Thorns Bombardment Crusader Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 21, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 17 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 33, Patch 2.7.8 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Speed Farming

The Akkhan Bombardment Crusader deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

2.

Adapting Skills

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Phalanx Icon Phalanx Bowmen Bowmen Right Mouse Button Bombardment Icon Bombardment Barrels of Spikes Barrels of Spikes 1 Laws of Hope Icon Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels 2 Steed Charge Icon Steed Charge Endurance Endurance 3 Iron Skin Icon Iron Skin Flash Flash 4 Akarat's Champion Icon Akarat's Champion Prophet Prophet
Passive Skills

You will maintain the basis of your progression build, with Bombardment Bombardment Barrels of Spikes Barrels of Spikes still serving as your main damage dealer, and Akarat's Champion Akarat's Champion Prophet Prophet as your mandatory baseline buff.

While necessary for Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken stacking for Greater Rift progression, Punish Punish will not be necessary in regular Rift farming. In its stead, use the massive, party-wide movement speed buff of Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels. The same movement-driven logic is applied to Iron Skin Iron Skin, where you should adjust from progression runes like Steel Skin Steel Skin or Reflective Skin Reflective Skin to Flash Flash.

Moving stragglers around will be unnecessary in an environment where you mostly oneshot monsters, so change the Draw and Quarter Draw and Quarter rune of Steed Charge Steed Charge to Endurance Endurance.

3.

Adapting Gear

Due to Akkhan being a 7-piece set, you can adapt the Condemn build to include the Death's Breath farming Sage set. In order to do this, you will replace the Cpt. Crimson slots from the progression build with Sage's pieces, meaning a mandatory Sage's Ribbon Sage's Ribbon plus one more craftable piece of your choosing. The extra damage from the Aughild 2-piece will not be necessary, so you can exclude it in favor of utility legendaries like Leoric's Crown Leoric's Crown and Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers. You can even carry 2 pieces of the craftable Cain set (like Cain's Insight Cain's Insight and Cain's Habit Cain's Habit, for example) in your inventory and make a quick swap right as the Rift Guardian is about to die, proccing the Cain 3-piece bonus for additional Greater Rift Keystone drops.

The progression-oriented Unity Unity should be dropped from your jewelry during farming, since the lower difficulty of standard Rift farming devalues its toughnes bonus. In its stead, use a Physical damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan for the consistent boost to your Bombardment Bombardments, and — when grouped up and follower-less — an Avarice Band Avarice Band for its synergy with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder.

During speedfarming, where you can drop the overkill protection of the GR progression setup and its rigid distribution of set pieces, the preferred bracers become Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards, for the environment destruction speed buffs that are easily provided by the AoE of this build. The former favorites, the elite spawning Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, are still very valuable, but they can now be equipped on the follower while still getting their bonus via the Emanate mechanics. You should still equip them in groups, where you cannot have a follower with you. The Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers value comes from the additional loot — not to mention progression — coming from the extra elite spawns. They let you finish standard rifts that much faster, and acquire the coveted GR keys in greater amounts.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Strength
  2. Socket
  3. Vitality
  4. Life per Hit or All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Strength
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Bombardment Skill Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Strength
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Bombardment Skill Damage
  4. All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Strength
  2. Physical Damage
  3. Life per Hit or All Resistance
  4. Vitality
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Strength
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. Life per Hit or All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life %
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Strength
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Armor
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Physical Damage
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Area Damage
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. Strength
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. Strength
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. Increased Damage vs. Elites or Life per Hit
  5. Strength
Off-hand
  1. Strength
  2. high Block Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Bombardment Skill Damage
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

4.

Adapting Gemming

Since monster health is much more tame in the standard difficulties, you should also replace Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. The latter is a high utility gem that feeds you practically infinite gold, gives you a massive short-term speed boost while picking it up, and synergizes excellently with an Avarice Band Avarice Band for a massive Pickup Radius increase.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

5.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

You will keep the base selection of Cube items from the progression build — The Mortal Drama The Mortal Drama for the additional Bombardment Bombardment impacts, Belt of the Trove Belt of the Trove for the automated Bombardment Bombardment blasts, and Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur to maintain the Akkhan and Sage set bonuses.

In your 4th Kanai's Cube slot in Season 33, you should add to your build either of the cooldown reduction powerhouses — In-geom In-geom (elite-centric) or Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver (trash-centric) to ease the management of this cooldown-heavy build.

6.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

7.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potion for this build is Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower for its additional mitigation bonuses upon consumption.

8.

Changelog

  • 21 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 09 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Guide revised for Akkhan set changes and S27 theme.
  • 13 Apr. 2022: Guide revised for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 23 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
  • 31 Mar. 2021: Minor revision to gearing and added follower recommendations.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: Revised the guide to reflect its GR pushing capabilities, and added cube recommendations for S22.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 19 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 22 Aug. 2019: Revamped variant around Captain Crimson set.
Show more
Show less