Hey guys, I just started with my crusader, and I wanted to go with a fire build. My question was, is it a viable build?. The items im looking for are Cindercoat, Mage Fists (or something like that), Andariels Visage and anything that adds fire damage. If there are better items please let know. Below I leave my profile if you want to see my build, also im open to suggestions on changing it.
I love my lightning build. I currently have the best gear for lightning but am working on a fire set now as well. Got my cindercoat and neck/wrists with +20% fire but with all the lightning damage I have I'm gonna need more gear to make it work. Have you thought about going +holy? That is something that I'm working on now too as I have a decent BoP. My Schaefers is really hard to get rid of though and no Maximus to speak of yet
While Fire is viable up to a certain point, I have some concerns with its scalability. I played Fire Crusader up to around T3 and then switched away entirely once I attained the 4pc Akkhan's bonus.
The idea that a 1 million sheet+fire/lite DPS Fire Damage build is more effective in a real-world play through of a Rift or Bounty than 500k sheet+holy/elite/CDR build is somewhat misleading. The "top of Diabloprogress" examples are not really helpful. People stack those stats for bragging rights more than playability.
A few things to consider:
4-6 piece Akkhan's set bonus heavily favors a holy build, particularly with Condemn+Blade of Prophecy such as:
The benefit of this build is that it allows the Crusader to spam our most damaging and disabling abilities repeatedly. This creates scenarios of rapid burst damage and disruption which are highly effective at the higher torments.
Here's the Fire Build I typically use. Changes sometimes based on activity or mood:
Fire build is very much about positioning. Repositioning the chain inherently lowers burst damage output (already lower with the Fire Builds to begin with) and therefore the DPS that matters most. Efficient rift runs involving killing elites in ~3 seconds and repeating that cycle every 10 seconds or so for maximum drops per hour. Fire doesn't even come close to the burst damage of a Divine Well+Condemn build in that regard.
Maximus proc Demon is subject to premature death issue currently (per my last testing in T4/5) in some scenarios
Subject to weak healing with per Wrath spent in some configurations, but this can be overcome
Limited to a single 2h weapon or 2 (arguably non-viable) 1h options
Advantages to Fire:
Excellent and easy T1-T3/4 viable DPS while gathering Akkhan's set
Several viable primary damage dealing options (with and without an actual "primary" wrath generator)
Fun and unique play style and looks cool
Some item's can be reused on a Barbarian for it's strongest build (Earthquake+Leap)
Cindercoat's 30% resource cost reduction is game-changing. Has very solid sustain over long fights. Very few moments of downtime.
Lots of +Fire gear is available and nearly all of it is high quality
Can solo in T5/6 without Akkhan's set with enough toughness and skill
Overall, with the right gear, I've found Holy Condemn+Divine Well to be stronger, but Fire is a great way to mix it up and scale up before then. Hope that helps. Happy to answer any questions you have based on my experiences as I approach Paragon 400.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#bcYVfQ!aeSY!baaYba is what i used quite fun to play to be honest hitting 6 mil sweep attacks with maximus chain :P. sadly I retired it and went back to lighting. with a little bit of cooldown and gear focusing on ias crit str cd it can put out a lot of damage.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/MusTanG-1831/hero/43751569
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Hiimdave-1925/hero/43924621
The idea that a 1 million sheet+fire/lite DPS Fire Damage build is more effective in a real-world play through of a Rift or Bounty than 500k sheet+holy/elite/CDR build is somewhat misleading. The "top of Diabloprogress" examples are not really helpful. People stack those stats for bragging rights more than playability.
A few things to consider:
4-6 piece Akkhan's set bonus heavily favors a holy build, particularly with Condemn+Blade of Prophecy such as:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#kQVidR!aeSV!abYZYY
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Gnada-1471/hero/43770461
The benefit of this build is that it allows the Crusader to spam our most damaging and disabling abilities repeatedly. This creates scenarios of rapid burst damage and disruption which are highly effective at the higher torments.
Here's the Fire Build I typically use. Changes sometimes based on activity or mood:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#SQVYdR!aeSV!ZbYaYY
Falling Sword can be fun too!
Disadvantages to Fire: