Blessed Hammer Crusader

[Guest Whitemane]

Just wondering: What were the results of the math done to compare Jace's Hammer of Vengeance to Johanna's Argument and The Furnace?

 

It seems to me like 20% more Blessed Hammer damage with a bigger hitbox might be an overall better call than 50% more damage to ONLY elites - especially with the speed with which the Hammerdin can kill most groups, and (usually) from a safe distance at that. After all, as far as the Rift Guardian is concerned, the synergy between the Botp and BotS legendary gems should make up for it, or am I wrong?

 

Currently I'm using a cubed Argument, and I have equipped a Jace's with +20% to BH, a pretty high damage roll and +10% to damage, with a socket. And although i'm admittedly at a fairly low Grift level - I just cleared 40 - I cleared it with over 8min left on the timer, and my set pieces rolled garbage: I don't even have 500k life. I haven't died once.

 

Looking at how I seem to be having no problem, i'm wondering if my choice would just not be viable for the HIGH high stuff? Or can it be done?

[Guest Crispy]

Since this build uses only holy damage attacks, I think Holy Cause outperforms blunt and you get a nice heal as bonus.

 

10% extra weapon damage means 10% overall damage.

 

That's why this build recommends that you roll a Hellfire Amulet that gives you Holy Cause as a bonus passive. So you can have your cake and eat it too! 

[Deadset 108]

Hello guys, I'm using this build and I like it a lot.

 

I always play in group with friends, and since I took a liking for the Crusader, I guess I'll be the tank now. However, I switched some stuff around to fit my playstyle:

 

1. I am obviously not using Unity + CoE since I play in groups, I am instead using Focus and Restraint, even though I am only using half of it's power cause this builds does not include a primary skill. Wonder if it could be an option?. 

2. I am not using Hexing Pants in the cube either, the constant moving it requires just bothers me. For now, I am using Sanguinary Vambraces (Change on being hit to deal 1000% Thorn Damage), which doesn't sound too great. Any suggestions for this cube slot?.

 

3. For the jewelry slot I am using Zodiac, which is invaluable for skill spaming, which brings me to question the use of Gogok of Swiftness, the cooldown reduction of the Zodiac rings really outshines this gem, to the point where one asks themselves if it wouldn't be better to use some damage enhancing gem or even Esoteric Alteration for further tankyness.

 

4. How viable would this option be?: Cube Johanna's Argument, get Heavenly Strength with Hellfire Amulet, and using a 2 hander for weapon?. The Furnace keeps avoiding me and I am looking for ways to improve my DPS. What other cube options would be recommended for damage?

Thanks so much for your work Deadset, I love this site and your guides!

 

Hey - several suggestions:

1. Try using Convention of Elements + Holy SoJ instead, or swap out one of your defensive skills in lower difficulties (Iron Skin or Falling Sword) for the synergistic generator Justice. This way you can proc the full F&R bonus.

2. If Hexing is not to your liking, you can cube Sacred Harness and use a String of Ears/The Witching Hour, or you could try a Leoric's Crown for significantly shorter cooldowns.

3. If you don't feel Gogok impacting the build enough, you can try a combination of Bane of the Stricken + Bane of the Trapped + (Taeguk or Pain Enhancer), and see if it brings a tangible result. :)

4. That would be the theoretical best alternative, Furnace in hand and Argument in the cube, with Heavenly Strength in place of Fervor. It is not frequently used at the top tier because the higher attack rate becomes really noticeable for healing and Zodiac cooldown resets.

 

Thank you for the kind words and good luck!

 

What about Reapers Wraps for the build? I have a great ancient roll on those and my resource management is great so far.

 

I don't have the full seeker set to test the difference between the two.. i do know once i have the set ill be able to reduce my provoke time to get more resource return there.

 

In GRs you eventually hit a point where enemies die too slowly (and globes drop too infrequently) for Reaper's Wraps resource management. It can be done in Torment farming, I believe.

 

Since this build uses only holy damage attacks, I think Holy Cause outperforms blunt and you get a nice heal as bonus.

 

10% extra weapon damage means 10% overall damage.

 

Ideally you wouldn't have to pick between them with a good Hellfire, but I am fairly certain Blunt will still outperform Holy Cause strictly for damage. Because of the (hidden, and badly documented on Blizzard's part) allocation of damage buffs in Diablo into categories, Blunt adds into the smaller "B" category of buffs, while Holy Cause is lumped into the large 'damage-increased-by-skills' "A" category. You can read more on that here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14058607023

The heal is nice though.

 

 

Where the heck do I find the Gabriel's vambracers? I have everything I need for this build except bane of the trapped, and these bracers. I have tried reforging rare items, but I can't seem to get these. Is it because they're such a low level item?

 

Nope, just bad RNG friend. :( Keep farming/gambling/reforging!

 

 

Just wondering: What were the results of the math done to compare Jace's Hammer of Vengeance to Johanna's Argument and The Furnace?

 

It doesn't perform all that great past 60, in my experience at least. Packs become quite durable and problematic, and monsters tend to beeline directly towards you, making the larger hitbox harder to quantify. The skill bonus is decidedly worse than the elite bonus when fighting champions and guardians (pretty obvious, but needs to be said). All in all Jace's is an interesting weapon, but I have not seen proof of its competitive performance (and I didn't have a lot of success with it myself).

 

P.S. Bane of the Powerful is almost never taken outside of speed farming difficulties, as the longer fights mean the bonus often has downtimes, and the damage buff doesn't scale with gem levels.

[Guest Whitemane]

Thanks for the reply on the Jace's! Yeah...The beeline thing is what sold the argument in the end. The way I saw it was, well, bigger hitbox + monsters tend to run all over the place + 20%to blessed hammer = pretty good deal, but with the beeline they usually only get hit once anyway.

 

Also, of course I freaking misread the damn BotP gem (and wasn't smart enough to think it through myself) >.< now I get to level ANOTHER one just due to stupid. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

[Guest Danavan]

2. I am not using Hexing Pants in the cube either, the constant moving it requires just bothers me. For now, I am using Sanguinary Vambraces (Change on being hit to deal 1000% Thorn Damage), which doesn't sound too great. Any suggestions for this cube slot?.

I personally use the Justinian's Mercy in my weapon cube so my hammers follow me and Illusory Boots for my armor scube that way I have 100% free movement.  I have also traded holy damage for lightning on everything because my Bracers, amulet and Belt(Thundergod's Vigor) have plusses to it and the arcing lightning from the hammer combined with the stun from the Fall are a REALLY deadly combo.  I have found that even without the whole BiS set and using a 2h I can clear Torment IX as long as I am careful.  I shudder to think what it will look like once I actually complete the accessories. (Base Lightning damage is about 1.3m and I regularly crit for 300+ on the first 3 targets hit)

[Guest Reginald]

FYI, I use a similar build and I have great success using Gogok of the Swiftness together with Osidian RIng of the Zodiac. Allowing me to set down every cooldown in this build within a blink of the eye.

[Guest Ryan]

Hello, how do I use my third jewelry slot? Both of my rings are socketed, but my Travelers Pledge isn't, and i'm not sure if I can get one that is. Thanks

[Guest teebs]

Hello, how do I use my third jewelry slot? Both of my rings are socketed, but my Travelers Pledge isn't, and i'm not sure if I can get one that is. Thanks

 

Use the enchanter to re-roll one of the stats on the amulet into a socket. I had to do this several times.

[Guest Warbred]

Much prefer the set I made up before seeing if someone else had came up lol can run convection

At 75% up time on my one skill also

[Guest Scythax]

Great build, lots of fun. Regarding the 2.4 update, why have you opted for Bane of the Stricken instead of Taeguk? And what are your thoughts on the Hellfire amulet for a 5th passive instead of the compass rose set? Thanks!

[Deadset 108]

Great build, lots of fun. Regarding the 2.4 update, why have you opted for Bane of the Stricken instead of Taeguk? And what are your thoughts on the Hellfire amulet for a 5th passive instead of the compass rose set? Thanks!

 

You would definitely struggle on Guardians without BotS! The build isn't the best at single target damage. As for swapping Traveler's Pledge for Hellfire, I wouldn't - the damage increase while standing still / toughness increase while moving is so good for the set.

[Guest fiv3x11]

The biggest source of damage comes from the Hammer Jammers bonus when creatures are stunned/blinded/immobilized. Yet this build only has a single stun/blind/immobilization every 20 seconds with Judgement. Slap on a Sacred Harness for another stun during Falling Sword and replace Provoke with Shield Glare (Zealous Glare) for a Blind every 12 seconds (instead of 20 with Judgement).

[Guest Sam]

why no Blessed of Haull belt? Couldn't this revolutionize the build?!

[Guest Toast]

why no Blessed of Haull belt? Couldn't this revolutionize the build?!

I was going to post, and ask the same thing.  I'm currently using this belt, my issue is I have no wrath spender besides Falling Sword.  But it works very well with Justice - Crack.  You could swap out the Bracers in this way for something else. 

I also have the Blessed Hammer - Limitless on my skill bar as well, although I could swap this out for something else as well. 

[Guest serow081]

why no Blessed of Haull belt? Couldn't this revolutionize the build?!

 

 

 

why no Blessed of Haull belt? Couldn't this revolutionize the build?!

I was going to post, and ask the same thing.  I'm currently using this belt, my issue is I have no wrath spender besides Falling Sword.  But it works very well with Justice - Crack.  You could swap out the Bracers in this way for something else. 

I also have the Blessed Hammer - Limitless on my skill bar as well, although I could swap this out for something else as well. 

 

 

Using Blessed of Haull means you won't be benefiting from the 100% attack speed bonus of Johanna's Argument. You also need to "spend" one skill slot for Justice. I tried Blessed of Haull with my Seeker set, and it didn't feel as fun. Might work as a LON set though.

[Guest squ1sh]

Is there something I'm missing?  I'm constantly out of Wrath when fighting more than 3 mobs due to the bracer's not triggering.  I usually switch out one of my abilities for Justice just to keep afloat.  I tear through guardians with ease though.

[Guest rama]

Whats the max grift people are getting with this build?  I just finished a 65 with about 3 minutes to spare.  Love the build, but wondering if I should keep trying to maximize it with more ancients/higher ranked gems or switch soon to a LoN Bombardment build that seem to top the rankings.

[Deadset 108]

Is there something I'm missing?  I'm constantly out of Wrath when fighting more than 3 mobs due to the bracer's not triggering.  I usually switch out one of my abilities for Justice just to keep afloat.  I tear through guardians with ease though.

 

Do you have Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac cubed? With the speed the set resets your Provoke cooldown and the ring your Akarat's Champion, you should be good on resources.

 

 

Whats the max grift people are getting with this build?  I just finished a 65 with about 3 minutes to spare.  Love the build, but wondering if I should keep trying to maximize it with more ancients/higher ranked gems or switch soon to a LoN Bombardment build that seem to top the rankings.

 

I have seen 83 cleared with it, and fully optimized it should probably break around the 85 mark.

[Hemstrom 0]

Have anyone tried Cord of the Sherma for the belt? It procs very frequently and the AoE is way bigger then of Judgment. I think this belt can replace Judgment all together.

[Deadset 108]

Have anyone tried Cord of the Sherma for the belt? It procs very frequently and the AoE is way bigger then of Judgment. I think this belt can replace Judgment all together.

 

That's a very interesting option, actually! It's a bit RNG based since the proc is not under your control, but I recall it's a very reliable proc nonetheless. Push some GRs with it and let me know how it works out for you! :)

[Hemstrom 0]

 

Have anyone tried Cord of the Sherma for the belt? It procs very frequently and the AoE is way bigger then of Judgment. I think this belt can replace Judgment all together.

 

That's a very interesting option, actually! It's a bit RNG based since the proc is not under your control, but I recall it's a very reliable proc nonetheless. Push some GRs with it and let me know how it works out for you!

 

Hi again! I Just barely finished GR65 with the belt. It works pretty well, but i also use Frozen in Terror for more CC. I think my gear is really the problem right now, feels like im dying almost instantly without Akarat's Champion and Indestructible. If you don't mind, could you look at my profile and tell me what you think i need to improve? Thanks! 

 

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Hemstrom-2322/hero/40151878

[Deadset 108]

If you don't mind, could you look at my profile and tell me what you think i need to improve? Thanks! 

 

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Hemstrom-2322/hero/40151878

 

 

You have the correct rolls on the set pieces for the most part, but your jewelry is lacking (particularly the Endless Walk pieces). More ancient pieces across the board will also bump you up quite a bit.

[Hemstrom 0]

 

If you don't mind, could you look at my profile and tell me what you think i need to improve? Thanks! 

 

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Hemstrom-2322/hero/40151878

 

 

You have the correct rolls on the set pieces for the most part, but your jewelry is lacking (particularly the Endless Walk pieces). More ancient pieces across the board will also bump you up quite a bit.

 

Yeah i know, im rolling to get ancient rings and amulets.

[Guest Tsuboi]

Does holy damage % gear affect the damage of blessed hammer?

[Hemstrom 0]

Does holy damage % gear affect the damage of blessed hammer?

Yes, all skills as long as they're holy.