After alot of testing tonight I have come to the conclusion that fire is crazy good right now. After playing around with a lot of things at my current torment level (T3) I came up with a build that I think is optimal with substitutions that can be made as needed. I'll pretty up the formatting and create a video for it throughout this week. I was running all holy gear before tonight so my fire gear set sucks, but it still outperformed holy specs tonight. To get a baseline on patch night when I wrote this I had 527k sheet dmg, 78 percent fire dmg I picked up all tonight thanks kadala, only 13 percent cdr and only 4.2 million toughness --to push higher torments obviously I would need better gear, but that will give you a context for the numbers cited. For now the basic build:
Required Passive 1: Heavenly Strength- Lets you use a 2h so that your build can hit harder Mobility / Dmg Passive 2: Lord Commander - Quicker cooldowns on your mount and bombardment. Mount's cooldown change in 2.0.5 already has it off cooldown quick, now its quicker. Damage Passive 3: Towering Shield - Helps your shield bash and punish hit like trucks combined with your stacked fire dmg. Defensive and Damage Passive 4: Hold You Ground - More shield block, survival, roar, and damage on Punish. You could alternatively do wrathful or renewal here if you're having survival issues. Wrathful will have better scaling as your gear goes up and renewal will work better at lower torment levels.
Skills:
Primary:Punish Roar- This provides tons of aoe dmg. It was decent before for the reflect and got buffed this patch. The base skill also hits MUCH harder now than before, especially with towering shield. Secondary:Shield Bash Crumble- This ability hits like a truck with towering shield, a high block chance shield, and some fire dmg. Other fire skills are hitting for 8 to 9 million crits for me this one hits for 14 to 16 million (before Akarat's or law is activated). Movement Skill 1: Steed Charge Nightmare- This moves quickly and burns enemies as you go. You could swap it for endurance as well. The Lord commander synergizes with this skill combined with the 2.0.5 patch change so it's off cooldown very quickly. Burst Damage Skill 2:Law of Valor - This provides a huge dmg boost though both attack speed and the active crit bonus. This skill synergizes extremely well with bombard and Akarat's for huge burst and crits. It should also be noted that the cooldown on this ability was reduced by 15 seconds at it's base with the latest patch bringing it down to a mere 30 without any CDR. Burst Damage Skill 3:Bombardment Annihilate - This skill provides 5 gauranteed crit big hits. Combined with law for an extra 100 percent dmg and Akarat's for an extra 30 percent dmg. This skill hits very hard on its own but synergized with the two formerly mentioned skills it's an elite killer. It also gains benefit from reduced cooldown on lord commander, fire dmg, and and cdr you have on gear. Super Burst Damage Skill 4: Akarat's Champion Fire Starter- This skill provides 35 percent increased damage and catches everything on fire! It does insane damage. When combined with critical law my shield bash starts to hit for 25 million+, my bombard hits for 15 to 20 milllion or so x 5 so 60 to 100 million total, and my roar just bursts damage all over the place. The whole build synergizes with itself and this brings it all together. While it no longer brings you back to life when you die it's still a very powerful offensive cooldown. Oh and added bonus no cc for us while in this form.
Required Passive 1:Heavenly Strength- Lets you use a 2h so that your build can hit harder Survival Passive: Wrathful- Provides good healing. Another option is divine fortress, or holy cause if you want more dmg. Renewal is another option here. Wrathful will have better scaling as your gear goes up and renewal will work better at lower torment levels. Damage Passive 3: Towering Shield - Helps your shield bash and punish hit like trucks combined with your stacked fire dmg. Defensive and Damage Passive 4: Hold You Ground - More shield block, survival, roar, and damage on Punish. Alternatively you could also go for holy cause in this passive, especially if you have a holy weapon so it can proc that little extra healing.
Skills:
Punish Roar - Primary This provides tons of aoe dmg. It was decent before for the reflect and got buffed this patch. The base skill also hits MUCH harder now than before, especially with towering shield. Secondary: Shield Bash Crumble This ability hits like a truck with towering shield, a high block chance shield, and some fire dmg. Other fire skills are hitting for 8 to 9 million crits for me this one hits for 14 to 16 million (before Akarat's or law is activated). Movement Skill 1: Steed Charge Nightmare This moves quickly and burns enemies as you go. You could swap it for endurance as well or another skill all together if you're not wanting to ride the pony :). Burst Damage Skill 2: Provoke Hit Me - Provides some nice wrath generation, additional roar procs, and additional survival. An alternative is shield glare with wrath gen rune or increased dmg. Burst Damage Skill 3: Falling Sword Super Heated When combined with Divine Verdict and Akarat's this hits like a truck and ticks like a truck. My initial hit is 30 million or so with ticks of 15 to 20 million for 6 seconds. It also provides you additional movement and in an emergency if your steed is on cooldown can get you out of danger if you need. Super Burst Damage Skill 4: Akarat's Champion Fire Starter This skill provides 35 percent increased damage and catches everything on fire! It does insane damage. When combined with Divine verdict which you can use regularly all your abilities start hitting for a lot more. While it no longer brings you back to life when you die it's still a very powerful offensive cool down. Oh and added bonus no cc for us while in this form. If you find that you don't want the extra burning dmg on Akarat's you could use Prophet for increased armor and the bring you back from the dead proc to push higher torment levels than you typically do.
I'll be making further edits and comments about possible skill substitutions, gearing options, stat priorities and providing pretty pictures and videos throughout the week. Try it out and let me know what you think. Make sure you have a nice shield with highish block percent.
EDIT LOG:
5/14/14 - Edited some formatting errors, realized I didn't have a few skill names in, and corrected some spelling errorrs.
5/14/14 - Added a variation of the build that utilizes falling sword
5/15/14 - Added rune variation changes to falling sword build
5/16/14 - Altered passives and added extra options on both builds
5/17/14 - Created gameplay video preview for bombardment version of build.
5/17/14 - Created and added gameplay video preview for falling sword version of the build. Modified Rune suggestions for falling sword build.
Dude! This is really but really good! I was getting disapointed on the class but since the patch...wow...much changes, such awsomeness =)
Dende:
Having a blast with this build thanks a lot. I was at my wits end with my Crusader. And now I'm not. I'd call that a win eh?
Panthelion:
So I'll tried the bombardment-build and yeah, it rocks Even with my average gear.
Punish/Shield bash is rape damage now. I've got a 31% defender of westmarch, watching Roar and the proc on the shield occur multiple times a second is insane. Pair with fire starter and Indestructible for WD like burs
I'd try to get some fire and elite dmg :). I think you'd be fine at an entry level to try it out though and see if you like it. Maybe try to farm and craft some reapers wraps and get some fire dmg bracers. That way you can always have your lightning gear to switch to as you feel like it :). Neck pieces that are yellow can be rerolled fire till you find something better. Gamble at Kadala she's giving away magefists for people today like they are going out of style :).
Honestly even without either of those legendaries the abilities are really good. I'd try them both out and see which one you like the feeling of more. Falling sword is on a shorter cool down but uses wrath. Bombardment is longer cool down but wrath free and has guaranteed crits (which synergizes well with the law). If I had to choose one personally without either legendary I would probably go bombardment. You could always go with Condemn reciprocate as well especially if you have a BOP. I think that without the bop though the former two skills would probably be better. I'll make a variant that utilizes condemn tomorrow morning and add it to the guide as well. I was running both the falling sword and the bombardment version last night without either legendary as I had a warmonger to work with. Finally got a socket on my cam's so I'm going to try switching over to that tonight and see how much better it makes it.
I was playing the first build listed, instead of Laws of Valor I was using Consecrate(shattered) which felt mediocre, swapped that to Condemn(Reciprocate) or Falling Sword(superheated) and found the build worked much better for my style of play. I'm not knocking the Law, I just don't care for the play style.
Punish/Shield bash is rape damage now. I've got a 31% defender of westmarch, watching Roar and the proc on the shield occur multiple times a second is insane. Pair with fire starter and Indestructible for WD like burst.
Definitely get that :). I actually played with consecrate shattered first ironically, but then saw a BIG dps gain when I switched to the law just because of how big your burst gets with it. I could see swapping it for condemn or having both bombard and falling sword for a bit more of a consistent cooldown rotation instead of big burst all at once. I might try that out tonight, thanks for the feedback Raziel!
I really like the Mortal Drama/Bombardment build but prefer Shield Glare (Divine Verdict) over Akarat's Champion. With Shield Glare giving +20% damage and Blinding everyone hit coupled with the CDR from Towering Shield plus your normal CDR that you want for Bombardment, you can have 100% uptime on it making it really nice both offensively and defensively.
The only problem I found was that because the Wrath costs were so stupidly low I was barely getting anything out of Wrathful, so I'm gonna give Hold your Ground a shot later today.
I tried swapping Wrathful for Renew, and find that it syncs much much better for the shield block build. You don't even really have to watch your hp bar, if 3-5 seconds go by and you don't see a roar proc ( or a string) it's time to move. If you see the procs, just continue smashing face. Wrathful works much better in the FoTH fire build, in that build it feels great.
I really like the Mortal Drama/Bombardment build but prefer Shield Glare (Divine Verdict) over Akarat's Champion. With Shield Glare giving +20% damage and Blinding everyone hit coupled with the CDR from Towering Shield plus your normal CDR that you want for Bombardment, you can have 100% uptime on it making it really nice both offensively and defensively.
I tried swapping Wrathful for Renew, and find that it syncs much much better for the shield block build. You don't even really have to watch your hp bar, if 3-5 seconds go by and you don't see a roar proc ( or a string) it's time to move. If you see the procs, just continue smashing face. Wrathful works much better in the FoTH fire build, in that build it feels great.
For the shield glare it looks like that works best with the falling sword spec. For the valor law it looks like that works best with bombard because the hits are auto crit so it doubles their dmg. I think that I agree that renewal is good for lower torment levels. Wrathful will outscale it however as you get more health globe bonus and start needing to recover more and more wrath, combined with more wrath available from having a really good shield with wrath gen and or weapon. I'll put it as a suggested alternative as well though and tweak a few things in the main build suggestions to reflect this feedback :). Thanks for the input.
Yeah I think that both builds are good but bombardment is fun times. The cam's rebuttal spec works really well if you get that legendary and good either way tbh. I am teleporting all over and blinding things all the time...almost wondering if I should switch roar to a different rune as Im off the screen or have things ccd so much. I might play around with it tonight after work, but will leave it in the guide how it is for now.
Sure I'll add this into the guide tonight or tomorrow morning but I'm still playing around with it to determine what's optimal. At the moment in the bombardment build I am using CDR but Im not sure if crit dmg might be more effective. For base I go movement speed to max then str. For defense I go all resist at the moment but I believe that armor could be decent as well depending on where your resists and armor are at. I go with resource cost reduction rather than area dmg at the moment because I don't have my reaper wraps yet, when I get my reaper wraps for fire I will probably shift this over to area dmg (though maybe not still not sure). Doing this off the top of my head since right now I don't have access to the game so if I missed any categories let me know.
I have been using just about the same build since the patch, only difference really is I use provoke because I have a good pair of Ice Climbers that makes movement trivial.
I was using a 1h with Fervor and all Blessed Shield (which I kept because no Piro right now and I prefer Shield's aoe and range) but swapped out Glare(wrath gen) for Bombardment and oh my what you do to elite packs is funny. I should probably use the crit law but I find 50% reduced cost more useful than going from 300->400% crit for a few seconds of burst. Maybe with a Piro and bash gear this will change, not sure.
My Mortal Drama is reallly low damage (2400ish and I had a 2400 1h already) and I was really worried about losing the CDR but I'm pretty sure the net result has been killing things even faster, to the point where I need to go up a difficulty because elites die so quickly.
I've been using this build with a (I think) crappy Thunderfury instead of a 2h, as it feels like I hit to slow to build up the Wrath to use Shield Bash, even if my damage per hit is so much lower.
Do you have any opinion on doing this? Is it a huge loss or is it quite similiar? (Running with Finery instead of Lord Commander for a increase of normal damage as I use Bomb. only doing elite packs)
I'm honestly not sure, I think if I were running a 1h'er I would opt for the falling sword version of the build. I'll be creating a new version of the build that might work better for you too in the next couple of days.
As a side note I have now updated the main guide with video gameplay for the 2h bombardment build with my current gear setup :). Check it out all and hit and subscribe like if you enjoy it :).
After quite a bit of testing I'm feeling like provoke with hit me is out performing shield glare on the falling sword build. This because even with shield glare that does wrath gen Im getting much more wrath from provoke. In addition it ups my block which give me more survival compared to the small wedge of blind and gives additional roar procs. Im also low on toughness for the torment lvl Im playing at so I made some rune substitutions for more survival. It's interesting the flexiblity you have now that they have fixed many of the passives. You can take a core of a build and push it to a higher torment with a few passive changes. Going to upload the falling sword video in just a minute or two, will update when I have it done.
i ran this build since the patch came out with the mortal drama its great dps build but the main issue here is lack of wrath you must have provoke + shield glare to have to open to sustain your wrath and firestarter is must aswell this build wont work on 5-6 unless you can run it with 6 pieces of akkhan and why go shield bash? its got insane lack of aoe only if you kill a mob it explodes and does damage the way to go is fist of the heavens since you must have wrathful to generate hp you can spam this from ranged aswell so you will still output dmg while healing up
what you suggesting might work on t3 but yes it will only work t3-4 i ran this t5 its weak build only when bombarment is working you actualy doing some damage but its still aint enough specialy if you going shield bash
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Mortal Drama / Bombardment Version:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aZVfOQ!aRUf!aYZbZaVIDEO:http://youtu.be/uDXuKNF8WyE
Passives:
Required Passive 1: Heavenly Strength- Lets you use a 2h so that your build can hit harder
Mobility / Dmg Passive 2: Lord Commander - Quicker cooldowns on your mount and bombardment. Mount's cooldown change in 2.0.5 already has it off cooldown quick, now its quicker.
Damage Passive 3: Towering Shield - Helps your shield bash and punish hit like trucks combined with your stacked fire dmg.
Defensive and Damage Passive 4: Hold You Ground - More shield block, survival, roar, and damage on Punish. You could alternatively do wrathful or renewal here if you're having survival issues. Wrathful will have better scaling as your gear goes up and renewal will work better at lower torment levels.
Skills:
Primary: Punish Roar- This provides tons of aoe dmg. It was decent before for the reflect and got buffed this patch. The base skill also hits MUCH harder now than before, especially with towering shield.
Secondary: Shield Bash Crumble - This ability hits like a truck with towering shield, a high block chance shield, and some fire dmg. Other fire skills are hitting for 8 to 9 million crits for me this one hits for 14 to 16 million (before Akarat's or law is activated).
Movement Skill 1: Steed Charge Nightmare- This moves quickly and burns enemies as you go. You could swap it for endurance as well. The Lord commander synergizes with this skill combined with the 2.0.5 patch change so it's off cooldown very quickly.
Burst Damage Skill 2: Law of Valor - This provides a huge dmg boost though both attack speed and the active crit bonus. This skill synergizes extremely well with bombard and Akarat's for huge burst and crits. It should also be noted that the cooldown on this ability was reduced by 15 seconds at it's base with the latest patch bringing it down to a mere 30 without any CDR.
Burst Damage Skill 3: Bombardment Annihilate - This skill provides 5 gauranteed crit big hits. Combined with law for an extra 100 percent dmg and Akarat's for an extra 30 percent dmg. This skill hits very hard on its own but synergized with the two formerly mentioned skills it's an elite killer. It also gains benefit from reduced cooldown on lord commander, fire dmg, and and cdr you have on gear.
Super Burst Damage Skill 4: Akarat's Champion Fire Starter- This skill provides 35 percent increased damage and catches everything on fire! It does insane damage. When combined with critical law my shield bash starts to hit for 25 million+, my bombard hits for 15 to 20 milllion or so x 5 so 60 to 100 million total, and my roar just bursts damage all over the place. The whole build synergizes with itself and this brings it all together. While it no longer brings you back to life when you die it's still a very powerful offensive cooldown. Oh and added bonus no cc for us while in this form.
Cam's Rebuttal / Falling Sword Version:
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/zZwyke2Arf4Passives:
Required Passive 1:Heavenly Strength- Lets you use a 2h so that your build can hit harderSurvival Passive: Wrathful- Provides good healing. Another option is divine fortress, or holy cause if you want more dmg. Renewal is another option here. Wrathful will have better scaling as your gear goes up and renewal will work better at lower torment levels.
Damage Passive 3: Towering Shield - Helps your shield bash and punish hit like trucks combined with your stacked fire dmg.
Defensive and Damage Passive 4: Hold You Ground - More shield block, survival, roar, and damage on Punish. Alternatively you could also go for holy cause in this passive, especially if you have a holy weapon so it can proc that little extra healing.
Skills:
Punish Roar - Primary This provides tons of aoe dmg. It was decent before for the reflect and got buffed this patch. The base skill also hits MUCH harder now than before, especially with towering shield.
Secondary: Shield Bash Crumble This ability hits like a truck with towering shield, a high block chance shield, and some fire dmg. Other fire skills are hitting for 8 to 9 million crits for me this one hits for 14 to 16 million (before Akarat's or law is activated).
Movement Skill 1: Steed Charge Nightmare This moves quickly and burns enemies as you go. You could swap it for endurance as well or another skill all together if you're not wanting to ride the pony :).
Burst Damage Skill 2: Provoke Hit Me - Provides some nice wrath generation, additional roar procs, and additional survival. An alternative is shield glare with wrath gen rune or increased dmg.
Burst Damage Skill 3: Falling Sword Super Heated When combined with Divine Verdict and Akarat's this hits like a truck and ticks like a truck. My initial hit is 30 million or so with ticks of 15 to 20 million for 6 seconds. It also provides you additional movement and in an emergency if your steed is on cooldown can get you out of danger if you need.
Super Burst Damage Skill 4: Akarat's Champion Fire Starter This skill provides 35 percent increased damage and catches everything on fire! It does insane damage. When combined with Divine verdict which you can use regularly all your abilities start hitting for a lot more. While it no longer brings you back to life when you die it's still a very powerful offensive cool down. Oh and added bonus no cc for us while in this form. If you find that you don't want the extra burning dmg on Akarat's you could use Prophet for increased armor and the bring you back from the dead proc to push higher torment levels than you typically do.
I'll be making further edits and comments about possible skill substitutions, gearing options, stat priorities and providing pretty pictures and videos throughout the week. Try it out and let me know what you think. Make sure you have a nice shield with highish block percent.
5/14/14 - Edited some formatting errors, realized I didn't have a few skill names in, and corrected some spelling errorrs.
5/14/14 - Added a variation of the build that utilizes falling sword
5/15/14 - Added rune variation changes to falling sword build
5/16/14 - Altered passives and added extra options on both builds
5/17/14 - Created gameplay video preview for bombardment version of build.
5/17/14 - Created and added gameplay video preview for falling sword version of the build. Modified Rune suggestions for falling sword build.
Dude! This is really but really good! I was getting disapointed on the class but since the patch...wow...much changes, such awsomeness =)
Having a blast with this build thanks a lot. I was at my wits end with my Crusader. And now I'm not. I'd call that a win eh?
So I'll tried the bombardment-build and yeah, it rocks Even with my average gear.
If you have the gear for it you should also check out these other fire builds:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/crusader-the-church-of-zakarum/87777-2-0-5-fire-build-for-t6
Does anyone know how to hyper link abilities and items so that you can hover over them and have them display?
Punish/Shield bash is rape damage now. I've got a 31% defender of westmarch, watching Roar and the proc on the shield occur multiple times a second is insane. Pair with fire starter and Indestructible for WD like burst.
The only problem I found was that because the Wrath costs were so stupidly low I was barely getting anything out of Wrathful, so I'm gonna give Hold your Ground a shot later today.
I have been using just about the same build since the patch, only difference really is I use provoke because I have a good pair of Ice Climbers that makes movement trivial.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aSOVfQ!aSfR!aZZYYa
I was using a 1h with Fervor and all Blessed Shield (which I kept because no Piro right now and I prefer Shield's aoe and range) but swapped out Glare(wrath gen) for Bombardment and oh my what you do to elite packs is funny. I should probably use the crit law but I find 50% reduced cost more useful than going from 300->400% crit for a few seconds of burst. Maybe with a Piro and bash gear this will change, not sure.
My Mortal Drama is reallly low damage (2400ish and I had a 2400 1h already) and I was really worried about losing the CDR but I'm pretty sure the net result has been killing things even faster, to the point where I need to go up a difficulty because elites die so quickly.
As a side note I have now updated the main guide with video gameplay for the 2h bombardment build with my current gear setup :). Check it out all and hit and subscribe like if you enjoy it :).
http://youtu.be/uDXuKNF8WyE
EDIT: Falling sword video is now in the guide as well
http://youtu.be/zZwyke2Arf4
what you suggesting might work on t3 but yes it will only work t3-4 i ran this t5 its weak build only when bombarment is working you actualy doing some damage but its still aint enough specialy if you going shield bash