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 speed farming 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
Fervor 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.
• 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.
• The GR-progression oriented Provoke Hit Me will be flipped from a taunting tool for CD resets into a fear proc for the cubed Rechel's Ring of Larceny via the rune 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.
• Due to the swap from a one-hander ( Darklight) to a two-hander ( Flail of the Charge), you will have to change your weapon-dictated passive from Fervor to Heavenly Strength.
• In speed farming, where mobility is your primary concern, you can swap Hold Your Ground for the improved Steed Charge uptime from Lord Commander.

The vast majority of the Heaven's Fury-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 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.

Striving for cooldown resets via Akarat's Awakening will be way too slow for the purposes of standard rift farming, so you should swap into the Crusader weapon-and-shield combo: the Norvald's Fervor set, Flail of the Charge and Shield of the Steed. This set will briefly amplify your damage after you dismount from Steed Charge, and will reset said mobility cooldown via monster kills, allowing you to chain mobility and burst in one convenient package. Darklight will reside in the Cube instead.

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	Nemesis Bracers	Strength Critical Hit Chance Lightning 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	The Flavor of Time	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Lightning 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	Avarice Band	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.

Bane of the Trapped remains a universally desired damage amplification gem.

During speed farming, Esoteric Alteration 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 Wreath of Lightning for the extra speed.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Boon of the Hoarder Bane of the Powerful Wreath of Lightning (alt)
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Ruby (Damage)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

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).