Roland's Legacy Bash+Sweep build... viable?

Crusader
1

Recently acquired the full Roland Set for my Crusader - first full set on the char, so I started building around it. All the builds I see online at Icy Veins and whatnot are ‘Sweep Builds’ or ‘Shield Bash Builds’, but I wound up with a combination-build - using both in conjunction with a hefty amount of resource-use reduction. Topaz in the helmet with Leoric’s Crown in the cube, two pieces of Cap’n Crimson via RoRG, Piro Marella, Drakon’s Lesson, Golden Flense, Flail of the Ascended in the cube, Shield Glare with Zealous being the only direct Wrath generator…

Akarat’s Champion with EoP is my fallback if I start to get low on Wrath, but there’s a lot of details I’m still working my way towards. Currently I’m using Laws of Valor with Unstoppable Force + LAotL, which I can have up virtually constantly if I remember to hit it every time it goes off cooldown, but I’m wondering if the wrath-use reduction hasn’t hit the point of diminishing returns at this point. Alternately, I’m pondering Hold Your Ground + Insurmountable for a kind of passive Wrath-gain along with further bolstering the Shield Bash.

What I really like about it is the built-in flexibility. SB with Pound destroys Champions and Bosses while making for some all-obliterating Shield Glares, while Sweep cuts through masses of trash and even Rare Mobs with ease. The SB also adds a lot of mobility, making it easy to cover a lot of ground and get out of trouble without needing Steed Charge… in fact, I’m considering dropping Steed Charge for either Condemn-Vacuum or Provoke.

But what I’m really unsure of is how to best use the various jewelry-slots - all that’s really nailed down is the RoRG. At the moment I’ve got the Ess of Johann in the cube, as a poor man’s Vacuum, but that’s really just a placeholder. The Endless Walk set is usually recommended for Roland-Crusaders, but I’m not sure how well it would mesh with the rest of the set - I’m constantly switching between dashing around to shield-bash individual minions, and stopping to sweep large groups. Even if I do bring it, though, there’s still one potential slot left to fill…

Any thoughts or advice on how I could sharpen this build further? Would it even be viable at the really high levels? I’m advancing it kind of slowly since I’m on Hardcore, so I don’t want to jump too far ahead and get myself killed…

2

Absolutely not.
As far as what you should play for your jewelry, from what you seem to be doing, I would go with a traveler’s pledge, a compass rose, and a zodiac.
In reality, I would not play zodiac but CoE, but considering the rest of your character, I’m sure you’ll have more fun playing zodiac than CoE.
You’re asking about how good endless walk would be for you. Instead, think of what you could be playing instead. So instead of the compass, you can go coe or zodiac, as I just said. And then instead of traveler’s pledge, you can go… hellfire amulet.
Even if you don’t get a huge benefit from the endless walk set, you always get at “worst” 50% damage reduction, or 100% damage, or 25% damage reduction and 50% damage, or whatever. It’s probably better than a 5th passive and zodiac or coe.

If you want to go high using roland, you should just ditch shield bash and go with full sweep attack build, it’s the only viable choice.

1 Like
3

Zodiac, huh… I hadn’t thought of that, since I’ve already got built-in cooldown reduction for Shield Glare and LoV. But that just means that most of the benefits of Zodiac would go straight to AC, no? Enabling me to use that much more often… brilliant idea!

Good point about the Endless Walk too - that set is just so good that even if you’re not playing ideally to its strength, it’s STILL really good!

Out of curiosity - you say it wouldn’t be viable for the real top tiers, but what kind of Torment-level would you think I’d be able to safely reach if I fully refine this build according to your suggestions?