AoV Build Variants

Crusader
1

Hey so kind of having a hard time finding an exact cookie cutter build, or at least one that I like lol so was wondering;

  1. What’s the general consensus ?

  2. Anyone else trying something different?

I rather like what I’m going for thus far, but I gotta admit the shield choices are surprisingly difficult!!!

So I’ve got the standard 5-pieces + Crimson going, but from what I can tell mot people are running with Pig Sticker which OK, I sorta get because it’s fast but Dark Light gives you a 2nd FotH and (at least mine rolled halfway) and greatly jacks up the damage; I got 911% out of a possible 1000 (min 800) which seems to give it a pretty nuts base damage.

Here’s what I have so far;

I’m missing a Justice Lantern to replace that Litany, and ideally I’d like a Hellfire Amulet with Long Arm of the Law so that when I activate it I’ll get a ridiculous 10 second stun which should be plenty to murder any bosses (not sure why it’s not showing I have RRoG as my accessory power but that’s what it is).

Not 100% set on the defensive talents but so far I’m liking them, I do like the whole converting block to extra def thing but if there’s something better I’m open to ideas.

As I said my biggest struggle atm is between the different shields; Final Witness is very tempting for the AoE Blind, Eberli Charo is also interesting if I can find one with the full 50% CDR for Heaven’s Fury (which would ease up the Wrath useage but probably still result in lower overall dps).

Most people run with the HF damage one I know, but I’m currently using and actually rather liking the Lidless Wall for the extra holy damage. Not sure how that 20% stacks up against the increasing HF damage though.

Really liking Mirinae for the extra synergy, as well as trapped in case I get surrounded but I’m torn between Powerful, Stricken and Vengeance for my last gem. Zei’s is particularly interesting since it doesn’t work with the shotgun variant, but it IS pretty easy to keep your distance using FotH and the stun effect could be interesting in a lightning variant that also uses Wyrdward.

Thoughts ?

EDIT: OK apparently I can’t post links for some reason so just gonna say the character in question in my profile is named “Sephara” if anyone wants to look at my gear.

2

All going to be dependent on what your end goal is. Pig is nice because it can roll the best stats for the build and the damage % bonuses are multiplicative. So in terms of a pushing weapon and min-max perspective it’s BiS.

For shields, Fury is the absolute go-to for anything requiring more than just a few hits to take down. Other than that, I’d say use what ever might support an alternative build that again, is streamlined to your end goal.

You also mention that you don’t have a Justice Lantern as of yet, a great supplement would be to swap the MT gem for Esoteric Alteration. It provides a nice buffer of toughness.

In a nutshell, there are a few different options in terms of flexibility and still being viable, but as your tastes change and increase with difficulty, those will start to narrow.

3

It’s working OK so far but I’ve hit a bit of a wall around GR 70 as I’m starting to take a LOT of damage and dying very quickly which is aggravating.

Overall I love the variant I’ve been using, I honestly don’t understand why most people don’t use the 1st rune on FotH; Divine Well + Darklight means with just a single cast I can fill the screen with bolts. It is insane how much damage I can output from range it feels like I’m playing a beefy mage at times, with the Shotgun option for burst damage or enemies get close (which is why I’m leaving trapped on for now over Zei’s).

4

I have a few different variants saved in my wardrobe. The one where you are running with FotH and darklight I have found works well as a speed variant. I run darklight in the cube though and run the 2 piece green set for more speedy goodness and a 100% dmg multiplier. I think it is the one from Anthony Evans on youtude/dfans… Works wonders for speed normal rifts.

The “standard” build I run is with crimsons, pig sticker, flavor of time, and shield of fury in shield slot. I run esoteric gem and have run aquila or nemesis depending on the level and the goal of our group. I am also running either iron skin for pushing over 100 or steed charge for 70-95. When most the people I am running with are ww bars I find that even though we are doing upper 90 rifts I can keep up and go right for the elites while they suck everything to them. There are so many variants depending on what you want and I know for me to ultimately push I need to drop in stone gauntlets but right now Eso is just fine for toughness.

I would highly recommend trying a flavor of time. When I was first starting this season I had a random legendary with good stats. I had a FoT drop and it was a 30% sheet dps decrease from my random legendary… but with it I was able to clear gr’s 5 levels higher soooo much faster. When a shield or speed pylon drops and you have nems on too, you can normally clear the GR before the effects drop off. Definitely a fun item even if your overall sheet dps decreases I bet you notice a significant increase in clear times and levels of gr’s.