Question about LoD Bombardment with PS vs Johanna's Argument

Crusader
1

Hi,

I know I’m pretty late at the party but I’m finally trying to push with LoN and LoD Bomb.

I don’t like the LoN version: way too squishy for me. I very much prefer the LoD H-Bomb version. There is one thing I am not sure about, though: in the EU NS leaderboard, I see many top players using Pig Sticker + Heart of Iron + Punish/Celerity instead of Johanna’s Argument + Gabriel’s Vambraces + Blessed Hammer/Brute Force, as in the original H-Bomb.

Could someone please explain me the main differences between these two versions of the build? My guess is Johanna’s Argument allows a much faster stacking of Stricken at the “price” of a very active playstyle, while the PS version benefits from a higher overall damage (thanks to the addition of Heart of Iron) and a lazier playstyle (no need to stutter-step). Is that right? Is there also a difference in terms of tankiness/recovery?

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The Hbomb is a little more advanced playstyle. Theres a lot of freedom here. I kind of like doombringer or the other 1handers with element damage with different stone of jordan types. I usually play what RNG gives me.

2 Likes
3

The builds are similar from a gameplay standpoint. With Johanna’s + Hexing you have to keep moving. You’re going to cast more bombs along the way.

With Pig Sticker, you soften your elite with Punish/Stricken, you’re extremely focused on maximizing the tightest density, there are rare opportunities when you can double bomb. This build lands the highest damage trash hits if run with LoN rings. IMHO if you have the paragon and skill to run this with Rally – it’s just as strong as H-Bomb.

Fated by the RNG, this is how I do things too. I still haven’t found a proper Squirt’s Amulet for this build, it’d greatly help me on the boss.

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4

I really enjoy the elemental themes. I’ve done high fire, lightning, holy besides physical. I might do a holy thornes for fun later. Get some fake angel action going, lol.
I also just watched some dude clear a 148 with A6 in season. Kind of inspiring, lol. If you missed it
(1) :four_leaf_clover:S27 Rank 1│Akkhan Crusader │ GR 148 │ Overall Rank 1 - YouTube

5

Nice clear by Astrea, always doing impressive stuff under the paragon curve.

I am GR147 after the nerf, but with 3000 more paragon. Eventually, I may try for a higher clear. Was hoping to find trifecta Focus/Restraint with CDR for some experiments.

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Was he waiting for a written invitation from Tyrael to take that condi?

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It took some self control to hold onto the conduit for so long. The power spawn was nice for sure.

Within an hour of posting my monk found a primal skycutter. Think rng wants me to make a holy thornes crusader, lol. Gotta check if i have a corresponding soj & squirts or make a hellfire. I do have all the phalanx items as well from rando drops playing other classes.

I was able to do 140 with prophet w/o abusing the avatars in non season. Might try & see how it goes.

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I had never used much of the key-binding tricks so far. But I need to know how to use them if I want to get better at certain builds, especially the H-Bomb to stutter-step properly. So I’ve watched a few videos about it, tried it and I have a question about Force move (and I take the opportunity to ask another question about numlock):

  1. About stutter-stepping: so I set Force Move in Key 1 = MWheelUp and Key 2 = MWheelDown on the options. Does it mean that I will constantly have to turn my wheel up and down while keeping my left button pressed, so that I move automatically while casting Blessed Hammer constantly? Or does it depend on the mouse, maybe? (I’m not 100% sure but I think I’ve watched some video in which the player said that there are some mice on which one can lock the wheel up or down or something like that… I am not a big gamer so I’m not familiar with all these things… I use a Logitech MX Vertical.)
  2. About the numlock trick: I use a Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Chroma 2 (no numpad) + an external very basic numpad, and I can’t seem to have numlock work on my external numpad. Is it normal? (I’ve tried to use numlock on an old regular keyboard and it works.)
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I can help here…

RE:

  1. Yes, you have to keep on scrolling the infernal mouse wheel up and down. So…although stutter step is built into D3, it is done so in a very uncomfortable manner. This brings us to 2;
  2. I also use Razer technology. The easiest way to get stutter step here, is to set up a macro to press your Force Move key (whatever your key is in D3), set it to zero delay on both press and release, then set that to Continuous toggle on and off mode. When activated, in conjunction with you holding the Force Stand Still (see your D3 key bindings), you now have the stutter step motion enacted.

—H

P.S. Prior to owning a Razer keyboard, I created my own .bat file to do what I just described in item 2. When I was done – and the result was exactly as intended – it immediately became outright puzzling why such a Continuous Force Move function wasn’t included in D3’s key binding options in the first place? It is the most simple piece of code you can whip out in a span of few minutes. How did Blizzard arrive at the mouse wheel concept instead, remains an unsolved mystery.

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I understand the mechanic, many thanks for the explanation!

I am reading your answer as I have just made rank #8 in EU NS on No Six Piece Set without even stutter stepping (gr 135 in 12’07). I’m quite happy cuz I’ve never ranked so high in any lb! (even though I know NS is not very competitve…) I can probably do better with more trying and stutter stepping!

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I personally don’t stutter step using the mouse wheel method – I think Wudi had created a video on this some time ago. I tried it with infinity scroll back then, it didn’t feel as controlled as manually clicking and alternating force still + force move.

No experience with Razer’s mouse solution for numlock. Hopefully someone here has used it and can share some tips to get it working.

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Thanks!

I’ve seen this video by Wudi this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gApU_cHsI He mentions the “normal manual method” and the mouse wheel method. But it was published 2 years ago: are you refering to a more recent video?

I’ve never heard of this technique. Could you please tell me how it works?

A friend told me that a few years ago, he tried to use an external numpad to use numlock on his numpadless laptop, but it didn’t work either. Maybe that there is just no way to have numlock work on an external keypad? I should probably make a post about it to ask the community…

13

I have force move bound to the spacebar and force stop on the ~ Key. So my left hand the pinky hits force stop and my thumb covers the space bar. The other digits hit the 1-4 buttons. I typically just numlock 1 button. Too much & you are starting to macro.

Corsair makes nice keyboard & mice for low prices. I can destroy a mouse in like a month so lol.

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I have a nice graveyard of Logitech mice that won’t hold a click. From MX Anywhere to G703.

I may just have to go vintage and return to the indestructible Microsoft Mouse w/ Intellipoint. Watch me stutter step with a mouse full of lint.

15

Arff, I’ve just missed a gr 137 with a Power pylon on the Boss because I didn’t stack Stricken enough before clicking the pylon :laughing:

But once I had clicked the pylon, was I supposed to run far away to have the Crusader King respawn alone next to me for a better stacking of Stricken, or should have I stayed in the pack to benefit from the AD effect? (I’ve stayed in the pack and it didn’t feel like the best idea ^^)

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Not to make you feel worse, your Bombs would crush his adds, and if you stay close and aim your hammer at an angle that strikes him first, you’ll build the stricken stacks as if you were going 1-on-1.

Next time Nik… you’ll get it.

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