Aegis of Valor Fist of the Heavens Crusader Speed Farming Variation

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.

Active Skills
Fist of the Heavens Fissure Steed Charge Endurance 1 Laws of Hope Wings of Angels 2 Iron Skin Flash 3 Provoke Flee Fool 4 Akarat's Champion Prophet
Passive Skills
Heavenly Strength Lord Commander Long Arm of the Law Finery

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

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.