We’ve covered the basics for the Barbarian class in Diablo 3 already — but what if Barbarian doesn’t do it for you? What class would? Why not the Crusader class?
The Crusader is a bit tankier than Barbarians. It’s a class that can still deal out the melee damage but which also focuses more on surviving. It’s a class whose resource is similar but less spiky than Barbs. And it’s a class which has a very strong kit of abilities reminiscent of the Diablo 2 Paladin — but with a more martial, zealous flavor. If that sounds more your speed, then the Crusader might just be for you.
Welcome, nephalem! To our best speedfarming builds guide for Crusaders in Diablo 3.To all the old school saders out there, rejoice as thorns pony is no longer king – Valor 6 Fist of Heavens (or Heavens Fury) is thankfully a “normal” build we can use! This is the first pass for. Blizzard added the Paragon System in patch 1.0.4, and it received a major update, titled Paragon 2.0 in Patch 2.0.1. After a character reaches the level cap (currently 70), they will begin to.
I have leveled a couple of Crusaders to 70 through Season play, and they’re an interesting mix of doling out punishment and absorbing a lot of it without going down. In some ways, they feel better suited to group play than the Barb. And if you’re a WoW player who always dug the Protection Warrior or Paladin playstyle but wanted to use a great honking two-handed weapon and a shield in your off-hand, I would definitely recommend giving Crusaders a shot.
To destroy the wicked
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Crusaders start off like every other Diablo 3 character — practically naked, save for a white weapon and shield. By level 30, you’ll have access to every tier of primary, secondary, defensive, utility, and law abilities, plus all but one of the classes’ Convictions. You’ll also have three out of the four passive skill slots with slightly less than half of the passive skills available to choose from. By level 30, I’m usually rocking this build, which does a decent job balancing between unleashing pain on your enemies while staying upright through swarms of things.
The way Wrath works, you usually enter a fight with a full orb, so you can typically throw a big damage attack at whatever you’re fighting to start with. I love dropping a Falling Sword right off the get-go, but that’s only something you can start doing once you’re around the mid-20 level range. When you first start playing, you’ll have one active skill and nothing else, and you won’t get your first secondary Wrath spender until level 2 with Shield Bash.
Honestly, to my mind, the most important choice to make is at level 10 when your first passive unlocks and you can decide whether to get Heavenly Strength or not. Pretty much any other choice you make at these levels is fine — it all kills monsters, it all works. But Heavenly Strength changes the way you play your Crusader. Do you use a simple one-handed weapon and shield combination, or do you pick up an enormous two-hander and swing it around in one hand like your Wrath has made you a titan?
How to lay low the monstrous
I think we can already dispense with pretending I would ever even play a Crusader without taking Heavenly Strength. But I don’t think that means you should. If all you’ve been finding are one-handed weapons, Heavenly Strength is kind of useless, and you should take Fervor instead. I recommend taking passives that let you take more of a beating. For example, the following passives are solid choices:
- Vigilant, which increases health regeneration and reduces non-physical damage by 20%
- Renewal, which provides you with health every time you block
- Hold Your Ground, which dumps Dodge but boosts Block by 30%, and is great when paired with Renewal
- Divine Fortress, which increases your armor by your shield’s chance to Block.
As you play, you’ll learn how much healing and defense you actually need, and how much you can sacrifice for damage passives like Holy Cause and Fanaticism — the former boosting your weapon damage and healing you when you deal Holy-based abilities, and the latter increasing your attack speed whenever you use Smite, Slash, Punish and Justice.
Speaking of those four abilities, they are your Wrath-generating attacks. You get Punish at level 1, Slash at level 3, Smite at level 11, and Justice at level 15. They all generate 5 Wrath, so there’s no real clear cut optimum choice — it comes down to what you want to be able to do with your Wrath-gen attack. I almost always choose Slash because it works and I’m not terribly imaginative.
Crusaders are capable of a wide variety of tactics — you can build an aggressive Crusader who risks everything on flinging around as much damage as possible knowing it will heal them, or you can build a more tactical-minded one who goes for a “slow and steady” approach. It’s a class that rewards making choices that have good synergy. And unlike many classes in Diablo 3, the best Defensive abilities the Crusader gets either stun or disorient whole groups of enemies or buff all of your allies. In those cases, I recommend Shield Glare to AOE blind or Consecrate to heal your friends, respectively.
Tying it all together
So how should you play your Crusader? What tips can I give you to make it easier, whether you’re just picking up Diablo 3 for the first time some six years after it first came out or just giving the class a try in Season play?
- Commit to a playstyle. At levels 1 through 10, it really doesn’t matter what you do, but at level 10? Take either Heavenly Strength or Fervor and drive everything toward that decision. Decide if you want to be a slow-and-steady tank or a reaping destroyer, and make the proper passive choices to benefit that goal.
- Alternate between Primary and Secondary attacks. I found I had the best results when I would hit with a Secondary to open combat, then use a Primary, then a Secondary again. You start with a full Wrath orb, so make use of it.
- Don’t forget Laws and Convictions. Convictions are essentially just big attacks — I like to use them when I see a knot of demons or undead clustered up and in need of a whupping. But Laws are interesting abilities that have both a passive buff to you and your allies and an active on-use ability that acts like a cooldown for you and your group. Get comfortable with them and how to use them to help yourself and anyone you’re playing with.
- Remember, Crusaders are a solid group backbone. Laws are a good example of why a Crusader brings a lot to a group. In a game that doesn’t really have tanks, Crusaders might just be the closest thing to one — damage resistant, with strong group synergy thanks to their Law abilities, and a host of solid defensive options that can incapacitate whole groups of foes or heal and protect all of your allies at once. One of the strengths of the Crusader is it makes an excellent team player.
Crusaders are a fun class to play if you’re into being the shield that smashes in faces, the bulwark others break themselves against. There’s a lot more fun stuff to the class — you can boost your Thorns damage and make enemies regret they ever tried to hit you, or you can burst into white-hot light that sears them with every strike of your weapon. Overall, the Crusader offers a steadier, more deliberative playstyle than some other classes. It’s less the wild frenzy of the Barbarian or the disciplined mastery of the Monk and more a kind of pendulum swinging violently between extremes and crushing anything silly enough to try and stop it. And it can be a lot of fun.
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One of the best Crusader builds in the game. Tied with Sweep Roland build for the Top Tier Crusader build for Season 16 and Patch 2.6.4
Akkhan's Condemn Crusader is the Top Tier build for its' class. While still one of the best builds in the game, it's currently tied for the first place with the Sweep build based on Roland's Legacy set. This set was so powerful, it wasn't buffed in Patch 2.6.4, yet it still remains in the very top few builds in Diablo 3.
To check the full list of our Best Diablo 3 builds visit: The Best Diablo 3 builds by Odealo
![Diablo 3 Crusader Paragon Priority Diablo 3 Crusader Paragon Priority](/uploads/1/3/7/5/137545433/257648975.jpg)
Table of contents
- General information
- Recommended items
- Recommended skills
- Best builds for other Diablo 3 classes
Diablo 3 Crusader Paragon Build
General information
The entire build is based on the Armor of Akkhan set which provides the following bonuses:
- Reduces the Wrath cost of all abilities by 50% when Akarat's Champion is active (2/6)
- Reduces the cooldown of Akarat's Champion by 50% (4/6)
- While Akarat's Champion is active, the Crusader deals 1500% increased damage and takes 50% less damage (6/6)
Akkhan was the best set in the game in previous patches. It left the majority of other sets and builds far behind in terms of high GR pushing, and it was left untouched in Patch 2.6.4 so that other builds can cope up with its' immense capabilities.
The build's mechanics revolve around Akarat's Champion spell, which provides terrific offensive and defensive bonuses. Because of relying on the skill to be able to deal any damage, the most important attribute on your gear is Cooldown Reduction. If you are using Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan (as recommended in this guide) you will have to remember to be always on the move, otherwise, you will be losing a lot of DPS.
- Use Akarat Champion when facing Elites, Bosses, big packs, and in emergency situations
- Spam Condemn while under the effect of Akarat's Champion for immense damage.
- Keep five stacks of Slash Guard armor bonus at all times
- Using Provoke and Steel Skin when their cooldown is off for great defensive utility
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Recommended items
Equipment | |
Head - Helm of Akkhan Stat priorities: 1) Critical Hit Chance 2) Socket 3) Strength 4) Vitality 5) Secondary res. Socket: | |
Chest - Breastplate of Akkhan Stat priorities: 1) Strength 2) Vitality 3) Increased Condemn damage 4) Secondary res. 5) Melee/ranged damage reduction Sockets: | |
Pants -Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Stat priorities: 1) Strength 2) Vitality 3) All elemental res. Sockets: Special power: Your resource generation and damage is increased by 25% while moving and decreased by 20–25% while standing still | |
Gloves- Gauntlets of Akkhan Stat priorities: 1) Cooldown reduction 2) Critical Hit Chance 3) Critical Hit Damage 4) Strength 5) Vitality | |
Boots - Sabatons of Akkhan Stat priorities: 1) Strength 2) Vitality 3) All elemental res. 4) Armor | |
Pauldrons - Pauldrons of Akkhan Stat priorities: 1) Cooldown reduction 2) Strength 3) Vitality 4) All elemental res. | |
Bracers - Strongarm Bracers Stat priorities: 1) Critical Hit Chance 2) Holy damage% 3) Strength 4) Vitality 5) Secondary res. Special power: Enemies hit by knockbacks suffer 20–30% more damage for 6 seconds | |
Amulet - Talisman of Akkhan Stat priorities: 1) Socket 2) Holy damage% 3) Critical Hit Damage 4) Critical Hit Chance 5) Strength 6) Secondary res. | |
Ring - Focus Stat priorities: 1) Socket 2) Cooldown reduction 3) Critical Hit Chance 4) Critical Hit Damage 5) Strength (Part of the Bastions of Will set) Set bonuses:
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Ring - Restraint Stat priorities: 1) Socket 2) Cooldown reduction 3) Critical Hit Chance 4) Critical Hit Damage 5) Strength (Part of the Bastions of Will set) | |
Belt - Vigilante Belt Stat priorities: 1) Cooldown reduction 2) Strength 3) Vitality 4) All elemental resistances | |
Weapon - Blade of Prophecy Stat priorities: 1) Socket 2) High average damage 3) Cooldown reduction 4) High special power's value 5) Damage% 6) Strength Sockets: Special power Two Condemned enemies also trigger Condemn's explosion, and increases Condemn damage by 600–800% | |
Off-hand - Frydehr's Wrath 1) Cooldown reduction 2) Critical Hit chance 3) Strength 4) Vitality 5) Area damage% Special power Condemn has no cooldown and deals 600-800% increased damage, but costs 40 Wrath | |
Bonus Items for Season 16 (thanks to built-in Ring of Royal Grandeur power) | |
Head - Leoric's Crown 1) Socket 2) Critical Hit chance 3) Strength 4) Vitality Special power Increases the effect of any non-Legendary gem socketed into the helm by 75–100% | |
Kanai Cube powers | |
The Furnace Increases damage against elites by 40–50% Can be freely replaced with Blade of Prophecy in the weapon slot. Whichever weapon has better stats | |
Illusory Boots You may move unhindered through enemies | |
Convention of Elements Gain 150–200% increased damage to a single element for 4 seconds. This effect rotates through the elements available to your class in the following order: Arcane, Cold, Fire, Holy, Lightning, Physical, Poison | |
Legendary Gems | |
Bane of the Trapped
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Bane of the Stricken
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Esoteric Alteration
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![Crusader Crusader](/uploads/1/3/7/5/137545433/309797554.jpg)
Recommended skills
Active Skills | |
Slash Performs a cone attack in front of the Crusader dealing 230% damage as Fire Guard Increases your armor by 5% for every enemy hit. This effect stacks up to 5 times This skill is used to generate Wrath, proc. Bastion of Will's effect and grant additional armor | |
Iron Skin Absorbs 50% of all incoming damage for 4 seconds Steel Skin Increases the skill duration to 7 seconds Flash(optional) Grants increased movement speed when hitting during Iron Skin's effect. Can be used for faster clearing of lower GRs and when farming regular Rifts (though there are certainly faster builds for that) Mandatory defensive skill for every Crusader build. | |
Condemn Unleashes a massive explosion after a 3-second delay, dealing 1160% damage as Holy to all enemies within 15 yards Vacuum Condemn will pull all enemies towards the Crusader. It counts as Knockback effect and will proc Strongarm Bracers Your main DPS spell. Spam it whenever under the effect of Akarat's Champion, as well as to pull enemies | |
Akarat's Champion Increases damage dealt by 35% and increases Wrath regeneration by 5 per second for 20 seconds Prophet Grants 150% additional armor, and when the Crusader received fatal damage while in this form, instead of dying he is healed to full Life. This effect works only for the first time Mandatory skill for this build(and any other Akkhan build). Use it whenever facing Elites, Bosses, big packs and in emergency situations | |
Provoke Taunts all nearby enemies and generates 5 Wrath for every enemy taunted. Taunt lasts for 4 seconds Too Scared to Run Affected enemies also have their attack speed reduced by 50% and movement speed slowed by 80% for the duration Generates additional Wrath, and applies an extremely powerful debuff on affected enemies | |
Laws of Justice Passive: grants the Crusader and their allies 140 resistance to all elements Active: empowers the Law, granting the Crusader and his allies 490 resistance to all elements for 5 seconds Immovable Object Empowering the Law will also increase Crusader's armor by up to 7000 at level 70 Great defensive Aura. You can pick any other Law/Rune for low/mid tier Rifts; however, this one will shine in very high GRs | |
Passive Skills | |
Indestructible Upon receiving fatal damage, the Crusader becomes immune to incoming damage and all crowd control effects, gaining 35% increased damage and additional 82526 Life per Kill for 5 seconds This effect may only occur once every 60 seconds | |
Holy Cause The Crusader gains 10% bonus to damage dealt with all skills and gains 1% of maximum Life when dealing Holy damage | |
Heavenly Strength The Crusader is allowed to wield two-handed weapons in his main-hand slot. All damage dealt by the Crusader is reduced by 20% | |
Finery The Crusader gains 1.5% additional Strength for every gem socketed into his gear |
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Have fun with this build - we certainly did enjoy it ourselves. And see you soon in the world of Sanctuary.
Diablo 3 Crusader Paragon Priority 2018
If you have any ideas on how this build could be improved, or if you belive this is not precisely the best Crusader build in Season 16, please let us know in the comments below. We are open to feedback and constructive criticism.
Crusader Set Diablo 3
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