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.

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.

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.

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For class-synergistic items, Crusaders should strongly consider equipping Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac if not already included, as it synergizes well with cooldown-heavy builds that rely on Akarat's Champion or Bombardment.
• For additional defense, cross-class standouts like Unity (used with follower and immortality relic for them), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose) are top picks, balancing damage reduction during movement with stationary damage scaling.
• Situational defensive gear includes staples like Aquila Cuirass (perfect for builds with minimal resource spending like Invoker Thorns), Stone Gauntlets ((mitigated by Akarat's Champion, Iron Skin, wearing Ice Climbers, or Altar of Rites CC-immunity node), and even niche inclusions like Justice Lantern (boosts block-based mitigation) and String of Ears (massive melee damage reduction).
• For situational items that improve your utility, strongly consider Nemesis Bracers as the extra elites equal both killstreak upkeep and GR progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. Edge cases will see the inclusion of Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt (more speed for easier scouting and pulls), and Strongarm Bracers (extra damage vs. displaced enemies). To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement skill ( Steed Charge) and/or an enemy-pulling tool like Condemn Vacuum or Sweep Attack Gathering Sweep. Take a look if you can include passives like Fervor (for cooldown reduction and attack speed with one-handed weapons), Lord Commander (reduced cooldown on Steed Charge) or Long Arm of the Law (to extend the benefits of your Laws for both solo and group play). The latter will be especially beneficial if you can slot Laws of Hope Wings of Angels in the build.