Rating
+12

TEPOPuCT's 2.2 Updated: Roland's Fire Shield Bash - GR 50+ Solo

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Skills

  • Shield Bash Crumble
  • Shield Glare Zealous Glare
  • Iron Skin Steel Skin
  • Punish Fury
  • Akarat's Champion Prophet
  • Laws of Justice Decaying Strength
  • Heavenly Strength
  • Indestructible
  • Towering Shield
  • Finery

Items

More Details
  • Legendary Gems

    • Esoteric Alteration
    • Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard
    • Bane of the Trapped

This build is currently one of the strongest builds for Crusaders at PTR, it is based around the revamped "Raland's Legacy" set and combined with a new legendary bracer called "Drakon's Lesson" that provides a huge boost to the crusaders Shield Bash skill and the revamped "Bastions of Will" ring set which now gives 50% dmg buff after hitting enemy with primary attack skill and another 50% after hitting enemy with Resource spender attack.


The revamped Roland's set atm at PTR looks like this:

Roland's Legacy Has been redesigned (2) Set Bonus Every use of Shield Bash and Sweep Attack reduces the cooldown of your Laws and Defensive Skills by 1 second (4) Set Bonus Damage bonus increased from 100% to 500% Damage bonus is now multiplicative

(6) Set Bonus Every use of Shield Bash or Sweep Attack that hits an enemy grants (Update: now gives 30% IAS) 20% increased Attack Speed for 3 seconds. This effect stacks up to 5 times.


The new legendary Crusader bracer:

Shield Bash Bracers (Drakon's Lesson) New Legendary Bracers When your Shield Bash hits 3 or less enemies its damage is increased by (Update: 150-200% and 25% wrath refund) 300-400% and 50% of the Wrath cost is refunded

The revamped Bastions of Will rings set:

Update: (2) Set: When you hit with a resource-generating attack or primary skill, deal 50% increased damage for 5 seconds. (2) Set:When you hit with a resource-spending attack, deal 50% increased damage for 5 seconds.Bastions of Will (2) Set Bonus Has been redesigned All of your damage is increased by up to 150% based on how much primary resource you have

How it works: basically the core of this build is the Roland's set and in order to work in high tiers grifts it needs a whole lot of toughness, not only because is based on Roland's set which is actually a very squishy set from the very beginning of it's existence, but also because in order to compensate for the huge damage loss after stacking toughness I use the Bastions Will rings and 2 defensive legendary gems. On top of that, in order to gain advantage of the Akarat's Champion you need to stack maximum cooldown reduction on your items, in general between 55-60%+ is quite enough to have your Akarat's Champion up in between the fights with the elites on the map and have reasonably low downtime. Also stacking cooldown is great for your other defensive skills too, then you will be able to use them more often and survive (NOTE: Additional adjustments might be required in case you have too much IAS, for example when using 6p set if you have higher IAS you might need to drop some from your paragon points in case you run out of wrath too often)!


How I've stacked 100mil+ toughness: I use the new defensive gems "Esoteric Alteration" and "Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard", maxed physical resistance on my items cause of the Esoteric gem, maxed all resistance on items and diamonds in the sockets of the chest piece and the pants, also I use the belt "String of ears" that gives me a lot of mele damage reduction and on top of that I have damage reduction from elites on my chest. The next toughness boost comes from the skills I use, using Iron Skin combined with Akarat's Champion and the Laws of Justice gives a huge boost to your toughness and damage, because as most mele build you have to survive in order to deal damage. The second big thing that you need is a way to keep your resources up and crowd control monsters, in order to do that I use "Shield Glare" with "Zealous Glare rune" which gives me 9 wrath per each enemy blinded and saves me from dying every time I got surrounded by a mob of angry monsters, this skill and the Akarat champion helps managing your resources.


Which are the weapons of choice: As every top tier Crusader build this one is not so different when it comes to weapons, the "Best in Slot" is still "The Furnace", followed by "Maximus" and the new 2 handed sword called "Blood Brother" which gives up to 20% block chance and 20% increased damage to your next attack after you block an attack.


The new 2 handed sword called "Blood Brother":

Blood Brother (Update)Grants a 15–20% chance to block attacks. Blocked attacks inflict 30% less damage. After blocking an attack, your next attack inflicts 30% additional damage.

Grants "up to 20%" chance to block attacks. Blocked attacks inflict 20% less damage. After blocking an attack, your next attack inflicts 20% additional damage.


Shields: From my experience so far, I like to use the crafted "Piro Marella" because it reduces the resource cost of Shield Bash which is mandatory while using 6p set setup and high IAS, but also I see as a valuable options the Hallowed Bulwark because it increases the block chance of Iron Skin with up to 60%. And the third shield is The Final Witness which allows Shield Glare to blind all enemies around you.


How much damage: With this build I've seen constant crits between 2.5/3.5 and above 4 bil. At T6 it 1 shots all monsters, at tier 51 I killed the rift guardian in about 1 min. and 30 seconds, which is insanely good! Currently I successfully done tier 51 grift using this build and I'm pushing towards 52-53+. This build is available on live now, I've tested many combinations at PTR and I find also viable alternative in using 4p set bonus together with Cindercoat chest and Magefist gloves which buffs fire skills dmg. (Note: the results above are with 6p Roland's before the nerf on Drakon's Lesson, after the nerf are also possible but with Cindercoat / Magefist combo and 4p Roland's set!)


The build is very fun to play, very active in terms of buttons spamming, now Roland's set feels powerful enough to rely on it for the so called "End Game progression", very strong single target damage, it's engaging and intense. I hope it stays w/o too much revamping or nerfing in the new patch!

As a disadvantage I see very few things, 1st most of the defensive Crusader skills are not spammable which means you have to stop attacking for a split second to enable them, this can get you killed if your defenses are down and 2nd. most of the time I found myself spamming buttons to keep my skills up and attack in meanwhile, it's almost the same like with the high tiers condemn spec.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Primary Stat
Vitality
Movement Speed
Maximum Resource

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage
Attack Speed

Defense

Life
Armor
Resist All
Life Regeneration

Utility

Area Damage
Resource Cost Reduction
Life on Hit
Gold Find

Build Guide

PTR: Roland's Fire Shield Bash - GR 50+