Akkhan Blessed Shield Crusader Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Nov 18, 2020 at 16:56 by Deadset 5 comments

On this page, we explain everything that is specific to the Speed Farming variant of Akkhan Blessed Shield Crusader. Updated for Patch 2.6.10 and Season 22.

1.

Speed Farming

The Akkhan Blessed Shield deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task.

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.

2.

Adapting Skills

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Blessed Shield Icon Blessed Shield Combust Combust Right Mouse Button Iron Skin Icon Iron Skin Flash Flash 1 Laws of Hope Icon Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels 2 Steed Charge Icon Steed Charge Endurance Endurance 3 Condemn Icon Condemn Vacuum Vacuum 4 Akarat's Champion Icon Akarat's Champion Prophet Prophet
Passive Skills

The prolonged protection of Steel Skin Steel Skin will not be necessary in farming content, so you can swap the Iron Skin Iron Skin rune to the on-hit speed boost of Flash Flash. Using similar logic, the health sustain of Consecration Consecration will be too slow and inefficient and should be replaced by the monster pull of Condemn Condemn Vacuum Vacuum.

While stronger in early character progression, you will soon be overkilling on damage with the Laws of Valor Laws of Valor Critical Critical progression buff. In its stead, use the party-wide movement speed buff of Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels.

Moving stragglers around will be unnecessary in an environment where you mostly oneshot monsters, so change the Draw and Quarter Draw and Quarter rune of Steed Charge Steed Charge to Endurance Endurance.

3.

Adapting Gear

Due to Akkhan being a 7-piece set, you can adapt the Condemn build to include the Death's Breath farming Sage set. In order to do this, you will include 2 of the 3 pieces of the Sage's Journey set (between Sage's Passage Sage's Passage, Sage's Apogee Sage's Apogee and Sage's Purchase Sage's Purchase), and cube a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur. Note that you will need to wear the Talisman of Akkhan Talisman of Akkhan that you skip in the progression setup.

During regular Rift farming, you will wear Goldwrap Goldwrap instead of The Witching Hour The Witching Hour. Synergizing with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band Avarice Band, Goldwrap Goldwrap will render you practically invulnerable in any non-GR situation.

The progression-oriented Endless Walk set and Convention of Elements Convention of Elements should be dropped from your jewelry during farming, since the Rift's clear speed makes their conditional buffs too slow to attain. In their stead, use a fire damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan for the consistent boost to your Blessed Shield Blessed Shield, and an Avarice Band Avarice Band for its synergy with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Strength
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Blessed Shield Damage
  5. Vitality
Shoulders
  1. Strength
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Life %
Torso
  1. 3 Sockets
  2. Strength
  3. Vitality
  4. Reduced Damage from Elites
Wrists
  1. Strength
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Fire Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Life per Hit
Hands
  1. Strength
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Cooldown Reduction
Waist
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life
Legs
  1. 2 Sockets
  2. Strength
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Armor
Feet
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. Blessed Shield Damage
  4. All Resistance
  5. Armor
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Fire Damage
  5. Strength
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Strength
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Strength
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. Weapon Damage
  3. Strength
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Life per Hit
Off-hand
  1. Strength
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Blessed Shield Damage
  5. Vitality

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.

4.

Adapting Gemming

Since monster health is much more tame in the standard difficulties, you should also replace Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken with Boon of the Hoarder 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 a worn Goldwrap Goldwrap and Avarice Band Avarice Band for practical invincibility of your character.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

5.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

Your armor Cube slot should be taken up by Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, whose extra elite spawning property at shrines and pylons will greatly improve Rift clear times.

Lastly, in order to maintain the valuable 6-piece bonus of Akkhan and 3-piece bonus of the Sage set, you will need to cube a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot.

In your 4th Kanai's Cube slot in Season 22, you can expand your movement utility with Swiftmount Swiftmount, which doubles the duration of Steed Charge Steed Charge and allows you to cover great distances in a single activation — especially useful in sparse, corridor-like Rifts and Bounties.

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.

6.

Changelog

  • 18 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 22 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
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