Sorry to burst your bubble, but gambling a weapon with 300 shards is extremely unlikely. I have spent around 4000 on 2 handed weapons, and got 2 swords and one hammer, all crappy items.
The thing about the new patch, if you want to gamble a piece of a set, you will be able to get both Akkhan and Roland, so it will slim your chances a bit I guess (if you want to gamble Akkhan ofc).
So everything depends on your gear. If you have zero pieces of a set, and use fire build, try with chest or gloves, Magefist and Cindercoat can come handy. Also, if you try to gamble a helm, a lucky Andariel roll can be really good. Shoulders are meh, you only want Akkhan. For boots, I would stick with Captain crimson till you have other pieces. Pants could also be Captain Crimson. So, IMO, gamble chest, helm, gloves first.
You can not stock pile shards, once you get 500 you can not pick up any more (That has been my experience, some one correct me if I am wrong) until you spend some. I would gamble for Akkhan set pieces and while doing that see what else pops up leg wise that is an upgrade accordingly to your build theme.
Well, I have no good gear at all, just random legendary's I've picked up, and not running any particular build, just what seems fun for now.
I hit the 500 shard limit today, and ended up just blowing it all up on shields. Got 1 legendary, the shield that makes shield glare 360, which is kinda neat, I guess.
Thanks for the advice, I'll try to follow it with the next 500 shards
The shield you gambled is actually one of the stronger/more useful shields. So definitely keep it if it rolled decent. I would gamble for akkhan pieces before anything else. The order I went was helm > shoulders > Chest > pants > Gloves reason being you have a pretty good chance of scoring pants/chest blackthorne set (at least, I always seem to pick up several copies of these whether it was hc or sc) which are quite useful and gloves are always going to be way harder to get something worth using (most likely you'll take a hit on glove quality to achieve 6 piece bonus) Could always choose boots instead of pants, depending on what drops for you. I personally crafted crimson belt/boots right off until I got high rolls (490+ str) and never looked back.
Going Lightning or Fire build will get you into higher torments faster, and, if by some fortune you happen upon a maximus, make the switch to fire, because you can ride that demon badboy all the way through T3.
if you started fresh. I would recommend you hunt for a ring of royal guardian from act1 caches. There are communities for split farming on EU I'm sure there are a few on US too. While hunting for ring u will probably get a few craft set recipes. Aughild and captain crimson is amazing for starters. As for blood shards like others mentioned spending them on weapons is no good unless you have decent gear. I've spent around 42k shards trying to find fate of the fell 2h flail. I didn't get it and gave up on it so I recommend trying to get akkhan peices first.
You are more likely to find weapons eventually from just killing mobs, do not waste shards on that. As other have mentioned, start on gambling for Ahkkan set, its just too good for all possible builds. With the new set coming as well, crusader is pretty much 100% based on their sets right now and its unlikely to change.
The most ideal stats for a shield (will always depend on the build) but Str and Crit are almost never wrong. Though, if you are looking to have an end goal of 100% up time for akkrat's champion, you will need reduce cooldown on shield. So, it's okay, but unfortunately you will only get to re-roll for crit or cooldown reduction, so it is not ideal.
Should I try for a 1 or 2 hand weapon?
Or should I just hold them all until the next patch and then spend them?
The thing about the new patch, if you want to gamble a piece of a set, you will be able to get both Akkhan and Roland, so it will slim your chances a bit I guess (if you want to gamble Akkhan ofc).
So everything depends on your gear. If you have zero pieces of a set, and use fire build, try with chest or gloves, Magefist and Cindercoat can come handy. Also, if you try to gamble a helm, a lucky Andariel roll can be really good. Shoulders are meh, you only want Akkhan. For boots, I would stick with Captain crimson till you have other pieces. Pants could also be Captain Crimson. So, IMO, gamble chest, helm, gloves first.
I hit the 500 shard limit today, and ended up just blowing it all up on shields. Got 1 legendary, the shield that makes shield glare 360, which is kinda neat, I guess.
Thanks for the advice, I'll try to follow it with the next 500 shards
Going Lightning or Fire build will get you into higher torments faster, and, if by some fortune you happen upon a maximus, make the switch to fire, because you can ride that demon badboy all the way through T3.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Neuro-1683/hero/48580969