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Build Guide

Hello guys,

from what I've seen recently, a lot of people are wondering, how Crusaders can actually stun rift guardians permanently in high greater rifts.

In the following guide, I am going to explain what you need and how it works, including the math. I will also add a video containing gameplay footage and further explanation as soon as I find the time.

Introduction

The central idea of this build is to reduce the cooldown of Shield Glare to less than a second. To achieve this, you have to use any resource that contributes to this matter. Starting with close to max CDR on your gear, followed by the Fervor passive for additional 15 % general CDR, going on with Towering Shield for another 30% Shield Glare CDR and finally using the 2 piece Roland's setbonus to reduce the cooldown by a second in a Shield Glare - Shield Bash - Shield Glare cycle.

Theory

This paragraph is going to focus on the math behid this build. You will get the numbers and reasons for everything that constitutes this build.

After being casted the first time, the Shield Glare blind effect reduces its duration from 4 seconds to only 1 second. Obviously, this means your skill cooldown has to be less than a second in order to permanently stun enemies by blinding them. So how can you actually reduce a 12 seconds cooldown to less than 1?

First off, the passive skill Towering Shield reduces the cooldown of Shield Glare by 30 %. This causes a remaining cooldown of 8.4 seconds. From now on, you need enough CDR to reduce these 8.4 seconds to less than 2 seconds. This means, 76.1904 % CDR (gear + Gogok) would be just enough to hit the 2 seconds mark. 77.93 % CDR is the max value you can get (max CDR on every item + 100 % Leoric's + 15 Gogok stacks). Missing a single CDR roll on any item would equal a maximum CDR of 76.03 %, which is not enough.

In conclusion, if you managed to get more than those 76.19 % CDR, the cooldown would still be somewhere around 2 seconds. That's when the Roland's 2 piece setbonus steps in. By using Shield Bash or Sweep Attack, the cooldown of Shield Glare will be decreased by another second, finally leading to a cooldown that is less than 1 second. As you can see, by alternately casting Shield Glare and Shield Bash/Sweep Attack, you would be able to cast Shield Glare every <1 seconds. Unfortunately, there is another thing that you have to keep in mind to make this as reliable as possible.

I have already explained, that you will need the 15 Gogok stacks to have enough CDR. Your only ability to proc the Gogok while fighting the rift guardian will be Shield Bash or Sweep Attack. Sadly, not a single rune of these skills has a proc coefficient of 100 %. Therefore, you will most reasonably chose the one, that actually has the highest. This is Shield Bash - Pound, with a proc rate of 60 %. The other Shield Bash runes only have a proc rate of 33.3 % each, wheras all 5 Sweep Attack runes only have 25 %.

The high proc rate of Pound helps a alot to maintain on 15 Gogok stacks and will also be beneficial if you use Drakon's Lesson in order to gain additional ressource cost reduction.

Credits to Keyangels and iolpaladin, who actually drew my attention to proc coefficients.

Unfortunately, using Shield Bash over Sweep Attack leads to another problem. The resource cost of Shield Bash (30) is 50 % higher compared to Sweep Attack (20). As a result, most Crusaders were originally running Shield Glare - Zealous Glare instead of Divine Verdict, which has been the most common rune for support Crusader builds so far. In behalf of regenerating enough wrath, you would drop 20 % damage buff. To prevent this, you can use Drakon's Lesson. These bracers will reduce the resource cost of Shield Bash by 25 %, if you hit less than 3 targets, so obviously it works on single targets like the rift guardian. Finally you are able to stun the RG permanently, while also buffing the damage of your group in the usual extent. Still you need the RCR and Wrath regen rolls, that I listed in the Items section to make sure that the RG doesn't suddenly wake up because you can't keep up your cycle anymore.

Bearing all this in mind, you will be able to grant your damage dealers are very comfortable situation.

Group Setup

The most common way to include this build in a 3 or 4 man group is by running with a Horrify Witch Doctor and 1 or 2 damage dealers. For the least, it still has to turn out what class and setup will be the best. For the moment Demon Hunters and Wizards seem to be really close.

Recently, a slightly modified version of this build is used for 2 and 3 player groups as well. Obviously, you will run without a Witch Doctor and therefore substitute Steed Charge by Condemn - Vacuum. Swiftmount is useless in that case, therefore it's better to use Roland's torso or shoulders instead of Born, still completing the Born set with either chest or shouders and the Born weapon. As you are not using Roland's pants anymore, you can use the Cpt. Crimson set and replace your Vigilante Belt by Cpt. Crimson's Silk Girdle. Like this, you get slightly more CDR + 6000 liferegen + 50 all resist + 10 % RCR. Furthermore you will substitute Long Arm of the Law by Vigilant for additonal toughness. With all your CDR, the uptime of Critical will still be quite sufficient. It will probably depend on the rift, whether running Drakon's Lesson with Divine Verdict will be better than Strongarm Bracers with Zealous Glare, as the Strongarm effect will be triggered a lot by Condemn.

Be aware that this build is absolutely useless in trials I will probably post a guide addressing a Crusader build for 70+ trials soon as well.

Gameplay

Your most important task is to blind the rift guardian and to buff the damage of you teammates.. Until the RG spawns, your job is to keep your party safe. Pull small numbers of ranged mobs into the WD's fear range or lock down bigger packs exactly like you do it with the rift guardian until your mates will take care of them. Keep in mind, that the amount of mobs you can pull is quite limited with Steed Charge, so it's often better to just blind bigger mob groups instead of risking anything while you want to pull them step by step. For damage buffs, you need to make sure to recast your Laws of Valors - Critical and Judgement - Resolved as often as possible.

That's it about the Stun Support Crusader. I hope you like this build and enjoy testing it.

Thanks for reading. Cheers