Open Thread - Suggestions for Crusader Changes

Hi,

I just want to open a thread in which we can discuss possible changes to the crusader skills, sets and legendary items in order to revive builds, enhance gameplay or just bring builds on par with others.

I would like to start with the item “Skywarden”. Granting a random law is not enough for the item to be used. I would like to suggest something like “Gain the base effect of all laws and increases the damage of secondary skills by 200 % as long as a law is active”. This would give the crusader some support capabilities and would perfectly fit to the Roland Set.

What do you think?

Best regards,
MarNor

3 Likes

The change I probably want to see is to make a Phalanx build feasible. I’m also interested in making a lightning-based crusader so I’d like Fist of Heavens to be boosted and to have items that will enhance this game play style.

4 Likes

I’d like to see:

  • Legendary Item rebalance for Fist of the Heavens / Phalanx / Shield Bash / Falling Sword
  • Justice Lantern should get boosted to 80% DR.
  • Skywarden should come with skill runes pre-selected, offering permanent active skill benefits that rotate every 60 sec.
  • Turn Norvald’s Flail into a 1-hander for faster thorns output and CDR.
  • Fires of Heaven rune converted to fire element for Cindercoat and stronger LoN performance.
  • Rework Blessed Shield Shattering Throw, because it is giving fewer stacks than other runes.
  • Akkhan’s 6-piece bonus needs tuning: 3500-4000%
  • Roland’s 4-piece bonus should probably be moved to 17500%.
2 Likes

Well, having crusaders become genuinely meta-group compatible would be awesome.

3 Likes

In this Season I have tested the LoN Lazy Shotgun and it seems quite decent. Grift 100 with 850 Paragon, no Caldessan and a non ancient amulet is at least fine for me and brings it to the same level as my Invoker Crusader.

This is however only possible because I can use Justice Lantern, Unity and CoE at the same time. Otherwise it would lack damage and damage mitigation. To make it still viable after the season some mitigation has to be added. I would go for something live adding an affix to the stone gauntlets that says Reduce incoming damage by 50% for 10s after casting heavens fury and increase its damage by 100%.

Still hoping for that item (ideally, weapon or shield, maybe buff Hellskull ?) I proposed a year or 2 ago, that would give dmg and damage reduction while akkarat’s champion isn’t active. The goal was to use it on sweep attack crusader, but it could also be useful to thorns or any crusader with a furnace and not too dependant on wrath regen.
Buffing thorns would be a bit too much though, since they made it the best solo crus set so maybe make it just work on secondary skills ? Or at least it shouldn’t buff invoker6 dmg.

Lots of people complain that AC is ugly and hides their transmog (lolwut) so that would be nice for them too I guess.

Note that it wouldn’t really benefit Hammerdin (weapon slots all full), condemn (need resource too much), or blessed shield (weapon slots all full as well).

It leaves sweep attack, maybe shield bash if they ever get to fix the build… Fist of the heavens potentially ? idk, maybe most weapon buff only one build but at the same time making an item that reads like that but in the end is restricted to only sweep is a bit weird.

2 Likes

I’d like to see Roland’s set worked on, it was a blast to play but couldn’t compete with Captn Murica. Our shoulder items and pants need work for LoN builds. Right now we have to steal some witch doctor pants to be optimize. Gyrfalcon should change blessed shield into a resource generator possibly with some kind of dump spell. This would make depth diggers a viable option and Simplicitys strength.

Our passives also seem to be lacking offensive characteristics or simply don’t mesh well with our builds. Take tower shield for example, we only want the damage buff which seems like a waste.

1 Like

Crusaders need group viability, either in a pure support form, or a tremendous dps form that offers a group buff via a stronger law. I don’t see any build for saders that can bring them into a 4 man group.

3 Likes

Fist of Heavens needs a buff. And they should be an item added to the game that gives AC all runes.

1 Like

We have a lot of dead items and skills imo.

My top 3 fixes would be

  • Shield Bash needs to get looked at
  • Fist of the Heavens needs to get looked at
  • Phalanx needs to get looked at
  • Bonus: make Norvald useful for a build
1 Like

I’m reserving myself a little bit cause I want to try out some captain crimson’s combos first, see where it ends up first.

But still, on top of my head:

Proper support item.
Shield bash.
Rebalance of some sets (akk builds falling behind).
Justice lantern.

Fix Roland’s attack speed buff for Shield Bash. Fix Flail of the Ascended to deal the correct amount of damage. QoL request to take shield glare off gcd.

Hi there.

Thank you very much for your feedback. I am pretty happy about the LoD gem because it enables to play Lazy Shotgun with Ancient Gear and all necessary rings (Justice Lantern, CoE and Unity). So this is a good start.

I am curious about the new class set. I hope that it will be themed around pets. A Lord commander crusader that commands a phalanx to destroy unholy demons fits very well at least for me.

Also a non Champ Set would be appreciated.

1 Like

I doubt that Crusaders can ever truly move away from Champ - Both of the 2 classes that have this kind of skill (Us and Barbs) put it on EVERY build that we possibly can, because it’s just that good.

To move away from Champion would require nerfs to Champion, and I doubt blizz would ever do that.

These have to be looked at for sure, maybe the new set can be something with FoTH with firestarter synergy like in the old T6 days.

And definitely change or add option to hide super forms like AC and Berserker they’re soo ugly and outdated.

I’d like to see some LON options for Pants and Shoulder.
it’s kinda secondary, but Boots and Belt could also get some nice options since Illusion Boots and Witching hour are pretty generic.

2 Likes

Falling Sword:
For me, it’s odd that the Crusaders most iconic ability, Falling Sword is dramatically underserved. Not that it doesn’t have some itemization, rather that any impementation of it has no impact to the crusaders gameplay, either in damage or effect. The lighbringer set overly forces its implementation which just feels clumsy.

Same issue Crusaders have had in general design. They get some sets and powers, but it needs to be complmented by some other dramatic itemization to actually WORK, where as other classes items/sets just work by their own virtue. (Example: CDR with Akkahans, Gross additional itemization on Lightbringer, RCR with Rolands)

It’d be cool if we had items that complemented and expanded the Sader without being tied into a set or needing some dramatic supporting structure.

Back to falling sword:
Cam’s Rebuttal: Needs damage increase on Falling sword - 1000%
New Item: Parting Clounds (Shoulder - SORELY needed item slot for Sader) - Falling Sword Cooldown reduced by 40% - Hit enemies take 300% damage from attacks, reduced by 50% for each hit, lasting 6 hits.
Sacred Harness: Judgement effect, now also increases Falling Sword damage by 400%.

FS really needs to have powerful supportive options due to the incredible CD, player lock time, and wrath cost limiting its use. Likewise, it shouldn’t tickle and have little to no impact on sader gameplay.


A step back and some apples to apples comparisons would help us too. Most classes get class perks of something as simple as ‘20% CDR’ or a flat benefit they get to choose. Most of ours seem to have some tit-for-tat or pale in comparison. I always thought it incredibly odd that being the ‘CDR’ class we don’t have much that affects our CDR.

This, but I think we need a new game engine for SB to actually work.

Phalanx is the one skillset that I think needs the most love. I hope the new set targets that.

I’ve been thinking about an idea for Fist of the Heavens, want to see what you all think.

Darklight:
Old - Fist of the Heavens has a 45-60% chance to be cast twice
New - Your attacks have a 50% chance to cast Fist of the Heavens at your location. Increases the damage of Fist of the Heavens by 700-800%

Khassett’s Cord of Righteousness:
Old - Fist of the Heavens costs 40% less Wrath and deals 130-170% more damage
New - Gain 30 Wrath when Fist of the Heavens is cast within 15 yards of you. Increases the damage of Fist of the Heavens by 350-400%

This will do a couple things.

A) Forces you to be creative with Wrath management. Attacking targets next to you gains on average 15 Wrath. Attacking targets far away costs you 15 Wrath on average. So you can negate resource issues either through playstyle, or through gear choices.

B) Because Darklight is 50% on attack and not just when you cast FotH, it creates a wrath-generation engine for all builds that can spare a belt and weapon slot. Most endgame builds probably wouldn’t use it, but I could see that this being used for some hybrid builds for early farming, such as shotgun or condemn. The damage from FotH is worth pursuing, and also you get a constant supply of Wrath before your gear is optimized around your main damage dealer.

C) Creates a cool visual effect. Fist of the Heavens landing right on your head should energize you by giving you Wrath. It just makes sense aesthetically and mechanics-wise.

Anyway, I would love to see this, let me know what you think.

1 Like