Crusader Thorns Bombardment Build
Introduction
After the introduction of a 7th set piece, the already versatile Akkhan set expands its utility further with the ability to add more sets into the mix — in this case, the craftable Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Aughild's Authority sets. The build is designed with Greater Rift solo progression in mind. For more information about how this build performs on the ladder, please refer to our Solo push rankings.
This build also comes with its own speed farming variation, which features a build similar to the present one, but with alterations to fit a speedfarming playstyle.
Quick Reference
Skill Setup
The basic skill setup of the Akkhan Bombardment Crusader is displayed below. Read the dedicated Skills page for detailed information on choices, alternatives and build customization.
Active Skills |
---|
Punish Celerity Bombardment Barrels of Spikes 1 Phalanx Bowmen 2 Steed Charge Draw and Quarter 3 Iron Skin Reflective Skin 4 Akarat's Champion Prophet |
Passive Skills |
Gear Setup
The required gear setup for the Akkhan Bombardment Crusader is listed below. Check the Gear page for detailed information on choices, alternatives, gemming, Kanai's Cube and Paragon distribution.
- Helm: Helm of Akkhan
- Shoulders: Aughild's Power
- Gloves: Gauntlets of Akkhan
- Chest: Breastplate of Akkhan
- Belt: Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle
- Pants: Cuisses of Akkhan
- Boots: Captain Crimson's Waders
- Bracers: Aughild's Search
- Amulet: Talisman of Akkhan
- Ring 1: Convention of Elements
- Ring 2: Unity
- Weapon: Flail of the Charge
- Offhand: Shield of the Steed
Season 33 Theme — 4th Kanai Slot
With this Season's addition of a 4th slot in Kanai's Cube as a theme, your ideal setup will be:
- Kanai's Cube 4th Slot: Aquila Cuirass
Altar of Rites
The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.
Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).
You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.
Legendary Gems
- Legendary Gem 1: Bane of the Trapped
- Legendary Gem 2: Boyarsky's Chip
- Legendary Gem 3: Bane of the Stricken
Kanai's Cube
- Weapon Slot: The Mortal Drama
- Armor Slot: Belt of the Trove
- Jewelry Slot: Ring of Royal Grandeur
- 4th Slot (Season 33): Aquila Cuirass
How To get This Build Going?
In this section, we will briefly go over how to kickstart this build into reality; which items you should aim for with priority when farming and gambling, and what is their relative priority for the functioning of this spec. Note that these suggestions are exclusively aimed at getting you up and running into endgame farming, and might not reflect the gear you need to wear for high-end Greater Rift solo or group pushing. This section also assumes a fresh Season's start, which usually is the point where most players work on assembling their first build with a particular set.
If the Akkhan set is part of the Haedrig's Gift for the Season, your simplest and most straightforward path to assembling the build is to complete the Seasonal Journey chapters up to Chapter IV. The Seasonal Journey chapters will gradually give you a complete class-specific set, giving 2-3 pieces for Chapters II, III and IV.
From the pre-game menu, choose and do this week's Challenge Rift. When successfully completed, this weekly event will grant you 5,1 million Gold, 475 Blood Shards, 370 Reusable Parts, 350 Arcane Dust, 125 Veiled Crystals, 35 Death's Breaths, and 15 of each Bounty cache material: Khanduran Rune, Caldeum Nightshade, Arreat War Tapestry, Corrupted Angel Flesh, and Westmarch Holy Water. This will allow you some early Seasonal leeway to extract and reforge items in Kanai's Cube, speeding up the assembly of this build with the items recommended below.
Having some materials at your disposal, either from farming or the Challenge Rift, is particularly important when you get duplicate pieces of your desired set. When you do, you can use Kanai's Cube Skill of Nilfur recipe (10x Forgotten Souls, 10x Death's Breaths, 1x Set item) to convert into another item from the same set. You should never salvage duplicate pieces of a desired set before you have it assembled.
In order to assemble an Akkhan Thorns Crusader, you should do the following.
- Gather the full 6-piece Armor of Akkhan set using the advice above, or by spending Blood Shards at Kadala. In order of gamble chance, you should spend for: Shoulders, Boots, Gloves, Pants, Gloves, Helm, and Chest. Don't gamble on the Amulet; it is prohibitively expensive to gamble on jewelry early on. A trick you can also use is to gamble for duplicate pieces with an easier gamble chance (i.e., Shoulders) and convert them into another piece from the same set using the Skill of Nilfur recipe in Kanai's Cube.
- Upgrade rare (Hope of Cain recipe in Kanai's Cube) Two-Handed Flails to get The Mortal Drama and Flail of the Charge; these are build-defining weapons that increase the output of your main source of damage, Bombardment.
- Note that Flail of the Charge is part of the Norvald's Fervor set, along with Shield of the Steed. Gammble for the shield after getting the full Akkhan set.
- Craft yourself two pieces of the Aughild's Authority set and two pieces of the Captain Crimson's Trimming set. They are crafted at the Blacksmith, and their recipes can be found via completing Bounties, or slaying Treasure Goblins. The suggested split is Aughild's Power and Aughild's Search for the former, and Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and Captain Crimson's Waders for the latter, but other combos are also viable — as long as you maintain the necessary 5 Akkhan - 2 Aughild - 2 Cpt. Crimson worn pieces split. You will complete the three sets' full powers by using a Ring of Royal Grandeur (see below).
- Upgrade rare One-handed Swords to get In-geom; doing this on a level 1 Demon Hunter alt will improve your chances due to their lowest loot pool of legendary swords. In-geom greatly benefits Thorns Crusaders, since they are an entirely cooldown-based build.
- Do Act I bounties to attain the act-specific Ring of Royal Grandeur from Bounty caches. This will be helpful either in completing the basic set bonus, or mixing other helpful legendaries in the build as described in the dedicated endgame Akkhan Bombardment guide. Bounties will net you craftable set recipes as well, so you will be killing two birds with one stone. Bounties will also net you Avarice Band (Act III), another farming-oriented staple for most builds and classes, this one included.
- While largely undesirable due to high costs, gambling or upgrading rare Jewelry is also possible; Convention of Elements and Unity will drastically improve this and other builds, with other standout pieces that can be helpful like Oculus Ring and The Flavor of Time for your Follower.
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024 (gear page): Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
- 21 Oct. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 33.
- 21 Oct. 2024 (this page): Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
- 09 Jul. 2024 (gear page): Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
- 09 Jul. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 32.
- 09 Jul. 2024 (this page): Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
- 10 Apr. 2024 (gear page): Added Season 31 advice for the unbound Kanai's Cube slots.
- 10 Apr. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 31.
- 10 Apr. 2024 (this page): Added Season 31 advice for the unbound Kanai's Cube slots.
- 08 Jan. 2024 (gear page): Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
- 08 Jan. 2024 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
- 08 Jan. 2024 (this page): Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
- 13 Sep. 2023 (gear page): Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 13 Sep. 2023 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
- 13 Sep. 2023 (this page): Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023 (gear page): Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023 (skills page): Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
- 22 Feb. 2023 (this page): Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022 (gear page): Guide removed due to changes to the Akkhan set.
- 26 Aug. 2022 (skills page): Guide revised for Akkhan set changes and S27 theme.
- 26 Aug. 2022 (this page): Guide revised for Akkhan set changes and S27 theme.
- 13 Apr. 2022 (gear page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 13 Apr. 2022 (skills page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 13 Apr. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 09 Dec. 2021 (gear page): Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 09 Dec. 2021 (skills page): Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 09 Dec. 2021 (this page): Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 23 Jul. 2021 (gear page): No changes required for Season 24.
- 23 Jul. 2021 (skills page): No changes required for Season 24.
- 23 Jul. 2021 (this page): Added note regarding Ethereal weapons for Season 24.
- 31 Mar. 2021 (gear page): Added follower recommendations.
- 31 Mar. 2021 (skills page): No changes necessary for Season 23.
- 31 Mar. 2021 (this page): Added follower recommendations.
- 17 Dec. 2020 (gear page): Minor fix to Cube selection explanations.
- 18 Nov. 2020 (gear page): Revamped gear section for Season 22.
- 18 Nov. 2020 (skills page): Revised the skill section to reflect the build's new GR pushing capabilities in Season 22.
- 18 Nov. 2020 (this page): Revised the guide to reflect its GR pushing capabilities, and added cube recommendations for S22.
- 30 Jun. 2020 (gear page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 30 Jun. 2020 (skills page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 30 Jun. 2020 (this page): No changes required for Season 21.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (gear page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (skills page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 12 Mar. 2020 (this page): No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 19 Nov. 2019 (gear page): Reviewed for Season 19.
- 19 Nov. 2019 (skills page): Reviewed for Season 19.
- 19 Nov. 2019 (this page): Reviewed for Season 19.
- 22 Aug. 2019 (gear page): Item recommendations have been revised for Season 18.
- 22 Aug. 2019 (skills page): Reviewed for Season 18.
- 22 Aug. 2019 (this page): Item recommendations have been revised for Season 18.
- 15 May 2019 (gear page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 15 May 2019 (skills page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 15 May 2019 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 17 Jan. 2019 (gear page): Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
- 17 Jan. 2019 (skills page): Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
- 17 Jan. 2019 (this page): Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 16.
- 20 Sep. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 15.
- 14 Jun. 2018 (this page): Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 14.
- 31 Oct. 2017 (this page): No changes necessary for Patch 2.6.1.
- 02 Jul. 2017 (this page): Updated for 2.6 and moved to new guide format.
More Crusader Guides
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This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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