I've been playing Crusader since launch, and like most people I started trying out Blessed Shield and having lots of fun with it. It felt like a return to form for me, and I didn't think I would ever switch to another skill or build.
"Oh but that's great for the Fire hammer, you didn't have to switch!", I hear. And you're right, but it's also incredible for literallyeverything else. I did some testing with a build yesterday night and was very happy with my findings in Torment, so I figured I would share it with you people. It does respectable damage, has high survivability and is a blast to play (I mean that literally. You keep exploding). So without further ado, here's the build!
Skill calculator for solo play Skill calculator for group play Skills Explained 1. Builders Punish : Roar
For solo play, this is your best builder. The 15% damage bonusDOES apply to your shield's damage (tested on Ghom, 4.8mil crit without vs. 5.7mil crit with) AND it has a nice little passive AOE through your blocks as well as giving you more survivability. Its single target DPS is respectable as well.
Slash : Guard
I prefer to use this in group play. Since mobs are going to be running around a lot more unless you have a monk in your group, you don't have to run around as much trying to get some Wrath back up. The 5% Armor bonus is also very nice and lets you stand in the frontlines like a tiny, invincible god.
2. Spender Blessed Shield: Combust
Your bread and butter. This thing does INSANE DPS on packs of mobs and has decent single target damage. Champions and elites will melt before your eyes with a few procs. Throw it on whatever you want to die first.
3. Actives Condemn : Vacuum
The poor man's Cyclone Strike. Lets you control groups of mobs every 15 seconds (more often with some CDR) and blows up pretty much any white mobs and goblins you'll come across instantly.
Judgment : Resolved
Another crowd control skill, but what we're really interested in is the relatively short cooldown and the guaranteed critical hit chance. Drop this on bigger elites and laugh as everything gets crit'd.
Laws of Valor: Critical
Your main buff, as well as a party wide increase in DPS. Activate it on bigger packs of elites along with Judgment to instantly kill anything that dared to look funny at you.
Akarat's Champion : Fire Starter Consecration : Aegis Purgatory
In solo play, I prefer to use Akarat's Champion. It's a very nice skill to just drop and make sure whatever was scary to you is now mostly dead, and it also functions as a high cooldown get-me-out-of-here save. Fire Starter is used due to increase in fire damage % and for a passive DPS increase.
For group play, Aegis Purgatory is GREAT. You can condense mobs into a condemn and drop Aegis. Your group will be able to just drop everything on you as you make everything else explode. Pretty much turns you into a bomb testing site.
Passives
Heavenly Strength
This one needs no explanation. Needed on pretty much every Crusader builds out there.
Renewal
Passive survival. With Punish - Roar, this thing keeps you alive forever.
Hold Your Ground
Adds to your total block chance. Initially, people thought this didn't apply to the damage from Blessed Shield but after testing, it definitely does (3mil crits without it vs 4mil crits with it). Why dodge when you can just stand there and wreck everything?
Divine Fortress
Adds to your total armor but does NOT stack with Hold Your Ground. Still, more survivability is always welcome.
Gearing
You can check out my gear here as I try to get more stuff to make this even deadlier. I still have some leftover gear from when I was using Lightning Hammers, but I'm slowly grabbing what I need. There are a things that I expect to be best-in-slot, so I'll list those here.
Helm of Akkhan - You'll mostly want this for the 2 (or 3, if you have a Ring of Royal Grandeur) set bonus. Can roll up to 15% to Blessed Shield. Andariel's Visage - The only helm that can roll Fire% damage (and higher than you can get Blessed Shield at, up to 20%). Overall DPS increase on Akkhan's, at the cost of some survivability.
Magefist - The only gloves that are acceptable for this build. MASSIVE DPS increase if rolled correctly. Rolls up to 3 stats outside of aspd/+fire/main.
Jekanbord- More bounces = more things dying. Strong group DPS increase. Stormshield - Incredible survivability and DPS increase. Can roll up to 35% block chance, has guaranteed block%, all resist and reduction from elites. Less bounces, more not-dying.
Maximus - The only weapon you'll want to use for this build. Crazy damage, nice little pet to help you with tanking and the fire chain is even more passive DPS upgrade.
Paragon Points 1. Core 10% movespeed is your priority here, then dump into whatever you feel like. I went with Strength, but everything here is viable depending on your gear's rolls.
2. Offensive Critical Hit Damage, Attack Speed and CDR are all equally important here. Critical Hit Chance will be acquired on your gear pieces for the most part, so you can safely ignore that until everything else is maxed. Go with whatever your gear ISN'T covering at first.
3. Defensive All Resist is your most important stat here for Hardcore, then Armor/Life% on equal footing. Life Regen is mostly worthless.
4. Utility Life on Hit and Area Damage have to be maxed first. Resource Cost will only reduce the cost of Blessed Shield by 2 points at max level, hence being pretty much useless for what it does unless you have a ton more Resource Cost gear on.
Thanks for reading this guide! Hopefully you'll appreciate the build as much as I do and have fun with it! You can also check out this build being played on my stream from time to time.
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Until I found this thing, that is.
"Oh but that's great for the Fire hammer, you didn't have to switch!", I hear. And you're right, but it's also incredible for literallyeverything else. I did some testing with a build yesterday night and was very happy with my findings in Torment, so I figured I would share it with you people. It does respectable damage, has high survivability and is a blast to play (I mean that literally. You keep exploding). So without further ado, here's the build!
Skill calculator for solo play
Skill calculator for group play
Skills Explained
1. Builders
Punish : Roar
For solo play, this is your best builder. The 15% damage bonusDOES apply to your shield's damage (tested on Ghom, 4.8mil crit without vs. 5.7mil crit with) AND it has a nice little passive AOE through your blocks as well as giving you more survivability. Its single target DPS is respectable as well.
Slash : Guard
I prefer to use this in group play. Since mobs are going to be running around a lot more unless you have a monk in your group, you don't have to run around as much trying to get some Wrath back up. The 5% Armor bonus is also very nice and lets you stand in the frontlines like a tiny, invincible god.
2. Spender
Blessed Shield: Combust
Your bread and butter. This thing does INSANE DPS on packs of mobs and has decent single target damage. Champions and elites will melt before your eyes with a few procs. Throw it on whatever you want to die first.
3. Actives
Condemn : Vacuum
The poor man's Cyclone Strike. Lets you control groups of mobs every 15 seconds (more often with some CDR) and blows up pretty much any white mobs and goblins you'll come across instantly.
Judgment : Resolved
Another crowd control skill, but what we're really interested in is the relatively short cooldown and the guaranteed critical hit chance. Drop this on bigger elites and laugh as everything gets crit'd.
Laws of Valor: Critical
Your main buff, as well as a party wide increase in DPS. Activate it on bigger packs of elites along with Judgment to instantly kill anything that dared to look funny at you.
Akarat's Champion : Fire Starter
Consecration : Aegis Purgatory
In solo play, I prefer to use Akarat's Champion. It's a very nice skill to just drop and make sure whatever was scary to you is now mostly dead, and it also functions as a high cooldown get-me-out-of-here save. Fire Starter is used due to increase in fire damage % and for a passive DPS increase.
For group play, Aegis Purgatory is GREAT. You can condense mobs into a condemn and drop Aegis. Your group will be able to just drop everything on you as you make everything else explode. Pretty much turns you into a bomb testing site.
Passives
Heavenly Strength
This one needs no explanation. Needed on pretty much every Crusader builds out there.
Renewal
Passive survival. With Punish - Roar, this thing keeps you alive forever.
Hold Your Ground
Adds to your total block chance. Initially, people thought this didn't apply to the damage from Blessed Shield but after testing, it definitely does (3mil crits without it vs 4mil crits with it). Why dodge when you can just stand there and wreck everything?
Divine Fortress
Adds to your total armor but does NOT stack with Hold Your Ground. Still, more survivability is always welcome.
Gearing
You can check out my gear here as I try to get more stuff to make this even deadlier. I still have some leftover gear from when I was using Lightning Hammers, but I'm slowly grabbing what I need. There are a things that I expect to be best-in-slot, so I'll list those here.
Helm of Akkhan - You'll mostly want this for the 2 (or 3, if you have a Ring of Royal Grandeur) set bonus. Can roll up to 15% to Blessed Shield.
Andariel's Visage - The only helm that can roll Fire% damage (and higher than you can get Blessed Shield at, up to 20%). Overall DPS increase on Akkhan's, at the cost of some survivability.
Magefist - The only gloves that are acceptable for this build. MASSIVE DPS increase if rolled correctly. Rolls up to 3 stats outside of aspd/+fire/main.
Jekanbord - More bounces = more things dying. Strong group DPS increase.
Stormshield - Incredible survivability and DPS increase. Can roll up to 35% block chance, has guaranteed block%, all resist and reduction from elites. Less bounces, more not-dying.
Maximus - The only weapon you'll want to use for this build. Crazy damage, nice little pet to help you with tanking and the fire chain is even more passive DPS upgrade.
Paragon Points
1. Core 10% movespeed is your priority here, then dump into whatever you feel like. I went with Strength, but everything here is viable depending on your gear's rolls.
2. Offensive Critical Hit Damage, Attack Speed and CDR are all equally important here. Critical Hit Chance will be acquired on your gear pieces for the most part, so you can safely ignore that until everything else is maxed. Go with whatever your gear ISN'T covering at first.
3. Defensive All Resist is your most important stat here for Hardcore, then Armor/Life% on equal footing. Life Regen is mostly worthless.
4. Utility Life on Hit and Area Damage have to be maxed first. Resource Cost will only reduce the cost of Blessed Shield by 2 points at max level, hence being pretty much useless for what it does unless you have a ton more Resource Cost gear on.
Thanks for reading this guide! Hopefully you'll appreciate the build as much as I do and have fun with it! You can also check out this build being played on my stream from time to time.