Aegis of Valor Fist of the Heavens Crusader Speed Farming Variation
Speed Farming
The Aegis of Valor Fist of the Heavens build deals with regular Rift farming with ease all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.
Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.
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Passive Skills |
Adapting Rotation
When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.
Your playstyle will not alter significantly from the GR build during
regular rift farming; you will be focusing a lot more on speed however,
chaining Laws of Hope
Wings of Angels casts for shorter bouts of movement
and
Steed Charge
Endurance when you need to cross longer distances. The
role of
Provoke will alter from an attention-drawing tool to a fear
proc for additional speed via
Rechel's Ring of Larceny.
Adapting Skills and Passives
Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.
Fist of the Heavens
Fissure is still the primary damage dealer of the build, and spreading just a few shots should clear entire screens in farming difficulties, making this build variant incredibly potent for the purpose. Another great rune you can consider here is
Divine Well, which offers an additional projectile spread.
Akarat's Champion
Prophet is an omnipresent self-buff in both versions of the build.
- When speedfarming, the additional durability and attack speed of
Laws of Valor will be overkill, so you can safely swap this slot out for the movement speed buffs of
Laws of Hope
Wings of Angels.
- A GR-progression oriented choice like
Judgment should be exchanged for a fear proc for the cubed
Rechel's Ring of Larceny via the skill
Provoke
Flee Fool. This will grant you even greater movement speed throughout the rifts.
- The hybrid of mobility and protection
Iron Skin
Flash and the long distance champion
Steed Charge
Endurance round out your active skill selection to ensure your adaptability to every situation. Note the damage buff you attain after dismounting from
Steed Charge due to the worn Norvald's Fervor set.
- Both
Long Arm of the Law and
Finery from the progression build are too valuable to pass up during regular farming as well.
- In speed farming — and especially Bounties — where mobility is
your primary concern, you can swap
Indestructible for the improved
Steed Charge uptime from
Lord Commander.
Adapting Gear
The vast majority of the Fist of the Heavens-specific items will remain unchanged during speed farming. You will still be taking advantage of the full set bonus of the Aegis of Valor set, incorporating all 6 available pieces according to your best rolls.
It is worth noting that in the limited challenges of regular rifts, both
the Convention of Elements and
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac greatly
diminish in usefulness. A better jewelry split is a Lightning damage
Stone of Jordan (for the permanent damage increase), and
Avarice Band (for the synergy with
Goldwrap and
Boon of the Hoarder), as well as
The Flavor of Time for the extra
Pylon duration during farming.
This damage reduction from the Cpt. Crimson set will be redundant in
regular rifts, where you can get all the protection you will ever need via
Goldwrap's interaction with
Avarice Band and
Boon of the Hoarder.
Last but not least, you should exchange the GR progression-oriented
Strongarm Bracers, as their smattering of additional damage will be
unnecessary in regular Rift farming. In their stead, use
Nemesis Bracers for the additional elite spawns, which will
significantly shorten your run times.
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Shoulders |
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Torso |
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Wrists |
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Hands |
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Waist |
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Legs |
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Feet |
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Amulet |
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Ring #1 |
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Ring #2 |
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Weapon |
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Off-hand |
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To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.
Season 28: Altar of Rites
Season 28 comes with the theme of the Altar of Rites — a powerful new account-wide and Season-specific progression system that brings tremendous offensive and defensive buffs to every seasonal character. For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.
Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.
Adapting Gems
Zei's Stone of Vengeance remains a universally desired damage
amplification gem.
During speed farming, Gogok of Swiftness will be a
progression-oriented overkill and should be replaced by
Boon of the Hoarder. The latter is a high-utility gem that feeds you
practically infinite gold, gives you a massive short-term speed boost while
picking it up, and synergizes excellently with the worn
Avarice Band
for a sizable speed boost, and the
Goldwrap for
near-invulnerability.
Since monster health is much more tame in the standard difficulties, you
should also replace Bane of the Stricken with
Bane of the Powerful
for the consistent, easily sustained damage increase. If you overpower content
so much that even
Bane of the Powerful is unnecessary, you can consider
using
Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for the extra regenerative
convenience.
Slot | Gems |
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Jewelry | |
Helm | |
Torso and Pants |
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Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Adapting Kanai's Cube
Both Darklight and
Khassett's Cord of Righteousness are still
required legendary effects in the build, and stay locked in the weapon and
armor Cube slots, respectively.
You have some flexibility in your jewelry Cube slot, but our recommendation
(especially when trying to maximize mobility) is to use
Rechel's Ring of Larceny, due to the massive speed boost coming from the
ring and the ease with which you can proc it (the
Flee Fool rune of
Provoke).
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
Changelog
- 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 23 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 31 Mar. 2021: Minor gear recommendation changes and a follower recommendation added.
- 18 Nov. 2020: Revised equipment, skill and weaponry choices into a ranged version of the build. Added S22 Cube recommendation.
- 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
- 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 19 Nov. 2019: Page added.
More Crusader Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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