Phalanx has received a massive buff, in which EACH avatar can deal damage, rather than just the 'wave'. Meaning that multiple hits can occur on the same enemy. I am only doing T3, but melting enemies quite fast and can probably bump up to T4 with no gear change from pre-patch. Don't have many legendaries either, still looking for a decent weapon.
*note that the tooltips aren't fully(?) updated on there
Punish: it helps fuel block which will increase healing from each block due to the passive. I choose roar for the extra damage, due to retaliation rune changing to holy damage. I'll speak about why I choose the damage runes later.
Phalanx: the meat of your damage. Stampede makes each hit knockback slightly and can stun. Each summoned horse can hit an enemy, allowing 3 separate hits. I *think* that if an enemy gets knockbacked enough, they can get hit again, though it only appeared so from quick observation.
Steed Charge: because of taking Lord Commander, why not? Plus, this rune causes knockbacks, which is useful. More on this later.
Condemn: because its powerful on a short cooldown. This rune was changed to physical, so might as well use it. Though vacuum might still be worth taking, for making bombardment easier, and pulling enemies into heaven's fury ground effect.
Heaven's fury: because its quite powerful, especially with proper use of this rune. The rune makes a 5 sec ground effect, but the beam lasts 6 sec, making a total ground effect for 11 seconds. Moving the enemy when the beam is about to expire will create the ground effect again (as it doesn't seem to be reapplied when not moving), allowing massive damage. Unfortunately not so good against mobile or teleporting enemies.
Bombardment: because Lord Commander. Plus its bursty explosiony awesomeness.
Heavenly Strength: Fairly obvious, plus I like 2-handers (Though I wonder how the new 1-hand passive would work out? Probably not well for this build).
Renewal: makes all blocks heal the crusader. Can be thought of as adding 12k block value (roughly 50% or so, right?) for no health damage, where weak attacks under the normal block amount will end up healing.
Lord Commander: obvious choice
Hold your ground: I choose this just for more block chance. Use this if there is a low amount of block chance on your shield, so you can be reliably healed.
So, optional choices are: Heaven's fury: I cannot really see much of good replacement damage dealer that is also physical. Can choose offensive or defensive skill if desired. Steed charge: up to the person if they want this skill or not. It's a nice escape skill, especially for non-blockable attacks. Though, remember the knockback. Hold Your Ground: Free choice. If you want more offence, such as Finery or Holy Cause or whatever, go ahead. If you want a different defense, such as vigilant or something, go ahead. Possibly even the new Insurmountable, which makes every block give 6 wrath for more phalanx spammage.
Gearing: well, I don't really have any specific items that make this build. However, Strongarm Bracersare a very good choice to have. This is because knockbacks occur frequently, with every steed charge hit, and every phalanx hit, almost making a passive 20-30% increase against most enemies. Defender of Westmarchis also very potent with high block chance, which would make defense an offence.
So, what one can do to start out is use condemn and steed charge. Enemies will be knocked back, increasing their damage taken with the bracers. Then you use phalanx, so as to get the most damage from your wrath spent; rather use steed charge to get the bracer effect than use wrath for phalanx that would be 20-30% weaker in the first attack. Then use skills however you wish, with intelligent usage of Heaven's fury if you chose that.
Now, for blocking, you would want to know how much total damage you take from certain sources, and stand in them for benefit. For instance, fire chains. It applies damage very, very quickly, and is blockable. So, if you stand in the fire chains with roughly a 'neutral' damage taken, you can melt the enemy in seconds by just standing still. With roar, you will constantly be exploding, with that linked shield from above, lots of wolves will be running. Plus, it can be used to actually heal you. So, for once, you would actuallywant to stand in the fire chains. Fast attacking enemies with lots of weak attacks, such as Anarchs from act V, are also beneficial. Hard hitting enemies will make you cry, but that is true for everyone.
* Oh, forgot to add the negative aspect of phalanx. The avatars disappear on each and every wall or immovable obstacle. meaning that you will hate wallers and tight areas like caves. And it will sometimes not launch or do any damage if you are on top of a wall or immovable object, despite the enemy being on top of you as well. Well, this could just be more intelligent positioning when available, though still doesn't help against wallers.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aPVilO!ahfU!abaYaY
*note that the tooltips aren't fully(?) updated on there
Punish: it helps fuel block which will increase healing from each block due to the passive. I choose roar for the extra damage, due to retaliation rune changing to holy damage. I'll speak about why I choose the damage runes later.
Phalanx: the meat of your damage. Stampede makes each hit knockback slightly and can stun. Each summoned horse can hit an enemy, allowing 3 separate hits. I *think* that if an enemy gets knockbacked enough, they can get hit again, though it only appeared so from quick observation.
Steed Charge: because of taking Lord Commander, why not? Plus, this rune causes knockbacks, which is useful. More on this later.
Condemn: because its powerful on a short cooldown. This rune was changed to physical, so might as well use it. Though vacuum might still be worth taking, for making bombardment easier, and pulling enemies into heaven's fury ground effect.
Heaven's fury: because its quite powerful, especially with proper use of this rune. The rune makes a 5 sec ground effect, but the beam lasts 6 sec, making a total ground effect for 11 seconds. Moving the enemy when the beam is about to expire will create the ground effect again (as it doesn't seem to be reapplied when not moving), allowing massive damage. Unfortunately not so good against mobile or teleporting enemies.
Bombardment: because Lord Commander. Plus its bursty explosiony awesomeness.
Heavenly Strength: Fairly obvious, plus I like 2-handers (Though I wonder how the new 1-hand passive would work out? Probably not well for this build).
Renewal: makes all blocks heal the crusader. Can be thought of as adding 12k block value (roughly 50% or so, right?) for no health damage, where weak attacks under the normal block amount will end up healing.
Lord Commander: obvious choice
Hold your ground: I choose this just for more block chance. Use this if there is a low amount of block chance on your shield, so you can be reliably healed.
So, optional choices are:
Heaven's fury: I cannot really see much of good replacement damage dealer that is also physical. Can choose offensive or defensive skill if desired.
Steed charge: up to the person if they want this skill or not. It's a nice escape skill, especially for non-blockable attacks. Though, remember the knockback.
Hold Your Ground: Free choice. If you want more offence, such as Finery or Holy Cause or whatever, go ahead. If you want a different defense, such as vigilant or something, go ahead. Possibly even the new Insurmountable, which makes every block give 6 wrath for more phalanx spammage.
Gearing: well, I don't really have any specific items that make this build. However, Strongarm Bracersare a very good choice to have. This is because knockbacks occur frequently, with every steed charge hit, and every phalanx hit, almost making a passive 20-30% increase against most enemies. Defender of Westmarchis also very potent with high block chance, which would make defense an offence.
So, what one can do to start out is use condemn and steed charge. Enemies will be knocked back, increasing their damage taken with the bracers. Then you use phalanx, so as to get the most damage from your wrath spent; rather use steed charge to get the bracer effect than use wrath for phalanx that would be 20-30% weaker in the first attack. Then use skills however you wish, with intelligent usage of Heaven's fury if you chose that.
Now, for blocking, you would want to know how much total damage you take from certain sources, and stand in them for benefit. For instance, fire chains. It applies damage very, very quickly, and is blockable. So, if you stand in the fire chains with roughly a 'neutral' damage taken, you can melt the enemy in seconds by just standing still. With roar, you will constantly be exploding, with that linked shield from above, lots of wolves will be running. Plus, it can be used to actually heal you. So, for once, you would actuallywant to stand in the fire chains. Fast attacking enemies with lots of weak attacks, such as Anarchs from act V, are also beneficial. Hard hitting enemies will make you cry, but that is true for everyone.
* Oh, forgot to add the negative aspect of phalanx. The avatars disappear on each and every wall or immovable obstacle. meaning that you will hate wallers and tight areas like caves. And it will sometimes not launch or do any damage if you are on top of a wall or immovable object, despite the enemy being on top of you as well. Well, this could just be more intelligent positioning when available, though still doesn't help against wallers.