Always wanted to to try out the endless shield spam build but got unlucky with drops, be it either a Gyrfalcon or the akkhan set? Fear not, for it is possible to hurl Endless Shields of Holy Destruction at your enemies and it requires only a minimal amount of RNG loot.
So with almost 200 hours played and never having seen a Gyrfalcon and getting a Jekangbord with Wrath Regen yesterday from a friend I decided to try out an endless Bless Shield build without Wrath generator, Gyrfalcon or the 6 Set Akkhan. Before I get started, there are only 3 pieces of gear required for this build to work. One is a crafted one, one isn't a specific legendary but more a specific affix and the last one is the only one required you to be a little lucky with loot.
Gear Requirements
A 2handed flail with preferably 3.5+ Wrath/sec. Any 2handed flail will do really, I'm using Fate of the Fell for this as it's the only one I had with a Strength, Socket and Wrath Regen roll.
Jekangbord with Wrath Regen, and preferably Block%, strength and Crit.
Reaper's Wraps. Any will do but ultimately you'd want one with %Holy damage, Crit, Strength and Vitality.
The idea behind the build is to get a steady 8-9 Wrath/second while replenishing it with Health globes via the Reaper's Wraps. Therefor completely removing the need for a wrath generator. Over the course of a 5 hour play session I rarely ran out of Wrath with no means of replenishing it.
Note: Experiences may vary depending on party size and difficulty. I was playing in a party on Torment 3-4 and enemies were dying really fast ( 4-8 seconds per champion/elite pack). So this probably isn't really viable for higher torments where you spend a long time killing enemies . Pick a difficulty where you can move between packs without any downtime and can kill Elites / Champions without running out of Wrath while being able to replenish Wrath quick with health globes.
This allows me to run Torment 3-4 without much trouble in party's ( I don't solo).
There aren't any specific stats you should aim for and there's probably some Math behind what's better for Blessed Shield's damage. The only "Requirements" I can think of are:
Wrath Regen on weapon/shield as mentioned earlier.
Enough CDR so Judgement and provoke are useable on every Champion / Elite pack
Personally I went for %Holy damage > CHD > CDR to 35-40% > Crit.
Blessed Shield / Shattering throw Obviously the foundation of the build, doesn't need much explanation.
Provoke / Charged up or Hit me: Either rune will work, the reason this is a must is that if you happen to run out of Wrath you can run into a group of mobs and refill 50%+ of your Wrath bar with 1 button. Can also use for extra burst if you know you won't have any Wrath issues afterwards.
Judgement / Resolve: One of the keys to this build is bursting down elite packs before you run out of Wrath. I sacrificed a lot of Crit on my gear for CDR and %Holy damage for more up time on my CD's. This is the ability that makes it all possible, even with "only" 41% crit this allows me to have 100% crit chance on Champion / Elite packs and with 40% CDR it's up for every single one of them.
Fillers:
Heaven's Fury / Ascendancy or Blessed ground: Because I use Fate of the Fell for the Wrath Regen on it I decided I might as well make full use of the weapon. Either rune will work. Personally not a huge fan of the ability anymore (Long CD, below average damage) but there aren't a lot of other viable options and Fate of the Fell makes it a little bit better.
Law of Valor / Critical: More burst, not only for yourself but for party members as well. Almost up for every elite pack as well due to high CDR.
Shield Glare / Divine Verdict or Zealous Glare: You can either use this for extra burst or if you find yourself running out of Wrath regularly you can use it for an additional Wrath replenisher. While I've been running with Divine Verdict, the range on it is really annoying as it forces you to move into medium range in order to hit the enemies where you could've been spamming shields otherwise. Great for party play again though, personally I think all of our CDS together are a lot more effective than a WD but that's a different story.
Passive skills:
Heavenly Strength: Duh.
Righteousness: Yes you may be thinking "Why righteousness if you don't use a Wrath generator?". Well, one of your main ways to replenish Wrath is with Reaper's Wraps. The higher your Maximum Wrath, the more a health globe will restore. It really makes a huge difference, I tried running without and it felt clunky. Also allows for more burst.
Stand your Ground: More blessed shield damage? Sure I'll take it.
Divine Fortress: You could swap this out for maybe finery or Holy cause if you have a holy weapon or if you run lower torment and want more dps, but I prefer the survivability. Allows you to be more reckless which will result in more dps in the end.
Paragon points
Core: Movement speed to 10%, then either Strength or Vitality. I went full on vitality cause I dropped a lot of toughness after some recent upgrades. If toughness is no issue go full strength.
Offensive: CDR > 35-40% > Crit damage > Crit > AS
Defensive: Allres and then either Life% or Armor, whichever gives you more toughness.
Utility: You could go resource cost reduction here if you like, I prefer LoH and Area damage. Gold find is useless.
Anyway, that's all. If there's any questions about stuff that's unclear or that I forgot to add just leave a comment.
20 Rifts is like 2-2.5 hours. Just because you're slow/inefficient doesn't mean everyone else is.
I've played over 110 hours on my crusader now, completed 271 rifts, and collected 14000 shards.
I haven't found a single set item for my class (3 for other classes). However players claiming they go 3+ hours without legendary is just plain bullshit, ever since the buff I average 1-2 legendaries per rift (T1-2). Occasionally I have one without but that's one rift, not 3 hours of gameplay.
Didnt read his post in full, just skimmed the beginning. But from damage calcs and just testing kill speed, I've always found Blind to do more damage than the 30% shown. Great skill.
So my character sheet dps doesn't seem too horrible but seeing all my friends playing CM/Archon wizard and Firebat WD's and tearing through mp9-10 without problems doing ten times my dps I get the feeling I'm doing something wrong. (I'm generally play with cyclone strike and CW:Riptide in party's so I know I shouldn't compare it to them in a party, but the difference in damage is just so gigantic)
I don't really enjoy playing with Exploding palm but even when I tried the exploding palm + bells build I kill everything too quickly on mp7-8 even without setting off EP chain reactions but on the other hand I don't have the EHP for mp9-10.
Are WD/wizards just so damn powerful these days or am I just doing something horribly wrong, we made a gearset for our WD friend for around 15 mil and hes able to farm a higher MP than me without any issues.
Either way, I need some help deciding on what to upgrade next, I've been crafting gloves and amulets like crazy but it's all been terrible beyond believe. I've also been looking to replace my second ring to get some more dps in but it's so hard to find one where I gain dps and still maintain about the same EHP. Would it be worth going for an inferior nats ring/boots just for the 2set?
I have about 75 mil to spend along with the funds i'll get from selling the piece I replace.
So i took your advise and I was able to get the plans rather easily. There drop rate is rather high.
I made some upgrades but I still cant seem to handle anything higher than ML 3/4 Solo.
Any suggestions on what i can do to progress any farther than that?
Don't worry about farming higher MP, it's completely inefficient unless you're rocking 150k+ dps. I usually stick to mp0-2 and I'm on 190k dps with a SoJ.
This is my monk and I can do MP1 pretty efficient, bells one-shot elite packs and trash still melts as I run through. You'll need even better gear for MP2. Anything higher and tempest rush simply isn't worth as you'll spend so long on elite packs you might aswell pick up 2 one handers and go dual wield.
Heh, not sure, what to upgrade next for your baby. Your Nats ring lacks crit, but has good average damage, so getting one with crit but without avg dmg would only marginally increase your dps, and both together cost a fortune. You have a lot of life, could probably trade some of it for damage. Maybe an offhand with additional critdmg instead of vitality? Also, you have 2 items with pickup radius, could probably replace one of them, for example inna chest with more vitality (in case you switch out your offhand and find yourself short in the life department) or all/poison resist if you lack those.
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I found a decent mempo with crit yesterday, and just now crafted some nice shoulders with globe heal and pickup radius, which allowed me to change some things around. Bought a so-so witching hour to try it out, it was very cheap. I miss the inna 4 part bonus and I am kind of low on armor currently, but got past 170k unbuffed, and the attackspeed from mempo + witching hour is very nice
The hellfire ring is the best I could get from at least 100 crafts :/ However with high avg dmg, 6% critchance and a little loh its not that bad imo. Upgrading that won't be that cheap, and for now I like the juicy +exp
I have a hard time finding better weapons for a reasonable price. Using a calculator tells me, that it doesn't really make sense to sacrifice one of the desired stats (socket, critdmg and dex) for higher base dps. I could upgrade my offhand to something like 950 dps with like 20% less critdmg and without dex (and lifesteal ofc), which would cost me like 50 million and hardly increase my dps at all (for this example about 2k). And the same weapon with dex and 90 critdmg is like 1 billion suddenly
Since you mentioned upgrading weapons is very expensive, I'd look into crafting the new bracers.Since your health is a little low, I would try to get inna's pants and a witching hour with vitality instead of fire res.
Rest of the gear is gonna be really expensive to upgrade, like I said, start with crafting the new bracers and after that try saving for a new offhand, 760 dps is really low.
Be happy with that hellfire ring, it's one of the better ones I've seen and maybe one I'd actually consider using if I had it myself.
Crafted the shoulders and gloves, while not perfect they're the best I've gotten out of 100 crafts together or so. I have a trifecta neck which I can't use due to the attack speed. Gonna continue crafting shoulders until I get one similar with some life% / vitality.
Don't really have a lot of money(53k ATM) cause of the crafting and the fact I haven't had a decent drop in almost 20 paragon levels.
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My Akkhan pieces are pretty good beside my gloves. Also my helm and Neck. Nothing really stands out though, I guess helm and neck are the best.
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So with almost 200 hours played and never having seen a Gyrfalcon and getting a Jekangbord with Wrath Regen yesterday from a friend I decided to try out an endless Bless Shield build without Wrath generator, Gyrfalcon or the 6 Set Akkhan. Before I get started, there are only 3 pieces of gear required for this build to work. One is a crafted one, one isn't a specific legendary but more a specific affix and the last one is the only one required you to be a little lucky with loot.
Gear Requirements
- A 2handed flail with preferably 3.5+ Wrath/sec. Any 2handed flail will do really, I'm using Fate of the Fell for this as it's the only one I had with a Strength, Socket and Wrath Regen roll.
- Jekangbord with Wrath Regen, and preferably Block%, strength and Crit.
- Reaper's Wraps. Any will do but ultimately you'd want one with %Holy damage, Crit, Strength and Vitality.
The idea behind the build is to get a steady 8-9 Wrath/second while replenishing it with Health globes via the Reaper's Wraps. Therefor completely removing the need for a wrath generator. Over the course of a 5 hour play session I rarely ran out of Wrath with no means of replenishing it.Note: Experiences may vary depending on party size and difficulty. I was playing in a party on Torment 3-4 and enemies were dying really fast ( 4-8 seconds per champion/elite pack). So this probably isn't really viable for higher torments where you spend a long time killing enemies . Pick a difficulty where you can move between packs without any downtime and can kill Elites / Champions without running out of Wrath while being able to replenish Wrath quick with health globes.
Stats: Here's my gear for comparison http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/faesroll-2693/hero/38463606
This allows me to run Torment 3-4 without much trouble in party's ( I don't solo).
There aren't any specific stats you should aim for and there's probably some Math behind what's better for Blessed Shield's damage. The only "Requirements" I can think of are:
- Wrath Regen on weapon/shield as mentioned earlier.
- Enough CDR so Judgement and provoke are useable on every Champion / Elite pack
Personally I went for %Holy damage > CHD > CDR to 35-40% > Crit.The Build
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#YlfRdS!aYUV!aabYYYActive skills:
Key abiltiies:
Blessed Shield / Shattering throw Obviously the foundation of the build, doesn't need much explanation.
Provoke / Charged up or Hit me: Either rune will work, the reason this is a must is that if you happen to run out of Wrath you can run into a group of mobs and refill 50%+ of your Wrath bar with 1 button. Can also use for extra burst if you know you won't have any Wrath issues afterwards.
Judgement / Resolve: One of the keys to this build is bursting down elite packs before you run out of Wrath. I sacrificed a lot of Crit on my gear for CDR and %Holy damage for more up time on my CD's. This is the ability that makes it all possible, even with "only" 41% crit this allows me to have 100% crit chance on Champion / Elite packs and with 40% CDR it's up for every single one of them.
Fillers:
Heaven's Fury / Ascendancy or Blessed ground: Because I use Fate of the Fell for the Wrath Regen on it I decided I might as well make full use of the weapon. Either rune will work. Personally not a huge fan of the ability anymore (Long CD, below average damage) but there aren't a lot of other viable options and Fate of the Fell makes it a little bit better.
Law of Valor / Critical: More burst, not only for yourself but for party members as well. Almost up for every elite pack as well due to high CDR.
Shield Glare / Divine Verdict or Zealous Glare: You can either use this for extra burst or if you find yourself running out of Wrath regularly you can use it for an additional Wrath replenisher. While I've been running with Divine Verdict, the range on it is really annoying as it forces you to move into medium range in order to hit the enemies where you could've been spamming shields otherwise. Great for party play again though, personally I think all of our CDS together are a lot more effective than a WD but that's a different story.
Passive skills:
Heavenly Strength: Duh.
Righteousness: Yes you may be thinking "Why righteousness if you don't use a Wrath generator?". Well, one of your main ways to replenish Wrath is with Reaper's Wraps. The higher your Maximum Wrath, the more a health globe will restore. It really makes a huge difference, I tried running without and it felt clunky. Also allows for more burst.
Stand your Ground: More blessed shield damage? Sure I'll take it.
Divine Fortress: You could swap this out for maybe finery or Holy cause if you have a holy weapon or if you run lower torment and want more dps, but I prefer the survivability. Allows you to be more reckless which will result in more dps in the end.
Paragon points
Core: Movement speed to 10%, then either Strength or Vitality. I went full on vitality cause I dropped a lot of toughness after some recent upgrades. If toughness is no issue go full strength.Offensive: CDR > 35-40% > Crit damage > Crit > AS
Defensive: Allres and then either Life% or Armor, whichever gives you more toughness.
Utility: You could go resource cost reduction here if you like, I prefer LoH and Area damage. Gold find is useless.
Anyway, that's all. If there's any questions about stuff that's unclear or that I forgot to add just leave a comment.
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I've played over 110 hours on my crusader now, completed 271 rifts, and collected 14000 shards.
I haven't found a single set item for my class (3 for other classes). However players claiming they go 3+ hours without legendary is just plain bullshit, ever since the buff I average 1-2 legendaries per rift (T1-2). Occasionally I have one without but that's one rift, not 3 hours of gameplay.
And no I don't count plans as legendaries.
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Depending on spec I think I'll go either Cooldown reduction and CC or CC/CD.
Armor/allres obviously
Depending on my survivability either LoH and Area damage or Area damage and Cost reduction, probably the former.
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Because it scales with attack speed.
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So my character sheet dps doesn't seem too horrible but seeing all my friends playing CM/Archon wizard and Firebat WD's and tearing through mp9-10 without problems doing ten times my dps I get the feeling I'm doing something wrong. (I'm generally play with cyclone strike and CW:Riptide in party's so I know I shouldn't compare it to them in a party, but the difference in damage is just so gigantic)
I don't really enjoy playing with Exploding palm but even when I tried the exploding palm + bells build I kill everything too quickly on mp7-8 even without setting off EP chain reactions but on the other hand I don't have the EHP for mp9-10.
Are WD/wizards just so damn powerful these days or am I just doing something horribly wrong, we made a gearset for our WD friend for around 15 mil and hes able to farm a higher MP than me without any issues.
Either way, I need some help deciding on what to upgrade next, I've been crafting gloves and amulets like crazy but it's all been terrible beyond believe. I've also been looking to replace my second ring to get some more dps in but it's so hard to find one where I gain dps and still maintain about the same EHP. Would it be worth going for an inferior nats ring/boots just for the 2set?
I have about 75 mil to spend along with the funds i'll get from selling the piece I replace.
Thanks for any help in advance.
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Don't worry about farming higher MP, it's completely inefficient unless you're rocking 150k+ dps. I usually stick to mp0-2 and I'm on 190k dps with a SoJ.
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Battletag: Faesroll26935
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http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/faesroll-2693/Faes/4866323
This is my monk and I can do MP1 pretty efficient, bells one-shot elite packs and trash still melts as I run through. You'll need even better gear for MP2. Anything higher and tempest rush simply isn't worth as you'll spend so long on elite packs you might aswell pick up 2 one handers and go dual wield.
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Since you mentioned upgrading weapons is very expensive, I'd look into crafting the new bracers.Since your health is a little low, I would try to get inna's pants and a witching hour with vitality instead of fire res.
Rest of the gear is gonna be really expensive to upgrade, like I said, start with crafting the new bracers and after that try saving for a new offhand, 760 dps is really low.
Be happy with that hellfire ring, it's one of the better ones I've seen and maybe one I'd actually consider using if I had it myself.
Me:
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/faesroll-2693/hero/4866323
Crafted the shoulders and gloves, while not perfect they're the best I've gotten out of 100 crafts together or so. I have a trifecta neck which I can't use due to the attack speed. Gonna continue crafting shoulders until I get one similar with some life% / vitality.
Don't really have a lot of money(53k ATM) cause of the crafting and the fact I haven't had a decent drop in almost 20 paragon levels.