay]

The EP nerf is a huge blow to this build. The damage bonus the monk brings to the party are still awesome and Cyclone Strike is definitely a huge bonus but 4x Crusader may be just as effective.

Other builds are looking amazing though such as 4x Witch Doctor - pet doctor.

[Devile]

Yes and no. EP nerf is huge in terms of damage, specially for Greater Rifts where mobs have a ton of health. Still, monk as a support is amazing. Cyclone Strike alone can multiply your efficiency by a LOT and since Crusaders are not really great for AoE, u will still need something to group mobs to remain efficient. Sure, u can always go with Condemn Vacum but the range is pretty bad and it has horrible cooldown. Also the debuffs and buffs are still there so is not GG for support monks yet.

Maybe just switch to a DPS monk build, keep some support skills and see how that works, I dunno. I'm gonna wait 1-2 iterations of the PTR before investing time on it. Already working on my wizards to see if I can make them work in 2.1.