Hey all,
Looking for some direction from those that love the Heaven’s Fury build. I’m missing a concept here and I’m hoping for some help.
Currently, I’m playing the Fist of Heavens build right now and am running 105s without too much difficulty (11.5 minutes or so often with no deaths - and no defensive legendary gems. No augments. I love the builds speed afforded to me with the steed set btw) After I found a primal pig sticker, I thought I would try out a Heaven’s Fury build for the first time seeing much of my gear isn’t that far off anyway.
I was quiet impressed initially - I saw a 56.7T damage pop up on a hit without a pylon bonus and I smiled/gawked. 
(Never played a build before that can dish out that kind of damage) I removed one of the offenses gems for a defensive one for extra help as I pushed for a higher GR but I’m clearly missing something because I’m constantly dying and can barely do a 100 gr on a build that is suppose to be significantly more powerful than the plain jane fist of the heavens so here are some questions.
How much CDR do I need before I use a gem like Goguk? Currently I have 64.7% according to the game before any bonuses from Goguk. Should I consider a different CDR source?
Where do you suggest I get the defense on this build? Stone Gauntlets? IDK but what I currently have is not enough.
I love the flavor of time ammy and the nemesis bracers. Do I sacrifice one or both of these? If so, in favor of what?
How do I get some mobility? Gosh is this guy slooooow. I could use Flash on my stone skin but I’m basically dead at higher GRs. The skill doesn’t regenerate fast enough.
Basically I can see how the fury build can be fun with its massive damage - some people are successfully running GRs>130 (wow) but I’m bashing my head and not having fun. Got any hints? Thanks all.
You should really examine the gear of people pushing very high greater rifts. Your gear and skills are completely different from what they are using. You’re focusing on Fist of the Heavens when Heaven’s Fury deals far more damage to more enemies. Also your follower could use some love. Try equipping them with Freeze of Deflection, Overwhelming Desire or Ess of Joan, Occulus Ring, Eun-Jang-Do or Thunderfury and you can equip or cube a Unity and give one to your follower with the token that makes them not die for an additional 50% DR. Put all Diamonds in your gear as Finery will give you a STR bonus so you won’t need the rubies. I’d also suggest watching some youtube videos on crusader heaven’s fury builds as it will be extremely difficult to get up there on the leaderboards with Fist of the Heavens alone.
Most thoughness of this build comes from Holy Cause passive associated with high attack speed. This is the main reason for that Holy builds of Crusader are much more powerful than Fire, Lightning or Physical ones.
Fist of Heavens damage is ridiculously low compared to that of Heaven’s Fury and it is required only to regenerate wrath.
In Solo game you need Pain Enhancer instead Gogok: more damage and more thoughness because of the higher attack speed.
As ring you need Obsidian ring of Zodyac: with a ~65% base CDR you will be able to keep on permanent Akarat Champion - Prophet, Law of Valor —Unstoppable Force, which gives you another source of damage reduction, thanks to Crimson bonus set, and Iron Skin - Flash could be almost 100% time on as well.
In Solo you don’t need Nemesis: equip Bracers of Fury and cube Stone Gauntlets: with Akarat Champion permanently on you won’t have any malus.
Be sure to have All resistances affix in Helm; Shoulders, Chest, Bracers, Belt, Pants and Boots, and equip only Diamonds as gems. For a Crusaders there are no choices about gems: only and always Diamonds!
Started playing again like ten days ago, after a very long hiatus; currently rising 5 diferent builds in 4 different crusaders (Hammerdin, Condemn, Fire Sweep, Shotgun + FoH and pure FoH). Displayed in order, my curret best GR was 96 with the Hammerdin, followed by 92 with Condemn (still rising the gems and gear in most of them), the Sweep build and the Shotgun + FoH and pure FoH are relatevily comfy in mid 80’s. So, very modest numbers from a player which doesn’t grind and doesn’t plan to play on regular basis but in short burst when I’m not busy in other games. Being said that, some impressions about those builds:
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Hammerdin is fun because combines mobility and a high awareness from the environment: the Falling Sword not only provides a crucial boost in defense but also needs to maximize the amount of targets impacted to maximize the damage, you you are always trading high risk for high rewards. Is a likeable build to push, but requires a lot of clicks to get advantage of the insane cast speed. Is not that great for team play and can be used to farm but is slower than other options.
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Condemn is a more relaxed gameplay: is more tanky, has better cc and resembles the Bombardment builds but with better control over the timming. It requires less clicks, and because pulls the regular foes towards to you is very comfy to do farms with it. Still, is a bit weird as a concept: a walking tank causing explosions around without swinging its weapons…
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Sweep Roland not only uses the (arguably) coolest looking armor set from the class but is also the most satisfying one to run: you wield a shield, and you smash foes with a huge flail at flashing speed. Is tanky and feels powerful and rigth; the only problem is that when the damage starts to fall behind you need nocive tons of clicks to click things, and after some runs your hand feels tired. The shield bash skill is also a very likeable one, and improves the mobility. Sadly that build is a lot more glassy; I would like to see from Blizzard a revamp of the skills so the same way you use Blessed Hammers and Falling Sword in sinergy and now also Heaven’s Fury and FoH they could maybe in the future make viable to combine Sweep Attack and the Bash, so you could use the Sweep against the mobs and the Bash to get extra mobility, buff stats or kill guardians. Is sad that Bash remains largely unused because Sweep and Bash both feel like the more “physical” and “mele” skills of our repertory and they deserve a higher status.
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Most of my play with Shotgun + FoH was using a very passive build with 74% block chance letting the mobs kill themselves; I did until I get better gear because a more “active” shotgun gameplay drains wrath at light speed and requires a lot of CDR to run well, whereas just walking and reflecting shoots is not resource intensive. But this gameplay has two problems: one is practical, because is not that good for farming when a map lacks ranged attackers, so the enemies do take a while to proc the shoots; also at the end you will need a propper CDR gear to play it actively and boost your damage. But the second problem is that HF + FoH is a very “non-crusader” build: it does more damage at cqc but you can still snipe most of foes at large distances, and sometimes feels like a Demon Hunter build replacing “rolling, shooting, evading, shooting” by “walking, shooting, tanking, shooting”. I would also disagree about the weapon choices; the knife (an absurd weapon for the class) is absent in 7 of the top 12 characters in the season 20 ladderboard, replaced by 2 handed flails: you lose speed cast but you increase your damage x shoot. And with a propper transmog you can replace it with a spear and pretend that you’re playing a Custodes or Grey Knigth with a bolter halbard. Anyway, gameplay wise that build kills faster but moves slow, so not very fun to use for solo farming.
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Finally, is the pure FoH build. From all the oringinal skills from crusader that was my favourite from the magical ones, not only because already existed in DII but because was a truly ranged AoE attack. Was godly at the beginning, with the rune of fire, but then was nerfed and remained largely unused… by more than 6 years.
I started AoV Shotgun + FoH with a primal Swiftmount because loved the functionality and improved the aesthetics above the knife; when I got the Charge & Steed set I noticed that farming improved a lot. You could still use 5 Aegis pieces + 2 Crimsons and the Traveller jewelry, but you could replace the bracers to use Nemesis, put the FoH belt and Darklight in the cube and get massive ranged damage to farm torment XVI and 75+ rifts without being slow. The skill FoH is fantastic because gives you direct imput and control about where to land it instead of all those years fooling around your foes waiting for the bombardment cooldowns or goofing horses in a stampede and other ridiculously looking, highly disfunctional “skills”. Finally a good looking magic ranged skill with friendly mechanics that makes you holy warrior to look as a Paladin divine casting a smite above your enemies. And taht’s the only probalem with FoH: feels better than the other “magical” skills from the class, works better and is easier to play (and works wonders with the oculus ring in the follower). Is like playing an battle cleric from fantasy games in the battlefield. I could live with this class using only Sweep, Bash, FoH and the horse utility if the mechanics would make viable. But FoH, being much more fun, and much more convenient in farming than HF, would entirely kill HF if that last one didn’t have a huge dps boost in the pocket.
So… yeah. Shotgun does more damage, but FoH is more fun, entangles better with the lore of the class and is more practical and enjoyable doing farms.
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