Hey guys so I just wanted to make a guide for people on builds that are no so popular for classes. Right now everybody is either focusing on a Shotgun build or a Bless Shield build. I wanted to show you guys that there are other builds out there that are actually better than these popular builds.
How does this build work:Shield Bashis a very simple build that basically all it is based around is your % block chance. The max block chance you can get up to is 75% but with skills such asProvokeI can raise it up to 100%. That being said you will be missing some damage but its honestly worth it as you are still doing a lot of damage. With this build I was still able to get 53% Crit Chance with 321% Crit Damage so I did not really suffer much.(NOTE: The damage output could be way more if I had better gear but I am only using what I have [RNG is RNG])
Required Items: Justice Latern- This ring gives you that extra 16% block chance. Helm of Rule- Helm of rule is the same as Justice Latern for the additional 11% block chance. Piro Marella- This shield reduces the resource cost ofShield Bashby 40-50%
With these items you can easily jump yourself up max block chance. The passiveHold Your Groundwill also help you increase your block chance by another 15%. You do not want to skip out on these as this will bring your damage up by a big chunk.
The skills I used can be foundhereI will be explaining it here as well on why I decided to pick these skills.
I usePunishfor that additional block chance but the rune doesn't matter which one you pick . ForShield BashI use the Cross rune for the AOE damage which I really like a lot and it does do a good amount of damage. You can switch this out for pound which is the single target rune if you are focusing rift guardians etc which would just melt them down pretty fast. These are the two important skills needed for this build to work. The others are really up to you.
Passives: Insurmountable- Since we basically have 100% block chance every time we block we are given 6 wrath back. Towering Shield- Increases yourShield Bashdamage by 20% Heavenly Strength- Allows you the use of a 2h! This is important as your damage is based off your weapons damage which 2 hand weapons obviously offer the most damage. Hold Your Ground- A must have for the additional 15% block chance
Pros:- With this build I am able to constantly spamShield Bashwhich has over 50% resource reduction and deals basically the same amount as a shotgun build withHeavens Furywhich actually uses a lot of wrath.
- Very flexible with active skills you can use [Make up your own just don't mess with the primary, secondary, and passive skills]- Does not require the Akkhan set as we don't need to worry- With the new gems coming out there is one that increase the damage =D Cons:- You will need to havePiro Marellafor this to work- You don't have any passive or skills to heal you as you will be doing only damage [You can tweak with your build to allow you some survivability]
Mandatory Check-List:
Crit Chance | 50% crit chance is perfectly fine.No need to go any higher
Crit Damge | I would have to say around 300% is fine.Focus on the other things
Physical Damage % | YourShield Bashwill be dealing nothing but physical if you are using my build
Block Chance | As stated in the guide your damage will be based off your block chance and weapon damage
2-Hand Weapon | Doesn't really matter which it is just focus purely on getting the highest damage [Main damage and try to get 10% bonus damage] Shield BashDamage Increase | Just another way to get more DPS to your build
I am a noob when it comes to crusaders, but doesn't the +damage from block chance only come from the shield? So it doesn't matter whether you have 100% or 50% when your shield only has 20% for example.
That's certainly how the skill is currently worded. I can't say I've seen anyone test this though. It's possible there's a "bug".
shield bash: 700%wpn dmg + 300% * 20% for example? is it 700% wpn dmg + 60% then ? = 760? and max block 100% (though i think i read somewhere that blockchance is capped at 75%) = 700 + 300% = 1000% shield bash dmg ?
It looks like a very fun build for T1-T4. I loved the mobility of Shield Bash as I was leveling my first crusader. I just wish is could be more viable in endgame.
I literally just switched to a 6piece Akkhan's / Cooldown reduction build last night as I got enough pieces to make it work. What's insane about such build is the amount of uptime Akarat's champion gives you in terms of dps, resource regen, and survivability. It's basically mandatory for T5/T6 even with this kind of build. Even though I don't see big numbers pop up, I'm still melting stuff on T3 whereas my old Gryfalcon's Foote build could only efficiently farm T2.
I did get a shard of hate and a Piro Marella and messed around with shield bash on an alt crusader at lower difficulties. The problem is that the AOE of shield bash just doesn't hold a candle to fire Fist of the Heavens or holy shotgun.
I suppose shield bash might work ok with 6P Akkhan's on UBERS where single-target DPS is important? Or maybe speed clearing greater rifts at T4?
Are you trying to say how can you get + Shield bash damage?
Read how shield bash is worded.
"Charge at your enemy, bashing him and all nearby foes. Deals700%weapon damage plus300%of your shield's Block Chance as Holy damage."
Does that mean only the block chance provided by your shield (and no other item)? Or any block chance provided by any item (which affects your shield)?
I'm inclined to think the former. But it should be easy enough to test empirically.
It's based off your total block chance not what is on the actual shield, and has been that was since the crusader was introduced its just a poorly worded tooltip.
It's based off your total block chance not what is on the actual shield, and has been that was since the crusader was introduced its just a poorly worded tooltip.
SHEET block chance increases shield bashes damage. Testing is really easy; compare your damage before and after having punish up, or for a bigger difference try with and without provoke hit me.
The thing is when your making a shield bash build (Lord Commander Build) you also have to look at what affixes you can get on your gear and 15% spell dmg (Shield Bash) on the shield is worth more then 11% block this also translates to other stats like on rings and helms which results in block chance just being useless as a affix to increase the dmg of shield bash.
Rings: Physical SoJ Eternal Union (eternal union is because it will make your phalanx last for double the time)
Amulet: Any physical legendary amulet with a trifecta roll so physical cc cd.
Skill Build (Law Of Valor is interchangeable to which ever-other Law or rune )
Weapon of Choice is Baleful Remnant
TL:DR you made nothing new just a bad version of lord commander build that will only get you in t6 with a unity. Now im not saying that the build is bad just that there are better builds then it that utilise the skill shield bash more effectively.
could you please advise me what is your actual damage. As my damage with your build does not even reach 15m? If you could provide me with your diablo profile, much appreciated. Thanks
I play a similar build and have decent gear (shield block with Defender of Westmarch and Punish - Roar doing most of my damage in aoe). I have never seen shield bash crit for more than 35m.
I love this spec tbqh - I've even made a similar version using Cindercoat and Fire damage. It's so crazy because stacking all the fire dmg and resource reduction through things like Cinder let's me basically NEVER run out of Wrath and hit just as hard as Shot. And the piercing effect from the Flame Shield Bash rune is awesome. (Plus a sweet boost from Akarat's Fire Starter) - And you can also leave room for things like Auhgilds (did i spell that right? lol) to the mix with RorG so you can get plus dmg vs elites and a lot of toughness to survive standing in hazards. I just need to get my gear a bit better and get lucky on a Piro that rolls %chance to block plus other stats - just out of mats atm XD.
I love this spec tbqh - I've even made a similar version using Cindercoat and Fire damage. It's so crazy because stacking all the fire dmg and resource reduction through things like Cinder let's me basically NEVER run out of Wrath and hit just as hard as Shot. And the piercing effect from the Flame Shield Bash rune is awesome. (Plus a sweet boost from Akarat's Fire Starter) - And you can also leave room for things like Auhgilds (did i spell that right? lol) to the mix with RorG so you can get plus dmg vs elites and a lot of toughness to survive standing in hazards. I just need to get my gear a bit better and get lucky on a Piro that rolls %chance to block plus other stats - just out of mats atm XD.
yup if you get the right gear you can even do better than a holy shotgun =D
I love this spec tbqh - I've even made a similar version using Cindercoat and Fire damage. It's so crazy because stacking all the fire dmg and resource reduction through things like Cinder let's me basically NEVER run out of Wrath and hit just as hard as Shot. And the piercing effect from the Flame Shield Bash rune is awesome. (Plus a sweet boost from Akarat's Fire Starter) - And you can also leave room for things like Auhgilds (did i spell that right? lol) to the mix with RorG so you can get plus dmg vs elites and a lot of toughness to survive standing in hazards. I just need to get my gear a bit better and get lucky on a Piro that rolls %chance to block plus other stats - just out of mats atm XD.
yup if you get the right gear you can even do better than a holy shotgun =D
This build is different and probably t6 viable, but there's no way the damage can compete with sg sader. You forget sg hf hits 3x at melee range. In the below solo video, I'm hitting 50m unbuffed vs trash and upwards of close to 90m vs elites (260m+) without Harrington. This doesn't even factor in 20% critical chance buff from judgement.
I can do up to T5 but it's pretty hard, I'm more comfortable on T4 in current gear. What can I do better with this build? Are there any items I need to be looking out for (besides the obvious SoJ)?
Also, from the most recent PTR patch notes, it looks like a class set is on the way that will make a build like this super relevant! Nice job OP
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This build will be mainly focused onShield Bash
How does this build work:Shield Bashis a very simple build that basically all it is based around is your % block chance. The max block chance you can get up to is 75% but with skills such asProvokeI can raise it up to 100%. That being said you will be missing some damage but its honestly worth it as you are still doing a lot of damage. With this build I was still able to get 53% Crit Chance with 321% Crit Damage so I did not really suffer much.(NOTE: The damage output could be way more if I had better gear but I am only using what I have [RNG is RNG])
Required Items:
Justice Latern- This ring gives you that extra 16% block chance.
Helm of Rule- Helm of rule is the same as Justice Latern for the additional 11% block chance.
Piro Marella- This shield reduces the resource cost ofShield Bashby 40-50%
With these items you can easily jump yourself up max block chance. The passiveHold Your Groundwill also help you increase your block chance by another 15%. You do not want to skip out on these as this will bring your damage up by a big chunk.
The skills I used can be foundhereI will be explaining it here as well on why I decided to pick these skills.
I usePunishfor that additional block chance but the rune doesn't matter which one you pick . ForShield BashI use the Cross rune for the AOE damage which I really like a lot and it does do a good amount of damage. You can switch this out for pound which is the single target rune if you are focusing rift guardians etc which would just melt them down pretty fast. These are the two important skills needed for this build to work. The others are really up to you.
Passives:
Insurmountable- Since we basically have 100% block chance every time we block we are given 6 wrath back.
Towering Shield- Increases yourShield Bashdamage by 20%
Heavenly Strength- Allows you the use of a 2h! This is important as your damage is based off your weapons damage which 2 hand weapons obviously offer the most damage.
Hold Your Ground- A must have for the additional 15% block chance
Pros:- With this build I am able to constantly spamShield Bashwhich has over 50% resource reduction and deals basically the same amount as a shotgun build withHeavens Furywhich actually uses a lot of wrath.
- Very flexible with active skills you can use [Make up your own just don't mess with the primary, secondary, and passive skills]- Does not require the Akkhan set as we don't need to worry- With the new gems coming out there is one that increase the damage =D
Cons:- You will need to havePiro Marellafor this to work- You don't have any passive or skills to heal you as you will be doing only damage [You can tweak with your build to allow you some survivability]
Mandatory Check-List:
Crit Chance | 50% crit chance is perfectly fine.No need to go any higher
Crit Damge | I would have to say around 300% is fine.Focus on the other things
Physical Damage % | YourShield Bashwill be dealing nothing but physical if you are using my build
Block Chance | As stated in the guide your damage will be based off your block chance and weapon damage
2-Hand Weapon | Doesn't really matter which it is just focus purely on getting the highest damage [Main damage and try to get 10% bonus damage]
Shield BashDamage Increase | Just another way to get more DPS to your build
shield bash: 700%wpn dmg + 300% * 20% for example? is it 700% wpn dmg + 60% then ? = 760? and max block 100% (though i think i read somewhere that blockchance is capped at 75%) = 700 + 300% = 1000% shield bash dmg ?
I literally just switched to a 6piece Akkhan's / Cooldown reduction build last night as I got enough pieces to make it work. What's insane about such build is the amount of uptime Akarat's champion gives you in terms of dps, resource regen, and survivability. It's basically mandatory for T5/T6 even with this kind of build. Even though I don't see big numbers pop up, I'm still melting stuff on T3 whereas my old Gryfalcon's Foote build could only efficiently farm T2.
I did get a shard of hate and a Piro Marella and messed around with shield bash on an alt crusader at lower difficulties. The problem is that the AOE of shield bash just doesn't hold a candle to fire Fist of the Heavens or holy shotgun.
I suppose shield bash might work ok with 6P Akkhan's on UBERS where single-target DPS is important? Or maybe speed clearing greater rifts at T4?
"Charge at your enemy, bashing him and all nearby foes. Deals700%weapon damage plus300%of your shield's Block Chance as Holy damage."
Does that mean only the block chance provided by your shield (and no other item)? Or any block chance provided by any item (which affects your shield)?
I'm inclined to think the former. But it should be easy enough to test empirically.
Rings: Physical SoJ Eternal Union (eternal union is because it will make your phalanx last for double the time)
Amulet: Any physical legendary amulet with a trifecta roll so physical cc cd.
Skill Build (Law Of Valor is interchangeable to which ever-other Law or rune )
Weapon of Choice is Baleful Remnant
TL:DR you made nothing new just a bad version of lord commander build that will only get you in t6 with a unity. Now im not saying that the build is bad just that there are better builds then it that utilise the skill shield bash more effectively.
could you please advise me what is your actual damage. As my damage with your build does not even reach 15m? If you could provide me with your diablo profile, much appreciated. Thanksjust curious how can u get 50 million crits damage. I have 1 m dps but barely get 1 crits damagehttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpwIYB0w8sE
I can do up to T5 but it's pretty hard, I'm more comfortable on T4 in current gear. What can I do better with this build? Are there any items I need to be looking out for (besides the obvious SoJ)?
Also, from the most recent PTR patch notes, it looks like a class set is on the way that will make a build like this super relevant! Nice job OP