Greetings,
Nowadays Aegis of Valor set has outclassed every other existing Crusader set. Difference in damage delivered and thoughness is too much.
Likewise there are also many useless items. I hope in future patches they will be reworked to be used in different builds, obtaining similar results to those of AoV set.
In this post I want to highlight LoD Blessed Shield build problems and I am going to propose a single adjustment which could give new life to this beautiful build.
Problems
- The only decent Blessed Shield rune is Combust, because of its AoE. Other runes are pretty useless, since neither Shattering Throw (which guarantees a great amount of BS stacks) can kill a pack in an acceptable time.
- Because of 1., only a Fire build is allowed; this is not good since Crusader main skills are Holy, so there isn’t any synergy with, for example, Holy Cause passive.
- Blessed Shield build requires all affixes (CDR, CC, IAS, CD, AD) except RCR. It follows that it’s extremely difficult to find a balance.
- Two weapons and a Shield are strictly required for this build; then the player has no choice to explore new combinations.
- The build hasn’t neither Chest Armor, nor Pants dedicated. At least for Chest you can choose the evergreen Aquila Cuirass, or Cindercoat (by the way legendary power useless), but for Pants? Swamp Land Waders, a WD Legendary item…
Solutions
I consider it appropriate to make changes first on gameplay. Trash killing power of BS is not enough, so why don’t include Shield Bash in this build? This is one of the most loved skills but it doesn’t find any spot due to Roland’s mechanics.
So let’s rework Pox Faulds pants in this way.
Pox Faulds - Legendary power reworked -
Every second your Blessed Shield stacks are above [120-130] you gain a Shield Bash stack, up to a maximum of 10; every Shield Bash stack cumulates the total Blessed Shield damage of the previous second. You release the damage cumulated in a single explosion which involves every monster in a 10 yards area by casting Shield Bash. All Shield Bash stacks are lost if you remain below [120-130] Blessed Shield stacks for a second.
This change could give BS build the necessary trash killing power it lacks, as well as improving gameplay. Damage numbers can be adjusted, I am not a mathematical (in real life I am an engineer 
) but I think the principle is clear.
6 Likes
Probably the only reason I enjoy blessed shield, is that it’s a 1 button wonder. Press and hold down blessed shield, and you are good to go…
As far as it being competitive, it used to be a lot stronger, but it got nerfed on PTR. If they would un-nerf the nerfs, it might be pretty solid today.
6 Likes
LoD BS (Captain America) is my favorite build for just running around destressing. Wish it could go a little higher, but yea nothing easier in the game.
1 Like
I would not want to add Shield Bash to the Blessed Shield build. What makes it fun is how easy it is to play. I agree, there should be some pants that enhance the build, without having to use WD pants. Just put elemental damage on some other pants, like those Pox Faulds. That, and bump of the damage just a tad on the flail. Maybe bump up the bonus for wearing ancients? Or get some new pants that cut the cooldown on Arakhats? I dunno, just spitballing.
Just curious, what was the nerf? This is the first time I have played a crusader, so I have no idea.
2 Likes
In Patch 2.6.5, the bonus from Akkan’s Leniency was increased…
https://eu.diablo3.com/en/blog/22976066/season-17-the-season-of-nightmares-begins-517-5-10-2019
Each enemy hit by your Blessed Shield increases damage of your Blessed Shield by 15-20% 35-40% for 3 seconds
Initially on the PTR this was 75-100% for each enemy hit. Then they nerfed it to 30-35% on the PTR. Finally, they released it to live as 35-40% which, whilst better than live 2.6.4, was massively down from the initial version on the 2.6.5 PTR iteration.
3 Likes
My suggestion comes from a fact: Capt. America build is too far by WD Mundunugu’s Regalia. It’s not competitive in 140-150, so it strongly needs for a buff.
It is in fact too weak by Mundunugu standards, but hopefully WD gets nerfed.
Obviously, BS needs to be buffed too (getting it back to 100% per stack won’t even close the gap to AoV crusader unless AoV is also nerfed, which would be best imo).
But I definitely wouldn’t try to shoehorn Shield Bash, a notoriously clunky skill, into a build like Blessed Shield, that is actually fun to play.
Shield bash at best deserves to be removed from the game, at worst a complete redesign of its legendary items in order to work properly.
One of the issue with Blessed shield is the difficulty to get CDR in order to keep AC up 100% of the time. In my opinion, it would be nice to have a build that doesn’t rely on AC for once though, and I’d be happy to see some kind of item (belt ? pants ?) changed to grant attack speed for blessed shield, as well as some toughness, because obviously without prophet, a melee build won’t be fun to play. Maybe make the toughness dependant on a skill that requires LoD BS to drop AC and use something else instead (consecration ? it could also be used to buff roland at the same time, since consecration is one of the skills which cooldown gets reduced by the 2p roland).
4 Likes
or they can just come up with some good pants with an afix that cuts the cooldown of AC by half and allows for elemental damage?
I could dig that.
3 Likes
witchdoctors deserve some fun with their new set. It’s not like they were overpowered forever. blizzard doesn’t compare classes against each other. it’s not how they balance. I do love captain America though. if they would un-nerf it back to its original strength I would definitely shelf valor and play it again.
I’m not sure they will nerf Mundunugu soon. Indeed latest patches showed us that the end-game achievement is “150-speed”, not “150 reachable only in favorable conditions”. With the exceptions of few map/mob combos, basically every medium 6k WD is able to clear 150 with experienced supports.
RGK is even better; with my 4.6k Paragon and generally pretty good items I can kill almost every guardian in less than 3 min (at worse and without any phylon), constantly.
Then, we can imagine Dev’s direction: power creep to allow casual players to reach highest clears. For that I am not sure about future nerfs; maybe they will nerf AoV, but new RGK build (Necromancer / DH new set) will be at the same level of AoV. For that I also hope they will give us the possibility to have different DPS builds (Trash Killer and Boss Killer), all able to do 140-150 even non META, such Blessed Shield build.
It’s kinda crazy, they might not nerf mundu next season, but that, and valor look like they will be nerfed eventually. I’m wondering if I should even go higher than 130 this season with valor lol. They keep saying if people overperform they will nerf it…
They could just stick Blessed Shield on the Rolands 2, 4 and 6 pc bonuses and call it a day. The synergy is unreal with Akkhans Leniency and Rolands 6pc.
The clears would exceed GR140 and it would be tanky. I think instant win for Blessed Shield. They could revisit Sweep Attack and Shield Bash legendary items to make them competitive.
4 Likes
the overall problem is that when they do these balance passes, they make a new set, then buff 3-4 items. they don’t go back and change everything else.
They tried but it was too laggy, that’s why they didn’t. Nevalistis said it on reddit iirc.
2 Likes
the more I think about how well it would synergize with Rolands, the more it makes sense. Even with the lag, over the past couple of years, in the background, Blizzard has really reduced server area damage lag in general.
Just up the base damage of the skill itself. Instead of relying only on Shield block %, make it overall block %, and double to base %.
Yeah, it’s not like we don’t use Pain Enhancer anyways. But if you really wanted to see how it feels at 5APS, you could try it on season with an Echoing Fury in cube and PE.
Does somebody has tried it? I am a not seasonal player so I couldn’t, but would be interesting know how Akkhan’s Leniency and Echoing Fury work together.
echoing fury works really well with blessed shield. what should work well, but doesn’t, is blood brother. I got a primal bb this season, I really tried to make it work, but for whatever reason blood brother doesn’t work like you assumed it would.
This is my favorite build by far. You stand and bang, and you are asked to think and react by selectively using your buffs. A thinking jock’s build.
I propose that the legendaries be buffed. Manacles suggest this is an elite killer, but Leniency works best in density. Perhaps make Gyrfalcon reduce the cost to 1 Wrath to allow ORotZ? Also, extra bounces from Jekengbord truly do nothing.
I would also like to see Akkhan buffed. That set was always perfect for BS.
1 Like