Rating
+3

Crusader FoH T6 Speedfarm

by last updated May 24, 2015 ( Patch 2.2 )
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Skills

  • Justice Sword of Justice
  • Fist of the Heavens Fissure
  • Akarat's Champion Prophet
  • Steed Charge Endurance
  • Phalanx Bowmen
  • Provoke Charged Up
  • Fervor
  • Finery
  • Holy Cause
  • Lord Commander

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Wreath of Lightning
    • Enforcer
    • Bane of the Powerful

Updated 5/24/2015


So since my main Crusader is running Roland's SB, I decided to look into a speedfarm build for solo play because SB is pretty slow for farming in solo and the damage is overkill. Here is what I came up with and am currently running 6 min clears to the RG


Gear

Akkhan's is necessary for survival and the damage boost here so you want enough cooldown to make AC perma or close to it. It's not necessary to have true permanent AC here as we aren't trying to push high level content, just clear T6 as fast as possible. So don't sacrifice damage to save a couple of seconds of downtime. Also you'll want the wrath cost bonus so you can spam FoH. You want to run 6p because of F+R but if you can't get close to perma without Leoric's Crown then running the RoRG is ok, but not optimal. expect your clear times to suffer because of it.


Darklight is one of the signature pieces of this build. You want to have one that has as close to 60% chance for a second Fist as possible. However, don't sac the damage of a better Darklight just to get it.


Unrelenting Phalanx is the other signature piece in this build. Having it doubles your Bowmen and thus their damage output. Technically the build works without it, but your damage will suffer.


Reapers Wraps are highly recommended as this is a very wrath hungry build and being spam FoH is important for fast clear times. I've found that I'm almost never out of wrath using these. Plus they are craftable so that makes it easier to get a good one. Warzechian's are another option to get some extra speed but I don't think it's necessary. Finally, Lacuni's or Steady Strikers can work here too if you need the extra IAS to reach a break point.


For an amulet, there isn't one in particular you need to hunt for, so just use the best rolled one you have. Flavor of Time can be useful to help you with the heavy CDR needed.


The Bastions of Will set (F+R) is best in slot for rings. The damage boost they provide is pretty much unrivaled. CoE is an alternative, but 3/4 of the time you aren't getting any benefit. If you don't have F+R then CoE and SoJ are a good combo. I put Eternal Union up there in case you don't have a Phalanx shield so you can compensate for the lack of the shield.


Gems

Wreath of Lightning is great because with all of the bolts covering the ground it goes off a lot and aims itself. Also Sword of Justice has a 100% proc rate so that helps it go off too.

Enforcer because your pets are going to be doing a ton of damage so enhancing that is always good

Bane of the Powerful is nice because we are looking to clear the rift as fast as possible, so after you clear the first pack you have a flat 35% boost to killing elites.

Pain Enhancer is also an option, but DOT gems don't do as well here because everything dies so fast that you don't get the full effect.

Gogok can be useful if you are having trouble with CDR or a breakpoint but the options above are better.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Primary Stat
Maximum Resource
Vitality

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance

Defense

Resist All
Life
Armor
Life Regeneration

Utility

Resource Cost Reduction
Area Damage
Life on Hit
Gold Find

Pretty standard here, of note you want to prioritize Attack Speed over crit hit/damage because it boosts your bowmen. However, if the bowmen's breakpoint won't change with points in AS, then don't bother until it will clear a break point for you.

Build Guide

About the Build

This build is designed as a speed farming build to clear T6 runs. Currently I can clear the RG in about 6 mins, and my sader has room for improvement. I'm also stopping to pick up blue stuff for arcane dust. Why not Roland's? Well for one shield bash is slow for clearing T6 because you kill everything in 1 shot so you can never get enough stacks to keep wrath up(via shield glare cooldown) Sweep is better but it's still overkill. Also it saves you from having to switch gear and skills every time you want to run T6. Since most people who want to speed farm will have an Akkhan's set anyway it puts it to good use and gets it out of your stash.


Skills

Fist of Heavens - Fissure - This is your primary wrath spender and will deal a large portion of your damage. The Fissure rune is the best here because no matter whether you are in melee range or firing from a distance when Darklight procs a second Fist, the Fissure will activate and deal damage to anything caught in the middle. Inside of melee range enemies will get hit by both bolts and the arc for massive damage.


Justice - Sword of Justice - Since we're running F+R you'll need a generator and I think this is the best option for a couple of reasons. For one thing it has a 100% proc rate to help proc Wreath of Lightning. Also the run speed bonus is nice and easy to get 3 stacks of.


Phalanx - Bowmen - This is your other main source of damage and I prefer the Bowman over the Bodyguard. In the end I think they do about the same total single target damage but the Bowmen have more uptime by a couple of seconds and also have range which is nice. Otherwise Bodyguard is just as good. In case you aren't aware, pets have attack speed "breakpoints" Basically at certain points of your attack speed the pets attack faster and thus have more DPS. It's more complicated than that, but there are articles that describe it in detail if you google it. Anyway, you want to get the the highest break point you can without sacrificing too much damage in other places. www.d3planner.com can tell you what break point you are at and how close to the next one you are.


Provoke - Charged Up - Provoke is one of the best generator skills because you get a decent amount of wrath even with no enemies for it to proc. It also draws enemies to you where they can be hit by the double fissures. I like the Charged Up rune for the extra damage, but use whatever you prefer/need.


Akarat’s Champion - Prophet - As with many Crusader builds this one too relies on AC to provide extra damage and durability. Prophet is the obvious choice here for the extra armor and free life. It also helps you run around and basically not care about most damage which is important in a speed farm build. However, if you don't need the extra toughness then Hasteful is an option for pushing a bowmen breakpoint or Fire Starter for extra damage is also good.


Steed Charge - Endurance - Having mobility is king in speed farming and this skill has it in spades. Use it to charge from mob to mob, especially on low density rifts. None of the other runes do anything really useful so the extra duration is nice here.


Passives

Fervor - This in an obvious choice because you gain increased attack speed for bowmen breakpoints and CDR for perma AC


Finery - Another staple of the Crusader, extra damage and toughness are always welcome.


Lord Commander - Another no brainer. Extra cool down on Steed Charge means you'll only have a couple of seconds of downtime and 20% damage to your bowmen is a nice buff.


Holy Cause - There aren't any other really useful skills for speed farming so might as well have 10% extra damage.


Gameplay

So the basic idea is to use Steed Charge to move quickly from mob to mob. I generally run past small mobs because it's not worth stopping. When you hit a large group pop phalanx and start spamming Fist of Heaven's You can stutter step, but it's not really necessary because everything dies so fast that by the time you've done it a few times everything is dead. Use provoke as needed to regen wrath. Rinse and repeat until you clear the rift.