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 Divine Well 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 Indestructible

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 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. A 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.
• A GR-progression oriented choice like Condemn Vacuum 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.
• In speed farming — and especially Bounties — where mobility is your primary concern, Long Arm of the Law and Lord Commander hold tremendous value. Complement them with Heavenly Strength to dual-wield the Norvald's Fervor set, and Indestructible to prevent the occasional mishap.

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 the Endless Walk set greatly diminish in usefulness. A better jewelry split is a Rechel's Ring of Larceny (for the fear-based movement speed proc), and a Holy damage Stone of Jordan (for the consistent damage bonus), as well as a Squirt's Necklace for the massive damage boost (its increase in damage taken is efficiently countered by Goldwrap and Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard).

This damage reduction from the Aughild set will be redundant in regular rifts and bounties, where you can get all the protection you will ever need via Goldwrap's interaction with Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder. Top off the utility combo with Warzechian Armguards, whose environment destruction-based movement speed proc will be easily triggered with the general mayhem of Fist of the Heavens.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Crown of Valor	Strength Socket Critical Hit Chance Fist of the Heavens Damage % Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders	Spaulders of Valor	Strength Cooldown Reduction Area Damage All Resistance Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso	Brigandine of Valor	Strength 3 Sockets Vitality Elite Damage Reduction Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists	Warzechian Armguards	Strength Critical Hit Chance Holy Damage % Life per Hit or Vitality Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands	Gauntlets of Valor	Strength (replaced by Area Damage at High Paragons) Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Cooldown Reduction
Waist	Goldwrap	Strength Vitality All Resistance Life % Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs	Chausses of Valor	Strength 2 Sockets Vitality All Resistance Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet	Greaves of Valor	Strength Fist of the Heavens Damage % Vitality All Resistance Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet	Squirt's Necklace	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Holy Damage % Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1	Stone of Jordan	Socket Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Area Damage Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2	Rechel's Ring of Larceny	Socket Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Area Damage Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon	Flail of the Charge	Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) High Weapon Damage Strength Cooldown Reduction Area Damage Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand	Shield of the Steed	Strength Crit Chance Cooldown Reduction Fist of the Heavens Damage % Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)

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.

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — 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's multiplicative damage increase against distant targets fits very well in the far-range nature of the build.

During T16 Nephalem Rift farming, you should use Boon of the Hoarder. This high-utility gem feeds you practically infinite gold, gives you a massive short-term speed boost while picking it up, and synergizes excellently with the follower's Avarice Band for a sizable speed boost, and the Goldwrap for near-invulnerability. In bounties, consider Gogok of Swiftness for the same slot.

Since monster health is much more tame in the standard difficulties, you should also replace Bane of the Stricken with Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard; its absorption shield will make the maintenance of Squirt's Necklace's damage bonus much smoother.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Zei's Stone of Vengeance Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard Boon of the Hoarder Gogok of Swiftness (alt)
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Ruby (Damage)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

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

Both Darklight and Vigilante Belt 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 the uptime of valuable buffs like Akarat's Champion) is to use Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.

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.