It seems they are just delayed, but all accounted for. Shattering Explosion’s 20 yard radius helps the attacks reach more enemies, it helps mitigate Judgement’s annoying immobilize trait.
Overall, i was doing more damage.
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I’m trying to push but the delay is getting to me. I’m from South America and the PTR server is really bad for me. I’m glad the Shield Beares are doing well!
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Something I noticed: Akkhan 2 set bonus effectively sets a precedent that all crusader builds will require judgement. That feels like an unintended pigeonholing of the entire class, forcing one skill be used across all builds. This is a potential problem that should be examined to prevent too much of a set requirement overlap.
There are 3 good alternatives to avoid the annoying effects of Judgment:
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Consecration with 0 cooldown and some 50% DIBS would feel WAY better imo. It can at be used in a zCru build too.
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Judgment with the Immobilize feature removed by A2 set bonus.
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Hitting an enemy with your own Condemn, make it last 6 seconds.
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I honestly just want a viable Phalanx build… Whether that be using bowmen or the castable runes. It’s a fun build to play and I miss when it was sort of viable to run. The only other fun crusader build for me is FOTH and it’s severely overshadowed by the Heavens Fury aspect of the set.
For what it’s worth, I second your hope for a fun crusader build next season.
Unfortunately, now that you mention AoV with its FotH and Heaven’s Fury options, Blizzard had gone seriously out of its way to destroy, bastardize and make that build utterly irrelevant in the end. There were a total of six nerfs and zero fixes to the build. Everything that could have been done to make that build more clunky was done. Everything that could be done to make that build no longer viable was done.
It’s like Blizzard decided to run over AoV with a car, over and over, until any pretense of listening to or caring about player opinions or suggestions was ground into dust.
At this point, you have to wonder, has Blizzard even bothered reading dmkt’s suggestions for the new phalanx build. Thare is a depressing, total lack of developer feedback to player suggestions in this game.
6 Likes
Thank you all for supporting the suggestions. The feedback is mainly derived from personal play experience in high GR and lifting some ideas from conversations I had with other players and posts made on this forum.
Landy’s testing was excellent, he confirmed important mechanics and reported bugs that really needed to be addressed – because of his work I could direct more attention to the fun part: pushing and experimenting with various items/skill setups.
You all have been awesome here and in Jako’s big thread — and hopefully our feedback is recognized and the the Akkhan build becomes satisfying to play.
I’m reserving all of that fist bump sh-t until the very end.
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I hope it’s fun too. I usually end up top 20 in seasonal crusader but I might actually not play for once depending how Akkhan turns out and / or they improve the angelic powers.
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Oh I know… blizzard will nerf AoV, but they’re also perfectly fine with wizard’s meteors hitting for 28-50T per impact…at like 800-1k paragon… with semi-decent gear…
Honestly I’d like to see a change with Baleful Remnant considering they’re bringing a semi-phalanx build into the mix. Simply “Enemies killed while Akarat’s Champion is active turn into Phalanx Avatars for 10 seconds” is pitiful to say the least. A damage multiplier on there would be nice.
Something along the lines of:
"Enemies killed while Akarat’s Champion is active turn into Phalanx Avatar’s for 60 seconds (max 5-8) and Phalanx now deals 10-15% (rolled %) extra damage per Avatar that is active" Hell, i’d even take a 9-12%.
Now the final version was posted,-“Increases Phalanx Damage” affixes and the Enforcer Legendary Gem can now benefit Phalanx Condemns.
So,the Bowmen Rune of Phalanx is the best choice?
If shield bearers causes too much lag than bowmen, I probably say its the best choice
The set still needs work though on the other hand in terms of giving more items and probably dps too.
The power of A6 Phalanx Condemn depends on whether they kept Shield Bearers as is. They didn’t mention ANYTHING about Shield Bearers so let’s assume it stays. None of this bodes well for Shield Charge, so that one is out…
PTR Phase 1
- Bowmen: GR144 [Enforcer, Kassar, Strongarms, Tasker]
PTR Phase 2
- Bowmen: GR136 [Gogok, Aughild, Leorics]
- Shield Charge: GR136
- Bodyguards: GR135
- Shield Bearer: GR141 [Zei’s, Aughild, Stone Gaunts]
Launch Versions
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Bowmen: GR145 [Enforcer, Taskers, Strongarms, Kassar]
1.9 * 1.6 * 1.33 * 1.6 * 1.158 / 1.69 / 1.05 = 4.22-5.49x or +9GRs -
Shield Bearer: GR147 [Enforcer, Kassar, Strongarms, Stone Gaunts]
1.9 * 1.6 * 1.6 * 1.158 / 1.1 / 1.69 / 1.15 = 2.64-3.43x or +6GRs
One small thing to note, Bowmen were NOT tested with Shattering Explosion, so it is possible the gap between the two is closer.
I expect Bowmen to be your all purpose build that you can bring into groups, for Season the Shield Bearers build I played requires more defense for low paragon, I believe I played that entirely without AC:Prophet. Be sure to build it for the 24th frame – do not use Taskers or you will lag yourself silly.
2 Likes
Well, with the exception of the fallen angels(depending on how much they nerfed them) the other 2 crusader sanctified affixes are absolute trash, so that doesn’t help much…
The only benefit I can see with the blessed hammer is AOE hammers with dominion rune and clearing swaths of trash while riding your steed charger in a speed build.
The FOTH affix is just terrible all around, even if it benefits from AoV, it’s still just 1 FOTH every 2 seconds, and “After casting Steed Charge, this effect occurs more rapidly for five seconds” without an actual number attached to it is basically just useless information. Given the other choices, it’s not really something I can see people using intentionally.
Was just about to ask what are your thougts on the final patch notes for Akkhan set.
So what i understand, Bowmen is going to be the bis skill maybe.
And what would be the best gear setup?
Bowmen: [Enforcer, Taskers, Strongarms, Kassar] or [Enforcer, Aughild, Kassar]which damage higher？
technically, the bodyguards hit harder and do more dmg % per unit summoned, but they’re not ranged, so I think bowmen are more of a QoL thing
And you can have more if them out. By 2 right? It’s definetly a QoL. 
2 bodyguards deal 560% dmg EACH, 4 bowmen deal 185% dmg EACH, 2x 560% = 1120%, and 4x185% = 740%… the QoL is ranged ability versus melee ability. More pets =/= more damage. If they stacked stricken, sure, for RG.
Not to mention the FOTH skill is also coupled with horsey again, YAY. I do not like horsey already and to link it with that skill will for some not make it more fun to use and limits it even more, since well it means you basically have to play Norvald with it our hurt yourself … Looks like crus will have one of the worst set of Angelic powers unless you go and play AOV.
Akhan, proof will be in the pudding, but even if strength will be fine, will it be fun to play?