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I <3 Blessed Shield. I'm sitting at 70% block chance BEFORE Punish, so 85% for some real juicy Shield crits.

Here is my current build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aSRiTl!eSUa!ZYYaZZ
Punish-Celerity for increase single target + wrath regen (and of course +15% block chance)
Blessed Shield-Shattering Throw as the base for the build, nice crits, nice splash/AoE damage (and it is Holy damage)
Judgement-Resolved part of burst DPS combo
Condemn-Vacuum only skill I could/can live without, might change it to Provoke or something
Laws of Justice-Immovable Object only using this because I'm pushing into new Torment levels, otherwise Valor-Critical
Heaven's Fury-Ascendancy great single target (and small group) especially when combined with Judgement-Resolved and Valor-Critical (this is your boss/champion burner) which I like more than say Bombardment because it is up every 20 seconds.

Wrathful- Have to heal somehow
Heaven's Strength- obvious
Hold Your Ground- obvious
Finery- your mileage will vary, can go Divine Fortress for more toughness, or Renewal for more healing, Holy Cause if you've got the weapon for it, or Long Arm of the Law if you are using Laws of Valor-Critical for extra long burst phase.

I've found through my testing that you can have a lot of "fun" with various builds, but unless you have a specific legendary like a Mortal Drama or Maximus etc. that is a real build-changer...

You really can't beat the Hammerdin build - especially now with an increase to Justice's damage, taking Heavenly Strength and Blunt is just about mandatory, Wrathful is quite good healing, and beyond that just stack as much crit and crit damage as you can, as much All Resist as you can, and try and stay above 400k health.

I've found Templar to be a great companion when solo - the heal, health regen, and increased resource gen help a bit as you are pushing from T1 to T2 and beyond.

Based on what I see on your current build - I'd replace Divine Fortress with Wrathful, and then Blessed Shield with Blessed Hammer - Thunderstruck. Put the Charged Up rune on your Provoke, and replace Laws of Valor (good for groups, for solo it's meh) with Judgement - Resolved.

With your stats, you'll easily take care of normal mobs with Justice and Hammers, then for elite packs CC them w/ Judgement, Provoke and start going to town with hammers. For yellow/purple mobs do the same as above but also pop Akarat's and Bombardment.

If you end up liking this playstyle, keeping rolling Shards on 2H until you get a well rolled Mortal Drama. How much you change your build w/ any other legendary 2H you'll get will depend on the item.

Shield builds definitely feel very viable.

I'm wrecking T1 solo and creating lots of great synergy w/ group play to really burn down elite packs/bosses real quick.

Build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aZRilf!aUYh!aaYaZb
Character sheet:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Heerobya-1188/hero/43765784
Most of my rolls suck, I've had to add strength to everything, but I'm pretty much invincible due to extremely high block chance, renewal, and the judgement/condemn/heaven's fury/laws of valor (critical) combo is just nasty.

Going to be pushing into T2 and T3 and will hopefully start replacing some of my more garbage legendaries with decent rolls.

I had it happen to me a few times today (thankfully on softcore) I was confused for a second, then I figured out maybe my shield bounces where hitting me somehow? I was just getting one shot.

Switched off of blessed shield, stopped getting gibbed.

Pretty typical, waiting on a Defender of Westmarch.

Hopefully the datamined changes go live, some great, great, great shield skill buffs.

Got my Helm of Rule yesterday, between that, shield, and the Justice ring I'm sitting at like 60%+ shield block chance w/o using Punish.

Would love to get a Blade of Prophecy or the 3-beam Heaven's Fury.

What difficulty are ya'll playing on that have gotten all of your legos and set items for each slot?

Are you doing bounties or rifts?

I keep getting new, worse than what I had before weapons and the occasional crafting recipe but that is it.

Really wish I had your weapon!

Do you find the Valor w/ Critical does more burst damage with the Judgement/Condemn combo than using Heaven's Fury?

I'm really sick and tired of Hammerdin builds, yeah, I can kill stuff super fast and rarely die, but it's just not fun.

So I've been working on solo farming builds for my Crusader for Torment I and above focusing on shields and block - yet still dealing high enough damage to not be too slow.

This is what I've got so far:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aZRilQ!YaUh!abYaZb
Punish - Roar
Shield Bash - Shield Cross
Judgement - Resolve
Condemn - Vacuum
Heaven's Fury - Ascendancy
Akarat's Champion - Rally

Passives: Righteousness, Heavenly Strength, Hold Your Ground, Renewal

With a 30% block chance shield, I've hit the 75% block cap. Puts out pretty insane damage and healing for as "tanky" is the build is. Groups of mobs just melt like butter, with all damage buff skill (except Akarat's) being on 15-20 second cooldown, you can pretty much use them all the time even on white mobs. You are constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY exploding with fire damage which is also healing you. I've got fairly Crit and Crit damage heavy gear as well, but with Resolve it's just nothing but rapid fire Yellow numbers.

It does have some issue with single target DPS.

I'm debating subbing the Shield Bash with Blessed Shield - Shattering Throw, which will also give some ranged damage potential, but has anyone else had much luck with Block focus builds?

I see a lot of Hammerdin or Nuke builds or Bombardment etc. but not many Block builds.

Thoughts? Advice?

So I'm actually using

SKILLS

View in Skill Calculator

• Crippling WaveTsunami

• Tempest RushTailwind
• SerenityPeaceful Repose
• Cyclone StrikeWall of Wind
• Sweeping WindMaster of Wind
• Mantra of HealingSustenance

• Transcendence
• Exalted Soul
• Resolve

Honestly, from what I've found so far your build all depends on what new Rares/Legendaries you get.

Like, I just got a real nice 1H sword that had a lot of cold damage % on it, combined with a few other pieces to increase like Sweeping Wind damage etc. so made as many skills as I could do Cold damage and got a big DPS boost.

I think that is the point now...

No more cookie cutter builds - build around what drops for you.

I'd be curious as to what people are using.

I'm pretty much a rookie at D3 build making, especially now that 2.0.1 has hit.