Akkhan Blessed Shield Crusader

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Akkhan Blessed Shield Crusader build.

[Guest guest]

I think I will use that build next season, actually I've never played crusader. One question though: how does finery work? Do legendary gems count?

That would be 10 sockets filled which is 15% more strength, but when is this bonus added? On top of all your strength from gear and paragon points or it only applies to the base strength value at your current level?

[Lax 0]

I kinda understand why you would take the fire rune as it deals more damage but at low paragons shattering throw is the better option as it goes along with Holy Cause for that extra healing.

[Guest Philosopher]

On 11/3/2017 at 7:39 AM, Guest guest said:

I think I will use that build next season, actually I've never played crusader. One question though: how does finery work? Do legendary gems count?

That would be 10 sockets filled which is 15% more strength, but when is this bonus added? On top of all your strength from gear and paragon points or it only applies to the base strength value at your current level?

All strength (gear, paragon and caldesann) and any socket filled with any gem counts. Typically you are correct at 15%. You can have a gem in your shield too for 16.5% but this is not recommended. 

[Guest Philosopher]

CDR math:

15% Fervor, 15% Gogok of Swiftness

12.5% Head Diamond

10% Paragon

8% from three sources:

shoulders(required)

compass rose(recommended)

either gloves or shield

=55.695% CDR, close enough to the 100% uptime of 56%, adding more would yield diminishing returns. You can put CDR on both rings allowing you to have Vit on both gloves and shield but I recommend using Unity for 15% elite damage and cubing CoE. Note that also ~1000 vit on gloves or shield (ancient) will be a better option than either 7% attack speed (gloves) or 8% elite damage (shield) as this build starves for max health.

Deadset is spot on with attack speed on weapon and not CDR. Attack speed is multiplicative on weapons and additive on anything else.

I’m on GR91 right now with less than optimal gear. If you’re like me and getting thrashed by rift guardians, consider Shield Glare instead of Consecration. It receives 30% bonus CDR from the passive Towering Shield allowing you to cast it every 3.72 seconds (the effect lasts four seconds), allowing you to blind lock enemies. The rune Divine Verdict adds 20% damage taken which will offset losing 1-2 stacks of Akkhan’s Leniency in the process (if the guardian is alone). 

[Guest guest]

@Philosopher: you play shattering throw or combust?

From what I see it seems that shattering throw boosts recovery thanks to healing from Holy Cause, which renders consecration useless, freeing up the slot for shield glare (as mentioned above), but since it is affected by diminishing returns I am not sure if it is such a good trade-off. I see though how Divine Verdict or Uncertainty runes could speed up trash killing.

Also: how good is IAS in this build? I was thinking about switching CoE to RoRG and swap the head with andariel's visage, or that would lower the damage output?

[TheRealBill 5]

10 hours ago, Guest guest said:

From what I see it seems that shattering throw boosts recovery thanks to healing from Holy Cause, which renders consecration useless, freeing up the slot for shield glare (as mentioned above), but since it is affected by diminishing returns I am not sure if it is such a good trade-off. I see though how Divine Verdict or Uncertainty runes could speed up trash killing.

Also: how good is IAS in this build? I was thinking about switching CoE to RoRG and swap the head with andariel's visage, or that would lower the damage output?

 

I initially started with Shattered and Provoke: Hit Me though I don't recall why I took the taunt--other than I was following the build from rhykker on YT. I was able to clear GR89 with it while lacking some ancients. I switched to combust and consecration and cleared 90 a bit faster than 88 with the same gear (with a holy -> fire enchantment replace). Now my gear is sub-par for sure, and I'm not a fan of relying on Goguk's CDR so I'm running enough gear and weapon CDR to not worry about it. 

At least at those levels Shattered certainly makes up for lack of consecration. That said I'm not sure what I'd add to replace consecration though. I may toy with Judgement with either Mass Verdict or Resolved. Phalanx Shield Bearers might be kinda fun though. ;) Heaven's Fury offers some minor damage combined with a bit of healing, being Holy damage.

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

8 hours ago, TheRealBill said:

I initially started with Shattered and Provoke. I was able to clear GR89 with it while lacking some ancients. I switched to combust and consecration and cleared 90 a bit faster than 88 with the same gear (with a holy -> fire enchantment replace).

I thought the damage gap between those two runes is smaller, but in that case when using shattering throw it seems obligatory to use shield glare with divine verdict to compensate a little bit of the damage loss.
Also what I've noticed is with combust rune every explosion triggers Akkhan's Leniency bonus, which means it generates charges at double/triple the speed of shattering throw. I wonder if this is working as intended, I guess this is the deciding factor in making shattering throw's damage subpar to combust.

 

8 hours ago, TheRealBill said:

At least at those levels Shattered certainly makes up for lack of consecration. That said I'm not sure what I'd add to replace consecration though.

This is the problem with current state of the game, we cannot use any skill we would want to because without synergies from items its damage will be horrible :/ I miss good old days without legendary affixes :(
I was thinking about importance of ias in this build. It surely affects number of stacks from Akkhan's Leniency bonus, but I wonder if this is at all important. If yes maybe punish with celerity could be viable, but it still seems that extra 20% damage from shield glare - divine verdict would be a better choice. However I would rather use it to interrupt rift guardians's skills instead of trying to blind-lock him.

Doesn't look like there is a lot of room for changes in this build.

[Philosopher 0]

Okay so Shattering Throw is terrible and needs a redesign in my opinion.

How shattering throw works: the first hit does the normal 430% damage and then that shield disappears, it's gone, no 9 bounces (3 normal, 6 from Jekangborg). Instead it splits into 3 shields that do 170% damage. Jekangborg makes those three shields, bounce twice each extra. The rune actually makes the attack weaker than no rune. 1 bounce at 430%, 9 at 170%. Not only is Combust better, but Divine Aegis and Staggering Shield are also better because they hit 10 times at 430% damage. Combust does this and has a 33% chance to deal 310% splash damage to every enemy in range. With 10 enemies hit, each enemy will take about 1000% weapon damage as aoe extra per throw. If Shattering Throw split into three shields, and then they each bounced 9 times, it still wouldn't be as good, but it might be worth using for healing purposes. I suspect this would cause problems similar to pre 2.6.1. Limitless rune for Blessed Hammer. That being said, Holy Cause is only half useful, and I replace it with Indestructable.

 

I'm only hardcore for like 2 weeks every season but here's what I know about IAS.

For this build, in addition to the obvious flat damage increase by faster casting and getting more out of life per hit, faster attacking may mean higher breakpoints for stacking Akkhan's Leniency. IAS will be very good on your weapon but not on Jewelry/gloves. Weapon IAS multiplies your total attacks per second, not your sheet attack speed increase, so it's multiplicative with other sources of IAS. You'll already have 15% from Fervor, 15% from Gogok, 10% from paragon, 8% from Laws of Valor and probably 7% from witching hour. I could argue that it might not be a bad idea to change IAS on WH to something else, or maybe use a different belt entirely, 50% CHD is hard to pass up when you have 64% crit chance but I wouldn't be surprised to see some top echelon players using string of ears, maybe even something else I hadn't considered. Anyway, every time you add more IAS it's less and less effective. 7% IAS added to 155% is only 4.5% faster, not really worth losing some other stat. Even more CDR would be better, in my opinion.

As for breakpoints, with the IAS of 55% mentioned above, and 7% IAS on your weapon, you will have 2.32 attacks per second (that's with 15 stacks of Gogok). To find the breakpoint for Akkhan's Leniency on single target just multiply that number by three (it lasts three seconds) and the max breakpoint for large clusters multiply it by 30 (three seconds times ten hits). You'll see the numbers flickering back and forth but the lower stable numbers are the damage bonus you're actually getting. Meaning if you're seeing your stacks going between 6 and 7, you're only at 6 effective stacks, it goes to 7 but the buff falls off before your next shield hits. Pretty much any IAS will add somewhat to trash damage, but will you notice a difference between 69 stacks (1380%) and 72 stacks (1440%)? Probably not. While 2.32 falls just short of 7 stacks on single target fights you will have 7 stacks during Law of Valor which you'll be using every fire rotation anyway. If you decide against IAS on your belt, you can use the Enchantress to get back to 7 stacks. I plan on keeping IAS on WH and using the Templar, his healing is really good with this low health high damage reduction setup. Consecration for that reason is also still a great choice, I've had better luck with Shield Glare so far but that may change. I use Shield Glare while Iron Skin is on cool down, by the time blind hits hard diminished returns, it's back up again.

Can anyone else not wait until season start tomorrow?

 

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by Philosopher

[Valks 2,375]

1 hour ago, Philosopher said:

Can anyone else not wait until season start tomorrow?

Counting down the hours.

[Philosopher 0]

The actual 100% uptime CDR for Akarat's champion with Armor of Akkhan is 55.56% not 56%

20 seconds uptime / 45 seconds cooldown (with Akkhan set)  = .44444...  (percentage, rounded up to the second decimal becomes 55.56%)

The requirements I listed above for 55.69% (as guest) is the minimum needed to achieve this.

 

[Valks 2,375]

15 hours ago, Philosopher said:

The actual 100% uptime CDR for Akarat's champion with Armor of Akkhan is 55.56% not 56%

20 seconds uptime / 45 seconds cooldown (with Akkhan set)  = .44444...  (percentage, rounded up to the second decimal becomes 55.56%)

The requirements I listed above for 55.69% (as guest) is the minimum needed to achieve this.

At that point it doesn't matter though, since you need max CDR on all items to achieve a minimum of 55.56, which would in fact put you at 56 (slightly above, I think).

[Guest Xspider]

Hi. I watch ranking tables (season and non season) and looks like every crusader push with condemn, Why they dont push with Blessed Shield if its top build for crusader.

[TheRealBill 5]

On 11/7/2017 at 4:26 AM, Guest guest said:

I thought the damage gap between those two runes is smaller, but in that case when using shattering throw it seems obligatory to use shield glare with divine verdict to compensate a little bit of the damage loss.
Also what I've noticed is with combust rune every explosion triggers Akkhan's Leniency bonus, which means it generates charges at double/triple the speed of shattering throw. I wonder if this is working as intended, I guess this is the deciding factor in making shattering throw's damage subpar to combust.

 

This is the problem with current state of the game, we cannot use any skill we would want to because without synergies from items its damage will be horrible :/ I miss good old days without legendary affixes :(
I was thinking about importance of ias in this build. It surely affects number of stacks from Akkhan's Leniency bonus, but I wonder if this is at all important. If yes maybe punish with celerity could be viable, but it still seems that extra 20% damage from shield glare - divine verdict would be a better choice. However I would rather use it to interrupt rift guardians's skills instead of trying to blind-lock him.

Doesn't look like there is a lot of room for changes in this build.

So I did some leveling with a less-capable version of this build, sliding in slash/judgment for wrath gen since I didn't have Gyrfalcon's yet and it fared well. Was able to get to GR44 with the big two-hander, Divine Strength, and watching my Wrath pool - and no Akhan's set at all. Just the bracers, 2H flail, and Jakangbord. I'm now sporting full Akhan (1 piece ancient), an ancient Jakangbord, and normal Gyrfalcon's Foote and I can reliably clear GR74 in 4-6 minutes. (I had some confusion for a while about my seeming lack of survivability until I realized I had not given my follower an immortality token but did have Unity. DOH!) IMO this really speaks to the strength of the build though.

I could probably finesse my way to GR80, but am planning to focus more on getting an Ancient MH and some decently rolled Amulet/Rings, then some augments. :)

[Philosopher 0]

On 11/12/2017 at 11:31 PM, Blainie said:

At that point it doesn't matter though, since you need max CDR on all items to achieve a minimum of 55.56, which would in fact put you at 56 (slightly above, I think).

With Fervor, gogok, paragon points, flawless royal diamond in helm but excluding weapon, you need three sources with 8% CDR to hit the minimum of 55.56, not the possible five in the guide (two rings, shield, shoulders and gloves). You may want four to reduce Akarat's to 18.34 seconds, ensuring a smooth rollover, this is at 59.23% CDR. This doesn't help much otherwise because you can already trigger Law of Valor: Critical for every fire rotation on CoE. Slightly lower cooldowns on Consecration and Iron Skin are okay but the roll is better used for something else. Having Akarat's at almost exactly 20 seconds is a bit of a challenge but worth that extra roll, in my opinion.

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/13/2017 at 11:00 AM, Guest Xspider said:

Hi. I watch ranking tables (season and non season) and looks like every crusader push with condemn, Why they dont push with Blessed Shield if its top build for crusader.

Will ask Deadset!

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/14/2017 at 12:28 PM, Philosopher said:

With Fervor, gogok, paragon points, flawless royal diamond in helm but excluding weapon, you need three sources with 8% CDR to hit the minimum of 55.56, not the possible five in the guide (two rings, shield, shoulders and gloves). You may want four to reduce Akarat's to 18.34 seconds, ensuring a smooth rollover, this is at 59.23% CDR. This doesn't help much otherwise because you can already trigger Law of Valor: Critical for every fire rotation on CoE. Slightly lower cooldowns on Consecration and Iron Skin are okay but the roll is better used for something else. Having Akarat's at almost exactly 20 seconds is a bit of a challenge but worth that extra roll, in my opinion.

I'm wondering if the issue is that the ring stat priority is "copied over", meaning you can actually drop it on one ring and run it on 4 as you say, but it looks like it's just a stat template mess up. I'll pass everything you've said to Deadset and let him review it all.

[Guest Darknewb]

On 13/11/2017 at 12:00 PM, Guest Xspider said:

Hi. I watch ranking tables (season and non season) and looks like every crusader push with condemn, Why they dont push with Blessed Shield if its top build for crusader.

Hi i'm top 1000 Crusader, i'm not a diablo nolifer but i reached rank 500 (slowly decreasing). I play this build because I'm a fan of blessed shield. I can't find the perfect items to fully follow the guide but I feel like i couldn't push really far after 100-105 without great rift / luck / gear (i'm on 98 atm). So idk if this build aint top tier but I like to think I'm the proof that it is actually more than viable if you wanna try it out on solo GR.

Regards

 

[Guest strangest thing]

I main monk, recently started gearing crusader and noticed strange thing. Whenever I buy/sell something from/to a vendor, i.e. spending shards at Kadala, there is slight variation in toughness and recovery numbers in the character pane for a split second and comes back to normal numbers. Could anyone please check if it happens to them? Just look at toughness and recovery numbers on the paper doll when you buy from Kadala.

I was wondering what might be the cause and if this can be triggered during rifting by some other thing. It only happens to me on crusader, I wear full akkhan, that mh weapon from the build mixed with low level yellows. I will try to screencap it later to explain better what I mean, because this makes me paranoid.

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/21/2017 at 7:19 AM, Guest Darknewb said:

Hi i'm top 1000 Crusader, i'm not a diablo nolifer but i reached rank 500 (slowly decreasing). I play this build because I'm a fan of blessed shield. I can't find the perfect items to fully follow the guide but I feel like i couldn't push really far after 100-105 without great rift / luck / gear (i'm on 98 atm). So idk if this build aint top tier but I like to think I'm the proof that it is actually more than viable if you wanna try it out on solo GR.

Regards

It's definitely a viable build for sure, it's just not quite as good as we thought, I think. It might be an issue similar to M6/N4 vs. Impale for DH, where one just needs far better rolls to be effective. Deadset is looking into it though.

[Valks 2,375]

1 hour ago, Guest strangest thing said:

I main monk, recently started gearing crusader and noticed strange thing. Whenever I buy/sell something from/to a vendor, i.e. spending shards at Kadala, there is slight variation in toughness and recovery numbers in the character pane for a split second and comes back to normal numbers. Could anyone please check if it happens to them? Just look at toughness and recovery numbers on the paper doll when you buy from Kadala.

I was wondering what might be the cause and if this can be triggered during rifting by some other thing. It only happens to me on crusader, I wear full akkhan, that mh weapon from the build mixed with low level yellows. I will try to screencap it later to explain better what I mean, because this makes me paranoid.

Tried replicating this, but can't - is there a buff that could be dropping or being added from you standing still?

[Guest mystery solved (?)]

4 hours ago, Blainie said:

Tried replicating this, but can't - is there a buff that could be dropping or being added from you standing still?

THANK YOU! You gave me a clue that solved the mystery, cubing aquila cuirass was what causes it. If someone is curious check this out: https://imgur.com/a/ovFXt

I used some crappy recording program, so it skips some frames but you can still see variations in toughness and recovery when I buy/sell items. It is not as clear in the video, but it happens every time I buy/sell something at a vendor. I noticed it spending shards at Kadala because buying items until my inventory was full triggered the effect so many times it was just clear the values change. I managed to get the frame with reduced values: https://imgur.com/a/jyJp1

At the moment I have Toughness: 18,831,360 and Recovery: 2,351,562. On the screen I managed to take the values are as follows, Toughness: 9,415,680 and Recovery: 1,175,781, which essentially means they are cut in half as per AC's affix:

Quote

While above 94% primary resource, all damage taken is reduced by 50%. [90 - 95]%

Since it appears on paperdoll I assume something must trigger the paperdoll data refreshing which defaults to standard values and then takes the AC's effect into calculation. Makes me wonder if this is just a visual glitch or the values really get reduced for few miliseconds. I also wonder why this doesn't happen to you if you have aquila cuirass cubed, do you have it cubed? I must try to reproduce it on different characters, maybe my entire account is glitched or something :P

[TheRealBill 5]

8 hours ago, Blainie said:

It's definitely a viable build for sure, it's just not quite as good as we thought, I think. It might be an issue similar to M6/N4 vs. Impale for DH, where one just needs far better rolls to be effective. Deadset is looking into it though.

I've been pondering this and after running a Sucking Condemn build I'd say that you definitely need better rolls on your Blessed Shield build than you do with Condemn. I'm not sure what the top end looks like yet, but at the 80s-90s level it is easier to gear for a solid Condemn build - even though you can share/re-use most of it. That is what I did, I just took my BS build and skilled for Condemn with the necessary gear changes and was able to push higher easily. Throwing shields feels easier to play, but more active/hectic. Perhaps it is the shields flying all over the screen versus the "drunk walk". :D

[Dalno 0]

I've been playing this build hard since the beginning of the season and I must say I don't think anyone over-reacted to the nerfs of this build. It's conservatively 7 Greater Rift levels behind the condemn build and it's gearing requires way more demanding rolls. it's a really fun build but I would classify it as B tier at this point.

[Valks 2,375]

19 hours ago, Guest mystery solved (?) said:

Since it appears on paperdoll I assume something must trigger the paperdoll data refreshing which defaults to standard values and then takes the AC's effect into calculation. Makes me wonder if this is just a visual glitch or the values really get reduced for few miliseconds. I also wonder why this doesn't happen to you if you have aquila cuirass cubed, do you have it cubed? I must try to reproduce it on different characters, maybe my entire account is glitched or something :P

Tried it with AC in cube, it's the same for me. It's too fast for me to see what it swaps to exactly, but it goes to around half as well. It's probably just a minor bug, I doubt it changes anything in GRs.