Rating
+5

MACHINE GUN BOWMEN OF AKKHAN

by last updated Jan 25, 2015 ( Patch 2.1.2 )
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Skills

  • Blessed Hammer Brute Force
  • Falling Sword Rise Brothers
  • Steed Charge Endurance
  • Phalanx Bowmen
  • Laws of Valor Critical
  • Akarat's Champion Prophet
  • Heavenly Strength
  • Lord Commander
  • Long Arm of the Law
  • Finery

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Zei's Stone of Vengeance
    • Gem of Efficacious Toxin

NOTE:

This build REQUIRES an Unrelenting Phalanx shield. REQUIRES!!!

HISTORY:

I was initially building a "Thunder God" profile, but was rather frustrated at how hard it was to kill things in T4 (when all my friends playing other classes were breezing through T6) and also constantly running out of wrath. I happened upon a BALEFUL REMNANT mace and tried it out. Even though it wasn't correct for my lightning build, it did complement my Akarat's Champion. I was amazed at how much easier it was to cut through mobs. Later on I found an Eternal Union ring, which tripled the lifespans of my Phalanx Avatars and made things even better! I decided then to abandon my lightning build, which I felt had plateaued, and take it to "the next level" by focusing on a Lord Commander build.

PROS:

This build has made T6 rift farming a breeze (and I still have room to grow before I reach its maximum potential). The playing style is very adaptable, working just as easily in narrow hallways as it does in open fields, either solo or as a support role in a group. Gone are the days that I run out of wrath. I don't even think about wrath anymore! My pets seek and destroy, often attacking enemies before they come on screen, or on platforms normally out of reach. All I have to do is run around trying to stay out of harms way, and then pick up the loot that's left behind. Easy!

CONS:

This build is a HUGE p.i.t.a. to put together. Plan on farming several hours a day for several months to get not just the right gear, but the right attributes on each piece of gear, and the right stats for each of the attributes. I have all the gear, but lousy rolls. Most of mine needs to be replaced, and it's sooooo boring to do. Other than the amulet, there's pretty much *no* alternative for the equipment that is required to push this build to it's maximum potential. It's a very unforgiving build if you chose to try it, and if you don't have perfect gear then that gear is garbage.

Also, it should be said, that while I can T6 rift with little effort or peril, grifts are a different story. The highest keystone I have earned from a trial stone so far is a level 27. And when doing solo grifts, anything above 30 is a real challenge. If I'm in a group, anything over 37 is not realistic. So don't expect this build to get you to the top of any leader boards. I don't really care about grifts, so it's not an issue for me. But if you are looking for bragging rights, then the kind of investment this build requires probably won't pay off for you.

PASSIVES:

Heavenly Strength - You need this to wield a Baleful Remnant 2-handed mace while holding an Unrelenting Phalanx Shield.
Lord Commander - This is the meat of your build. It benefits both Phalanx and Steed Charge.
Long Arm Of The Law - You need this to maximize your Law Of Valor - Critical.
Finery - Provided you have everything socketed that can take a socket, this is a major damage booster. Even if you don't, it still improves your toughness, which is the more important stat here.

If you want to go the Hellfire Amulet route, go for Indestructible as your bonus passive. But don't bother if the amulet's attributes aren't perfect.

GEMS:

[REQUIRED] Zei's Stone of Vengence - Perfect for your bowmen's ranged attacks. At lvl 25 it has a chance on hit to stun, complimenting your other required gem. Also, all the damage from this stone is MULTIPLICATIVE, very cool!
[REQUIRED] Bane of the Trapped - While the damage increase this gem gives you from your Zei's chance to stun is nice, this gem's usefulness doesn't really come in to play until lvl 25. At that point, anything within 15 yards from you is slowed, which procs this gem's damage increase! Whenever you are caught in a group and respawn your bowmen, they will be right next to you, and will benefit from this buff. These two gems together make your maximize your damage, whether your enemies are close to you, or far away. The damage with this stone is also MULTIPLICATIVE.
(By the way, other classes also greatly benefit from this one-two punch of Zei's+Trapped. I use these on my Fire Monk, Fire Wizard, Cold Demon Hunter, and Poison Witch Doctor.)

[SOLO/T6 RECOMMENDED] Toxic Gem - This gem is not only a nice damage-over-time booster in general , but at level 25 gives you a 10% increased damage bonus, ADDITIVE to your Phalanx % increase. Anything your bowmen tag will proc the poison D.O.T. Both are very useful for this build. The level 25 bonus here does NOT stack with other people also wearing this gem, and because it's so popular, in group settings there's usually always someone wearing this. There's a better alternative for group play, and that is...
[GROUP/GRIFT RECOMMENDED] Bane of the Powerful - Sure, the +20 damage bonus (additive to your Phalanx % dmg increase) post elite kill is one of the biggest damage boosters a gem can give you, but you really want this so at level 25 your pets can do an extra 15% MULTIPLICATIVE damage against elites! The only problem with this gem is that it doesn't proc until you kill an elite of some sort. And the buff doesn't last very long. So when it's not active, you are killing mobs with 2 gems instead of 3. If you would rather have reliable constant damage, then the alternative is...
[ALTERNATE GROUP/GRIFT RECOMMENDED] Enforcer - This gem is often referred to as the "pet gem". If you have pets that die, it's lvl 25 bonus is useful. Our phalanx pets don't die, so the secondary on this gem just goes to waste, which is one reason I don't like it. Also, it's damage increase is ADDITIVE to your Physical dmg % increase, which is decent, but additive damage is less desirable than multiplicative damage, such as Zei's, Trapped, and BotP's elite dmg increase. However, the 25% "always on" damage increase this gem brings is like having a permanent BotP proc for regular trash mobs. If you get frustrated (as I do) with the infrequent proc rate of your BotP, then this gem is the next best thing to it.

FOLLOWER:

I use the Templar for his healing buffs, and I equip him like so...

Enchanting Favor - Makes him invincible. (Every follower should have one of these.)
Thunderfury - Chance to deal 357% weapon damage as a lightning bolt that jumps up to 5 nearby targets, also decreasing their attack speed and movement by 30% for 3 seconds. His best weapon.
Ess of Johan - He has a chance on hitting an enemy to suck in nearby enemies to him. (Every follower should have one of these.)
Hellfire Ring - He has a chance on hitting an enemy to make an area damage pool of burning lava, doing 200% weapon damage per second, for 6 seconds. (Every follower should have one of these.)

Everything on him socketed with rubies (critical hit damage on followers is capped at 150%, so an emerald in their weapon is a waste).


MISC:

Always carry around a Swiftmount mace and use it when you need to farm. You can have a 100% up-time on STEED CHARGE - ENDURANCE with this in hand. Just don't forget to swap it back out when you are ready to fight!

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Vitality
Primary Stat
Maximum Resource

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance

Defense

Resist All
Armor
Life Regeneration
Life

Utility

Area Damage
Life on Hit
Resource Cost Reduction
Gold Find

CORE:

This build emphasizes survivability over DPS. MOVEMENT SPEED should come first. This allows you to kite better to avoid damage dealers. Just remember to only put in enough points to get your sheet spec to 25% as anything after that is a waste. VITALITY will help you to survive better than STRENGTH. WRATH is a non-issue in this build (thank god) so don't waste any points here.

OFFENSE:

This is first and foremost an Akarat's Champion build. You *must* get your COOL DOWN REDUCTION to 56%, or you will die. After that, as a pet build you will need to focus on ATTACK SPEED, but that will be explained below. Once ATTACK SPEED requirements are met, then focus on CRITICAL HIT DAMAGE before CRITICAL HIT CHANCE.

DEFENSE:

In order to survive, RESIST ALL followed by ARMOR are the most important here.

UTILITY:

As a pet build, most of these are irrelevant. The only ones that have any remote value are AREA DAMAGE, followed by LIFE ON HIT.

Build Guide

GAME PLAY:

So it's pretty easy actually. First thing you do is activate AKARAT'S CHAMPION. Anything you kill while in this state will spawn a Phalanx Avatar. Normally these fellows will live for 10 seconds, but thanks to your Eternal Union ring, they will live for 30 seconds! Of course, you have to kill something first before they will spawn. That's where your bowmen come in. Always activate BOWMEN *and* your LAW OF VALOR - CRITICAL at the same time. You will have 8 bowmen that will live for 15 seconds (once again thanks to the Eternal Union ring) which as timing would have it matches perfectly with the cool down of your LAW OF VALOR. Get it? Short rule is this, every time your cool down for LAW OF VALOR finishes, re-activate it *and* your BOWMEN simultaneously. And don't forget to constantly babysit your cool down for AKARAT'S CHAMPION, or you will die.

Of course, STEED CHARGE is here for mobility. FALLING SWORD - RISE BROTHERS is great here. One, FALLING SWORD in general is like a poor man's teleport. If you get walled in you can use this to escape. It's also good at crossing over to some hard to reach areas quickly. The fact that you are also creating 3 additional avatars in the process where you land is icing on the cake! And finally, BLESSED HAMMER - ICEBOUND is my crowd control. First, when AKARAT'S CHAMPION is active, you can spam this for nothing. Second, the cold has a chance to freezes enemies in their tracks. That buys precious time for your avatars and bowmen to hack away unchallenged. When I'm in a group, I'll use FALLING SWORD to jump into a group and start to spam my BLESSED HAMMER, and also activate my BOWMEN and LAW OF VALOR. I socket everything with diamonds for toughness. This makes me a good tank for taking agro while my avatars, and other players, attack from the peripheral. If I'm playing solo, I just kite around the peripheral and let my pets do all the work. And it does work, like a charm!

In place of BLESSED HAMMER, you could use BLESSED SHIELD - DIVINE AEGIS, but you would need to be a bit more careful about wrath using this. Of course, you could mitigate this by switching over to AKARAT'S CHAMPION - EMBODIMENT OF POWER, but you would forfeit your life insurance. Both of these alternate skills listed here will scale off of your Physical damage though, for a 100% Physical build! I, however, find it more difficult to play.

COOL DOWN REDUCTION:

OK, let's talk technical. First and foremost, this is an AKARAT'S CHAMPION build based on the AKKHAN SET. Before you can do anything else you *must* get your CDR to 56%. I don't know any other class that has to play as a permanent champion to be viable, but that just goes to show you how much Blizzard hates the Crusader. We have to waste precious attributes on this while other classes can focus on more important things, like DPS for example, but I digress. You have 9 pieces of equipment that can have the CDR attribute. One of them, your weapon, should *not* have CDR as there are other more important attributes it needs. In order to get a "sheet spec" of 56% CDR the total CDR% on all of your equipment needs to add up to 68.5%, and you need to have the full 10% CDR in your Paragon points. So let's break this down, shall we?

  1. Akkhan Shoulder 8% of 8%
  2. Tasker & Theo Gloves 8% of 8%
  3. Eternal Union / Unity 8% of 8%
  4. Baleful Remnant 0% of 10% (Do *not* roll CDR here if possible)
  5. Akkhan Helmet (with Diamond socket) 12.5% of 12.5%
  6. Vigilante's Belt 8% of 8%
  7. (Amulet) 8% of 8%
  8. Ring of Royal Grandeur 8% of 8%
  9. Unrelenting Phalanx 8% of 8%
So, as you can see, you must have perfect CDR rolls on *eight* pieces of equipment to achieve the 56% holy grail. Yes, you can get by with less, but you will see how much more often you die when you do. What a huge hassle! Here's a link to a handy CDR calculator, so you know that I'm not pulling this out of thin air...

http://bannedofgamers.com/index.php?cdr/

ATTACK SPEED:

As if worrying about CDR wasn't enough, being a pet build, you also have to think about AS, and this is another convoluted subject. Luckily for us, it has a happy ending! So basically, if you want "machine gun bowmen", you have to ratchet up your AS. But, pet attack speed doesn't actually scale with your character sheet AS. Instead, pet AS increases in tiers, and you need to get your sheet AS past a certain threshold to make your pet's AS jump to the next tier. So here are the relevant tiers for this class/build...

IF your sheet AS + T&T bonus is greater than 1.26 - THEN your pet's AS will be 1.43 attacks per second.
IF your sheet AS + T&T bonus is greater than 1.46 - THEN your pet's AS will be 1.67 attacks per second.
IF your sheet AS + T&T bonus is greater than 1.75 - THEN your pet's AS will be 2.00 attacks per second.
IF your sheet AS + T&T bonus is greater than 2.16 - THEN your pet's AS will be 2.50 attacks per second.

So this is not an easy subject to understand, but bear with me. Your sheet AS is the total of the AS of your Baleful Remnant, which is 1.15 attacks per second, multiplied by the sum of any and all extra AS% you have on your equipment (Tasker & Theo + Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers), skills (Law Of Valor) and paragons. There are 6 pieces of equipment that can take the AS attribute...

  1. (Amulet) 5-7%
  2. Ring of Royal Grandeur 5-7%
  3. Eternal Union / Unity 5-7%
  4. Tasker & Theo 5-7%
  5. Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers 5-7%
  6. Baleful Remnant 5-7%
Here's the GOOD news... not all of these have to have AS! You are going to be running LAW OF VALOR for an additional 15% AS when active, and 8% AS when passive, and have the maximum of 10% AS assigned in Paragons. The key here is the bonus percentage on your Tasker & Theo, coupled with the combined AS% from your [Tasker & Theo + Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers]. Here's the list...

  • T&T 40% = You need an additional 17% AS, or 3 pieces having 6%, 6%, 5%
  • T&T 41% = You need an additional 16% AS, or 3 pieces having 6%, 5%, 5%
  • T&T 42% = You need an additional 15% AS, or 3 pieces having 5%, 5%, 5%
  • T&T 43% = You need an additional 14% AS, or 3 pieces having 5%, 5%, 5%, or 2 pieces having 7%, 7%
  • T&T 44% = You need an additional 13% AS, or 3 pieces having 5%, 5%, 5%, or 2 pieces having 7%, 6%
  • T&T 45% = You need an additional 12% AS, or 3 pieces having 5%, 5%, 5%, or 2 pieces having 6%, 6%
  • T&T 46% = You need an additional 11% AS, or 3 pieces having 5%, 5%, 5%, or 2 pieces having 6%, 5%
  • T&T 47% = You need an additional 10% AS, or 2 pieces having 5%, 5% (the minimum roll of AS possible, T&T + LP/SS, you win!)
  • T&T 48% = You need an additional 10% AS, or 2 pieces having 5%, 5% (the minimum roll of AS possible, T&T + LP/SS, you win!)
  • T&T 49% = You need an additional 10% AS, or 2 pieces having 5%, 5% (the minimum roll of AS possible, T&T + LP/SS, you win!)
  • T&T 50% = You need an additional 10% AS, or 2 pieces having 5%, 5% (the minimum roll of AS possible, T&T + LP/SS, you win!)

So here is the best news you are going to get in this write up. As long as you have [Tasker & Theo + Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers], and as long as you have all 10% AS in paragons, then anytime your LAW OF VALOR is ACTIVE, your avatars will be at maximum attack speed... EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE LOWEST ROLL OF ATTACK SPEED ON YOUR [TASKER & THEO + LACUNI PROWLERS / STEADY STRIKERS] OF 5% AS EACH AND THE LOWEST PET BONUS ATTACK SPEED ROLL OF 40%. Isn't that awesome? Now, once your active LAW OF VALOR expires and you are now running on passive, your pets will drop down to the next tier, UNLESS YOU HAVE 47% PET BONUS PERCENTAGE ON YOUR TASKER & THEO, IN WHICH CASE YOUR PETS WILL BE AT MAXIMUM ATTACK SPEED ALL THE TIME, even if you have the minimum 5% AS on both your [Tasker & Theo + Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers]! Otherwise you will have to have higher rolls on your [Tasker & Theo + Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers], and/or subsidize some AS on a third piece of equipment to get a 100% up-time of maximum AS. But if that can be avoided, then all the better. Either way, if you have [Tasker & Theo + Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers] you are going to see the maximum attack speed in some capacity, either 50% of the time, or 100% of the time.

Once again, just so you know where I'm getting my facts from...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXPYoD_qL3s

This video specifically focuses on Demon Hunter - Sentries, but the same information is applicable to Crusader - Phalanx, Wizard - Hydra, or any other pet from any other class. Is it worth all the hassle? Short answer... YES! Without a Tasker & Theo and Lacuni Prowlers / Steady Strikers, and without maximizing your bowman's attacks per second, you will never enjoy one of the true benefits from this build, and that is mowing down enemies like grass.

DAMAGE:

OK, there's no point in having your avatars shooting a million arrows a second if all they are doing is tickling the enemy and making them even madder. So we have to put some damage behind the attacks. There are two primary ways to do this. One is to maximize your Physical Damage %. Your Phalanx Avatars do Physical type damage. You can only get this from 2 sources, your amulet (maximum 20%) and your bracers (maximum 20%). Because it's so hard to come by, you really should have perfect rolls for both. Like I said, this build is a huge headache. It's also noteworthy that the Pet Gem, and the Pain Enhancer Gem both will scale off of you Physical Damage % increase. Deadly!

The next thing is to maximize your Phalanx Damage %. There are 3 places you can do this... your helmet (maximum 15%), your boots (maximum 15%), and your shield (maximum 15%). Once again, these are *big* damage enhancers, and there are only a few places to get them, so you really should shoot for perfect rolls. I warned you you'd want to pull your hair out!

Last, when all else fails, go for Critical Hit Damage over Critical Hit Chance on your amulet (100%), rings (50% each), and gloves (50%), and only take Critical Hit Chance when no other options exist. You want your Baleful Remnant to have the maximum Strength, maximum Damage %, maximum life per hit, an emerald socket, and don't forget to use a Ramaladni's Gift to roll an extra bonus attribute!