Aegis of Valor Fist of the Heavens Crusader Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Fist of the Heavens Fissure Steed Charge Endurance 1 Condemn Vacuum 2 Laws of Hope Wings of Angels 3 Iron Skin Steel Skin 4 Akarat's Champion Prophet
Passive Skills
Heavenly Strength Indestructible Lord Commander Finery

This variation of an Aegis of Valor build ties both damage dealing and damage reducing mechanics together, relying on Fist of the Heavens — strategically placed around the battlefield to maximize the arcing procs of the Fissure rune — to both demolish your enemies and encase you in the 4-piece set bonus protection. You will be seeking out foes with Steed Charge, spending as much time as you can atop the horse to take advantage of the buffs from Vigilante Belt. Pay extra attention to the cycles of Convention of Elements, and try to limit your movement during the Holy cycle in order to start stacking up the Endless Walk set damage bonus. As the Holy cycle is about to end and transition into Lightning, pop your Condemn Vacuum, Laws of Hope Wings of Angels and Steed Charge, and stand still; ideally, you will have all your damage bonuses for the duration of the CoE effect. Restrict your movements to nearby Oculus Ring procs, if any appear. In the meantime, protect yourself with buffs like Akarat's Champion and Iron Skin on cooldown.

In an alternate take on the Aegis of Valor set, Fist of the Heavens is both the damage dealer and the protector (via the 4-piece set bonus). The best rune is still the arcing Fissure, whose constant ticks between the spread out fissures not only has the highest damage potential, but also provides the best Wrath returns from the 4-piece.

When it comes to Law selection for high end progression, squeezing every bit of attack speed (and damage, respectively) while not losing too much on survivability becomes a delicate balance, one you can straddle by taking the utility-laden Laws of Hope with the extra movement speed of the Wings of Angels rune. Note that the latter synergizes with the damage bonuses of Vigilante Belt, which scale off your Movement Speed.

In order to control enemies within the Fist of the Heavens barrage, as well as to clump them up to the benefits of Area Damage, you will be using the pulling effect of Condemn Vacuum.

Mobility is one of the most important aspects when rifting, and Crusaders have no better movement ability than their trusty Steed Charge. You can choose between the extended duration from the Endurance rune, allowing you to reach — or skip — more efficiently, or Draw and Quarter, which allows you to lead surviving stragglers from one fight into the next.

The remainder of your skill selection is dedicated to protective cooldowns. First, we have Iron Skin — a staple damage reduction tool, cutting incoming damage in half for the extended duration of the Steel Skin rune. Second, you will be running Akarat's Champion, whose powerful bonuses you will strive to have permanently with the help of Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac resets. While Akarat's Champion increases your damage multiplicatively by 35% and supplies you with 5 Wrath per second as a base effect, the skill also takes on a defensive role through the tanky Prophet rune. Supplying you with 150% additional Armor and a free life, this skill will keep you safe and alive in high Greater Rifts.

As a baseline equipment passive, you are locked in Heavenly Strength due to Flail of the Charge being a two-handed flail.

Finery is another Crusader staple, adding 1.5% Strength for every socket across your gear, including weapon and jewelry. Assuming an average of 10 sockets across a well-equipped character, Finery amounts to a decent boost of both damage and toughness.

Lord Commander is strictly taken to keep you as much as possible in an active Steed Charge form, in order to maximize the benefits of Vigilante Belt.

You have some flexibility in your final passive slot; in general, we recommend taking either Holy Cause for the damage increase, or the Crusader cheat death — Indestructible.